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Platoon movement orders


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For some reason, CM hs never been able to feature a "road convoy" routine since CM1 was released in 1999.  One has to assume that either the CM2 engine cannot handle it, or it's too much work to program in this feature.  CM2 is now 14 years old.  CM1 was obsolete after 7 years (2000-2007).  So, a CM3 that may address many of the wishlists and solve a lot of the current problems is way overdue.

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48 minutes ago, Erwin said:

For some reason, CM hs never been able to feature a "road convoy" routine since CM1 was released in 1999.  One has to assume that either the CM2 engine cannot handle it, or it's too much work to program in this feature.  CM2 is now 14 years old.  CM1 was obsolete after 7 years (2000-2007).  So, a CM3 that may address many of the wishlists and solve a lot of the current problems is way overdue.

I don't recall the precise thread, but a year or two back, Steve noted that BF had put a lot of time on this feature, but due to the number of variables, they could never get it to work in a way that would be satisfactory for game play.

I can well imagine that it might be a complex programming problem (humans have enough problems driving down a road one after another) - and it doesn't really bother me. It isn't honestly that much hassle to plot vehicle paths for 5-10 vehicles down a road.

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TBH what is the point keeping units in trucks? Baranavichy in RT for example. Playing time 1hr40min AO is 2.5 km long a distance which yours truly here can walk in 30 minutes without risking his life. After 500 meters they better disembark anyway better make them walk and you don't worry about paths or anything. The situation the terrain is dry the tank-riders are fine disembark them whenever there is a DZ. Trucks are still useful a ammo dumps and they soon catch up.  

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Steel Beasts, basically since it more modern versions, has had formation movement.  That includes column, echelon, wedge, line, etc.  You can set spacing of the formation, speed, use cover, use road, reaction to enemy, etc.  One of my biggest frustrations with CM, and the reason I only play company-level scenarios, is the number of commands needed just for some simple movements.  Its not impossible to do.  Steel Beasts figured out how to do this a decade ago and at the same formation level as CM.

And they also have a relatively simple cut and paste function for routes, as well as a simple to use "follow roads" setting for a formation.  If you don't pay attention, you can still get units all bunged up on a road.  But I can set a battalion's worth of simple road movement orders in about two minutes in Steel Beasts.  Its that capability that has continued to limit my CM play time in a modern combat setting.

The short of it is, I would love to see CM have the capability.  But its been a twenty year forlorn hope.

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2 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

It honestly depends on how long the road and how many wiggles are in it.

And for those of us who play larger scenarios it becomes a major time-consuming PITA part of the "game".  Try playing the "Mission to Maas" scenario for CMFB.  It's an xnt scenario.  But, IIRC one has to maneuver a battalion of tanks plus at least another battalion of armored inf in HT's to move along twisting forested roads on a large map.  

The ACQUIRE routine is also a PITA in large scenarios like this.

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