Section commanders/squad leaders abilities

[Vark]

How are the abilities of these essential people reflected in CM? Platoon HQ's offer obvious advantages, but how is the lowly corporal/sergeants input modelled in the game? Is the status of their section ie veteran, regular etc a reflection of their abilities or the overall composition of the unit?

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Vark:

How are the abilities of these essential people reflected in CM? Platoon HQ's offer obvious advantages, but how is the lowly corporal/sergeants input modelled in the game? Is the status of their section ie veteran, regular etc a reflection of their abilities or the overall composition of the unit?

They are not modelled at all. The latter statement is correct - their characteristics are for the squad/team as a whole. Doesn't change as casualties mount in the unit either. It's homogenous.

Welcome to the forum, by the way. Nice to see fresh blood still coming around even after all these years.

[Vark]

Thanks for the reply Michael, will this change in CM/SF as each soldier is individually modelled? Given that platoon HQ's act as combined super section leaders and their sub-units are punished severly for being out of command, would this explain Squatdog's problem?

As for CM, I came to the game through an evolutionary path familiar to probably quite a few CM'ers. Miniatures (1/300) board games (Avalon Hill, SPI etc) then Steel Panthers (real hidden movement!) then CM. Although in need of an upgrade (to reflect better computing capabilities) it is the only game, I have played with a sense of real involvement in the game. Lose a platoon of troops in Steel Panthers, ho hum, two more for the grinder, see a poor section crawling for cover being slowly shot to pieces, or a crew bailing from a brewed tank, hmm, not nice. Paradoxically, watch an enemy tank go up in flames, in CM, and it's the Ken Tout line "burn you buggers, burn!"