Some Tips and Guidelines from a Veteran Player

[junk2drive]

Somewhere in the manual it talks about rally points. The highest rank has only so many points to pass down the chain of command. Each time you rally a unit, it takes away from that pool. IIRC when that pool runs out you lose the secondary rally attempt that you sometimes see when a rally fails.
 
For that reason I use rally with great reserve. I usually only try to get below 8 supp. when a unit is adjacent to armour and can assault.
 
Each rally cuts suppression in half.

[vahauser]

DROregon,
 
A unit can never have a suppression higher than 99.  The rally sequence is: 99 to 49 to 24 to 12 to 6 to 3 to 1.  At most 6 rallies to remove all suppression from any unit.  Each rally attempt costs the rallying unit (or HQ if the rallying unit fails) 2 rally points.  Each rally point equals 1% chance to rally.  So, if I have a unit that has a rally rating of 67, then that unit has a 67% chance to rally with its first attempt.  If it succeeds, then its remaining rally rating that turn is now 65.  If it fails, its rally rating is reduced to 0 for the rest of that turn.  Rally ratings are reset at the start of each turn.
 
Clearly, you gain the most (in terms of risk vs. reward) when attempting to rally from high suppression.  That is, I can remove 50 points of suppression by attempting to rally from 99 to 49 for a cost of 2 rally points.  Attempting to rally from 3 to 1 is high risk with little reward.
 
Rallying is like trading in commodities futures.  You must anticipate future events.  That is where skill and experience and judgment come in.  There is no statistical formula that will predict an uncertain future (how the events of any given turn will unfold).  And there are cases where you simply have to throw away the odds and take your best shot, such as in a do-or-die emergency.
 
But you can at least put those odds in your favor to the best of your ability by making only those rally attempts that give you the best reward for your risk, until such time as an emergency happens (at which point you throw away the odds and take your best shot).  Saving for a rainy day, in other words.
 
I would not (and indeed I don't) rely too much on statistics.  Game experience and judgment is a better guide.  Becoming a player with a good feel for the game and the ability to anticipate and visualize how the events of a turn are going to unfold is a more valuable skill. 
 
Don't misunderstand me.  I am definitely aware of the odds and the concept of risk vs. reward in regards to rally attempts (which I why I posted what I did 6 years ago).  All I'm saying is that while I'm aware of the statistics, I don't let them dominate my experience and judgment and ability to visualize a turn, which is more valuable to me. 
 
 

[DROregon]

Thanks again Victor. I see now how rally chances can be wasted.

I see them now as more like Options (vs. commodities or futures). The chance to rally has value before you use it. If you exercise and it fails, it's worthless. If you exercise and it wins, you improve suppression but reduce your chance to win again. If you exercise now at a low suppression, you may lose the opportunity to exercise in the future at a higher suppression.

I'd say however, like in the money Options, exercise them all at the end of the turn. So, Auto-Rally On.

I always learn something new about this wonderful game by following along on this website.

[vahauser]

DROregon,
 
I've played with Auto Rally ON for many years.  However, as pointed out in the "Rigging the Game" thread, playing with Auto Rally ON gives the human player an advantage against the computer.  So recently I've been playing with Auto Rally OFF.

[FlashfyreSP]

ORIGINAL: DROregon

Flash, I don't understand.

You must be saying a rally-failed command unit is less effective to it's subordinate units than an un-attempted rally command unit, even when they have the same supression level. Makes sense, I guess.

But seems to me that the opportunity to reduce a command unit's supression in half is always worth pushing the button.

No, that's not what I was referring to. A failed Rally command unit is incapable of assisting its subordinate units when THEY fail. But a Suppressed command unit in Retreat/Rout status cannot assist in the rallying of sub-units anyhow, so it is just as ineffective as if it had failed its own rally attempt.

What I usually do is make the one attempt to bring a command unit to Pinned status; if it succeeds, I stop rallying the command unit. Then I run through the sub-units, making their checks one at a time, from unit to unit; in this way, the unit leader has the best chance (re: Victor's explanation of the Rally points and chances) to get that first critical "halving" of the Suppression. Then I cycle back through the units, making attempts for those with the worst Suppression; some units I will leave with <15 Suppression, in Pinned status, to focus on the ones that are in worse shape. During this procedure, if any unit fails its own check, the command unit is able to assist. If the command unit fails, then I go ahead and make all the checks I can for the rest of the subs, since failing will not access the command assist. In cases where I have a second command unit in the chain (company HQ or A0 nearby), I follow the same basic procedure, and see if the higher command assists once the immediate commander fails.

On the AutoRally ON/OFF issue: the AutoRally is a "nanny", performing rally actions at the end of the turn that you, the player, "forgot to make". In some ways, this is good, as it covers all units, and makes all checks possible, even those Ready units with 2 or 4 Suppression that otherwise you would ignore for Rallying. However....

This can be bad, in the case of units that are Retreating/Routed and are in danger of being fired on. They could become Pinned or Ready, in LOS/LOF to the enemy, and during HIS turn come under heavy fire. If they had been allowed to retreat, they may have moved out of LOS/LOF and become unspotted. With AutoRally ON, you the player cannot choose to let them retreat; if you do not manually rally them during your turn, the AutoRally does it for you, and if it succeeds in any attempt, the unit will probably stop where it is as Pinned. Only of the first AutoRally attempt fails will the unit conduct a retreat movement. This is because the Retreat action phase comes after the AutoRally phase.

But there are times when it would be better to allow a unit to retreat the two hexes to a safer position: units that have been under fire during your opponent's turn, and begin your turn in Routed/Retreating status. The dilemma is: do I try and rally them and then use the normal Movement action to move away from the "fire zone", possibly 1)failing the rally and remaining Pinned in the hex for next turn, or 2)succeeding only to trigger OpFire when attempting to move to cover. The safe solution: allow the unit to Retreat, so as to put distance between the enemy and itself, during the Retreat Phase when OpFire does not usually occur. But AutoRally ON prevents this, as the "nanny" come along and makes those Rally attempts for you.

Turning AutoRally OFF at times (it can be switched on and off during the game, even PBEM games) can help save units that otherwise might be in trouble during the opponent's turn.

[DROregon]

Thanks Kevin.

Another education on the +/- of Rally.

I can see now how Auto Rally can have its downside.