Groups?

[bruce90]

I don't seem to understand the 'Group' idea.Apart from drawing the box around units and combining them that way how else is it done? How does the group commands in the Controls part of the Options section work.I've looked through the printed manual and the disc one and done a search here but I haven't found any thing relevant as far as I can see.Could anyone point me in the right direction please?

[Fifty Cal']

you can make groups by clicking individual soldiers - tanks- guns etc while holding down the shift key, when all units for that group are chosen press and hold the control key and a number from 1 - 0, say, CTL 1, then to call that group any time press 1 and they are highlighted and shown as a group in the bottom screen.

.50

[FinnN]

Select the units you want to to group and then press shift+a number (eg shift+1). When you press the number again (1) on its own it'll select that group of units. It's very handy for concentrating fire from multiple units, well worth doing with tanks/AT guns but too fiddly to mean much with infantry.

Talking of infantry and groups, I'm working on a mod that completely re-organises the German infantry (chose them as they're the easiest to research). Basically instead of the squad you get now, I'll be breaking them down into smaller sections so that they can be used more realistically by the player. Additionally there'll be a whole range of different squad types with their own graphics. Initially I thought I would just do Luftwaffe Field Divisions, but after starting on it by hand editing I decided it was going to be easier (and safer if the patch changes things) to put the data in a database, so it turns out there's going to be a lot more!

Have fun

Finn

[bruce90]

Sorry.Double post.

[ June 04, 2007, 03:23 AM: Message edited by: bruce90 ]

[bruce90]

Thanks to you both for your answers and FinnN I really like the sound of the mod you are working on as personally I prefer playing smaller unit actions.

[bruce90]

Yes ok that works but there must be a limit to what you can group.It doesn't seem possible for instance to group together 3 complete infantry detachments.

[TTorpedo]

wy not? Its just a interface thing.

The structure of the squads and everything else remais the same. The individual parts of the "group" don´t change there behaviour.

Its not a historic/ realistic dependent feature!

You are not changing the structure of your army, Its just a quick way to control/ assign orders.

[Fifty Cal']

You can "group" any types of units, even single tanks! As TTorpedo says, it's just to give you a quick method of issuing orders.

I've always broken infantry squads into a rifle section and a gun group, one of the riflemen usually carries lmg ammo so I assign him and the gunner as the gun group.

I used to do this in CM as half the infantry would be better armed for assaulting while others would be better armed for providing covering fire.

Selecting the MG's from several squads you can form a new "MG section" all on its own, which you can use as a group

.50

[FinnN]

I think what bruce means is that there's a limit to the numbers - if you try to select for example 3 squads a few men will be left out.

Fifty cal - that's pretty much what the mod I'm working on allows you to do, but much easier than now. In the selection screen you'll see things like:

Rifle Squad (1944) 1/2 - Rifle

Rifle Squad (1944) 2/2 - LMG

Section 2 has the LMG plus an assistant, section 1 has the leader (with an MP40) and everyone else.

In game this means that you'll be able to quickly give orders to sections by double clicking on them. On occasions where you want to send a complete squad off together you'd group them and move them like that. I've given it a go and it's so much more intuitive and easy to handle than the current system. I've taken some information from a few different books and also the squad lists from the CM games and am in the process of implementing everything except the pioneer squads (too many weapons are missing to make it worth doing these) - about 100 or so in all. I've split each squad into 2 or 3 (one for each LMG team, 2 or 3 men depending on period, and the rest - unless there's no LMG in which case I've split the team down the middle).

I'm currently sorting out a database to hold the different teams and loadouts, hopefully I'll have something to test with by the end of this weekend coming up. Depending on how smoothly that goes I may also have the 3D graphics ready by then, mountain troops, lfd, panzergrenadiers, ss camouflage, security/police units, dismounted cavalry, etc. Also the correct ranks - so we have Jaegers (etc) instead of Schutzes where appropriate. And if I (or rather Dr Jones) can figure out the 2D graphics then more differentiated rank badges as well - eg seagull collar patches for luftwaffe personnel, yellow piping for cavalry, etc. Phew! If I can manage that lot, then I'm going to give it a go to create a new country - 'French Collaborators', with milice uniforms from a retextured early panzerman uniform as well as (if the models work) resistance fighters for the existing French country.

Have fun

Finn

[Pandur]

Selecting the MG's from several squads you can form a new "MG section" all on its own, which you can use as a group

i found when i leave some man at a gun or near a mg to man it later or something like that, it is a bit uncompfty becouse you cant doubleklick than and just give em orders becouse the other guys wich souldnt move get the order too, and that generates extra work

iam really looking forwoard to FinnN´s mod! great idea!

[Fifty Cal']

That sounds a much better system than mine FinnN, I'm always trying to remember what number i assigned to a certain group, to be able to just double click it would be much better

Good luck with the uniform odding etc

(where do you find the time?)

.50

[ June 04, 2007, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Fifty Cal' ]

[FinnN]

Work smart - not hard!

Have fun

Finn