Campaigns / Scenarios ?

[pad152]

1. How many Campaigns and/or Scenarios are included?

I've read you can play a complete campaign in a single evening.

2. How long do campaigns last?

[tony_glazebrook]

1. How many Campaigns and/or Scenarios are included?

I've read you can play a complete campaign in a single evening.

2. How long do campaigns last?

A1: 3 full-scale campaigns: 1 * Mediterranean, 1 * Pacific, 1 * Nth and Sth Atlantic, plus 1 * intro scenario for learning peurposes, set in the Pacific.

A2: From very short (an evening or two, when making max use of your 2IC and with long turn settings), through to quite long - it all depends on how detailed you want to get. You have complete freedom to choose the level of play.

[Warship NWS]

1. How many Campaigns and/or Scenarios are included?

I've read you can play a complete campaign in a single evening.

2. How long do campaigns last?

Quick note here.. do not think in terms of "canned" campaigns.. SAS-WW2 is MUCH more then boxed campaigns - the "scenarios" are simply your naval dominance battlefields. You decide as much or as little as you want to do within the scope of your command - build navies, build planes, launch an amphibious attack, interdict convoys, move task forces to wrestle for naval control of a region, etc. SAS-WW2 is not just a campaign simulator.. its a naval campaign on the fly construction kit. You pick who and where to wage naval war and every time you play a campaign you can try entirely different strategies, ships, and resource planning for controlling the worlds oceans. The flexibility of the engine is nearly limitless.. and its only going to get even more flexible with future upgrades.. this is just the beginning. ;)

[Kriegsspieler]

Quick note here.. do not think in terms of "canned" campaigns.. SAS-WW2 is MUCH more then boxed campaigns - the "scenarios" are simply your naval dominance battlefields. You decide as much or as little as you want to do within the scope of your command - build navies, build planes, launch an amphibious attack, interdict convoys, move task forces to wrestle for naval control of a region, etc. SAS-WW2 is not just a campaign simulator.. its a naval campaign on the fly construction kit. You pick who and where to wage naval war and every time you play a campaign you can try entirely different strategies, ships, and resource planning for controlling the worlds oceans. The flexibility of the engine is nearly limitless.. and its only going to get even more flexible with future upgrades.. this is just the beginning. ;)

This has me intrigued. Would I be correct in supposing that the game can be easily adapted to a 1939 start date? September 1940 would seem to me a pretty late date to be starting off the Atlantic campaign, since if you begin a year earlier both sides have more chance to make some interesting strategic choices. As a mater of fact, that's an argument for starting in 1937 or 1938. ;)

And while we're talking about "campaigns": Do you guys envision putting out a "war at sea module" that would permit one or more players to play the entire war as either the US/UK/France or Germany/Italy/Japan? That would require some adaptation of the current package, as far as I can tell, but not a great deal.

But not to put the cart ahead of the horse here: I expect to have lots of fun playing what's there already!

[Christian Schwietzke]

This has me intrigued. Would I be correct in supposing that the game can be easily adapted to a 1939 start date? September 1940 would seem to me a pretty late date to be starting off the Atlantic campaign, since if you begin a year earlier both sides have more chance to make some interesting strategic choices. As a mater of fact, that's an argument for starting in 1937 or 1938. ;)

You can scrap and rebuild from scratch your entire navy on the start of turn 1; that strikes me as a pretty good argument for not needing to start before the war begins.


By the way, judging from your name, I guess I am no longer the only German here, right? Welcome aboard!

[HBuhring]

As a mater of fact, that's an argument for starting in 1937 or 1938. ;)

That's a thing I thought too. If much of the decisions are strategic, it would make sense to be able to start the game a couple of years *before* the war starts (and perhaps having some sort of incertainty regarding exactly *when* the war will eventually break).
You would have the time to build up your resources -- and not only your navy -- anticipating the strategy you will follow when the guns start shooting.

Cheers

HB

[tony_glazebrook]

That's a thing I thought too. If much of the decisions are strategic, it would make sense to be able to start the game a couple of years *before* the war starts (and perhaps having some sort of incertainty regarding exactly *when* the war will eventually break).
You would have the time to build up your resources -- and not only your navy -- anticipating the strategy you will follow when the guns start shooting.

Cheers

HB

HB and Kriegspieler - You can currently create campaigns that start as early as Jan 39 but there are 2 issues at the moment you need to be aware of regarding dates:
1. At some stage we need to add in aircraft data for a/c produced before Jan 39. We sort of ran out of time to expand the list to stuff produced before Jan 39. So unless you disable aircraft entirely from a campaign, a pre 39 start has a problem with a/c.
2. Until we support full multi-nation per side, and also a fuller land warfare component, start dates such as you have mentioned can create problems unless you make your own alternate hitory assumptions. Eg, If you started in '37, France is in still there in a big way, and NorthSea/North Atlantic as well as Med campaigns need to factor in how the French would be involved (presumably on the allied side), not just the British.

I plan to release soon a hypothetical Med campaign that has the French and British as partners in the Med, vs Italy, on the assumption that the bulk of the French navy went Free French, along with Tunisia. But as you see, you have to construct your assumptions carefully to support campaigns like this. SAS WW2 is primarily a game of naval warfare, and the land components have to be carefully thought about - at least until we have land warfare fully modelled. This latter bit is, as you would imagine, not simple. We support amphibious ops and simple land ops - so the Pacific and North Africa are OK; but we don't yet really model full-blown land warfare, such as Germany vs France. So a '37 or '38 start would have to assume either that Germany had invaded France earlier, OR that it was not going to at all.

The major direction to expand SAS WW2 would be in the area of multi-nations, and fuller land warfare; these are not trivial :-), and the timing of these need to be carefully thought about, especially as we really want to do a WW1 version of SAS for release inside 12 months, and I only have ten fingers! In the meantime, SAS WW2 has a huge amount to keep you occupied :D There are many games out there that do land warfare; SAS fills a gap we think because it fills the void for naval enthusiasts first and foremost.

[Warship NWS]

To follow up with what Tony stated,

I will be quite clear that Tony, the code man, is not entirely on his own. The NWS Team will of course, as we have already been doing, assist him with any and all research and combat mechanics he requires.. including working with him on the expanding of the land warfare element of the SAS engine. Even though we are primarily a naval combat simulations research and design team we have more then enough capability and research materials to work in the realms of land warfare as well.

The land combat component has considerable capability already built into SAS, especially in the form of amphibious operations - this portion of the land combat engine was greatly expanded in the prior months before publication. As Tony well noted we definitely want to work more with the land combat engine but it will take a bit of work. The idea of a comprehensive naval, air and land wargame is obviously an objective that SAS could accomplish with future upgrades as the potential is definitely there.

This is also an area that we hope to see a lot of constructive player feedback about. We did not release this wargame to be a "here you go and thats it" design.. far far from it. A lot of the decisions for the future upgrades to SAS-WW2 will very much include constructive feedback and suggestions from registered players. When you recieve your SAS-WW2 wargame in the mail definitely be ready to sign up for our registered players forum as you will have a front row seat to the future of this engine. All that will be required is an email.. and your serial code.

Thanks. :)

[tony_glazebrook]

To follow up with what Tony stated,

I will be quite clear that Tony, the code man, is not entirely on his own. The NWS Team will of course, as we have already been doing, assist him with any and all research and combat mechanics he requires.. including working with him on the expanding of the land warfare element of the SAS engine. Even though we are primarily a naval combat simulations research and design team we have more then enough capability and research materials to work in the realms of land warfare as well.

The land combat component has considerable capability already built into SAS, especially in the form of amphibious operations - this portion of the land combat engine was greatly expanded in the prior months before publication. As Tony well noted we definitely want to work more with the land combat engine but it will take a bit of work. The idea of a comprehensive naval, air and land wargame is obviously an objective that SAS could accomplish with future upgrades as the potential is definitely there.

This is also an area that we hope to see a lot of constructive player feedback about. We did not release this wargame to be a "here you go and thats it" design.. far far from it. A lot of the decisions for the future upgrades to SAS-WW2 will very much include constructive feedback and suggestions from registered players. When you recieve your SAS-WW2 wargame in the mail definitely be ready to sign up for our registered players forum as you will have a front row seat to the future of this engine. All that will be required is an email.. and your serial code.

Thanks. :)

Guys - when Chris says something should be done, then we will do it. I have worked with him long enough to know he is spot on in terms of understanding the big picture, and the potential of a game. He has really pushed me over the last 18 months or so to bring SAS to where it is now. NWS is a small team but I quickly learend that I had the good fortune to team up with a pair of super heavyweights in Chris and William in terms of knowledge and experience of warfare (all forms) and understanding of game design.

So 2009 is going to be a big year! And please take to heart that we take constructive feedback from our customers very seriously ;)

[Morphin]

Hi

I'm very happy to see upgrades (e.g. Land warfare). I'm from Switzerland and i just ordered SAS. I read the manual and 'm impressed what Tony produced during the last 2 years. I hope you sell enough that you delevop this game engine further (prehaps a naval game after 1950?)


Regards

Andy

[Warship NWS]

To Morphin,

After SAS-WW1, due out around Q4 of this year, we are considering several possible canidates for time frames.. ironclads, age of sail, and.. possibly even 1950s-1990s.

Thanks for the support. :)

[Christian Schwietzke]

To Morphin,

After SAS-WW1, due out around Q4 of this year, we are considering several possible canidates for time frames.. ironclads, age of sail, and.. possibly even 1950s-1990s.

Thanks for the support. :)

Oh, YES! SAS-WW3... great idea! :D

[Crocky]

Just give me SAS 1 first ..... oh and happy New Year by the way :) does that mean its shipping day ;)

[tony_glazebrook]

Oh, YES! SAS-WW3... great idea! :D

I can see the franchise becoming a bit like Star Wars - we'll end up with SAS WW -1 (age of Sail), 0, 1, 2 and 3! Perhaps Peter Weir could do a series of films with Russel Crowe, expanding on his Master and Commander appearance to become a Jedi Knight of the ocean, bobbing up in different guises in each film...But now I am rambling again. Time for my medication....

[Morphin]

Do Warship NWS

"After SAS-WW1, due out around Q4 of this year"... In Switzerland it is still 2008. So you release SAS-WW1 on Year 2008???:D


Happy new Year


Andy

[Christian Schwietzke]

Do Warship NWS

"After SAS-WW1, due out around Q4 of this year"... In Switzerland it is still 2008. So you release SAS-WW1 on Year 2008???:D


Happy new Year


Andy

Tony has spent an awful lot of time in WW2 lately, so I think he can be forgiven for not knowing what year it is right now.

[Warship NWS]

SAS-WW1 is due out around Q4 2009.. not 2008.. but of course 2009 is just one day away. LOL! ;)

[Kriegsspieler]

Very interesting comments on planned expansions, guys, thanks. I'll look forward to spending my time getting acquainted with this baby as released and then hold on for expansions to the data set and time frame.

But just to respond to one point from Tony:


I plan to release soon a hypothetical Med campaign that has the French and British as partners in the Med, vs Italy, on the assumption that the bulk of the French navy went Free French, along with Tunisia. But as you see, you have to construct your assumptions carefully to support campaigns like this. SAS WW2 is primarily a game of naval warfare, and the land components have to be carefully thought about - at least until we have land warfare fully modelled. This latter bit is, as you would imagine, not simple. We support amphibious ops and simple land ops - so the Pacific and North Africa are OK; but we don't yet really model full-blown land warfare, such as Germany vs France. So a '37 or '38 start would have to assume either that Germany had invaded France earlier, OR that it was not going to at all.
Well, my point in suggesting anearlier start date was not to push the start of the war further back in time, or to shift focus to the land war, but instead to let the major "playable" countries have more time to develop alternative naval strategies. Were there to be such an early start, there would have to be allowances made for the things like the gradual ramping up of wartime economies and other peacetime limits on building.

And to Chaos: No, sad to say I am a mere American. I work on German history, though, and speak German fluently.