Wishlist: Formations as reinforcements

[duff]

Given reinforcments in scenarios are almost always assigned by the platoon or company, wouldn't it be great if when a formation leader was assigned a turn and % to arrive they rest of the formation could be assigned at the same time? I suggest the interface be a "pop up" question "Assign formation? Y/N.

There are some scenarios I would like to design where having the formation as a whole either arrive or not (rather than some arrive and some not) would be essential. In my opinion it would be perfectly fine if formations assigned together always arrived together but if it was a Y/N or toggle option that would be great. An example of where it could be used: The battle of Long Tan. The reason the Mechanised infantry were held at base for so long was the commander was concerned there was a VC unit close to the base. By giving a fairly small chance of a company (or more) appearing near the base the commander is forced to allow for the possibility. The VC unit could have increased unit value to balance out the increased losses the australian player would be expected to suffer.

A more complex request would be for either 1 formation to be given a choice of deployment locations or a group of formations be able to "lock out" others. This would allow scenario designers to have a company of tanks arrive from the north, east or south, meaning the player has to remain flexible. This unpredictability seems to be what the %chance of reinforcements is about but would give the designer more finesse with the result.

[Mustang]

My solution would be to have the formation arrive in one hex and have a 0 man ammo dump randomly arrive on the same turn to kill them all. The point value of the ammo dump cancels the point value of the lost units. Schrodinger's reinforcements.

[duff]

Thanks Mustang, that would ensure it's either a full formation or nothing but there is still the option that none of the ammo dumps arrive. Neat trick though!

[Imp]

I agree for a diffrent reason that reinforcements arriving by the formation leader would be a bonus. It would make the random arrival time feature usable. At the moment using it platoons can appear before there leader or support units before the rest. Say the MG unit turns up but no squads.
For scenerio design though & probably not possible placing trigers would be best with a selection of choices.
Keeping it simple
Reinforcements arrive, or selected units have there reaction time reduced to zero & hence advance.
Would give a lot more control over the AI for say ambushes rather than try & guess what the player will do.

[Mobhack]

Set the arrival percentage to 100% and then all elements will arrive together. Simples.

Other values will result in the platoon arriving with stragglers, which is realistic.

cheers
Andy

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Set the arrival percentage to 100% and then all elements will arrive together. Simples.

Other values will result in the platoon arriving with stragglers, which is realistic.

cheers
Andy

I like the way you think.

That, or load the formation into a huge ferry and set the ferry's arrival to a random %.

[Miketee10022]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I like the way you think.

That, or load the formation into a huge ferry and set the ferry's arrival to a random %.

This is not a bad solution, but it works for infantry only. Would not work for vehicles. I do a lot of island invasion scenarios, and this is a situation in which using formation reinforcements - tanks loaded onto landing craft - would make the set up process go much faster. Again, thanks for the solution re: infantry forces.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Miketee10022

This is not a bad solution, but it works for infantry only. Would not work for vehicles. I do a lot of island invasion scenarios, and this is a situation in which using formation reinforcements - tanks loaded onto landing craft - would make the set up process go much faster. Again, thanks for the solution re: infantry forces.

If you load a passenger into an APC and then set the APC's reinforcement variables, they both arrive together. The code harmonises the details of any currently carried passengers when the carrying vehicle reinforcement data is set. No need to set both. So loading a tank into a barge should work the exact same way as well.

(SP has no way to load a passenger unit into a vehicle unit which then is itself loaded onto a barge.)

Andy

[Kenny]

IMO SP doesn't need that feature anyway,Andy. I'm still skepitcal after all these year from being assigned to a vehicle that was allegedly "amphibious",which feature our regimental commander knew better than to force his crews to pursue as to positive proof.

If our M551A1 vehicle had been placed on a barge,we definately would not have been manning the vehicle. Abandoning ship is one thing,abandoning an armored vehicle first,then the ship,well we would have to pass on that.

[Mustang]

I wonder if it's possible to load ferries into ferries without breaking anything.