Replay
 

On the replay, a cavalry unit is fired upon by a tank. The replay doesn't indicate any hits being scored, but then the unit disappears. PW, if needed is camp1.

Re: Replay
 

It probably was killed by an unspotted unit that fired on it after the tank was done. Messages for unspotted units sometimes don't get logged. Or, perhaps it surrendered to an adjacent but unspotted unit - again that should not be logged as it would give the player info he does not know.

Ask your opponent what killed it (or maybe captured it) once a few turns have passed, and it's no longer current info that would help you out.

Re: Replay
 

I asked him. All he remembers is that only the one tank fired at the cavalry and he thought the cavalry had retreated.

Is there any way from the save to figure out what might have happened?

Re: Replay
 

If it retreated out of LOS, and so was unspotted when the code decided it should dissolve on a subse3quent retreat of a hex - then that wont be logged either.

Re: Replay
 

But why didn't the initial tank shots register any hits in the replay? There must have been some because the unit started the turn full strength.

I've seen this before on the replay, but with remnant units. This is the first time a full strength unit seemingly disappeared.

Re: Replay
 

Not downloaded but try turning blast circles on a unit does not have to get hit directly to cause suppression or loss which is why multiple units in a hex is generally a bad idea.

Re: Replay
 

Yes - enough shots near enough to a soft target can raise suppression to rout status with near misses causing it to fail a morale test.

Near misses are not noted, but a firer can see his effect if he hovers the mouse over the target after shooting, since SP tells you the status of enemy units (Pinned, retreating, routed etc).

So the cavalry may have been made to retreat or rout, moved back a hex, then the same on a subsequent retreat in the end turn retreat sequence when out of enemy LOS and gone "puff" since the dispersal test on depleted elements happens for each hex moved in retreat/rout. Since it was unspotted when it dispersed, no message was given - such would be free information the the opposite player. SP messages are global, not for each player. So to avoid free information, if it is not currently spotted by the enemy then no message is printed.

Re: Replay
 

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.

Which is correct:

1) Near misses can cause casualties but they are not noted in the messages.
2) Routed full strength units may disperse.

Re: Replay
 

1) Near misses on soft elements causes suppression, which leads to morale tests, which can fail and so lead to a worse state (pinned, retreat, rout).
Damage (casualties and direct hits that caused no kills) leads to worse suppression, and hence more likelihood of failing morale tests.
The only status message given in the game is for an actual casualty. However, you can hover the mouse over a target element and note its (possible) changed status after shooting at it.

2) Retreating or routed elements which are at or below the dispersal fraction, can disperse on retreating a hex. Usually it happens on the first such hex at end of turn retreat time, but sometimes it happens on a subsequent one.
The worst case for a routed element at its dispersal limits however is a retreat due to a direct hit (whether it is a kill shot or not) that causes a pull-back manoeuvre. Those elements retreating at end turn due to morale have a far better chance of "holding it together" than one that was forced to retire due to enemy fire but even so sometimes they will dissipate.

Re: Replay
 

You have used a term with which I'm not familiar: "dispersal fraction." Is this something I can see for a given unit?

Presumably, this fraction is less than a unit's full strength. Which brings us back to the original issue. The cavalry started the turn at full strength. There were no casualty messages while it was being fired at. It retreated because of the fire it took and then presumably dispersed. Looks to me like there's something wrong here. Either casualty messages are not being put out, or the unit was erroneously dispersed.

My vote is for missing casualty messages because with infantry I've seen the visual of the squad change indicating a casualty took place but there was no accompanying message. With the cavalry visual that doesn't happen; after the first casualty the visual stays the same until the unit disappears.

Re: Replay
 

Soft units may disperse at about 75% (IIRC) damaged.

It may be that for some reason, some casualty messages aren't being logged in the replay. Replay has always been "spotty" since SSI introduced it in SP2. It does drop some messages.

In SP1, there was no replay whatsoever. You got your PBEM turn back from your opponent and were left wondering "what exactly blew up my Tigers"???.

In SP2, they introduced the replay for those fortunate to have IIRC, 4MB of RAM, may have been 8. But it only logged firing. Some retreats and so fort seem to sometimes slip by it.

The replay was what prompted Don and I to produce the original SP2WW2 hack, since we wanted a WW2 game that had a useful PBEM replay and SSI weren't interested in revisiting SP1.

When we got hold of the actual code to develop I added some sighting events so that units advancing across the field of view were added to the replay. Previously, if nobody fired, then units could parade across a front and hide up out of LOS, and you would have no idea of that happening. Now you do get a hint!;).

I also added non-reporting of messages on unspotted things showing up in the game (and thus the PBEM log). Previously some messages used to play for things that were hit or destroyed by collateral damage, even if you as the firer had not yet seen them.

The replay also does not properly log some events that use animations - such as cluster munitions in MBT as the classic example. If you have fast animations ON, it can miss these. But watching every shell of a bombardment gets tedious!. (I think with fast arty on you get one of the shell burst, if non-cluster?)

Also, but probably not the case here, there is only a certain amount of memory dedicated to the replay. I think that events outside the buffer limit don't get logged either. That only happens on larger games I would say - though that has never been investigated fully. (It may be the case that events rotate back to the front of the buffer, thus overwriting earlier ones). This game is small, so should not have any such problems.

So the replay is a heck of a lot better than for SP1. Its not perfect, but is workable. The Sp1 no replay was totally unworkable, unless players agreed to send a written narrative of what happened each and every turn, along with the turn itself!.

I may take a look at how it handles fast animations (fast arty) in the future, as the non-show of cluster munitions seems related to that. It may also be why some other events don't log on the replay.

(The save game you sent is of course useless for debugging the events of the firing and logging of same that happened in your opponent's turn. Those had all been and gone by the save point.)

Which begs the question - did you have "Fast Artillery" set ON?.

Re: Replay
 

No, we both have Fast Artillery OFF. We found that with Fast Artillery ON the first player doesn't see any of his artillery fire, which happens during the opponent's turn. Which means targeting can't be adjusted.

Re: Replay
 

Not a 100% certain here but I have had this problem in the past.
I think you will find that happened because one of you had fast arty ON & the other player had it OFF.