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I'm trying to find out if there is any way to prevent units from splitting, either voluntarily or as a result of combat. For instance, if a scenario has small units representing specialist detachments, I would much prefer if those small units don't split up into even smaller units... Didn't see anything in the manual or anywhere else about this...

The only way you can achieve this by now is to set the unit as a section. (..)
Or you may add a secondary Headquarter icon for the unit, but it will cause more undesirable results.

Thanks; wish that this were an option, so that I could prevent platoon and company-sized units from splitting...

In many division/regiment level scenarios (for example, Poland 1939), the designer will deliberately set the size of independent battalions to "sections" to prevent dividing. At least the size icon of a battalion (II) resembles to section (..).

And I don't think that to introduce such a mechanism (to prevent unit dividing) is difficult. Anyway, it depends on Ralph and Bob.

Sounds like you are talking about a scenario made by someone other than you, so this may not be relevant to your question.

The scenario designer has the option to split units before they are deployed on the map. The effect is a unit(s) that cannot be further subdivided as a result of combat or player decision. 1, 2 or 3 elements can then be deployed as equal, but independent units. Of course the player would have the option to reassembly subunits back into the parent unit, but I don’t see that option as being a common tactic.

Regards, RhinoBones

Spitting unit before deployment is also problematic. It prevents further modification on Forces, so if the designer wants to even slightly tweak the force, he needs to first re-assemble the units, then modifies the unit, and at last re-split the units once again.

ORIGINAL: NikolaiEzhov

Spitting unit before deployment is also problematic. It prevents further modification on Forces, so if the designer wants to even slightly tweak the force, he needs to first re-assemble the units, then modifies the unit, and at last re-split the units once again.

Thank you for mentioning that. I vaguely recalled such was the case.

Cheers

I’m not suggesting splitting a large number of units, just a few specialized units as mentioned by 76mm. Really not a big deal to modify and deploy just a few units. If a unit is intended to be a battalion, company and so on I’d much rather have the correct unit identifier on the icon instead of appearing as a section “..” If it takes a little bit more work to make things visually accurate, I’m good with that.

As an alternative, if you wanted all of the non-dividing units to be the same size, you can always modify the “section” graphic and provide it as an alternative graphic for the specific scenario.

Regards, Rhinobones

ORIGINAL: rhinobones
if you wanted all of the non-dividing units to be the same size, you can always modify the “section” graphic and provide it as an alternative graphic for the specific scenario.

That's a clever idea, which file is the section graphic in?

Within the graphics file:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Matrix Games\The Operational Art of War IV\graphics

Find and make modified graphic files for “CounterNumbers” and “h_ CounterNumbers”, change the Section designation “··” to your intended unit designation. Add as an alternative graphics file in the usual manner. This method avoids the update problems identified by NikolaiEzhov.

Regards, RhinoBones

Here are the files that remove the section graphic. Place them in a scenario specific folder in the Graphics Override folder.

Here is the result of using the above files. All of these units were set to Section size so that they would not split, and the Section Graphic does not show.

Cool guys, thanks!