Operational Art of War

VERSION 1.04b 9/98

Air and naval units are less susceptible to evaporation due to failed quality checks after combat.

Rail, air, and sea transport capacity is tracked differently. The result should be transparent to players, but it will no longer be possible to "store" transport capacity in embarked units for later release.

Units are now susceptible to multiple retreats before combat. Prior to 1.04.08, a unit could only retreat before combat once in any given turn.

Intro AVI code has been modified to improve behavior of AVI/cinematic on some machines.

Combat planning dialog support graphics resource management has been changed to avoid display glitches if a player 1) starts a new or saved game then 2) starts another game in the same session.

A bug in the new scenario initialization code which could cause units to appear in newly created scenarios (started under 1.04.06-1.04.07) as having strengths of "99 99" has been corrected. Patch code in the I/O functions will correct the uninitialized data in affected scenarios.

Debarked units (those getting off ships, planes, or trains) now have movement allowances proportional to their remaining movement allowances prior to debarking. Embarking units (boarding ships, planes, or trains) get new movement allowances proportional to their remaining movement allowance prior to embarking. Due to rounding, it is possible for units to lose (usually very small) portions of their movement when embarking or debarking.

VERSION 1.04 9/98

NOTE: All the changes made to the game since v1.0 that impact the documentation in the Players Guide may be found in the help file's "Version 1.04 Release Notes".

Contoured mud, snow and frozen terrain overlays have been implemented. This feature is available only on 24MB+ systems.

New 3D winter graphics have been added.

Units adjacent to an enemy unit may board aircraft only if there is another friendly unit present in their location.

Units with rail repair capability will now automatically repair any damaged rail location at the end of their turn if they are eligible.

When a rail location on a river is repaired, any roads there are also repaired (bridges are fixed).

Unless routed, defending units will not retreat if all attacking units have broken off.

Disengagement has been reworked:

* If the units attempting to disengage are much weaker than adjacent enemy units, there is an additional movement cost - up to 3x the normal cost to move out of the location. Relatively strong units will see no additional movement costs.

* Units forced to retreat from combat have an advantage in disengagements. The advantage is greatest for units with orders to "minimize losses" and least for those with "ignore losses" orders. Note: with this change, retreating units are now much less likely to evaporate; all retreating units previously had the same advantage that now goes only to units with "ignore losses" orders.

* It is now assumed that a unit attempts to disengage by leaving a covering force behind. The effect is similar to what happens when you divide a unit and pull out individual sub-units one at a time. Only the covering force is subject to losses in most cases. (Losses are generally limited to no more than 33% in a worst case situation.) It is still possible for units to evaporate as a result of multiple blown quality checks during attempted disengagement, but it should be rare except for severely damaged units.

* Units heavily equipped with armored equipment have an advantage in disengagement. Fully armored units (e.g., those completely composed of tanks) disengage as if their defense strength were twice its actual value.

* Unit defense strengths in disengagement are now treated as if the unit were defending rather than moving. Hence terrain plays an even greater role in successful disengagement than previously.

Supply rules (page 27) have been further modified:

* Supply is first traced through friendly-controlled road, improved road, undamaged railroad, urban, airfield and anchorage locations. Any location that is one of these terrain types, and that has an unbroken line of communication through only these terrain types to a friendly supply point, is fully supplied and provides the maximum possible amount of resupply for units.

* Supply is then traced from the fully supplied net through friendly-controlled cropland, arid and open locations. Any location that is one of these terrain types, and/or that has an unbroken line of communication through one or more of these terrain types to a friendly supply point, is normally supplied - providing 75% of the maximum possible amount of resupply for units.

* Units not on the fully supplied net, but able to trace a line of communication no more than four hexes long to any location on the fully supplied net, are considered to have limited supply. Units in these locations receive 2/3 of the maximum possible resupply. The four-hex limited-supply radius is exclusive of the supply source's, but inclusive of the unit's, location.

* Locations not fully or normally supplied, but able to trace a line of communication no more than four hexes long to any normally or fully supplied location, are considered to have limited supply. Units in these locations receive 50% of the maximum possible resupply.

* Locations not otherwise supplied, but able to trace a line of communication of any length to any friendly supply point are considered to have minimal supply. Units in these locations receive 25% of the maximum possible resupply.