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This FAQ is to be used as a quick reference. For more detail, look at the manual page in parentheses in most of the answers. Thanks to Paul Vebber, Bill Wilder and many other who contributed.
Q. How do I get my units to move? They show ready but will not go anywhere.
A. Check the Command & Control and Unit communications settings. If the unit is out of range and has no radio, It will only move to the unit objective (Pg 28 & 35)
1. Check preferences menu. Is command control on or off? If on, turn it off. Read the manual about how this feature works.
2. Is your unit set to advance or defend? Right click on the non-moving unit. If it says defend in the black screen, click on the word, Defend, and it will change to advance. Now it should move.
3. Is your unit suppressed? Does it have move factors left? Right click on the unit. Does it have move factors remaining? What is its suppression level? Anything above 5 suppression might pin or suppress the unit so that it won't move.
4. Can it move? Some units have no move factors. Check and see
Q. The all formation button is gone. Do I have to move my units one at a time?
A. Use the A key to use the All-Formation command. It will only work with C & C off( Pg 30)
Q. How do I deploy parachutists and gliders?
A. To use Gliders and Paratroopers. load the troops and assign each a hex, during deployment. In the pre-game bombardment phase, after the artillery attacks, the gliders and transport aircraft should come in, under AI control.
Make sure you assign entry and exit directions for all gliders, strike aircraft and transport aircraft, especially when making a scenario. Do not depend on the default.(Pg 24)
Q. How are HQ’s and Ammo dumps and Ammo vehicles used?
A. For resuppling your units, move your unit into the same or the adjacent hex. (Pg 40) HQ’s give additional morale benefit to units within 5 hexes and reduce suppression
Q. Minel;aying has changed. What is the new procedure?
A. To lay mines, use the toggle in the unit data screen. In the old code, you
could toggle "remove mines" with "do not remove mines". There is now a
third toggle, "place mines".
Q. How are Special Forces and Guerilla’s employed?
A. During deployment, feel around with the mouse hint box, until you find the infiltration button and click it. You should see what looks like the artillery screen that is missing some buttons. The special troops you purchased should be listed here. Select a hex on the map and click it. Then click the little lit up circle next to one of the special units. This should depress the little circle icon, as it would if you were targeting artillery. One you have assigned hexes to all the special units you want to infiltrate, you may close the screen. You will note that machine guns, mortars and the like cannot be sent on infiltration missions. These are for troops traveling light.
3) Play the game. After several turns, you should get a pop-out box saying that one or more units have infiltrated to the assigned target.
Note that the exact turn they will arrive is unknown to you and you will not be in contact with them, until they arrive. This may place certain units of the formation who were not able to infiltrate, out of C&C, unless you keep them near a company HQ or the Bn HQ. Play testing may show a need for shuffling of the special formations.
I would not recommend that you choose objective hexes for the target hexes. Your troops will arrive piecemeal and get beat up. I would recommend a nice, out of the way clump of woods not to far from an objective as a rally point. Once the whole platoon arrives, you can then attack.
Q. What is the AI advantage button used for?
A. This number gives the experience/morale rating of the troops as compared to their intended morale. IIRC Germany had a 75 point (average to vet) average on experience in '42, so at 133 percent they should have about 100 points (elite) if only experience raises at this rate. If they increase experience and morale, maybe you nedd 166 percent for elite.
Q. Why is there a Limited Ammo Button and a Full Ammo Button?
A. Limited ammo reduces the ammo a unit gets from the maximum in the OOB to as much as 50% of the listed load
Turning Ammo off means you never run out of ammunition.(Pg 18)
Q. The gray text box messages are too slow or too fast. How do I adjust the speed?
A. Go into the Preferences screen and adjust the message delay up or down. The higher the number the longer the delay(Pg 18)
Q. How do tank or other crews bail out voluntarily?
A. Use the 9 key and a pop up box will ask if you are sure.(Pg 20)
Q.Smoke doesn’t seem to work as well. Has something changed?
A. Smoke reduces the chances you see things, it no longer totally blocks line
of sight, (at least you have to lay a LOT in that mode) .If you know where something is, you have to lay a lot of smoke to "break lock" - it is no longer a "deflector shield" you raise AFTER someone has spotted you! If you pop it and run away, then the enemy will have a more difficult time spotting you through the smoke in the new hex through the
smoke. But if you just pop it and sit there, after the enemy has targeted
you, it doesn't do much. This is smoke's realistic role as an obscurant, not
impenetrable armor.
It is most effective if you use artillery to lay it IN ADVANCE so you are
moving up behind and through it where it lowers the enemy chances of
spotting you in the first place. Smoke will also drift around ad lasts for a
more variable time period.
Q. How do campaigns work?
A. SP: WAW allows two types of campaigns. There are campaigns generated by the computer and there are also what are called "User Edited Campaigns." That means that these campaigns were designed by individuals much like the scenarios that are included with the game. These are not computer-generated and may prove quite different from the campaigns the computer creates on request. User-Defined Campaigns are often more historical in nature and are built around a particular unit or a particular theater of battle during the World War II period.
Managing Campaigns
User-defined campaigns require a little different care than the scenarios in the game. A separate subdirectory or folder should be created to hold these campaigns. Inside each campaign is a zipped (or compressed) package. To use the files needed for a campaign, you'll have to "open" or unzip these files into the \scen subdirectory of the game.
Do not delete the zip file. If you remove the campaign files, the zip file will remain intact. If you keep it, you'll always have these files for future play.
The Problem to Avoid
There is a definite reason for doing it the above way. When you load a campaign into SPWAW (an edited one, like ours), it occupies a certain space. When you load another of the same type, it overwrites the old one. In other words, you cannot have two of this type of campaign open in SP: WAW at the same time.
There is one master file that controls all the scenarios in one campaign. It is called usercamp.dat. Each campaign has the same master file name. It is the only one the game will recognize. The game was originally designed by SSI so that the owner of the game could design campaigns on his computer and they would all be saved into this one file.
Because, however, we are doing campaigns on separate computers, we cannot access the same usercamp.dat file. Each campaign we create has its own usercamp.dat file. Again, if you load an edited campaign into the game and one is already there, it will load right over the top of it and sometimes mix the scenarios of the two campaigns.
Resolving the Matter
To avoid this problem, here is what we will do.
1. There should be a separate folder in the game called "Campaigns." If not, you'll need to make one.
2. In this new folder, keep zip files of all your campaigns. For example, in mine I currently have two zip files:
· tunisiacampSPWAW.zip
· eaglesSPWAW.zip
3. When I am ready to play a campaign, I first make sure that there are no campaign scenarios in the \scen subdirectory. You will recognize these because they all begin with UC. I remove them and also remove the usercamp.dat file.
3. Now I open the zip file from the SPWAW\Campaigns directory. For example, eaglesSPWAW.zip has seven files: six scenario files and one master file.
4. I load these into the SPWAW\scen subdirectory. I keep the zip file intact, right where it was. That way when I need to remove the Eagle campaign, I can simply delete it. I have another copy still in my SPWAW\Campaigns folder in that same zip file from which I extracted the files earlier.
5. So I delete the campaign files from SPWAW\Scen (remember, they begin with uc) and the usercamp.dat from the \Scen subdirectory, but NOT the \Campaigns subdirectory.
6. Now I can go to the SPWAW\Campaigns subdirectory and open tunisiacampSPWAW.zip and put those files into the game. Until there is a better way, this is how we will have to do it. After you have finished playing you can remove those files from your \Scen subdirectory. Remember, you still have the campaign tucked away in the \Campaigns subdirectory in the tunisiacampSPWAW.zip file.
By using this method you'll be able to receive and store new campaigns as they are produced for the game with no danger of them being mixed or corrupted. Just keep a zip file of each campaign in your Campaigns File folder and open them whenever you are ready to play.
Q. Why does pavement, sandstone & dirt show differently on elevations?
A. This is a known problem. One way to avoid part of this is to use base #2, gravel, instead of cement. It does not have that blocked appearance that cement does. You can also feather the edges of cement with gravel. Another possible solution is to put the gravel in first, then the grass
Q. What is suppression How does suppression work ?
A., Suppression goes up to 99, 0 suppression means you get the best hit chances. Once you start getting shot at, you suffer about a 25-50 degradation based on experience.. The first few points of suppression do the most, once you get over 20-30 its more a matter of how far you head is between your knees... Every time you "rally" suppression is cut in half but once you get shot at you are stuck at 1 minimum. Every "*" when a vehicle is hit means a system or crewman is knocked out. The more stars the more suppression vehicles take.
When your suppression reaches a certain fraction of your morale you become pinned (buttoned for vehicles), then retreated and finally routed, as you rally the suppression below the thresholds, you get improvement in status. IF you keep shooting at retreated or routed troops, occasionally they figure its better to go down fighting and spontaneously go to pinned and stop running away. Russians in delay or defend mission can "fanatically" go from routed or retreated back to good order again.
Q.Can I put my units under computer control during the game?
A. Yes you can set waypoints DURING THE GAME and place
your units under computer control. Go to the HQ tent icon and click on the
waypoint icon and then set unit to computer control. This is useful in
big scenarios when reinforcements come in and are well behind the front
lines, Waypoints put them under computer control and
they automatically move at the end of the turn
Q. What are gun teams and pack mules used for?
A. Gun teams haul guns. So do pack mules. More realistic than tons of trucks
and half-tracks, at least for the Axis side and the minors...and Russia.
Q. How do you set up and use reinforcement hexes?
A. Reinforcement Hexes are used to set up delays in bringing units into the scenario. Reinforcements are set from the deploy screen, reinforcement hexes (where they will enter) are set from the map editor screen.
1. Go to the map editor and click on "edit."
Reinforcement hexes are numbered 1-4 only in the deploy screen, NOT HERE. Remember that.
Now each side has four reinforcement hexes, and they are numbered thusly
0=side 1 retreat hex
1=side 2 retreat hex
2-5 = side 1 reinforcement hex numbers.
6-9 = side 2 reinforcement hex numbers.
To make a hex a reinforcement hex, click on it. Then type (if you are side 1) numbers 2,3,4, or 5.
If you are setting reinforcement hexes for side two, you would use numbers 6,7,8,9.
Now it is VERY important to remember that when you go BACK to the deploy screen to assign units as reinforcement hexes, the numbers in the map editor no longer count.
This means that side one has reinforcement hexes 1,2,3, and 4 (even though in the map editor they were numbered 2-5).
The same with side 2. Now in the deploy screen, they are numbered 1,2,3,4.
Example:
Do this in the game as I go.
1. Open the game, Go to map editor, edit.
2. Find hex 2,2. this will be our reinforcement hex.
3. Now, simply click on it (2,2). Now type "2" You should now see a reinforcement flag in hex 2,2.
3. Close the map editor.
4. Open the unit deploy screen
5. Find that reinforcement flag you just typed in 2,2. Run the cursor over it. It should say reinforcement hex 1.
And the same system applies with the others.
Q. How do retreat hexes work?
A. Retreat hexes are set in the same way as reinforcement hexes, from the map editor screen. Open the map of the scenario with "edit." Then click on the hex you want side one to retreat through. Then type "0" (zero) for side one (left side). Net click on another hex on the other side of the map and type "1"(one) for side two (right side)
Q. What are reaction turns?
A. In the Steel Panther Series you can set a time for units to "react" or start moving. Reaction turn is used in conjunction with waypoints.
This is done in the scenario editor. Are you designing scenarios?
It works like this.
1.After you have selected and placed your units, you have the option to set a time for them to react or move and also the directions of their move.
2. This is done by first clicking on the top right hand corner button in the Unit deployment screen in the editor.
3. Now you see on the right a listing of all the units and formations for one side.In the center you'll see a list of the leaders for each formation. To the left of the name of each leader are two buttons. One shows arrows. The other the head of the leader.
4. First click on the head of the leader. It changes to a computer. Now in the lower left hand corner of the screen is a button titled "reaction."
5. Click on it. Now the screen turns blue at the top. Type in the turn number you want to activate the unit. If you type in a 5, the unit will start to move on turn five. That is its reaction turn.
Q. How do you set waypoints?
A.After setting the formation to computer control and setting the reaction turn, in the same screen, click on the arrow button. The computer changes the screen to the units deployed. A new screen of the battle map opens. Now simply click in a path you want the unit to follow. Each time you click on a location, it is a waypoint. You can have up to 10 waypoints for that unit. You can erase waypoints by clicking on the cancel button, but it cancels all waypoints and you have to start over. Make sure that when you set waypoints that the last one ends up in the objective you have set for the formation.
Q. What are formation objectives? How are they used?
A. Formation objectives are use3d to set objectives for individual formations within the scenario. To set a specific objective for a formation, click on the blue flag in the Deploy screen after highlighting a formation. Then click on a hex. Look at the bottom of the screen. That is now the formation's objective. If you want all of your units to have the same objective, click on the Green flag button. Don't use the green flag unless you want the objective hex for ALL formations the same.
Q. What do the categories mean in the Encyclopedia Screen for an individual unit.?
A. "ACC"= Accuracy of the weapon, the higher the number the more accurate it is. Good to know, for example you might have two 88mm guns to choose from one might be more accurate than the other.
"Kill"= This number is the max number of troops that the weapon can kill with one volley. Important, new types of rounds have been added. Where once we knew pretty much what an HE round would do, it is now a good idea to glance at the stats to see if it has been *beefed up*. An example of this is the British StuartV and the StuartVI, the first can shoot a 37mm canister round, the second cannot. If you compare the two there is quite a difference.
"Pen"= Penetration. You will see two numbers here. The HE ( high explosive ) number is the max thickness in mm at the closest range it will pierce. AP ( armor piercing ) is the same.
"Heat"= high explosive anti-tank. This round uses concentrated heat to burn or melt through the armor.
"APCR"= I'm guessing on this one, armor piercing chemical round.
"Range"= Max range of the weapon according to the type of round fired. You will see two numbers here. Ok this is where you need to take a look the unit stats, by right clicking on the unit once bought. The chart showing range, type of round, and armor penetration. Notice the difference in range for each round, it isn't so important to memorize this as it is to know that the AP types have a shorter range.
"Warhead"= I don't remember and couldn't find it in my books. I recall seeing it on a forum I believe, but have forgotten. I think bigger is better here.
"Survivability"= The higher the number the better chance it has of surviving the rigors of battle.
"Rate of Fire"= It is an average fire rate for a veteran unit. Elite would be higher.
Fire Control is an important number. The higher the number the faster the weapon can be reloaded. This is most apparent when comparing say German vs. Russian tanks for the same time period. German fire control is usually the higher due to, tank commander duties and actual gun set up. The number also effects how many rounds you have to fire at the end of your movement.
Q. How do I know which units are in a formation and are mine?
A. Units that belong to the same formation as the unit that you have selected are colored yellow. This helps you to keep your platoons together as a cohesive fighting force. Another reason for playing with command control on. Units that are red are others of your army. Those in white are the enemy. Those that are silver are the enemy in your LOS.
Q. What is the Victory Frontage button in Preferences for?
A. The victory frontage option changes the arrangement of victory hexes
from the "old" 3 groups of 7 to 5 groups or 4 (or so).
Q. What is the Hidden Forts button for?
A. "Hidden forts" on means that if limited Intel is on, you can lose track
of where forts are in the heat of battle, with it off, once you spot a
fort, as long as a unit has it in LOS, it never disappears.
Q. What is the Limited Intel Button for?
A. Limited Intel makes you "reroll" all your sighting checks every turn
(i.e. the enemy is not static, but moving around within the hex...) so you can
"lose target lock" on enemy units (but if a unit had them targeted they can
still shoot - new units just can't and it doesn't appear on the map.
Q. How do I add on board artillery to my scenario.
A. Make the year 1949 and you will be able to buy on board artillery. Change back to the year of your scenario and save.
Send any additions or changes to;
Brent Richards brentr@schobers.com
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