To End All Wars - First Impressions

[Templer]

To End All Wars - First impressions.

Bring them in. I curious and I am still undecided.
I can't wait to read your first verdict.

[Templer]

My first impression of the images can I see.

I'm really glad that AGEOD has again taken more seriously the graphic design of the UI.
The metallic UI look of Civil War II was completely inappropriate.

I am not thrilled with 100 and 150 crews in German 1914 WWI U-Boots.

[Nico165]

My first impression is that you will need quite some time to have a good real first impression.

This, because of the number and choice of scenarios. The only battle scenario is Tannenberg, the tutorial is Tannenberg and both campaigns starts in 1914. So you have no way of testing how later war function, except by playing a long campaign long enough. And that's the main question about this game : how the engine can cope with the evolution of trench warfare ?

This will be solved with some DLCs, but a smaller battle scenario like Verdun or Caporetto would have been a good idea for 1.00.

But from what I can see : graphics and sounds are great, good immersion. Tannenberg plays great too, battles can be really bloody and decisive affairs. Now going to see how the western front looks like.

[Elmo]

My first impression is that $34.99 is a great price. Much less than it costs me to take our family of four out to dinner at a nice restaurant!

[Boomer]

Just ran the first game as Central powers on the full warplan scenario. So far, I'm impressed with the improvements in decision mode and graphics. There's a LOT to do in this game, from sending diplomats, to convoy raiding, to proxy wars in colonial nations. It is reminiscent of PON, only without all the economic development... which makes me happy. AGEOD games have always succeeded in operational warfare, not so much nation/city building.

My main gripes are the scant scenarios to choose from (I'm sure they'll DLC this one up too later) and some of the regions are so small that makes unstacking units properly a real pain. But those are general AGEOD gripes of mine, not necessarily specific to TEAW.

The scale is huge and making decisions and running turns can take some time. This isn't Civil War with a single nation map and two sides in conflict. This is GLOBAL war. Prepare for long campaigns with TEAW. So far I think it's an overall improvement over previous games and worth the money.

[Bodhis]

It's hard to reach Paris...

[Searry]

The game is massive! Most of the decisions you make can affect you a lot. So careful play is important. I'm playing on AI bonuses and otherwise hard settings. Very nice job by ageod!

[Soulstrider]

Well positive impressions so far, I am undecided right now between buying this or AJE's Parthian Wars + Walking Dead Season 2.

[Holy Diver]

Can someone compare this game with World War One Gold? One of these games I would like to buy but not sure which.

[Tamas]

Can someone compare this game with World War One Gold? One of these games I would like to buy but not sure which.

As I mentioned it in another thread here: WW1 Gold is a literal translation of a boardgame, with all the advantages and disadvantages of that. To End All Wars have been designed for the computer from the ground up, and it has all the years of experience of the AGEOD team in it. As much fun as I had with WW1G over the last several years, I think its status as the ultimate WW1 simulation has been overtaken by TEAW, and To End All Wars is definitely the easier game to pick up and play.

[H Gilmer3]

Um, I would hold off on WW1 Gold. If I had a choice, it would be this game. I own both. I cannot tell you how this one will work out, but I think it is definitely better than WW1 Gold. Others may think otherwise, not sure.

First impressions: Well... I am playing nonhistorical Grand Campaign. I am playing West Entente. I chose warplan XIX which means I am gearing up for an offensive and Luxembourg joins Central Powers. Germany chose the Moltke plan. Austria chose the prince plan? Whatever one that says they focus on Russia while holding Serbia at bay. Edit: Forgot to say what plan Russia took but they took an offensive plan building up forces to enter Polish Germany in Galicia.

I did not time the very first turn that deploys the troops according to the war plan. I timed the 2nd turn. 3 minutes and 33 seconds. Think of that what you want. I am playing with "give AI more time". The English did not take long to join us. Not sure if they automatically do when Moltke plan is implemented but that is a nice surprise because I was not expecting it.

For time turn I give you my computer specs:

8 GB of Ram
i7 - 2600S CPU at 2.8 Ghz
Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Radeon AMD HD 6570 (older Video card, not sure if that is a drag).

I don't have battle plans activated because I don't really like that part.
I did not change really any settings except give AI more time. That adds how much time to turn? I don't know, but probably a good deal.

[Swotoro]

First impression: I had a ball in beta. The game plays VERY differently depending on which "side" you select (Entente/Allies, Central Powers, Eastern Entente/Russia). One of my first items to watch for was the variations of front warfare experienced in this war (static/trench in West, fluctuating front in East for instance). The game does a great job of creating these warfare forms. That's why it plays so differently depending on the alliance you select.

[H Gilmer3]

More impressions. As I mentioned in a previous post on another thread, map is very nice. Beautiful. Kudos to artists who did the map. For some reason map scrolls jittery on far east part of map, but is very smooth scrolling in the West over France, Germany, and England. Probably if I had a better video card I would not have any trouble scrolling at all.

Actually zoomed in it scrolls smoothly everywhere for me, so that is good.

[Altaris]

Um, I would hold off on WW1 Gold. If I had a choice, it would be this game. I own both. I cannot tell you how this one will work out, but I think it is definitely better than WW1 Gold. Others may think otherwise, not sure.

First impressions: Well... I am playing nonhistorical Grand Campaign. I am playing West Entente. I chose warplan XIX which means I am gearing up for an offensive and Luxembourg joins Central Powers. Germany chose the Moltke plan. Austria chose the prince plan? Whatever one that says they focus on Russia while holding Serbia at bay. Edit: Forgot to say what plan Russia took but they took an offensive plan building up forces to enter Polish Germany in Galicia.

I did not time the very first turn that deploys the troops according to the war plan. I timed the 2nd turn. 3 minutes and 33 seconds. Think of that what you want. I am playing with "give AI more time". The English did not take long to join us. Not sure if they automatically do when Moltke plan is implemented but that is a nice surprise because I was not expecting it.

For time turn I give you my computer specs:

8 GB of Ram
i7 - 2600S CPU at 2.8 Ghz
Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Radeon AMD HD 6570 (older Video card, not sure if that is a drag).

I don't have battle plans activated because I don't really like that part.
I did not change really any settings except give AI more time. That adds how much time to turn? I don't know, but probably a good deal.

"Give AI More Time" definitely adds significantly to turn times, about 1.5-2 minutes. I've found the AI performs decently enough with it off, so I usually just leave it off, don't find it worth the extra processing time. But if you want the best AI experience and don't mind the extra time, it's worth leaving on.

[Altaris]

It's hard to reach Paris...

This is intentional

[bob.]

Can you declare war or get into your alliance everyone in Europe? IE coild the Germans try to get the Netherlands or Denmark or Norway to join and could Russia start another Great Northern War against Sweden?
Also, do most Generals have a description? Would be a shame to have (...) everywhere, I always enjoy reading a little summary about my Generals.

I will not be able to play the game until next week...

[fred zeppelin]

Um, I would hold off on WW1 Gold. If I had a choice, it would be this game. I own both. I cannot tell you how this one will work out, but I think it is definitely better than WW1 Gold. Others may think otherwise, not sure.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if I like EAW as much as WWI Gold (or at least WWI CE, which is far more playable). That's not really a criticism of EAW, but more a compliment to WWI Gold. I like that WWI Gold is a board game conversion - it's completely unique. EAW is based on the more general AGEOD engine and, while they've undoubtedly tweaked it to accommodate The Great War, I'm a bit skeptical that it can capture the nuances of that war as well as WWI Gold or feel as fresh as that game.

Having said all that. I'm installing EAW as we speak, and I hope to be surprised.

[Nico165]

Speaking of naval warfare... This is what happened to my atlantic blockade force on late august 1914 :

[ATTACH]30105[/ATTACH]

The whole hochseeflotte going for a quick hunt, seriously damaging a battleship squadron. - 4 NM. Good thing to remember : if you want to blockade, dont just use a small force.

[minipol]

The game has a huge feel to it.
Lot's of options.
I don't like the user interface icons as much as CWII for instance. The pic for the field artillery brigade seems a bit off.
As if the gun barrel isn't straight.

As for troops, I noticed Belgium is invaded by the 2nd Armee under Karl von Bülow at power 3029. There is another force with power 146 under Georg von der Marwitz.
Belgium only has an army led by Albert I of power 226, counting roughly 25.000 men.
If I check my books, the Germans attacked Belgium with a force of about 600.000 men vs 110.000 Belgian troops.
Unless I'm missing something, this isn't so on turn 1.

The forts at Liège where defended by approx. 32.000 troops. In the game I spot general Léman with 12.612 men instead of the 23.000 troops he should have.
All the other troops in the forts and his 23.000 troops should add up to 32.000.
As it is, the Belgian army is short a lot of men compared to the historical numbers, and it's army is already super tiny compared to the Germans
After turn 1, the small army is attacked in Brussels and retreats to Namur to get stuck between 2 armies, pfffff...
Should move those troops immediately to avoid that route.

Also on 22 august, the French troops fought already on Belgian soil. As it seems now, I can't get any troops from France to Belgium by that date.
Railroad move is not permitted in the first turn. On the 2nd turn, late aug, I can rail French troops in.
On the 27 of august, British troops landed in Ostend, but I can't see this happening either.
I do have the BEF sitting in Boulogne @ power 549

To conclude, it seems a step up from CWII in terms of options. I do feel as if the Belgian army has less troops then historically, but I could be wrong.

[Templer]

I notice if I look at the images of the AARs, by the way how EAW represents the trenches, the front lines are difficult to detect.

[H Gilmer3]

I'll be pleasantly surprised if I like EAW as much as WWI Gold (or at least WWI CE, which is far more playable). That's not really a criticism of EAW, but more a compliment to WWI Gold. I like that WWI Gold is a board game conversion - it's completely unique. EAW is based on the more general AGEOD engine and, while they've undoubtedly tweaked it to accommodate The Great War, I'm a bit skeptical that it can capture the nuances of that war as well as WWI Gold or feel as fresh as that game.

Having said all that. I'm installing EAW as we speak, and I hope to be surprised.

If I had not had so much trouble getting it to work, I'm sure I would like WW1 Gold. I just got frustrated with it.

[H Gilmer3]

Yikes talk about double posts.

[James D Burns]

I do feel as if the Belgian army has less troops then historically, but I could be wrong.

Yeah Belgium does feel too weak, and my first impressions are the Belgian army is hard coded to get destroyed on turn 2 if you play the August start. The Germans are set up right on top of Brussels and even though your small army is unlocked, it can’t escape before Germany attacks it and it gets forced to retreat southeast into a trap and gets surrounded by turn end. The next turn sees it totally destroyed due it being surrounded. Nothing you can do to prevent this as far as I can see.

I haven’t read up on my WWI history lately but if my old grey matter isn’t failing me I remember reading how the Belgian army caused Germany all kinds of headaches easily holding their own in the opening weeks/months of the war and throwing the German timetables totally out of whack.

The way the scenario is currently set up, no way will enough Belgian units survive (you might be able to save 2 independent divisions, the rest is doomed) to form the historical Corps that defended the channel coast area of the trench line throughout the entire war.

I’d say the Germans need to be moved back one region for their setup to prevent the Belgian army from being forced to retreat into the trap. If players want to remain and fight for Brussels it should be their choice, currently the opening setup gives the Entente player no option but to see his small Belgian army destroyed.

Here’s a good OOB site, but it doesn’t go into total numbers of men:

http://marksrussianmilitaryhistory.info/BELG14.html#DIVISIONS


Jim

[H Gilmer3]

Can you declare war or get into your alliance everyone in Europe? IE coild the Germans try to get the Netherlands or Denmark or Norway to join and could Russia start another Great Northern War against Sweden?
Also, do most Generals have a description? Would be a shame to have (...) everywhere, I always enjoy reading a little summary about my Generals.

I will not be able to play the game until next week...

I forgot to answer this. Based on what I'm seeing you can get very ahistorical allies. But, some are diametrically opposed to others, so if you get one, the other goes to the other side. In my game right now, Germany did not do the Schlieffen plan and is trying to get Belgium and The Netherlands into Germany's camp. I am trying to stop that from happening with my diplomats. I'm also trying to get China into my camp, so I can march some Japanese (another ally) troops up from Hong Kong to Tsingtao because I couldn't seem to get them to unload on Tsingtao.

[czert2]

It's hard to reach Paris...

unlike in history , be kind of this unhistorical boost to france, it will make game more interesing.

[H Gilmer3]

Hahahahaha, New Generals are available in Paris.

[ATTACH]30106[/ATTACH]

[FroBodine]

That is the face of surrender! Oh wait, this is not WW2 . . .

[H Gilmer3]

I'm enjoying myself immensely. Except for my army stuck in Mulhousen and who won't come home... The Germans left a little avenue open through Luxemburg and although it is not completely uncontested, I've captured Thionville and Saarbrucken.

[minipol]

The way the scenario is currently set up, no way will enough Belgian units survive (you might be able to save 2 independent divisions, the rest is doomed) to form the historical Corps that defended the channel coast area of the trench line throughout the entire war.

I’d say the Germans need to be moved back one region for their setup to prevent the Belgian army from being forced to retreat into the trap. If players want to remain and fight for Brussels it should be their choice, currently the opening setup gives the Entente player no option but to see his small Belgian army destroyed.

Indeed, the German army should back up and more troops need to be assigned to the Liege fort, and in total. Then we can have a retreating march back behind the river Yser as in WWI.
In real life they caused serious headaches, and fought a retreating war to the Yser causing enough casualties to the Germans to destroy the setup of the Von Schliefen plan, giving
the British and French troops time to prepare.
Also, no way the British and French can help out as they did in the war.
This might help:
- the French rail lines need to open on turn 1. I wasn't able to rail troops in from France the first turn
- the BEF should be unlocked immediately
- the Germans should be stationed outside Belgium on tun 1 instead of inside.
- Belgian troop total needs to be seriously upped to historical levels. See my previous post

[Respenus]

This might help:
/snap/

While I cannot go into too much detail and will have to leave a proper reply to an AGEod employee, the turn length is the main reason why the western front is setup as it is right now. With 15 days done each turn, it is nearly impossible to simulate the Schlieffen plan and the advancement done by German troops through Belgium as it historically happened. This is also why you have the Rape of Belgium event.

Even with the current setup, you get more than enough of a headache from the BEF, Belgian and French troops. The best I could manage was to get one province away from Parish by the end of 1914 and by then I had to retreat in order to maintain a proper front line with French troops pouring in from other parts of the Western front. Some players have achieved better results, but it depends on which plans were chosen (if you go the ahistorical route) and the decisions made by the AI, which differ during each playthrough.