Order of Battle World War II
Read me File 20 April 2017
Version 3.3.2
Welcome.
Thank you for playing Order of Battle World War II! We are always looking for ways to improve your
gaming experience. For the latest information on the game, please go to the Slitherine web site at
www.slitherine.com.
Below you will find the latest and greatest information on Order of Battle - Pacific. Information in this
document supersedes that in the official game manual.
Troubleshooting:
Ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements. These are found in the game manual.
Also, ensure that you have the latest video and sound drivers available for your system and that you have
upgraded to the latest version of DirectX from Microsoft. The vast majority of reported problems are
resolved by upgrading all drivers and DirectX to the latest versions.
If you are still experiencing problems with the game, please use our Help Desk at
www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk or post in the Order of Battle World War II Support Forum at
www.matrixgames.com. Please provide as much detail on your issue as you can.
To obtain optimum game performance, close all other applications before beginning a game.
Change History:
v3.3.2 April 20, 2017
50+ new units added, including the Bismarck, Hood, Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier and seaplane
tenders.
6 new German air and naval commanders, also available as avatar in multiplayer
2 new multiplayer maps added: 1v1 Two Bridges and 1v1 Peninsula
Skirmish mode preview available in multiplayer, featuring one naval map type: Coastal Point
Gameplay
Surfaced enemy submarines can only be spotted by adjacent units
Submarines have a limited "battery time": this limits the amount of turns they can stay submerged
and needs to recharge when surfaced.
Battleships have a special ability to fire their primary (big) guns. This has a cooldown of 1 turn.
Their normal attack uses their secondary gun armament. (German BB's only for testing purposes)
Ships take less damage from enemy naval gunfire the more movement points they have spent
during their own turn.
Commander chance to get wounded based on damage taken, not strength after any combat
action. The higher the losses are compared to the pre-combat strength, the higher the chance the
commander will get wounded.
Seaplane Tenders are now a separate unit class and provide a separate type of air supply. They
now allow the deployment, repairs and refuelling of (non-recon) seaplanes (floatplanes & flying
boats), while carriers still supply both carrier-based aircraft and seaplanes.
UI
Commander portraits can be minimized to cover less of the screen, by clicking the "-" button at the
top right corner of each portrait.
Additional unit traits have been added to the unit traits display in the bottom UI bar.
v2.9.9 December 20, 2016
Fixes a bug preventing aircraft from taking off from carriers, introduced in the last patch.
v2.9.8 December 13, 2016
Compatibility issue with older save games solved.
German localisation issues fixed.
French text improvements (thanks to V72).
Initialisation of some specializations fixed.
Scrambling specialization only affects fighters.
Turn report popup can display more than 5 specialisations through the addition of scroll buttons.
Abort airdrop if target hex is occupied and no alternatives are available.
When undeploying an aircraft carrier, air command points for any aircraft inside are correctly
refunded.
L3 now tank instead of recon.
Scenario tweaks & fixes: Norway, Greece, Smolensk, Dunkirk.
1v1 Dubno map fixes.
Editor: Tooltip displays the carried unit's name when hovering over a transport unit.
v2.9.6f (Hotfix) November 02, 2016
Bug Fixes
US Pearl Harbor scenario AI turn 12 freezing.
US Midway loading screen getting stuck (possibly also an issue in some other older scenarios).
v2.9.6 November 02, 2016
Changes and new features
MP maps added: [1v1] Dubno (Germany vs USSR) and cooperative "Fall Rot" putting Germany
and Waffen SS players against France and British.
New "tech tree" specialization system available for all existing campaigns, including the free Boot
Camp
Dozens of specializations added, existing specializations reworked or rebalanced
Core force can be exported at any time during a campaign
Bootcamp core force can be imported at start of US Pacific campaign
Morning Sun core force can be imported at start of Rising Sun campaign
200+ new units added to various nations
German themed music added
German commanders & avatars added
Kriegsmarine and Waffen SS factions available in editor
"European Village" terrain type added to replace "palm tree" style villages on non-pacific maps.
Light artillery damage increased.
Heavier artillery damage and shock decreased
Artillery damage less affected by entrenchment
All artillery does damage to enemy entrenchment
Artillery damage reduction against low strength targets starts if target is below 7 strength
Paratroopers have 50% chance to land on the target hex (used to be ~14%)
v2.8.0 September 14, 2016
Changes and new features
Added Blitzkrieg campaign
Added new Specialisation system
Added Core Force exporting for Morning Sun -> Rising Sun
Unit rebalance
v2.6.8 September 02, 2016
Changes and new features
Added option to revert to previous Artillery damage model
US Artillery range fixed
AI bug causing very long turns on Treasury Islands map fixed
v2.6.7d August 26, 2016
Changes and new features
Makes new artillery rule optional
v2.6.7 July 19, 2016
Changes and new features
Major rebalancing of all ground units, mostly focused on tank vs tank performance in anticipation
for European tank clashes.
Some black screen on start-up issues fixed.
Campaign end screen fixed (no longer displays nonexistent scenario location).
Disband button and tooltip display fixed when it is unavailable.
Switch from Strategic Map fixed when using 2D tactical map display.
Bonus Zundapp Motorcycle unit for owners of Heroes of Normandie game fixed.
#gimmeall cheatcode added to instantly unlock all scenarios (of the DLC that you own) in the
Scenarios panel.
Paratroopers have "supply stash" which delays the out-of-supply effects for a number of turns.
Paratroopers have "Quick Entrench" trait, allowing to to dig in faster than normal units.
Units with "Light Freight" trait can disembark from a train on open hexes.
Units with "Heavy Threaded" trait suffer double terrain disruption penalties from moving through
difficult terrain.
MP: Two maps added: Winter War based "Artic Fox" and Morning Sun based "Double Dragons"
cooperative map, playable as the Chinese.
Editor: Objectives can be changed (added and/or removed) in the middle of a scenario.
Editor: Popup dialog can be called to offer the player unique tactical, strategic or political choices
during a scenario.
Editor: AI teams can be split based on strength. This can be used to split damaged AI units to a
different team and retreat them to the rear.
Cheat: #gimmeall during main menu will unlock all campaign scenarios (of the campaigns that you
own)
v2.4.8c June 7, 2016
Changes and new features
Unit experience has a stronger effect on combat, even for units with a low base damage value.
Campaign scenarios can be replayed through the scenarios menu after completing them in their
campaign.
Auto save file names are unique per campaign.
Units don't gain experience from walking into minefields.
Engineers and other unit types with the "Clear Mines" ability now gain experience from using it.
The deployment phase can no longer be ended if the player deploys more aircraft than his
airfields or carriers can support.
New AI processing animations, replacing the spinning emblems.
Bug fixes
Unit damage done to targets is no longer doubled in objectives and unit history logs
Various spelling and grammatical errors fixed
Friendly fighters no longer shoot at their own adjacent bombers when the latter bombard an
enemy supply point (!)
v2.4.0 May 3, 2016
Fixes
Rail move marker display a train icon again
Fix for embarking to an adjacent port hex
Fix for Tulagi M2A4 tank award sometimes not triggering
Fixed Munda secondary objective text, stating that aircraft damage must be against ground
targets
Fixed discrepancy between Peleliu primary objective text and actual condition.
Fixed Nanchang AI freeze related to off-map AI unit.
Fix for Strategic Map related bug in 2D Tactical Map display mode
Fix for ambushing bug
v2.3.8 March 29, 2016
New Units
M2A4 Light Tank
DUKW Amphibious Truck
Marine Scouts
Japanese Snipers
Mortar Infantry
F2A Buffalo
Captured Shinhoto Chi-Ha medium tank
Captured Type 91 70mm howitzer
Captured Type 1 Ka-Mi amphibious tank
BB Kong
Concrete Bunkers
P-47 Thunderbolt Rocket
Gameplay
Heavy Infantry: Can now use a Mortar Fire ability which serves as a light, short-ranged artillery
weapon
When reforming a destroyed core unit, 30% experience is recovered
When using standard repair, experience loss is less significant
Engineers and Seabees automatically repair damage to the supply output of their hex
Destroyers: Small Air Attack increased
Ground AA guns: Small Air Attack decreased
Ambush combat effect fixed and increased
Engineer mine sweeping much more powerful (only takes 1 turn for full strength engineers)
Captured towed weapons can now be upgraded with a transport
Tunnels deal damage when attacked
AI
AI less likely to abandon a threatened VP for "obscure reasons"
AI fighter aircraft give higher priority to attacking other air units instead of strafing ground targets
Editor
Deployment Points: Now have "available from" and "available until" values (turns).
Clicking a nation flag in the Alliances panel will move it up in the list
Ability to purchase new units can be enabled or disabled per nation
New Trigger Effect to change hex supply output
Trigger Effect "Set Unit AI Team" extended to allow - for example - units patrolling back and forth
Supply output and requirements displayed when in "supply point mode"
v2.2.5 September 23, 2015
New campaign overview menu, placing each campaign on a large world map.
New nations: Nationalist & Communist Chinese factions and the Japanese puppet state
Mengjiang in Mongolia.
100+ new unit types: Cavalry, horse transports, biplane fighters and bombers, German and Soviet
vehicles and aircraft in Chinese service.
New terrain types: Ricefields, Asian towns, pine forests and the Great Wall of China.
New movement sound effects for pre-1940 units.
Tactical bombers more effective against ground targets.
Airstrips can be created with the new "Construction Group" unit. These can contain 3 aircraft and
provide 10 air supply.
v1.9.4 September 23, 2015
AI freeze during BoB demo scenario fixed.
The custom unit skin manager now works for mods.
Scenario Editor text saving fixed.
Bohler 47mm AT unit model reference fixed (caused Java scenario to fail loading)
Multiplayer: missing texts fixed
Multiplayer: Resigning & exiting game through victory popup fixed
v1.9.3 September 15, 2015
Fixes:
Aircraft deployed in carrier can no longer "warp" to another carrier
Strategic map fixed
Hex grid disabling fixed
Core aircraft disbanded while in carrier or hangar will correctly return their Air CP
Commandos can no longer target naval units with their special attack ability
Texture loading improvements
Editor:
Units can be filtered by category (land, naval, air)
Trigger Folders: triggers can be put into folders, allowing easier management of complex
scenarios
Text field for unit starting strength
Modding:
units.txt replaced with units.csv, allowing easier management of stats through CSV editors such
as MS Excel or Google Sheets
Mod folder support for campaign map image, commander portraits, logo and splash screen,
difficulty icons and AI turn videos
Voiceover support for campaign and scenario briefings
v1.8.3 July 14, 2015
Changes:
Custom camouflage skins to personalize your ground vehicles
Access to DLC manager in the main menu
Captured units can now be repaired, but only at 1 strength point per turn.
Bunkers and MG Foxholes can no longer be constructed adjacent to an enemy ground unit
Mines can no longer be placed on exit points
When upgrading an aircraft stored in a carrier, it can no longer take off during the same turn
When not in deployment phase carrier-based aircraft can no longer be deployed next to a carrier,
but only inside one of its cargo slots
Every battleship can carry one floatplane in its cargo
Napping & sleeping units marked as darker dots on the minimap
Spanish language added
Code & memory usage optimizations
v1.7.0 June 05, 2015
Changes:
Unclosable campaign events fixed
Online News available in main menu
PBEM server time-out issue improved
v1.6.7 May 15, 2015
Gameplay:
All torpedo bombers can now switch to bombs
Experience gain from combat increased
Specialisation:
British Pacific Fleet fixed and adds 2 aircraft on top of the naval units
Fixes:
Various unit stats fixed
Dutch Overvalswagen APC no longer causes framerate drop on Java scenario
Various issues with AI freezing fixed
Scenario restart now correctly resets campaign events
Multiplayer:
PBEM Lobby, disappearing game names fixed
2vAI Java and 2vAI Bataan coop maps added
UI:
Force List, unit category filters added
Force List sorted by unit nation > category > type
Empty hexes can be selected to inspect terrain type
Hex location names visible on map and/or UI
Checkbox to disable AI spinning animation in options menu
For transport moves, the potential combat prognosis is displayed for the transport type, not the
current unit type
Strategic Map:
Left-click on map moves the camera to that location.
Scenarios:
Philippine Sea, Coral Sea (Japan) and Midway (USA) objectives fixed/improved
AI:
Offensive AI teams now attempt to clear mines
Modding:
Mod launcher, improved mod folder support, 3D model importing
v1.5.8 April 30, 2015
Initial Release
