Pausing vehicle and dismounting in Combat Mission 2

[cplkrotz]

I have a question.
 
It is in regard to when I have men riding in/on a vehicle.
 
Let's say I have men on my tank. I have orders for it to drive to a location which it will do in less than a minute. I want the men to dismount. I then want the vehicle to carry on. How do I give the troops the command to wait until the tank reaches its waypoint and then order the troops to dismount and move in the direction I want, before the vehicle (which I would like to pause for the men to dismount) moves on again?
 
For further illustration: I want a vehicle to move, drop off the men, and then move. How do I set the vehicle to pause at waypoint (not at the start of its move) and then order my men to dismount? So, say I move a vehicle to a waypoint. At the waypoint is it possible to hit the pause button for 20 seconds to pause its movement, and then order my men to dismount and then have the vehicle renew its movement after pausing (say at 40 second mark), and go to another waypoint. How do I set these pauses at the waypoints? How do I order my men to wait to dismount until they reach the 20 second waypoint?

In the old Berlin to Barbarossa it was clear that you moved, and could order the pause at a designated way point and also order troops to wait to dismount at that location. In Combat Mission 2 it seems there is no way to delay the dismounting. As soon as dismount is clicked, it happens, rather than allowing the troops to reach a destination and then dismount.

Assistance please. This really would help my combined arms support attacks.

Thank you.
Cpl. Krotz

[A Canadian Cat]

Let's say I have men on my tank. I have orders for it to drive to a location which it will do in less than a minute. I want the men to dismount. I then want the vehicle to carry on. How do I give the troops the command to wait until the tank reaches its waypoint and then order the troops to dismount and move in the direction I want, before the vehicle (which I would like to pause for the men to dismount) moves on again?

That is the one thing you cannot do with the current commands.  Passengers and riders will dismount and move on their own orders only after the vehicle has completed its movement orders.

Here is what you can do:

If Passengers/riders are already mounted you can:
1) Give the vehicle and passengers move orders. Once the vehicle completes its move the passengers will dismount and execute their move orders

2) Before giving the vehicle any move orders you can give the passengers a dismount order then give move orders to both.  The vehicle will wait for the passengers to dismount and then move off to follow its orders meanwhile the passengers will follow their orders.

If Passengers/riders are not already mounted you can:
3) Give the vehicle a pause order long enough for passengers to start loading and move orders to the passengers to load up.  If any of the passengers reaches the vehicle and starts loading before the vehicle's pause ends it will wait until the passengers are loaded and then move off to follow its move orders.

4) Give the vehicle a move order to a location and a pause order at that location followed by additional move orders. Give a move order for the passengers to load into the vehicle.  As long as the vehicle pauses long enough where the passengers are located they will load up and the vehicle will continue to follow its move order (it will wait additional time if needed for the loading to complete).

#3 and #4 are slightly tricky in that if the pause orders are not long enough for the passengers to start loading the vehicle will not wait.  I have had it happen to me that a vehicle and its passengers ran along side each other for a while (passengers always loose that race) and never load up. It takes some practice and even then I screw it up from time to time.  

Placing a pause command (or target command etc.) at a way point is done by selecting the unit - which will highlight its movement orders.  Then click on the line leading to the way point.  You will know the way point is selected because the line will get thicker and the line and way point marker will get brighter.  Now you can give various commands, such as pop smoke, pause, target, face, etc.

In the old Berlin to Barbarossa it was clear that you moved, and could order the pause at a designated way point and also order troops to wait to dismount at that location. In Combat Mission 2 it seems there is no way to delay the dismounting. As soon as dismount is clicked, it happens, rather than allowing the troops to reach a destination and then dismount.

It has been such a long time since I played the older games.  But I do not recall being able to have a vehicle move a ways and then pause and have passengers dismount and then move again.  If a pause at a way point caused passengers with movement orders to dismounted and run off on their own orders how do you manage multiple vehicles with pauses to allow for traffic flow?