Squads, after taking heavy casualties retain fireteam setup.

[Wengart]

I've noticed that if a squad takes heavy casualties they will still retain their fireteam deployment across multiple action spots, even if a fireteam has only one man in it.

In another example a German squad is down to 2 men (both basic riflemen), but they retain the fireteam deployment of two action spots.

Is this just a limit of the engine, or is their a way to fold the surviving men into one team?

[gunnergoz]

I'm sure if they came from the same squad, you can rejoin them by placing them in the same action spot for a while. Probably can't create a new composite squad, though, not in the game's time frame at least.

[Wego McPbem]

Noticing this in the campaigns where losses carry over. Heavily depleted squads tend to spread out loads. Not sure if its a good or bad thing though.

[Wengart]

I'm sure if they came from the same squad, you can rejoin them by placing them in the same action spot for a while. Probably can't create a new composite squad, though, not in the game's time frame at least.

I'm talking about the same squad. Even if a squad takes heavy losses (only 2-3 guys left) the squad will still split into multiple action spots based on fireteam.

[BloodyBucket]

I think he's saying that the squad deploys like this:

X0000X00X0000X

Instead of this:

XXXX

Where the "0" is a squad member who isn't there. Instead of bunching up into a more compact force, they stay strung out, sometime over three "squares" of space.

Is that correct?

[Wengart]

Yes, more or less.

Normally a American squad consists of three fireteams, and when you move the squad each fireteam will deploy in an adjacent action spot.

So if the Xs are action spots the squad would look like this.

XXX

444

with 4 men in each X

But say 7 men are killed. 4 from one fireteam and 3 from another. When the squad moves now it will deploy like this.

XX

14

One for each remaining fireteam, however one of the Xs contains only one man, while the other contains 4.

It would be possible for a squad with 3 men left to be spread across 3 action spots. One man in each action spot.

XXX

111

[Michael Emrys]

Hmmm. Have you tried splitting the squad and then reuniting it by moving all the teams to the same action spot?

Michael

[gunnergoz]

OK, I think I see the problem now and what you are saying is that even if you put, say, 3 team survivors (one each from each team) into one action spot for a while, the game engine still ends up giving you a squad with 3 one man teams.

I hadn't noticed this but I've not played all the way through a campaign yet and sustained losses that would demonstrate the problem.

IRL I would think that most platoon leaders would just reorganize the squad into one team, or perhaps if there were 4 survivors, into two 2 man teams. You can do something with a two man team but a one man team is...a sniper, basically. Who wants to manage an army with a bunch of tiny teams like that?

Ideally, I'd like to be able to define the team composition myself, but I suppose this is too much to ask for.