Scheduled orders?

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Titus
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Scheduled orders?

Post by Titus »

Can I assign scheduled orders to the unit, so that I could make precise coordinated attacks? I can simulate it with micromanagement, but I can't get it very accurate and user friendly.
For example: I have three different battalions, which I would like to attack enemy position, one battallion would make frontal attack and one from left and right. What I would like to do is order frontal attack battallion a command: "Ok, you have a plenty of time, but that is because two other battalions are moving to the sides and I want every battalion to start at the same time. So move to that position and do what is needed for preparations, and the rest of the time you can do whatever you want, but at 04:00 sharp, begin assault against enemy positions."
And so on for the rest of the battalions. If one of the battalions counters enemy resistance, while moving to position, so be it - other battalions will start the assault regardlessly, if not canceled. Harassed battallion will try to be in schedule, but if it can't make it at 04:00, it cancels it's orders. And user's cancellation would be with order delay, if you try to cancel it at 03:55, too bad, assault will still initially commence.

Is this feature already in the Cota and I have missed it? Or maybe this is something to consider adding into a patch or in the future projects, please?
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Arjuna
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by Arjuna »

Titus,
 
Welcome to COTA.
 
No it is not in COTA and yes it it on the wish list. Below is the Task Tracker item, which we use to record tasks to do. Note the number is 586. We're currently up to 3172 so it's been on our list for some time. Hopefully we'll get to it soon. [:)]
 
TT586 - AI - UI - Attacks - interface to coordinate attacks
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
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Titus
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by Titus »

Thank you Arjuna for your blindingly fast reply.
Good to hear it is already in the wishlist, I am looking forward to it.

And of course thanks for whole Panther Games team for the excellent game. Being able to concentrate in tactics rather than manually moving and checking hundreds of units after every turn, like in rest of the wargames, is like a dream come true since my first contact with wargames playing Tigers in the Snow. COTA is nowadays only serious wargame I can play with my limited time.
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loyalcitizen
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by loyalcitizen »

I just eyeball the orders delay of my commanders and give them their tasks in due course, so they all start moving at about the same time. I usually don't mind too much if one BN has contact with the enemy 30 mins before the support BNs. And I use 'Painfully Realistic' orders delay!
 
Even if you can order 3 BNs to all use the same jump off time, there still should be minor hiccups that prevent some Bns from jumping off at the correct time.
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Arjuna
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by Arjuna »

Patton in his book "War as I Knew It" said something along the lines that I never worried too much about coordinating attacks. Often it was preferable not to do so as the enemy would react to the first by shifting forces away from where the next attack was coming in and this often led to a major breakthrough rather several penetrations.

- food for thought.
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
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Titus
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by Titus »

Absolutely not a show-stopper. but my idea was planning operations beforehand to some minor (well, my example was maybe poorly choosed, I wouldn't call three battalions a minor) side operations in a larger scenario, so that I could only briefly check that everything is going well and concentrate on the main effort. Stopping the game and micromanaging will do the trick, but my dilemma is prefering big scenarios and having limited time to play.
Patton had it better, his wife and children were not demanding their own share of time while maneuvering, and his employer actually encouraged him to play wargames.[:)]
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Arjuna
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by Arjuna »

Titus,
 
[:D] too true.
 
However, please note that when you order a Bde to attack, it will perfom what we call a complex attack ( ie it has subordinate HQs ). When doing so there is a very strong probability that this will be coordinated -there's too many factors at play to go into those right now, but in the majority of cases it will coordinate the subAttacks both in terms of axis and timings. Try it out. Open one of the saved games from the Advanced tutorial ( eg Tut 2.08 Making Better Progress.aag ) and order one of the allied inf bdes ( not the 19th though as it is spread out all over the place ) to attack an objective ( not too far away ) and watch it form up the battalions in line and assault on a common HHour.
 
 
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
www.panthergames.com
baldbrother
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by baldbrother »

Arjuna
Of all the games I play and of all the forums I attend you have got to be the most attentive and responsive moderator. Thanks.
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HansBolter
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by HansBolter »

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

Patton in his book "War as I Knew It" said something along the lines that I never worried too much about coordinating attacks. Often it was preferable not to do so as the enemy would react to the first by shifting forces away from where the next attack was coming in and this often led to a major breakthrough rather several penetrations.

- food for thought.

I tend to combine this approach with the one mentioned above of checking orders delays to determine when the units involved will actually push off. One easy way to do this is assign assault orders to a full batallion and a couple of independant companies at the same time. The indepebndant companies will push off first, draw the enemies response and then the larger, slower to get going batallion, comes in with the main assault while the enemy is already pinned down.

The same technique can be simply extrapolated to larger force groups. Use an independant batallion to start early and pin the enemy for the full regiment coming in later......
Hans

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Arjuna
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RE: Scheduled orders?

Post by Arjuna »

Spot on! [:)]
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
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