Description:

While we anxiously wait for the next installment of War in Russia by Matrix Games in the works for 2009, we hope this Mod on
the WitP engine can make time pass a little faster.
Feel free to use any resource for any use you may need, and please send us suggestions, comments and improvements to the following
adress witpwir@gmail.com , as we will try to improve the mod with your help.
Thanks for trying this monster experiment out, we had fun during the last 2 full years creating it! (believe it or not!)


Installation:

Make a copy of your War in the Pacific Folder on your harddisk after applying the latest official patch. Then extract the 
contents of the WIR.zip file into this new folder. Atention, the WIR Mod will change many of the original files, including
pwhex.dat and art files, DON´T install the mod on your original WitP folder!
Scenario number is 30, only play Head to Head, no AI installed

Aknowledgements:

First of all to Matrix Games and 2by3 for the great game that our mod is based on. Without this workhorse, the continuous improvements
to it´s engine and the ability to mod it, all this wouldn´t be possible.
CobraAus for his outstanding map, fast response to all my inquiries and work on plane art, Fremen for his input on how to 
work on such a massive undertaking and Michael Fleshman for his great editor.
A special mention to Dali, without his encouragement I wouldn´t have started (and finished!) this mod, his work on the database
- particulary the ships, has been way above impressive, not to mention all the ship graphics are his. He also corrected many of my
errors regarding units and TOEs and has been the mayor playtester. Thanks also to Matto for his playtesting and tips.
I don´t want to leave out all those creators of magnificient webpages which have been the source of most of the information
on units, devices, planes, ships and commanders.

Comments on the mod:

General: the map scale has been reduced to 30 mile hexes to make the game playable. Aircraft range has been updated to reflect
	this, but ship´s speed remains the same as it seems that giving them 60kts top speed isn´t well reflected by the game´s engine.
	For ground movement and a closer "blitzkrieg" feel, hexes with railway get railway connection to all sides, clear hexes
	get the road connection to all sides and broken hexes get the trail connection to all sides. This rather unrealistic
	solution speeds up movement and aids supply distribution avoiding excessive city to city fighting and allowing some 
	encirclement maneuvers. 
	Germany is represented by Japan´s Army and it´s Allies (Finnland, Romania, Hungary, Italy) by Japan´s Navy. This was made
	like this to separate devices, HQ´s and leaders/pilots so they didn´t mix up.
	China has been selected to represent Russia for various reasons, the first and most important being that otherwise I 
	wasn´t able to get Japan to bomb and attack Russia on the first turn and to the same extend after that. Furthermore issues appeared
	with reinforcements of ships and ground units not appearing if set to Russian. One of the advantages of using the Chinese
	is their ability to respawn destroyed units which is useful thinking of the losses incurred in the first year´s fighting.

Devices: values for devices are based on WitP and in the case of ground equipment on data taken from the Campaign Series and SPWAW. Due to
	limited number of slots compromises had to be taken on the type of devices represented - I hope our choice wasn´t all
	too poor. Effect and accuracy of aerial bombs has been increased as casualties from the "flying artillery" seemed to be
	below realistic. The aerial guns have been divided into nose-mounted (asterisk) and wing-mounted, the latter having reduced
	accuracy. To determine replacements for the different devices the total number build has been taken into account, reducing 
	soviet production somehow to reflect other theaters and reducing German production to a greater extend depending on the
	year considered. Some factories have been included to produce the various support squads for the axis, although the AI
	may produce other devices if they are needed.

Ship classes and Ships: although in a land campaign such as this, ships played a secondary role, we have included quite a lot of them to reflect 
	bombardment, mine, amphibious and replenishment missions performed by both sides during the war.

Plane types: slot limitations have restricted the number of variants we could include, but all major designs are represented. In the case
	of Axis planes we made a distinction between the ones used by German squadrons and the ones present in it´s allied squadrons.
	This is to represent the limited number of replacement planes available to Axis´ Allies. Production has been set either 
	through off-map industries in the case of types build during the whole war or through on-map factories for types that evolve.
	Entry dates for Axis aircraft take into account effects of R/D (I calculated 1 month advance per 150 a/c "researched"). 
	Endurance has been doubled to reflect scale change and the maneuver data has been modified with a formula based on top speed,
	rate-of-climb and number of engines, 36 being the top value (BF109K4).
	Many an upgrade path may seem weird at the beginning, but this was needed to get the industry to work correctly. Individual
	squadrons have a specific upgrade aircraft type set to correct for this.

Squadrons: in the case of Axis, most squadrons present at any given time on the Eastern Front are included, even if they later left for other theaters
	or were disbanded. It´s up to the player to reflect this changes as the game engine does not allow to program forced
	withdrawals. Specially German squadrons tend to change names during war, or disband and reform as other units, we tried
	to reflect this giving the squadrons the new name in (brackets). example I/K(J)54 starts with Ju-88A as a bomber unit
	and will evolve into a Fighter squadron later in the game. Try not to change too many squadron´s upgrade aircraft types.
	Russian squadrons are mostly accurate, we ignored short-lived regiments that were disbanded in less than 2 months time 
	(excluding starting squadrons) but you will have a lot of regiments at a given time and not many planes to fill them up to
	authorized strenght so you will have to leave some behind slowly filling up or disband them. Many squadrons will also change it´s role and name,
	we used the same method as with the axis. Most start with much more aircraft assigned then the max number (we settled for 32 for IAP ans ShAP and 22 
	for BAP, RAP and TAP), 	but they will soon shrink in numbers due to combat losses.

Locations and HQs: The limitations to the number of "Command" HQ made me rearrange all units from being assigned to individual Armies or Fronts
	(Axis/Russian) to being assigned to Heeresgruppen and Stavka, subordination to non-command HQs is impossible in this game.
	At this game scale mostly every hex had some location in it, but we tried to include only the most important ones as not to
	clutter the map. Some lesser importance locations have been included because they are needed to base aircrafts in areas with
	few key towns.

LCU´s: Info on Axis units is much more widespread and I think that their TOE is more complete - in the case of the Russians and
	specially on the smaller units we had to create generic units like the original WIR did, and we couldn´t include all
	units that appeared during the war as it would have been a nightmare to give orders to all. 
	As only 15 devices appear on the unit information panel, compromises had to be taken to fit in all equipment, so for example
	a 2.0cm Flak can be anything from a static to a SP version.
	It´s a pity that LCU´s TOE can not evolve like a ships weapon loadout during the war, so LCU´s start with the equipment assigned
	when they first appear in the game and have their TOE set to what they should have in mid-44, that way through losses and
	replacements they will evolve through the war. Obviously devices assigned will also upgrade as soon as there is one available.
	Russian´s initial Tank Divisions designations appear in	(brackets) before the Tank Corps they evolve into. You´ll notice
	an initial high complement of tanks and few infantry. The TOE will slowly fix this into the ´44 Tank or Mech Corps.
	Most on-map Russian LCU´s start the game with 30% of the devices disabled and high fatigue valuesto reflect their state of 
	unpreparedness and dispersal.

Pilots: I have created more than 10000 pilot names for the Axis to avoid Japanese names in the airgroups to start with and to include
	many of the famous aces. Obviously some names are repeated, many are ficticious and as soon as losses take its toll,
	the ranks will fill up with generic Japanese names.
	
Leaders: Most Axis Division sized units start or appear with the correct leader, smaller units have ficticious ones. We also created 
	some leaders that appeared during the war. Russian units have less accurate names as my sources were less complete. 
	Axis air units have mostly correct squadron leaders, Russian not. Ship captain names are as accurate as we could, but
	many are ficticious. The stats are based on Hearts of Iron 2 for many leaders, others are randomized between a certain
	range we established for every nation.

Pwhex: it has completely been reworked for the area being played on, I hope not too many errors have escaped our attention. Terrain
	is based on an Eastern Front boardgame I had and maps from books and the internet.

House rules: only use shock attack in amphibious invasions and city attacks. The Russian players shouldn´t give any orders at all
	on the first day! Do not change factories nor expand them as it will drastically alter history. Only exception should be Russian
	player rebuilding factories after reconquering previously lost cities. First turn surprise has to be on. Turn on player defined
	aircraft upgrades or problems may happen with too many 0 aircraft squadrons.


DISCLAIMER:

We can not be held responsible for any errors that may ocurr during the instalation and playing of this game, use it on your own risk.
If any name, sound or picture is copyrighted and you wish us to remove it, please write us an e-mail and we will comply asap.


12/2008 Dani, aka Bubi Hartmann, witpwir@gmail.com