One thing needed in COTA for me...

[JudgeDredd]

...is the ability to call support and risk the friendly casualties. There's nothing worse than seeing a company come under heavy attack and not be able to pump support in just because friendlies are in the way.

I don't know if you did this for game balance, or to prevent some sort of advantage...if so, then I'm all ears...but I think the commander on the ground should be able to call support in on top of his boys. It was done extensively in Vietnam...and I would guess it happened in WWII.

Anyway...your thoughts/reasons on this would be appreciated (when you get over your hang over).

[simovitch]

I agree and I would like to see both accidental and planned freindly fire incidents in the next release on the Ardennes battles.

There were more than a few verified instances in the Battle of the Bulge where the American defenders called in artillery support on top of their own positions to stop an assault. Brutal.

[Bane_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: simovitch
planned freindly fire incidents in the next release on the Ardennes battles.

Why do they call it friendly fire - there's nothing really friendly about it!

I'm going to be getting this baby next week - so keep posting - don't think I can hold out though...

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
......but I think the commander on the ground should be able to call support in on top of his boys. It was done extensively in Vietnam...and I would guess it happened in WWII.

Exactly. Close arty support has been used in Vietnam extensively. In many situations, local officers had only one choice to save (at least parts of) their platoons when being encircled by regular North Vietnamese troops: Calling in heavy arty bombardements right on their lines, especially during the Tet-offensive, afaik.
Also, german officers did the same on the east front, when the Russians stomped over important defense lines, afaik. "Firebrigades", consisting of PzDivs (SS or Wehrmacht), often used to be the only effective tools to halt/slow down russian breakouts.

Being able to call in bombardments on my own lines would really fit in my strat, it would be a major improvement in the game. Zooming to the max and begging to find a corner-spot where it doesn't say "friendlies in the way" can be frustrating. Changing formation to smaller staggering, "successive lines" for example especially for big units, uses to help a little, though.

My 2 cents.

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Bane

ORIGINAL: simovitch
planned freindly fire incidents in the next release on the Ardennes battles.

Why do they call it friendly fire - there's nothing really friendly about it!

I'm going to be getting this baby next week - so keep posting - don't think I can hold out though...

Don't fight it...come to the dark side!

[MarkShot]

See page 11 post #303 of my Mini-Guide to get in closer. Also, you can try shifting the order a little off center of the target.

[JudgeDredd]

I thought I would bump this...'cos if there is one thing which annoys me greatly when playing this fantastic game it's the "Friendlies in the way" message from a bombard command.
 
There are sometimes in battles I've noticed, particularly at night but also in scenarios where a unit has bad LOS, where and enemy can show up pretty quickly and pretty close to one of your units...and in this case your artillery cannot support him.
 
I've just started playing a scenario and had a unit sitting in some woods near a road waiting on the enemy showing up...kind of like an ambush...when the enemy turned up, the enemy was pretty close to the unit (due to it being "hidden" in trees)...but that made arty support for that unit useless - meaning it was on it's own. I really wanted to drop some mortar fire on the enemy unit but couldn't.
 
I personally would like to see this remedied...I know your policy on bug fixes only and enhancements for the next version...I think this should be pretty high on the list. It, for me, is a big annoying factor with artillery...so useful and yet so useless.
 
Thx

[philsublime]

OK, maybe I am totally far off, but I noticed that the artillery support is usually under direct control of the player only on a brigade level. As far as I understand, there is still indirect fire support on a company level, included in e.g. a infantry coy. This would be the support "outside players hand"... But I know what you mean. I would love to be able to decide myself whether I want to risk friendly fire or not... Also in Vietnam, the indirect fire support was usually directed directly from a platoon or coy leader on the ground. I think that only a commander from the unit itself could order fire support on his position... Tell me if I'm wrong...