Reassigning to group after retreating for repairs

[fregley]

First off, I apologize if this has already been answered elsewhere, but I couldn't find it.

How can I make units automatically return to a group after they retreat for repairs? Currently, this is what I have to do.

1. Assign units to a group (via ctrl+#)
2. set groups to retreat at medium damage
3. units retreat to repair station, leaving the group
4. units get repaired and hang out next to the repair station.
5. I must individually select units and re-add to the group to get them to return to combat

Naturally, this can become onerous when I have 5 different groups fighting on several fronts. Is there a better way?

[NoQ]

That's one of the benefits of commanders.

If you don't use them, you may find unit selection keyboard shortcuts useful (i personally use Ctrl+Z for this).

[aubergine]

Personally, I like the fact they leave the group - especially when using hovers. It means I can keep the group moving around while damaged units flee the battle to get repaired. When my group gets too small, I send the group for repairs and then wait until the units are healthy again before sending them back to battle.

[NoQ]

When my group gets too small, I send the group for repairs and then wait until the units are healthy again before sending them back to battle.

That's not the right way. It's much more effective to get every single unit back once it get repairs, not waiting for other units to repair.

What i usually do is repeatedly do stuff like
1. Select all combat units (eg. Ctrl+Z hotkey), this selects repaired units as well.
2. Press the "return at medium" hotkey (reassigned to a more convenient key such as numpad enter (pressed with right thumb without taking hand away from the mouse) to deselect damaged units.

If repair is not available yet, i set units to retreat on medium anyway, and repeatedly press Ctrl+Z to get them back into group immediately. This makes sure damaged tanks stay behind healthy tanks and not get under direct fire. They will not be deselected unless damaged.

Only if the straight way to the repair facility is blocked by enemy troops or defenses do i disable retreat on medium until the road is safe again. In this case i actually do not want my units to be deselected (they will die in this case). This mostly applies to hover backdoor harass, when the main army is distracting the enemy and a small group of hovers with good anti-structure capability is going around and devastating the base (quite an enjoyable tactical solution in multiplayer, probably mostly on high oil wide maps ... MRAs and TACs do quite well).

[The Overlord]

I think you do not even need to use groups. You can select units with your cursor and set them to med. retreat and then select them again after they retreat behind the units that aren't damaged (I use ctrl+a as well to select all attacking units). This is just as effective as setting groups and it is less work.

[NoQ]

select them again after they retreat behind the units that aren't damaged

That may take quite a long time. You can't wait that long during a battle.

select units with your cursor

This is quite inconvenient.

[aubergine]

Is there an extensive list of the keyboard shortcuts anywhere? I know about the list in the Guide ( http://guide.wz2100.net/keyboard ) but it seems to be an abridged list.

[Rommel]

I normally do what NoQ does, just select all my units continually and then the retreating / damaged ones move to the back.

Ctrl+U Select all units
Ctrl+Z Select all similar units

These are very useful commands, "select similar units" more so if you need to separate out unit types (this is handy because if you select like two units of different types it will select all of of both types you have selected).

I also have hotkeys set for trucks (t) and engineers (e) - in late hi oil games I do not really use borgs, only engineers so I have the borg factories looped production on engineers so they are replaced automatically - then I have them working on the frontline and it doesn't matter if they get destroyed.

[Grey]

Hi there,

nice infos NoQ and Rommel. Thanks.

A good hint btw is -dont know if anybody uses it but I do - to change the default output place of repairs to the actual front lines. If you use 5 repairs and the command "patrol" than you can fight at several places and having units repaired and send back to the front lines automatically.

[Grey]

Hi there,

does anybody uses the default send place of repairs to do this ? I do. When you change the default places where your repairs are sending their repaired untis you can actually provide repaired units to several frontlines. Together with the patrol command this can be very useful to fight at several frontlines and having the repaired units send to them directly. BTW you dont have so much traffic jams by units going to the frontlines and coming for repair from them in narrow spaces...