Hierarchy Module Document

[Curtis Lemay]

Here is the path from Grant to 25 MPs away (I had to manually add the last 6 path hexes since Grant only had 19 MPs):

[Curtis Lemay]

Now, here is the path for the Prentiss Division formation's Flag Unit. It runs to the last hex of the previous shot. So it is within the Hierarchical Command Radius of the Tennessee Army and the path is normal:

[Curtis Lemay]

But, move one more hex away and the path is beyond the Hierarchical Command Radius of the Tennessee Army's Flag Unit (Grant). The path has changed to desaturated (gray):

[Curtis Lemay]

Now we drop down one hierarchical level to Prentiss's Division. Page 2 of its formation report shows that its Hierarchical Command Radius is 10:

[Curtis Lemay]

And this shot shows how far that 10 MPs extend to the north:

[Curtis Lemay]

Here the Flag Unit of Peabody's Brigade has a path that is still normal, so is within the Prentiss Division's Hierarchical Command Radius:

[Curtis Lemay]

But now, after extending the path one more hex, the path color changes to desaturated (gray), alerting the player that this location will be beyond the Prentiss Division's Hierarchical Command Radius:

[Curtis Lemay]

Now we will move a non-Flag Unit in Peabody's Brigade. The formation's command radius is used for that. Here we see that that radius is 5 MPs:

[Curtis Lemay]

Here's a shot illustrating Peabody's brigade's 5 MP command radius. Note that it extends from the 1st Peabody unit, which is the Flag Unit for this little formation (the Flag Unit doesn't have to be a HQ):

[Curtis Lemay]

Here the 2nd Peabody unit has a path that is within the command radius of the Peabody formation. The path is normal colored:

[Curtis Lemay]

But move one more hex West and the path changes to desaturated (gray), alerting the player that this location is beyond the command radius of the Peabody Brigade's Formation:

[Curtis Lemay]

One thing that still concerns me about this issue is its impact on color-blind players. I would hope that enough players will compare the RED Path shots to the GRAY Path shots and let me know if there are players out there that can't detect the difference in them. If so, I can probably add a bell to the alert. It would have to be optional, of course, which would make it non-trivial.

[Curtis Lemay]

I've modified the Info Panel information about the Path to include info about this new feature: