Matrix Games Forums

Hi
I am in the US campaign mission 3. Soviets detected my HHQ and wipe it out in the 3rd turn, and then the replacing commanding officer got killed in the next two turns.
Any tips to make your HHQ to live longer?
1, I know a short direct answer is , to avoid detection. Then how to? What is the best way to reduce radio traffic?

2, will manually change HQ location helps? Or it could backfire as movement order itself could betray HHQ’s location?

3, For most of the HQ, I noticed that the default SOP is to relocate when taking lose. I also found out that most of the HQ casualty happens during relocating process. So should I put the HHQ in a buildup area, change the doctrine to never relocate, Do or Die, hopefully the HQ team can hide in their foxhole and survive the enemy artillery pounding long enough?

Looking for a good discussion here

Thanks

I'm by no means an expert, but here's what I do.

1) Move it every command cycle, without fail. There are no penalties to command for being in motion (that I know of), so keep in motion. They can't hit you if you're not there.
Doesn't have to be far, find a clump of forest or a small village and just do circles in there.

2) Should artillery start falling in the premises, find another clump of cover. Rinse and repeat.
Same goes if you give a lot of orders in one cycle, i.e. relocating more than a company or so.
But never 'circle' in clear terrain. Soft-skinned vehicles moving in open terrain while being shelled is....Not the greatest combination.

3) Always have AAA nearby. Even a Stinger team will help keeping nosy helos at bay.

I set them to move after fire missions. Works well for me.

Tcao wrote: Tue Dec 06, 2022 6:23 pm Any tips to make your HHQ to live longer?
1, I know a short direct answer is , to avoid detection. Then how to? What is the best way to reduce radio traffic?

Issuing fewer orders reduces radio traffic, but isn't easy to do.
Having the HQ move around reduces the probability of detection by reducing the amount of radio traffic coming from one single hex. The fewer messages coming from a single hex, the less likely that the HQ exceeds the threshold number of radio messages triggering a SIGINT detection.

William

Be careful manually moving them constantly - the movement will hit their readiness, which lengthens the command cycle as far as I know. Generally I just set my HQ to screen with default SOP settings and they'll regularly relocate themselves.

WildCatNL wrote: Tue Dec 06, 2022 8:43 pm

Issuing fewer orders reduces radio traffic, but isn't easy to do.
Having the HQ move around reduces the probability of detection by reducing the amount of radio traffic coming from one single hex. The fewer messages coming from a single hex, the less likely that the HQ exceeds the threshold number of radio messages triggering a SIGINT detection.

William

CheerfullyInsane wrote: Tue Dec 06, 2022 6:42 pm I'm by no means an expert, but here's what I do.

1) Move it every command cycle, without fail. There are no penalties to command for being in motion (that I know of), so keep in motion. They can't hit you if you're not there.
Doesn't have to be far, find a clump of forest or a small village and just do circles in there.

2) Should artillery start falling in the premises, find another clump of cover. Rinse and repeat.
Same goes if you give a lot of orders in one cycle, i.e. relocating more than a company or so.
But never 'circle' in clear terrain. Soft-skinned vehicles moving in open terrain while being shelled is....Not the greatest combination.

3) Always have AAA nearby. Even a Stinger team will help keeping nosy helos at bay.

Thanks
That's interesting. Glad to see some old FCRS tricks still work in the new game
6 waypoints, each one has a 15min delay. That should work, isn't it

Stimpak wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 6:07 am Be careful manually moving them constantly - the movement will hit their readiness, which lengthens the command cycle as far as I know. Generally I just set my HQ to screen with default SOP settings and they'll regularly relocate themselves.

Humm, Do you mean the HQ will relocate itself after sending out too many radio messages? Never notice that.



A short distance travel won't hurt readiness too much. I also noticed that in FCSS unit assigned a movement order but with an order delay can still recover its combat readiness when they are waiting at current position.

As long as they are in screen they'll automatically move around. If they're set to Hold then that's when they sit still and start eating arty strikes.

On that particular scenario, SN3, it's best to be doing some counter battery in addition to moving your HQ around. Soviets there have 2 RAGs and a DAG with lots of air support, in the next version of that scenario they will have even more air support presence.

Thanks for the tips. I am shaking under the fire from Soviets artillery groups....

Although I have killed 15 2S1 + 12 D-30, I decided to reload this scenario. Try one more time with new learned knowledge on relocate, direct support and FO/observer. See if I can do better this time.

The biggest arty threat comes from 2S3s that show up later. This would be where having preserved your cavalry force from earlier scenarios would be most helpful... hope you did so!