Two Day Regimental Form Up and Assault Prep?

[Marshal Villars]

Okay. I just posted on a two day divisional assault. Seemed I had given the guys too many options to rest.

In this case. I ordered a regiment to attack an area largely devoid of enemy units, but thought there might be some in there.

Because of Simtovich's comments in the 2 day divisional thread, I gave them NO rest. Still took almost two days to get them rolling. This is a snap shot of the situation about 18-24 hours into the problem.

Note I could have touched them and tried to re-order the attack, but didn't want to (although I could have desperately used them) to see how long it would take to get them rolling.

Again, probably my mistake here. But NOT because I am allowing these guys to take it easy. Or?

I even have them on "fastest" and "quickest".

[Marshal Villars]

Here we are several hours later. Note they are not being allowed ANY rest. But not a unit has budged.

[Marshal Villars]

Here they are at 16:34. They have JUST started moving. Interestingly, they started moving the SECOND I came back from the save game screen to save the game for a possible bug report. Seriously. The SECOND.

Were they just TOO fatigued?

I have set my fatigue levels for display so players in the know can tell. (hint: I am not yet "in the know" LOL).

[simovitch]

Marshal Villars, definitely save the game as far back as possible so that Arjuna can run it through the debuggers to see what is happening. It looks like a by-the-book complex attack and I would think that you should be seeing more progress.

[Arjuna]

Yes please send me as many saved games from the time just before you gave the attack order through to when they started moving. I suspect that it is a fatigue issue in that your troops look exhausted. Now even if you order them not to rest, exhausted troops will ignore your instruction and rest once their fatigue level gets too high. In other words you can't prevent the unit from resting if it's knackered. Exhausted men don't listen. You should be able to test this out yourself by looking at the tasks and the reaction status of your assault troops.

[Marshal Villars]

Well. I loaded the situation at day 5 0110 hours and switched the unit display to orders. This is what I have...

It doesn't appear that their status has forced them to rest and are indicated as "moving". Though they won't actually do so until 16:23 that evening (within seconds after my next game save--sreen shot below).

This save file would show the unit in its "stuck" situation in case you want it Arjuna.

[Marshal Villars]

Here they are on D5 at 16:23.

This is the moment I saved the game again in case I had to file a possible "bug" report.

Again, when returning from the save screen, they immediately began to move. I can't say if the events are connected or not obviously.

As you can see in the screen shot above (D5 16:34) progress was then made.

P.S. By the way, while I am at it, I am going to plug my idea of a separate "ping" sound for airstrike availability. I don't know how many airstrikes I have missed using because I am not aware of them being available. I know this, because all too often, I look up to late when there is one available and I see the message that it has been cancelled. Nothing special required. Just a different sound... or if you like one of 2-3 sound bites of someone reporting that one is available (so it isn't always the same thing with the same inflection over and over again).

[Arjuna]

Re air strikes. Even if you do miss using them your staff will assign them automatically once the time alloted to you has expired.

[Arjuna]

I will need to see the saved games to work out what is happening. You can zip and email them to support[at]panthergames[dot]com

[MarkShot]

Re: airstrikes

Dave, is that a new feature as I don't recall that from prior games? Thanks.

[Arjuna]

Yes it's new fro BFTB.

[johndoesecond]

Hi Marshal,

You're definitely trying to be German Patton here

I will try to make few educated guesses, nothing quite new from what has been already said here and in other threads.

First of all, you're giving that attack order on the day 3, so likely the levels of fatigue, moral and cohesion are quite low as these troops may be quite worn off.

Second, setting "fastest" with "no rest" (especially if after 3 days of fight), can be deleterious.

Third, if any of the troops encounter resistance at (or when moving to) the FUP, that usually delays significantly the whole business. In fact the selection of the FUP is essential for that precise reason, especially if you're building up an attack by a big force such as a division.

And then, finally, that division is, what?, more than 1000 soldiers with all that vehicles, tanks, guns and all the rest. It's heck of an army to coordinate, plan and execute a coordinated and simultaneous attack: it's a big business and it does take time.
Under all the circumstances I were assuming above, you say it took one day? I say: wow!

[Marshal Villars]

Yes, Johndoessecond. I agree. It is a big task. And it was my first large scenario. So I admit, I was not "delicate" with the men. And was no military genius here.

I wanted to see it done on a regimental scale. That's all.

[Lieste]

You have too many waypoints/order changes in immediate contact with the enemy.

Manoeuvring a force several thousand men strong, and with dozens of formations needs time and space to shake out without observation and effective fire.

Look a the location of the form-up points on several of your plans - less than 200m from the final planned COM, and not much further from the nearest enemy contact.

Several other 'attacks' had major portions forming up in plain view and being destroyed/routed before the attack could even get started - the disruption and subsequent re-planning could be excessively 'effective' at stopping any action at all, but to expect significant organised operations under these conditions is optimistic (especially if this is one of the focusses of his artillery effort too).

[Marshal Villars]

All good points Lieste.