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As to the question re how units become Guards, Pavel did a check of the code and found that the WitE1 rules re what it takes in wins/losses to become a guard seems to still apply in WitE2. The WitE1 rules are below. Pavel can't 100% say that these are the same and there are no other changes that he missed that were not obvious when he looked at the code. Given that, I'm a bit reluctant to include this in the living manual, but I think I'll try to get it in, maybe with a caveat that we think these rules apply. Can anyone at this point say they don't apply (looking at you Wiedrock )

In order for a unit to become a guards unit, the three following conditions must be met:

Condition One:
For non-motorized units, the unit’s number of wins plus the year modifier must be greater or
equal to 8 plus random(8).(see glossary for definition of random(x))
For motorized units, the unit’s number of wins plus the year modifier must be greater or equal
to 12 plus random(12)
For Corps HQ units, the unit’s number of wins plus the year modifier must be greater or equal
to 15 plus random(15)
166
For Army HQ units, the unit’s number of wins plus the year modifier must be greater or equal
to 75 plus random(75)

Condition Two:
For all units, the unit’s number of wins plus the year modifier must be greater than 9

Condition Three:
For all units, the unit’s number of wins plus the year modifier must be greater than 2 plus the
unit’s number of losses

Year Modifier: The Year modifier is 3 in 1941, 2 in 1942 and 1 in 1943-45.

IIRC rifle divisions with 7 wins can become guards

Stamb wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 11:37 pm IIRC rifle divisions with 7 wins can become guards

That fulfils Condition Two in '41 since 7 + 3 > 9. Condition Three says you can't have more losses than wins. Then Condition One says that in '41 a rifle division with 7 wins has a 3/8 = 37.5% chance every turn to become guards. The chance goes up if you get more wins.

In '42 you need at least 8 wins for rifle divisions to become guards and a greater number of wins than losses. In '43 - '45 you need 9 wins and two more wins than losses.

Joel Billings wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 8:33 pm Can anyone at this point say they don't apply (looking at you Wiedrock )

I don't have the time right now to test each case individually, generally they seem alright. The Community will point out if there are oddities, now people know where to aim for when "farming" GUARDs and will quickly realize if they are encountering issues which you then get thrown at you!

Joel Billings wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 8:33 pm Can anyone at this point say they don't apply (looking at you Wiedrock )

I have used WitE1 rules for Guards promotions as a reference since early patches, they seem to work as written in the WitE1 manual (though no idea about planes, but that is a different story).

Subject of Command Battle Modifiers. The manual states 10% for German example which actually is 6%.

LIving Manual 1.27, p.423 wrote:These penalties will vary according to how distant the respective commands are in
the overall Order of Battle. So units belonging to a different Axis Corps HQ but in the
same Army will have a 10% penalty (the equivalent for the Soviets is a different Army
HQ but in the same Front). A unit that reports to a corps in a different army in a
different army group will face a more substantial penalty.

Cross River DISruption is missing some rules regarding certain Ice Levels for minor rivers in combination with NON-MOT units attacking across.

Recently, caused by this Debate in connection to 1st Winter Axis pre-battle DISruption in Heavy Snow Hexes leading to large CV increases, there was a new rule revealed.

living Manual 1.30, p.823 wrote: 43.5.2. 01.04.03

[...]

Undocumented rule (First Winter Disruption) – Non-Finnish and non-mountain Axis
units, in combat where the defending unit is in a heavy snow hex from December 1941
through February 1942, suffer significant disruption at the start of a battle. The amount
of disruption reduces each month and is higher for an attacker than a defender.

Support units and reserve units committed to battle, now suffer First Winter Disruption.
Also, the start of battle CV values now reflect the amount of disruption done by First
Winter Disruption for all units fighting in a heavy snow hex (used to only reflect this for
attacker on-map combat units).

Undocumented rule – Just prior to resolving the final odds for a battle, there is a
chance that up to ¾ of the ground elements disrupted will have their disruption
removed. The higher the experience of the elements, the greater the chance of
removal.

Somehow this last paragraph also made it into another section of the Manual:

living Manual 1.30, p.429f wrote:23.10. COMBAT RESULTS AND BATTLE LOSSES
23.10.1. Combat Result Effects
A ground element that is hit by enemy fire can suffer one of three adverse effects (or
can escape with no damage).
Disruption: Disrupted ground elements can no longer fire and they will not contribute
their combat value to the final CV computations. At the end of the battle they are set
to normal but with additional fatigue so will take part in subsequent battles that turn
but with progressively less effect (23.8.3).

[...]

Errata – undocumented rules: Just prior to resolving the final odds for a
battle, there is a chance that up to ¾ of the ground elements disrupted will
have their disruption removed. The higher the experience of the elements, the
greater the chance of removal.

Now my question is, is this rule applied to:
- all battles/instances/periods?
- all causes of DISruption? (Winter, River, GS-Planes, GA-HexInterdiction(planes), ArtilleryPhase, Ground)
...or is it an exclusive Winter 41 feature?

And what Leader Rating is being used?

Thanks.

Living Manual 1.32, p.795 wrote:Preparing for the Next War
2 January 1944
Far East Ground Requirement increased to 160, Air to 75

This Soviet Event changes FE TB to 210, not 160.
EDIT: There seems to be more numbers off, see pic.

Bn -> Bde ??

Soviet brigades minimum 50 NM should be added to the living manual.

Hello,
I have installed version 4.12 and there is NOTHING in my manuals directory for a living manual. Where the heck is it? I see the latest mention of it here is v 1.32. How to I obtain this I have the original hard copy from the original purchase of the game and thats it. Any help is greatly appreciated
Dan

Hello,
I have installed version 4.12 and there is NOTHING in my manuals directory for a living manual. Where the heck is it? I see the latest mention of it here is v 1.32. How to I obtain this I have the original hard copy from the original purchase of the game and thats it. Any help is greatly appreciated
Dan

I too have 01.04.12 installed and the living manual is in the Manuals file as a pdf Doc, try a new install as I don’t believe it is a separate downloadable file .I don’t know if it’s included with a Steam install as I bought mine direct from Matrix.
Just re download to a different directory and cut and paste the living manual into your original install.

Matrixgames may need to work a bit on the Launcher:
The manual folder is opened with the "Guides" link in Launcher. May need a better label.
Clicking on the "Manual" Link it opens the main game in my PDf viewer. OK
Clicking on the "Printer Friendly Manual" link drafts the Steel Expansion Ebook manual from the Matrixgames FTP and opens it in the browser. Looks like an errornous link function.
the Living manual available via Steam is version 1.32

Thx guys. a reinstall worked. It showed up in my manuals directory