Questions about mount/unmounting vehicles and something else...

[dickesKind]

Hello everyone,

I have some questions and I hope you can help me.

The first and most important one is about mounting and unmounting vehicles.

I the last few games I tried to make use of APCs. But I realised that the kind of handling they need slows their posibilitys down a lot.

1.I wanted to order a mounted group to unmount at a special point,or, in other words, to order the APC to drive the orders location and unload the group at the instant of its arrival. But this seems to be impossible. The PC arrives and I have to wait until the end of the round. Its just now that I can give the order to leave the APC. Is it somehow possible to order a unit to unmount at the destination of its ride?

2. Its kind of the same problem: I want to order an APC to drive to a location and pic up a waiting, or arriving, unit? How do I have to coordinate my orders for doing this?

3. I want to have the APC to immediatly after the infantry has unmounted. But again there seem the a problem with the game engine, or by me. I ordered the APC to wait 20s, for the infantry to jump off, and then to move away. But somehow the APC waits, the Infatry stays in, after 20s the APC drives to its ordere position and just NOW the infantry jumpes off. Is there any fault by me, or is this by game engine? I cannot imagine this, because anything else is simulated so perfectly.

4. A question not so important On some screenshots i saw a ingame icon bar in a camo pattern. Where can I find this for download. I look ar www.cmmods.com but didn't find it. Maybe I was too stupid

5. If groups are in command range of their platoon leader they benefit from his special abilitys like moral, camo and so on. Do troops only benefeit from officers who are in command, or does it make sense to keep, for example, the battalion HQ behind a platoon, so that they can also benefeit from his abilitys?

Thanks you very much for your help!

Greetings...

[PFMM]

dickesKind,

Most importantly, to have infantry mount or dismount from a carrier by your orders the carrier must have no movement orders on it at all.

You can give infantry units riding a carrier orders to dismount but they will only do so when the carrier has finnished all of it's movement orders. The same for mounting, so long as the carrier has movement orders the infantry will not mount. Pause commands on the carrier have no effect on this.

Infantry can be forced to dismount (usually enemy fire) and if given a movement order will attempt to reach that position by foot.

Best thing to do is to find either the mods author or the name of the mod and use the search function.

Troops only benefit from the leader in command, not from multiple leaders. If you want a certain leader to command a unit you must move that leader closer to the unit than any other leader (watch the command ribbons to determine this). Some units, particularly independent units, can be only commanded by their parent leaders.

Hope it's of use to you.

[dickesKind]

Hello!

Oh, right words is dismount.. ok

Thank you, this helps a lot. Or better said, this explains a lot. Too bad that you cannot give order to unload at a special location.

I dont know the name of the mod author, or the name of the mod.

Greetings...

[dieseltaylor]

You can give the dismount order for a special location whilst the infantry is on the vehicle. Obviously they will not carry it out until the vehicle stops - therefore you plot a stop order at the correct place. The infantry already know they are to dismount there so should do it quickly.

It is something very worthwhile practicing so you can be confident when playing that it will happen

[JasonC]

This is actually much easier to coordinate that the previous answers make it sound, once you understand the game mechanics involved.

You can give mounted infantry a dismount move (or more often, "advance") order without waiting for a turn end. They will wait for the transport to reach its assigned waypoint, provided it has one. (If it has none they will dismount and go by foot).

So, already mounted force, in motion, you drag the APC waypoint to the intended drop location (to avoid added delay - if it is too far you need to add another waypoint etc), set rate to fast. Then give the infantry dismount-advance orders with a waypoint in cover.

The transports will fast move to the drop point and halt. The infantry will dismount as soon as the 'track stops, no waiting for turn end, and immediately advance to their own waypoint. Works smoothly and gives the intended effect, a rapid drop and rush into cover. The transport will be stationary at the drop point until the end of the minute, but can be given a new move order at the start of the next. That means some pause to drop for the 'track, but that is entirely realistic anyway.

As for mounting, the thing to understand is that the track will first complete its move and the men will climb aboard at its destination waypoint, with it halted to take them on. So set the 'track waypoint to the intended pick-up location and the movement rate to "fast". Then give the men (or gun for a hook-up) an embark order. They will complete the load or hitch by the end of the minute, if the ranges are right.

Next turn, the loaded pair gets a new waypoint fast move and they are off.

The only thing you can't do is nearly simultaneously jump on an off a moving vehicle, e.g. within the same minute. Which is realistic anyway - all load and unload ops actually take some time. (These are 10 man squads piling in or on, etc).

One other key is that dismounts from a stationary vehicle are instantaneous, no command delay, if given at the orders phase. You can use this to drop instantly e.g. if threatened by AT fire and worried the men will be lost with the 'track. Just halt the vehicle - zero out its waypoints with backspace - and give the passengers dismount-advance orders into cover. Second 1 they will be on the ground. They will still have a command delay to move out, if it is a new order. The 'track can react to threatening shooters under Tac AI command - it will typically try to reverse etc.

This is particularly useful for tank carried infantry, who are not behind armor. A tank often wants to stand and fire back anyway.

Note that it is usually a bad idea to try to assault unsuppressed enemy positions directly, with dismounting infantry. It is better to drop into unoccupied cover in range of the enemy. If they are thoroughly suppressed you might manage it. This is entirely general - fire takes ground not presence, and actually occupying an enemy position should wait for them to all be heads-down.

[Sergei]

What JasonC said. Also, you can have units dismount from an APC and the APC then continue moving during that turn, as long as the APC is not moving too fast and the infantry dismount point is close (less than 20 metres) from the path of the APC. The type of movement order of the carrier doesn't matter as much as the actual speed, ie. a tank carrying infantry can be moving at 'fast' but if due to a sharp turn it has to slow down, it can be enough for the infantry to jump off (if the infantry waypoint is close). The vehicle will stop briefly as the infantry gets out.

But there is the risk that if there is too much speed, then they won't jump off and will be carried away by the APC. Then they will disembark when the APC stops.

[dickesKind]

Hello!

Thank you all for your answers!

JasonC, thank you very much. Its really easier than it seemed. It works perfectly for me now.

Now I just have to find a way to use mounted troups the right way.

Greetings...

[jBrereton]

Originally posted by dickesKind:

Now I just have to find a way to use mounted troups the right way.

Well again, JasonC was completely right on this issue.

You basically want to either go extremely quickly towards flags etc. at the start of the game with your best troops and keep them by basically being in a position to hold them from a couple of turns onwards (bringing along MMGs and AT Rifles and rocket launchers / light AT guns).

OR

If a firefight's getting a bit heavy, bring up some good soldiers as reserves by taking them right into the action with your transports and dumping them into safe cover.

OR

Pinning down enemy troops with tanks and your own infantry, and then "rushing" them with transport-mounted troops, right into their cover so that you beat them in close range combat and take their position very quickly.

And also don't forget that since most transports have LMGs, they can be used for overwatching your flags and other important positions.