What practical impact does the 'Paradrop' capability have on units?

[tigerpyramid]

As you may already know, when you run pcoob.exe and select the 'edit' menu for a unit, it will pop up the 'Org/Unit dialog' window for that unit, and at the bottom of that window there are checkboxes to enable/disable certain capabilities for that unit. One of these is 'Paradrop', which is described in the pcoob manual (p12) as follows.

Paradrop – unit is capable of being dropped by parachute or glider. Depending on their training, this may or may not apply to all Parachute units.

However, what I'm wondering is, some units that don't have this 'paradrop' checked are also being dropped by parachute or glider as airborne reinforcements.

Below is an example from the 'Market Garden' scenario in Scheldt '44 (Scheldt_44_September.oob).

The 3rd parachute battalion under the 1st Airborne Brigade of the UK's 1st Airborne division has 'Paradrop' checked as shown below. If you run pcedit.exe to load the 'Market Garden' scenario, select the above unit in the 'Scheduled dialog' and click the 'Modify' button, the 'Reinforce dialog' window will pop up as shown below, and you can see that it is scheduled to arrive as reinforcements by 'Paratroop'.

Paradrop1.jpg (82.07 KiB) Viewed 1236 times

On the other hand, the 1st Airborne division HQ unit does not have 'Paradrop' checked as shown below. As above, when you run pcedit.exe, you can see that it will arrive in the form of 'Glider' reinforcements as shown below.

Paradrop2.jpg (76.38 KiB) Viewed 1236 times

This means that regardless of a unit's 'Paradrop' capability, it can receive airborne reinforcements by Parachute or Glider.

Units that are airborne reinforcements will only arrive as reinforcements by Parachute or Glider once in the scenario. It is not possible to paradrop a second or third time from the airfield again during the game. Therefore, I wonder if the 'Paradrop' capability in the 'Org/Unit dialog' above is almost useless in the game if it does not even serve to limit airborne reinforcements. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

[ComradeP]

You read "can be dropped via parachute or glider" as: "only units with this flag can be dropped via parachute or glider", which isn't the case. The description could be altered to "can be dropped via parachute" but it's not inaccurate at the moment, it's just not the limitation to the capabilities of a unit that you expect based on the description of the flag.

The idea of a glider is that it allows units that for a variety of reasons can't arrive by parachute (mostly weight and/or space related) to arrive at a drop zone.

In game terms, it mostly makes losses more expensive in terms of VP's (the flag increases loss points by 4 VP's per 100 Men). As you say, a unit can only be dropped by parachute or glider if the designer allows it through regular reinforcements or a strategy option and never through player action. Units can't switch to "para" or "glider" mode.

Like "Night flying" and "Jet aircraft" it doesn't influence unit stats or in-game capabilities, only availability and means of reaching the battlefield.

[tigerpyramid]

You read "can be dropped via parachute or glider" as: "only units with this flag can be dropped via parachute or glider", which isn't the case. The description could be altered to "can be dropped via parachute" but it's not inaccurate at the moment, it's just not the limitation to the capabilities of a unit that you expect based on the description of the flag.

The idea of a glider is that it allows units that for a variety of reasons can't arrive by parachute (mostly weight and/or space related) to arrive at a drop zone.

In game terms, it mostly makes losses more expensive in terms of VP's (the flag increases loss points by 4 VP's per 100 Men). As you say, a unit can only be dropped by parachute or glider if the designer allows it through regular reinforcements or a strategy option and never through player action. Units can't switch to "para" or "glider" mode.

Like "Night flying" and "Jet aircraft" it doesn't influence unit stats or in-game capabilities, only availability and means of reaching the battlefield.

Thank you for your kind response.

So, practically speaking, it makes sense to me that Paradrop is just a way to increase the VP of a unit.

On the other hand, I think I only gave an example for gliders. In the El Alamein '42 invasion of Malta scenario, the Italian airborne division 'Folgore' is set to airborne reinforcements. When the scenario is loaded via pcedit.exe, the reinforcement drop method for Folgore's division and regimental HQ units is set to 'Paratroop'. However, in the 'Org/Unit dialog' via pcoob.exe, 'Paradrop' is not checked. In contrast, all of Folgore's battalion-level paratroop units (reinforcement drop method is 'Paratroop') have 'Paradrop' checked. I'm not sure, but I suspect there are differences in how different scenario designers apply 'Paradrop' (In the invasion of Crete (in Salerno '43), the German Luftwaffe Corps, Div, and Regt HQ units all have Paradrop checked.).

Anyway, the VP information is now clearer. I also realized that the VP increase is cumulative depending on the settings of the following capabilities.

Indirect Fire (+2)
Mine Clearing (+2)
Amphibious (+2)
Paradrop (+4)
Bridge Eng (+6)
Mountain Unit (+3)

[ComradeP]

Ah, yes, I was wondering if your question came up after spotting a case like that.

As far as I know the game doesn't check whether an arrival method is illegal (Rail on a non-rail hex, Motorized in a Marsh and so on).

In the case of the Folgore, it seems like an OOB error. The arrival method only has an effect on the mechanics surrounding the appearance of the unit on the battlefield, like a scatter radius or losses from the drop. Units without the paradrop flag arriving by parachute seems wrong.