Hostile Vichy Overrun Naval Units Cannot Use German Bases.

[rkr1958]

1. CW, US and Free France declared war on Vichy this impulse.

2. The CW ground struck two targets in Metropolitan Vichy France, making Vichy hostile to the CW.

3. The US (and CW) invade Metropolitan Vichy France, making Vichy hostile to the US too.

4. There are three invasions in Vichy Naval units are overrun (Mogador, Morocco; Casablanca, Morocco; and Toulon, Vichy France). In all three, any Vichy overrun naval units that survive can only base in Vichy controlled ports. In the case of Magador and Casablanca Morocco this will cause the game to hang if Vichy ships survive that don't have the range to reach a Vichy port.

[rkr1958]

For example the BB Strasbourg. The game tells me that he should be able to base in Bayoone and a number of other German controlled ports. However, when I try I get an X across the ship icon. If I hit escape to cancel it puts the Strasbourg in the 0-box and the end phase button stays grayed out.

[rkr1958]

v3.0.1 game file attached.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

See RAC 17.4 - Using Vichy Units.

They can only enter hexes outside of Vichy France if it is controlled by an enemy major power.

Use Backspace to destroy units that cannot reach a valid rebase hex.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

See RAC 17.4 - Using Vichy Units.

They can only enter hexes outside of Vichy France if it is controlled by an enemy major power.

Use Backspace to destroy units that cannot reach a valid rebase hex.

Steve, thanks!

But, I'm fairly certain there's still a bug here. Here are the steps that'll recreate it.

1. Using the game file from the next post resolve the Magador, Morocco land combat.
2. For the overrun Vichy naval units enter 2 for all except the BB Strasbourg. Enter 10 for her. This will keep things simple. The Strasbourg will be the only Vichy Ship that survives the overrun.
3. Move the Strasbourg out to Cape St. Vincent and have the allies decline to intercept.
4. Move the Strasbourg to the Bay of Biscay (ctl-<right click>) and again have the allies decline to intercept.
5. Now you're stuck. There's no base to which the Strasbourg can move AND the backspace key does nothing.

[rkr1958]

game file.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Really? The program let you force the movement of unit to a point where couldn't reach any valid port. Not something I want to spend time trying to prevent a player from doing.

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The F11 key is basically a Debug tool and shouldn't be taken as an absolute for what is possible. In this case, the code for F11 isn't checking the validity of the destination port in advance. It should - but it isn't. For Vichy units all the destinations in Occupied France are invalid.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Really? The program let you force the movement of unit to a point where couldn't reach any valid port. Not something I want to spend time trying to prevent a player from doing.

Well, that's your call. But, the program let me move a ship to a place in which no legal move from there was possible or allowed. At least shouldn't the "Backspace key to destroy the naval unit" still work in that situation? It didn't and forced me to go back to an autosave.

And this wasn't the only issue I had to deal with when overrunning Vichy Naval units. See: tm.asp?m=4625402

Given the overrun bugs I encountered and tm.asp?m=4625097 it took me 3 to 4 hours of having to go back through auto-saves to setup and resolve the land combat below. Especially the two in Morocco, which both included overrun of Vichy Naval units in the Atlantic.

My experience was that this whole impulse in which Vichy France was surprised, made hostile, invaded and her naval units overrun was buggy. Maybe all the bugs I encountered were edge cases and not worth fixing. If that's the call then so be it. I have the experience, knowledge and determination to figure out how to get around these types of issues and continue with my game.