The Oronzo PZ2 (R2) Efile, Made by Oronzo . First released in late April or early May 1999. Initially a modded version of Raymond C. Schroder's Ultimate PG2 Efile with a few changes, mainly in the Italian section.
Oronzo later went into a whole other ballgame, with the advent of his R2 file. R2 (Range 2), gives the vast majority of units with a previous attack range of 1, including infantry and aircraft, an attack range of 2.He cited the presence of long-range infantry weapons such as mortars in infantry battalions as a justification, but his main reason for doing so was to change the way the game is played.
This plays somewhat differently, for better and for worse.But it creates a whole new immersive playing experience.
Some international scenario designers, including Eric Meng,Toily,Koznev and Karhu, created scenarios designed specifically for mechanics of the R2 file.
Oronzo did his own research, mainly in underrepresented countries (France, Belgium, Greece, China, Italy,Hungary etc). . Minor nations were treated with a lot of passion and were tweaked to correct bias. New Game engine,graphics and sounds were implemented over time.
Oronzo has always been one of the first (if not the very first) to actually implement new ideas from people. It doesn’t mean that things don’t work in his file, because they do. It means that whether the changes were worth it was often left up to the user to decide.
Modifications
http://sites.google.com/site/pz2oronzo/ The oronzo efile home page
Oronzo Links
You can download the R2 ------- Odds Removed Oronzo Efile here
Oronzos Pz2 Equipment file / Karhus Pz2 Page
Revamped Notes (2008) on Oronzos Final Notes on his last update
More concise notes on Oronzos last update of 2003
1)The Oronzo Pz2 File is meant to be played as the R2 File with ODDS removed (this is in the oronzo effects download). Soon I will make an update and this will be the only version I will work on.(R1 file will be discontinued) The Odds removed is eesential to the Oronzo R2 file gameing experience,so please make sure you use it. It prevents you from making attacks that are only in your favor.In my file You must judge the enemies Strength and entrenchment before you make an attack,not rely on the ODDS button.
2)Artillery damge has been reduced whilst BOMB SIZE has been added to all artillery,(Rocket artillery having greater bomb size).This will add to suppression over kills.
3)NAVAL Combat: Navies now have greater GD (Around 18-25 gd) while retaining original attack- values (they remain the same) and therefore naval battles are now more drawn out and less short bloody affairs (Making air strikes more significant however).
4)Aerial Dog Fighting and Bomber Limitation: All aircraft can fight air to air up to 4 hexes (This mixed with the flight movement restrictions in my file will make air combat more vivid and realistic).When strafing or bombing a ground target however a plane still only has 1 range attack,must descend on the ground target air combat is not on a land based scale....its 3 dimensional! Bombers have a universal bomb load of 4.This represents the bomber formation.Not the Individual Bombers and limits the power they can inflict in a game.
5) Plane Movement: -AIR MOVEMENT HAS SPECIAL RULES (Aerial Movement Hex is figured by range/speed of historical aircraft)
6)Nations: The oronzo file contains the Following Nations: 1-All Nation Units 2-Belgium 3-Bulgaria 4-Slovakia 5-Czeckoslovakia (pre 1939) 6-Finland 7-Fance 8-Germany 9-Greece 10-U.S.A. 11-Hungary 12-Turkey 13-Italy 14-Netherlands 15-Norway 16- Poland 17-Croatia 18-Romania 19-China 20- USSR 21-Sweden 22-Canada 23-UK + Commonwealths 24 Yugoslavia (Royal Army,Patisans,Sloveinia,Chetniks) 25- Japan 26-Republican Spain 27- Nationalist Spain -HISTORICAL FLAGS ADDED
7)AA Ground ROLE: AA units can now fire in ground role if in the scenario editor you put the ground role variant (Available in my file) as the transport for the AA gun-then in the scenario you select the transport for example : the 20mm Flak AA and the 20mm Flak ground role,this represents the gun lowering its elevation to attack ground targets,the ground unit will always have a AA of only 3 to represent the hasty elevation defense if attacked from the air while in ground role
8) Artillery and Flak Suppression: -AA GUNS ARE MORE SUPPRESSIVE FIRE THAN KILLS (Higher GD on Planes) -ARTILLERY IS MORE SUPPRESSIVE FIRE THAN KILLS allowing infantry to operate(Weaker stats) -All towed pieces have a movement of 1 (This greatly increases AI in gameplay)
9)Misc: Now With Anti Personnel Mines,Anti Tank Mines,Sea mines , Submarines,Level Bombers, Coastal Batteries,Artillery and AT Bunkers (of varying calibers),Factories (Targets),V2 rocket installations,and some WW1/1920s equipment
10) All Nation Units: Generic units which can be added to scenarios with appropriate flags.
11)Attack capability for Fighter Bombers and Halftrack Transports!
12 ) Armour Sights: Spotting of 1:I am giving main battle tanks and other enclosed armored fighting vehicles (excluding armoured cars) a spotting range of 1 Spotting of 2: for light recon tanks such as pz35t,Stuarts,tankettes, Pz II,t-70 ,tetrachs etc...and open topped armoured vehicles such as the hellcat and wolverine tank destroyers,Nashorn, Marders etc..still have spotting of 2 since they were used to hunt/stalk/ambush armour the open turret design was to allow maximum visibility. . Explanation: This will encourage more of a combined arms mentality to escort your tanks with motorized infantry and to use recon.In real life it is almost impossible to spot the enemy from the confines of a enclosed armored vehicle particularly in the heat of the advance and combat.In the tabletop miniature combat game Command Decision spotting is a priority over combat.Bocages are murder on armour and so are anti tank guns waiting to ambush them.Infantry is necessary for the role. This will make anti tank guns more powerful and keep armour from over extending itself which is very important. I am aware some will not like this but not every change is to be a beneficial change for the player. we must remember in a game of pz2 the advance is at a run and you know that the battle is raging, being buttoned up (tank fully enclosed) is important (less snipers remove the head),one hex approximately represents 3-5 kilometers,it is strange to think Armour even with its commanders on the lookout in a open hatch (besides all the other duties! Think of those 3 man tank crews (like the H39)as well.their commanders role was Commander gunner and loader...oh and spotter!) could spot 2 hexes whilst in combat (6-10 kilometers! What about all those concealed infantry,mines ,and anti tank emplacements that are hiding for their one advantage over Armour..They can see you but its hard to see them).The times commanders did stay out of hatch is brief and not as efficient as other types of units (remember that modern day armoured vehicles with all their high technology still suffer from spotting,imagine the crude interiors of a 1930s-40s vehicle)this is what gives the armour its spotting of 1 (3-5 kms!) which i believe is being generous at that!Israeli tank commanders in the yom kippur war did go into battle open hatched so as to spot better,this led to many dead tank commanders. The one thing that always bothered me in pz2 is that you could not stack units on top of each other,by giving armour a spot of 1 this represents infantry flushing out and/or showing enemy positions and escorting(this is why the concept of mechanized infantry was so important in ww2/i also gave halftrack transports a increase of 1 point to their spotting so now they have 2 points of spotting range so mechanized inf in their open halftraks can still advance and see for the armour) also recon units signaling and radioing to the armour enemy deployment and positions.
13) Towed Weapons have become smarter: All towed weapons (A.T.,Artillery,FlaK) now have a base move of one.This will increase the computers artificial intelligence immensely by having the computer advance and maneuver his weaponry on the attack and the defense,It will also cause the withdrawal(when possible) of a towed unit when nearly destroyed- with the move of 1 the towed weapon will not be immediately destroyed,they will fall back(Gun Crew frantically withdrawing)Entrenchment does not really affect towed weapons remarkably,Maneuver is more important,(if you want static defense i have artillery bunkers and coastal batteries).It does affect infantry well though.With the move of one, Artillery can be manhandled to support a creeping barrage with the infantry (moving with the infantry). Additionally Anti Tank guns particularly like the 37mm or 50mm will be far more useful as well. It can be manhandled and used for immediate guard and attack situations as appropriate (as they were a lot more useful in real life then in the game system).Also when a towed flak unit get s a leader it can move and shoot(alas only one hex)I am replaying the new blitzkrieg campaign and let me tell you with this new ability i was lucky to get a tactical victory in sedan!Some thoughts had been said about the larger caliber guns should not have movement in regards to towed movement this is what i said at another forum:- "I agree with this and thought about it myself,the reason i think it is still a good idea though, is not necessarily for realism sake(you can assume it is still towed but dismantled very quickly for large caliber guns)but for game mechanics,the computers A.I. moves the weapon in a offensive way and tends to support the troops (inf)with a creeping barrage.I love the pak movement by the way...it is now so much more fun to hit a t34 witha 50mm AT gun. They are now treated the way they should be(and remember one hex movement is still defensive movement)" and sleighr stated:I agree with the 1 hex movement for all weapons. Since PG2 playson the battalion size level on average, one has to assume that at least SOME of the weapons are in transit. And you'll find several other SSI games following the same action: PG1, Pacific Gen, and People's Gen, they all have mobile dismounted artillery.Francesco Stated:having artillery that can move one hex by me is close to reality.assuming that a turn is about one day (or 3) they could loose a few shots and move one or two Km in a day and thus dismount again.Think it tooks at least about one hour to mount dismount.
14)Explanation of the R2 file and some other notes on game play: Range 2 file bonus All land units (with a few exceptions) have a minimum range of 2. The game play is a little different but very fluid,this also offsets the 1 movement for all towed pieces.the AI is a better opponent with R2 and mvt 1 for every aty & AT units.. advantage for attacker= movement and flexibility advantage for defender = static,but entrenchment This now creates a game of Maneuver for Armoured warfare and infantry tactics and represents ASSAULTS when a infantry unit attacks another one at Hex to Hex basis (such as in a City)Flame Tanks can now be better represented since they will still only have a range of 0 therefore forcing them to close assault.Terrain still blocks line of sight so you can use this to your advantage,also shooting a unit from the other side of the river (suppression fire) as other units cross the river helps give the game a real wargaming feeling.Thanks to First Surprise for the idea.Their has been a update on the range file,units which had a range 3 had to be put back to 2,the reason is they ignored hills,forests and other terrain.(those previous 3 range units like 75mm pak,t34/85 etc will still have higher initiative and harder hitting power also remember in order for a tigers gun to be able to use its range it would need flat open terrain a feature not often on the battlesite)-please try the range 2 file and then form a opinion on it,a nice trick is to watch the computer play the computer.As far as the hex being 2 km this is not true and varies from map to map(also inf units have HMG,AT rifles,Mortars etc this is now better represented with the range2)watch as assaulting infantry cross a river while other infantry units provide suppression fire at the defending inf on the other side of the river.soviet Shocktroops (smg infantry) and flame tanks have a range of 1 forcing them to close assault in hex to hex basis.Infantry can stil rugged defense against other inf at a range 2 which is a good thing(representing Mowing down the advancing infantry).A question i got was how is it that infantry fire as far as a tiger tank ?well the fact is the scale in pz2 is skewed and not theoretical to translation . so a infantry unit is firing at 2 represents tank hunter troops within the unit advancing up to the enemy tank and close assaulting it with Grenades ,satchel charges etc..Also The mortars within the unit as well as rifles and Mgs.When a unit advances in a hex to hex basis this now represents a "full close assault" on the enemy (in particular in cities etc)