A day in the races (speed of movement orders)

[El Cid_Cagi]

Being intrigued by the differences between the infantry movement commands, I decided to do this little experiment.

Over a flat open ground terrain in summer, dry, cold conditions, several infantry platoons with same experience, command, etc are given the different movement orders.

The Withdraw squad starts running almost immediately. The rest of the squads start moving after the normal command pause (equal for them all)

After a 2 minute race, the positions are like this:

Withdraw squad has becomed pinned after being panicked a while during the first minute (soon after they got out of command)

Note how the Move and Move to Contact squads have moved the same distance and remain rested, while the Advance squad is only slightly behind but starts tiring

Run squad is the absolute winner, but they are tired

Assault squad is notably behind and tired

And finally, Sneak squad won't go to the playoffs. They have moved a third of Move distance, and are in ready condition (starting to tiring)

Note a second Move squad. It was placed there for control purposes only (all the squads are rifle squads, the second Move one is a german Jäger group)

Further tests would eventually include the mysterious human wave command, and a comparison between move over different types of terrain, as well as an enemy LMG far ahead firing here and there (a race under the stress of being fired upon...)

[ February 04, 2003, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: El Cid_Cagi ]

[laxx]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the Info.

I find myself using more FAST movement than Advance or Assault during troop fire movement., but without LOS from Enemy.

I suppose the results above would change if there were a sharpshooter or small arms fire...

[PeterX]

Interesting.

One presupposes that ADVANCE would reveal itself a lot slower than MOVE, considering the troops are shootng, using dips in the terrain, and practicing fire overwatch.

[Sergei]

Then again, they're spurting half of the time (the other half they're overwatching). It's slightly more than ½ of how far the RUN squad has gone to, but you have to remember that the RUNNING squad is tired already, which has slowed it down.

[El Cid_Cagi]

Some more tests done. I've to prepare the images and so, but these are some preliminary conclusions:

Tracked vehicles with MOVE command over open ground, dirt and paved roads and pavement move at the same speed

It seems that the difference (a great difference indeed) comes with the FAST command

Tracked vehicles with HUNT and MOVE to CONTACT orders move slightly faster than MOVE AFVs

SEEK HULL DOWN position is the slower speed setting

Having covered arcs doesn't affect movement speed for turreted vehicles at all

PINNED infantry (with no binoculars) even in the open is surprisingly (at least to me) blind. Even a running squad can advance from 150 to 100 meters in the open and they don't see it

While moving under fire, the speed results from the previous experiment go more or less the same, as long as there are no casualties and/or sizeable incoming fire

MOVE infantry doesn't even return fire, at least at >100 mts enemies

ADVANCE infantry keep moving and shoots twice per turn

RUN infantry really ignores enemy fire as long as they have no casualties; they don't fire back, though (they ignore enemy fire and the enemies themselves)

Will post some images and a detailed result later

[Lindan]

I did no "scientific" tests to verify this, but I remember battles in difficult terrain, where "advance" was noticably slower than MOVE, even over short distances. I got so used to mix move and advance that I can't say for sure though.

[Dschugaschwili]

One important thing to note is the fact that units using movement orders that include running (run, advance, assault) slow down when they get to tired state. Over dry open ground even the assaulting squads will keep up with the moving ones until they are tired. Only from this point on will they fall back.

Dschugaschwili

[Ace Pilot]

Originally posted by El Cid_Cagi:

Some more tests done. I've to prepare the images and so, but these are some preliminary conclusions:

Tracked vehicles with MOVE command over open ground, dirt and paved roads and pavement move at the same speed

I seem to recall reading in the manual that the MOVE command for armor was designed to allow armor to move at the same speed as infantry (in order to coordinate their advance together). A quick comparison to an infantry unit would confirm this.

Thanks for doing and posting the results of these tests.

Ace

[Aaron]

I would like to see that movement test continued for 5 more turns. Its my impression that squads Running will eventually get so tired that they will be overtaken by squads Moving.

Guess I'll have to try myself.

Aaron

[ February 05, 2003, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: Aaron ]

[El Cid_Cagi]

ASSAULT is slower than MOVE from the start, even before the unit starts tiring (that happens quite soon)

Ace Pilot I did compare MOVE for vehicles with some infantry in the middle: yes, they advance at the same speed...MOVE AFVs and MOVE infantry advance exactly at the same pace

The images will follow today (once I answer all the PBEM battles; first thing first )

[Aaron]

I just did a quick test. Situation: a 2 kilometer map, very dry, cool conditions.

The Running squads took 22 turns to move 2k, while the Moving squads took 24 turns (actually more like 23.3). At the end of 24 turns, the Running squads were Tiring while the Moving squads were Ready.

I ran the same test in Hot conditions. The only difference was that the Running squads ended up Tired.

I guess the conclusion is that Move is just as fast as Run over long distances. The little time Run gets you is wasted as your squads have to rest a the extra two turns.

Aaron