Help with Unit Component Identification

[Adam Parker]

Are there any tips for identifying at a glance, units belonging to a specific HQ on the map? Color highlights or colored edgings etc?

[James Sterrett]

Click on the HQ and look at the spray of green lines (assuming Command is selected instead of Supply or None, on the button at the bottom), is the only thing I know of.

[Nico165b165]

Something like the divisional color system used in HPS campaigns series would be useful here.

[daft]

Not without selecting the units from what I know. The command lines are there for the currently selected units.

[MarkShot]

Adam,

I find your question to be somewhat ambiguous.

"belong"

Do you mean as part of the organic structure as they have been trained and managed by their respective service? (the static start arrangement at scenario start and also used for reattaching)

Do you mean the dynamic force structure (officially refered to in the docs a battle groups) which you the player create through issuing orders?

I will try to answer both,

Select the organic display on the bottom tool bar and then click on a HQ. All the organic subordinate counters will receive a half highlight. Even if some of those highlighted have been placed under your direct command or have been cross attached to other forces.

Select the player display and click on a HQ. Only those subordinate units currently under the command of that HQ will receive a half highlight. If organic subordinates were given a separate order from you bypassing the selected HQ or were cross attached to another force (battle group), they will not receive a half highlight.

One of the best ways to get comfortable with forming forces, cross attachments, reattaching, player/organic structure, and mechanics/display is just to load up a large a large scenario and start giving orders, click on things, traversing links, cross attach, reattach etc...

Also, note that in many instances the counter may contain enough label information to infer the HQ one level up.

For example "7.901", this is the 7th Company of the 901st Panzer Grenadiers Regiment.

I hope that helps.

[MarkShot]

Here is another trick if you really want to make all the subordinates stand out either organic or dynamic (player).

Click on the unit and then press shift down arrow a few times. This will cause every subordinate unit to be selected which will provide a full highlight to them all.

[Adam Parker]

Ok I'll check it out Mark.

Daft knows where I'm coming from and Nico above, read my mind - that's pretty much what I was looking for. A way to color code battalions or even just HQ's to make organizations stand out better on map?

In the tutorial for example, once the mech armor and inf battalions join up for battle its hard to tell who belongs to who. Then when the reinforcements cross the bridge and things get tangled up it can become a real mess of subbordinates.

[Fred98]

On the tool bar, the first item on the left is the unit filter button
 
Here we use function keys to make selections.
 
Add another function key. This changes the colour of the units box so that all the units of one battallion have the same colour.
 
Add another function key. This changes the colour of the units box so that all the units of one regiment have the same colour.
 
 
 

[James Sterrett]

That's for the organic order of battle. Trouble is, what you often want is units displayed according to the orders you gave. It's easy and often advisable to cross-attach units or reinforce a battalion with units from a higher organization. I don't necessarily want to see 1-54 Armor, I ant to see TF Smith (1-54 Armor, minus B Coy, plus 2-34 Infantry's C Coy, plus 3rd Brigade's TD platoon, plus 2 companies of bridge engineers from division).

With that in place, Command Ops has to come up with custom colors for the task forces. You probably don't want them to be the same as the organic order of battle colors, or you risk confusion; and you'll probably want the organic OB displayed sometimes too.

That's all before we get into the way the *AI* has further task-organized units inside the task force the player ordered.... [:)]

[Fred98]

Yes I agree with you.

The colours must be based upon the battlegroup that you have created.

When you change the battlegroup, add or subtract unuits, the colours change the reflect the new command structure.

The info is already held in data files within the game. We can currently view the battlegroup structure on the OB screen. Or switch to view the organic structure.

-

[Adam Parker]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

Add another function key. This changes the colour of the units box so that all the units of one battallion have the same colour.

Add another function key. This changes the colour of the units box so that all the units of one regiment have the same colour.

Good ideas. I tried Mark's approach and that does help a little but a persistent on map color coding is what I'm really after.

Also a better on map reperentation of HQ's would be good. The litte black flags are very hard to spot sometimes and we shouldn't have to toggle all units off bar HQ's to find them imo.

Could I recommend something along the lines:

1. A larger counter for HQ's.
2. A circular counter for HQ's.
3. The letters "HQ" on an HQ counter.
4. A different color for HQ's.
5. A colored outline for HQ counters.

[Adam Parker]

An example of large and small counters in a game - pic from the new GMT Stalin's War. I knew my idea was a reasonable one but I had no idea someone would do it. Larger sized HQ's would I believe make them easier to pick out on map at a glance. PS: For the ease of spotting counters that are round, see Schwerpunkt's Russo-German War.