SSG

Kharkov V1.1 Patch Coming Soon

The V1.1 patch for Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets will be released soon. Patch Notes are below, but please check out the illustrated PDF version of the Patch Notes which the patch will install in the game and Manuals directory. Version 1.1 will invalidate current PBEM games.

Kharkov version 1.1 Patch Notes

Policy Statement
SSG will definitely be releasing future games and scenarios using the Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets system, which system we propose to rename Decisive Battles on the Eastern Front: 1941-1945. This will distinguish it from previous Decisive Battles games while still acknowledging its heritage.

As we have stated in various online forums, SSG will maintain Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets, and scenarios released by SSG for the Decisive Battles on the Eastern Front system to the latest version of the system. The next commercial release will be Across the Dnepr, a scenario originally created for the Korsun Pocket game. Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets will be updated to take advantage of the improvements made to the system for Across the Dnepr. Both Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets and Across the Dnepr will be updated when future games and scenarios are released.

SSG will also be doing its best to redo older games to the Decisive Battles on the Eastern Front system. The first to be released will be the Operation Husky scenario from the Battles in Italy game. SSG will be releasing this as a free scenario, updated to the current Decisive Battles on the Eastern Front standard, in the not too distant future. The other Battles in Italy scenarios, Operation Avalanche and Operation Shingle will follow later, and will also be released as free scenarios. Older SSG games that were not created at the 4km/hex scale that Decisive Battles on the Eastern Front: 1941-1945 uses are not currently candidates for the upgrade process.

Improvements and Enhancements

1. After long and hard labor the system has been expanded to allow variant units to be added to the Mystery Variant system. This means that in one variant a unit could be overstrength yet in another it could be understrength, thus increasing variability and reducing certainty. The scenario designer can also choose to remove units from the OB.

2. After equally long labor, the system has been expanded to allow entirely new formations, i.e. formations entirely absent from the historical scenario to be included in one or more variants. The 3rd Guards Rifle Corps, a completely fresh formation, will now appear for the Russians in Variant 3 of Kharkov. Furthermore, the starting location of any unit can be changed in any variant.

3. Restrictions have been added to prevent the inspection of enemy OB screens from giving away variant information.

4. Refit is now an explicit action ordered by the player by using a button on the Unit Action Area. To be eligible for Refit, a unit must have a Combat Action, have not moved in the current turn, be in Supply, be in HQ Command Radius, be not adjacent to enemy territory (not just enemy units) and be in a state where it can benefit from the Refit action. The Refit action delivers the following benefits. The unit will Entrench, (but will not Hedgehog). Any Timed Replacements will be accelerated by one turn. If the unit has no Timed Replacements left, and has at least one step loss then there is a chance, that a casualty will be replaced by a free step, this chance is specified by the unit’s HQ. The unit will receive a number of bonus attack bullets (as specified by its formation HQ). There is a display on the HQ Unit Display that shows the chance a step will be refitted and if any refitting has been attempted then a note of the successes is also displayed.

5. A unit that starts a turn in an unsupplied hex has a chance each turn of losing a can of Defensive Supply, (as if it had been attacked), even though it wasn’t attacked in the previous turn. This chance is highest for Sub-standard units, and lowest for Elite and varies by Country. The rule that limits the loss of Defensive Supply to one bullet per turn, regardless of cause, still applies.

6. Any unit that switches enemy controlled terrain to contested terrain control loses the ability to Undo its move. This replaces the previous rule where the Undo was only negated by exposing enemy units.

7. A HQ’s command radius is now extended along Major road, Minor road and Railroad hexes if they are more than 10 hexes away from enemy hexes, allowing reinforcing units to get maximum OP’s when moving up from the rear areas. Lesser roads do not get this ability.

8. If an Artillery unit is spotted by the enemy for counter-battery fire, then each hex that the Artillery unit moves, after firing, has a 25% chance of removing the counter-battery sighting.

9. Placing a Detachment does not get rid of Entrenched status, if the unit is already Entrenched.

10. Any unit at sea is now deemed to be in HQ Command Radius regardless of the state of the HQ. The HQ does not have to be active.

11. Any air dropping unit is now deemed to be in HQ Command Radius on the turn that it drops. The normal command rules apply from the turn after it drops.

12. The Unknown Unit structure has totally changed. There are now Unknown Unit types within the editor that can be applied to the units in the scenario. All previous Kharkov system scenarios will lose their Unknown units, (if they were implemented) and they will have to be re-entered. The good news here is that it is far easier to enter now and much more efficient.

13. Areas of Operations now restrict the command radius of HQs.

14. Players may now set the color and the intensity of the shading of Areas of Operation shading in the Options Screen at the start of the game (this cannot be changed in-game).

15. Partisan Interdiction can effect the HQ Command Radius. Suppressed Partisan Interdiction will have no effect.

16. A new button has been added to HQs. It allows the player to set the Leave Flag for all units in the formation with one button click. Once set, the Next and Next/Leave buttons in the Unit Control Area will ignore the units. Once set, the same button on the HQ will clear these flags, thus enabling all formation units to be moved again using the Next and Next/Leave buttons. This is particularly useful when dealing with large numbers of units, some of which may not be able to participate in the battle for some time, such as some Russian formations in Across the Dnepr.

17. Objectives that allow an HQ to choose a new region can be in an AND or ANY state. If in an AND state, all objectives have to be owned to trigger the new AO. In an ANY state, any one objective being owned will trigger validity.

18. Changes have been made to the OMA screen to help identify the on-map location of units in the same Regiment and Formation as an arriving unit.

19. The game and editor manuals as well as the quick reference guides have been updated to reflect changes in the patch. These documents, along with AI and AO editor tutorials, can be found in the Manuals folder of the game installation.

Fixes

1. Surrender in combat, will not cost the attacker any Attack Bullets.
2. Stacks that surrender will not be able to leave Detachments or Combat Residue in their hex.
3. Units which surrender are not eligible to return to the game except HQs which are always allowed to return.
4. Fixed the problem with the AO of the Russian 23rd Tank Corps not changing when Izyum is captured.

Copyright © 2007 by Strategic Studies Group