Version 1.00.08 is now available!

[Surtur]

Following the successful launch of Gary Grigsby’s War in the West earlier this month, we are happy to announce that the first update is now available, bringing the game to version 1.00.08. This patch contains a number of significant rule changes for campaign logic, as well as for the air model and various other parts of the game. In addition, the update provides you with several interface improvements and of course the priority issues have been fixed. 2by3 Games has put in some hard work to get this first update out before the holidays and we hope you will enjoy the changes as much as we do!

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

Click here to download the patch, or use the automatic update tool.

Click here to find out more about War in the West.

Change History:

v1.00.08 - 22 December 2014

• Bug Fixes

1. Fixed a possible crash and data corruption introduced in 1.00.07 when bombing empty airfields.

V1.00.07 – 19 December 2014

• New Features and Rule Changes

1. Rule Change (section 18.1.1) - Italy will never surrender prior to August 1943. In August 1943, the German garrison value in Italy is never divided by 4 when determining Italian surrender.
2. Rule Changes to the air game:
a. Rule change – Victory Conditions (section 25.1.1) – The SBP (Strategic Bombing Points) Date adjustment divisors have been changed to the following: 1943: 2, Jan-Jun 1944: 6, Jul-Dec 1944: 9, 1945: 12 in order to increase Allied bombing points scored. These are intended to offset the changes made below that would otherwise lower Allied bombing points.
b. Adjusted factory bombing damage. Reduced damage rate when factory gets to >50% damaged.
c. Increased night bombing accuracy against manpower targets.
d. Made medium/heavy flak fire more effective at higher altitudes
e. Many changes and fixes to the automatic interception code
f. Adjusted air combat routines and altitude evade ratings.
g. Adjusted airfield targeting routine.
h. Adjusted airfield damage.
3. Rule Change (section 16.5.2) – Changed +3 for moving through an enemy controlled sea hex to +15 in step 1 when determining AV (attrition value). This will make sea movement or invasions that trace through enemy hexes more likely to take shipping losses.
4. Rule Change (section 16.7.1) - When calculating the coastal defense value for amphibious attrition (step 2 of 16.7.1) for amphibious HQs at sea (16.6.2.2), ferry hexes are treated as if the coastal defense is in the target of an invasion (i.e. causing more damage to the unit at sea due to the restricted waters).
5. Rule Change (section 16.6.2.2) - Amphib HQs that move at sea using normal Sea Movement can now suffer damage during movement. A pop-up message will appear reporting the damage taken. This is similar to how a unit at sea can have a transport sunk while moving.
6. Rule Change (section 22.4) – Heavy rain was incorrectly stated in the manual as adding 1-4 water to each hex per turn. It was actually adding 2-4. However, this has been changed so that in good road areas it adds 1-2, average road areas 2-3 and poor road areas 2-4. This is intended to simulate better drainage in more developed areas.
7. Rule Change (section 15.5.1) - Reserve units may not trace a path to a battle over a ferry hex (may not commit if separated by a ferry hex).
8. Rule Change (section 21.1.13.1) - Changed German manpower multiplier to 3 in 1945 (was 1).
9. Rule Change - Whenever the Allied player controls a German Nationality National Supply source, the following rules are in effect:
a. German units that are destroyed will not return to the game.
b. Units withdrawing are no longer required to be at 75% TOE strength before they are withdrawn.
c. All frozen German units will unfreeze in the next German logistics phase.
10. Rule Change (section 17.3.9) - An airborne unit that drops and can't trace to a friendly hex is immediately considered isolated and will surrender if forced to retreat (in the past it would rout until it had gone through a friendly logistics phase and was judged isolated).
11. Rule correction (section 9.6) – Aircraft reliability works as described in the manual, but AFV reliability works differently. The reliability rating of an AFV is actually two different items. The first digit represents the reliability of the AFV when moving (if only 1 digit is shown the 1st digit is assumed to be 0). The higher the number, the less likely the AFV will become damaged during movement. The second digit is survivability, and the higher the survivability the less likely the AFV will be destroyed in combat during a special survival check as opposed to just being damaged.
12. Interface addition - Added load out info when comparing aircraft in the CR screen.
13. Interface addition – On the Airbase Detail screen, Assigned tab, an air group that does not report to the same HQ that the airbase reports to will have an asterisk (*) next to its name.
14. Added code that moves unloaded non-Amphib units from sea hexes to land hexes (due to a bug that has been fixed, it was possible for ground units to get into a sea hex without being on ships, so this will move units back to land).
15. AI – Improvements were made in Allied late war offensive AI and German AI reactions to airborne drops in Sicily.
16. Restricted TacB <-> FB aircraft swapouts for the Axis player so these are not allowed. These swapouts are allowed for the Allies for FB units that are trained as bombers. If a TacB switches to FB, it will be trained as a bomber.
17. Automatic aircraft upgrade/swaps in an air group will not happen for the next two logistics phases after the unit has had a change in aircraft.
18. Decreased pilot training losses.
19. Improved the path selection routine for naval movement made during an amphibious invasion (to minimize movement through enemy controlled and neutral hexes).
20. Made map mouse double clicks more responsive.
21. Adjusted progress bar behavior at the end of air execution.
22. Removed message "Only the Soviet player may form new units" when shift-B is pressed.
23. Interface changes (Air Campaign) – The air campaign victory screen no longer reports the victory points for aircraft lost during the turn (now shows N/A). The a/c loss VPs are only shown in the total column. Also note that on the top right of the map the turn VPs are also shown as N/A. Also adjusted the metrics screen to display correct VP charts for the Air Campaign.
24. Added HG and 10th Panzer Division symbols.
25. Made minor map text adjustments.
26. Editor – Added a new general function “Clear Amphib and Airborne Data. This function clears all amphib and airborne target hexes from the unit data.
27. When one player is set to be played by the AI, the human player is now able to see the units on the map during the amphibious landing phase, even when FOW is on. This may result in a little more information for the German player as Allied units will be fully visible, but we decided that player’s would appreciate seeing the invasions.
28. Additional AI Updates

• Bug Fixes

1. Fixed possible save/scen file access issues.
2. Fixed device filter in CR screen.
3. Fixed briefing text dates for Husky and Air Campaign.
4. Fixed VP display and final score on Multiplayer screen.
5. Fixed overlapping text on Multiplayer screen.
6. Logistics progress bar goes from 66% done to 61% done. Fixed.
7. Arrival flag for the air group is not reset. Fixed
8. Wrong date is shown for recently arrived units/air groups. Fixed
9. Units attacking from the ferry rout to the sea. Fixed.
10. Fixed display of thousands separator (comma) for negative values.
11. Pressing r key could cause all enemy units to show up with a red border as if they were isolated. Fixed.
12. The Allied AI is not invading mainland Italy in Battleground Italy scenario. Fixed.
13. Can't deselect just split/recombined unit. Fixed
14. A unit in a sea hex controlled by the enemy can be assigned to enemy HQs. Fixed.
15. AD creation screen progress bar doesn't close automatically when the game is set to bigger than 1024x768 resolution. Fixed.
16. Remastered 3 sound files that have the potential for causing problems on some computers. These 3 were the only files that had not previously been remastered.
17. The victory level on the end game screen of a short scenario does not match that of the victory screen. Also, the victory level reported on the MP screen does not match the victory level on the victory screen (the victory screen was showing the correct value). Fixed.
18. National Supply sources were still functioning when adjacent to an enemy unit. Fixed.
19. Fixed a bug where amphib HQs in ferry hexes were not preventing the tracing of a supply path over the ferry, thus allowing German units surrounded in Reggio Calabria that should have been isolated to be treated as supplied via Messina.
20. On-ship/On-train icons are visible in air transfer mode while unit counters are hidden. Fixed.
21. An amphib HQ moving without attached transport or cargo ships suffered a Transport hit message and transports were sunk. Fixed.
22. Fixed several problems with the displayed victory points in the victory screen during the Air Campaign scenario.
23. Battle attacker was set incorrectly when intercepting non-phasing player's naval patrol, which was causing incorrect battle deletion. Fixed.
24. Non-phasing player's naval patrol battles shouldn't be cleared after next logistics phase. Fixed.
25. Fixed issue with refitting units in depot hexes getting replacements during the wrong player turn.


• Data and Scenario Changes

Scenario Files
1. Added the following German units to all applicable scenarios - all are reinforcements
226th Infantry Division (WF)
526th Infantry Division (WF)
2nd Cossack Cavalry Division (EF)
1st Marine Division (EF)
2nd Marine Division (WF)
3rd Marine Division (EF)
104th Jaeger Division (EF)
24th SS Mountain Division (EF)
27th SS Grenadier Division (EF)
2. Added US 305th Bombardment Group
3. Deleted German 239th Infantry Division
4. Small production changes
5. Corrected Italian transport group in Rome in 43 Campaign that had 151 a/c (now has 21).

Data Files
Some minor changes in the OB, ground element and device files were made to restore some changes made before release that accidentally were lost before release. In addition, the following changes were added.

Wfdevice.dat
1. 20mm Lahti AT-Rifle (0177) – ROF reduced from 10 to 6; Penetration increased from 22 to 31.
Wfob.dat
1. 40 BR Medium Artillery Regiment (OB 1009) – Last Year/Last Month changed from 1945/9 to 1943/12; upgrade to 44 BR Medium Artillery Regiment (OB 1001) added.
2. 44 BR Medium Artillery Regiment (OB 1001) consisting of 8 4.5in guns and 8 5.5in guns added with upgrade to 45 BR Medium Artillery Regiment (OB 1002).
3. 45 BR Medium Artillery Regiment (OB 1002) added consisting of 16 5.5in guns.
4. 43 US Chemical Mortar Battalion (OB 1346) – 4.2in Mortar (2566) increased from 18 to 36; Support decreased from 43 to 36.
5. 44 US Chemical Mortar Battalion (OB 1347) – 4.2in Mortar (2566) increased from 18 to 36; Support decreased from 25 to 18.

[Devonport]

Where do I find the automatic update tool?

[Nico165b165]

ORIGINAL: Devonport

Where do I find the automatic update tool?

Matrix forgot the update button in the release. Maybe they added it in this patch (can't check now)

If you don't want to download manually, you have to go to the game's folder and launch update.exe.

[marion61]

Go into the main folder that it was installed in, there's a file in there that says update. I couldn't find it on the autorun screen either and this is how I updated. Not sure if it's the correct way, but it worked. I was too slow, eh Nico?

[Erik Rutins]

You can use the link to check for updates in your start menu links for War in the West. As of this update, we've also added it to the base game menu where it should have been as a "check for updates" link. Downloading from the direct link in the first post is also fine though.

Regards,

- Erik

[KWG]

May be just me .....

Downloaded installer, ran.... told me whatsnew.pdf was open and it could not continue.

I could not find it open.

I clicked the reentry button and install went through.

[jhdeerslayer]

ORIGINAL: KWG

May be just me .....

Downloaded installer, ran.... told me whatsnew.pdf was open and it could not continue.

I could not find it open.

I clicked the reentry button and install went through.

Nope same for me too.

[VPaulus]

@KWG and @Deerslayer
Please restart your Windows and run the update.

[Devonport]

Thanks meklore 61 for your help, all seems to be o.k., now time for a new game [:)].

[Devonport]

Now I have patched, I am unable to access the Game Manual from the start screen. The only 'buttons' that seem to work are those that check for updates and start the game.

[Joel Billings]

That's very odd, anyone else have this problem? The patch didn't change the manuals at all. You may need to reinstall.

[Nico165b165]

Every button work for me. Links from the start screen are correct.

Someone had the same problem pre patch here -> http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3752438

Might be something about your pdf reader and not the start screen.

[Devonport]

Not sure why it would be a problem with pdf reader if it was working earlier today on previous version of WITW? But then I know little about computers. Tried to open from 'Manuals' as described by Red Lancer in the link, but no luck either. As a beginner who didn't have WITE, playing without a manual is a challenge too far!

Edit: I am getting a Fatal Error message 'Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE Server' whatever that means.

[zakblood]

Devonport, windows 8.1 by any chance?

http://anewdomain.net/2013/07/29/how-to ... ktop-easy/

[Devonport]

Zakblood - Yes.

[Nico165b165]

ORIGINAL: Devonport

Not sure why it would be a problem with pdf reader if it was working earlier today on previous version of WITW? But then I know little about computers. Tried to open from 'Manuals' as described by Red Lancer in the link, but no luck either. As a beginner who didn't have WITE, playing without a manual is a challenge too far!

Edit: I am getting a Fatal Error message 'Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE Server' whatever that means.

This error message means your computer correctly tries to use Acrobat reader to read PDF's but Acrobat itself is bugged.

You might want to try the following :

1) Delete any instances of Acrobat reader running (a computer restart should do it for you)
2) Repair or uninstall/reinstall acrobat reader

[Gorforlin]

Good stuff

[Qwixt]

ORIGINAL: Surtur01

1. Rule Change (section 18.1.1) - Italy will never surrender prior to August 1943. In August 1943, the German garrison value in Italy is never divided by 4 when determining Italian surrender.

[:D]

For some reason I find this patch note funny for it's wording, and it leaves me wondering. Why is 4 so bad when I suppose all other numbers are ok? What would happen if it was divided by 4? Scary stuff. I just know that there is a group of anarchists out there that want to divide it by 4.

[Devonport]

Nico

Thanks for your help, the computer restart seems to have sorted it.

[Nico165b165]

Devonport : Good ! Nothing a good ol' computer restart cannot fix [:D]

Qwixt : there's a Twitter for that -> https://twitter.com/thestrangelog