Save the commandos!

[Bernie]

Recently I made an interesting discovery during the start of a game. I had about a dozen commando units all sitting in a small clear area behind my lines and had given each of them infiltration assignments then saved the game and started my turn. During the opening arty bombardment that group of commandos happened to be sitting right where a Soviet BM-31 was making moon craters, resulting in the total loss of all my commando squads. I never bothered to hide them because I figured they'd be busy infiltrating and wouldn't show up until they reached their assingments. Boy was I pi$$ed!

At that point I reloaded the saved game (I was experimenting against the AI) planning to move those units to better cover and they were gone! They'd boogied out to their assignments. This leads me to conclude that you should always save and reload the turn after the deployment phase, just to get units like your commando teams moving towards their assignments and not under incoming fire.

[G_X]

Only have that problem with Airdrop planes.

Commandos always sneak out on me, though I have seen times before where they'd show up on radar.

What version of the game you running?

[Capt. Pixel]

I'm pretty sure that when those commandos finally arrive, they're going to reflect the damage done on the Turn 0 bombardment.

This dandy little feature taught me to not set-up along the frontline with infiltrators. The thought being, if they don't have to travel so far, they should arrive sooner. (As it turns out, distance doesn't seem to have any effect on an infiltrator's arrival turn)

As G_X said, the same will happen to your cargo planes and gliders.

[Bernie]

Originally posted by G_X
Only have that problem with Airdrop planes.

Commandos always sneak out on me, though I have seen times before where they'd show up on radar.

What version of the game you running?

7.1 absolute latest release

[Bernie]

Originally posted by Capt. Pixel
I'm pretty sure that when those commandos finally arrive, they're going to reflect the damage done on the Turn 0 bombardment.

This dandy little feature taught me to not set-up along the frontline with infiltrators. The thought being, if they don't have to travel so far, they should arrive sooner. (As it turns out, distance doesn't seem to have any effect on an infiltrator's arrival turn)

As G_X said, the same will happen to your cargo planes and gliders.

Nope, no damage to the squads when they arrived at their targets, and they weren't on the start line either. They were located well to the rear.

[Capt. Pixel]

You got me curious, so I set up some tests vs the AI in Hotseat. (I love Hotseat)

The infiltrators took damage from the opening barrage and arrived with a reduced compliment of men, but no suppression. (That might be because of the auto rallying going on before they arrive)

Then I tried Gliders. I was wrong about their being affected. Even gliders that were 'destroyed' (max damage other than from landing damage) during the barrage. They dutifully delivered their cargo anyway. :rolleyes:

At first I thought the glider passengers were taking damage from the barrage. then I tried a glider drop without the barrage. Now I knew that paratroops and glider passengers took some suppression after a drop, but I never realized that they also took some casualties. (In fact, in one test after an initial barrage, almost all of the passengers showed up in full compliment. Maybe being barraged is good incentive for them?)

The case for Paratroopers was the same. Even 'destroyed' cargo planes made their drops. I also didn't note any casualties from paradropping (but plenty of suppression)

Oh, and one more note. Don't forget to plot your gliders and paradrops. If you forget, they're gone forever.

[Bernie]

Originally posted by Capt. Pixel
You got me curious, so I set up some tests vs the AI in Hotseat. (I love Hotseat)

The infiltrators took damage from the opening barrage and arrived with a reduced compliment of men, but no suppression. (That might be because of the auto rallying going on before they arrive)

Obviously I didn't make myself clear in my previous messages, I'll try to correct that now.

The first time I did the deployment I assigned targets to the Rangers, saved the turn, then quit deployment, allowing opening arty to fire. The commandos were still where I'd left them, grouped near the rear of my lines, and took almost 100% casualties from a BM-31 barrage. After the next turn started I quit the game and reloaded the previous saved turn, intending to disperse the commandos this time. Upon a reload though all the commandos were gone, already begun infiltrating I suppose. The area they had been concentrated in was now empty. I let the turn proceed, the same BM-31 barrage pounded the same area, but this time I got no casualty reports. Later in the game the commandos all arrived at their targets with nary a scratch.

Obviously what is happening is that the game does not move the commandos out after you assign them, probably not reading that info until the start of the next turn. But if you save, exit and then reload it reads in the info for each units location, "sees" the commandos are infiltrating and removes them from the map and beyond harm. So in the future that will be my procedure for starting a game. Deploy, assign, save, exit, reload, continue turn.