Hi Jim,
ORIGINAL: LuckyJim1006
First off let me say I am enjoying the game a lot and am still finding my way round tactical combat.
I'm glad to hear you're having fun.
Playing the first boot camp scenario I used the 81's to lay smoke and then rushed the platoon through it when it looked thick enough.
2 Sections made it, the 3rd got pinned down about 40 meters from the church. So I had 2 sections in the church and shooting and one section stuck out in the open, and that smoke was thinning like my hair.
I wanted the section that was out in the open to 'rush' but as I understand it I have to give this order to the HQ unit first. This means that the 2 sections in the church have to stop firing. This seems slightly wrong.
Since the game goes from top down with platoon orders, if you want to use a specialized order like Rush, you do have to change the whole platoon order. Mounted platoon HQs are limited to static orders like Engage or Defend. However, there's a good solution here.
The Church will only fit two squads, so you really just want to get the third partly in the cover of the church so they're not taking fire from all angles. I'd suggest putting the platoon in the Church on Defend orders, then issuing a Defend -> Move order to the squad that's outside.
Defend -> Move has the following advantages over Rush in this instance:
1. Your squad is considered to be "sneaking" or "crawling" when using Defend -> Move so they are only a +5 to be spotted instead of a +15 when Rushing.
2. Your squad is still moving, so they are at a -1 to be hit, just like when Rushing.
3. Your squad is using what available cover there is, so firepower directed against them uses its straight value. Rushing across open ground gives those firing at you a +1 to their firepower.
I know I could have used the 'Engage, Target, and Engage,Move command but the Enagage,Move command does not give the sort of speed that men under fire, in the open would want to move at to get to cover.
That's another option. Though it doesn't give the speed of Rush, it's faster than Defend -> Move and a better choice if you want to personally choose targets for the rest of the platoon. It will get then into the shadow of the Church faster, but they'll still be more exposed while moving.
How hard would it be to recode 'Rush' so it is a subset of Engage ?
That would fix my little problem
Unfortunately, it's not in the plans for this release to make major changes to the Orders. They are like this because you're assumed to be issuing brief (like a few seconds) orders to each platoon commander each phase (as the Company or Battalion commander). We tried to therefore keep them a bit more straightforward. Both Engage and Defend have options for getting the squad those last 40 meters to the church with a good chance of success, just not with the speed of the specialized Rush order.
Note that if you absolutely must Rush, you can unmount your HQ, set Rush as the platoon order and give the third squad a Rush destination while Rushing the HQ 1m and then re-mount the HQ.
All you need to fix after that is my incredible lack of tactical skill.....
Don't worry too much about that - you'll get the hang of it. Boot Camp is not actually very easy, unlike the tutorial, but it's meant to teach a certain set of skills and once you get through it the rest becomes a lot easier.
Regards,
- Erik
