order delay clarification

[Henri]

I would like a clarification on orders delay.

Let us say I have a company detached from a battalion. If I give it the order to reattach, I understand that both the company and the battalion will have to replan, which will introduce a corresponding delay. So if the battalion was in the process of carrying out some orders, it will stop executing the orders, replan and then carry out the new orders? This could be a major pain if the battalion was in the process of carrying out an attack.

Now suppose that the battalion was under AI control, carrying out some orders from a higher HQ, say a division HQ.Then I presume that the battalion will stop carrying out its orders and execute a replan as above. But what will the Division HQ do when one of its battalions suddenly stops to replan? Suppose that the battalion in question was in the process of carrying out an attack in conjunction with another battalion under the same Division HQ? Will the other battalion also stop executing its orders too while it waits for its sister battalion to get organized? And will this also force a replanning of the whole division? If so, this could mean a delay of 2 hours or more before starting to carry out orders, which could be disastrous if the whole division was in the process of executing a complex attack!

I am not sure which it worst:1) The other battalions etc continuing to execute their orders despite one battalion stopping in its tracks and replanning, or 2) the whole division coming to a screeching halt and everyone replans. If the latter is the case, it would mean that reattaching a single platoon to a company could force a replanning of a whole army, if everything but that platoon was under AI control! So which is it? The same question applies to DETACHING a unit, which one is often tempted to do (and which is recommended) to meet unexpected circumstances in the middle of a battle.

So it seems to me that one should be extremely careful about the time and circumstances when one detaches or re-attaches a unit, because it could throw a monkey wrench into the whole apparatus! If fact it would seem to me that whenever one detaches or reattaches a subunit, unless its parent unit is doing absolutely nothing, it is better to also put the parent unit under player control (which will reduce the time delay before it starts to execute its next order since they don't have to go through a higher HQ).And if this is the case, one should detach the parent unit first, and/or reattach the subunit first to reduce the amount of replanning involved.

Now this could get hilarious as one is forced to put more and more units under player control, unil eventually the top HQ gets overloaded - I would rather not think about the consequences of that!

Please tell me I missed something...[:(]

Henri

[MarkShot]

As far as other games in the series, dettaching/attaching should be done with caution when something critical is in process. I was not involved with BFTB's development, but I thought that I read that Dave introduced some code to deal with slight changes in force dispositions without always generating a replan. I suspect that Dave will clarify this for you a little later.