Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
I decided I liked having the numbers separate in the naval units so I am doing the same for the air units. There's an extra blank line here, but otherwise it is what I intend to do.

I like too. I wanted to comment and tell this a few days ago, but did not do it.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I decided I liked having the numbers separate in the naval units so I am doing the same for the air units. There's an extra blank line here, but otherwise it is what I intend to do.

/sign

One from today's set of 20 newly formatted. I added some of my own text at the end, to supplement Terje's description.

Here are a couple writeups on carrier based planes. Greyshaft did all of these, with only formatting by me. (I am working my way through the 1200 writeups that need to be formatted).

Greyshaft also did all the HQ unit writeups. They were later edited by Peter (PAK######), and lastly, had paragraphing added by me.

I am looking for someone to do writeups for the other land units. There were many famous land units in WWII: the SS, the armor, paratroop, marine, and mountain corps come to mind. The infantry corps also fought long and hard from the beginning to the end of this war. I do not have time to do the research myself, so I am hoping for volunteers. Do you have a favorite land unit you would like to write 300 to 400 words about?

Land unit descriptions are difficult -- are we to assume that the unit's designation is actually the divisional one? For example the US 1st corps has a red "1" which probably refers to the 1st division.

ORIGINAL: sajbalk

Land unit descriptions are difficult -- are we to assume that the unit's designation is actually the divisional one? For example the US 1st corps has a red "1" which probably refers to the 1st division.

WIF land units come in 4 sizes: Division (XX), Corps(XXX), Army(XXXX), and Army Group(XXXXX). You can tell the size of the unit by the number of X's above its NATO symbol. Very few units are at the division size, so I am more interested in acquiring writeups on the larger size units. Clearly that means the narrative will have to use a broad brush in describing the unit's creation and activities during the war. These will be more along the lines of the campaigns they particiated in.

However, it might also be possible to describe the smaller units that made up the larger one. Then the activities of the elements of Corps X or Army Y might be described at a finer level.

I am quite open here as to how these are done. That is, what is included.

For the other unit descriptions we have been using the folowing guidelines:

1 - Some numbers associated with the unit (size & weapons), but not too many.
2 - Important dates are important.
3 - Pre-war and post-war stuff for perspective is nice. It doesn't always exist though (e.g., ship was build in 1942 and sunk in 1944).
4 - No plagarism. However, the facts have to be gathered somewhere - just not word for word. Using multiple sources helps here.
5 - Anecdotes are best. Something memorable about the unit makes the text interesting to read.

The length doesn't really matter, other than too much would be too much. Don't you love self-referencing definitions?

Did you have something specific in mind?

ORIGINAL: sajbalk

Land unit descriptions are difficult -- are we to assume that the unit's designation is actually the divisional one? For example the US 1st corps has a red "1" which probably refers to the 1st division.

Sorry, I never directly answered your question. I believe the 1 refers to 1st Corps. The other unit designations should be for the corresponding sized unit.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: sajbalk

Land unit descriptions are difficult -- are we to assume that the unit's designation is actually the divisional one? For example the US 1st corps has a red "1" which probably refers to the 1st division.

Sorry, I never directly answered your question. I believe the 1 refers to 1st Corps. The other unit designations should be for the corresponding sized unit.

On the counter, the "1" means it is the 1s US INF Corps.
But, the fact that it is bold and red, tells me that the designers have wanted to refer to the 1st US INF DIV, also called the Big Red One, in reference for its insign which was a Big Red "1".

That's why I think it is close to impossible to give writeups for the Land Units, because, first, famous WWII land units are division sized, quite never Corps sized, and second, because I believe that Corps composition changed through the war, that is, the Big Red One was not part of the same Corps for all the war. The later is only a general assumption, as I know nothing of WWII real Corps assignements of the Big Red One.

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: sajbalk
Land unit descriptions are difficult -- are we to assume that the unit's designation is actually the divisional one? For example the US 1st corps has a red "1" which probably refers to the 1st division.

Sorry, I never directly answered your question. I believe the 1 refers to 1st Corps. The other unit designations should be for the corresponding sized unit.

On the counter, the "1" means it is the 1s US INF Corps.
But, the fact that it is bold and red, tells me that the designers have wanted to refer to the 1st US INF DIV, also called the Big Red One, in reference for its insign which was a Big Red "1".

That's why I think it is close to impossible to give writeups for the Land Units, because, first, famous WWII land units are division sized, quite never Corps sized, and second, because I believe that Corps composition changed through the war, that is, the Big Red One was not part of the same Corps for all the war. The later is only a general assumption, as I know nothing of WWII real Corps assignements of the Big Red One.

I am not so pessimisstic about this task. Most land units in WIF have 'names', though most often they are numbers and/or letters of some kind. When the designers (ADG) gave the unit a 'name' and assigned numeric values to its ability to move and fight, they were basing that on some historical unit. True, the composition of the unit may have changed during the war. I expect that most of them did. But that doesn't prevent us from doing a writeup on the unit.

If nothing else we could say things like:
"The corps originally was composed of the following divisions ... "
"When it fought in xxx it had division Y replaced by division Z."
"Just before the battle of ABC it was reinforced by division R."
"The most famous division within Corps Z was division S which remained a part of the corps throughout the war."
"As it pushed farther into enemy territory, division L was on the left, division C was in the center, division R was on the right, and division M was in a mobile reserve."

I have only lightly touched upon some possibilities here. There is a lot that can be discussed either in terms of the corps/army/army group itself, or by referring to the elements that made up the large formation.

One from today's allotment of 30 air units to format. I like the nickname for SB2C.

From today's group of 4 HQs to format. Of the 57 HQs in the game, Greyshaft wrote 56 of the writeups. Peter (PAK###) edited those 56 and filled in the missing 1. Here is the writeup on Georges provided by Peter.

This transparency (behind the X of the INF symbol of Georges) is quite ugly, you're right Steve. Now that I spotted it, I only see that
The real white color would be much prefered.

ORIGINAL: Froonp

This transparency (behind the X of the INF symbol of Georges) is quite ugly, you're right Steve. Now that I spotted it, I only see that
The real white color would be much prefered.

I have tried to track this down a couple of times for an investment of 4 hours so far, with no progress.

I have a related problem with some of the unit list boxes showing square corners instead of rounded - they need outlines added too. However, for the unit review form shown immediately above, the unit list is correct.

A wooden stake through the heart of the transparency bug. I just hope it doesn't pop out again.

I also got the outline and shadowing correct. The outlines for the units in the list are wider now. It's a little cleaner.

It can be depressing to read through all the histories of the Japanese naval units. Very few survived the war. Overall, the carrier Shokaku was more successful than most.

The green outline for some of the units is because they are being set up for Guadalcanal.

Steve. In post #743, the description of the USS Arizona, the text states

The Arizona's air warning went off at approximately 0755, and at 0800 she was hit by the first Japanese bomb, which caused only minor damage. But only 6 minutes later, at 0806 she was hit

1) The time is stated twice for the same event. "6 minutes later" and "0806"... Redundant? (Minor nit pick.)

2) What does "the first Japanese bomb" statement mean? The first weapon dropped by the Japanese in the overall attack (which I believe is incorrect), or the first to hit the Arizona?

In either case, that statement could be dropped as unneeded extra info. May I suggest "The Arizona's air warning went off at approximately 0755, and at 0806 she was hit by a bomb that detonated in an ammunition chamber, destroying the forward section of the ship and ignited fires that raged for two days."

I realise that neither of these two nit picks have much to do with the game engine itself... sorry.

Carry on.

ORIGINAL: mlees

Steve. In post #743, the description of the USS Arizona, the text states

The Arizona's air warning went off at approximately 0755, and at 0800 she was hit by the first Japanese bomb, which caused only minor damage. But only 6 minutes later, at 0806 she was hit

1) The time is stated twice for the same event. "6 minutes later" and "0806"... Redundant? (Minor nit pick.)

2) What does "the first Japanese bomb" statement mean? The first weapon dropped by the Japanese in the overall attack (which I believe is incorrect), or the first to hit the Arizona?

In either case, that statement could be dropped as unneeded extra info. May I suggest "The Arizona's air warning went off at approximately 0755, and at 0806 she was hit by a bomb that detonated in an ammunition chamber, destroying the forward section of the ship and ignited fires that raged for two days."

I realise that neither of these two nit picks have much to do with the game engine itself... sorry.

Carry on.

Greyshaft did the text. I'll let him answer your query.

Terje, I have finished formatting all the naval writeups you have sent me so far. You could send me another batch to process.

Here are 2 of the Japanese cruisers. The missing last word in the writeup is 'Singapore'.

Second and last in the series.