Railroads, Trains & Shellholes

[Big Ivan]

Hello Folks,

Re: Railroads and trains:
I ran into a slight snag in a design my own scenario. Could someone explain why troop trains can only carry guns but not infantry? Is there a fix for this issue? Also are trains in general treated as "hard targets" and is there a greater probability in seeing them in concealed terrain?

Do trains need heavy bridges to cross gullies, streams and minor rivers?

There was a bug in the first version of JTCS West Front where trains running on rails with a road running parallel in the same hex in which the train could move no further because the road was taking precedence I beleive? Does anyone know if this was fixed in 1.04? I don't know if this was the case in East Front or Rising Sun because I never explored it further.

Re: Shellholes:
I noticed a couple of the West Front scenarios begin with shellholes already visible on the map. Is there a way of adding shellholes in scenario setup?

Thanks[&:]

[baltjes]

Hello Big Ivan,

I am just in the final phase of developping a (large) scenario on the German assault on the Netherlands in May 1940. The Germans did make use of 'armoured' trains quite abundantly, with only limited, though decisive effect (crossing the river Meuse at Gennep and the following battle at Mill!).

For the transport of a full battalion of infantry (III-474 IR), quite a number of troop transport trains have to be used. But that is the only 'problem' (to have just a platoon transported by a full train-unit; the total train is like a snake of some kilometers length crawling through the landscape and every train unit has to be moved 'individualy') I have met so far. That is to say, infantry, mortar, guns, etc, all infantry units and -weapons can be loaded without any difficulty!

As far as I can see (and figured out after consulting Jason), trains need at least medium-bridges to cross river-hex sides.

The 'bug' you refer to with respect of entering a road and a railroad into a hex via the same hex-side is not solved yet. Te only way to overcome this problem is to prevent such situations to happen (in your map-editor).

I don't have an answer on your shell-hole question.

Good luck with making your scenario's (what a wunderfull job to MHO)

Hajo Baltjes

[umbro]

To avoid the rail/road issue have the two weave in and out of common hexes such that they do not rely on the same hexside.

To add craters add the following to your .SCN file at the appropriate line (the lines are in hex coordinate order)
13 <X_coord> <Y_coord> <Crater_type> (where Crater_type is 1,2, or 3 depending upon how many shell holes you want)

umbro

[Big Ivan]

Hey thanks baltjes & umbro!

Some good info there. Its appreciated especially on the shelholes and rail-parallel road bug.

I still have trouble getting infantry loaded on trains. On the unit box I get trains with only a gun symbol but no infantry symbol. Perhaps it may be related to how the files loaded when I installed. Hmmm, not sure what to do at this point except maybe another re-install.

Big Ivan[:)]

[Jason Petho]

Don't bother reinstalling, there is a platoon coding error causing the inability of infantry to be loaded on to trains.

This will be fixed in 1.05.

Jason Petho

[Big Ivan]

You da Man Jason!!!

Thanks for heading me off at the pass!!

Big Ivan

[baltjes]

ORIGINAL: Jason Petho

Don't bother reinstalling, there is a platoon coding error causing the inability of infantry to be loaded on to trains.

This will be fixed in 1.05.

Jason Petho

Hello Jason,

A Platoon coding error? But I have met no difficulty with (dis)embarking infantry (German infantry, others I didn't try) (from) on trains and transporting them along railtracks. Neither with scenario set-up nor during play! As I guess, Umbro hasn't either just as probably more users of MCS. (Otherwise they would have told so, I suppose). So, is it a certain 'version' of the game that has this inconvenience?

Greetings,

Hajo Baltjes

[Jason Petho]

ORIGINAL: baltjes
Hello Jason,

A Platoon coding error? But I have met no difficulty with (dis)embarking infantry (German infantry, others I didn't try) (from) on trains and transporting them along railtracks. Neither with scenario set-up nor during play! As I guess, Umbro hasn't either just as probably more users of MCS. (Otherwise they would have told so, I suppose). So, is it a certain 'version' of the game that has this inconvenience?

Hello Hajo

The 1.04 UPDATE altered the platoon files for East Front in hopes of having armoured vehicles being able to be transported by trains, unfortunately, it didn't work and removed the ability for infantry to be loaded. My own fault, I forgot to change it back to the original code.

Jason Petho

[baltjes]

I see...., I have restricted myself (so far) to West Front!! Thanks for the clarification Jason, it endorses me to continue the development of my 'NL-40' -scenario(s) with armoured trains etc.


Hajo Baltjes

[Big Ivan]

Umbro,

I guess I'm confused on the coding a bit:

Your comment:
To add craters add the following to your .SCN file at the appropriate line (the lines are in hex coordinate order)
13 <X_coord> <Y_coord> <Crater_type> (where Crater_type is 1,2, or 3 depending upon how many shell holes you want)

I looked at pre-existing .btl scenarios thru notepad and the crater type is a whole number greater than 1, 2 or 3. In some cases its anywhere from 10 to 85! Could this be firepower factors dropped on the hex? That would seem the most logical explination. As an example the coding looks like this 13 35 36 42! The 42 cooresponds to a fully shelled hex.

Thanks

Big Ivan[:)]