Matrix Games Forums

With two small scenarios under my belt, I’m beginning to pick up some of the coarser (as opposed to finer) points of HttR.

I wonder if you’re suffer a newbie a few questions. I can’t afford the strategy guide right now, otherwise I’d be picking it up.

Question 1: Command Level Orders

I get the impression from the manual that, typically, orders should be given to individual battalion-sized units. Issuing orders to individual companies, with the exception of special support units, should be minimized. Is this a fair assessment? I know that the answer will vary according to playing style – let’s say that I’d rather not micromanage, given the choice, and I’d like to play as the designer intended.

Question 2: Order Delays

I have frequently found that getting an attack going takes much more time than even my most conservative estimates. In the manual, the general rule of thumb indicates that the order delay equals the order delay of the command unit plus the order delay of all subordinate units.

To help me out with understanding this I’ll give an example with completely fabricated wait times. Say I order a regiment with an order delay of 120 min to move out. It orders its subordinate battalions to move, each with an order delay of 60 mins. The battalions then order their companies to move out, with 45 minute delays apiece.

Is the overall delay approximately 225 minutes, or three hours and forty five minutes? This means that from the time of the issuing of the order to the time that the company starts moving is 225 minutes?

Now, take an example with the same units, but giving the direction to the battalion directly. The order delay is now 105 minutes?

What happens when the individual sub-units have differing wait times? Does the delay equal the speed of the very slowest company? For example: Say you give an order to 1.Battalion (order delay 60 min.), with A, B, C, D companies. A, B, and C companies have an order delay of 45 minutes, but D company has an order delay of 60 minutes. Is the order delay then 120 minutes, or do the faster responding companies start moving 15 minutes before D company?

Question 3: Order Load

I understand the concept that if you attach a number of units to a command HQ that has a low load capacity, you dramatically increase order delays. This is completely understandable. Now, I’ve gathered from reading here that detaching units somehow adds load to an HQ. Is this correct? Say I have a typical Battalion with 4 companies and two support platoons. If I detach, say, a company and the two support platoons, the load is increased by 2? Approximately?

The reason I ask this is that in a recent run-through of “Air Landing Assault” scenario, I ordered the 7.KSOB a secure bridge order with aggro set to max and casualties set to high, formation to successive lines and all other orders at unspecified. I had detached one company for rear security, another company had surrendered. Thus, I was sending the 7.KSOB HQ, A.Coy, B.Coy, its two mortar platoons and an engineering company (9 Eng) to the attack. As far as I can tell, this shouldn’t have exceeded its load. For some reason, the attack took over three hours to get started. Is there something I’m missing?

Question 4: Rest Orders

I’m not sure if this is just me, but are units supposed to be hard to “wake up” from a rest order? I’ve had a few occasions where units who previously had a rest order take a long, long time to move out once given an order. This may have affected the situation described above. Should I allocate an additional delay allowance for units “waking up” from a rest order?

Question 5: Supply

In the old Atomic Games wargame series “V for Victory” it was always easy to see lines of supply and the supply status of each unit. Obviously, in HttR you can check equipment and supply by looking at the equipment tab, but how can you tell where the supplies are coming from? I have a feeling that the “base” units have a lot to do with it, but where are the supply lines themselves? I’ve seen artillery units get resupplied (presumably by air) in the Air Landing Assault scenario, but how do I make sure my units don’t run out of supply? Is it as simple as keeping the “base” unit nearby?

Sorry, a lot of complex and involved questions, but I couldn’t seem to find clear answers in the manual.

The last one is the easiest.

In HTTR, supply is abstracted; units are resupplied a set amount at 2-3am each day, regardless of their situation. Whether you are surrounded etc or not is irrelevant; you get the pre-ordained amount of supplies.

#1 sounds about the right interpretation.

#2 and #3 are related, I believe. Giving orders directly to the Bns will get them going faster than just the Regt. BUT by ordering all three bns individually you are increasing the load on your TOP HQ. So every unit is likely to suffer a penalty due to the overloaded HQ issuing the orders. So you can get SOME of your bns moving faster, but if you try to bypass ALL the regt level HQs, chances are everything will go more slowly because of the huge overload on the div or corps HQ.

Detaching doesn't add load to the HQ you detached FROM; it adds load to the HQ you detach TO (which is often your top level HQ - the "on map boss" I've seen it called IIRC)

#4 I can't comment on.

No doubt someone else will be able to be more helpful.

Let me try on #4 above:

When you say "wake up a unit" I assume you mean Bn level or above. The Bn (or higher) will stay put until EVERY unit is below a certain fatigue level. From looking at the fatigue bar, that level seems to be around 40% or less. That level probably also varies with unit quality and morale. I don't know if the Bn begins processing orders immediately or when all units are not tired. I've had Bn's on the move stop and rest because one Coy is fatigued while the others might be fresh. If it's an individual Coy, I've found you can push them a lot further (60% or so) until they mutiny off to sleep...