Nazi 5th column

[Erik2]

Testing my custom US Naval campaign.
Anyone know why the Germans pop up in the specialisation screen?
I think there's a Japanese spec involving the Germans, but this...?

US+Ger specs.jpg (121.95 KiB) Viewed 1484 times

[Zekedia222]

No clue, but you are right about that japanese specialization involving the germans.

[bru888]

I have a clue and it's this: I still have the CSI sweep version (3.0) on my hard drive, and I see no Nazi 5th column in my spec display. So, I am surmising that it's something that you have done since.

Screenshot 1.jpg (244.82 KiB) Viewed 1463 times

Here's a link to that version, in case you did not save it; perhaps you can compare it to your current version: US Navy Campaign_3.0

[Erik2]

Bru

I think I've narrowed it down to a scenario I added to the campaign after the sweep, Rainbow-5.
When I run the scenario from the editor I can see the German faction flashing by in a fraction of a nano second
But I can't find any trace of the huns in the scenario itself. (I have stared at the US Naval campaign for days now, I think I'm going blind )
I've added the scenario here if you have some leftover sweeping time.

[bru888]

Bru

I think I've narrowed it down to a scenario I added to the campaign after the sweep, Rainbow-5.
When I run the scenario from the editor I can see the German faction flashing by in a fraction of a nano second
But I can't find any trace of the huns in the scenario itself. (I have stared at the US Naval campaign for days now, I think I'm going blind )
I've added the scenario here if you have some leftover sweeping time.

No, Rainbow-5 was in 3.0 at the tail-end of the line but third in play sequence. I reviewed it in the CSI thread, so it must have been in there.

Yes, I see that German faction "flash-by" but I am reasonably sure that I've seen that elsewhere; that is, in scenarios that do not contain the German faction. In both the Campaign Editor and the Scenario Editor, it is the first faction in the list. Perhaps in some situations, it is merely "pausing" at the top of the list until it finds the correct faction to display. Who knows.

But I did find the problem!

First, I apologize for leading you astray; the issue was in 3.0 all along. I didn't go far enough in my initial search for it. After repeated nuke-through tests, I pinpointed where the German faction specialisation tab appeared; between Rabaul and Tarawa:

Screenshot 3.jpg (364.86 KiB) Viewed 1424 times

From that point on, to the end, the German specialisation tab persisted:

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That led me to focus on Rabaul. That is the first scenario where you use this "Gruppe Monsun" thing:

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I looked it up and it didn't sound like a Japanese thing:

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However, Wikipedia does describe Monsun Gruppe as "a force of German U-boats (submarines) that operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during World War II . . . operating out of Penang (primarily its capital, George Town) . . . The Indian Ocean was the only place where German and Japanese forces fought in the same theatre." That started me thinking about the "Yanagi Missions" specialisation and maybe this was intended as a Japanese specialisation at one time. Indeed, the article mentions "U-511 became the first U-boat to complete the voyage. This boat carried the Japanese naval attache Admiral Naokuni Nomura from Berlin to Kure. The boat was given to Japan as RO-500; its German crew returned to Penang."

The .csv file lists it as a Japanese specialisation (at first, I was thinking it should have been German):

Image0042.jpg (248.71 KiB) Viewed 1424 times

but now I'm thinking that it's one of those vestigial crumbs left in the game by the designer; at one time intended for use, never used, and left in the files to potentially confuse the rest of us. As evidence, I present the fact that "Gruppe Monsun" does not appear in the specialisation tree for Rising Sun (or Kriegsmarine). If it was still intended for use, it would be in there.

Long story made short, as soon as I removed "Gruppe Monsun" from Rabaul, the German specialisation tab between Rabaul and Tarawa had disappeared:

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The line of demarcation was now between Tarawa and Philippine Sea:

Screenshot 9.jpg (367.83 KiB) Viewed 1424 times

By removing "Gruppe Monsun" from Rabaul, Tarawa, Philippine Sea, Leyte, and Coral46, I was able to clear the German specialisation tab all the way to the end:

Screenshot 10.jpg (370.17 KiB) Viewed 1424 times

I'll be away for the next few days - no access to OOB or internet - so if you have any follow-up, I'll get back to you Monday evening or Tuesday. Have a nice weekend.

[Erik2]

Thanks, Bru.
I was pretty sure you would nail this one
I'll remove the Monsun spec from the scenarios.

Erik