In CMx2, your soldiers are not brainless robots. The TacticalAI is at work at all times
for both computer controlled and player controlled soldiers to try to simulate realistic behavior of human beings in a combat situation. There is a number of tasks that your solders will perform without the player having to explicitly order them to do it (in fact, there is no way for the player to issue such commands).
Some are related to self-preservation and combat morale, others are important
“administrative” tasks.
Medic
Any infantry soldier is capable of providing first aid on the battlefield (so called
“buddy aid”) to nearby wounded friendly soldiers.There is no Command for this action, rather it happens automatically when a friendly soldier (regardless if he is from the same squad or not) is moved close to the location of an incapacitated comrade. Depending on the situation (incoming fire etc.) the soldier may decide to treat the wounded man. The word “medic” is displayed in the status field. The player can abort the treatment at any time by giving the parent unit that the medic belongs to any kind of Command. The medic may decide to abort the treatment himself as well if there is significant incoming fire. Additionally, troops will never perform buddy aid if there is a spotted (healthy) enemy within 100m.
Note: Dead soldiers can also receive “Buddy Aid” (by moving a friendly soldier close to the location), but all it does is reclaim their ammo and weapons, if possible.
Ammo sharing
Besides the Acquire command, soldiers on the battlefield are also capable of auto-matically sharing ammunition to some extent with those around them. Soldiers can automatically share ammo with other nearby infantry units that belong to their formation, as well as with nearby vehicles (provided that the vehicles car-ry anything to share). So it is not always necessacar-ry to embark on a vehicle to access stored ammunition, although it still gives the player more direct control than auto-sharing.
The automatic ammo sharing feature is most useful for heavy weapon teams. Heavy weapons will draw their ammo first from ammo bearer teams before using their own carried ammo. Moving (or keeping) the latter close to the heavy weapon will ensure ammo resupply without the player having to specifically order it.
Special Ammo Dump units can placed on the map in place of transport vehicles in certain scenarios. These immobile units act as stores of ammunition that nearby units can draw ammunition from, following the same guidelines are ammo sharing between other units.
Self-preservation
Even your virtual troops don’t like to die. The TacticalAI takes over control over troops for various stages of self-preservation without the player having to (or in fact being able to) issue any commands.
Pinned
Soldiers may become “pinned” when subject to heavy incoming fire (“suppression”).
The term “pinned” refers to the inability and unwillingness of the soldier to leave his current position/cover, or to move at all, for fear of getting hit. Pinned is a tem-porary status that usually ends shortly after the suppression level is reduced, but
extended periods of heavy suppression can cause a unit to move from “pinned”
to “panicked” state.
Pinned units remain under the control of the player and may receive combat com-mands, but may not act on them immediately, and will generally reject and ignore any movement commands.
Shaken
Troops may become Shaken as a result of events on the battlefield, such as heavy incoming fire, near misses, or casualties. Shaken troops are automatically Pinned but additionally are not able to receive any player commands. Unlike Panicked troops, shaken soldiers will usually not attempt to get up and run away.
Panic
Heavily Shaken troops are prone to succumb to Panic.
Panicked soldiers succumb to their fears and may act irrationally just to get out of the current situation. This may mean ignoring any orders, and a high chance of getting up and running away (even if in plain view of the enemy and thereby becoming an easy target) to the nearest cover.
Panicked units cannot be controlled by the player until they recover from the Panic, and will usually plot their own commands, often trying to move away from known enemy contacts, or to nearby cover.
Broken
Troops who have suffered heavy casualties and have become shaken or panicked, but have not recently been under fire, may partly recover to a “broken” state where they return to player control, but are so “brittle” that any significant further incoming fire or further casualties will cause them to become shaken or panic again very quickly.
Surrender
Heavily shaken or panicked troops in proximity to strong enemy units may decide to throw down their weapons and attempt to surrender. Surrendering units are indicated by raising their hands. Surrendering units cannot receive any further commands.
Surrendered soldiers appear as MIA (Missing in Action) on the After Action Report.
After a short while (usually about 1-2 minutes), units attempting to surrender “suc-ceed” to do so, and disappear under a white flag icon.
It is possible to prevent units from surrendering, by “rescuing” them. In order to do this, you need to first clear out all nearby enemies, and move friendly units into the proximity. If successful, the surrendering units will return to their normal unsurrendered status (but will probably still be panicked).
Troops will not fire on surrendering enemies, but they will fire on unsurrendered ones that may be nearby, so it is possible for surrendering troops to be hit indirectly.
Note: Fanatic troops will never surrender.