walking the line

[poesel]

Some pixelmothers are crying now because their sons never learned to spread out when advancing against the enemy...

I don't know exactly but it sounded like one or two shots:

This basically stopped any more advances on the right flank at the defence of Esquay-sur-Seulles (Hi Chainsaw - you probably like that picture! ).

[Chris Ferrous]

Yeah, it's a well known tactic of working out the largest calibre in the enemy arsenal. Four men down is about 50mm!

[Hister]

Yes it's a problem that should be fixed with the patch - when units are going through a narrow gap like the ones in the bocage they don't spread out and just continue in a straight line so bigger weapons can mow them down like ants.

[skogtroll]

I think there should be a command "loose formation" or something like that. In "tight" infantry section usually occupy two squares. After use "loose" this will be for example four squares.

[Chris Ferrous]

Good call, Skogtroll.

I would be interested to know what order that section was given?

I do agree that visually troops do seem to stay too much in line, and it would be nice if they shook out a little. I don't know if the battle model takes into account this apparent bunching and compensates or not.

[poesel]

I would be interested to know what order that section was given?

IIRC it was a quick command over wood, grass, wood, trench (each 1 AS). The enemy was ~20m behind the trench (which they never reached).

[Michael Emrys]

I think there should be a command "loose formation" or something like that.

There is. Break your sections down into teams and spread those out, especially if crossing open ground.

PS: The in-game behavior complained about here is historically accurate. Soldiers tended to bunch up and play follow-the-leader. If it drives you crazy, it did the same to NCOs and officers too.

Michael

[Lt Belenko]

I remember losing 8 men to a single 75mm round on the original training mission Road Block. I had dumped every mortar round on the AT gun, then sent a squad up the lane. The AT gun was still healthy and my men weren't so healthy any more.

[Childress]

Or you can plonk down several movement commands instead of one. A squad will regroup and spread out when completing its initial destination.

[poesel]

Or you can plonk down several movement commands instead of one. A squad will regroup and spread out when completing its initial destination.

The problem with this tactic is that your men will stop at this point and wait for stragglers and then continue. So you are even longer under fire than before.

The other tip here was splitting your teams up. Well, this was already split up and I couldn't make smaller teams. Also I don't think it would be a good thing to have to manage even more units on the field.

I have not run any tests and I don't know how often soldiers would run in a line in RL. Sometimes some soldiers make a sidestep and break the line so the mechanic is in the game.

I only wish they would do that more often.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Walking on a thin line

Straight off the front line

Take a look at my face, see what it's doing to me

This thread has that stuck in my head :confused:

[Michael Emrys]

I remember losing 8 men to a single 75mm round on the original training mission Road Block. I had dumped every mortar round on the AT gun, then sent a squad up the lane. The AT gun was still healthy and my men weren't so healthy any more.

75mm? I thought both ATG in that scenario were 50mm.

Michael

[Chris Ferrous]

I'm trying a fairly large battle (Regt) in real-time for the first time and I was shocked when I checked-up on a follow-up Infantry Company which I had clicked through quickly and ordered to proceed through reasonably dead ground and then through the length of a wood previously reconned by a single Platoon.

I realised the new Company had reached the woods and checked-up on them: the whole Company were proceeding in two snakey lines about 5m apart with just 3 guys about 30m ahead of the rest. I quickly stopped the bulk movement through this partially secured terrain since a single grenade would have killed about 20 men!

Just to make things clear, I had not simply clicked on the HQ and pointed all units simultaneously at the end of the wood. I had gone through each unit, full squads, in turn and ordered them to a separate position at the destination.

I wish I'd taken a screenshot but of course I had no opportunity with it being in real time.

As an aside, back to one of my original topics: I reckon on the basis of this test that at this scale of battle, real time takes about 2.5 times as long to get things done, and thus it needs totally different AI plan timings to take account of this fact.