Slitherine

I wish to pre-name all the units in a scenario before it starts. All I can come up with at this stage is to make a separate unit for each name in the units file. Where have you hidden the stored names once the scenario starts, as that would be ideal.

You mean in the scenario editor or while playing?

Units can be given a custom name in the field by clicking on their name box above the unit icon in the bottom UI bar.

You could open the scenario in the editor, name all units there and save the scenario.
This will add all the names to the text_english.txt file in the scenario folder.
Note that each unit has a specific number to allow the game to keep track.
You can then edit the file later if you want to change names, faster than doing it in the editor.

Example from my custom Midway scenario, UNIT NAMES are added under OBJECTIVES in the txt file:

...
// UNIT NAMES
unit_0 = Midway Airbase
unit_7 = VMSB-241
unit_8 = VMSB-242
unit_9 = VT-8
unit_10 = 22.BG
unit_11 = 11.BG
unit_13 = VP-21
unit_15 = Enterprise
unit_16 = Hornet
unit_17 = VF-6
unit_18 = VB-6
unit_19 = VS-6
unit_20 = VT-6
unit_21 = VF-8
unit_23 = VB-8
unit_24 = VS-8
...

Many thanks Erik...have a nice day!

Hello Eric, You did a great job with the historical names of units in your mods....Well Done! And I hope time allows for conversion of all your MP ones to SP too!

It just makes me wonder why the Development team didn't do this in the first place. So for now as I slug my way through my first campaign game (just ready to start Coral Sea) I just renamed my units as the scenario starts.

If the designer creates a scenario that adheres to history it makes sense to get the unit names right. Most of mine scenarios fall into that category.
It also depends on the level of the units. I think battalion and up deserves proper names (and always ship names/air units).
But I have created a couple of custom campaigns (not published yet) that are very tactical with platoon units. Here I did not see any point in unit names as they are too generic anyway.

Are the basic infantry or marine units supposed to represent a Battalion, Regiment, Brigade, Company, Detachment or what? I've settled on identifying units as Battalions.

rocklobb wrote:Are the basic infantry or marine units supposed to represent a Battalion, Regiment, Brigade, Company, Detachment or what? I've settled on identifying units as Battalions.

Depends on the scenario, scope of the battle. I think the game works fine in the company-regiment range.
I prefer battalions whenever I design a scenario, but that is not always an option if you want to capture a very large or very small battle.