upgrading A0 unit

[Captain_Insano]

I just installed my enhanced version and patch last night and have started my first campaign (btw am I the only one who puts a ridiculous amount of thought/time in to the purchasing units phase?)

My question is about an old "trick" I did with the DOS version of the game. Once you complete the first campaign battle you can upgrade your units. This includes the A0 HQ unit which I always upgraded to a rifle section. I found that the little extra firepower was a boost particularly on delay missions where you are using everything you've got to hold the line. The rifle section is size 1 so is more of a target than HQ but not worrisome as if you made it a tank. Also the survivability is much greater in case you get in some close quarters action such as may occur in a wooded area or at night.

I've often wondered if I should consider this gamey or if it degrades my command abilities in any way. Anyone care to weigh in on this one? Perhaps this is a common practice? Thanks for any input.

[Mobhack]

in the original SP1, you onl had 24 core units, and 48 total, so fighting with the HQ was normal.

As you have 200 odds core units with 500 max now, and losing the HQ is end-of-campaign, now the unrealistic SP1 tactic of using your field HQ as a line fighting init is pointless IMHO.

If you change away from an HQ element, you lose the "almost" FOO character of that unit. An HQ is in between a normal formation HQ and an FOO for arty spotting.

My HQs always stay in a commanding position at the rear these days, never get into combat (set range to 1 . I do not bother buying them vehicles either. if they need to motor to the rear of a rout to rally folks, I use one of the nearby support arty transports.

Upgrading to a vehicle can be bad - especially if the enemy use air against you and pick you off.

My core FOO though (I usually only have the one, dismounted not vehicle) - I usually motor into combat to pick off some crews etc when safe to do so, in the early battles as the first 5 kills are the ones that bring most immediate increases in combat effectiveness. Other than that, I protect them utterly once experienced as they bring fire in so much quicker, that losing one is a real pain.

Cheers
Andy

[snake]

The only problem I have with the A0 loss being the campaign killer, is that the AI sometimes fires random artillery on turn one and I have had it taken out by the lucky round or by a random air attack that sees it first. So it's off to the re-load game phase.
Could we just remove that and make it an automatic defeat or something else?

[Nick_Hyle]

Snake, that's really not a bad idea. Andy?