Slitherine

New Features and Rule Changes

• Far into work on adding an in-game scaling preference option. Since the work is not complete, we have not yet made the preference option visible. Once completed in a future update, the program default will be changed to use application scaling, and players will be able to adjust the scaling using this preference item. As part of this, engine improvements have been made to more fully support ClearType fonts and to improve the placement of certain unit/map elements for better scaling, performance and clarity. Several windows have been redone/improved, as part of getting them to scale. Improvements include: added sorting of additional columns in some windows, information on assignments to HQs now also showing in the HQ detail Elements tab, changed selection of multiple battle reports in the same hex to a drop down list (hover on top left corner of battle report).
• Added a new scenario that is a modified version of the 1941 Campaign (1941 Campaign – No Early End). The only difference between this and the 1941 campaign is that the no early end version does not make checks for Sudden Victory or Sudden Loss. There is still the check at the end of 1944 re the Soviet HWM needing to match the Axis HWM (or Allied control of parts of Germany). This scenario will always contain the latest 1941 campaign changes unless otherwise noted in the scenario update notes (the plan is to keep them totally in sync).
• Rule Errata

o HQs and attached support units in isolated city forts that are forced to retreat are destroyed. Units will be rebuilt per the normal rules, except in this case HQs will also be rebuilt.
o When Follow Path is set to ‘no’ for an Air Directive, each mission created by the AD will automatically set a stage base for the mission when it launches and the aircraft will fly directly to the stage base and then directly to the target. The stage base created is heavily weighted toward the bombers in the mission (so not as useful if you have short range escorts you want to fly in the missions). In this case the player selected stage base is ignored.
o When tracing distance for freight movement from a depot to a unit, the number of MPs will never be more than 4x the number of hexes.
o The Command Range Modifier is slightly different than as explained in the manual. When determining the modifier, instead of subtracting 5 from the range before determining the modifier, you subtract the following:

 Corps HQ – 5
 Army – 10
 Army Group/Front – 15
 High command - 20

o Manpower multipliers for Finland, Italy, and Slovakia are different from that listed in the manual. They are:

 1941,42,43,44,45
 Finland 10,3,3,3,3
 Italy 3,3,3,3,3
 Slovakia 1,1,1,1,1

• Rule Clarification for Leader Dismissal Costs:
• The cost of dismissing a leader is increased by the political rating of the leader being dismissed. If the leader is an Axis Allied leader, the cost is double the political rating of the leader.
• The cost of dismissing a leader is reduced by the political rating of the leader of the Higher HQ for the leader being dismissed (i.e. OKH political rating is subtracted from the cost of dismissing the leader for Army Group North).
• The base cost before items a and b, are as follows All High Command 30, Axis Army Group 30, Axis Army 20, Axis Corps 10, Soviet Front 15, Soviet Army 10, Soviet Corps 5.
• There is a minimum cost of 2.
• Rule change for temporarily motorized units:

o Soviet units may not be temporarily motorized in 1941.
o Corps and division sized units have a minimum AP cost of 3 to temp motorize.
o Temporarily motorized units have to pass an extra admin check when determining their MPs (failure reduces their MPs).
o Soviet motorized units that are brigade size or smaller have a max MP of 35, and this applies to temporarily motorized units.

• Romanian Surrender - Romanian Surrender event no longer triggered by the loss of Constanta, Sulina, Cogealac, or Medgidia. Since this is a data change, it is only in games started with this or a later version of the game.
• Adjusted formula to spread out assignment of ground support over more air units where possible instead of overusing the same units. However, it is still heavily biased towards using air units flying shorter distances.
• Reduced the combat effectiveness of Light Mortar ground type weapons. Increased the combat effectiveness of Mortar ground type weapons.
• Added the ability to cancel an AOGs withdrawal orders on the AOG detail window. Linked any cancellation of withdrawal orders for an Air Command HQ to the withdrawal orders for its associated army level AOG. A cancellation of either, will cancel both.
• Moved Assault Squad category higher on the left side of production screen.
• Changes to logistics:

o Reduced effectiveness of super depots at reducing rail congestion penalties in 1941-1943, with less effectiveness reduction in 1943 than in 1941/42. Net effect is deliveries to super depots earlier in the war will be lower.
o Reduced effectiveness of single rail lines when using super depots. Net effect is potential for less shipments to super depots via single rail lines than in the past.
o Changed the algorithm that selects an NSS as a freight source to make it less likely to pick an NSS that is already heavily utilized.
o Note: Priority 0 depots have never been more or less likely to be picked as a freight source for a shipment just because it is priority 0. Priority 0 depots simply never receive a freight shipment. If you want to ensure getting rid of the freight at a priority 0 depot, you need to disband the depot.

• Significantly increased the incremental (fractional) experience gain each time a pilot returns from a mission. This will reduce the number of missions flown needed to gain a full experience point.
• Rule change – Units in refit and more than 10 hexes from the nearest enemy unit may now gain morale points even if their morale is over 50 (still must be under NM). The morale gain is now 1-2 points, not 0-2.

Bug Fixes and AI Improvements

• Assigning Construction Units to HQ on a city hex sometimes costs 1 AP (should be free). Fixed.
• Units in City Forts were not able to receive ammo from a depot in their hex during defensive combat. Fixed.
• Unit in City fort that renames appears in two places. Fixed.
• Losses reported for units not in the battle when Leningrad is captured. Fixed.
• Fixed several isolation issues:

o Units near Leningrad and Sevastopol were sometimes being counted as isolated when they shouldn’t. This was causing a loss of morale. Fixed.
o Hexes/units on Baltic islands incorrectly isolated. Fixed.
o Soviet units in the Caucasus become isolated when Axis units cut the Caucasus off from the rest of the Soviet Union. The port connections should be enough to prevent isolation. Fixed.

• Upon scenario load/start, factories in cities that have capture dates earlier than the start date of the scenario, are all being set to 100% damage. They should be calculating damage based on time since capture (there is some randomness to this, so values change each time a scenario is started). Fixed.
• CTD when pressing F9 with summary up in ground phase. Fixed.
• Can't move units to Kherson by sea. Fixed.
• Axis Allied flak are supposed to be limited to only their cities. Fixed.
• Some gun/artillery elements firing too close. Fixed.
• CR/HQ filter for Aslt column has typo. Fixed.
• The Logistics Report 'trucks lost in movement this turn' line was always showing 0 so this line was removed from the report.
• Depleted AA support units automatically sent to the reserve were also showing as being in the last city they were in. Fixed.
• MPs to depot in supply detail screen were sometimes incorrect. Fixed.
• Fixed several minor bugs in air group transfer interface.
• Possible MP exploit. Fixed.
• AD creation screen lists max ADs as 10 (should be 32. Fixed.
• When creating an airbase in a non-location hex, hex number is wrong in pop-up. Fixed.
• Changing mode with AD creation visible replaces 1st AD instead of selected AD. Fixed.
• Removed set individual AB supply priority via right click (since AB supply priority is automatically set, there was no reason to have this as it had no effect).
• Editor – Removed AI Line Forming x, y and Formation role from the displays as these are not intended to be editable values.
• Editor - Can't edit aircraft weapon set Last Date. Fixed.
• AI - Ai moves amphibious HQ into city fort. Fixed.
• AI - Amphib moves into swamp hex (from city fort hex). Fixed.
• AI – Soviet AI units warp into Axis hexes inside the Stalingrad pocket. Fixed.
• AI – Soviet AI support units in Theater boxes could be incorrectly attached to on map units (where they could be destroyed) while still showing in the TB. Fixed.
• AI - In Road to Leningrad some Soviet AI airbases ended up under OKL. Fixed.
• AI – The enemy AI moves human player air units to an AI airbase. Fixed.
• AI - Improved Axis defensive AI enemy threat calculations.
• In rare situations, resources/supplies/fuel/oil stored in a city could go negative. Fixed.

Data and Scenario Changes

• Scenario changes in Campaign 41, Road to Leningrad, Destruction of Southwest Front, and Operation Typhoon:

o adjusted for changes to 76.2mm Infantry Gun, 107mm Mortar, & 120mm Mortar pools
o 76.2mm field gun reallocations and pools of field guns, infantry gun, and mortars
o Corrected spelling errors

• 1941 Campaign:

o Fixed Frozen 8th Italian Army
o Fixed 3rd Guards Leningrad Militia Division renaming issue
o 39th Infantry Division no longer renames to 41st Fortress Division
o 41st Fortress Division is now built from scratch
o Removed Flieger Fuehrer Ostsee disband
o Urals Military District and Air Command are now locked in the Far East TB
o Event visibility fixes for events 40,41,43,95,108,114,129,133,134,136,170,171,172,173,174
o Romanian Surrender event is no longer triggered by the loss of Constanta, Sulina, Cogealac, or Medgidia.
o Various small fixes
o Added Dobrogea Rum. Air Command AOG
o Added 101st and 102nd Rum. Naval Recon Sqns
o Made Osinovets a Port Depot
o Changed events 82 and 88 so Albania and Montenegro do not become playable map regions when the Soviets take control.

• Destruction of Southwestern Front:

o Odessa Air Command renames to Southern Air Command on Turn 1
o Event visibility fix for event 133
o Added Dobrogea Rum. Air Command AOG
o Added 101st and 102nd Rum. Naval Recon Sqns

• Stalingrad to Berlin:

o Changed Syasstroy (201,97) to an export port.
o Event visibility fixes as in Campaign 41.
o Romanian Surrender event is no longer triggered by the loss of Constanta, Sulina, Cogealac, or Medgidia.
o Depending on the date of conversion some Infantry Divisions convert to the 44 Volksgrenadier Division while a few convert to the 45 Volksgrenadier Division TO&E. Conversions are now triggered by the turn number rather than depleted status.
o Changed events 82 and 88 so Albania and Montenegro do not become playable map regions when the Soviets take control.
o Correction(s) made to renaming of V Corps change to the XI SS Panzer Corps.
o The 344th Static Div. becomes the 344th VG Div.
o The 353rd ID becomes the 353rd VG Div.
o The 22nd Airlanding Div. does not convert to VG Status
o 1st Hun. Cavalry Brigade was added at Budapest. This is an Axis Elite unit. It is Frozen for 75 Turns. On Turn 76 (April 27, 1944) it becomes the 1st Hun. Hussar Division (The Best Unit in the Royal Hungarian Army).

• Vistula to Berlin changes:

o All VG Divisions now have the 45 Volksgrenadier Division TO&E which became available in November 1944.
o Upgraded some Fallschirmjager Divisions to the 44 Fallschirmjager Division and a few to the 45 Fallschirmjager Division.
o Moved KG(J) 6, KG(J) 27, KG(J) 30, and KG(J) 55 from the Map to the WE TB.
o Albania and Montenegro now start as Soviet controlled off map regions.
o The 353rd ID becomes the 353rd VG Division
o The 251st VG Div. becomes the 251st ID
o The 48th VG Div. becomes the 48th ID
o The 56th VG Div. becomes the 56th ID
o The 95th VG Div. becomes the 95th ID
o The 257th VG Div. added to WE
o Adjusted some Hungarian ground units. Hungarian ground units now have Experience and Morale near their National Morale of 50

• OB Update

o 41a, 41b and 42a Tank Brigades - added 4 x Zis-30
o Removed 14.5mm PTRD Anti-Tank Rifles from the 41b Cavalry Division since they are not in production until Dec 41
o Added 41c Cavalry Division which starts fielding PTRDs in Dec 1941
o Upgraded various ground elements in several OBs
o Added OB 1001 - 42a Ski Brigade - Apr 42
o Added OB 1016 - 42 Airborne Brigade - Apr 42
o Fixed OB 0883 and OB 0877 - Now use the 41 Rifle Squad instead of 42 Rifle Squad
o Fixed OB 0880 - Now uses T-34 M1943

• Leader.dat changes:

o Ld0215 von Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, Karl changed to Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, Karl
o Ld0296 Feuerstein, Valentin changed to Feurstein, Valentin
o Ld0305 von Weikersthal, Walther changed to Fischer von Weikersthal, Walther
o Various Italian Leader changes regarding promotion date and available date
o Ld0707 Nemeth, Joszef changed to Nemeth, Jozsef
o Ld0712 Ruszkiczay, Imre changed to Ruszkiczay-Ruediger, Imre
o Ld0718 Vasvary, Joszef changed to Vasvary, Jozsef
o Ld1037 Nikitin, Ivan change to Nikitin, Ivan S. // Change "Last Date" to April 1942
o Ld1062 Pyatykhin, Ivan reduce his rank to 1 and add a promotion Date

• Leader Photo changes/additions:

o Ld0529 Sogno, Vittorio
o Ld0537 Cappa, Umberto
o Ld0539 Armellini, Quirino
o Ld0541 Basso, Antonio
o Ld0561 Forgiero, Arnaldo
o Ld0592 Morigi, Giorgio
o Ld0718 Vasvary, Jozsef
o Ld1199 Konkov, Vasily

• Hexart.dat and hex.dat changes – Blocked naval exit from the Black Sea near Istanbul.
• Changes to ac.dat:

o re-calculated cruise speed and endurance for many aircraft, very limited changes to overall range unless:

 cruise speed was reduced from max cruise to eco cruise = range gain
 cruise speed was raised from max range to eco cruise = range lost

o drop tanks removed:

 for all German Bf 109/Fw 190 fighter and fighter-bomber, except Bf 109 E-7/F-2
 Fw 190F, Fw 190G (DT-only sets)
 non-German Bf 109 (except recons),
 Soviet P-39

o Pe-2/-3, Yer-2'44: gun change from 12.7 mm UBS to UB
o double max load for certain soviet types from 200 to 400kg to remove extra penalty for using 2x100kg bombs
o add 2x100kg bombload option for La-5/-7 types
o LaGG-3: ends 12/41, upgrades to LaGG-3 '11'
o LaGG-3 '11': delayed to 1/42, ends 6/42, 3 points better in reliability, +1 maneuver
o LaGG-3 '29': delayed to 7/42, +1 durability
o LaGG-3 '66': +2 durability, upgrade changed to La-7
o SM.79 I-II renamed SM.79 (ITA/WI version), some changes to weapon sets
o SM.79 III renamed SM.79bis, +1 durability, internal bombloads removed, change 20mm gun back to 12.7mm

• Changes to ground.dat:

o moved the Rumanian Panzer IVg forward to 12/42 (same as Germans)
o start of PaK40 production to 6/42 with weekly production of 146.
o contracted PaK97/38 production period to not start until 4/42 and end 3/43 with weekly production of 72
o moved 120mm GrW378(r) Mortar start date to 1/42
o set build limit of Soviet 102mm and 180mm Naval Guns to -1 to fix display issue
o Changed production rate and period of 107mm mortar.
o Removed the upgrade of the USV gun to ZiS gun and added update of 1902/30 gun to ZiS gun.

• device.dat – Changed slot 49 from 37mm Cannon T9 to 12.7mm UB MG
• gtype.dat – Unspecified minor changes
• 3 revised aircraft tga icon files, A0166, A0170, A0488

Matthew Ravenwood

QA & Operations Manager

quote:

ORIGINAL: 56ajax

Assigning Support Units is so much quicker.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Cohen_slith

Has someone playing Soviets invaded Costanta in '41 and got a very premature Romanian surrender?
It can also help to add a frozen garrison unit if it helps the game mechanics; something beyond your mundane Fortified Zone.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kel

When I want to change a leader, I need to click 3 times (and spend the corresponding APs) before the change is done.
I don't remember seeing that glitch before. Do I miss something? Did anybody got that?

quote:

ORIGINAL: dgrimes

Some display issues, none of which effect the game play itself. The combat resolution display no longer identifies the distance at which the fighting occurs. Also there appears to be an error in the shown combat values in the display screen after combat has occurred. It is off by a factor of 100 in some cases (not all). This does not effect the actual combat or the reported ratios (center screen).

Also in computing the hits per element the shown calculation is off by a factor of 10 in some cases (where there is only one digit shown to the right of the decimal place). Again it doesn't effect how the game works, but it is odd to see, for example, a hits per element value of 0.9, when the true number of hits per element is 0.09. Not sure what is going on, but if the value is reported with two digits to the right of the decimal it is correct, if its only one digit to the right of the decimal it is wrong. Somehow if the first calculated digit to the right of the decimal is 0, then the report seems to drop that digit and it shows up as 0.X instead of 0.0X. Finally in the combat screen the sum of all individual AP hits (destroyed, damaged, disrupted) is not equal to the total number of AP hits. Again this is just a display issue.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rosencrantus

A few things I noticed when playing with this beta.

You are now able to assign construction units to FBD units which isn't mentioned in the changelog.

That's a bug that has been logged. You should not be able to attach any new units to FBD/NKPS units.

Do AOGs have any effect on garrison values? Like for example if I keep JG 27 on the map, does the air value in Western Europe or wherever it was supposed to go is lower than it would have been otherwise?

Yes, if you look on the status tab on the TB box on the map, you'll see you can expand info re the Ground Value in the TB. By clicking on the triangle to expand the info, you'll see that fighters do contributed to the value (there is a max that they can contribute, which IIRC is the number in parenthesis).

In addition does assigning air groups to the proper AOG grant any combat benefits? i.e all JG 27 air groups to JG 27.

No.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Soviet_Union

I crash anytime I click on Leningrad's coastal guns. Anyone else getting this?