Entire 1st Marine Division Disappears

[John S]

Playing the 43 campaign. I loaded the first division onto transport at Lae to invade Finshaven. The division unloaded and subsequently disappeared. Here is a detailed description that I provided in the War Room:

The total disappearance of the 1st Marine Division is really ugly and I hope there is an answer somewhere. Going back to saved games, here is the history.
August 18, 1943, 1st Marine Div sits in Lae with 3755 first line and 11794 second line. There are about 4000 Japanese troops in total at Finshaven.
August 22, a small part of the 1st Marine have landed from LCT's etc, the total amount won't show. 12,000 of the 1st Marine Division loading points are on AP's about to land.
August 23, the Marines on the AP's are only 9807 so some landed. The unit display shows zero troops BUT the display shows Assault 235, Guns 76, Eng 18 and Support 155 at this location, this has to be the 1st Marine. When you go to the "Show ground unit List", the 1st Marine is shown as being at Finshaven.
August 24. the 32 USA Div has landed and it is shown at Finshaven. The 1st has disappeared. Not only is it not shown at Finishaven, it has now disappeared from the "Show Ground Units" display. The AP's are empty. Oddly, at the end of turn the
display says that units of the 1st marine are merging.
August 25 - 32nd Division is there in force. Shows on the display if you right or left click. The 1st has totally disappeared. The end of turn stills says the 1st Marine units are merging but they are still not on the Display ground units. Note - the Japs never counterattacked so there were no losses there. The 1st Marine is not at Lae or at sea. I did a test assault to see if the 1st showed up as an assaulting unit but no such luck, only the 32nd.
Just a little discouraging after about 50 hours of play. Not sure it's worth going back or going on.

I HAVE SAVED GAMES THAT REFLECT THIS. IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO SEND THEM ON PLEASE ADVISE AS TO PRECISELY WHERE TO SEND THEM. APRECIATE ANY HELP IN RESURRECTING THE DISAPPEARED DIVISION.

[Xargun]

Currently there is a problem when you only load part of a unit. When you unload the unit it can completely disappear. This does not happen all the time, but it is a known problem and I believed fixed for the next patch - it has something to do with when it attempts to merge the unit back together there isn't a parent unit (it is usually left behind at whatever base you loaded from) and that causes it to delete itself.

From your description it looks like you were unable to load the entire 1st USMC Div onto 1 TF... thus, you fell into the bug... If the entire unit is gone there is no way to get it back... If the parent unit still exists somewhere, it will eventually build back to full strength, but whatever was lost is lost - no way to get it back that I know of..

I'm sure one of the more experienced betas (Nik, Frag, Mogami, etc...) can give you a better explaination for what happened, but it sounds like you fell victim to the disappearing unit bug..

Xargun

[John S]

Thanks for the information. You are correct. I had two loads of about equal size and was completely unaware that this would raise a problem or that it was a known bug.
There is a line in Catch 22 - "That's some Catch, that Catch 22".
I would say "That's some bug, that disappearing unit bug."

I used to have a self imposed rule - never buy a game until it is at least 120 days old. I suspect that the missing Marines in the 1st would agree - Good Rule!!!

[dphillips]

I lost the entire division. Loaded it up in San Diego for transport to SW Pacific, Noumea.
when the TF arrived...no 1st Division.

[Mr.Frag]

Did you do any ship merging with that group?

Were any ships sunk?

[Rocco]

I have had a disappearance as well.

At the game's start there is a transport TF in the South Pacific carrying a field artillery unit. The unit disappeared before it reached Suva, but the supply was still aboard. The only thing I did to that task force was to split the CA in that TF into a new TF of just the CA. I assume that's what caused it?

Sorry I don't have a save, but I didn't notice it until quite a few turns later, I just happened to check on the TF just prior to arrival at Suva.

Rocco

[dphillips]

As I mentioned in an earlier post the 1st Marine dissapeared while in transport....well it reappeared 7/42 in San fran....Wow, where where those guys?