Matrix Games Forums

Can someone please let me know why when I purchase and deploy mortar and arty units they seem to be out of radio control thus making them useless for the entire game. I always thought if command and control was "off", that units didn't need to stay together to function.
I'm presently playing SPWAW version 8.3.

Thanks a bunch in advance!

Command and control takes away part of the micromanagement. You give them objectives and you can move them towards the objectives or expend orders to change their objective.

Unit contact is independent of C&C. It is mainly important for being able to use artillery units and being able to call in artillery. If you would like to cut this feature off, go to preferences and click on "Unit Comm". Units will always be in contact if they are within 3 hexes of their superiors.

Artillery units shouldn't be useless the whole game. Unless you moved the subordinate units (C1, C2, C3) more than 3 hexes away from their leader (C0) and the subordinate units don't have a radio, they should be in radio contact at least part of the time and function during those turns.

I've never cared for total historical accuracy. When I design, I ALWAYS give the various artillery units radios, the only exceptions being some assault mortar squads. Nothing is worse than having artillery that you can't use! [:@]

ORIGINAL: Piker

Can someone please let me know why when I purchase and deploy mortar and arty units they seem to be out of radio control thus making them useless for the entire game. I always thought if command and control was "off", that units didn't need to stay together to function.
I'm presently playing SPWAW version 8.3.

Thanks a bunch in advance!

Have that problem for an entire game?? Do you mean onboard (guess at least the mortars is) or offboard Arty? All Arty have a max range and sometimes smaller Arty does not cover the entire map, in particular small mortars and some offboard small caliber stuff also.

I assume you know how to use the "plot Arty" function properly? (choosing spotter-->clicking "bombard"--->on Arty page left click a bombard hex!---> select available Arty for bombard mission)

You can check range of onboard Arty on map by making an onboard Arty unit a "self spotter" and then click any hex on the map until the golden bombard button is greyed out!

Piker, if none of the above is of any help, please tell what nations OOB you have the problem with in particular!? Unit purchase Date?

Most likely not of concern for your problem, but interesting to know: Just recently I checked a really old user made scenario (pre V5) and found the used artillery units don´t work in V8.3! I figured quickly that the units didn´t were of any "Artillery" class which is prerequisite for their normal functioning! When the scenario was created with an older OOB/Game version the artillery units surely worked and had the correct class assigned. However, during one of the many changes of the OOB over the years, the original Artillery units shifted to other unit slots and the old slots now contain a different (non artillery class) unit. Unit class is one of the data classes that is "transparent" and always read dirctly from the OOB and NOT the scenario currently in use! That means while all other unit data might look ok (weapon used, crew, speed, ect.), the unit does not work ok due to the missing "Arty" class! Sometimes that is easy to overlook when "converting" older scenarios to latest OOB and game version.

That particular issue is to be fixed with the "R-Change current unit to different type" function most quickly! Those of you who have more time to waste surely can "CSV edit" stuff with Freds WaW Editor! Hehe [:D]