Rising Sun Tarawa Scenarios

Dan Caviness · 05-09-2016, 02:34 AM,

Hello Fellow Blitzoids:

Serious question here, I've been looking for some good scenarios, bringing a new player up to speed.
Usually I look for one that is a bit unbalanced so I can really whip him...no...wait...so I can take the short end of it and make it a better experience for both... Whistle

I was trying to dig up an old Rising Sun favorite of mine involving the invasion of Tarawa/Betio and I found "Line of Departure: Tarawa". That's the one I played. Years ago.

Created by D. Bevard...who...to be clear...I regard somewhere between Gandhi and the Buddha himself... Respect

Not ever going to complain about a scenario of his.
Superior stuff.

I think there is a mistake though, not sure how it happened.
"Line of Departure: Tarawa" depicts the entire landing with some scale modification for game play. It is Complexity 7. Visibility 1.
1 as in "Very Thick Fog".

I don't remember that being 1 visibility when I first played it because one of the few joys the doomed Japanese player gets to experience is opening with those big bore bunker/pillbox guns and trying to blow a few Alligators out of the water as the Leathernecks came in.

Is this 1 hex visibility a glitch or mistake when the scenario was imported to the current version of the game perhaps?

I know a bit about the invasion of Tarawa and it's well documented a lot of US Marines who got dropped 600-800 up to 1000 yards off shore (the early version LST's, actually Higgins Boats, couldn't navigate the submerged reef) were moving inwards through machine gun fire. They were spotted. The hard way.

The island was also pummeled with airstrikes, and the big Navy guns took out 3 of the 4 8 inch guns the Japanese had emplaced on the island. It was a clear morning. Fun fact...Eddie Albert was a USN Ensign commanding one of the landing craft...no Green Acres THAT day I tell you... 50cal

The only reduced visibility referenced in Alexander's excellent reference "Utmost Savagery" and Robert Sherrod's "Tarawa" (which may be the finest imbedded war correspondent book EVER) was that caused by Navy smoke used to help cover the landings. Since the scenario includes smoke rounds for the Marines, I wouldn't think this was an attempt to recreate the smoke screen.

I think it's an error.

Only Mr. Brevard would know for sure?

Regards,

Dan

**Scud** · 05-10-2016, 01:01 AM,

Hi Dan,

Since I doubt you'll ever reach Mr. Brevard to make a change, isn't it possible to change the visibility settings in the .bte file? I forget how, but I remember doing it with a few day to night scenarios.

Dave

**Warhorse** · 05-10-2016, 07:45 AM,

It probably got changed somehow with the 2.02 update, it is possible to change either in the bte file, or, easier in the scenario editor itself. Does anyone know what the visibility was, originally? If not, I can probably find out the hard way on one of my hard drives...

05-10-2016, 11:11 PM,

In the Betio.scn (or .bte or .btl) file, find the line where it says

0 1 0 1 1-26[1]

Change the highlighted 1 to 7.

That should fix the problem.

05-11-2016, 03:52 AM,

(05-10-2016, 11:11 PM)berto Wrote: In the Betio.scn (or .bte or .btl) file, find the line where it says

0 1 0 1 1-26[1]

Change the highlighted 1 to 7.

That should fix the problem.

The Tarawa Betio.scn is the only Rising Sun scenario with this issue:

[email=Robert@roberto]Robert@roberto[/email] /cygdrive/f/Games/Matrix Games/John Tiller's Campaign Series 2.02 SUPPORT/Rising Sun

$ egrep "\[1\]$" *.scn
Betio.scn:0 1 0 1 1-26[1]
Tenaru.scn:0 0 0 1 1-20[1]

Tenaru.scn is a legit night scenario, of course, that one is not in error.

Don't know how the Betio.scn error came about. We regret the goof.

Dan Caviness · 05-11-2016, 06:44 AM,

Hey guys....thanks for the replies!

Yep, I can go hack the scenario file to repair the visibility.
I tried (it's been so long I think I forgot how to do this) to open the old version of the game to check the original visibility and I don't think I did it right because it's also set to 1. But...I don't think I was opening the old version...I thought my original desktop shortcut opened the old version but both routes are opening up version 2.02.

So...it's up to memory...let me dust off the neurons...

If memory serves...and it's serving less and less these days...it would have been somewhere between 8-10 hexes.
This would give the Japanese player some good shots as the Higgins boats try to navigate the coral reefs.

I think I'll just modify my scenario file to make it 10 for now but If anyone out there can please open the original version to verify the visibility they can help us get this right as Bevard intended.

As stated above...I would not want to change his work and would like to get it correct.
Then you guys can make an official change, or Jason can, and we'll all have an old favorite back in play.

Regards,

Dan

Herr Straße Laufer · 05-11-2016, 07:44 AM,

"As stated above...I would not want to change his work and would like to get it correct.
Then you guys can make an official change, or Jason can, and we'll all have an old favorite back in play."

You are a good man Dan! Helmet Smile

I think I played it a long long time ago, but, for the life of me, I do not remember what the visibility was. Crystal Ball

HSL

05-11-2016, 08:01 AM,

(05-11-2016, 06:44 AM)Dan Cavines Wrote: I think I'll just modify my scenario file to make it 10 for now but If anyone out there can please open the original version to verify the visibility they can help us get this right as Bevard intended.

As stated above...I would not want to change his work and would like to get it correct.

But that's exactly what I did. Checking a JTCS 1.00 install I have, I saw that the correct visibility for this scenario is 7. As I mentioned in the suggested correction above.