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.)
|