AAWC Tips And Tricks

You can use the links below to quickly jump to sections:

Retreats

Submarine Withdrawing

Game Play in the Zone

There are four big things to remember:

1. Only an attacker can retreat.

2. A retreat can be made only after a defender defends - after ANY round of combat.

3. An attacker cannot retreat from NOTHING - that is, if all the defending units are destroyed in the embattled territory or sea zone, then the attacking forces are stuck there - no retreating allowed.

4. Partial retreats are never allowed except for air units and subs. All attacking units must retreat together BACK to one adjacent friendly territory from which any one of the attacking units came. What follows are special retreating issues with submarines and air units.

Submarine Withdrawing

Subs may retreat as above, or they could "withdraw", which allows for some exceptions to the normal retreating rules.

Submarine withdrawal rules are:

In combat, both attacking and defending subs can withdraw.

Attacking subs can withdraw after any round of combat, and they do not have to retreat with other naval units.

If an attacking sub destroys the enemy in a sea zone, it cannot retreat or withdraw. It is stuck in that zone.

Partial retreats are allowed for attacking subs, because they do not have to retreat at the same time as other naval units nor to the same space.

Game Play in the Zone

Access the in-game "chat" feature by pressing the "C" key.

Chat box stuck open. Occasionally you will find that the chat box will not close, the best way to resolve this is to hit "ctrl" + "esc"or"alt+tab" to "flip" out of the game, then click on the Axis&Allies button to return to the game and you should be able to hit "esc" and close the chat box.

SAVE THE GAME OFTEN ! As you will find out if you don't already know, the game is prone to freezing up or locking up. Knowing this, it is essential to save the game often, always save AFTER placing your units with each country, BEFORE you go on to the collect income screen. It is also a good idea to save the game before each battle in the combat phase.

To save the game during play, press "F6". This is a hot-key to the load/save menu that will allow you to save quickly.

Game Startup. When starting up a game from the Zone, wait for you opponent to join you on the start up screen BEFORE you make ANY changes. This avoids some problems in starting up a game and brings your opponent in faster

Be sure to pause for 3-5 seconds between each game phase. In other words, don't rapidly click on "done" at the end of you turn to go from place units to collect money then on to the next player. Clicking too rapidly between these phases can cause the game to lock up. This also applies to the combat round, don't instantly click on a battle when you start the combat phase, pause for a few seconds then click on a battle to avoid locking up the game. Also pausing and saving between battles is a good idea.

ICQ - If you are an ICQ user, be sure to turn it off as having it on will cause the game to fail to load and leave you with a black screen that will force you to reboot in order to recover.

If you use the Alt+Esc option to "flip" out of your game, remember that clicking on "resume" to see what is happening in the Zone will greatly increase the chance that your game will lock up. Sending or receiving Zone Messages while the game is running will almost always lock up the game.

Moving Units

To undo a move, "right" click on the unit that you wish to redo. The computer will back the unit up by one territory for each time that you "right" click on the unit. This option can also aid in helping you fly your aircraft around aa guns rather than over them.

To move "stacks" of units press and hold the "ctrl" key while clicking on the stack of units to be moved and the computer will move that entire stack of units to the territory that you click on. When you want to move most of a stack and leave a few behind, move the few somewhere different then you want to move the rest. Then move the stack using the shift key and move the few back using the right click.

Pieces "stick" together. Occasionally your unit stacks will only move as a group, the computer will not let you move them separately. If this happens there are three ways to attempt to correct the problem. One, hit "C" to open the chat box then hit "escape" to close it, this may correct the problem. Two, hold the "Alt" key while clicking and moving your units (this will move the whole stack) then "right" click on the units to return them to the original territory, then try again to move them individually without holding the "Alt" key. Three, hold "Alt" and hit "Escape" to "flip" out of the game, then click on the Axis & Allies button to return to the game, this should fix the problem. If none of these works then you will probably have to save, exit, reboot, and restart.

During the combat movement phase, you should only move ships that are to be involved in a combat. If you do move other ships in the combat move phase, remember that any move by a ship ,that is NOT involved in a combat, that blocks a possible zone of retreat of an enemy submarine is ILLEGAL.

Marking Casualties

Transports-the transports are listed in turn order of the owning country; from top to bottom, so the USSR on top, then UK, then USA. The same goes for Axis, German on top, then Japan.

Fighters-the fighter casualties are removed by the computer in the order that they enter the combat territory (REGARDLESS of which one you mark), so be sure to bring the fighter from the furthest away first, then second furthest, and so on to insure that your surviving fighters are the ones with the most movement points remaining.

Keep in mind that you can "right" click on a casualty that you marked in order to unmark it if you change your mind as to which unit you choose to lose.

Placing Units

If you change your mind after placing a unit, you can pick units back up by hitting the "backspace" key. Units will still appear on the board where you placed them until you begin replacing them, but you will see them as available for placement on the unit placement board as you hit the backspace key.

Be careful when placing Industrial Complexes, if you place one and then hit backspace and place it somewhere else, the computer will at times still think that there is a complex in the original territory as well as the territory where you switched it to, and will allow placement of units in the first territory as if there were a complex there. Also it will not allow you to place an actual complex there later as it thinks one is already there.

When placing ships into enemy occupied waters, remember that the enemy ships ARE ALLOWED to leave BEFORE combat on their turn.

Remember to save the game on each countries turn AFTER you place your units but BEFORE going on to the collect income screen. Remember also at this point to give your opponent a chance to save the game.

AA Guns

AA guns will not fire on your opponent unless you keep them in a territory that is owned by the same country as the owner of the AA gun. For example...if USSR moves its Karelia AA gun into Caucasus to defend its troops there, and then the UK loads an AA gun onto a transport and unloads it into Karelia, the UK owned AA guns will NOT fire in defense of the USSR owned Karelia.

AA guns will NOT fire in defense of a territory if there are no troops present from the country that owns the territory and the AA gun. For example...UK on it's turn captures Western Europe with the AA gun there, UK manages to hold Western Europe and on it's next turn moves its forces from Western Europe in to Southern Europe but does not place any new units in Western Europe and leaves the AA gun there, USA on its turn then lands 4 infantry in Western Europe to defend it. If Germany then attacks the USA forces in Western Europe, the UK owned AA gun will NOT fire in defense of the USA troops even though the territory is also owned by the UK, because there are no UK troops present.

The AA gun will however, always fire on enemy aircraft that over fly it during the combat round and will fire in defense of strategic bombing raids, so long as the AA gun is owned by the same country as the factory it is defending.

Unit Edit Directions

(to do an edit off line)

1 start new game

2 click on unit edit

3 click on load/save

4 load the game you need to edit

5 make the changes needed (click on country, click on type of unit, left click territory to place,right click to remove units)

6 click on load/save(save the game under a new name)

7 exit to do an edit online

(to do an edit online)

1 launch game as the host

2 click on unit edit

3 click on load/save

4 load the game you need to edit

5 make the changes needed (click on country, click on type of unit, left click territory to place,right click to remove units)

6 click on load/save(save the game under a new name)

7 return to country selection page

8 assign countries

9 launch game

Miscellaneous

UK Attack on Kwangtung on Round One

If you wish to be able to retreat your UK fighter to China if the battle for Kwangtung should go poorly here is the trick that will let you do so. On the UK purchase units phase, save 3 IPC's...on UK combat move, move the fighter from India into Mongolia then right click it once to back it out of Mongolia into China, then move it on into Kwangtung. Nice thing is you will not lose the 3 IPC's since you did not actually violate Mongolian neutrality. If Japan still controls Manchuria, then you do not need to save the 3 IPC during the UK purchase unit phase, as you can select Manchuria as your target, then right click to back up to China, then move to Kwangtung.

Battleship Bombardment

Be careful to save the game before beginning an amphibious assault that includes a battleship bombardment. If you score more hits than you have attacking pieces not counting the battleship, the game will lock-up...it will not let the defending player assign the hits, this happens if the defender has at least as many units as the attackers number of hits. For example : Germany has 3 infantry defending Western Europe, UK lands one infantry plus bombards Western Europe with its battleship...if both the battleship and the infantry hit, the game will not allow the defender to assign both hits.

TECH Rolls

If you roll for tech and are using the timer, be sure you make the rolls early enough that the computer will have time to assign the techs the you get if you succeed BEFORE the timer runs out. If the timer runs out in between the time that you successfully roll tech and the time when the computer selects which techs you acquired, you will NOT get any tech. Always save the game after you or your opponent makes a successful tech roll.

The NO TECH Option

Do not click on the "no tech" option of the game even if you are playing a game where no tech is allowed. If the no tech option is clicked on, the game has a "bug" that causes each industrial bombing raid to do 5 IPC of damage and never shoot down a bomber. The way to resolve this is to simply agree not to roll tech during the game rather than click on the "no tech" button.

IC's and Bombers

If a country with an industrial complex is attacked by units supported by a bomber and the battle results in the destruction of the defender, the bomber will get an additional monetary bombing raid. This is a game bug and the way to fix it is to allow the defending player to edit his next unit placement to reflect the amount of IPC's that he should have had.

Norway Attack

When attacking Norway on uk1 you can move the uk bomber to the Baltic sea then to Norway. This will allow uk to retreat their air units to the Baltic and have them land in kariala in case the battle goes poorly.

Avoiding AI Flight Path

When moving air units and you want to avoid the AI choosing the flight path you can through the use of moving to other enemy territories and movement to sea zones along with the right clicking back be able in most cases to pick your own flight path. This can be very helpful in avoiding aa guns in your path.

Manual Ship Path Movements

Using the same method as used with the air units it is possible to chose the route that your boats take into battle thus allowing you to retreat to a more advantageous position. As is the case with a Japan 1 attack on Hawaii. Just have the sub attack Mexico (seazone) and right click it back 1 space then move him to attack. Then if things go right the sub can retreat to the south allow him to be in position for a possible attack on the Panama seazone.