Command Ops 2

You just picked it up, for free, and decided to give it a try. Except you're seeing all sorts of intimidating looking icons, menus, squiggly lines, and hostiles. Have no fear, it's not terribly difficult.

It is an RTS except it follows a degree of realism unlike any other RTS. You are not an omnipotent eye in the sky that can see everything. You're not an all knowing entity. You are a commander of the units before you, and you can only see what they see, or more interestingly, what they think they see.

Another unique point is you can give an order to an HQ unit and expect that they will follow it relatively well. There's no need to micromanage every single unit on the map. In most cases the CO on the ground will pick a better route or method than you anyhow.

So lets get started!

We've got three free scenarios to choose from. For this one we'll go for the Manhay Crossroads.


Go ahead and load it up.


Now we've got a few options.

• 1. First off is the orders delay. You can make zero delay, or the moment you give an order the units tries to execute it. I'd recommend realistic orders as it adds a lot to the game. This simulates the time it takes for you, the CO, to hand the order down and for the subordinate to receive it.
  
• 2. Next we can change the reinforcements to favor one side or the other, or both. I'll leave it as historical.
  
• 3. Lastly we can choose to favor supply for one or the other. Again, I'll leave it on historical.

Right! Click Begin Scenario.

Woah! Look at all that stuff!


Here we see a zoomed out version of the map. On the bottom row is the buttons to bring up all of our menus. Hint, we don't want them all right now. So we'll just focus on the basics.

1. The section on the left covers unit detail. You can cycle through various functions and see the indicators change visually.
   
2. The next section shows map overlay details. You can add a grid, or remove all the units.
   
3. Finally we see the tabs that bring up all of our orders and information.

This is the Controls Button. (CNTL below) You'll want to dock it somewhere handy as you'll use it a lot.

1. Day, night, twilight, dawn, etc.
   
2. Winning or losing?
   
3. Time control. You can give orders while paused and then speed it up or slow it down using the arrows.

Below that we also see the start and end times for the scenario.


Now we get into the meat of the game. It's all about giving you the tools to understand the map and the movement of your units. We'll cover this more in the next section.

1. LOS - Click and drag.
   
2. LOS Area - Click an area and see how far can be seen from that point.
   
3. Threats - Click a unit and see what threats it can see.
   
4. Cancel, get out of all of those.

We can use this to plan out our routes of travel or see whether or not the enemy can see our units.

On the left we see MOT, NON, and Unit.

MOT will show us motorized unit paths, NON will show the route foot units would take, and Unit will show us what the selected unit will do to complete a route.




See how each is different? The paths are slightly different and the time it takes to complete them is also different. The same goes for NON motorized units.




The quickest path follows the roads, but this time the foot units can travel through the forest. Or, as a compromise, use the covered route and try to stay out of fire.


This is the LOS tool. Click from one point and then drag. It'll show you have far you can see and the contour on that path.


Finally we have the LOS Area tool. Get an idea of what can be seen from that exact spot. The brighter the color the better the vision. In this case dim red is barely in sight.

It's worth mentioning that intel is dependent on your units. Some units can slide by unnoticed while your troops can report a unit as being one thing when it's entirely different. I've had a reported platoon of Panthers only to discover it was motorized motorcycles, Kettenkrads!

Finally, right?


This area gives the basic orders. Hover your mouse over each and you'll see the description. Move. Probe. Delay. Attack. Etc.

Click one of your units, then click the Move order, and click where you'd like them to go. If you've selected a Company HQ it'll give that order to all of the units under its command. If you select an individual unit it'll go off on it's own.

You can also stack orders. Give one move order, then a probe, then an attack, then a defend. This becomes important when playing with realistic order delays as you need your troops to operate with some initiative.

To fine tune the orders, and trust me, you'll want to, open up the Edit Task tab (1TE).

Each of those orders you dropped before can be edited using this tab.



At the top is formation, then we can set a start and end time, speed, and route. Remember the route planning tool from before? Use that to help understand the route your unit will take. Further down we can fine tune aggressiveness, fuel, width and depth, and whether they'll rest or not.

If you're moving are all resting then change the order to NONE and they'll wake up and fight. But beware of fatigue!

Using this tool you can fine tune each order along the path and use it to coordinate attacks between different companies.



Once you give the order you can see the path the unit will take. In the above case I picked a point to the West but because I haven't specified covered or avoidance it'll choose the best path. Sometimes it behooves you to pick orders to fit the situation. Other times it might not matter.

Our Order of Battle (OB) shows us all the units on the map. Drill down to select individual HQ's or units. I typically don't keep this one open all the time. But for setting unit orders it's the fastest.



The Force Data tab, (1FD) gets into the meat of the selected unit. Both yours, and your enemies. We get all sorts of data ranging from their condition, training, how many people are in the unit, armor units, and infantry values. On the E&S Tab we can see what the unit is equipped with and how many supplies they have. Further down we see the Commander's data, what depot is supplying them, unit history, and the log.

You'll usually use the first two tabs.


In the unit above we can see they are a bicycle recon unit that's in decently good shape. If we double click on the weapons we get even more info about them. Depending how deep you want to go you can see exactly how effective each weapon is, it's range, etc.

So now you've got the basics.

Start out by moving units and trying to stack some orders as you see fit. As time goes on you'll get some 155mm howitzers to add and then try out the Bombard order. The ebb and flow of battle will keep you challenged as you react to the feints and thrusts of the AI.

A few things I find helpful.

• Set orders in groups of threes. Adjust after that.
  
• Give orders to the HQ's, except in the case of recon units.
  
• Don't be afraid to micromanage if necessary, but usually the CO on the ground can do it better.
  
• Fire Support is your friend. Bombarding a target, or ordering AT guns to fire on it, will make an attack much more successful.
  
• Be wary of night time intel. You could end up sending an armored platoon after some bicycles.
  
• Don't get too aggressive. Your units can get flanked in a hurry.
  
• Don't attack at night unless absolutely necessary.
  
• There's no such thing as too much 155mm bombardment.