Set up tricks and stategies

[tuhhodge]

I find the pre-game set up quite tiresome if you have lots of units and not much space in the deployment zones. Sometimes the AI puts a first turn artillery stonk into the midst of a deployment zone even if it is out of sight, just to mix it up a bit. As a result I always do my best to place units out of sight on that first turn.

What I would find incredibly useful is the ability to clear the map of all units and the select units for deployment onto the empty map from the drop down list. Perhaps even being able to place units off map to arrive in the first ten minutes of a scenario would be helpful. Otherwise you find yourself squashing a Battalion and a bit into a tiny piece of front line land, whereas in reality the assault troops tending to lager behind the front line and then attack through them.

Thoughts?

[Michael Emrys]

I suggested substantially the same thing once or twice upon a time.

It is particularly annoying to me the way that the game code starts out with units scattered in a semi-random way around the set up zone. I usually spend at least fifteen minutes just organizing them by company or whatever. Only then can I begin placing them according to where I want them to begin the game.

Michael

[Erik Springelkamp]

I usually spend at least fifteen minutes just organizing them by company or whatever.

Although it is quite a bit of work, it is also satisfactory to create order out of chaos and thus get to know your force.

[tuhhodge]

I knew I wasn't alone. Thanks chaps.

Wasnt there a hotkey by which you could see only the floating icons for HQs? Am I thinking of a different game?

[sburke]

select any unit and you can see it's HQ hierarchy in the UI - you can select those HQs from the UI display. I keep forgetting that, but it is really useful for exactly what folks are talking about here.

[Quintus Sertorius]

What I would find incredibly useful is the ability to clear the map of all units and the select units for deployment onto the empty map from the drop down list.

Yes, that would be nice.

[Sublime]

+ and - are good too. if you hit + once with nothing selected it goes to the highest ranking unit in your formations.

You can click and drag to lasso units, or control + click on units to select individual units (or do this to their icons) to select multiple units for the first turn moves. Makes it easier. Also double clicking on a unit will select the other units in its platoon. This makes it easy. If you do this to a company or battalion it'll select the entire force. The system is pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it.

Anyways for any game it's really a must to at least go over your unit's positions, and if they're not placed by the designer its definitely a must to put them into position, lest they become trapped in a weird terrain feature, or end up exposed to the enemy.

[Michael Emrys]

Also double clicking on a unit will select the other units in its platoon.

I use this a lot. Move whole platoons into an empty corner of the setup zone just to get them out of the way until I am ready to put them individually in their desired spots.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

+ and - are good too.

I also use this a lot.

Michael

[Sublime]

I use this a lot. Move whole platoons into an empty corner of the setup zone just to get them out of the way until I am ready to put them individually in their desired spots.

Michael

Funny I do the exact same thing. I find QBs especially cluttered, usually I either move them loosely where I want them and then fine tune the deployment, or just move them away temporarily during setup..

[Chazz Ulric]

I find the pre-game set up quite tiresome if you have lots of units and not much space in the deployment zones. Sometimes the AI puts a first turn artillery stonk into the midst of a deployment zone even if it is out of sight, just to mix it up a bit. As a result I always do my best to place units out of sight on that first turn.

What I would find incredibly useful is the ability to clear the map of all units and the select units for deployment onto the empty map from the drop down list. Perhaps even being able to place units off map to arrive in the first ten minutes of a scenario would be helpful. Otherwise you find yourself squashing a Battalion and a bit into a tiny piece of front line land, whereas in reality the assault troops tending to lager behind the front line and then attack through them.

Thoughts?

I REALLY like that drop down menu idea! Is there a way to hound the devs into putting that into a patch sometime in the future? I also find shifting troops around with limited space can be tiresome.

[Michael Emrys]

I REALLY like that drop down menu idea! Is there a way to hound the devs into putting that into a patch sometime in the future? I also find shifting troops around with limited space can be tiresome.

Agreed.

BTW, I know BFC gets tired of hearing me mention how things were done in TacOps, but this is another case of a good idea that I'd like to see copied if it is compatible with existing code: In TacOps, at the beginning of a game, the units appear in a window. IIRC, that window can be moved around so that it does not block a part of the map the player needs to have access to. The player can also organize units within the window. For CM this would mean things like moving units into or out of vehicles, dividing squads into teams, etc. Then, the units are moved from the window onto the map. This could be done with a combination of mouse click and shortcut key. Once all units have been moved from the window onto the map, the window can be made to go away in the usual fashion.

Michael

[Erwin]

That sounds like a good idea. Set-up, esp with large scenarios takes much longer than needed.

[tuhhodge]

select any unit and you can see it's HQ hierarchy in the UI - you can select those HQs from the UI display. I keep forgetting that, but it is really useful for exactly what folks are talking about here.

That's the menu I use all the time, whether on set-up or during the game to find errant units or to make sure units are within earshot of their HQ etc.

However, as others have mentioned, it would be very useful to be able to clear the map, organise your forces and only then start deploying using the drop down menu on the UI.