Magician units?

[Vinnart]

See this guy with the panzerfaust doing some medic aid on the guy with the mg42. I think he waved a magic wand because when he grabbed the mg42 the panzerfaust magically disappeared. So, now unless I have access to the Twilight Zone to make it reappear I have to go through the rest of the campaign a panzerfaust short. I would have preferred that the panzerfaust be transferred to one of the other guys in the team rather than disappear. This to me is more logical as to what would happen in reality. I hope this is something that can be changed.

The real kicker is the dead guy there bought it due to a strange building bug. I gave a waypoint to the door on the other side of the building, which was a safer route. The squad then ran around the building to the door on the street side, which was covered by a HMG. Usually the pathfinding is good, but I cannot get any troops to go through the door on the other side, and I can’t get my panzerfaust back.

[dieseltaylor]

Ouch! Anti-tank items are rarer than bullet firing arms so the trade-off seems wrong even moreso given the player has no choice.

[JonS]

Are you sure the PF is gone? Is it gone from both the 3D view AND the UI panel?If it's still in the UI panel I would xpect he'll whip it out when needed.

By the by, PFs are single use, and extremely short range, so I think it's rather unlikely that your success or failure will come down to this single weapon.

[Chris Ferrous]

I've definitely had units with both 'fausts and 'schreks that swapped to small arms as the situation demanded.

I even saw a 'schreker pick-up an MG42 (via buddy aid) and use it quite effectively until there was a vehicle target which it dispatched. He then gave buddy aid to another casualty and swapped the MG42 for a pistol. It was only then I realised the MG and the 'schrek were out of ammo.

So all round a pretty effective performance by the friendly AI.

[Vinnart]

Are you sure the PF is gone? Is it gone from both the 3D view AND the UI panel?If it's still in the UI panel I would xpect he'll whip it out when needed.

By the by, PFs are single use, and extremely short range, so I think it's rather unlikely that your success or failure will come down to this single weapon.

Yes, definitely gone. It disappeared from the UI panel. Agree the lose of the single weapon isn’t going to cause a defeat, but still I would rather it not disappear, and be passed to another guy in the squad that could carry it. The PF on his back changed to a rifle, when he picked up the mg42.

[Vinnart]

You can see in this shot after the aid is done the PF is gone from the UI, and his back, and is replaced with the rifle.

[c3k]

Obviously the wounded machinegunner had an airway problem. The landser, having dreamed of being a doctor back in his gymnasium in 1937 had always studied medicine. Realizing that his comrade would die, the landser quickly pulled out his 'schreck, knowing it would be suicidal if he ever had to fire it, threw away the projectile, and used the remaining launch tube to create an emergency tracheatomy airway.

Then, his work done, he grabbed teh MG42 and got back to work.

[Vinnart]

You know what would have been ironic if this squad would have ended up with the call sign “Houdini”, or "Merlin" instead of “Fire Dragon”, since I have both as soldier names too

[Baneman]

I wonder if there's an algorithm for weapon-swapping during buddy-aid or just a random selection ?

I had a 3 man unit with Stg44, MG42 and rifle lose the MG42 gunner to a stray round. His mates buddy-aid him and the Stg44 disappears when the MG42 is picked up. Would far far rather they dumped the rifle.

The strange ammo-dumping issue is also one I'd like BFC to look into adjusting. ( ie. man with mortar/bazooka/schreck/ATG rounds is hit - until he's buddy-aided, the team still have access to these rounds, but if they aid him, the rounds disappear )

[Aldaros]

I wonder if there's an algorithm for weapon-swapping during buddy-aid or just a random selection ?

There is at least a basic ranking of weapons. During buddy aid, a soldier will only trade for a higher-ranked weapon (unless he's out of ammo, apparently; I haven't noticed that one myself). Pistols are ranked lowest, rifles and submachine guns together are the next rank up (so you'll never trade a rifle for an SMG or vice versa), and then sniper rifles, rifle-caliber automatic weapons (Stg44s, BARs, Brens, MGs, etc.), and explosive weapons (rifle grenade launchers, bazookas, etc.) are all in the upper rank(s). I don't know the specific differences in rank between the upper-level weapons are, but I would guess sniper rifles are considered worse than an automatic weapon, and from what you say it sounds like Stg44s are also ranked above rifles/SMGs but below the larger weapons.

The only randomness is that sometimes a soldier will keep his weapon even though he would normally trade; IIRC this is to simulate the wounded soldier's weapon being damaged.

[Vanir Ausf B]

I wonder if there's an algorithm for weapon-swapping during buddy-aid or just a random selection ?

There is a weapon priority list. A soldier with a Thomson SMG will always trade it for a Garand and a Garand gets traded for a scoped Springfield. As for which soldiers do the buddy aid, as far as I can tell it is random but there may be a method I'm not seeing. I do have to be careful since I generally find SMGs more useful than rifles I try to avoid parking A teams in the same action spot with casualties.

The strange ammo-dumping issue is also one I'd like BFC to look into adjusting. ( ie. man with mortar/bazooka/schreck/ATG rounds is hit - until he's buddy-aided, the team still have access to these rounds, but if they aid him, the rounds disappear )

Me too.

[Aldaros]

I had a 3 man unit with Stg44, MG42 and rifle lose the MG42 gunner to a stray round. His mates buddy-aid him and the Stg44 disappears when the MG42 is picked up. Would far far rather they dumped the rifle.

Only the soldier actually giving the buddy aid will pick up weapons and/or ammo. In your case, the soldier with the Stg44 must have been giving the buddy aid, which is why the Stg44 vanished.

[Aldaros]

There is a weapon priority list. A soldier with a Thomson SMG will always trade it for a Garand and a Garand gets traded for a scoped Springfield.

Interesting. I've seen someone with a Thompson pick up a rifle grenade launcher, and I've seen plenty of sniper rifle trades, but I've never seen anyone swap a Thompson (with ammo, at least) for a standard M1.

[Erwin]

That surprised me too, as I am sure I have usually seen the rifle be replaced by an SMG and that's one reason I always give buddy aid.

BTW: Am pretty sure one can check WHICH soldier is giving the aid by sliding the mouse cursor over each one in the bottom window (so you can see his weapon) and the soldier is highlighted in the (I think) LHS window, so you know who is doing what, and can move away quickly if the "wrong soldier" is giving aid.

[slysniper]

There is a weapon priority list. A soldier with a Thomson SMG will always trade it for a Garand and a Garand gets traded for a scoped Springfield. As for which soldiers do the buddy aid, as far as I can tell it is random but there may be a method I'm not seeing. I do have to be careful since I generally find SMGs more useful than rifles I try to avoid parking A teams in the same action spot with casualties.

Me too.

Normally, I have learned to avoid too much buddy aid. sorry but the game does not reward us enough for making sure it happen. I only make sure it happens if I want a lost weapon or I have troops behind my front line troops that can do it because they are not presently needed.

As for getting the correct weapon exchange, Not always. Just in a game I am playing now, I had a british light mortar out of ammo. I see another team dead behind a wall and they are showing that they have 8 rounds. So I send my good team over there, never did they have a chance to use them round and neither did they receive any after the Buddy aid. Sorry, but I agree there could be some improvements with how the game does this feature.

[slysniper]

(so you can see his weapon) and the soldier is highlighted in the (I think) LHS window, so you know who is doing what, and can move away quickly if the "wrong soldier" is giving aid.

Good one, I knew you could do this but had not thought about checking it and stopping the aid because the incorrect man is doing it.

[Aldaros]

A soldier with a Thomson SMG will always trade it for a Garand and a Garand gets traded for a scoped Springfield.

Alright, after a quick test, someone with a Thompson and .45 caliber ammunition will not trade the Thompson for a Garand. If you want to see this yourself, start a realtime quick battle with a couple platoons of tanks and a company of infantry. Bunch the infantry as close as you can, then use "friendly" area fire with the tanks to kill them. You'll have to target adjacent action squares, since the game won't let you place an area target directly on top of friendly troops. Finally, dismount one or more of the tank crews to conduct buddy aid. Thompsons will be discarded in favor of a BAR, but not for a standard Garand (i.e. one without a rifle grenade launcher).

You'll also notice that tank crews never pick up extra ammo; they will take just enough to fully load their weapons once. So given a 5-man tank crew starting with only M1911 pistols, after each picks up a Garand via buddy aid, the crew will have a total of 40 rounds of M1 rifle ammo. 3 Garands, a sniper rifle, and a BAR gives 49 rounds of M1 (3*8+5+20). They do not appear to take any unused rifle grenades after scrounging a Garand with a grenade launcher, and they will only take a single rocket when picking up a bazooka.