Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

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Adam Parker
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2002 8:05 am
Location: Melbourne Australia

Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

Post by Adam Parker »

In the tutorial there is a point at the start of Day 2 in which the US receives reinforcements as depicted in the screen shot below.

As you can see, units are one on top of the other, HQ's are hard to find and command lines just don't make sense at this point as they cannot be projected with clarity.

So how do vets of this series manage units in this way? How do you efficiently work out who to give orders to and how do you go about doing it without clicking on the wrong unit and causing unintended detachments.

Is a further zoom-in level needed?

Thanks,
Adam.

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fleischer
Posts: 50
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:08 pm

RE: Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

Post by fleischer »

You can use the 1-9 keys to toggle which unit types to display.

What would be nice, though, would be to be able to select multiple units in the OOB displays, so that one could manage attachments there instead.
MarkShot
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Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

Post by MarkShot »

I usually save and pause when giving orders; just in case I screw things up. There is no UNDO command.

Reinforcements will multiple units have always arrived stacked.

I think in COTA and BFTB this is less of a problem, since you have the OB tab. That should allow to understand the relationships and select particular units.

Beyond that use the filters to find HQs, find arty, find bases ... also very useful for seeing what units have orders and what units don't. Lastly, remember when units are stacked, like when the HQ filter is selected, clicking multiple times will cycle them to the top.

Finally, reinforcements usually have some order delay waiver. So, after running for 5 minutes and you discover a mistake. Correcting it shouldn't be too costly even with the new gradual waiver behavior of BFTB.

Something I never tired, but if you are dependent on map visualization. Then, laso everyone. Give them a defend order with a big footprint. Let it run 5-10 minutes so that they spread out. Then, pause, evaluate, and issue your actual orders. The penalty on this shouldn't be too high.
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MarkShot
Posts: 7587
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

Post by MarkShot »

Yep what is needed is full size multipane explorer window with drag and drop and various other data displays ... and multi-monitor support. My desk should look like the CIC of some ship! :)
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wodin
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RE: Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

Post by wodin »

I just toggle to see the HQ units only....you get an idea of the size by the name and the amount of men in the sidebar.
ZBrisk
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RE: Tips For Managing Overcrowded Units?

Post by ZBrisk »

~ key makes icons smaller, arrow keys navigate the unit structure of command, and clicking the same spot selects other units there.

When I get reinforcements I usually just send the whole unit, so the 2 key suffices, especially since reinforcements usually have no orders delay.
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