Finding levels of cooperation/support.

[Hyding]

I know I can did and find this guys but there is often more than one way to do something. Currently beginning hounded by the spouse and thought you fellows could help me out.

What is the best way to check level of cooperations and support between your formations?

I ran into a situation where I was into a turn in a PBEM. I should have checked before begining the game but I realized I didn't know if arty from nearby units would support each other on defense. I could have checked by initiating an attack and then aborting it but one mistaken key punch could launch an attack I didn't intend to make.

I realize the best way to get the most out of your arty is to set them on tac reserve or dig them in. That way they will support multiple attacks and defenses at half strength involving units in their formation. It seems that arty is often more effective combined with ground assualt. This is a brief of what I have picked up from play and helpful comments in othe posts.

Sometimes arty is unused in your turn when no attacks are made in range. at the same time no enemy attacks are expected against friendly forces in the range of artillery units. In these cases Offensive firing of arty is useful way to bleed the enemy with an otherwise idle unit. The key to this is knowing which formations an arty unit can support. Call me stupid but this is not always clear to me from scenario briefings.

I had a situation where I used ships to bombard airfields. Latter in my turn when planning ground attacks in their range they were again available for support. I thought using support units for offensive/direct fire withdrew them from providing "free support."

Thanks in advance.

Wo jiu shi Yanguazi.

[ColinWright]

ORIGINAL: Narses



I realize the best way to get the most out of your arty is to set them on tac reserve or dig them in. That way they will support multiple attacks and defenses at half strength involving units in their formation.

Well, for starters, that's not the best way if one is attacking. The artillery will only attack at half-strength -- but will burn supply at full power. Better to assign it directly to specific attacks -- and one may want to consider setting it to mobile so as to keep it from losing supply due to enemy attacks during his half of the turn.

As to cooperation, I find the rules fairly clear. If I was confused, I would take an appropriate scenario and hot-seat it for a while until I got a handle on it. It's a matter of membership in formations, background color, icon color, and the support level of the owning formation.

[ColinWright]

I had a situation where I used ships to bombard airfields. Latter in my turn when planning ground attacks in their range they were again available for support. I thought using support units for offensive/direct fire withdrew them from providing "free support."

No -- you can blaze away all you want to. Of course, you're losing supply all the time.

[Hyding]

Yes your are right Colin maximim firepower is not "always" the ideal solution. And I will take arty out of a dug-in status (I seldom use tac reserve for arty) to keep it from firing.
I guess maximum is a relative term to. Do you want maximum number of shots (and greater supply use) or a maximum impact from a single mission.


I do like to blaze away if my army and supply situation allow it. The more I can get my guns to fire the more I like it on some occasions. Like fresh troops though you do have to plan on having some fresh arty around sometimes.


I think my confusion has come from recent games where arty was unable to dig in again on several occasions due to a lack of movement remaining (one of the times for tac reserve I guess) or turn ending combats.

My concern about the level of support across formations is still a problem. I know that the same color scheme is a big hint but even varying color schemes can support each other pretty freely in some scenarios.

I was just curious if there was some way to check the support levels of units without doing a scenario dump or playing the scenario several turns as you suggested.


Thanks for the response.

[ColinWright]

ORIGINAL: Narses

Yes your are right Colin maximim firepower is not "always" the ideal solution. And I will take arty out of a dug-in status (I seldom use tac reserve for arty) to keep it from firing.
I guess maximum is a relative term to. Do you want maximum number of shots (and greater supply use) or a maximum impact from a single mission.


I do like to blaze away if my army and supply situation allow it. The more I can get my guns to fire the more I like it on some occasions. Like fresh troops though you do have to plan on having some fresh arty around sometimes.


I think my confusion has come from recent games where arty was unable to dig in again on several occasions due to a lack of movement remaining (one of the times for tac reserve I guess) or turn ending combats.

My concern about the level of support across formations is still a problem. I know that the same color scheme is a big hint but even varying color schemes can support each other pretty freely in some scenarios.

I was just curious if there was some way to check the support levels of units without doing a scenario dump or playing the scenario several turns as you suggested.


Thanks for the response.

The cooperation scheme is in the manual.

Internal support: will cooperate fully only with units of the same formation. Limited cooperation with units having the same background color and the same icon color. No cooperation with other units.

Army support: will cooperate fully with units of the same formation and with units having the same background color and the same icon color. Limited cooperation with units having the same background color but a different icon color. No cooperation with other units.

Force support: will cooperate fully with all units of the same formation and all units having the same background color regardless of icon color. Limited cooperation with all other units.

Free support: will cooperate fully with all other units.

Highest support level rules. If unit a has settings such that it could cooperate fully with unit b, but unit b has settings such that it could not cooperate fully with unit a, the units can cooperate fully.

[Heldenkaiser]

ORIGINAL: Narses
I was just curious if there was some way to check the support levels of units without doing a scenario dump or playing the scenario several turns as you suggested.

Not sure if this is the answer you are looking for, but obviously if you bring up the formation report ("F"), the support level for that formation is indicated somewhere (pretty much near the top of the window, if memory serves). [:)]

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: Narses

I know I can did and find this guys but there is often more than one way to do something. Currently beginning hounded by the spouse and thought you fellows could help me out.

What is the best way to check level of cooperations and support between your formations?

I ran into a situation where I was into a turn in a PBEM. I should have checked before begining the game but I realized I didn't know if arty from nearby units would support each other on defense. I could have checked by initiating an attack and then aborting it but one mistaken key punch could launch an attack I didn't intend to make.

Use the attack planner. Note the color of the flags as units are added/removed from the attack. (Note that doing so will knock those units into "mobile" deployment mode, though).

I had a situation where I used ships to bombard airfields. Latter in my turn when planning ground attacks in their range they were again available for support. I thought using support units for offensive/direct fire withdrew them from providing "free support."

They are withdrawn from indirect support just for the specific combat phase where they are providing direct support, not for the entire turn.

[sPzAbt653]

With a unit selected, you can click the button circled at the right to bring up the Formation Report box, where you can see the 'Support Level' circled. In smaller scenarios you can use this box to quickly move thru all formations to see their cooperation level.

[Hyding]

Thanks to several of you. The information in the formation box seems to be the quickest way to access it. Don't know how I forgot/overlooked it. I was not having much luck searching in help.

Thanks again[&o]