Query: Move-to-Contact vs. Move

[CombinedArms]

In general I'm finding the new move-to-contact command rather nifty, but I've also run into a snag and would appreciate advice and comments.

When I give the move-to-contact order very often all goes well. Squads move out as ordered, work their way through cover, and stop when they encounter the enemy. But sometimes, I'll give the order and, when the rest of the platoon moves out, one or two squads will just sit there, sometimes over several minutes. These squads are not under fire, not pinned, not in obvious contact with the enemy. Sometimes I've resorted to an advance order to finally get them going.

What's going on here? Are the squads perhaps in sight of the enemy, even if not firing or under fire? Or do they remember having been in sight of the enemy? Would a MOVE order work better? Overall, how much, or what sort, of contact constitutes CONTACT?

Also, I'm assuming MOVE is faster than MOVE-TO-CONTACT, but by how much? Is the later more tiring? And also, while we're at it, how much more tiring is Advance than Run? Is Run faster?

[Dar]

IIRC, the "move to contact" order means they will stop as soon as they have LOS to the enemy. The enemy may be out of practical range, and your unit may not open fire, but as long as they can see the unit that's considered "contact".

I would try using the plain ol' "Move" command to force them to move, and "Move to Contact" only when in cover and ready to engage.

[Agua]

Originally posted by CombinedArms:

Are the squads perhaps in sight of the enemy, even if not firing or under fire?

Yup, or at least that's my experience. Any enemy unit that is seen by a squad will be sufficient to halt movement. If they begin the turn with LOS to a spotted enemy unit, they won't move. Read the thread in the "Tips and Tricks" forum styled "CMBB Infantry Tactics" for a brief discussion of relative advantages / disadvantages / uses of the infantry commands.

[Bone_Vulture]

I'd like to add that the "move to contact" command is an excellent tool when you want to set short waypoints to cover for disembarking field guns: as it takes several turns for a heavy gun to unlimber, it's good that they won't move in the forest/rough any further than when they spot the first enemy... Minimizes the risk that they'll get caught unprepared.

[Cameroon]

Units using MTC don't just stop when they can see an enemy. Under MTC, a wayward (or not so wayward ) artillery round, stray MG fire, spotting a unit and I think a sound contact will all stop the unit.

That makes sense from the concept of what MTC is supposed to do. Move until you make contact with something. The next step is to stop and figure out what that something is. After reading this link that was given in the Tips & Tricks forum, I realized that CMBB's MTC is doing the "Right Thing" wrt what MTC should do.

Of course, I don't know if any of that is helping the original poster to figure out why those units aren't moving when they should be

[Edit]

And to address the Run v Advance command, yes Run is much faster than Advance. Advance represents the the squad leap-frogging internally (i.e. half of squad covers, half dashes forward to next cover). This means that Advance is tiring, I don't know if it is more tiring than Run. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's in the manual

[ November 01, 2002, 01:23 PM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

[TSword]

If my units have to really move no matter what i use move, fast and foremost advance whenever possible. The latter works fine for experienced units even under fire (but fatigues troops very fast ). So in planning an advance i calculate 40 m as average advance pace per turn.

I use MTC only for scouting purposes.

Greets

Daniel

[CombinedArms]

Thanks guys. I think my mistake is that I've more or less been trying to use MTC as my standard forward movement order for infantry, and I now see that that just isn't optimal in many circumstances. I'm guessing that it may be sound contacts that are sometimes freezing my units, when I can't figure out how they could have LOS. To roughly summarize it sounds like MOVE is really the preferred order when I'm safely out of range, switching to MTC when expecting to hit the enemy soon, and ADVANCE, in short bursts punctuated by rests, when pushing forward toward enemy positions that are known.

[Michael Emrys]

I recently discovered an interesting feature of MTC. I gave that order to a tank. The tank spotted an enemy infantry unit before it began movement, so it sat there and blasted the unit until it had run it out of sight. Then the tank began to move. I thought that was kind of neat.

Michael

[ November 01, 2002, 08:56 PM: Message edited by: Michael emrys ]