Flare for My Backside....

[Mike Abberton]

Shane,

Some thoughts on your questions -

1. Spotting is something on an art (and I was never much of an artist). But try to find a hex or a set of hexes with good LOS to the areas you are fighting in or marching towards. Ideally these hexes are out of direct fire range, but that depends a lot on the map and the visibility.
For long range spotting out of direct fire range, I use low SP units since they take less artillery damage, although units with low morale will retreat more often spoiling your spotting.

For hexes in direct fire range, you'll need to double up (staying below 12 sp total). Pick units will high defense (hard or soft) and high morale. Disrupted units can spot just fine, too. I don't generally use leaders to spot as I find them more useful on the front lines.

2. When in combat, move your HQs as little as possible since they don't provide any benefit on the turn after you move. If you move them every turn, they might as well not be there at all. However, if you know they are spotted, move them fast since they usually attract a lot of attention. Moving HQs might not help much, but dead ones help even less.

I find the best place for HQs is just out of sight behind a ridge or in trees (within a hex of a road so they can move out semi-quick). I try to place them so that their units start about 1/2 way in the highlighted command area (hot-key 'w', I think) and keep them there until their combat units are getting a few hexes out of the command area. Remember, that HQs do provide support outside of the highlighted area. The edge of the highlight is the edge of the 50-50 zone, i.e. a unit right at the edge of the highlight has a 50% chance of supply.

Also, artillery HQs do nothing for their subordinate units, so there is no penalty from moving them every turn or keeping them way behind the front. I usually keep them close to their batteries for "historical" reasons, but some people just exit them from the map as soon as possible.

3. I typically move my disrupted units to the rear. If their leader has with good morale benefits, I'll stack them there to recover. Out of sight if possible, but at least off the front line.

One note, although a disrupted unit cannot move closer to an enemy unit, they can shift relative to an enemy unit as long as it does not make them closer to an enemy. The most obvious example of this is a disrupted unit adjacent to an enemy. That unit can still move to another hex adjacent to the enemy unit, since it is still 1 hex from an enemy. You can sometimes get a surround for an assault that way (i.e. move the disrupted unit to surround while other , although some people might object to that usage, I suppose.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Of course as with everything, your mileage may vary (and I am a barely over .500 player anyway).