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Is there a way to disable the Operate function ? I want to make unit movements only with regular moves and Forced March for both player and AI.

ORIGINAL: ARPH56

Is there a way to disable the Operate function ? I want to make unit movements only with regular moves and Forced March for both player and AI.

There's an option to do this in the Editor if you want to! I think it'll cripple the AI's ability to respond to what you're doing, though.

Hmm ... understand. I was trying to prohibit the AI from making land unit movements that seem unrealistic. In March on Paris, I noticed that the AI moves French divisions from the Vosges region all the way up to Liege in Belgium in a single "day". Not possible in real life.

ORIGINAL: ARPH56

Hmm ... understand. I was trying to prohibit the AI from making land unit movements that seem unrealistic. In March on Paris, I noticed that the AI moves French divisions from the Vosges region all the way up to Liege in Belgium in a single "day". Not possible in real life.

"Operate" is supposed to model movement by rail. It is just about conceivable that a division could do this in a single day by rail.

I understand that the average speed for German troop trains taking troops from the East Front to the West in early 1918 was 20 miles an hour, the road distance from the Vosges to Liege is roughly 250 miles, maybe 300 miles along available track, so transport via through-trains would be sufficient to achieve this. Historically, one-day rail mobilisations of similar length (e.g., Vladivostok to Svyagina north of Lake Khanka) were achieved during e.g., the Siberian intervention (see p. 60 here). This article gives a figure of 500 miles per day for trains on the USSR networks during WW2.

French troops appearing deep inside Belgium during the opening days of the March on Paris are somewhat disturbing.

In a perfect world this would be one of the possible AI responses to the German invasion, but there should be several, with the historic one the most likely.

there was an issue with Commander the Great War where the AI could "cheat" rail transport in that game by having basically unlimited capacity for rail transport to act as a crutch.

I'm curious for this game, does the AI pay MPPs to perform their Operate (rail transport) function or is it free to them similar to Commander?

ORIGINAL: ARPH56

Is there a way to disable the Operate function ? I want to make unit movements only with regular moves and Forced March for both player and AI.

Opening the campaign in the Editor and then selecting Campaign->Campaign Data->Advanced and you should see the options there.

ORIGINAL: darth254

there was an issue with Commander the Great War where the AI could "cheat" rail transport in that game by having basically unlimited capacity for rail transport to act as a crutch.

I'm curious for this game, does the AI pay MPPs to perform their Operate (rail transport) function or is it free to them similar to Commander?

The AI pays the same for everything that a human player does in game, unit costs, upgrades, reinforcements, transport, operation etc.

But you can give the AI some extra income in the difficulty settings if desired.

Okay - thanks all. I will go into the Editor and see what can be changed. But I still think having divisions move into Belgium from southern France and be fully combat ready in a single turn during March on Paris is unrealistic.

Operating a unit triggers a 15-25% loss of morale, so they are not "fully combat ready" when they arrive. The first turn after they arrive they operate at reduced effectiveness, so it is not quite as bad as you think.

Operating a unit directly into combat usually results in its death. It is a desperation move.