Need some war advice - What do HQ units do?

[franktank]

Hi All,

I havne't played Close Combat in forever and on a whim I bought a cople of the Matrix Game releases. I'm not sure I was ever a real tactician in CC and tended to just rush the enemy in a frontal assult... lots of move fast orders and wiped out units. I'd like to make smarter unit decisions now and I realized I have no idea what the HQ unit is really for. I'm sure if it's used properly it can really influance a battle. So, my question is... How do you properly use the HQ unit? Do you need more than one?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Frank

[franktank]

I read the manual of all things and I now have my answers. If you're curious about how to use HQ units RTFM! Specifically the COMMAND AND MORALE section 13.0.

[Jagdhund]

Well in my experience they help untis within thier circle of influence (hold the space bar down). In my experience a command unit will make the units under thier influence, break less easily and be less likely to be coward and recover faster from suppression by enemy fire, also they seem to shoot better but maybe that is all in my mind. THey make a huge difference with units that are inexperienced and thus very likely to break and run.

The way I usually use them is I create attack groups around the HQ unit. I will cluster at least one rifle and one rifle (MG) type teams around a HQ team (varies) and then send them off towards the victory location cautiously, when attacking. When defending I set the HQ team up but keep them in an ambush state and often out of LOS so they won't be spotted as easily and will survive longer. I can them run them up or wake them up if need be. Play around with them, you will find that they have a force multiplier affect and I usually choose to have at least 3-4. Also when moving them I keep them slightly behind my main units (just like commanders in RL!, LOL). For intance I'll give my rifle team the move command to the edge of the woods but give my HQ team a move command to the woods slightly behind them and more protected. You get very few command teams and they are expensive so I tend to baby them a bit.

Overall if your team is going to come under fire then you want them under the influence of a command team.

Also you'll notice that on the average rifle teams have good leadership so you can often send them out on thier own but rifle (MG) untils have less internal leadership so I usually keep them under the influence of a HQ team. Also the command teams can move pretty far without getting winded. Any team with a MG of any type that member carrying the MG will be dragging his butt most of the time. Recon units, engineers and command teams have the best endurance which is important when moving LD on a big map.

Hope this helps.

Your men can thank me later,

-Jagdhund

[CSO_Talorgan]

Reminds me of an amusing tale:

In the earlier versions of the game command was much less important. So you can imagine my chagrin when it "kicked in" unexpectedly (to me at least) during the early days of Cross of Iron. There was an occasion when I managed, at great expense, to sneak a flamethrower up behind a T 34 only for it to sit there and show absolutely no inclination to action because "command" was at the opposite end of the map.

"THERE IS THE TANK!! ARE YOU WAITING FOR A PHUQQING INVITATION??!!!" I remonstrated.

Mrs Talorgan was most displeased at my language.

[:-]

I was lucky not to be smacked and put to bed!

[Andrew Williams]

Sounds unlucky to me.

[RD Oddball]

Kinky.

[xe5]

ORIGINAL: Jagdhund

Well in my experience they help untis within thier circle of influence (hold the space bar down). In my experience a command unit will make the units under thier influence, break less easily and be less likely to be coward and recover faster from suppression by enemy fire, also they seem to shoot better but maybe that is all in my mind. THey make a huge difference with units that are inexperienced and thus very likely to break and run.

An unsuppressed cmd team provides a big boost to teams in its cmd radius.

[CSO_Talorgan]

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball

Kinky.

I'll try some really foul language and report back!

[:D]