Changing defend orders to a rest order?

[TinyPirate]

Hi folks.

I'm working my way through all the docs after having just bought the game, and have completed the first tutorial and had a situation I wasn't sure how to address.

My boys had taken the Komma (?) bridge and town and set up beyond it in a defensive position. Dug in, night was falling, and I saw they were very fatigued. I wanted them to rest up, so I ordered a rest and placed it where they were, and clicked in-situ. They then moved around a bit and lost their nice dug in status.

Would it have perhaps been better to set them to low agro and low rate of fire and let them site out the night dug in and defending? It seems a shame I can't seem to order them to stand down in place somehow...

[06 Maestro]

In the situation you are in it is better to leave them on "defend". The units will regain cohesion after they are dug in. You can give them a rest order (or "reorganize") and they will recover more quickly, but that choice is risky. If a unit is in an area where it can be attacked, you are placing them in danger by giving an order to "rest"-they will be less prepared to defend the area if they are attacked.

There is another consideration, an "in situ" order will leave a unit at a base exhaustion rate of 30%-eventually (going from memory-and it's late). Sometimes that is the best way to go for temporary orders, but I don't think it is useful for a position that you would be holding for a while.

An expert will answer soon.

[simovitch]

If you have no orders delay and you don't pause the game, your units will react as soon as the order is given, i.e. before you have a chance to tell them "in-situ" formation.

Otherwise they should not have moved around like they did.