Road congestion and travel

[Zoetermeer]

I can't quite figure out how the presence of other units on a road affects movement costs for traversing that road.  For example, suppose I have three motorized units all in a stack in travel mode, on a highway.  If I select all three and ask them to move to a spot N hexes away, they will all go toward it but won't be able to go as far as they would had I selected each one and moved them individually.  How can I quickly and efficiently move whole stacks along roads in this manner?

Do roads have state that represents the number of units having traversed them in the current turn, to simulate the fact that everything within a turn is simultaneous movement?

[CheerfullyInsane]

I can't quite figure out how the presence of other units on a road affects movement costs for traversing that road.  For example, suppose I have three motorized units all in a stack in travel mode, on a highway.  If I select all three and ask them to move to a spot N hexes away, they will all go toward it but won't be able to go as far as they would had I selected each one and moved them individually.  How can I quickly and efficiently move whole stacks along roads in this manner?

Do roads have state that represents the number of units having traversed them in the current turn, to simulate the fact that everything within a turn is simultaneous movement?

Two ways:
1) If you're moving a formation a long way, e.g. reinforcements that have to travel across the entire map to the front, the easiest way is to give them a Deferred AI order, and then leave them to it. Not particularly efficient due to the AI pathing, but it saves you from having to remember them every turn.

2) Column movement, aka Immediate AI  Order. From the manual (page 30):

Immediate A/I Orders are issued to units from a single division for the purpose
of moving by transport mode toward a designated location. To issue an
immediate A/I Order for a division, select any hex containing a unit of the
division and then right click on the destination hex while holding down the Alt
key. In immediate mode, you do not select any units in the division, only a hex
containing units of the division. When an Immediate A/I Order is issued, units
in continuous hexes will automatically move towards the destination hex
changing into travel mode and following one another in a column.

As for the second question, that's a 'no'.
Stacking limits are calculated immediately, there's no check to see how many moved through a hex during a given turn.

[Zoetermeer]

It seems like these both apply to whole divisions though. Often divisions arrive a few units per turn, over the course of several turns. I like to have precise control over where the lead elements (recon) go to act as advance party for the marching route of the main body. Seems like the only way to get close to doing this while using AI orders is to issue a deferred AI order for the whole division, and delete the orders I don't want in the dialog before confirming. My read of the manual suggests also that you cannot issue deferred orders with a hex-by-hex path you provide, as you can with immediates. I'm afraid to rely on the AI for long-distance pathfinding.

I wish there were just a "move all units in this stack to the hex I click on, but sequentially, so each unit has completed its movement before the next one begins" function.

[CheerfullyInsane]

It seems like these both apply to whole divisions though. 

No, it's just awkwardly worded in the manual.
What they actually mean is that Immediate AI Orders apply to all units of the same formation in the selected,and adjacent hexes.

So as an example, let's say you have a division in a town.
Three regiments of three battalions, each regiment in its own hex, all three hexes touching each other.
By selecting one hex, holding down Alt and right-clicking, the AI will move the units in T-mode in sequence, starting with the selected hex, then moving on to the next hex, and so on. So you end up with a column of troops all following each other.

The main issue (for me at least) is that you have no control over the sequence itself, i.e. you can't affect which units move first. So what I usually do is use one or two turns setting up the column myself with the marching order I want, and then start using Immediate AI Orders. Which also allows me to send out recon units in advance.

Final thing, if you're worried about the AI path-finding (and you should be ), you don't have to use immediate AI Orders on a distant hex. You can simply Alt+right-click each hex in sequence, and you get this conga-line of troops following the lead unit. Slightly more time-consuming, but far greater control.

[Zoetermeer]

Thanks, this is very helpful info!