What's the order of rallying?

dTerm · #1 October 11th, 2024, 01:42 PM

I did some experimentation to gain an understanding how rallying works.

I used scenario 1 'Organized Chaos' for testing and turned off auto-rally. Then I z-fired unit E3 until I became suppressed (23). I then rallyed it manually.

So apparently the order rallying attempts are made is first platoon leader E0, after that company commander B0 and lastly the squad leader.
And I never get the overall commander A0 to rally the unit, though unit E3 is within 3 hexes of any superiour unit.

I am a bit puzzled now, as I always thought rallying attempts are made bottom-up; at least that's how I remember it to work from the original DOS version. Maybe I am wrong here...

Are there any changes, that have been made over the years, or is there more to it, than I think of?

I already read most of the stuff in the manual, but it's a bit complicated.

sigeena · #2 October 11th, 2024, 11:03 PM

I assume autorally is for end of turn- beginning of turn rallies.

The order of rallies is correct. It's the Platoon Leader first, then Company Leader, then Section Leader.

So it's always impt to attach units to the correct Company Leader so that the Company can be more effective.

I thk the effective range for non radio units is not more than 3-4 hexes away. At least I keep that as a C2 link bwt Company Leader and Lead Platoon when advancing.

Mobhack · #3 October 12th, 2024, 03:14 AM

Auto-rallying is only done at the end of the turn by the AI - so turning it off does not affect your voluntary rallying. I've never turned auto-rally off, its something the original SSI developers put in it seems for folks who want thier guys to run away for some odd reason?. Auto-rally uses up any "spare" rally attempts on units at end turn if turned on is all. Best left set to on therefore unless you really do want a mass rout, then.

Rally is done from the platoon commander's rally pool first in most cases I have ever seen. So a subordinate section commander can have his own rally attempts left over after running the platoon commander "dry". So rallying is "top-down" rather than "bottom-up". Basically - if your platoon leader or company leader is in dire need of a rally, then try him first before any subordinates use up his rally attempts.

Company and higher leaders can rally a unit if close enough and if it is in comms with it - but it is not a "given". Higher leaders do seem to have an effect if in the vicinity of a load of routers in the auto-rally phase, if I recollect tests we did twenty odds years back.

dTerm · #4 October 12th, 2024, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Basically - if your platoon leader or company leader is in dire need of a rally, then try him first before any subordinates use up his rally attempts.

Hm, how do I select which unit will attempt the rallying?

Mobhack · #5 October 12th, 2024, 01:08 PM

If you want to rally your platoon leader first, then you select that particular unit and hit "R" of course.

dTerm · #6 October 12th, 2024, 05:57 PM

Uhh, fallacy on my part...

Ok, think I got it now. But I will probably better continue to use auto-rally.

Thanks for the help everyone!

dTerm · #7 October 13th, 2024, 10:15 AM

I'm sorry, but I have to bring it up again.

I did some more rallying in different company/platoon structures and there are some things left, which irritate me.

- So apparently A0 can never rally a unit under a company hq, only units in platoons directly under his command.

- The first one attempting to rally a unit is it's platoon leader, next the company commander (or A0 as above).

- The leader of the squad/section itself is always the last one trying to rally his unit.

So the sequence of rallying attempts would be:

1) platoon leader
2) company hq OR overall commander (never both)
3) squad leader

Is this correct? I'm not asking to complain, just to understand, because in the manual it's says otherwise. And it's not, what I did believe is the case until now.

DRG · #8 October 13th, 2024, 11:10 AM

I cannot offer any help with this because in all the time I have played SP / SP2 / and our versions of the series when I find a unit that needs rallying I just click on it and hit 'R'.

If a unit needs rallying I hit 'R' until hitting 'R' doesn't do anything then it's rallied and ready to go or it's not ... maybe next time they will rally c'est la guerre.... there are no guarantees in life or battle

But that's me......

EDIT

In the test I ran I pressed 'R' to rally an ATGM team and the first attempt the Sgt leading unit ( also the platoon leader but the rest of the platoon was dead so this unit had his undivided attention......) rallied it a bit.
I pressed 'R' again and this time the Sgt platoon leader rallied the unit up a bit then the Major in the hex beside the ATGM team , who was the company commander the ATGM teams were attached to,added to that rally and the next rally the Sgts final attempt rallied the unit up to 1 suppression.

Tracking down who does what is time-consuming which is why I don't concern myself with it....... as I said, it's rallied and ready to go or it's not ..c'est la guerre

Mobhack · #9 October 13th, 2024, 02:25 PM

I too generally just hit "R" as well - unless I know the whole platoon has been say under bombardment in which case I might choose the platoon leader and rally him first if pinned and he is soft as armoured units can still move when buttoned/pinned.

dTerm · #10 October 13th, 2024, 05:13 PM

Myself, I never truely paid attention, assuming what I believed as given... It was just curiosity , which let me take a closer look at it earlier this week.

What's just seems odd to me is, that in all cases A0 never rallied anyone under a company hq, and that the order rallying occurs is neither truely top-down, nor bottom-up.

Anyway, thank you both for the prompt replies! :-)