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viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/24/2013 4:08:28 AM   
Falcon1


Posts: 171
Joined: 4/30/2012
From: United States
Status: offline 		I was playing a scenario yesterday and one of my units had the cavalry unit type indicator on the counter, so I figured OK, it's a cavalry unit, basically mounted infantry. Come to find out later, there are also over 30 engineer squads in the unit along with 8 ferry squads, and the unit has a minor ferry ability of 39%, which is pretty high. I would have used the unit differently if I had known about this ability right away. Now I'm thinking that many units will have abilities that are not obvious from just the unit counter.

So I'm wondering, is there any way to look at your whole force all at once in some sort of spreadsheet-like table that shows your special abilities for each unit and also maybe even the type of equipment in each unit? Or do I have to just step through all the unit reports one at a time and make notes for myself at the beginning of each game?

Another question - how do I interpret the percentages that show up in a unit report? Such as engineering percentage, ferry percentage. What do those numbers mean in terms of what the unit can do in the game?

One more thing, after reading the manual a couple times and playing the tutorials, I'm still unclear about damage and repair to railroads and bridges. Can someone help explain how that stuff works in the game?

thanks for the help!

< Message edited by Falcon1 -- 12/24/2013 5:10:11 AM >

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RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/24/2013 2:58:39 PM   
Oberst_Klink

 

Posts: 4778
Joined: 2/10/2008
From: Germany
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Falcon1

I was playing a scenario yesterday and one of my units had the cavalry unit type indicator on the counter, so I figured OK, it's a cavalry unit, basically mounted infantry. Come to find out later, there are also over 30 engineer squads in the unit along with 8 ferry squads, and the unit has a minor ferry ability of 39%, which is pretty high. I would have used the unit differently if I had known about this ability right away. Now I'm thinking that many units will have abilities that are not obvious from just the unit counter.

So I'm wondering, is there any way to look at your whole force all at once in some sort of spreadsheet-like table that shows your special abilities for each unit and also maybe even the type of equipment in each unit? Or do I have to just step through all the unit reports one at a time and make notes for myself at the beginning of each game?

Another question - how do I interpret the percentages that show up in a unit report? Such as engineering percentage, ferry percentage. What do those numbers mean in terms of what the unit can do in the game?

One more thing, after reading the manual a couple times and playing the tutorials, I'm still unclear about damage and repair to railroads and bridges. Can someone help explain how that stuff works in the game?

thanks for the help!

There's no list/filter option(s) for skimming through the whole units, only the OOB ('O'-key) where you can spot the icons/counters.

As per manual:

8.3 Unit Special Capabilities
Many units have special capabilities, based either on the equipment
assigned or the Unit Icon symbol. The special capabilities
of a unit (if any) are listed in the Special Abilities section of the
Unit Report for that unit (see 16.1), as well as from the unit’s 2D
icon. See the Unit Type Symbol Key (see 16.1) for information on
unit 2D icon symbols.

Regarding the percentages; just a level of how effective they are for the special tasks
as a whole. Though I didn't find a clear description of the mechanics, e.g. dice rolls to
see how successful rail repair or a bridging operation was, but I am sure Onkel Bob will
be able to shed a light on that.

RR damage can be adjusted, e.g. depending on the scenario and the settings in the editor. There's a certain chance (in %) if a RR is being damaged once occupied by the other side's forces. Some scenarios also use automatic repair of damaged RR, e.g. 2 damaged RR hexes per turn, etc.

What about bridge repair? Sometimes it won't work because there's a RR bridge damaged and this hex can only be repaired if there's a RR engineer unit or capability available.

What scenario's have you been playing yet, and most importantly which version of the game?

Klink, Oberst

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(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 2
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/24/2013 5:32:04 PM   
Falcon1


Posts: 171
Joined: 4/30/2012
From: United States
Status: offline 		I am using version 3.4 with the unofficial patch 3XBb and the classic redux 2 graphics mod. I have loaded up many different scenarios and looked at the setups and played a turn or two, but the only scenarios that I have actually finished so far are the four in the tutorial folder.

I am aware of the manual reference to the unit report screen to see the special abilities, but this seems like a daunting obstacle if it is the only way to get a general feel for the capabilities of your force. I can't imagine being able to retain much of the information if I have to scroll though several hundred unit reports to see, for instance, which of my units have a good recon ability, or a good ferry ability. But maybe that's just what I have to get used to here.

Regarding the special ability percentages, I agree that only vague information is available about how the numbers are used. Maybe they can only be used to compare the abilities between different units. What I was hoping for was some guide that might say, for instance, "a recon ability of >80% will allow you to detect enemy unit in a certain radius". And maybe similar statements about the other abilities like engineering, traffic, ferry, etc.

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Post #: 3
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/24/2013 5:59:42 PM   
sPzAbt653


Posts: 9511
Joined: 5/3/2007
From: east coast, usa
Status: offline
quote:

I can't imagine being able to retain much of the information if I have to scroll though several hundred unit reports to see...


I agree with you, but I think even if someone designed a program to scrape all this data and organize it, that would be just as difficult to look at and absorb. If its any help at all, when I start a scenario I'm using the 'N' and 'U' keys with an occasional 'F' key. This lets me 'N' thru the entire on-board oob, while hitting 'U' lets me see any units of interest, and 'F' will show an entire formation. This doesn't take that long, as most scenarios have many units that are similar or the same, and similar formations have similar or same organizations. If you see something of real interest, you can jot a note about it.

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 4
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/24/2013 6:04:56 PM   
sPzAbt653


Posts: 9511
Joined: 5/3/2007
From: east coast, usa
Status: offline
quote:

... statements about the other abilities like engineering, traffic, ferry, etc.


I think in TOAW, things are not so exact, but a percentage is a percentage, and that's it. A unit with a 20% engineering rate will not be as effective as a unit with an 80% engineering rate. Ferrying is one aspect that does have something different, in that a unit with a less than 10% Ferrying Cap will not be able to Ferry.

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 5
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/24/2013 7:27:24 PM   
Falcon1


Posts: 171
Joined: 4/30/2012
From: United States
Status: offline
quote:

If its any help at all, when I start a scenario I'm using the 'N' and 'U' keys with an occasional 'F' key. This lets me 'N' thru the entire on-board oob, while hitting 'U' lets me see any units of interest, and 'F' will show an entire formation. This doesn't take that long, as most scenarios have many units that are similar or the same, and similar formations have similar or same organizations. If you see something of real interest, you can jot a note about it.


Yes, this is how it will have to be. In fact what I've settled on is to just keep clicking the "next" button on the unit report screen to see what units may have interesting abilities.


< Message edited by Falcon1 -- 12/24/2013 8:27:19 PM >

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Post #: 6
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/25/2013 11:44:44 AM   
shunwick


Posts: 2426
Joined: 10/15/2006
Status: offline 		Pay particular attention to artillery and HQ units. HQ units can come with a variety of capabilities including artillery. Artillery units often have guns of varying ranges in the same unit. In this case, the range shown in the information is that of the longest ranged piece. Other guns may have a lesser range.

Best wishes,
Steve


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I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 7
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/27/2013 5:48:07 AM   
parmenio

 

Posts: 266
Joined: 8/6/2009
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline 		Take a look at my Scenario Viewer available for download here:

TOAW III Scenario Viewer

You can browse by Unit Type - this is a screenshot of my available Motor Engineer units from Ardennes 44.




Attachment (1)

< Message edited by parmenio -- 12/27/2013 6:48:07 AM >

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 8
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/27/2013 11:33:42 AM   
Falcon1


Posts: 171
Joined: 4/30/2012
From: United States
Status: offline 		Got it, thanks!

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Post #: 9
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/27/2013 4:41:22 PM   
ogar

 

Posts: 297
Joined: 9/6/2009
Status: offline 		I'll second the use of Parmenio's Viewer.  For some scenarios, I even copy and paste some of the unit breakdown from the Formation & Unit section of his Viewer (or the scenario dump) into spreadsheets for further tracking/sorting.  This does help with those units with 'buried' capabilities as shunwick discusses - makes double-checking 'Which HQ unit has the long-range artillery and RR repair engineers ?' a bit easier for me.

@Parmenio - Thanks for all your utilities.  Nice to see you around.

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 10
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/27/2013 10:20:24 PM   
Falcon1


Posts: 171
Joined: 4/30/2012
From: United States
Status: offline 		The scenario viewer won't work for me. It starts up OK, but when I try to load a scenario file I get the standard "program has stopped working" error message. Running Win7 Home 64 bit. Already tried various compatibility modes and admin mode.

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Post #: 11
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/27/2013 11:31:28 PM   
Oberst_Klink

 

Posts: 4778
Joined: 2/10/2008
From: Germany
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Falcon1

The scenario viewer won't work for me. It starts up OK, but when I try to load a scenario file I get the standard "program has stopped working" error message. Running Win7 Home 64 bit. Already tried various compatibility modes and admin mode.

Install it with admin rights, all the tools of Andy. Also, try the XP compatibility mode; works fine on all the Oberst's various PCs with different OS.

Klink, Oberst

_____________________________

My Blog & on Twitter.
Visit CS Legion on Twitter & Facebook for updates.

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 12
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/28/2013 9:19:29 AM   
parmenio

 

Posts: 266
Joined: 8/6/2009
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Falcon1

The scenario viewer won't work for me. It starts up OK, but when I try to load a scenario file I get the standard "program has stopped working" error message. Running Win7 Home 64 bit. Already tried various compatibility modes and admin mode.


I have an experimental 2.5 version that I've been updating to fix problems with which is the valid equipment database for use with a scenario. Up until 2.4, I've used code that Ralph provided me and for some users, this doesn't always work and causes the program to lock up. The link is here:

TOAWIIIViewer-2.5.0.0.msi

As the Oberst has said above, Admin rights is the key - I have this running on both Windows 7 64-bit Home Edition and Windows 8 without problems.

(in reply to Falcon1)
Post #: 13
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/28/2013 9:20:38 AM   
parmenio

 

Posts: 266
Joined: 8/6/2009
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ogar

Nice to see you around.



I do drop in from time-to-time to see what's going on

(in reply to ogar)
Post #: 14
RE: viewing unit abilities and equipment - 12/28/2013 12:04:13 PM   
Falcon1


Posts: 171
Joined: 4/30/2012
From: United States
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: parmenio


quote:

ORIGINAL: Falcon1

The scenario viewer won't work for me. It starts up OK, but when I try to load a scenario file I get the standard "program has stopped working" error message. Running Win7 Home 64 bit. Already tried various compatibility modes and admin mode.


I have an experimental 2.5 version that I've been updating to fix problems with which is the valid equipment database for use with a scenario. Up until 2.4, I've used code that Ralph provided me and for some users, this doesn't always work and causes the program to lock up. The link is here:

TOAWIIIViewer-2.5.0.0.msi

As the Oberst has said above, Admin rights is the key - I have this running on both Windows 7 64-bit Home Edition and Windows 8 without problems.



Version 2.5 works fine for me, thanks!

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Post #: 15
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