Moving and atacking as a formation
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I´ve seen people atacking with all the units packed as 1.
Can someone explain me how this is done?
Select the units
drag to make the formantion
Press shift and use the marker to move the formation?Is that how it works? can someone provide a good turial?
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I still struggle with this tbh and often just end up with long lines of my units walking into the enemy one at a time sigh.
Here's the best solution I've found. Select the units you want to attack/move. Hold right mouse close to them, rotate the formation shown and click left mouse for alternate formation layout. Release right mouse button when happy. WAIT for them to get into formation. From this point on be sure you never include any other unit when working with this group.
When ready to move, click and hold right mouse on where you want them to go to, set the rotation direction then release. They should move in perfect formation to that point.
To help ensure they arrive at the final location (eg enemy firebase) in good formation it's helpful to move in steps (smaller distances). So instead of one single move to the end location, go a third of the way, let them arrive and settle, then go another third etc.
For large numbers of units you might want to split them into smaller groups before doing this for each of them. It all takes time.
Solid wave formations properly executed like this can be a major advantage in the game compared to messy disorganised attack waves.
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There is also a thing called split attack, which is shift g by default, look it up in hot keys. where multiple units will attack didn't targets. But it also will allow units to move in a tighter formation if you use it after move command. This might be what you are after.
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@kdrafa91 "all the units packed as 1"
Do you mean all of the units swarm to a single point? That sounds like "split move"
If I select 20 tanks and give them a regular move order to some waypoint, each tank won't try to step on that 1 spot. They will each move to a spot such that the tanks end up in a formation around the waypoint.
When this happens, all 20 tanks share a single "move" order to that waypoint. And you can do things like hold shift to drag the waypoint somewhere else. Or ctrl-shift-right click to delete that waypoint. Since the order is shared by all of the units, deleting it once takes it away from all of them.
There are a few alternatives to this "regular" way of giving a move order.
If you select the units, put the cursor where you want them to go, hold down the right mouse button (RMB), you will see a ghostly formation appear. You can modify this formation by left-clicking and by moving your mouse. When you let go of the RMB, the units that you had selected will have a special kind of move order, a "formation move." They will try to organize themselves into a formation first and then they will try to travel to the waypoint in formation (traveling the entire way in formation, which can mean going only as fast as the slowest unit)
This is also a single order that is shared by all units. I would not describe this as "all the units packed as 1"
Another alternative to a regular move order is "split move." If you select 20 tanks, give a single move order, then (while the tanks are still selected) press "shift-g," the game will transform your single move order into 20 different move orders. Each of the 20 tanks will now have a single move order, and all them are to the exact same spot. If you want to modify these orders, any time you try to move or delete an order you will only move or delete 1 of the 20 orders.
This means they will all try to occupy the same space, so you can create a traffic jam and they will bunch up more densely than if you gave a normal move order. This density is important for a number of reasons. (1) it's much more vulnerable to area of effect weapons like bombers, overcharge, light arty; (2) more tanks in some small area = you have more DPS from that area (3) more density = harder for an ACU to walk around them, if you can confound an enemy ACU's pathfinding, it has a harder time escaping . . . I think this is what he means by "all the units packed as 1."
It is common to use shift-g to swarm an enemy ACU when you want to finish it off with tanks (normal doesn't mean "you should always use it" . . . you have to decide whether it is the right move in any situation).
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@arma473 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49QffV1VnkM&t=128s
I mean something like this video
Some "modernized" version of this would be nice -
@kdrafa91 That is "formation move," it is already part of the game
Select the units you want in the formation
Move the cursor to where you want to order the formation to go
Hold the right mouse button until you see a "ghost" image of a formation
While still holding RMB, move the mouse to change the direction the formation will be facing
While still holding RMB, you can click the LMB to change between formation shapes
When you have the formation and direction that you want, let go of RMB to give the order
The order will be in the form of a single waypoint, so you can move the waypoint with shift. You can also just hold shift in order to queue up multiple orders. You can give orders after a formation move order (including: more formation move orders)
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CTRL-RMB (with or without shift) for formation move. CTRL-ALT-RMB (plus shift) for formation attack move.
