Combined Unit Fire

[Montana Grizz]

Sometimes I like to combine units in a direct fire phase.

I am, however, having a problem with this tactic and want to know if someone can help.

Let's say that I move three T34's into the same hex. Two of the T34's have enough points to fire twice and one T34 only enough points to fire once.

If I double click on the three tanks, they are highlighted and I can use them in a combination fire on a target. However, once they have fired this technique will no longer work because one of the tanks cannot fire.

Is there some way to highlight just the two tanks that can fire and perform a combo with them?

I've tried holding down the Ctrl button, but that doesn't work.

Any help appreciated.

Pat

[Jason Petho]

Is there some way to highlight just the two tanks that can fire and perform a combo with them?

Press the U button and select the tanks you want fire.

Jason Petho

[Remko van den Berg]

is combined fire more effective than fire unit by unit
i guess not , but i think it should

[Montana Grizz]

Thank you Jason.

Combining two tanks to fire at a single target is more effective in my experience, but you will only get two shots maximum instead for four.

However, if I am doing a shoot-and-scoot and there is only one target to shot at, I always us the combo.

MHO

Pat

[Mike Abberton]

For direct fire, there is no game-engine benefit to firing with multiple units at the same time. Or in other words, firing together does not increase your chances of inflicting more SP losses or disrupts or retreats or whatever. But that doesn't mean that it makes no difference which way you fire. It should be noted that if the target retreats (or is destroyed) before all the fire is complete, the remaining fire will be canceled, which shows that the computer is performing the fire sequentially despite being resolved as a single "event".

The primary benefit to firing together is that the combined fire is treated as one "event" for triggering enemy op fire, i.e. all your units will fire (and potentially do damage) before the enemy can op-fire back.

The primary disadvantage to group firing is that you are committing all the selected units to fire at the target, which might be overkill. For example, say you are trying to disrupt all the units in a hex. If you group fire with your 3 tank platoons at the first target, you might get a disrupt results on the first or second shot, and the remaining shots are "wasted" as far as disrupting the unit is concerned. If you single fired the units you might have been able to spread the shots around more and disrupted more enemies.

So for me it is generally a situational decision of whehter to group fire or not. If I am generally trying to reduce enemy SPs or am trying to get in the first shot, I'll typically group fire. If I am going for the disrupt or trying to reduce units in a hex evenly, I'll single fire. I generally tend to lean towards group fire in a lot of situations, just to save time.

I hope all that helps,
Mike

[Jason Petho]

Excellent advice, Mike.

Jason Petho

[Montana Grizz]

Thank you Mike,

There is just something that gets the juices flowing when you highlight four T34's, bring that cursor over a Tiger and see 120 pop up

I remember a similar thread from a few years ago and was pretty sure there was no actual advantage in the combination fire.

I certainly can't argue with the cold hard facts of how the game is programed and I don't use combined fire in every situation, but it's certainly a psychological kick in the butt :smoke:

[XLVIII Pz. Korp]

And not to mention firing singly at an armored target may cause the unit to retreat with the first or second shot leaving the remaining units to fire at the weaker exposed armor of the flank or rear.

[Lizardking]

I always thought that when you select say 3 units to fire together for 30 points that was the attack strength and this would be worked out as a single 30 attack. Although I noticed that when you conducted a group attack and eliminate the defending unit, you would have some of your attacking units with no expended points. So that explains why they had points left. So if I understand correctly, the 30 points are worked out for example 10 attack for each unit firing not 30 attack.

[XLVIII Pz. Korp]

I always thought that when you select say 3 units to fire together for 30 points that was the attack strength and this would be worked out as a single 30 attack. Although I noticed that when you conducted a group attack and eliminate the defending unit, you would have some of your attacking units with no expended points. So that explains why they had points left. So if I understand correctly, the 30 points are worked out for example 10 attack for each unit firing not 30 attack.

That is correct. Three units making three rolls on the CRT each with a strength of 10 vs. the target defense.