RE: RHS Thread: Comprehensive Update 4.21
Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:30 am
Comprehensive update 4.21
https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ap7XOIkiBuUwhZAU7bdtWbbscE_oLg
This update mainly concerns the location file. However, there are new aircraft, device and leader files for the
Scenario folder. There also are new Spring season pwhexe.dat files. These fix a river navigation problem near
Kratie, Cambodia. The lower Mekong is separated from the Middle Mekong by Khone Falls, which are not navigable
in any season. There was inconsistency in the files - one did not permit enough navigation in the Middle section,
while another permitted complete access to the sea. Both are fixed. As well, one aircraft pointer for art was
changed, affecting 7 different documentation files. Updating them found and corrected a footnote which was
referenced in the wrong place.
A great deal of information was added to land combat units, correcting dates and starting locations in particular.
February 10, 1945 locations (and strengths) were added for every unit reviewed: I no longer look at a unit and fail
to make sure Scenario 126 data is not corrected. This effort led to changing map locations which Japan captured
during the war in China in particular. Some Allied units were moved to 1945 locations in the same area. A surprising
number of units start in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or at the wrong strength. For example, many divisions
were upgraded brigades - but start the game as divisions. A surprising number of Japanese unit code names have
become available - so it is now the normal case to see the code name displayed for a division. I used to think
only pre-war units had them. But they were being assigned right to the end - probably because they need a code
name for radio traffic.
I completed the implementation of the axis pioneer device - and found I had added one years ago but not used it
very much. This is implemented for many Japanese construction units. At the same time, I removed construction
companies from simplified RHS Scenarios (those with even numbers). In the process, I noticed and removed a number
of other companies from the same scenarios. Unless it is of great interest, simplified scenarios don't have
tiny companies. When these are Allied units in places not otherwise defended - they were left alone. Dutch
mobilization continued into 1942, with the last unit being a militia company on New Guinea. [This discussion ignores
new Dutch units formed in Ceylon or Australia that were not existing units mobilized for the war.] I also continue
to "prune" the Japan Enhanced Scenarios. Minor units are folded into larger ones, and do not exist as separate
units.
Overall, Japanese forces have lost power for several reasons, while some units gain it because of better efficiencies.
The pioneers are not suitable for use reducing fortifications. Construction units, and later infantry units, have
lost morale and preparation ratings. Units that were never outfitted with artillery, or were stripped of their
artillery, have lost their guns and associated support elements (mainly support squads, sometimes tractors, observers
and observation vehicles). I have added tiny numbers of obscure vehicles as chrome - notably a tankette modified
as an artillery observation platform - and the same tankette modified with seats to become a tow vehicle for
AT guns or light artillery, or a troop carrier (unarmored). These vehicles account for why books describe large
numbers of tracked vehicles in some units, but they don't have anything like that number of tanks, APCs, SP guns,
etc. Their main impact is logistical - increasing transport costs, loading costs, and unit feeding costs. But pure
vehicle count has a somewhat abstract impact on combat. This is likely appropriate. There are similarly many
obscure Allied vehicles and we have been adding them for years. As a player I have come to prefer pure infantry
units - they load and unload much faster than units with vehicles do - if there is no need for a lot of weight
in a landing situation. It can take days to unload vehicles, particularly over the beach. An amphib sailor myself,
I am not upset by that. Handling vehicles with cranes is a cumbersome process. PRC today has a much better system.
They use common-chassis tanks (with NATO standard ! 105 mm tank rifles), APCs and sometimes other functions - and
ALL of them can "gun and swim" - a variant of "gun and run" in the West. In fact, almost every vehicle in PLA can
be made to swim even if it does not normally do that. Main Battle Tanks have detachable collars with engines.
A Chinese LST often does not beach. This increases its load significantly, and avoids the 10% chance of damage
every time you beach. Instead, the vehicles "spit" out of the rear door while the LST moves at full speed in the
opposite direction. They turn 90 degrees and start shooting as they run inshore. These are ARMORED vehicles -
proof vs small arms, mortars and HE shell fragments - and they are able to stabilize the gun in spite of pitching
and yawing as they move. Nothing like my experience over half a century ago on the last APA ever built for the US.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ap7XOIkiBuUwhZAU7bdtWbbscE_oLg
This update mainly concerns the location file. However, there are new aircraft, device and leader files for the
Scenario folder. There also are new Spring season pwhexe.dat files. These fix a river navigation problem near
Kratie, Cambodia. The lower Mekong is separated from the Middle Mekong by Khone Falls, which are not navigable
in any season. There was inconsistency in the files - one did not permit enough navigation in the Middle section,
while another permitted complete access to the sea. Both are fixed. As well, one aircraft pointer for art was
changed, affecting 7 different documentation files. Updating them found and corrected a footnote which was
referenced in the wrong place.
A great deal of information was added to land combat units, correcting dates and starting locations in particular.
February 10, 1945 locations (and strengths) were added for every unit reviewed: I no longer look at a unit and fail
to make sure Scenario 126 data is not corrected. This effort led to changing map locations which Japan captured
during the war in China in particular. Some Allied units were moved to 1945 locations in the same area. A surprising
number of units start in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or at the wrong strength. For example, many divisions
were upgraded brigades - but start the game as divisions. A surprising number of Japanese unit code names have
become available - so it is now the normal case to see the code name displayed for a division. I used to think
only pre-war units had them. But they were being assigned right to the end - probably because they need a code
name for radio traffic.
I completed the implementation of the axis pioneer device - and found I had added one years ago but not used it
very much. This is implemented for many Japanese construction units. At the same time, I removed construction
companies from simplified RHS Scenarios (those with even numbers). In the process, I noticed and removed a number
of other companies from the same scenarios. Unless it is of great interest, simplified scenarios don't have
tiny companies. When these are Allied units in places not otherwise defended - they were left alone. Dutch
mobilization continued into 1942, with the last unit being a militia company on New Guinea. [This discussion ignores
new Dutch units formed in Ceylon or Australia that were not existing units mobilized for the war.] I also continue
to "prune" the Japan Enhanced Scenarios. Minor units are folded into larger ones, and do not exist as separate
units.
Overall, Japanese forces have lost power for several reasons, while some units gain it because of better efficiencies.
The pioneers are not suitable for use reducing fortifications. Construction units, and later infantry units, have
lost morale and preparation ratings. Units that were never outfitted with artillery, or were stripped of their
artillery, have lost their guns and associated support elements (mainly support squads, sometimes tractors, observers
and observation vehicles). I have added tiny numbers of obscure vehicles as chrome - notably a tankette modified
as an artillery observation platform - and the same tankette modified with seats to become a tow vehicle for
AT guns or light artillery, or a troop carrier (unarmored). These vehicles account for why books describe large
numbers of tracked vehicles in some units, but they don't have anything like that number of tanks, APCs, SP guns,
etc. Their main impact is logistical - increasing transport costs, loading costs, and unit feeding costs. But pure
vehicle count has a somewhat abstract impact on combat. This is likely appropriate. There are similarly many
obscure Allied vehicles and we have been adding them for years. As a player I have come to prefer pure infantry
units - they load and unload much faster than units with vehicles do - if there is no need for a lot of weight
in a landing situation. It can take days to unload vehicles, particularly over the beach. An amphib sailor myself,
I am not upset by that. Handling vehicles with cranes is a cumbersome process. PRC today has a much better system.
They use common-chassis tanks (with NATO standard ! 105 mm tank rifles), APCs and sometimes other functions - and
ALL of them can "gun and swim" - a variant of "gun and run" in the West. In fact, almost every vehicle in PLA can
be made to swim even if it does not normally do that. Main Battle Tanks have detachable collars with engines.
A Chinese LST often does not beach. This increases its load significantly, and avoids the 10% chance of damage
every time you beach. Instead, the vehicles "spit" out of the rear door while the LST moves at full speed in the
opposite direction. They turn 90 degrees and start shooting as they run inshore. These are ARMORED vehicles -
proof vs small arms, mortars and HE shell fragments - and they are able to stabilize the gun in spite of pitching
and yawing as they move. Nothing like my experience over half a century ago on the last APA ever built for the US.