Fanning out for incoming artillery

[Crushingleeek]

I was wondering, as I watched in horror when the spotting rounds of German heavy artillery came closer and closer to my 1st platoon, would it be helpful to split my squads into as many small teams as possible, ie. assault teams and scout teams and have them just spread out, as opposed to having a bunched squad try to find cover? Would this be worth the potential disarray of managing troops and loss of C2 contact? Because from experience, watching my 11 man squad instantaneous vaporize into one green (healthy) man and one yellow (hurt) man, is a pretty tough sight to see. Wondering if splitting and dispersing will disintegrate the platoon's fighting capacity to the point where its better just to take the risk of a shell landing on a squad.

[Chainsaw]

yeah its a good idea. If you know you wont have time to get the entire squads out of harms way.

When you split up units they have own suppression and morale levels. so if the whole squad get pinned and break, the whole 11 man team runs off. If the squad is split in 3 sections maybe only 1/3 runs off (depending on casualty's taken et c) while you still have 2/3 that can move off again directly after the barrage and get into good cover or positions again.

That's why some people don't use assault command and instead split the teams up and work with them independent. As long as the PLT HQ is close by the C2 link shouldn't be affected.

[WriterJWA]

Not sure if in this instance you were on the defense or on the attack, but if on the attack get moving forward before the Germans can bring their mortars and artillery down on you. Best thing to do tactically is get yourself in the gray area between the enemy line and the minimum safe distance of artillery fire.

If in the defense ... it's going to be kind of difficult to avoid, especially if static. You can split your squad up, but you'll have to spread them waaaay out to avoid the casualties nonetheless.

[YankeeDog]

Yes; from what I've seen, splitting your squads and dispersing is a very good way of reducing casualties from an arty barrage IF you can get them spread out before the arty starts falling. It's really bad if the men are still up and moving when the first shells fall, so you want to make sure they've already reached their destinations and are down and hiding before the barrage begins.

[Lanzfeld]

I keep most of my squads split most of the time nowadays. It is more work per turn but it just seems a better way to do things.

[xian]

Do split squads suffer from any kind of penalty (as in CM1)?

[womble]

Do split squads suffer from any kind of penalty (as in CM1)?

My feeling is that, if anything, they're tougher. 2 casualties in a single minute seems to pin and reduce to 'Nervous' from 'OK' any size unit, from 12-man US squad to 4-man team. Even though it's 50% casualties for the team and 17% for the squad. Add the broader suppression frontage of split squads and the fact that it's easier to get them to sit where you want 'em, plus the fact that if one team finds itself suppressed the others can still be free, I'm struggling to find reasons other than convenience to keep a squad intact. Oh, and the profligate use of AT weapons when you give them anything other than a 'Face' Edit: I mean 'Target Light'... command is a great reason to split off the AT team at game start, give it a 10m circular covered arc and never recombine it.

[Childress]

You gather the the Assault command exists as a shorthand command for the hectic environment of RT. Or as a simple tool for the AI which doesn't break down its squads. (I think)

[YankeeDog]

Do split squads suffer from any kind of penalty (as in CM1)?

Not as far as I can tell. However, any unit (split or no) definitely suffers penalties when out of C2, so usually you want to keep the split team close enough to their squad leader (and/or plt. cdr.) to stay in C2.

[slysniper]

My feeling is that, if anything, they're tougher. 2 casualties in a single minute seems to pin and reduce to 'Nervous' from 'OK' any size unit, from 12-man US squad to 4-man team. Even though it's 50% casualties for the team and 17% for the squad. Add the broader suppression frontage of split squads and the fact that it's easier to get them to sit where you want 'em, plus the fact that if one team finds itself suppressed the others can still be free, I'm struggling to find reasons other than convenience to keep a squad intact. Oh, and the profligate use of AT weapons when you give them anything other than a 'Face' command is a great reason to split off the AT team at game start, give it a 10m circular covered arc and never recombine it.

I must agree with this quate totally.

in CM1, splitting squads helped because of programming issues.

Now it sounds like we have some of that going on again, as to the fact of causulties being the factor in morale change.

but just for good tactics, it makes sence. like was mentioned, its a good way of keeping AT assets from firing but allowing the rest of a squad to fight. it is much easier to position seperate units and to cover yourself from more angles or approaches.

The only issue has always been more units to keep track of and manage.

[slysniper]

being I am pretty new to the cm2 engine, how can squads recombine. the old cm1 was doing it if they came close to each other again. I know it does not do that anymore. Thank you. but how do you regroup a squad if you want to.???

[YankeeDog]

being I am pretty new to the cm2 engine, how can squads recombine. the old cm1 was doing it if they came close to each other again. I know it does not do that anymore. Thank you. but how do you regroup a squad if you want to.???

Just order the squads to move into the same action spot, and they'll recombine automatically.

[slysniper]

Just order the squads to move into the same action spot, and they'll recombine automatically.

Thanks, will need to give that a try.

[womble]

It takes a few seconds, and once you have, it's probably worth giving them a movement or Face order so they spread out onto 1 action spot per team (as far as practicable).

[xian]

My feeling is that, if anything, they're tougher. 2 casualties in a single minute seems to pin and reduce to 'Nervous' from 'OK' any size unit, from 12-man US squad to 4-man team. Even though it's 50% casualties for the team and 17% for the squad. Add the broader suppression frontage of split squads and the fact that it's easier to get them to sit where you want 'em, plus the fact that if one team finds itself suppressed the others can still be free, I'm struggling to find reasons other than convenience to keep a squad intact. Oh, and the profligate use of AT weapons when you give them anything other than a 'Face' Edit: I mean 'Target Light'... command is a great reason to split off the AT team at game start, give it a 10m circular covered arc and never recombine it.

Hmmm... it seems to me that teams should incur a small morale penalty if they stray from the rest of the squad. I'd be more nervous if I only had one or two buddies with me rather than being part of a 12 man squad.

[womble]

Hmmm... it seems to me that teams should incur a small morale penalty if they stray from the rest of the squad. I'd be more nervous if I only had one or two buddies with me rather than being part of a 12 man squad.

Yup, that'd be reasonable. The way I'm using teams, though, they're generally as close to at least one of the other teams in the squad as they would be if the squad was left intact.

[Michael Emrys]

Hmmm... it seems to me that teams should incur a small morale penalty if they stray from the rest of the squad. I'd be more nervous if I only had one or two buddies with me rather than being part of a 12 man squad.

Might depend on who was in your team vs. the other teams. I'd definitely feel better with a couple of cool buddies than in a squad with that loud mouthed, gum-chewing yahoo who won't stop yakking.

Michael