Controlling direct fire support troops

[TeeWee]

What do you think is the best way to use your support troops (AT and MG support) during assaults? Do you keep them attached to a coordinating HQ unit or do you control it yourself? Does it depend on the size of the force you're using?

Is the answer the same for defensive uses?

[Fred98]

AT is best used in defense.

As for MG, place them in terrain that good for defense but use them to fire on the enemy immedaintly before your assault.

Ensure your assaulting force does not walk acrross in front of the MG

[TeeWee]

I take it you place them yourself in a good position and manually use the fire command? Or do you let the assaulting HQ in command of the support troops and let it position it according to its own plans?

[Agema]

If you have a specific place you want to put a unit, do it manually as the higher command AI might well not use it the way you want. For instance, you might want to defend a line which the AI will handle fine, but say there's a little village a short way forward of the line you want to make use of: you would likely have to detach a unit and put it there yourself.

I frequently set up more complex defensive positions by placing companies individually. When attacking with multiple units the possible lack of co-ordination from issuing individual orders makes such an approach impractical.

[Arjuna]

In the attack long range line-support units such as AT, Flak and MG units will automatically deploy during the assault as soon as they are within line of sight and effective range of the objective ( provided they have spotted enemy there ). Once deployed they will generally open fire by themselves on spotted enemy. So you don't need to manage this directly yourself. However, you can also order such a unit directly to deploy into a good fire support location and order the rest of your force to attack. It's your choice. I tend to only do the latter in the smaller scenarios, where I don't have a lot of forces to control.