Micromanage or not?

[JMcGuire]

I know this was discussed early-on sort of speculatively, but now that people have had the game in-hand for awhile, I'm wondering if most people find that their technique is closer to micromanagement or a general "go to that forest" and let the groundpounders puzzle it out?

I still only have the demo (soon, soon) but every time I try the broad-commands thing, it seems like the units just get themselves capped. My big successes have only been with detailed "walk to to the crest, crawl down this wrinkle to here, then run behind the treeline" orders.

I noticed in an interview with Steve he said there is no penalty for waypoints, but it *looks* like units pause for at least several seconds per waypoint (or am I wrong?) These pauses are actually what got me thinking about this -- I wondered how much movement time I was potentially wasting by micromanaging guys moving through the battlefield.

So what's the verdict? Micromanage, or point-and-pray?

[chrisl]

Some of each.

The units pause at some waypoints because of command delay. If you give a unit a set of orders in one turn that takes it to the tree line, then another set in the next turn to crawl onward to somewhere else, there will be a pause at the waypoint at the treeline, even if the units don't get there until a few turns later. If you gave the full set of orders in one turn there will be no pause.

You can take advantage of this. In an attack I usually give units orders to go quite far, sometimes enough for 4-5 turns, especially for a platoon sent around the flank. Usually one half-squad will be moving slightly ahead of the rest to draw fire, while the rest will have paused slightly and be sneaking along behind, ready to provide covering fire.

All of the orders will originally be sneak, but as areas are identified as clear I'll change the orders to move, or even fast, as there is no command delay for changing the type of movement. I'll also reroute the existing waypoints slightly as enemy positions that might have LOS from other flanks are revealed. There's also no penalty for grabbing and moving a waypoint slightly, just a limit on how far you can move it.

Always keep your units in C&C as much as you can. They'll be more responsive and get benefits (stealth, combat, etc) that will help the attack. Also, if they're in C&C you'll be less likely to have the lead squad sneak over a small hillock and disappear in a hail of gunfire that's backed up by the fog of war.

For climbing a steep embankment I'll put waypoints very close together, same as for careful maneuvering of armor in close quarters. Micromanage the positions, but let at least some of the units pick their own targets-- if something pops up and everyone is sticking to their assigned targets you could be unhappy.

[This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-06-2000).]

[Guest Michael emrys]

As to micromanaging, like Chrisl I try to plot movement as carefully as I can. It's time consuming, but pays off in the end once you get the hang of it and begin to know where you should actually send units, in what order, at what speed, how long to let them rest, etc.

I notice they seem to pause at waypoints where there is a significant change of direction, which seems reasonable to me as the formation a squad assumes in movement is important and needs to be carefully maintained or altered.

Sometimes I assign targets if there is one I particularly want suppressed for my tactics to work or if a high-value target is exposed and vulnerable. MG squads moving in the open always draw a lot of fire from me, for instance.

Michael

[JMcGuire]

Thanks for the tips, chrisl. I'm particularly fond of liberal-sprinkling of waypoints combined with long-distance move assignments, then dragging the waypoints in subsequent turns to tweak their movement.

I played VOT (still demo only, remember?) awhile this evening that way and that process really does seem to reduce the per-turn micromanagement without greatly increasing risk...

[Guest Germanboy]

In the bigger scenarios I find it impossible to micrmanage - try Hill 140 by Dick Reece and you know what I am talking about. It still is tremendous fun ton watch the AI at work, and it gives you the feel that you are in sort of overall command.

In smaller scenarios I only use group move to start with.

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Andreas

[demoss]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JMcGuire:

I know this was discussed early-on sort of speculatively, but now that people have had the game in-hand for awhile, I'm wondering if most people find that their technique is closer to micromanagement or a general "go to that forest" and let the groundpounders puzzle it out?

I still only have the demo (soon, soon) but every time I try the broad-commands thing, it seems like the units just get themselves capped. My big successes have only been with detailed "walk to to the crest, crawl down this wrinkle to here, then run behind the treeline" orders.

I noticed in an interview with Steve he said there is no penalty for waypoints, but it *looks* like units pause for at least several seconds per waypoint (or am I wrong?) These pauses are actually what got me thinking about this -- I wondered how much movement time I was potentially wasting by micromanaging guys moving through the battlefield.

So what's the verdict? Micromanage, or point-and-pray?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I find that I *have* to micromanage movement, or my guys do something incredibly stupid (like get lost trying to cross a #$(&!!! bridge....)

I try to avoid micromanaging targeting, except when a unit seems to simply refuse to engage otherwise (I find that I'm having a lot of trouble getting an SdKfz 7/1 to fire the quad 20 without ordering it to do so).

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-Doug