staying in contact
 

Do platoon and company leaders have to worry about staying in contact with the level above them? For instance, does a platoon commander with no radio have to stay nearby to the company commander (or A0 if he's not in a company)?

Also wondering, in a campaign, if a unit starts with no radio is there any way it could acquire one as the campaign progresses?

Re: staying in contact
 

Yes, Yes and Yes. :)

From the game guide:

"Remember that an SP hex is 50 metres, about half a football field. 20 hexes is a kilometre (about 1000 yards for the non-metric folks). Units which have no radio will have to keep within 250 metres(yards) or so of their commander. Radios will work across the entire map, but are not 100% reliable. Remember that for radios to be useful communication aids that each party to the conversation requires a radio set!. (NB as time goes by in a campaign, your more experienced veterans will tend to pick up radios someone left lying about, even if radio chances are low for the unit in the OOB). Formation leaders get a higher chance of receiving a radio, as do artillery observers. In SP, radios can represent field telephones (in fortifications for example)"

Re: staying in contact
 

So you are saying that if I have a platoon leader with no radio, which happens often I've noticed, then he has to stay within 250m of the A0 unit if he has no company commander? Which means that by extension, the other squads in that platoon cannot venture more than 500m from the A0.

Hmmm, interesting. I was in the habit of always leaving A0 way in the rear.

Re: staying in contact
 

Don't worry so much about staying "in contact" with higher-level commanders. Unless line units take around 50"% casualties they can usually rally on their own, provided their morale and experience is about 70 or so. Better concentrate on keeping them protected with proper dispersion, artillery support, tactical maneuver, etc.

Your AO definitely belongs in the rear, since the rally benefit he might provide to a handful of forward units is far outweighed by the risk of losing him outright to artillery or airstrikes, mines, direct fire, whatever. If you lose the AO in a stand-alone scenario there are significant morale penalties--your units fire with less accuracy, retreat/rout faster, etc. If you lose him in a campaign it's all over: you lose the entire campaign! So by all means keep him in the rear and out of harm's way.(Obviously you don't want all your units clumped around the AO or company commanders since they'll be vulnerable to bombardment, and in any event you'll have to disperse eventually to seize various objectives.)

Re: staying in contact
 

Why would sections worry about A0? - he is the batallion commander after all.

There's the company HQ in between, of course.

In any case being out of contact is merely an annoyance should you want to call for arty fires, or if the section needs additional rallying if it's suppressed is all.

However, individual elements should try to remain within 2-3 hexes of their respective platoon HQs as a matter of policy, especially if they have no radio. Even if radio-equipped they should really do so too. HQs can occasionally 'coach' units if they have better command ratings, thus getting better to-hit chances. But that only works to 3 hexes range.

Re: staying in contact
 

Sometimes I see a platoon where the leader has no radio, but one of the other squads does, which doesn't seem to make sense. Would be nice if I could transfer that radio to the platoon leader so he could stay in contact more easily with the company leader.

Re: staying in contact
 

True, it doesn't always make sense, but if you've spent any time in the military you'd probably understand. Anyway as Mobhack says, just keep squads within 3 hexes of their platoon leader for maximum rally effect.

Re: staying in contact
 

A tight formation within shouting distance with leaders is best.
Nothing worse than having just the squads rally when out of contact and getting fire from everywhere.
Sometimes you'll have to stray a bit to achieve something or other, but not too far as the leader can't keep up and/or gets ripped up also, doing so then even with a radio it can't help much.