RE: Unit Cooperation
Well, since no else has offered up an opinion, I'll try and help you out.
As I understand your question, you are asking if there is any penalty if units from a different part of the chain of command participate in combat while stacked together. There is no such penalty. However, the game rewards players who keep their subunits in close proximity. Since the leadership range of a platoon commander is only one hex, he can only help a unit recover from disruption if he is stacked with it or adjacent (and he has a better chance if stacked with it). Consequently, you are going to want to keep your platoons fairly close together. Also leaders who are not in the same branch of the chain of command are much less effective at rallying units (base of 1/6 rather than the command rating divided by six), so if you conduct an assault with a stack of units from two different platoons, you are going to need leaders from each platoon to effectively rally them (unless they are in the same company and the company commander is present). I am not sure I can even understand what I just wrote, but let me know if you have more questions.
As for leaders being all the same, leaders have morale ratings just like squads do. This rating may can be modified by superior leaders in the chain of command if they pass a command test and are within command range. A leaders ability to undisrupt or rally a unit is based on his modified command rating (which is based on his morale rating). So leaders are not all the same. Ones with higher morale will undisrupt and rally units faster than ones with lower morale ratings. In addition, leaders lose effectiveness when they are fired upon, just like squads do. You can check this by holding a right mouse click on the unit's portrait and the effectiveness will be shown. I am not sure that this rating modifies command checks or not, but it is another thing to think about.
Hope this helps.
Jeff
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