Ground units disappear after successful offensive?

[+Johan217]

Here's a problem I have run across while making my Suez/1967/Yom Kippur campaigns. Sometimes, a ground unit completely disappears from the map after a successful offensive. The frontline has changed, but the unit is gone. It happens even when there are no enemy units near, so the friendly unit can't have been wiped out by enemy fire. I have checked the strategic nodes and the place is still connected to other objectives.

 

It happens on Gepard's Israel terrain (v1.5 and 2.1), but I assume it may happen on other maps too.

 

Any ideas?

[+JSF_Aggie]

How many "Forces" do you have defined?

 

TK changed the front line code with SP4, and it does a few squirly things if you have more than 2 "Forces" defined (one friendly, one enemy).

 

I had the same problem you described in DBS '72 & OTC, when I had 3 "Forces" defined, and TK told me that was the reason. Problem went away when I changed it to just 2.

[+Johan217]

Yes, I have about 5 forces defined in the campaign. I had to do this to make the ground offensives appear where I wanted.

 

Thanks Aggie

[+Johan217]

Could something else be causing the problem?

 

I have changed the campaign to use only two forces, and it still happens!

I have double checked that I set Intelligence=100 for all ground units and the target location has a valid date of appearance. All strategic nodes seem to be linked to the correct coordinates.

 

Is anyone having a similar problem?

[+JSF_Aggie]

Nothing that I'm aware of. I've only completed 2 campaigns since SP4, OTC and DBS '72. Both had the problem you mention, and both were fixed by having just two "forces" defined.

 

The only other thing I can suggest is to show TK your two campaign .ini files, either via email or post them at his site.

 

Good luck

[+Baltika]

Sorry to drag this topic up from the vaults, but I wondered if you ever found a solution to this problem?

 

I have WIP WW2 North Africa and Burma campaigns (using Edward's excellent terrains) which are both having trouble with this issue. I have only two forces defined in the campaign_data.ini, I have double and triple checked my nodes so they are all connected up properly, and I have extensively re-defined the frontline to ensure it complies with the necessary requirements so far as I understand them, i.e. stretches from one side of the map to the other, has plenty of defined "points" to allow for movement as nodes change hands, and there are no nodes which are too close together, which can sometimes be a problem.

 

I thought I had the whole frontline thing sussed after BoB campaign development (that was a headscratcher) and spent a lot of time getting it right for Operation Mountain Thunder, so I know I can get it working on 3rd party terrains. But this has me stumped. Every time, "The enemy forces have captured Mandalay," and the IJA 33rd "Yumi Heidan" Division, Lt. Gen. Shozo Sakurai commanding, disappears into thin air. Baffling, and it's frustrating my efforts to say to people, "What do you think of my Kobayashi Maru scenario?" when they take on the RAF or AVG role in Burma 41-42 campaign.

 

Any tips?

 

Cheers all, in mystification

Edited March 19, 2008 by Baltika

[+Johan217]

Maybe double check that you have nodes going in both directions from Mandalay, so that both enemy and friendly units have somewhere to retreat to. That's how I managed to solve the problem in a few cases (but not all!).

 

It happened to me with Sharm-al-Sheikh on Gepards map... and guess what, now on the WOI map also with Sharm-al-Sheikh! I'm beginning to think this place has some special recreation for the troops so they all decide to desert!

[+Baltika]

Thanks for the tip, I will double check all connections (again )

 

A few experiments overnight lead me to think that the best thing is to keep it simple - my initial Burma node map was quite complex. The main route ran from Bangkok to Myitkyina, via Rangoon and Mandalay, and various points in between. However, it also had branches running off the main route, one to Kunming in China and another to Akyab near the border with India, to allow (so I thought) for units which entered the theatre from those directions to follow the correct path - I'm thinking the Chinese Expeditionary Force to Burma in 1942, and the later Arrakan campaigns.

 

However, that seemed to throw things off. When I cut out the side branches, things seem to run more smoothly (fingers crossed). I would still like to have those alternate routes, though. . .

[+Johan217]

In WOI there are a number of new campaign parameters that may give you more control over ground offensives. I assume they will be available for other TW sims in future patches. http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=25969

 

For example, you can set a strategic node to LocalObjective=TRUE. I don't know exactly what it does, but I think it gives priority to a node, so that ground units will try to capture this node before attacking others.

 

From my experience it is indeed better to avoid branches and instead use completely different nodes to create separate attack routes. You can easily add dummy nodes in the terrain's targets.ini, i.e. target areas that do not contain a physical object but just serve as waypoints. Gepard did this in his Suez terrain.

[+Baltika]

From my experience it is indeed better to avoid branches and instead use completely different nodes to create separate attack routes. You can easily add dummy nodes in the terrain's targets.ini, i.e. target areas that do not contain a physical object but just serve as waypoints. Gepard did this in his Suez terrain.

 

Excellent suggestion, thanks.