Slitherine

New Features and Rule Changes


1) Default Change – Changed some of the air doctrine default values.
2) New Rule - Air groups in the national reserve may now be disbanded.
3) New Rule - Unit counters no longer show SS/Elite/LW/Guards status (coloring) if their detection level is lower than 5.
4) New Rule - Air recon will not increase an enemy air base’s detection level above 5.
5) New Rule - Static units no longer lose their static status when they are retreated or routed.
6) New Rule - Units may not enter static mode in 1941.
7) New Rule – Ports are now unusable for naval transport on the turn they are captured.
8) New Rule – Admin and Initiative checks are twice as hard to make for isolated units.
9) New Rule –Soviet aircraft reliability decreases in 1942-1943 (the reliability rating is treated as higher than shown due to the quality drop resulting from factory evacuations).
10) New Rule – The reliability of old (out of production) aircraft decreased (reliability rating is treated as higher than shown).
11) New Rule – NKVD Border Regiments never get replacements.
12) New Rule – NKVD Border Regiments check for disbanding each friendly logistics phase starting in July 1941. The chance the unit will be disbanded is as follows:

July 1941 – 100% - %TOE of the unit
August 1941 – 80%
September 1941 and later – 95%

13) New Rule – Airhead supply. Isolated air units may be changed to beach/air supply status (same as old beachhead status) under certain conditions. If a player flies in supplies to an air base in a pocket, the supplies will immediately be distributed amongst all of the isolated units that can trace to the air base. If the amount received during the turn at some point equals 5% or more of the total needs of the unit, then the unit will be immediately set to beach/air supply status (it will display in orange instead of red when toggle unsupplied units is toggled on). The total needs are the supply+fuel+ammo needs listed for the unit. So a division with total needs of 1100 tons of s/f/a have at least 55 tons flown in and delivered to the unit, it will have its supply status changed from isolated to beach/air supply status. This will last until the next friendly logistics phase. Units with beach/air supply will always pay penalties for being short of ammo, so there is a disadvantage in combat to be in beach/air supply (but it's better than being isolated where there are additional penalties). The air base must be in a clear or light woods hex. When in Beach/Air supply, the unit detail screen will show the information: Air Head Supply 400 / 20 (5%) which indicates the total amount of supplies+fuel+ammo the unit needs, the amount it has received via air resupply, and the total percentage of needs that has been met. When in Air Transport mode, the player can left click on an air base and then bring up that unit’s detail screen to see a full list of all isolated unit that can trace to the air base, the total need of each unit, and the amount of supplies that have been sent to the unit. On the right side of that screen is a line that reads Air Supply Range: 10. By clicking on this line, the player may enter a different number from 1 to 10. Only units within the state range in hexes of the air base will be sent supplies that are airlifted to this air base. Air base units may be moved before supplies are delivered to it, but once it receives supplies for isolated units, it will not be able to move and then receive additional supplies for isolated units. Units that are merged or divided track the amount of air head supplies received, so they can lose their supplied status if no longer over the 5% threshold. The Soviet player may not fly airhead supply on the first turn of any scenario starting in June 1941.
14) New Rule – Hiwis (Hilfswilliger - "auxiliary volunteers") – Rules have been added to account for the soldiers and civilians that served as support personnel for German units during WWII (known as Hiwis).

a) Hiwis are generated from captured men. 8% of captured manpower will go into a Hiwi pool. Also, captured manpower centers in the Soviet Union produce 10 men for each captured point (theater production limits and damage to manpower centers apply).
b) Hiwis can be added to German unit’s Support and Labor Squads starting from 1942.
c) Hiwis can't be added to High Command HQs.
d) Hiwis can't be more than 70% of current labor ground element TOE, 30% of current support element TOE, or 10% of current support element TOE of an SS Elite unit TOE.
e) If the parent element is targeted and is destroyed there is a maximum 60% chance that a Hiwis squad will be destroyed instead (the less percentage of the element made up with Hiwis, the smaller the chance that a Hiwi squad will be destroyed).
f) Hiwis elements provide the same amount of support and engineer values as a normal support squad.
g) Upon loading a save from an earlier version of the game, when the first German logistics phase executes with the new version, the game will generate Hiwis based on the existing captured men and manpower centers (a onetime adjustment).
h) Interface changes - The number of Hiwis in a unit is show on the unit’s detailed information display. The number of Hiwi elements is shown in parenthesis next to the ground element type. So the entry Support (Hiwi 2) indicates that 2 of the support squads in the unit are Hiwi squads). The production screen has an entry for Hiwis, showing how many men are in the Hiwi pool. Hiwis are included in the total German manpower shown on the Order of Battle screen.
i) Hiwi’s can be set in the editor by using the editor functions on the CR screen. It allows the scenario designer to substitute Hiwi’s for normal support and labor elements. The Hiwi pool can also be set on the production screen.

15) New Rule – Added a chance that some fighters will be allocated to fly fighter sweeps along with any airstrikes that are ordered. They will fly as part of the original airstrike and combat with this fighter sweep will be resolved with the original airstrike (i.e. it will seem like one mission is being flown, but in reality there are two distinct actions taking place, the bombing raid and the fighter sweep). The higher the escort setting, the greater the chance that a fighter sweep will be flown.
16) New Rule – Added a chance that aircraft can be damaged or destroyed when an air group is transferred from one base to another, or whenever an air base moves (aircraft routinely flew to their new air base location, and could suffer operational losses during the flights).
17) New Rule - Damaged aircraft which were not repaired during the logistics phase can be written off (destroyed). Older aircraft with low durability and low reliability have a greater chance of being written off.
18) Changes to Production Rules

a. Changed Soviet Manpower multiplier in 1942 to 40 (from 45).
b. Changed Soviet Armaments multipliers in 1942-1945 to 130 (from 200).
c. Items produced in Poland and Czech cities now added to the "built" German stats.

19) Changes to Morale Rules

a. The following units receive bonuses to their National Morale: All Cavalry, Mountain Airborne and Air Landing units, and Axis Allied motorized units +5, German Motorized Units +10, Soviet Motorized Units (from Sept 1942-August 1943) +5, Soviet Motorized Units (Sept 1943-end of war) +10.
b. Soviet National Morale has been changed to 50 in June 1941. One point is subtracted each month after this in 1941 (so it is 44 in Dec 41). In 1942 it is set to 40, with one point being added each month starting in September 1942 (so 44 in Dec 42). This continues in 1943 and 1944 until the Soviet National Morale reaches its maximum of 60 in April 1944.
c. Build morale now equals national morale in all cases (there is no separate build morale table anymore.
d. Changed rule so that the morale gain from refit when under 50 morale is only gained when the unit in refit is at least 10 hexes from a supplied enemy unit (similar to the current gain if less than morale 50 and 10 or more hexes from enemy unit).
e. If an element’s experience is less than half of the unit’s morale, then the automatic +1 gain in experience each turn becomes +3.
f. Shock Armies provide their +5 bonus for non-guards units which don’t already have a specialty bonus. Guards Armies provide their +5 bonus for Guards units which don’t already have a specialty bonus.

20) Changes to Fortification Rules

a. Requirement to build up to Fort Level 5 - Only will be built in port hexes that have a fort unit. Once built, the fort unit is not needed to keep the level 5 fort. Not possible in a swamp hex.
b. Requirement to build up to Fort Level 4 - Must have a fort unit in the hex. Once built, the fort unit is not needed to keep the level 4 fort. Not possible in swamp hex.
c. Requirement to build up to Fort Level 3 - Must be adjacent to an enemy hex, be an urban or city hex, or be in or adjacent to a fort unit. Once the level 3 is reached, the condition does not have to continue to be met to keep the level 3 fort.
d. Fort levels that have reached their maximum fort level for the hex may continue to build up to 10% towards the next fort level.
e. Building forts in mud now uses a .25 modifier (instead of .33).
f. Level 4 and 5 forts do not decay.
g. There is no fort decay on turn 1 of any scenario.
h. Doubled the rate of fort decay.
i. Increased decay rate of low level forts, based on the weather.

Extra decay percentage:
Fort Weather
Level clear snow mud/blizzard
0 20 40 80
1 12 14 48
2 4 8 16

j. Added supply cost for fort construction as follows:

fort 0->1 1 tons per fort point (no cost for isolated units, construction rate is halved)
fort 1->2 2 tons per fort point (no cost for isolated units, construction rate is halved)
fort 2->3 20 tons per fort points
fort 3->4 200 tons per fort points
fort 4->5 2000 tons per fort points
*note each fort point represents 2% toward the next fort level

21) Changes to Naval Movement Rules

a. Amphibious landings are not allowed west of x coordinate 76 (Rumania) until 1944.
b. Added Naval/Amphibious movement capacity limits as follows:


Axis
Lake Ladoga – 3000
Baltic Sea – 10000
Black Sea – 4000
Sea of Azov – 1000
Soviet
Lake Ladoga – 4000
Baltic Sea – 8000 (decreases by 1000 each year)
Black Sea – 10000 (decreases by 1500 each year)
Sea of Azov – 4000 (decreases by 500 each year)
Caspian Sea – 5000
Black Sea Amphibious Movement – 2500 (decreases by 100 each year)
Sea of Azov Amphibious Movement – 1000 (decreases by 100 each year)

c. Amphibious movement cost per hex is x4 before 1943 and x3 from 1943-45 (reduces the range of an amphibious assault).
d. Set shading for valid naval destinations during naval movement. This doesn’t mean the current unit can reach the hex, just that it is a valid hex for the appropriate type of naval movement. Yellow shading indicates an enemy hex; green shading indicates a friendly hex.
e. Decreased “retreat losses” caused by the transport sunk event during interdiction attacks on naval/amphibiously moving units.


22) Rule Change – Ice levels no longer go up by 4 during a blizzard in all areas. The amount of increase is dependent on the weather zone as follows:

Europe Zone +1
South Soviet Zone +2
Central Soviet Zone +3
North Soviet Zone +4

23) Rule Change – Major rivers are not considered frozen until the ice level is at least 8 (used to be 5). At ice levels 5-7, the extra cost due to icing is 8 when moving into an EZOC, and 4 when not moving into an EZOC.
24) Rule Change – Lowered the disabled return rate for the Soviets to ½ percent (from 1%).
25) Rule Change – Entrained units may not move via naval or amphibious movement.
26) Rule Change – Changed the formula that determines when a unit is unready. Now, Morale+TOE must be less than 90 for a unit to be unready (used to be less than 100).
27) Rule Change - Removed extra training flights if the aircraft in play was reaching a high value.
28) Rule Change - Made modifications to the routine which frees the slots for new aircraft to be built. Now it will first disband old airframes (inactive) in reserve and then active aircraft. If an air group reaches 0 aircraft, it will disband the air group.
29) Rule Change – The Soviet attack doctrine discussed in section 15.8 of the manual now only applies from June 1941 to February 1942 (inclusive).
30) Rule change – Creating a Soviet Fortified Regions now costs 8 APs between July 1941 and October 1941 (inclusive). It is still 16 APs in June 1941.
31) Rule Change – Further decreased the amount of Soviet CAP that flies on June 22, 1941.
32) Rule Change – Germany will export 1000 armaments points in a turn to each Axis nation instead of 10000 points.
33) Interface Change – The production filter ON now shows active elements that are built by the “on demand” production system (so not just AFVs and aircraft).
34) New Feature – Added a disband function on the CR air group tab.
35) New Interface – Added additional data to the battle sites report. When a battle site is clicked on, the play may click on Show Details to see additional information about the battle. Also added the names of the HQ commanding any aircraft in a battle.
36) New Message – Added logistics event messages for the automatic disbanding of Soviet Corps HQ’s and NKVD Regiments.
37) Formula Change – Units in beachhead/Air head supply will not suffer more than a 33% reduction in CV due to supply shortages (used to be it could be up to a 75% reduction in CV).
38) Formula Change – Adjusted strike creation formulas so that human created airstrikes in which specific air groups are chosen for the mission will not as a rule fly less aircraft than computer created airstrikes.
39) Formula Change - Increased effectiveness of flak, especially when defending airbases and cities/ports.
40) Formula Change – Made it less likely that air strikes will be formed with over 100 fighters or over 100 bombers.
41) Formula change – Increased the amount of CAP that flies in defense of Airfield or City attacks. Also, greatly increased the chance that air groups not in the target hex will fly CAP (in the past the chance was very low).
42) Formula change – Increased the impact of pilot fatigue.
43) Formula Change – The altitude that airstrikes are assumed to be flying at has been changed to better reflect likely altitudes for different types of airstrikes. There is also more variety at which the airstrikes will fly.
44) Formula Change - Modified the replacement of the air groups. Replacements first go to the newest airframes. Once the aircraft count exceeds 15000, the replacements for air groups with old airframes decreases as the total plane count rises.
45) Formula Change – When calculating supply/fuel/ammo needs, all units will have a minimum need of 1 for each of these items.
46) Editor Change – The set fort level function in the editor will create forts with 10% construction towards the next fort level.


Bug Fixes


1) Fixed a bug causing escorts for air transport missions to too often not fly during blizzard weather.
2) Fixed a bug where partisan units could construct forts for the Axis.
3) Fixed a bug where brigades landing amphibiously were improperly taking control of adjacent hexes.
4) Fixed a bug where battle sites were active if hidden behind the battle report window.
5) Fixed a bug where depleted units can be located next to an enemy unit at the completion of the logistics phase.
6) Fixed a bug where Motorized units were being shown as available to move amphibiously.
7) Fixed a bug with Guards promotion of Soviet Armies.
8) Fixed a display bug that occurs when exiting the city information window.
9) Fixed a bug where the production filter didn't correctly show active artillery equipment.
10) Fixed a bug where ground elements and aircraft were being exported to Axis Allied nations that had surrendered.


Data and Scenario Changes


1) Fixed Unit ID 333 - Fin. Commando Battalion used Hungarian Support Squads
2) Changed the ending date for the SS Motorized Brigade (OB 283) from 9/43 to 9/44 to correct typo.
3) Corrected data for 40mm 41M L/51 Gun.
4) Re-classified the SdKfz-221 Armored Car as a Light Armored Car.

quote:

Looks good so far. Is there any chance that the attritional debacle -- static units taking high attrition losses, unable to get replacements into static units, leading to a collapse in CVs -- is going to change in 1.05 or is that off the table until 1.06?

quote:


. Before the mean soviet losses were around 3000 aircraft, now only 1500. I think something should have been changed...

quote:

1. when will the "Lvov Pocket" and the resulting game imbalance it creates be fixed ?

quote:

2. due to the difficulty in simulating the Leningrad defense and the poor modeling of terrain in the Northern sector the Russian player is frequently forced out of Leningrad.

quote:


Is there a plan to alter urban supply rules or create railroad construction units to construct rail lines into an area such as northern russia in the absence of the former rail lines ?

quote:


3. Why does every aircraft in the russian airforce fly on the attack unit mission at night thus allowing for only 1 attack during the entire turn on the entire front regardless of range or distance ?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hermann

dont even know where that is. basically if you use the attack unit function at night every single plane in the airforce set on night mission attacks at once including transports. then you arent allowed to attack any more units that night.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Helpless

quote:


. Before the mean soviet losses were around 3000 aircraft, now only 1500. I think something should have been changed...

Airfield detection level and increased effectiveness of the CAP make AF attacks with default settings less effective. It is still possible to destroyed more than 4-6K Soviet planes by adjusting the doctrine and/or making manual attacks.

quote:

ORIGINAL: LittleBen

quote:

ORIGINAL: Helpless

quote:


. Before the mean soviet losses were around 3000 aircraft, now only 1500. I think something should have been changed...

Airfield detection level and increased effectiveness of the CAP make AF attacks with default settings less effective. It is still possible to destroyed more than 4-6K Soviet planes by adjusting the doctrine and/or making manual attacks.

but as a matter of fact, there is a real difference between the two patches, and it's not due to DL, neither to doctrine.

quote:

Q: Has there been a change in how movement capacity is generated, in particular that captured ports does not generate capacity? Because otherwise I cannot see how the Axis can have any capacity at all for Lake Ladoga.

quote:

Q: Is the threshold for when export are triggered lowered as well? If not, the Slovakian pool of idle Arm can reach almost 11k, which is better than the 19k it could/would reach before this change, but still on the high side.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Btw, one very important point - there was a scenario data corruption bug in 1.04.xx which was corrupting (increasing) air losses statistic. So in realilty losses could be much different.

quote:

ORIGINAL: parusski

These larger updates are almost worth buying...wait, forget I said that Erik. But thanks a million anyway, it's greeeaat!!

quote:

ORIGINAL: cherryfunk

quote:

ORIGINAL: parusski

These larger updates are almost worth buying...wait, forget I said that Erik. But thanks a million anyway, it's greeeaat!!

Hey now, we're on the Matrix forums, not the Paradox forums...