Production

For more details, see WAW production walk through

I. Production

Production is as critical to winning as the correct deployment of units. The World at War scenario uses a new process to build units:

1. Players must build pre-cursors to production. There are five: (a) pilots, (b) hulls, © engines, (d) steel and (e) specialists. These precursors can be build by playing action cards or by using city production

2. The new pre-cursors evolve into ready pre-cursors over time. The pre-cursors go through stages and then become ready precursors. So, PreC Steel becomes Steel stage 1, Steel stage 2, Steel stage 3, Steel stage 4, Steel stage 5 and then finally Steel. The movement of pre-cursors through the stages occurs every turn, except for Hull which only happens on even turn (making hulls take twice as long to build). In effect, it take 6 turns to have a pre-cursor completely ready for production.

3. Units (like ships, tanks, artillery and planes) need different combinations of pre-cursors to be built (e.g., a light tank needs 1 steel and 1 engine, a level bomber needs 2 engines and 1 pilot). The resource bar at the top of the screen shows how many pre-cursors your regime has ready for producing units. In the screen shot below, you can see a screen shot from Germany's first turn. The German player has 26 pilots ready, 11 hulls, 55 engines, 53 steel and 27 specialists ready.

4. If you select a city for production (see Berlin is selected above)and select a item for production, the number of pre-cursors is shown (the Figther I is selected and requires 1 engine and 1 steel). Be careful not too try to produce more items than you have precursor's for. In the picture above, Germany has ordered the production of 50 fighters but only has the pre-cursors for 26. The remaining production will be loss. You can see this by noting on the bottom left the 'real' is 26 while 'prod' is 50. Note that the resource bar also shows how many pre-cursors will be consumed next turn. In the example below, 50 engines and 50 pilots are on order (-50 next to engines and pilots respectively). Since there are not enough pilots to meet this order, the -50 for pilots is in red. Players should always make sure they check the resource bar before ending their turn to make sure they are not ordering too many units. This is especially important in managing production across multiple locations.

5. Item costs and precursor requirements are shown below.

Finally note that the number of pre-cursors not in the pipeline and the number of ready pre-cursors can be seen by playing the 'Show Pre-cursors' card.

Production can be increased through research. Player's can improve the production of their own people (e.g., Germany can improve German production), of European people (e..g, Eastern Europe, Low countries, Spain, Scandanavia) and Non-Euro people (Asia and Latin America). The cost of the research is set each turn based the production of the people to be improved. The level of production by people type is can be seen by playing the 'Check people production' card. It is important to gear up production as quickly as possible. This is the first research players should conduct. Note that most regimes start at 50% production while Euro and Non-Euro people's production starts at 25%. The US production level starts at 25% as does the Soviet production level if the 'World wide revolution' variant is selected.

The time it takes for pre-cursors to become ready for production can also be improved through research. Germany starts with a pre-cursor production delay and must go through all pre-cursor stages (all the other regimes only have to go through 4 stages). Germany can eliminate this penalty by researching 'Speer re-organizes economy'. All regimes can further reduction pre-cursor production time through research. In effect, production of all units beyond basic infantry take 2-5 turns depending on your pre-cursor production time. This simulates production lags.

II. Supply

Supply can be purchased 3 different ways:

1. Supply built in cities costs 10 pp

2. Supply built in resource hexes and chemical factories costs 2 pp

3. Supply built at oil locations costs 1 pp.

This models the importance of having access to resources and oil. Players should ensure supply needs are met by minerals or oil. Build chemical factories rather than rely on supply from cities. Note that resources and oil locations can only produce supply and have a separate people type (e.g., resource people). As such, they can not be improved by production research. Italy starts the game with no efficient supply locations and should build one or borrow from Germany.

III. Factories

These are specialized production locations. They have a higher production rate than cities but have a limited range of production capabilities. Factories are manned by factory people and are immune from production research improvements. Players can build air factories (e.g., Willow Run), ship factories (e.g., Bath Iron Works), gun factories, vehicle factories and chemical factories (build resource supply). Players should only build factories after production and conversion is improved. Factories require a steady stream of pre-cursors to be efficient

IV. Fuel.

A unit of fuel is produced with every supply. Fuel is consumed every time a plane, vehicle or ship moves or fights. If a player runs out of fuel, they will be less effective. The Allies have large reserves, fuel management is most important for the Axis powers. Note fuel is not saved from turn to turn. Fuel will be a challenge for Italy and Japan (at least which the embargo is in place and before Southern resources are secured.

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