Cross-attachment question

[matxer]

In the manual (yes, I read from cover to cover - pdf-ly speaking -, but even after several years of practice, I still don't understand everything, I must be a slow learner), it is recommended to cross-attach units so that they have a company leader (in addition to the platoon leader and the HQ).

Good to know, but what are the criteria ?

I guess that for a whole company (typically infantry), it has a company leader, and there's nothing to cross-attach.

Now if I buy 2 tank platoons. Am I supposed to cross-attach them ? What if they are not deployed in the same area ?

And what about combined-arms cross-attachement ? Typically, a tank platoon, mounted infantry platoon and AD platoon deployed in the same area, and going to attack together ? How do I cross-attach them ?

[Grumbler]

How; with the cross attach button. Why; because it will give you an advantage, unless your opponent does it also. When; Sometimes it works out that you have sections that are stand alone, meaning they have no link up the chain of command. By attaching the non-zero units to a platoon, they come under the command link of their 'new' platoon.
I also like to make "Tiger" platoons. I will take a company and sort out the most experienced units in that company and cross attach them into one platoon under the most experienced leader(zero). I think it weakens the over-all performance of the company, but having a real kick ass platoon can be a game winner, sometimes.
I also do it to add muscle to scout formations. It never hurts a scout team to have a MBT included to provide a little direct fire support. Having a MBT that shares the same zero means it should always be nearby.
Remember, playing the game you move and fire units, but you should ALWAYS do so as part of a formation. Move units, think formations. If you find that your formations are scattered all over the map, you are prolly getting whooped up on.
Now if you are getting spanked because you have your formations spread to far, or if your formations are spread to far because you are getting spanked is a matter of opinion. Never the less, you are getting whooped up on. I play for fun not profit, so I am not focused on the win-loss thingie, I do however, hold the opinion that getting your brains beat in isn't much fun. That is why I'm kind to rookies and will surrender once it becomes obvious to me that I cannot win a battle.
The cross attachment feature helps one keep their formations together, since if a unit isn't part of a formation, it cannot be 'together' with that formation.
Some times the game will do it for you. If you examine the OOB's you will find that a lot of the soviet stuff come in two flavors. Plain is just a rifle platoon. Fancy is that rifle platoon with crew served weapons added. Look at the buy menu and you will see some sort of Weapons Company, or rifle Battalion support. They are called different things. That is what the Battalion looks like BEFORE the rifle platoon gets upgraded from plain to fancy. The crew served weapons added to the rifle platoon come from that battalion support formation.
Cross attachment should be part of your overall plan. Your plan should include a general idea of where each company is going and what the platoons will be doing when they get there. I nearly always buy the plain formations so can break up the weapons platoons and cross-attach them to match their mission. Others do it different. That is something you will have to figure out. What works for you might not be what works for me, or General SP, or Red Devil, just to pick on somebody else.

[Narwan]

Hi Maxter,

first off, there's a difference between attaching formations and cross-attaching formations. You attach formations that are NOT part of any company to a company formation and you cross-attach formations that DO belong to a company by assigning them to another company.

So in your example the two platoons you bought wouldn't have a company commander of their own; they're both independent platoons. You can attach these to any company you did purchase.
But lets say you bought 2 mech infantry companies and 1 tank company and you want to make mixed-force companies out of these. You could do that by cross-attaching a tank platoon from the tank company to each of the mech companies and then take a mech platoon from each of the mech companies and cross-attach these to the tank company. Now you have three mixed forces companies. Assuming each company had three platoons they now all have 2 mech platoons and 1 armor platoon.

Whether it's smart to cross-attach like that depends on the circumstances. If you have a big map and only these three companies it could be a smart thing to have three versatile companies.

After the cross-attaching you can off course still attach independent units like AD sections.

Another way to go is to buy a company, then eliminate (some of) the platoons. Now purchase independent formations (platoons and sections) of the type and number you want in your mixed company. When you're done with that cie, do the same for the next. Then during deployment you attach all of these bought formations to their respective company HQ's. The advantage of this method is that because you bought all elements of the company (to be) one after the other they are listed one after the other in the unit roster too. That will make it a lot easier during game play to keep track of what units belong to what company.

Narwan

Edit: also see "cross attachment screen" in the game guide.

[Grumbler]

I had no idea you could attach formations. I thought it just worked on a unit level. So do you select the platoon zero and attach him to the company zero?

[matxer]

If you think about it, the main interest of attaching a -detached- platoon to a company is to have another level of rally (the company leader). These rare persons are in yellow.

Is there a way to produce more yellow by attaching two blue (platoons) together ?
Or do as Narwan said: buy a company, keep only the head and attach some independant platoons. That way each platoon will have a yellow, a company leader...

[shortreengage]

[Grumbler]

Myself?

[Greybeard]

Hello Matxer,

If you go the the articles link at the top of the page, you'll find in the pile there an excelent write-up on creating ad-hoc formations, and cross-attaching squads/platoons.. it's a little dated as it was written when we all were playing DOS MBT.. but the method/application for the windows versions still applies.

Ahh - just another reason to thank the gremlins at SPCAMO for their great work!

Good to see you back in your arm-chair again!

Cheers!

Greybeard

[matxer]

Well, you can transform a platoon leader in a company leader with the Fix Cmd button. Then you can attach platoons to that new company.
BUT only in scenario design, not in a typical pbem meeting engagement / advance / assault...

There is a downside to attach / cross-attach units of different types in the same company: a leader is good to command only one of the 3: arty / infantry / tanks. So if you put tanks and infantry in the same company, the leader will be 'bad' for one of them.

In scenario design, you can change the commander values, but not in a pbem battle...

My conclusion so far is: cross-attachment is a very advanced and subtle feature, like op fire filtering. :)

[matxer]

Hello Matxer,

If you go the the articles link at the top of the page, you'll find in the pile there an excelent write-up on creating ad-hoc formations, and cross-attaching squads/platoons.. it's a little dated as it was written when we all were playing DOS MBT.. but the method/application for the windows versions still applies.

Ahh - just another reason to thank the gremlins at SPCAMO for their great work!

Good to see you back in your arm-chair again!

Cheers!

Greybeard

Thank you Greybeard ! I read your post after posting so I haven't yet taken your article into account. I'll read it tomorrow.