Pause -- what does it do?!

[patboivin]

This is probably a silly question:

When you tell a unit to pause, does it still shoot? i.e. does this just tell it to wait before moving, but still lets it fire whenever it wants?

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[chrisl]

Yep. It's good for timing advances so you units don't get all bunched up, or leaving one unit on covering fire while the others evac and then moving it out after, etc.

[Henri]

Be careful: pause ONLY pauses at the beginning of a turn, for 15 seconds for each pause order. If you order a pause in the middle of a move, it will be executed at the beginning.

Henri

[chrisl]

Yeah- I forgot to mention that.

Here's an example of how to use pause effectively:

You want to have a bunch of guys charge an enemy position right on the heels of an artillery (or smoke) barrage:

(Assuming the barrage is targeted, and expected on the present turn.)

Give your units a crawl order with a nearby waypoint and run order to where they're charging.

Press "P" for each charging unit until the delay is as close to 60 seconds as possible without going over

Press "GO"-- the arty will fall, at the end of the turn everybody will be crawling toward the target.

Beginning of the next turn: Cancel the barrage, change all the crawls to "runs" and hope the enemy you are charging is still suppressed by the time your guys get close.

If the arty is falling in an area that the FO can see (thus you get a tight, predictable pattern) and the charging units are just short of the edge of the pattern this can work pretty well. It can also be a disaster if the arty isn't effective.