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I have been playing the "Breakout from Joe's bridge" scenario as Allies against the AI now for a few times, and I have a question about orders and what the AI is doing.

In the simplest case, where I just order XXX Corps to attack Eindhoven fast, quick, aggressive, max loss, then a Decisive Victory is easily scored.
(reattach reinforcements in the South, let the US Para's take the Philips Factory).

However, when looking at the actual action, I am surprized that the most aggressive units in the frontline are the HQ and Base Units. While the line units approach their enemies slowly, the rear units do what is wanted: go first and ask questions later.

Of course they take losses and rout after a while, but they clear the road, and that is all that counts.

When I micromanage my units, I can never achieve the same speed as the AI gets with it's weird tactics: the line units simply refuse to bash head over head into the enemy, and every unit takes it's time, positioning a reserve and a firebase and then probing into the unknown.

What orders am I to give to make them do what is the best tactics in the given situation: each line unit takes point in a very aggressive dash forward, taking some losses, and immediately beeing followed by the next line unit (preferrably with armour and infantery interleaved); and not wasting time on organizing a reserve, because there is so much backup that reserves are practically infinite without organizing one?

Try MOVING Brigades or Battalions rather than ATTACKING at least in the early stages. Think about the orders that were given, “crack on and get to Arnhem”. I know they didn’t quite do that but to simulate what should happen in the circumstances of that part of the battle, the essence is move, not set piece attacks in the usual Monty sense. Try moving late arriving formations through earlier formations in order to achieve the results you desire.
Ray

I've tried "move" orders, as noted, with the agression and loss meters set high, and with sequential objectives along the roadway, with battalions, and later groups, receiving orders to move to progressively further along the road, not waiting to see what happens to the earlier units.

The attached image shows what I mean - 2IG had a move to the first wooded area, and have since got there and now have a new move objective. 3IG had the next objective, then the Grenadiers. I keep recce units with their own move objectives moving faster if I can.

edit: ah, Hell, there's no way to attach images is there? well, ignore reference to a image

Yes, that worked pretty well.

Speed was rather good, and I never had non-line units in the fighting front.

I assigned the fastest move orders to the lowest level formations,
and the higher echelon's movement targets were shifted over the road according to the progress.

This also improved the mopping up, because the attachments would deploy around these locations.

springel
Yep, that seems to be the way for this scenario. The higher level formations going slower is also good because, if their objectives are on the road it helps to hold it open for the follow-up formations. Talking of mopping-up, another thing you may like to try is to get 231 Brigade to MOVE, by battalion, as follows:
Line formation
Shortest route
Wide frontage
Shallow depth
Forward facing.
Make as many move plots as you require and the units will plod up the flanks slowly mopping up (or pushing back) the flanking enemy and preventing them coming back to threaten the road. The wide frontage also stops those pesky single enemy units infiltrating your line and being a bloody nuisance!
One final tip, hold on to your Corps artillery assets. This enables you to concentrate fire where it’s needed and keep them moving sufficiently to offer support to the vanguard formations. I also recomend, as MadScot says, to keep control of your recon, they are invaluable both at the point and on the flanks.
When you have dominated this scenario, don’t forget to try the “what-if”, Horrock’s Steamroller. In that you will have opportunities to ATTACK as well as MOVE. However it is a big b…er and is probably best played by controlling nothing smaller than the brigade groups (except of course recce and corps arty).
Enjoy
Ray

As to higher level artillery support:
I found the automatic AI assignment rather good, especially if you run in a faster mode, then the assignment of artillery and airstrikes becomes a clickfest.