The Manual

[Tim Brooks]

We have had a few requests for the manual. As most of you know, Shrapnel Games does not give out the manuals to our games. However, we will share the table of contents with you - along with page numbers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

System Requirements - 1

Installation - 1

Introduction - 1

Tutorial (Your First Game) - 2

Game Play - 15
Starting a Game - 15
Picking Sides - 15
Network Play - 15
Alternate Scenarios - 15
Strategic Map - 15
Bases - 17
Base Screen - 19
Units - 21
Task Forces - 23
Movement - 23
Missions - 25
Toggle and Info Buttons - 26
Go Button - 27
Repairs, Replacements, and Reinforcements - 27
Victory Conditions - 27
Oil Reserves - 28
Sea Lanes - 28
Strategic Bombing - 29
Survival - 29
Special Rules - 30
First Turn Surprise - 30
British Withdrawals - 30
Battles - 31
Reaction Moves - 32
The Battle Boards - 32
Menu Bar - 32
Air Strikes - 34
Surface Actions - 37
Invasions - 38
Battle Reports - 39

Menus - 40
Main Menu - 40
New Game Menu - 41
Save and Load Game Dialogs - 41
Reports Menu - 43
Forces Menu - 44
Options Menu - 44
Battle List - 45

Network Play - 45
Requirements - 45
Hosting a Network Game - 46
Hosting an alternate Scenario Network Game - 46
Joining a Network Game - 46
Playing a Network Game - 47
Saving and Restarting a Network Game - 47
Menus and Screens - 47
Network Play Menu - 47
Host Network Game Panel - 48
Join Network Game Panel - 48

Alternate Scenarios - 49
After the Infamy - 49
No Sleeping Giant - 49

Appendix - 49
The History of WWII in the Pacific Theater - 49
Origins - 50
Pearl Harbor and the Rising Sun - 50
Coral Sea and Midway - 51
Guadalcanal - 51
Across the Central Pacific - 52
Leyte and MacArthur’s Return - 53
The End - 54
Notes on Strategy - 55
Japanese Strategy - 55
Allied Strategy - 56
Notes on Historical Accuracy - 57
Overall Historical Philosophy - 57
Ship Illustrations and Capabilities - 57
Kongo Class – Battleships or Battlecruisers? - 58
Hyuga and Ise – Why don’t they get converted to hybrid Carriers? - 58
What, no Ulithi Atoll? - 59
USN Ships Named After Sunken Ships - 59
Roster of Ships In the Game - 59
Bibliography - 72
Acronyms Used in WPP - 72
Index - 73
Epilog - 74

Hope this helps a little in making your decision. Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered. This has been our best pre-order in over 5 years! Congrats to KE Studios - they have created an awesome game here!

Best to all,

[OTGamer]

Originally Posted by Tim Brooks

Hope this helps a little in making your decision. Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered. This has been our best pre-order in over 5 years! Congrats to KE Studios - they have created an awesome game here!

Best to all,

I suspect there are new folks sitting on the sidelines and watching...waiting.....like me. I haven't pre-ordered, but will likely buy. I hope KE has produced a winner.

[GeneralChaos]

Somewhat of a low quality manual. B/W regular paper with a simple staple binding. Plus a lot of info in the manual - Tutorial, Rules, & WWII Pacific History. But maybe a little missing info on how exactly the rules apply - Base building (how patrolling ships & convoys affect the red base status bar?), how combat works (both air and surface), Oil bases, Movement(can TFs fail to reach targeted base and no notification to player of the failure).

[gdrover]

As I commented in my after action/ review, I love love love the game, but I have to agree that a photocopy for a manual is poor form for the premium price charged. I realize that printing small runs is expensive, but springing for a real printed manual in B/W isn't that expensive.

[Annette]

I can't really address points made about content because I'm not involved in the creation or editing process. But I do work directly with our printers so I can address the impression that the manual is a "photocopy". We faced a challenge with production of the WPP manual because of it's page count, but it most certainly was printed direct from file on the same digital presses by the same commercial printer who produces all our game manuals. Our selection of manual format and packaging is dictated by page count and is not something we pinch pennies over. We've printed smaller runs of perfect bound manuals (and I'm making an assumption that is what is meant by "real" manual), so again, cost is not the issue.

This manual is unique in that it's not quite enough pages to be perfect bound (with a spine like the typical ProSim ATF or AATF manual), and yet it pushes the envelope for what will fit in a safebox. Many of our games which come packaged this way have manuals with far fewer pages, such as BCT Commander or Air Command 3.0. In those cases we can upgrade to a heavier coated stock. Rather than sacrifice content to keep the page count down, we chose standard uncoated paper so the manual will comfortably fit inside the packaging (this is the same paper our perfect bound and spiral bound manuals are printed on, including Dominions 3 which many have praised).

When we received the finished product we considered starting over from square one by going back to our old style of packaging manuals with similar page counts. Some of you may remember nine and ten years ago, before safeboxes were common, we printed manuals with comparable page counts as saddlestitched bookets with cardstock covers. We shrinkwrapped the manuals with the game CD nestled inside the pages. The benefit is that the size of the page itself could be slightly larger, enabling us to enlarge the screenshots. In the end, we felt it was more important to release the game when promised rather than cause another delay by reprinting the manuals. We also felt the safebox packaging, although a bit more expensive, adds value to the product.

Your feedback is important to us, as it will help us make decisions in the future. We rarely hear impressions about our packaging (again, other than something quite out of the ordinary like Dominion 3), so I welcome your comments. We depend on you, our customers, to help us identify where we can make improvements.