BGForums

The option in the Advanced orders to instruct a unit to utilize available Air and Sea transport needs to be extended to Ground transport assets.

It is frustrating to see an infantry unit walk for days on end to its destination when I have sufficient transports within range.

Supply/Hvy Supply Trucks need to change its mission in this event and should be simple to rectify, but as a suggestion: The closest Truck to the unit/units needing to move should immediately conduct the mission.
UNLESS, it is current providing supplies to another unit.

The AI needs to understand that if it can shorten the travel time of a unit by using organic assets (truck, airplane, sea transport) then it needs to assign the vehicle and issue the order to conduct the mission.

Tony

This was part of the orignial design and remains on our wishlist (mine in particular). There were techincal difficulties that kept it from being possible in the current engine.

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Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com

Good idea....

Maybe you can assign a supply truck with a new order: - only transport units-

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NO MORE NOISY FISH [unless they are green & furiously]
I HAVE STILL A FISH IN MY EAR

I too don't like the slow leg units and the lack of any ground transportation for them. I'm rather dubious about building any leg units since they are too slow for a fast paced battle scheme. I agree that supply and heavy supply trucks ought to be able to transport leg ground units. I sure hope that gets improved someday so ground units aren't left behind in the dust or dustbin.
Thanks,

Eric Larsen

I am slogging thru Africa and just sea lifted a hundred leg units to a sea pier. Africa is huge and I now control most of the entire Western shore.

I want to move my forces North towards the straight of Gibralter, but if I abandon the South-West, it will revert.

So, I need cheap throw-away leg units to garrison key cities. This involves moving Garrisons, Airborne or Marines to these cities. Garrisons are too heavy to helo-transport, so they must walk or get ground-transportation.

It just occured to me - outposts can build a Conscript in 8 days or a Garrison in 12.

The differences in our approach to taking Africa varies widely, however your use of leg units, in the context of this game, are interesting. My first question is what country are you for the region? Second, what is your concept of operations in terms of the vast terrain and the supply issues revolving around armor and mech units? Do you combine your efforts between leg, mech, armor units? Thanks and I am just wanting to compare notes

My current game in Africa I am playing as South Africa and I am trying to push north in an according manner in which I will hold either the left, center, or right and then push with the other two. The decision on which is pushed depends on the target and the number of enemy units that I am facing. I haven't attempted a landing onto Madagascar yet as they are a none threat at the moment due to the games limitations in sea/air invasions. Just as you have conducted seaborne invasions I am now contemplating doing such an operation along the horn of Africa and capturing the Eastern portion of the continent first and then moving West/North-west. These are quick thoughts and I hope to hear back from you.

Tony

As some are aware - ground trucks will transport leg units, there just isn't a menu option on leg units to conjure up the nearest ground transport [i.e. 'ground transport' similar to 'air transport']. Basically, because the leg units are so slow, you have to manually move the desired transport to the leg unit and then do an 'advanced: load into.'

Just a note to the other posters - I have a formation that I call the "Flying Monkey." These are Russian units.
There is a pair of AN-225's.
Each AN-225 carries
---- a pair of Farps,
---- ---- one loaded with an Air-Elite btn,
---- ---- the other holds an Airborne Engineer [trade for this] and Special Forces [preferably the british model] btn. Elites woud also work.
---- a pair of BMD-3 AT's
---- a ZU-23-2 AA [antique but one of the few para-drop AA's available]
Total force - 2 each Airborne-Elite, Air-Eng, Special forces, and AA, four FARPS and four BMD's. I also reserve sufficient helo extraction assets to support these. The AN's can drop out to about 3500 Km and still get home. The complement sounds a bit fragile or thin but they are - in the right situation - unstoppable. The Farps give the leg units immediate mobility [which assumes that you did good recon and drop within two hexes of the target]. Yes they are a bit slow [the BMD's are primarily to escort the farps], but with a bit of planning they fill a slot that no other formation can fill. It helps to rename units in the formation to keep track of managing them ['Hi, my name is joey and I belong on truck #3.']

Don't give up on the leg units - it's worth the time and effort to enhance their mobility and you will be repaid by their long battle times and low supply demands. Typically I can get them into position, knock off the opposition, and either capture or build a landing facility to both recover the point team and exploit the doors they open.

If you share my general frustration and disgust with the AI's kamikaze engineer attacks ["How can one engineer unit blow off two tank btns?], then you will also get your revenge with leg units - two SpecFrcs + supports dropped or landed in the right place can chew up countless opposition btns. The effect of non-stealth landings - that is, the instant conversion of a 2-hex radius into your territory - eats thru enemy supply in a way similar to the effects of a fuel-air bomb on oxygen. [To achieve this effect with helo landing, the helos must be in stealth mode, but the forces they unload must not be. Having the helos in stealth mode also overcomes their hesitency to cross into enemy territory - they just glide right over boundaries.]

I have a couple of other leg-air formations that have proven to be equally effective. At first I was also rather frustrated with leg units, but in general they are worth twice their weight in oil. Definitely worth the time to experiment. Now I dedicate complexes of bases to building nothing but these kinds of things. Ground transportation has to to be built into the formation, not scratched together on an ad-hoc basis. On the other hand, leg units really only get their full effect if air-landed or dropped, and then use their trucks to adjust and maneuver in situ. I say this without the benefit of experimentation with truck-bombs full of leg units, but then I never build garrison or conscript units, as they eat up personnel in a way that seems wasteful to me. I suppose these might work, but you'd need a lot of air cover anyway.

Note - for big mobility you will have to trade or develop high cap helos, or tweak up the unit size when building helo squadrons [and possibly tweak down the size of the units you wish to be air-mobile]. Also worth the time and effort. YAK-60's [a russian helo] can easily carry a garrison unit in their default sizes.

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Colorless green ideas sleep furiously [but otherwise, they do not worry and are happy].

Have to agree with Il Duce: I find a good airdrop or airmoble operation is well worth the effort.

How do you put the helos in stealth mode?

Also does this mean the enemy wont see them unless they fly over them or drop troops. this would be great as when i send planes over enemy territory their whole airforce comes after it - even if it is only 1 helo.

yea stupid AI kamikaze tactics, just like the tank army that came from nowhere.

Just found this thread - the "flying monkey" is a very interesting idea, one I will try right away. I have used helos almost exclusively for airbourne ops but see how the long legs of fixed wing aircraft would be useful for deep insertions. Never thought about airlifting supply units, even though I know FARP = forward AIR refuel point - doh!

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Mitchell

Oh, and "Stealth Mode" is when you check the "Stealth Approach" box (in unit's ROE, I think), which also keeps it from capturing territory it traverses.

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Mitchell