Explain this LCU movement

[Yaab]

Scen 001

Hex 88,55 - empty on Dec 12, 1941.

RESTART XXVI teleprting unit to chushien (1).png (2.14 MiB) Viewed 509 times

Hex 88,55 - enemy units spotted in the hex on Dec 13,1941.

RESTART XXVI teleprting unit to chushien (2).png (1.98 MiB) Viewed 509 times

Chuhsien hex - an enemy unit appears in Chuhsien on Dec 14, 1941. HOW?

My only explanation is this: when the enemy was spotted on December 13,1941 in hex 88,55, he already had like i.e. 45 miles of 46 miles completed in a move directly from hex 88,55 towards Chushien. The unit in question is a Japanese car company. On Dec 15, I attacked this unit in Chuhsien hex only to find out the car company was joined by a Japanese division marching from hex 88,55 in the meantime!

RESTART XXVI teleprting unit to chushien (3).png (1.75 MiB) Viewed 509 times

[BBfanboy]

Could be a simple case of non-detection. By the time they were detected on Dec.13 they were already about to cross into Chuhsien hex?

[Chris21wen]

Detection level you just did not see them.

Just ran in and the answers is, no they did not teleport any more than all of you Chinese troops did in Chuhsien. However there is a lot of Corps there?

Image from 12 Dec. Two unit have reach 88,55 on the 12 Dec. The div came form Hangchow and has cover 27 miles to towards Chuhsien. The AC came from Wuhu and has covered 45 miles.

Screenshot 2026-09-30 080919.png (43.66 KiB) Viewed 430 times

[Yaab]

I divided 1-2 Chinese corps into A/B/C to get more replacements:

Some ideas:

- the car company screens the movement of the division, because it moves ahead of the division
- leader's Land skill is used in covering unit's approach/ detecting an enemy unit (notice in my pics there are no movement pointers on the Japanese units - they appear to be static)
- my detection efforts can be suppressed in the game's code by Japanese flying continous recon missions over my units

[Chris21wen]

It's none of those things. Every unit has there own DL. When a ground unit moves, for every new hex it moves into the DL is halved, at the end of every night resolution phase the DL one is subtracted. When every a unit is next to an enemy ground unit is DL is set from 0 to 1, not increased by one, so if the DL was already one nothing happens.

At a level 1 only the barest intel is available, 'something is there'

The Japanese units moved down the road adjacent to your units so kept flipping between a DL of 1 and 0. But at no time did the DL every get above one as no attacks or recon was ever made. If it does go above 1 you get more detail which includes unit numbers, strengths, moving etc.

[Yaab]

Hex 88,55 to Chushien

46 miles distance. No roads directly linking the two hexes.

23 miles in Rough terrain. Armored units cover 15 miles per day in Rough.
23 miles of Wooded Rough terrain. Armored units cover 2(sic!) miles per day in Wooded Rough.

For the car company to arrive in Chuhsien on Dec 14 from hex 88,55, the car company should have accumulated 44 miles of movement towards Chuhsien when it was detected on Dec 13 in hex 88,55. This would mean the car company has been sitting for 11 turns in hex 88,55 undetected , accumulating 22 miles of Wooded Rough distance. However, only 7 turns have passed since the start of the game.

The move can only be explained by enemy units going through hex 89,56 (E of Chushien) which has a Main Road. My only unit there was an HQ in Combat mode with 0 forts. Enemy units give battle to lonely HQ unist which have forts. However, maybe an HQ unit with 0 forts doesn't excercise any ZOC in the game's code and you can simply drive through a hex a HQ sits in.

[Yaab]

Ok, I have found the save and checked the hexsides.

The car company came directly from hex 88,55

So there are two expalantions:

- the manual's movement rate for armored units in Wooded Rough hexes is wrong.
- AI cheats

hexes.png (92.3 KiB) Viewed 344 times

[Chris21wen]

When did the unit on the road to the east (Chin- Hua) arrive and what is it. In my test the AC followed the road but there's no enemy unit in my test.

[Yaab]

You mean this HQ unit? Can't tell I don't have the previous saves.

This is the HQ (forts 3) that starts next to Hangchow, gets beaten in a battle and moves to adjacent hex afterwards. I later walked the HQ to the hex E of Chuhsien.

[BBfanboy]

You are correct that "AI" (the game code) allows the computer side to do non-standard things like teleporting. This is to make up for not being able to respond to player moves - the computer side has to follow an unresponsive script and must pretend it knew (detected) what the player was doing and moved troops accordingly. The higher you set the game difficulty, the more latitude the computer side must take to thwart your efforts.

PS - enemy troops cannot pass through an enemy controlled hex without engaging the troops there even if it is a unit with no AV. If ordered to assault the base behind the hex the HQ is in they would march around it rather than engage. They must be ordered to engage the HQ if they want to clear a direct path to the base.

[Yaab]

Didn't know AI can do this to LCUs. I was aware it does so to ships.

Good to know.