attaching units without giving orders

[henri51]

Is it possible to attach units to a HQ without giving the HQ orders?

In the initial disposition (of CoTA), the top HQs have a lot of units that will be mostly inactive if they are not attached to other HQs (for example if the top HQ is a Division HQ (which represents ME), it will normally not go into battle itself, and the only orders it will receive will normally be to move to a position from which it can command effectively - along with all of its attached units that did not receive specific orders).

So if I want to distribute some of these top HQ attached units (usually support units like machine guns, AT units and engineers), I have to give orders to the new HQ at the same time as I attach each sub-unit. But I would like to attach them BEFORE I give the new HQ (say a battalion HQ when the top HQ is a division HQ) any orders.This is particularly a PITA when I want to attach more than one unit to a sub-HQ, because I have to change the new HQ orders each time I attach a new unit to it. I COULD attach more than one at a time, but this assumes that I can find all the sub-units I want in the big pile of units.[&:]

So I would like to be able to attach sub-units to a HQ either BEFORE or AFTER the new HQ gets its orders.[:'(]

Am I missing something?

Henri

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: henri51

Am I missing something?

Nah, you're just in the wrong forum:

tm.asp?m=1299446&mpage=1&key=attach&#1299446

[Arjuna]

Henri,

You have to issue orders to change the attachment of units. That's an integral part of the engine, I'm afraid. The force structure and planning system are based on it. I acknowledge that it can be inconvenient at times. What I think would alleviate this aspect is if you could readily select multiple units in the OB display and hence compose your forceGroup from their and then issue an order. I ran out of time to implement multiple selection on the OB display for BFTB. But it is certainly high on our wish list.

[henri51]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

Henri,

You have to issue orders to change the attachment of units. That's an integral part of the engine, I'm afraid.

Aw shucks!...Thanks for the fast reply Arjuna.I will buy the game anyway...[:D]

Maybe I am missing something, but assuming a new attachment causes a replan (possibly of both HQs involved), would it really be so difficult? If there were no plan (null plan), then the replan would have no effect, and if there were one, it would either be cancelled (made null) or it would be replanned from scratch taking into account the new unit -the former is probably preferable.

And there is already a button available to do it, because the "reattach" button is useless when a unit is not detached. So when a unit is selected if it is still attached to its original HQ, then the button would show "attached"; if the unit were already attached to another HQ or independent, one would first "reattach" it to its original unit, after which the "attach" button would become available. In extreme cases this could cause a lot of replanning, but since most attachments are done at the start of a scenario and most units of interest are support units originally attached to the top HQ, it is no big deal to force the top HQ to replan, since it doesn't plan most of the time anyway (unless one is giving orders only to the top HQ, which gets boring real fast - not to mention ineffective).

In sum, pressing the attach button would simply give a "null" or "cancel plan" order to both HQs involved, which seems pretty much equivalent to giving an order to both a HQ and the unit to be attached.At the present time, the program says when attaching"

"Give this order to all the selected units and their subunits"

and in the proposed program, it would say:

"Give the 'cancel order' to the selected unit and to the selected HQ and to all their subunits.

Perhaps a "replan" order would also be necessary, but not if there is already a "replan null" command available.

Of course the method you mention by using the OB would be better, but would probably require a lot more programming.

Of course if this would implying putting out the game only next week instead of this weekend, then forget it...[:D]

Henri

[Arjuna]

It's a little more complicated than that, I'm afraid. Not only would the new subject have to replan, but so would the old one. Anyway, I really need to focus on this installer builf right now. So I'll have to leave this discussion till later.

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
Anyway, I really need to focus on this installer

Excellent! [8D]

[captskillet]

Enough silly questions let the man get the installer done! [;)]