How do you sort out your units in a Quick Battle?

[CM1fan]

When I'm playing a QB with a battalion sized force, the initial set up shows a pile of floating icons at the bottom of my set up area. I want squads to go with their platoon leaders, platoons with their company commander, and so on. It can take me a couple of hours to organize my force before I can position them for the battle to come.

I thought the AI could do all this for me, and I could then tweak the AI's initial troop placements. How do I get this to happen?

[Moon]

Doubleclick on the HQ unit(s). This will highlight/select all subordinate units automatically and you can move them out of the way and get a rough organization going, which you can then later finetune.

[CM1fan]

Doubleclick on the HQ unit(s). This will highlight/select all subordinate units automatically and you can move them out of the way and get a rough organization going, which you can then later finetune.

That's what I've been doing. Clicking on flags until I find the battalion CO. (The flags sometimes are under other icons, which I have to move out of the way to get at the flag icons.) (Another complication is that there are always icons I can't select directly, that I can only reach by pressing + or - from other icons I can select.) Double clicking on the battalion CO selects everybody, which is worthless. So I move the Bn CO icon out of the way. I then press + which takes me to a Company CO. Double clicking on a Company CO icon shows me which units are in that company. I deselect the Company CO icon, select it again and move it out of the way. I then press + to get to the company's first platoon leader. Repeat and repeat and repeat. As I said, it can take me hours to get my battalion with around 100 icons organized. By comparison, positioning the force goes quickly.

The AI can do all this quickly for the forces it's controlling. I thought the AI could also do it for me.

[duckEfuzz]

I know how you feel.

Sometimes i just cant face all the organising and swap out for a smaller battle.

Personally i would like a force list that i can select from to then place on the map, for me that would really simplify the set-up. I know i'm being lazy but it would really improve the whole experience.

Whether its a viable thing for BF to introduce i dont know, but i suppose it could be added to the wish list, yeah, make that wish number 2,145,768!!

[CM1fan]

I know i'm being lazy but it would really improve the whole experience.

As I said, the AI does this in a few seconds for its forces. Why can't it do the same for mine?

[A Canadian Cat]

Hey that's a good idea. In a QB both sides have AI plans - why not just set the initial setup using the AI plan even for the human player. I like it. Chances are I would be rearranging things a bunch anyway but presumably each platoon would be positioned close together which does not happen now.

[Vanir Ausf B]

As I said, it can take me hours to get my battalion with around 100 icons organized. By comparison, positioning the force goes quickly.

For a battalion it takes me maybe 10 minutes to separate and organize, and maybe another 20 minutes to position. For me the only thing that takes a long time is planning what I want to do and how I want to do it.

[Bradley]

Just some simple things I do that really works great for me. Maybe someone who is new to the game can use these tips.

First, I go to level 8 and group select all units moving them all (N key) to a central location for sorting/deploying. At this level I will also select (G key) to Face units in same direction.

Then level 4 and wide angle (c key) for deploying and checking LOS.

Plotting waypoints in tight spaces for vehicles I select unit then (Tab) and go level one. Then elevate (mouse wheel) while holding down (Shift) key puts you right on top of the vehicle and surrounding area. You can easily adjust for desired height with mouse wheel.

During battle I will select a unit and hit (Tab) and choose desired height, then right-click and hold while swinging camera 360 degrees. Using the unit as a pivoting point to view neighboring units and terrain.

I use the (Tab) key a lot. If I want to go to a particular part of the battle field I click on a unit icon in that area then (Tab) and it puts me there instantly.

Obvious to many but could help newcomers to the game.

[Vanir Ausf B]

When the QB starts the battalion Co should be already selected. Click on the formations tab (3 flags) to bring up the list of companies. Click on A company. Now the A company Co is selected. Double click on his icon to select the entire company. Press N or whatever your shortcut key is for Move and click somewhere near the opposite side of your set up zone. If the zone is narrow make sure you are clicking in about the same relative location the Co is currently at relative to the boundaries or you may leave stragglers behind. Now you have one whole company separate from the battalion. Click on the battalion Co where it is listed in the chain of command at the lower left of the UI. Now you have the battalion Co selected again. Go back to the formations listing and click on the Company B to move company B. Repeat this process for all 4 (usually) companies. It should take about 2 or 3 minutes even with having to go back for a few stragglers. Now you just have to go through each company individually and group the squads together with the proper platoon leader, ect, which is maybe a few minutes per company. I really have no idea how someone could take an hour or more to do this unless they had cerebral palsy or something.

[dieseltaylor]

Thanks Bradley for those useful tips. Useful to new and old players.

VAB useful

[CM1fan]

When the QB starts the battalion Co should be already selected. Click on the formations tab (3 flags) to bring up the list of companies. Click on A company. Now the A company Co is selected. Double click on his icon to select the entire company. Press N or whatever your shortcut key is for Move and click somewhere near the opposite side of your set up zone. If the zone is narrow make sure you are clicking in about the same relative location the Co is currently at relative to the boundaries or you may leave stragglers behind. Now you have one whole company separate from the battalion. Click on the battalion Co where it is listed in the chain of command at the lower left of the UI. Now you have the battalion Co selected again. Go back to the formations listing and click on the Company B to move company B. Repeat this process for all 4 (usually) companies. It should take about 2 or 3 minutes even with having to go back for a few stragglers. Now you just have to go through each company individually and group the squads together with the proper platoon leader, ect, which is maybe a few minutes per company. I really have no idea how someone could take an hour or more to do this unless they had cerebral palsy or something.

As I don't have "cerebral palsy or something", a few questions:

1. Where's the "formations tab (3 flags)"? What does the "3 flags" refer to? When I'm trying to organize my units on the map, there's just the map and and a pile of icons for my units. If I could go back and forth between purchasing and placing, the set up would be much faster.

2. Why can't I select any one of my units by clicking on its floating icon? My force has three Panthers. I can select only two of them by clicking on their icons. I can only select the third Panther by clicking on one of the other two and then pressing + or - keys to select the third. [This isn't only during set up. I have similar problems during a game, both in viewing the turn and in the command phase.]

3. Another cause of my multi-hour set up time is that CM:BN frequently causes my iMac to freeze when I try to Save my set up. I have to use the "Force Quit" iMac command on CM:BN to regain use of my machine.

[Vanir Ausf B]

1. Where's the "formations tab (3 flags)"? What does the "3 flags" refer to? When I'm trying to organize my units on the map, there's just the map and and a pile of icons for my units. If I could go back and forth between purchasing and placing, the set up would be much faster.

It's in the UI panel at the bottom of the screen. When you click on a tank, for example, you see a silhouette of that tank in a panel near the middle. To the right of the silhouette you see 3 tabs that show ammo, damage, ect. When you click on an infantry HQ unit the silhouette panel shows a black flag and the 3 tabs to the right become 2 tabs: a single flag tab that shows "Units" (units directly under the HQ command), and a 3 flag tab that shows "Formations" (essentially subordinate HQs).

2. Why can't I select any one of my units by clicking on its floating icon? My force has three Panthers. I can select only two of them by clicking on their icons. I can only select the third Panther by clicking on one of the other two and then pressing + or - keys to select the third. [This isn't only during set up. I have similar problems during a game, both in viewing the turn and in the command phase.

If clicking on a unit's floating icon does not select it that must be a technical problem you are having because it certainly should. In the example you give you should be able to select all 3 Panthers by clicking on one, then clicking on the next 2 while holding down the Shift key. To select an entire formation (a company for example) double click on that unit or its icon.

3. Another cause of my multi-hour set up time is that CM:BN frequently causes my iMac to freeze when I try to Save my set up. I have to use the "Force Quit" iMac command on CM:BN to regain use of my machine.

That is certainly a problem. That doesn't happen to me, but there is a bug in the 1.10 version that causes lockups during setup when there is barbed wire on the map, but IIRC that happens when you try to reload the save so it may not be related to your problem.

[CM1fan]

It's in the UI panel at the bottom of the screen. When you click on a tank, for example, you see a silhouette of that tank in a panel near the middle. To the right of the silhouette you see 3 tabs that show ammo, damage, ect. When you click on an infantry HQ unit the silhouette panel shows a black flag and the 3 tabs to the right become 2 tabs: a single flag tab that shows "Units" (units directly under the HQ command), and a 3 flag tab that shows "Formations" (essentially subordinate HQs).

Thank you for that info. I didn't realize how much of unit panel I could click on. I still don't understand why I can't select the floating icons of many of my units, but I see now how I can jump from icon to icon with single clicks. That makes all the difference in organizing and positioning my units, and in commanding them once the scenario is underway.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Thank you for that info. I didn't realize how much of unit panel I could click on.

I think there are a lot of people who don't. There is no in-game indication that they are clickable, and IIRC no mention of it in the manual. :confused:

You may try removing any icon mods you may be using, but otherwise I also have no idea why they would not be clickable.

[ridethe415]

3. Another cause of my multi-hour set up time is that CM:BN frequently causes my iMac to freeze when I try to Save my set up. I have to use the "Force Quit" iMac command on CM:BN to regain use of my machine.

How much memory are you running? I went form 4 to 12 Gb and the larger battles are easier to run.

[CM1fan]

How much memory are you running? I went form 4 to 12 Gb and the larger battles are easier to run.

My iMac has 2 Gb of RAM, which I will soon upgrade to 4 Gb, the max my iMac will accept.