Can you advance your units by bounds in a COTA scenario with orders delay?
First off, let's make clear that movement and maneuver are different things. Tactical movement is how you move your troops before contact with the enemy. Maneuver is how you move your troops after enemy contact.
The question above refers to tactical movement and I think some tactical movement techniques are quite tricky to accomplish in COTA if we are playing with orders delay.
According to current US doctrine the specific form of tactical movement the commander adopts depends on how likely enemy contact is.
1. Traveling. When enemy contact is unlikely and speed is important. I think that COTA AI subordinates can manage this movement technique terrific. Just an move order will provide an advance, main and rear guard.
2. Traveling overwatch. When enemy contact is possible, but speed is important too. The leading unit moves continuously and a unit (trailing unit) is kept right behind to overwatch its advance. The trailing unit adjusts its speed, even pauses, to overwatch the advance of the leading unit. If the leading unit contacts with the enemy, the trailing unit will support it by fire. When it comes to COTA, I think a simple move order to a battalion sized force will accomplish this type of tactical movement. The leading unit will be an advance guard Coy, and the closest main guard unit could provide cover right away. Don't forget that the "Fire" command doesn't have delays of any kind. So, the player orders a move to the Bn and keeps the main guard unit closest to the front ready for a "fire" command.
3. Bounding overwatch. When enemy contact is expected. The commander separates the forces in two (or more?) bounding elements. While one of these elements moves, the other(s) stay and provide cover. There are actually two variants of the bounding overwatch: alternate bounds and successive bounds. In the alternate bounds movement technique, the advancing unit advances beyond the position of the overwatching unit. The other bounding overwatch technique, successive bounds, is a bit more slow: the advancing unit advances only as far as the bounding unit position.
Implementing bounding overwatch in a COTA game with orders delay is less than trivial. Imagine the Tactical Reconnaissance scenarios you will play soon. Every Coy in the battalion has at least 28 mins of force delay. That means that when you switch a unit from overwatching to advancing you will hit a delay.
I wonder if you guys have any ideas on how to efficiently (faster and safer) implement a traveling overwatch in COTA.
Julio
