HobbesACW
Posts: 419
Joined: 2/20/2004
From: UK
Status: offline
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I'm just getting back into TOAW after 16 years away. It takes me ages to get back into a game. I've collected some interesting forum posts along with parts of the manual to help me. May as well post in case these notes help anyone else. The notes are designed to get me back playing a simple game with no naval units. I'll pick that up later. Very random. Just a dump of stuff in no order.
Timestamp
After I resolved combat, a % of the turn is spent by the amount of time of the median of all combats resolved. Let's say that's 5.
If I moved my units by 50% of their movement before resolving combats, does their movement allowance remain unchanged after resolving the combats, or are they now at 0 (because of the 5 time slices spent by combat)?
If, before the present set of resolved combats, you were still at "round 0", after resolving all combats (with a median of 5), the game will advance to round 5 and all units MPs will adjust to that fact, i.e. they will be reduced to, AT LEAST, half their MPs. Yet, a unit that has moved 80% of its MPs before resolving combats, will still have only 20% available, after the combats were resolved, if it didn't take part on any of those combats. As to your unit that has moved 50%, that will depend on the duration of the specific combat in which it took part. It has moved 50%, so it has already used half its MPs. Since we jumped to round 5 after combat resolution, it would still have 50% of MPs available (five rounds yet to go), had it not taken part in the combat - the "turn clock" would just have updated to the point in time in which the unit finished its movement; but it took part in a combat that began in turn 5 - the round a combat begins depends on the participating unit that has spent the more MPs before combat - , so now it will be ahead of other units by the number of rounds its particular combat has taken. If, for instance, the combat used 3 rounds, it will subtract an extra 30% of its MPs. 5th round for the combat beginning + 3 rounds of combat duration. For that reason a timestamp is placed; that hex is ahead of time, if compared to the "turn clock". If a unit enters that hex, it will synchronize in time.
Think of the Units available MPs as their individual clocks and the remaining rounds record on the unit display as a universal clock (the "turn clock"). No unit can be at a time before that displayed by the universal clock, but they can be ahead. The median, after combat resolution, adjust the universal clock pushing all units along to the present (no unit remains in the past), but it doesn't affect units in the future (ahead, in numbers of rounds).
Round 0 -> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Unit A - moves 20% of MPs -> X X
Unit B - moves 80% of MPs -> X X X X X X X X
Unit C - moves 50% of MPs -> X X X X X
Unit C takes part in a combat that takes 3 rounds to resolve. Units A and B don't fight. 3 other combats take place with other units, with durations 5, 5, 7. The median is 5.
We advance the clock to the median
Round 5 -> X X X X X _ _ _ _ _
Unit A - advances to 50% (can't be let in the past) -> X X X X X
Unit B - still 80% (3 rounds in the future - not affected) -> X X X X X X X X
Unit C - advances to 80% (3 rounds of combat - timestamp placed) - > X X X X X X X X
I also tried to explain Timestamps to myself using my version of the above. Hope it is correct.
The current game time (turn clock) = the number of median combat rounds that have taken place since the start of the turn. No unit can be behind this time. A unit can be ahead of this time if the number of MPs it has used + its own number of battle rounds > the aggregated median battle rounds figure (turn clock). A timestamp is placed in a hex that is ahead of time when compared to the turn clock. If another unit enters that hex, it will synchronize with the timestamp. The round a combat begins depends on the participating unit that has spent the greatest number of MPs and previous combat rounds before battle.
Example 1
Round 0 -> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Unit A - moves 20% of MPs -> X X
Unit B - moves 80% of MPs -> X X X X X X X X
Unit C - moves 50% of MPs -> X X X X X
Unit C takes part in a combat that takes 3 rounds to resolve and begins on turn 5.
Units A and B don't fight. 3 other battles take place with other units, with durations of 5, 5 and 7. The median is 5.
We advance the turn clock to the median 5.
Round 5 -> X X X X X _ _ _ _ _
Unit A - advances to 50% (median 5 rounds - can't be left in the past) -> X X X X X
Unit B - still 80% (median 5 rounds - not affected) -> X X X X X X X X
Unit C - advances to 80% (3 rounds of combat. Future timestamp placed) - > X X X X X X X X
Example 2
Round 0 -> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Unit A - moves 20% of MPs -> X X
Unit B - moves 80% of MPs -> X X X X X X X X
Unit C - moves 50% of MPs -> X X X X X
Units B and C take part in a combat that takes 2 rounds to resolve and begins on turn 9.
Unit A doesn’t fight. 3 other combats take place with other units, with durations 5, 5, 7. The median is 5.
We advance the turn clock to the median 5.
Round 5 -> X X X X X _ _ _ _ _
Unit A - advances to 50% (median 5 rounds - can't be left in the past) -> X X X X X
Unit B - advances to 100% (2 rounds of combat. Future timestamp placed) -> X X X X X X X X X X
Unit C - advances to 100% (3 rounds synchronizing with unit B + 2 rounds of combat. Future timestamp placed) - > X X X X X X X X X X
For more information see the Battlefield time stamps section of the manual
I=Company
II=Battalion / Commonwealth Regiment / U.S. Cavalry Squadron
III-Regiment / Battlegroup
X=Brigade
XX=Division
XXX=Corps
XXXX=Army
XXXXX=Army Group
Luftwaffe Organisation
Fighter Jagdgeschwader=JG
Night fighter Nachtjagdgeschwader=NJG
Heavy fighter Zerstörergeschwader=ZG
Ground attack Schlachtgeschwader SchlG, since October 1943=SG (also replacing the old StG prefix)
Bomber Kampfgeschwader=KG
Dive bomber Sturzkampfgeschwader=StG
Fast bomber Schnellkampfgeschwader=SKG
Glider Luftlandegeschwader=LLG
Axis Shock Penalty - 60%
The manual states: Force 1 or Force 2 Shock Level: This is typically used to model surprise. Shock levels can range from one to 200, but should in most cases be limited to the 50-150 range. The default is 100. Unit strengths are multiplied by the Shock Level (as a percentage). Movement costs for moving near enemy forces may be decreased if the moving Force has a Shock Level greater than the non-moving Force, and costs may be increased if the moving Force has a Shock Level less than the non-moving Force. Time expended in combat may be reduced if the Attacker has a Shock Level above 100 and may be increased if the Attacker has a handicap level below 100. At levels below 100, Formations may arbitrarily reorganize (becoming unavailable for your orders). At Shock Levels below 70%, Air units will not defend their Airbases if attacked. Okay so the Commonwealth get a surprise bonus, which seems reasonable given what happened in real life.
Axis Air Shock Penalty - 50%
The manual states this is similar to Troop Shock. It also states If the Shock Level is less than 70%, Air units will not rise to defend their air bases (interception) when under attack.
As the penalty here is less than 70% it sounds like the RAF should be attacking the airfields and catching the Regia Aeronautica on the ground.
When you press the "resolve battles" button, all your planned combats are executed and after that a median "time spent" is determined. In your case that was 30% of your turn, i.e. one day. Which means that ALL your units movement points are halved by 30%.
What you should do is move whatever units you want to move BEFORE your battles are resolved so that the time that is spent in battle does not affect the movement of units that didn't participate in combat.
Example 1:
You have two units, 1st and 2nd Armoured Divisions, each having 30 movement points.
Let's say you want the 1st to engage the enemy and the 2nd to exploit a gap.
Let's also say that you predict 30% of your turn to be consumed by the 1st ArmDiv attack.
If you don't move the 2nd ArmDiv before the battle is resolved, you will have thrown away 30% of its movement, i.e it will have 20 movement points after the battle is resolved but it won't have advanced a single hex.. If on the other hand you spend 10 movement points to advance the 2nd ArmDiv BEFORE the battles is resolved, it will end up again with 20 movement points, but in this case it will have advanced past the enemy.
Example 2:
The 1st Armoured Div is in direct contact with the enemy and can attack immediately.
The 2nd Armoured Division has 30 movement points and is 20 hexes away from the enemy. To attack, it needs to spend 20 movement points, i.e. 60%.
If you attack simultaneously, you will spend 60% of your turn (2 days), because that's the time it took for the 2AD to move into position.
You should resolve the 1AD attack first and when you spend 60% of your turn, THEN you engage the 2AD.
For arty/naval/air bombardments only:
The Loss Tolerance setting determines how many rounds are spent (most of the time).
Minimal Losses spends 1 round.
Limited Losses spends 2 rounds.
Ignore Losses spends 3 rounds.
The Combat Planner is often pessimistic about losses and probability of success. I ignore its predictions as long as the other factors seem ok to me. In this case you have a 3.3:1 advantage, so I'd go ahead with the attack. One minus for you is that the level of Cooperation between the RN and your infantry is poor (<1.00) which might cause more rounds to be spent, depending on die rolls. But since the Italian units are of very poor quality, my guess is an easy victory with minimal losses.
Formation Support Scope
Internal Support: Units assigned to the Formation may only freely cooperate with others in the same Formation. Limited cooperation is possible with units using the same icon color scheme; no cooperation is possible with units using a different icon color scheme.
Army Support: Units assigned to the Formation may only freely cooperate with others in the same Formation, or those using the same icon color scheme (icon and symbol color). Limited cooperation is possible with units using the same icon background color; no cooperation is possible with units using a different basic icon color.
Force Support: Units assigned to the Formation may only freely cooperate with others in the same Formation or others using the same basic icon color. Limited cooperation is capable with all other units.
Free Support: Units assigned to the Formation may freely cooperate with any other units.
Unit Cooperation
Free Cooperation: Units will coordinate Attacks and Defenses. Reserve and combat support units will attempt to respond to all Attacks within range. Nearby Headquarters units will increase the likelihood of Resupply. This is shown with a gold-colored Flag icon in the Combat Planning window.
Limited Cooperation: Units will coordinate Attacks and Defenses, but with penalties. Reserve units will respond to all Attacks within range. Combat Support units will not respond to attacks. This is shown with a steel colored Flag icon in the Combat Planning window. This scales combat strengths by 83%.
No Cooperation: Units will not coordinate attacks. Defense is coordinated, but with penalties. Reserve and Combat Support units will not respond to Attacks. This is shown with a black Flag icon in the Combat Planning window. This scales combat strengths by 67%.
The scaling due to Limited or No Cooperation applies to both attackers and defenders. The scaling is applied to the entire attack or defense regardless ofhow few or how inconsequential the uncooperative units in the combat are, or whether they are ground assaulters or ranged-supporters. Note that players can determine the cooperation level of an attack by viewing the Attack Planner Flags. But the Attack Planner does not show the reduced combat strengths.
Cooperative Units
Any units capable of free cooperation are considered cooperative. All other units are considered non cooperative. Non-cooperative Support units will not automatically support Attacks or Defenses.
Movement penalties may apply when moving units through locations occupied by non-cooperative units. Supply may be more difficult in locations containing non-cooperative units. The proximity
of cooperative Headquarters units can make it easier for units to receive Supplies.
Combat
Attacking units participate fully, and may advance into the location if the enemy retreats. Units conducting a Limited Attack add half their Strength to the Attack, suffer only half the losses
they would in a normal Attack, and will not advance into the location after combat. Bombardment Attacks may be set up against enemy units within range of your Air and Long Range Artillery units by clicking on any nonadjacent enemy target location within range. Adjacent ranged units may also bombard if they have more that 50% of their combat strength coming from ranged equipment or if their range has been changed from nominal. Bombardments are subject to counterbatteryfire if the target hex contains in-range ranged units. Counterbattery occurs after the bombardment that triggers it. Artillery that supports a ground assault is not subject to counterbattery regardless of the presence of ranged defenders in the target hex.
All cooperative Air units with Combat Support orders, Artillery, and Naval units may automatically add one-half of their Bombardment Strengths to each Attack within range. Artillery units will not support combats if they have Mobile, Retreated, or Routed deployments. Units must pass a Communication Check in order to provide Combat Support. Air units may fail to react if the range is long compared to their combat radius.
In units attacked from any two, or more, non-adjacent hexes in the same Turn, passively defending equipment (such as Artillery) will be forced to participate directly in combat. The attacks need not be combined. One unit can pin from one direction, while another executes the Flanking Attack. If a unit that attacked earlier in the Turn is itself later attacked, the original Attack is considered a defense for this purpose. This means that if a unit attacks to the south, but is itself later attacked from the north, it will suffer the Flank Attack penalty. Likewise, a unit thatattacks into two, or more, non-adjacent hexes willsuffer a Flank Attack from the defensive fire of the defending units. Units that split into sub-unitsand attack into two or more non-adjacent hexeswill cause the parent unit (and any subsequentlyre-split sub-units) to be subject to Flank Attacksif the sub-units recombine afterwards on the same Turn that the sub-unit Attacks are made. Once a unit has its flank turned, all further attacks in that Turn against it, or by it (in the case of DefensiveFire against Attacking units), will be a FlankAttack until it retreats (defenders) or advances(attackers). Units are not subject to the Flank Attack penalty immediately after any movement out of the hex from which they were attacked, or attacked out of.
If a defending unit attempts to break off, it will look for a safe location in the direction of the nearest friendly cooperative Headquarters or Supply Source.
Surrounded defending units that are forced to retreat from combat and have no other path of retreat willget to attempt to breakout via RBCing any of the surrounding enemy units. Ants won’t work.
The numbers on the counters are not used by the engine. They are averaged and scaled information chunks to allow the player to gauge the relative (and very general) capabilities of the unit.
Individual units will fire at enemy units and may hit or not. You might be able to think of the numbers as odds. If the enemy is the 12 Panzer Division (11+6/13) and you are attacking it (head on) with the 210 Motor Infantry (7+3/11), then (everything else being irrelevant) you have odds of 3:13 against the tanks and the tanks have odds of 11:11 against your infantry. This is a very simplified example of course. And there are more modifiers than you can reasonably be expected to shake a stick at.
The problem arrives with the bottom two lines of the Attack Planner. Apart from the Assault Ratio AR= information (which is valuable – see what’s new document), it is my own preference to regard the expected losses and probability of success statements as the best guesstimate of my green slime and keeping in mind that he is an idiot, drunk, and high on magic mushrooms. Other players may well tell you to ignore that information completely. Not the Assault Ratio information though – that bit is ok. The information in the planner does not take account of, day, night, nbc, terrain, deployment of enemy, weather, artillery support, active v passive equipment, air support or the black mirrored shades of command destiny. All of which make its predictions iffy to say the least.
Hexes grant bonuses to the defender. 200% AP/AT bonus means that our 101 Infantry Division (13+5/13) defends the forest hex if in mobile deployment as a (26+10/26) unit. Note though, that I am not sure there is a 200% AP/AT hex tile. The Fort % value is from the tooltip thingy. I wondered for a moment what the hell it was. It is the same as the entrenchment level. It grants no benefit at all to the defender apart from - the higher the entrenchment level, the easier it is for units to dig in.
If you are interested in seeing how battles are resolved, find the Opart.ini file and turn on the TOAWLOG. Best to build a small test scenario and keep it to one battle a time otherwise you will be swamped by information. Retreat Before Combat and Retreat From Combat are both looked at in the What’s New document.
The battle takes place in the defender’s hex. It does not matter from where the attacker attacks from apart from the following:-
Unit Strengths in Water Assaults Land units attacking from River, Super River, Canal, Suez Canal, or Deep Water (Amphibious Assaults) have all Strengths multiplied by 0.7.
Since only Mountain units can move across Major Escarpments, they are the only units that can attack across them. Their losses will be three times the normal for the attack. Combat across
Minor Escarpments results in twice the losses for the Attacker. Artillery and Headquarters are not as affected; Artillery attacks at 150% Strength if it is “looking down” on the target across an
Escarpment. This is defined as an artillery unit, in the hex that contains the escarpment terrain feature, firing across that hexside feature at an adjacent unit.
A shot against an individual soft target (for example a rifle squad) is considered lethal (although agile defenders have a chance to evade each shot; 20% I think the chance is). Consequently, no equipment strengths are at play here. However, before starting to shoot at individual targets, the game determines how many of them that will come under fire. This is the attrition of the combat. For example, if the attrition of the defender is 7% and the defender consists of 1000 rifle squads, 70 of these will come under fire.
The attrition percentage is determined using the equipment strengths. Thus, the attrition of the defender is determined using the anti-personnel strength of the attacker, and the defence strength of the defender. Similarly, the attrition of the attacker is determined using the anti-personnel strength of the defender, and the defence strength of the attacker. These strengths are calculated by summing the individual equipment strengths, factoring in any terrain bonuses relevant for each type of equipment. For example, the anti-personnel strength of the attacker would be:
AP_attacker = sum over all equipment types k: (AP-value of equipment k) * (number of equipment k in the attacking units) * (terrain bonus of equipment k)
and similarly for the other strengths. The strengths are modified for night proficiency. They are also modified by multiplying with the relevant shock, handicap and morale, where the morale is where proficiency, readiness and supply enters into the calculation.
The attrition of the defender is now calculated as:
Attrition_defender = Square_root (AP_attacker / D_defender)
and similarly for the attacker:
Attrition_attacker = Square_root (AP_defender / D_attacker)
The attrition values are modified by multiplying them with (10 / Attrition_divider). In other words, the attrition divider (which is scenario-specific) can be used to scale the lethalness of all combats in the scenario. Finally, there is a randomness of about +-25% in the specific attrition used in determining how many individual targets that come under fire. For example, if the attrition of the defender is calculated to be 20%, the specific attrition can be anything between 15% and 25%.
RBC
When checking for retreats before combat, a Flanking Check is made, which is based on the quantity of active defender equipment in the defending and attacking units relative the Scenario Map scale. If the defender has less than the amount of equipment necessary to fully cover his frontage in the Scenario Scale, the Attacker has more equipment, and the Attacker passes a Unit Quality Check, the chance for a retreat before combat is increased by a random fraction between one and Attacker Equipment Density / Defender Equipment Density. This makes is much more likely that small units will retreat before combat with large units because the large unit has succeeded in turning the flank of the smaller unit.
If the defending units fail a Quality Check, they will simply retreat. They are subject to the same types of losses and penalties as in normal after-combat retreats. Depending upon their Loss Tolerance
Orders, units passing their Quality Check may still retreat before combat in order to avoid likely destruction during your assault. This is more likely if you have given the unit orders to Minimize Losses.
Units retreating after a passed Quality Check are treated more favorably than those retreating after a failed Quality Check.
Units advancing into locations vacated by enemy units retreating before combat pay the additional cost of entering enemy terrain, although they are exempt from the costs of moving adjacent to
enemy units. Note that the P hot-key and the Double click opens planner option provide methods to avoid causing a Retreat Before Combat, if desired.
RBC chances are adjusted for faster units (proportionate to their speed advantage) to a max of a 2:1 additional advantage. This doesn’t apply to fixed defenders, though.
Each player Turn is divided into ten Tactical Rounds, and individual battles begin on the Round that most closely corresponds to the proportion of the attacking units’ Movement Allowance expended before the combat. Example: A unit with a remaining Movement Allowance of 12 and an initial Movement Allowance of 18 begins its Attack on Round 3.
After each Round, all involved units check for break off . The chance that a unit will break off depends on losses, Orders emphasis, coordination difficulty, and the duration of the individual Attack. Attacking units that break off simply cease their participation in the Attack. Defending units that break off attempt to disengage and retreat. At the end of each combat round, units that have not dropped out of the attack or retreated from the defence will be used to determine the current Assault Strength Ratio. This ratio is then further modified by terrain and deployment scalars of the defender’s position appropriate to the equipment types in that defence. This final ratio then scales the quality of each defender for purposes of Retreat from Combat (RFC). So, the higher the ratio, the greater the chance of RFC, and vice-versa. Units set to Minimise or Limit Losses must face further tests due to any losses they suffered.
Much of the equipment lost during combatis not actually destroyed. Instead, it is considered damaged or temporarily unserviceable. This damaged equipment goes to the Replacement Pool unless the owning unit is Out of Supply. Inthe case of Air equipment, the fraction of damagedequipment going to the Replacement Pool is proportional to the owning unit’s Proficiency. Naval equipment never goes to the Replacement Pool.
Supply and Readiness Levels are reduced in each round of combat. Readiness Losses are increased if chemicals are in use. Air units involved in combat are subject to more Quality Checks than other
units. Air units failing these additional Quality Checks attack with lower Strengths. See manual for more detailed information on combat mechanics, naval warfare and chemical / nuclear attacks.
Unlike all other kinds of Attacks, Bridge Attacks can be ordered on locations with no known enemy units. Only enemy owned bridges may be attacked. The chance of success for a single unit launching a
Bridge Attack is shown on the popup menu. If more than one unit participates, all Attack Strengths are added and the Bridge Attack is conducted as a single Bombardment (so the chances become
cumulative). If the New Bridge Rules Advanced Rule option is ON then bridge attacks may only be made on locations that have a road/railroad that graphically crosses a river/canal. Otherwise, any location with both a road//railroad and a river/canal, even if they don’t graphically cross,is eligible for a bridge attack.
All unit Strengths are increased by the unit’s Reconnaissance Capability on the first round of combat. Reconnaissance Capability has no effect on subsequent Rounds.
Example: If a unit has an Anti-Personnel Strength of 15 and a Reconnaissance Capability of 30%, its effective Anti-Personnel Strength on the first round of combat would be 19.
Air units with a High Altitude Anti-Air capability will automatically join in local Air Superioritycombat regardless of Mission if their base is attackedby enemy Air units. They will also rise to intercept airborne units launching assaults on their airbase.
Visibility affects Air unit Attack and Defense strengths, as follows: Fair: 100%, Hazy: 100% for all weather equipment, 66% otherwise, Overcast: 66% for all weather equipment, 33% otherwise.
In six hour and half-day Turn Scenarios, time of day affects Air unit Attack and Defense Strengths as follows: AM Turn: 100%, PM Turn: 66% for all weather equipment, 33% otherwise.
If Turns are Full Days or longer, Air unit Attack and Defense Strengths are multiplied by 83% for All Weather equipment, 66% otherwise.
A furball occurs during fighter sweeps for air superiority. It requires the utmost in concentration - many fighters in the same air space – no missile use - guns only! The objective is the elimination of enemy aircraft as quickly as possible without colliding with one of your own fighters at the same time. Kills during furballs are highly prized in the fighter community - it's the equivalent of hand to hand combat.
There's not much you can do to prevent furballs either. You can't move your fighters to the rear, they would be useless there. If you leave them at the front you risk getting into a furball. It’s a judgement
call. If my fighters are losing I like to move them to the rear and keep them altogether for mutual support. I try to use my aircraft manually to target things instead of hoping they will fly the proper mission. I like to attack a low-risk target just to improve the experience level ( proficiency ) of fighter units Like an enemy arty unit. Not much AA and it's an important target. Fighters fly their attack mission and gain a tiny amount of experience and their proficiency grows slowly.
The Air War Panel updates in real-time, while the Air Report updates at the start of the turn.
Formation Orders
General Orders - Attack
Formation orders are primarily designed for use in fine-tuning the programmed opponent. Except for the Static and Delay orders, they have no effect on a human player.
Static: Units belonging to the Formation are not available for Orders until the Formation is activated. Activation occurs on a specific Turn (set in the Editor) or when the enemy Attacks or moves adjacent to any unit of the Formation. When activated, the Formation assumes a Defend order.
Delay: Units belonging to the Formation are not available for Orders until the Formation is activated. Activation occurs on a specific Turn (set in the Editor) or when the enemy Attacks or moves adjacent to any unit of the Formation. When activated, the Formation assumes an Attack order
Unit Deployment Orders - (see Formations Report on the left)
Units may be deployed in various ways within their location. This Deployment status reflects an internal optimisation for specific roles or missions:
I won't list all these here, but in the chart below there are the following in evidence:
Mobile – The unit is ready for movement. Artillery units in this Deployment will not provide long range supporting fire. This is also the Deployment status of a unit that moved in the previous Turn.
Moving – This is the same as a Mobile deployment, except that the unit has already moved this Turn. Units automatically deploy to Moving Deployment if they move.
Reorganising – The unit is attempting to recover from recent combat, and may not move or attack.
Unit Reorganisation - Units failing multiple Quality Checks during combat, usually as the result of significant combat losses, can become so disorganised that they will no longer respond to your orders. When this happens, the unit is said to be “Reorganising”. At the beginning of each Turn, all Reorganising units are checked to see if they have finished their reorganisation. Units must pass a modified Quality Check in order to complete Reorganisation. This is more likely if they are Supplied, have not moved in the previous Turn, and are located with or adjacent to a cooperative Headquarters unit. A Reorganising unit (or any other unit that is not allowed to move during the current Turn; e.g.Reserves) has an orange “bar” printed behind its combat (Attack – Defence) or Movement numbers on its 2D icon. In the current game the 3rd Hussars are reorganising as evidenced by the orange bar.
The News Summary is a log of recent events, that show key events - e.g. places captured, what happens if certain objectives aren't captured/defended within specific timescales and also key data - in this case one can see how the Italian penalties are reducing over time.
Proficiency (how professional the unit is, country morale, training, leadership etc)
The Proficiency of a veteran unit is a known quantity. This is not true of untried units. A unit’s actual proficiency is determined when it first participates in combat, and can vary by as much as 33% (relative)
from the originally projected proficiency. If a veteran unit receives large quantities of replacement equipment, there is a chance that the unit will lose its veteran status.
Every time a unit engages in combat, there is a chance that its Proficiency will increase. Less proficient units will increase more rapidly than more proficient units.
Readiness
This represents the effects of wear and tear on equipment and troop fatigue. A fully-rested unit has a readiness of 100%, and a completely exhausted unit has a readiness of 33%.
Health
A combination of supply, readiness and equipment levels
Morale
This is a weighted average of a unit’s proficiency, supply level, and readiness. Regardless of actual proficiency, supply level or readiness, morale can be no lower than 10% and no higher than 100%. This value is multiplied by the raw equipment strengths to calculate the actual effective strengths of the unit.
Quality (how proficient a unit is along with its readiness to fight)
Quality = (2 x proficiency + readiness) / 3
This is a weighted average of a unit’s proficiency and readiness, expressed as a percentage. Regardless of actual proficiency and readiness, unit quality can be no lower than 10% and no higher than 100%.
This is the chance that the unit will pass a quality check. Quality checks are made at numerous points in the game to determine things like the unit’s ability to sustain an attack or hold ground in the face of a strong enemy attack. Formation Quality is reduced if many units are divided.
Weight
The sum of the weight of all assigned equipment, expressed in tons. This figure is used when determining whether the unit is eligible for transport by Aircraft, Helicopters, Ships, or Trains.
Combat strength calculation
Strength = equipment strength x (2 x proficiency + readiness + supply) / 4
Deployment orders
Defending, entrenched or fortified
The unit is deployed to defend the location. There are defensive and supply advantages for this deployment. A unit may only change to Fortified Deployment from the Defending or Entrenched deployments. The unit must either pass a Quality Check or a Local Engineering Check. Regardless of whetherthe unit passes either of these Checks, the unit expends its entire Movement Allowance in the effort.
Tactical Reserve
The unit will attempt to react to enemy attacks into adjacent locations. Headquarters and artillery units assigned to Tactical Reserve will not react (but will still support). This makes this a good deployment
for retaining both artillery mobility and supportability.
Local Reserve
The unit will attempt to react to enemy attacks into locations within a movement radius defined by the unit’s remaining Movement Allowance. Regardless of the radius, the reaction movement is only one hex per combat.
Mobile
The unit is ready for movement. Artillery units in this Deployment will not provide long range supporting fire. This is also the Deployment status of a unit that moved in the previous Turn.
Sub-units
Sub-units will have only about 80% of the parent unit’s proficiency. If you recombine your units, the newly recombined parent unit will have 125% of the average sub-unit’s proficiency. This means that
the act of dividing a unit and recombining it will result in no permanent loss of the unit’s Proficiency. During the game, units are frequently subdivided automatically due to adverse combat results. Also, an Airborne unit might be sub-divided during an Airborne Landing operation. Air, Naval, Coastal Artillery, Fixed Artillery, Supply, and Headquarters units may not be divided. Formations with a large number of divided units are more likely to be forced into Reorganization as a result of combat losses.
Up to nine units of all types may occupy any particularlocation. In most cases, it is best to limit the number of units in a location to a smaller number.The precise limit depends upon the equipment assigned to the units involved, but a good rule of thumb might beto limit stacking to no more than three units of each type (Land/Sea/Air) per location.
Checks
Communication Check
The chance for a unit to pass a Communication Check is equal to the Force Communication Level. It increases if the friendly Electronic Support Level is higher than the enemy Electronic Support Level, and decreases if the friendly Electronic Support Level is lower than the Enemy Electronic Support Level. Unless the enemy Force has a much higher Electronic Support Level, or the Force has a very low Communication Level, a unit can usually pass a Communication Check. Units that have not moved this Turn have a higher chance of passing a Communication Check. Long range Anti-Aircraft units must pass a Communication Check to fire on aircraft at ranges of 1 hex or more.
Quality Check
The Formation passes the Quality Check if this value is greater than a random number from 1 to 100, or if the number of units that experienced severe combat results in the previous Turn is smaller than a random number from 1 to the number of units in the Formation. This means that Formations are subject to Reorganization on Turns following heavy combat. Formation Proficiency is reduced by 50% if any assigned Headquarters unit is eliminated, or if all assigned Command Groups in the Headquarters have been eliminated. You should attempt to protect your Headquarters units to avoid this drop in Proficiency.
Local Engineering Check
A measurement against the unit's Engineering Capability.
Local Air Superiority
Air units with Air Superiority Missions may or may not participate in any particular local Air Superiority combat. The chance that a unit will participate is based on the range to the unit’s base, its Force Electronic Support Level, and the unit’s Quality. High Quality units and those nearby are more likely to participate than lower Quality units further from the location. A Force’s Local Air Superiority Strength is the sum of Anti-Air Strengths of all participating friendly Air units with Air Superiority Missions. Even if no other Missions are flown, opposing units with Air Superiority Missions may fight at the beginning of each Turn when the game sparks a number of Air Superiority battles at random locations on the map (furball).
Interdiction
Units assigned Interdiction Missions will attempt to intercept enemy Land units when those Landunits move and also impair your opponent’s ability to supply his Force. Units performing Interdiction Missions are subject to Interdiction by enemy Airunits with Air Superiority missions and are protectedby friendly units with Air Superiority missions. Interdiction is less effective in poor weather and
on night Turns. Air units that have an Anti-Naval strength can be set to Sea Interdiction. Such units have the T deployment mode letter on them. Only all-weather air units conduct sea interdict at night.
Surface ships and coastal guns also perform Sea Interdiction within their respective gunnery ranges. This is automatic, and no deployment setting is necessary.
Ship units and embarked units moving by Group Movement defend as a group if interdicted by the above. Group Movement thus forms a Task Force. Ship units interdicted or bombarded by other
ships or coastal guns will fire counterbattery back at them, if in range.
Carrier units interdicted or bombarded by aircraft from enemy carriers will launch counterstrikes against them, if in range and the attacking carriers have been detected.
Moving groups that are interdicted stop their movement to allow plan changes. Planes performing Sea Interdiction are, of course, provided air cover by friendly in-range planes set to Air Superiority.
Weather Effects on Chemical Weapons
Chemicals are most lethal in Cool or Moderate temperatures, with no Rain, and with Overcast conditions. They are least effective in Hot temperatures and Heavy Rain or bright sunlight. High temperatures, wind, and sunlight degrade chemical agents. Rain washes them away and impedes distribution. Chemicals can increase Readiness losses in combat for both sides. They aremost tiring (3x) at higher temperatures, and havelittle Readiness effect at low temperatures. (Actually, it’s not the chemicals. It’s the damned protective suits that do the damage).
Weather Effects on Nuclear Weapons
Nukes are most lethal in Hot temperatures, with no Rain, and Fair conditions. They are least effective in Cold temperatures, Heavy Rain, and Overcast conditions. This is due to a combination of exposure and atmospheric transparency.
Spotting
Generally, units and Internal Security assets can only observe adjacent locations. If, however, the unit or Internal Security asset is observing from a location with a mountain peak, observation visibility can be as far as 40 kilometers. This mountain view advantage deteriorates with decreasing visibility and during night turns. Likewise, if an adjacent location is viewed through an escarpment, the location is more likely to be spotted by units looking down and less likely to be spotted by units looking up. Note that the hex that contains the escarpment hexside is on the high side of it. The hex on the other side of it is on the low side. Theater Reconnaissance is more likely to observelocations with Roads, Anchorage locations, Airbases, or large concentrations of Motorized equipment. Airfields with Air units will almost certainly beobserved. Theater Reconnaissance is less likely toobserve locations with Hills, Badlands, Mountains, Dense Urban, Light Woods, Jungle, or Forest terrain, as well as locations with hazy or overcast visibility conditions. Theater Reconnaissance is also less effective during night Turns. Previously spotted locations will remain spotted as long as they remain under observation by any of your Reconnaissance assets. Previously observed locations may become spotted if they remain under observation. Locations no longer under observation become unknown.
The level of Intelligence Information available for any particular location is displayed with the location description in the Information Panel.
Sea spotting is done by any naval unit at sea and any land unit on a coastal hex. It extends 25 kms out on a day turn and 10 kms out on a night turn. However, naval equipment with the All Weather flag set sees 50km, day or night (modeling radar). And if a force has any aircraft with the All Weather flag set, then all naval vessels are assumed to have radar and see 50km, day or night.
Carrier planes and land-based planes set to Sea Interdiction or Air Superiority Sea-Spot out to a range limited by their max ranges and the number of effective planes available. This is not done during night turns, except by all-weather aircraft. Spotting is dynamically updated as such units move – like a land unit entering a Peak hex. The exceptions are the land-based planes set to Sea Interdiction or Air Superiority – they only spot during the interturn periods. Clouds over the surface spotter block its spotting.
Lines of Communication
Lines of Communication are blocked by enemy units, locations adjacent to enemies and not occupied by friendly units, badlands, non-road dunes terrain, or terrain that cannot be entered by a Land unit.
Supply
Use new supply rules.
Note: Naval, Air, and Helicopter units are still supplied as they were under the old supply rules.
Force Supply Radius
The default Force Supply Radius is four hexes, but can vary from zero to 100, depending on Scenario design. The supply radius is shown in the Expanded Situation Report.
The radius is used by the game in a formula to compute the supply value of a hex.
Old supply rules
Full Supply (100%)
Supply is first traced from friendly controlled supply points through friendly controlled, undamaged, Railroad hexes. Then, it must progress from each supplied, friendly controlled, undamaged Railroad
hex to a distance equal to the Force Supply Radius (set in the Editor) through friendly controlled, improved Road, Unmuddied Road, Urban, Airfield, and Anchorage locations.
Normal Supply (75%)
Supply is then traced from the Fully Supplied Net through friendly cropland and open locations. Any location with an unbroken Line of Communication through these types of terrain to a friendly Supply
Point is normally supplied and will provide 75% of the maximum possible amount of resupply for units.
Limited Supply (50%)
Locations not Fully or Normally Supplied, but able to trace a Line of Communication no longer then the Force Supply Radius to any normally or fully supplied location, are considered to have Limited
Supply. Units in these locations receive 50% of the maximum possible resupply.
Minimal Supply (25%)
Locations not otherwise supplied, but able to trace a Line of Communication of any length to any friendly Supply Point are considered to have Minimal Supply. Units in these locations receive
25% of the maximum possible resupply.
Local Terrain Effects
Some terrain types influence Resupply levels. Resupply levels for units in Marsh, Flooded Marsh, and Mountain terrain are reduced by 33%.
New supply rules
Supply is calculated at the beginning of your turn.
You get a 33% penalty if you move, there is also an additional flat rate 33% supply penalty across the board (you can disable it if you turn on High Supply advanced option), friendly, cooperative HQ in the same or adjacent hex to a unit gives it 50% supply bonus which effectively nullifies that 33% penalty everyone has. Also units have different Formation Supply Distribution Efficiency depending on their formation, which is also applied (eg. 75%). For example you have a unit in a 30 supply hex, with resupply efficiency of 75%. It will get 30 *75% *67%(33% flat rate penalty) = ~15 supply, if it hasn't moved. If it did it's additional * 67% (another 33% penalty) = ~10 supply.Add to all 50% HQ bonus if it is adjacent or in same hex. If the HQ is destroyed, the formation it belonged to will get 50% reduction in its Formation Supply Distribution Efficiency. Units can get oversupplied if they don't move, so their supply can go up to 150% (depending on scenario) but they lose it if they move. Stacking penalties apply to all loses not just bombardment. So any hex with red stacking marker will take 200%+ losses in combat.
Roughly hex supply value x 0.67 (To reduce 33% due to "High Supply Off")
x formation distribution effiency .n
Reduce 33% if moved
Reduce 33% due to night turn
+50% if adjacent to HQ
Interdiction is already calculated before displaying the hex supply level
A unit is Overextended if it has a line-of-communications to a supply point but is far enough from any supply source to be in a hex with lower location supply level than the designer-set “Overextended Supply Threshold. For example, if that threshold were 6, then any hex with a supply level of 5 or lower would be Overextended.
The default setting for the threshold is 0 – making it impossible for any hex to qualify for the new state. Therefore, only scenarios specifically edited for it will employ this feature.
Overextended units receive supply normally. However, they also suffer desertion losses (see below) during the interturn calculations the same as if they were Unsupplied – except that those losses go to the “On Hand” pool, not the dead pile. To review, such losses start when the unit supply-level drops below (100 - unit proficiency). The percent loss per turn is scaled by turn intervals per week and by how far below the threshold they are. Overextended units only receive replacements if they are not suffering desertions (their unit-supply level is above (100 - unit proficiency)).
Overextended hexes have a different supply font from the normal supply font in the supply display, for information purposes.
In this new method, to calculate location supply values we use a formula based on the movement points that would be expended by a virtual Supply Unit (which has motorized movement and a 50% unit density) to get to the location. This will mean that very dense locations will likely suffer some supply reduction due to added movement costs of that density condition (stacking limits, however, will not block supply). Supply beyond major rivers will depend upon bridge status or major ferry ability. Major Escarpments now block supply. Contiguous, unbroken Rail lines that connect backto a supply source are still treated as if every hex onthe line was that supply point. If the line connects to multiple supply points of variable values then the strongest one is broadcast over the line.
Friendly units in flooded marsh, badlands, dunes, etc. locations that are unreachable by the virtual supply unit but that are nevertheless adjacent to a normally supplied location receive one-quarter the supply that was in that adjacent location. And there’s a lot more complexity behind the scenes (beyond those factors) to get it all to come out right.
The exact formula is: 1.10 / (1.375 ^ (SupplyDistance / Supply Radius)).
For example, take the case of the supply radius being five MPs, and the supply unit being ten MPs away from the supply point and the unit being four MPs further away from the supply point (therefore
four MPs from the supply unit). Because the unit is less than five MPs (the supply radius) away from the supply unit, we enhance its supply by treating it as if it were five MPs closer to the supply source
(in other words, nine MPs away instead of fourteen
MPs away).
The Improved-Road Motorized-Movement divisor also affects the supply trace when New Supply is in use. Supply traced over other than improved road hexes will pay costs x divisor. So with a setting of 2, for example, inland supply in the desert will attenuate at twice the rate it previously did – making inland desert operations more realistically difficult. The default value is 1, which gives no motorized benefit on improved roads – or supply effect.
Supply Lines: As a general case, in order to receive resupply, units must be able to trace a Line of Communication back to a friendly supply source. If the unit cannot trace this line, its supply level will drop by an amount equal to the number of half days in a turn. Such units are marked as unsupplied. They will also be subject to isolation effects in combat.
Lines of Communication (LoC): An LoC is a path from one location to another. LoC are blocked by enemy units, non-road badlands terrain, non-road dunes terrain, or terrain that cannot be entered by a normal Land unit. A unit without an LoC is marked as Unsupplied. Only impassable terrain, enemy units, or enemy ZOCs block lines-of-communication. Friendly units cancel enemy ZOC they occupy.
Possession does NOT block Lines of Communication.
The distribution of supply can be viewed via the Supply Button on the Control Panel. Under this view each supplied location will have a supply marker with a number on it. The colours of the markers tell which side can trace to the location: Red markers mean only the Red Side (Allies) can trace; Blue markers mean only the Blue Side (Axis) can trace; And Gold markers mean both sides can trace.
The number in the marker is the location supply for that hex for the current side. (If blue i.e. less than 5, then these locations are Overextended. The number is the base value all units in that hex will use to calculate the supply they will receive in their next supply replenishment phase. Supply reduces exponentially with distance from the supply source - scaled by the supply radius.
Unit Supply: Each unit has its own Supply Level, which is a percentage value reflecting the unit’s own internal Supply stockpile (food, bullets, gasoline, etc.). These supplies are actually in the hands of the troops, available for immediate use. A unit’s Supply Level strongly affects its Capabilities. Each unit expends Supplies as it acts to follow orders. When necessary, units draw new Supplies from their Force Supply stockpile, through their Formation supply system. Units may begin a Scenario with a level greater than 150%, but Supply Levels may not be increased above 150% during the course of a Scenario. Any oversupplied unit (with a Supply Level greater than 100%) will lose its excess supplies if it moves. (For this purpose, participation in combat is not considered movement.) Unit readiness is limited to no more than the unit’s Supply Level or the minimum Readiness (33%), whichever is higher.
Supply Level (from the scenario documentation): Commonwealth supply levels increase significantly over the course of the campaign. They start at 40, increase to 52 on turn 51, and finally rise to 78 on turn 173.
Each location on a rail line that traces back, unbroken, to a supply point is a supply source.
You'll burn up supply and readiness using regular movement. Rail movement doesn't cost any supply or readiness. How much of your rail capability each unit uses is determined by the weight of the unit. Check your Unit Report dialog and look for how much it weighs. That's how much the rail will deduct from the amount of rail capacity you have remaining. The weight of the unit is given in the description
of it's properties. You can see that it's about 441. That's how much rail it'll take to embark it. Rail capacity is listed on the situation briefing.
A unit is Overextended if it has a line of communications to a supply point but is far enough from any supply source to be in a hex with lower location supply level than the designer-set Overextended Supply Threshold. For example, if that threshold were 6, then any hex with a supply level of 5 or lower would be Overextended. Overextended units receive supply normally, however, they also suffer desertion losses.
Units may begin a Scenario with a level greater than 150%, but Supply Levels may not be increasedabove 150% during the course of a Scenario. Any over supplied unit (with a Supply Level greaterthan 100%) will lose its excess supplies if it moves (For this purpose, participation in combat is notconsidered movement.)
Force Supply Stockpile
Each Force has a Supply Stockpile Level. This Level generally remains constant, but can vary in some Scenarios. It represents supplies available for distribution to units through Formation Supply systems.
The Force Supply Stockpile Level is the supply level that's available right at a supply point, or on any unbroken rail line linked to a supply point. However, this value can be increased by transport asset sharing, and reduced by enemy interdiction. The combination of all of that determines the net effective supply level at the supply point. From there, the supply must be traced to the units, and the further away they are the less they get. Players can increase their transport asset sharing by not using their lift capacities and not moving heavily motorized units. Players can reduce the enemy's interdiction level via combat success in air operations.
You can't see the exact supply value at hexes that haven't been adjacent to any of your unit this turn, as that indircetly would give you information where unobserved enemy units were.
So, no. You don't need to be able to see an unbroken row of hexes with supply value to get supply at the front.
You can try to start a game with "No borders" set to OFF. That allows you to know the ownership of each hex and thus also the supply value. When "No borders" is set to ON, there is no change in supply, you just don't get the full picture.
No borders on was the issue. Setting it to off did show the supply trace. Now that I know that it is there, but just can't be seen, I can switch back to no borders on ( no desire to avoid the fog of war).
(force supply stockpile level + supply enhancement due to force transport assets sharing) * (1 - enemy interdiction reduces our supply capability) = effective supply capability
So: effective supply capability = (20 + 9) * (1 - 0) = 29
Formation Supply Distribution Efficiency
Each Formation has a Supply Distribution Efficiency, which is a percentage value reflecting the Formation’s ability to distribute supplies from the Force Stockpileto units in the Formation. This value is set for each Formation in a Scenario, and actually means different things for different types of Formations. It takes into account everything from dedicated organic transport capability to the mindset of the troops responsible forgetting the goodies to the troops.
Transport Asset Sharing
Units that do not move and are not assigned a Local or Tactical Reserve status will temporarily lend a portion of their transport assets (equipment with a transport capability, such as trucks, horse teams, etc.) to their parent Formation (and possibly to others depending upon the Formation Support Level) to aid in distributing Supply to other units. Any unused Rail, Air, or Sea Transport Capacity also contributes to resupply efforts. This results in a boost to the formation’s capacity to distribute supplies. Transport asset sharing has no negative effects.
The level of resupply possible for a unit increases by 50% if a cooperative Headquarters unit is located with or adjacent to a unit. If a Headquarters unit assigned to a Formation is destroyed, or if any assigned Support squads have been eliminated, the Formation’s Supply Distribution Efficiency is reduced.
If the unit cannot trace a LoC, its Supply Level will drop by an amount equal to the number of half days in a Turn. Such units, again, are marked as Unsupplied. They will also be subject to isolation effects in combat.
Airborne Resupply
If a unit cannot trace a LoC, it may still be able to receive resupply. The level of resupply available to any particular hex is based on the amount of Air Transport Capacity left unused at the end of the previous Turn and the total size of the units in it requiring Airborne Resupply. Local Airborne Resupply levels are reduced by 33% if visibility in the location is Hazy, or 50% if the visibility in the location is Overcast. Note that such units will still be considered to be Unsupplied for desertion and isolation purposes.
Resupply levels are reduced by 33% during night Turns.
If a unit moved (from one location to another) in the previous Turn, its Resupply Level is reduced by 33%.
A fully depleted unit can recover all the way to 150% in a single turn, if its location is lush enough. A fully depleted unit retains a significant fraction of its flush strength. More of flush strength level is
retained at depleted levels in high proficiency units than in low proficiency units. The Unit Supply Level value in general is more a measure of the rate at which the unit is expending supply than a direct measure of its stockpile. Land Movement consumes 1 supply point per movement point expended (this is modified by the Supply Costs of Movement Rate parameter. Naval, Embarked, and Air Units do not expend supply when moving. Attacking consumes 10 supply points per combat round. Defending consumes 10 supply points per combat round. Ranged units directly assigned to combat consume 10 supply points per combat round. Ranged units that cooperatively support at half strength consume 5 supply points per combat round. Note that if the attacker fails any of the Assault Ratio checks (see 13.20) then
defender supply costs can drop significantly. Also, the Naval Attrition Divider scales naval combat supply costs. Air units set to Air Superiority or Interdiction missions pay no supply for combat.
Your units’ Readiness levels decline during movementand combat. Unit readiness recovers at the beginningof every Turn except the first. The amount recoveredis based on the Scenario’s time and distance scales, but will generally be approximately the amountneeded to fully recover from a maximum movement. Units recover Readiness more slowly if they havemoved in the previous Turn, occupy a contaminatedlocation, or if they are Unsupplied. Due to the highly technical nature of Air and Helicopter units, these units’ Readiness Recovery is also strongly affected by unit Proficiency. Low
Proficiency Air and Helicopter units will recover Readiness very slowly.
Five Supply Rules to Live By. Here are 5 basic supply generalizations for people who don’t want to get too bogged down in the math:
1 Railroads are manna from heaven. If you can keep your railroad lines running near the front, and prevent your opponent from doing the same, you will enjoy significant advantages.
2 Barring Railroads, roads are helpful, but usually only within 12 hexes of the supply source, although a scenario designer can change that. If you know what the supply radius is (the default is 4 hexes), multiply by 3, that is how far away from the source a road will help you.
3 Use the supply overlay- it tells you the MAXIMUM supply a non-moving unit next to the appropriate HQ can receive IF it happens to have a high Formation Supply rating. That means you almost always get less than that amount, if you move a unit and don’t end up near an HQ, the BEST you will do is a little less than half the number showing on the overlay.
4 Keep terrain in mind: the best terrain types are railroad, port/city/airfield, roads, open, and arid terrain. Try to keep undersupplied units away from forests, marshes, or mountains unless they are
on a road.
5 If a unit needs to re-supply, DON’T MOVE IT, unless you are moving it from bad supply terrain to good terrain (e.g. woods to open, muddy to road). If you move a unit to be closer to an HQ, the net to you is to LOSE 1% of supply for each movement point you use. The penalty for moving and the bonus for HQ’s cancel each other out, and each MP costs 1% of supply. (Yet another problem with tanks- they can’t resupply any faster than infantry, which means they get twice as exhausted moving across plains).
At the beginning of each Turn, all Reorganizing units are checked to see if they have finished their reorganization. Units must pass a modified Quality Check in order to complete Reorganization. This is
more likely if they are Supplied, have not moved in the previous Turn, and are located with or adjacent to a cooperative Headquarters unit. A Reorganizing unit (or any other unit that is not allowed to move during the current Turn; e.g., Reserves) has an orange “bar” printed behind its combat (Attack – Defense) or Movement numbers. Units of Formations failing a Formation Quality Check at the beginning of a Turn are considered to be Reorganizing and will only be available for non-combat orders. They will accept all other orders, and they will Defend normally, but are not available for launching Attacks or Bombardments.
After the first turn, the first player is determined by an Initiative Check. The Initiative Level of a Force is partly randomized, but is strongly influenced by the average Movement Allowance of all friendly Land units on the map not assigned to Formations with a Reserve status.
Movement
RaIlroad movement
In order to use Railroad Movement, a unit must begin its Turn in a Railroad location, sufficient Rail Transport Capacity to lift the unit must be available, and the unit must be Entrained.
A Train icon in the Unit Panel shows eligibility for Rail Movement. Right-click on the icon to bring up the Unit Report and load the unit. Units may move very large distances by Rail
with no Movement Attrition or loss of Supplies and Readiness; however, they are very vulnerable to enemy attacks.
Seaborne movement is similar. Some units may have an independent Amphibious Capability and can always move using Seaborne Movement.
Airborne movement is similar. Air Units may only board Aircraft if there is another unit present at the location, or if there are no enemy units in adjacent locations.
An Airborne unit may disembark without ill effects on any friendly-controlled Airbase, or it may conduct an Airdrop on any other location that it could normally enter or attack. Often, the
contents of the location will be unknown. If enemy units are discovered to be present at the time of the drop, your Airdropped unit will be destroyed unless the enemy units opt to retreat before combat.
Some equipment is too heavy to be moved by Transport Aircraft during the time period covered by the game. All non-Airborne-capable armored vehicles and Transport in excess of the bare
minimum required by the unit for normal Land movement will be stripped from the unit and added to your Replacement Pool. Headquarters units may Airdrop only into friendly-controlled territory.
Airborne units are subject to equipment losses and possible arbitrary division into sub-units during Airdrops, and may be scattered outside their intended destination location in smaller (five
to ten kilometers) scale Scenarios. Poor terrain (Forests, Jungle, Badlands, Mountains, Urban, etc.) and environmental factors (bad weather, night) can have a strong negative effect on Airdropped units.
If the enemy has Air units with Air Superiority missions, your units may also suffer Attrition from enemy Interception. It is usually best to avoid Airdrops in the face of significant enemy air opposition.
Air mobIle movement is the movement of Helicopter and Airmobile capable Land units. See manual for more information.
Once a unit has expended Movement Points using an embarked type of Transport Mode, it is usually restricted in its ability to move by normal Land movement on the Turn that it disembarks.
If a unit has not moved or attacked previously in the Turn, it can always move at least once into any allowed location regardless of cost. Unit Movement Allowances are based on the Supply levels and
equipment assigned, and the Scenario physical and time scales.
Movement costs along roads vary from 1 to 3, depending upon the number of Vehicles and Horse Teams already in the location. Mud increases movement costs along unimproved roads by 1.
The minimum standard cost for a Land unit to enter most allowed locations is based on the unit’s movement category, as follows:
Minimum Standard Cost (foot or mixed movement): 1
Minimum Standard Cost (motorized movement): 2
Even the presence of friendly units in a location can increase the standard cost for entering that location. The exact amount of the cost increase is dependent on the number of Vehicles and Horse Teams
already there, and affects Motorized units more strongly than other types. Units with Military Police can reduce these movement cost increases. If there are already nine units in the location, or if there are any enemy units there, the movement is not allowed. If there are fewer than nine friendly units in the location, the maximum standard cost for entry is based on the unit’s movement category.
Disengagement
Successful disengagement results in a normal ordered Movement.
Disengagement is automatic if:
Your unit is a Commando unit,
Your unit is either a Headquarters or Artillery unit, and the destination location is occupied by a friendly unit, and/or Your unit is moving to a destination not adjacent to an enemy unit, and there is a
friendly unit in the location being vacated.
Your Disengagement chance is improved if:
Your unit has a large Reconnaissance capability,
Your unit began the Turn with a very high Movement Allowance relative to the enemy units it is adjacent to, and/or Your unit is heavily equipped with armored equipment.
Your Disengagement chance is reduced if:
The enemy units have a large Reconnaissance capability or your unit began the Turn with a low Movement Allowance relative to the enemy units.
Terrain modifies the Disengaging unit’s Reconnaissance Capability:
Badlands, Forests, Super Rivers, and Suez Canal locations offer the best cover for Disengagement (3x Recon).
Bocage, Dense Urban, River, Canal, and Fortified Line locations (2.5x Recon).
Mountains, Urban (2x Recon).
Cropland, Hills (1.5x Recon).
Terrain modifications for disengagement regarding Reconnaissance Strength are not cumulative.
For disengagement purposes, unit Reconnaissance Capabilities are multiplied by an additional 0.5 on night Turns or if there is Heavy Rain or Snow in the location (which is cumulative).
Should your unit fail to disengage from the enemy, it will be subject to a Disengagement Attack. This is a short, one-sided shot at your unit as it attempts to move. The attack is based on the
attack strengths of all enemy units involved, and the defense strength of your moving unit plus any supporting fire from eligible air and artillery units. Only the moving unit will take losses.
If the units attempting to disengage are much weaker than adjacent enemy units there is an additional movement cost – up to 3x the normal cost to move out of the location. Relatively strong
units will see no additional movement costs.
Tips:
Guerrilla units scheduled to appear as Reinforcements may appear at any playable locationwithin three hexes of their scheduled Reinforcement location, if that location is enemy-occupied.
Unlike other units, Guerrilla units may appear in enemy-owned locations, converting the location to friendly ownership upon entry.
When a non-Guerrilla Land unit enters an enemy controlled location, that location becomes friendly controlled. Entering an enemy-controlled location incurs additional Movement Point penalties.
Guerrilla units have a special ability to choose between two different methods of Movement. By default, these units will not change the ownership of hexes that they pass through. After Movement is concluded for the unit, and another unit is selected, then the hex that the Guerrilla unit occupies becomes friendly-controlled. This mode plays to their combat advantages in attacking from hexes that were previously enemy-controlled during theTurn, by retaining more enemy-controlled terrain from which to gain the bonus on subsequent Turns. Guerrilla units may also operate more openly by choosing to convert hexes that they move through. This will make their Movement paths more visible after playback and reduce the number of hexes that they can operate with a combat advantage from on subsequent Turns. To convert a hex duringMovement, stop the Guerrilla unit in the hex to be converted and select another unit. This will convert the hex that the Guerrilla unit stopped in. Then, you may continue moving, repeating this procedure asnecessary, to convert any other hexes. Guerrilla units always Disengage without cost, as Special Forces units do. Guerrilla units are very difficult to spot,
particularly by Air or Helicopter units. Guerrilla unit Attack and Defense strengthsare doubled when attacking from locations that were enemy-owned at the beginning of the Turn. Guerrilla units always draw at least normal supply, regardless of whether their locationis friendly-supplied or not. If a higher level of Supply is available, the unit benefits normally.
If you present the other Force with a dense concentration of equipment, so thathe can’t help but hit something with every shot, you may take excessive losses. Locations withexcessive target densities are indicated on themap by a small colored light in the west cornerof the location. These indicator lights range fromyellow-green to red. A yellow-green indicator is a caution; the target density limits have been exceeded, and combat losses are multiplied by 1.0 to 1.4. A yellow indicator is a warning; the excessive target density will result in combat losses being multiplied by 1.4 to 1.7. An orange indicator is a strong warning; the excessive target density will result in combat losses being multiplied by 1.7 to 2.0. A red indicator is a very strong warning; the excessive target density will result in a combat losses being multiplied by at least 2.0.
Any Attack launched from a Deep Water location is considered an Amphibious Attack. Such an Attack is resolved normally, except that if the Attacker is unsuccessful his units will re-embark on their Transports. Airmobile Attacks are resolved during Movement. Units on board Trains have their Attack and Defense strengths reduced to 25% of normal. They may defend, but may not launch Attacks.
Try and keep the effective strengths of forces actually assigned to ground-assault the defenders at least equal to the size of the defenders’ defense strengths. (That means keeping the AR equal to 100 or above). See manual for more information on assault ratIo rules.
If your turn ends after your combats have been executed, there will be a message dialog telling whether it ended because of a Force Proficiency Check failure (calculated using the force proficiency and
number of rounds remaining) or because there is too little of your turn left.
Victory in the game is based on control of Objectives, Victory Point awards by event, and penalties for combat losses.
Any Railroads in an enemy-controlled location may be damaged when a friendly unit enters the location.
Units on Roads or using Rail Movement are particularly vulnerable to Interdiction Missions.
Disbanded units are removed from the map and return their equipment to your Supply Pool. It is not possible to disband units that are Routed, Reorganizing, Unsupplied, or In Garrison.
Destroyed unsupplied units are eliminated permanently from the game.
Destroyed surrounded units that are still supplied (surrounded during the current turn) do return a few turns later, as cadres, filled by replacements from the pool (if available).
Ranged units (artillery, aircraft, etc.) now retain their deployment states after combat. Furthermore, even assaulting units can recover their previous deployment states if the attack is canceled before
execution. This means that it is now safe to directly assign bombarding units to attacks even if it is likely that the turn will end before another movement round – they will still be in a support deployment
if they had been in one prior to the assignment to the attack. Also, you can assign dug-in units to an attack, cancel the attack, and find them still dug-in.
Unit density:
The manual doesn't state any particular modifier, it just says: Note that this will mean that very dense locations will likely suffer some supply reduction due to added movement costs of that density condition. I would only worry about it if I see a red circle on the left of the counter, signifying a huge stack.
Two types of Headquarters Icons are represented in TOAW - one is represented with a checkered box and the other by "HQ"
The Checkered HQ is typically used to represent higher headquarters - Corps HQ, Army HQ, Army Group and Front Headquarters. They may or may not have units directly subordinate to them, which will show in their Formation Report. In most cases the units assigned to them will be support units (artillery, various engineers).
The standard HQ icon, as designated by HQ, is most frequently assigned to division and brigade level formations. Units of a division are either directly subordinate to their Division HQ or modelled to demonstrate specific deployment doctrines, advantages or limitations - reflecing in Formation Support Levels (Internal, Army, Force or Free).
Both types of Headquarters may serve several functions:
All HQ's provide a supply bonus to adjacent friendly units with which it cooperates (per formation support levels). If Support Squads are included in its TO&E (Unit Report) - it's effectiveness in supply distribution is measured according to the number of Support Squads it has in relation to what it is authorized to have.
Frequently, HQ's will include Command Groups in their TO&E. In these cases, HQ's also serve a Command & Control function. HQ's that are attacked and lose its command groups may be force its entire formation into reorganization - effective in the next turn.
Frequently, HQ's will include artillery in their Unit Report. In such cases, HQ's serve the same role as a unit with the artillery icon - providing combat support to cooperating units within the range of its artillery. It is useful to examine the types of artillery present as the range of each type of artillery may vary.
HQ's also frequently include engineering assets. In most cases, the engineering ability of a HQ will be less than a regular engineer unit, owing to number of assigned engineer squads. Railroad repair and ferry engineers may be present further expanding their engineering capabilities. Where present, and where really needed, HQ's can apply their abilities to build bridges or use its ferry engineering ability to help units cross a river - reducing movement costs.
HQ's may include military police squads. These help reduce the costs of movement of units through overstacked hexes.
In addition to these possibilities, HQ's have a Rear Guard ability. Units moving out of a hex within an enemy Zone of Control (i.e. adjacent to an enemy unit) may suffer a "disengagement attack". However, you can use a HQ to move into the hex you want to evacuate, move the first unit out and follow it with the HQ, and both units will avoid the disengagement penalty. The important note on this is to ensure that a) the HQ has the movement points needed to get back to a safe area, and b) that the HQ is the last unit to evacuate a hex and that it moves directly into a hex with a friendly unit.
Command Groups provide command functions for a Formation. Headquarters units do not need to have command groups authorized, but if they do, their Formations Are likely to be forced to reorganize if all assigned command groups in the Headquarters are eliminated. In game terms, use of command groups allows a Scenario designer to build a vulnerability into a Force’s Formations. We recommend taking advantage of this feature, so go ahead and assign two command groups to each Headquarters unit.
Support Squads provide supply distribution functions for a Formation. Headquarters units do not need to have Support Squads authorized, but if they do, units of the associated Formation will suffer reduced resupply rates should some or all authorized Support Squads be eliminated. In game terms, use of Support Squads allows a Scenario designer to build vulnerability into a Force’s Formation Supply distribution efficiency.
HQ Size Symbol Support Squads for 100% Supply Distribution Efficiency
Section 1, Platoon 1, Company 3, Battalion 5, Regiment 15, Brigade 20, Division 40, Corps 80, Army 120, Army Group 400, Theater 1200, Supreme Command 3600.
Flanks are also considered compromised if the actively defending equipment density in the location is less than 10% of the level that would trigger additional losses, regardless of the number of hexes the unit is engaged from. See page 104 in the player's guide for information on equipment density. (Small units and those with low proportions of active defenders simply don't have the troops to cover their own flanks). Flanking has two effects. In addition to removing the protection from passively defending equipment (very nasty), the effect of losses during combat during combat is doubled during the quality check to see if the defender retreats or the attacker breaks off - so flanked units are much more likely to retreat from their position if they take losses.
Individual weapons try to engage appropriate targets. There is some randomization, but the toughest targets will tend to draw fire from the most lethal enemy systems. Note that this has numerous side effects. Among them: Large towed Anti-Tank weapons are now much less effective on the attack than before. All shots actually fired by Anti- Personnel weapons are assumed to be lethal. Anti-Armor fire is quite different. In order to be lethal, any given Anti-Armor shot must first hit the target. Each hit must then be able to defeat the armor protection of the target equipment. Each armored target has one Strength vs. HEAT weapons and another vs. Kinetic weapons (also includes Top-Attack weapons), although the two values are identical for almost all early period armored vehicles. See the Equipment List.doc file in the Docs folder for effective armor values.
Restricted Vision / Normal / Open Vision
Targeting++++ 85% / 100% / 100%
Targeting+++ 85% / 85% / 72%
Targeting++ 85% / 75% / 56%
Targeting+ 75% / 50% / 25%
Everything Else 50% / 33% / 11%
Note that Restricted Vision locations actually benefit simpler weapon systems while reducing the capability of more advanced systems. On the other hand, Open Vision rewards more advanced systems. Open Vision locations have no precipitation and no terrain other than Open, Arid, Roads, Rivers, Rocky, Escarpments, Canals, or Sandy. Restricted Vision locations have Heavy Precipitation, Heavy Cultivated, Urban, Urban Ruin, or Forest terrain. Very few early-period weapons have enhanced targeting capabilities.
Artillery can lower the effectiveness of prepared defensive positions during combat. The effect is intended to model the earth-churning tendencies of heavy Artillery and is tied to the weight of individual shells. Heavier pieces are much more effective than lighter pieces. MRL’s (Multiple Rocket Launchers) generally do not receive this advantage. While the Anti-Personnel strengths of heavy Artillery may seem weak (due to very low rates of fire), weapons of 150mm or larger can be very effective against entrenched enemies.
The contribution of Armored Troop Transports (APC, MICV, etc.) to unit strength is based upon unit Loss Tolerance. At higher Loss Tolerances, more of these vehicles are assumed to be directly involved in combat. They contribute directly to unit Strengths. Infantry assigned to the unit receives less protection from enemy Artillery fire and has a tendency to be lost when Troop Transports are hit by Anti-Armor fire. At lower Loss Tolerances, fewer of these Vehicles are on the front lines. They do not contribute directly to unit Strengths, but they do provide more protection to Infantry during Artillery fire. Infantry is generally assumed to be dismounted if the Transport is hit by Anti-Armor fire and will not be affected by Transport losses. When an APC class item of equipment is destroyed in combat, there is a chance (based on loss tolerance and the proportion of Infantry and Transports in the unit) that an Infantry squad of some kind belonging to the same unit will also be destroyed.
Naval units don't need to return to port to receive resupply. They are resupplied at sea.
PO Capabilities can generally be found in the Scenario Description. Be aware that PO's preformance is not good in amphibious landing operations (it isn't in any game is it? Maybe there should be a prize for somebody to make an AI that is amphibious capable).
Usually the TOAW version is listed in the scenario description by the designer. So, generally, if a designer went through a scenario to update it, the version number will now be TOAW IV.
< Message edited by HobbesACW -- 6/13/2018 1:45:48 PM >
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