ye olde "In Command" lines...

[Antig3n]

I might be wrong here, but I think when you click an HQ the units under that HQ light up, but that doesn't actually tell you if they are "in command". It just shows you who's in his formation.

From the Manual:

"7. Chain of Command - displays the parent formations of the selected unit. A

green icon indicates that the HQ unit/formation is currently in contact with

the next higher HQ unit/formation, while a red icon indicates lack of contact.

In the previous example, if the icon beside the “1st Platoon” entry is

red, then the 1st Plt is out of contact with A Company HQr, while - if the icon

next to “A Company” is green - then Company A HQ is in contact with Battalion

HQ.

Note: this part of the interface does not tell you anything

about the selected unit being in command or out of

command with its parent HQ. That is indicated in the C2

Link (point 9 below)."

So, when you select a squad, and see a red X next to "1st Platoon", does that mean the 1st platoon HQ is out of contact with the company HQ, or your selected squad (from 1st platoon) is out of contact with the 1st platoon HQ?

It contradicts itself, right? Confusing. I liked the CMx1 command lines but I'm not really missing them, especially if I can just square this little detail away.

[Sgt Joch]

When you click on a unit, say a squad, the lines on the left, usually "platoon HQ" and " company HQ" show you if that squad is in C2 of those HQs, green:yes, red: no. The contact icons in the lower left show how strong the C2 is to your HQ only, in this case Platoon HQ, i.e. close enough for visual orders ( eye, head), close enough for voice orders ( mouth), close enough to radio in. These have an efect on combat, morale, sometimes movement.

The link to higher HQs is to be part of the information net, it determines if and how long it takes to call in artillery/ air strikes (obviously less of an issue in CMBN), but more importantly the sharing of contact info. If a squad spots a tank under a tree, that info gets passed up to higher HQs and then down to its subordinate units, so that other squads who do not have LOS to the tank will still eventually get a "?" icon. That can reduce spotting times and make the difference between getting a kill or getting killed. The effect is more pronounced in CMSF where all the US forces are plugged in by

computers/blackberries, but you can still see the same effect to a limited

extent in CMSF.

After 4 years of playing CMSF, the new system feels entirely natural to me and I have no wish to go back to the dumb as rocks/graphically ugly CMx1 system.

Disclaimer - this represents the personal opinion of the poster only and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of BFC.

[akd]

Only the status of the first listed HQ is valid for the selected unit's link. So if a squad shows a red X to it's platoon HQ, but the next HQ down is green, that does not mean the squad has a link to the company HQ; it means the platoon HQ has a link to the company HQ.

[Jsullivan]

Please bring back command lines and color coding different platoons wouldn't be a bad idea either.