What is a stack?

[Straight Arrow]

I feel pretty silly asking this, but - What's a "Stack?"

Is it all the units in an army? in a corps? a division? a force? or at a location?

If I have Bragg in command of a division, located in a corps, in a location that also contains independent militia forces, does Bragg train all troops present , or does he just train the division he commands?

[Cardinal Ape]

It is a force. Just a standard group of guys, I think...
Bragg would train everyone in his intimidate group, not everyone in the location.

[Merlin]

I feel pretty silly asking this, but - What's a "Stack?"

Is it all the units in an army? in a corps? a division? a force? or at a location?

If I have Bragg in command of a division, located in a corps, in a location that also contains independent militia forces, does Bragg train all troops present , or does he just train the division he commands?

Select any unit in a region with multiple units. Look at the tabs above the unit view area. Every one of those is a stack. What that means is you could have some horrible amalgam of every type of loose unit in the same group and that would be a stack. Same with a collection of divisions and/or loose units. Corps and armies are always discrete stacks as they would otherwise not exist.

Bragg will train all elements of the stack he is a part. Any stack.

[Captain_Orso]

"standard group of guys", "any unit in a region with multiple units"?!? After so many years in this forum I don't know why I don't have a [baffled] smiley yet .

Straight Arrow, pay attention, this is basically a board game, a damn fine board game, but a board game none the less, and as such it works mechanically just like any other board game too. I imagine you've played co-sim board games (war games) before where you took two or more counters and placed them one on top of the other(s) building a stack and then placed it somewhere on the map. That is the same way you build a stack in CW2.

In CW2 you should view each unit as a counter--it is the smallest component of the game which can exist by itself on the map. If you click on a unit (counter) on the map the Stack Panel will open at the bottom of the map. Here you will see at least one unit arrayed from left to right. This is a stack, even if it is only one unit, but there can be any number of units in a stack.

So that you understand about Bragg and his division and using his ability you have to understand divisions as combi-units, but more to that in a minute.

Some units can be combined together, generally requiring that one of these units is a leader. There are two types of combined units, a leader and brigade unit, and a division, which is a leader combined with one or more other units, none of which may also be a leader.

Nearly all brigades--a brigade is a unit consisting of 2 or more elements (sub-units)--can have a leader unit combined into them.

To do this put the brigade and leader into the same stack. They do not have to be alone in the stack. Click on their stack on the map and select both units--to select multiple units, select the first unit and then control-click the second unit, so that both are highlighted--. With both the leader and the brigade selected you can now press <Cnlt><c> to combine them together; this is the simples method.

You can also use the Special Orders (SO's) "Combine Units" button to combine them. Once you have a stack opened in the Stack Panel and selected the leader and brigade as above, Click the tent at the top left of the Stack Panel to open its sub-menu, and then click on the Combine Units SO button; it looks like two soldiers with a '+' between them.

If the units you have selected are not allowed to be combined with a each other, the "Combine Units" SO button will be grayed out when they are selected and no other units are selected.

To un-combine them, select the leader and brigade combined-unit without having any other units selected and press <Cntl><d> or open the tent SO sub-menu and press "Split Units" SO button; it looks like two soldiers with a '-' between them.

Divisions are special combined units you may create starting with the Early, October '61 turn. A division my contain at the most one leader and up to 14 other units with a maximum total of 18 elements altogether, including the leader.

To create a division you must first have a leader which is activated--the envelope on his counter on the map is white:



Again, click the tent SO button to open its sup-menu. Select the leader and then click the "Create Division Command" button with the "XX" on it.

Now you can combine units with the division commander as described above.

---

So, now to definitively answer your question, the Training Officer ability says that the leader with the ability must command the stack he is in for the ability to be used. If another leader is in the same stack as Bragg, Bragg must be on top--his portrait will be shown on the stack on the map--or if the stack is selected, he is the furthest to the left in the Stack Panel--the highest ranking leader is always on the far left. This is regardless of whether Bragg, or the other leader, or both are commanding a division, as long as Bragg is the highest ranking in his stack.

BTW Armies and Corps are simply stacks in which the highest ranking leader is either an army commander or a corps commander respectively.

[ERISS]

http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Group

[Captain_Orso]

... ... ............. okaaaaaaay, but still not a "group of guys" and certainly not a term I have ever seen used in the CW2 nor the AACW forums. But so be it, you never stop learning with this game .

[Straight Arrow]

My hats off to the "Group of Guys" or should I say, force/stack that spent time and energy answering this question.

Sorry for the cheap pun Captain Bear. I deeply appreciate the effort you put into your reply, but the chance to use a cheesy term “not used in the forums” was too good to pass up.

Again, thanks

[Captain_Orso]

Whaaaaa...?

JK

Never pass up a good opportunity to do or say something cheesy, life only doles so many of those out .

Glad to have been of use, if only for the entertainment value

[Cardinal Ape]

[ATTACH]33018[/ATTACH]

I knew a helpful veteran would come in and give a much better answer than me... And after analyzing Captain_Orso's essay I've concluded that a stack is, in fact, a typical clump of counters.


Also, I thought Bragg was a Master Driller, not a Trainer. So his ability would work for the whole stack regardless of position in the stack, right?

[Captain_Orso]

[ATTACH]33018[/ATTACH]

I knew a helpful veteran would come in and give a much better answer than me... And after analyzing Captain_Orso's essay I've concluded that a stack is, in fact, a typical clump of counters.

Advanced Squad Leader, Red Barricades campaign game "Into the Factory", Assault Engineers preparing to blast and flame their way into the first factory hall from the adjacent admin building:

Concealment counter, 1x Leader 9-2, 3x 8-3-8 assault engineer squads, with 3x LMG, in the first floor so on top of a 1 Floor counter, beneath that 1x Leader 10-2, 3x 8-3-8, with 1x LMG, 1x Demo charge, 1x Flame thrower--altogether 14 3/8" counters and 2 1/2" counters.

Early in the evening, all the counters are evenly stacked, it's awesome to behold - the symmetry, the power, the impending doom or Russian conscripts

The first "inadvertent" nudge of the playing table by one of the Russian players and "The Beast Stack", as it has been christened, twists several degrees counter-clockwise, the concealment count leans every so slightly to the South threatening to expose the Engineers lurking among the offices. The Beast Stack has now become the Leaning Tower, "Don't put that dice-tower anywhere near it, damn-it!!"

The second nudge , The Beast Stack drunkenly leans for the corner of the factory hall missing its grip and scatters over 160 yards of Stalingrad other verbalized expressions may not be repeated in this venue as children may be listening.

Try to build everything back together again:

"Where are my tweezers?"

"They're my tweezers, you forgot yours."

"Where are your tweezers?"

"I need them."

"Awww come-ooooooon, I only need them a second."

"A second?!? You are kidding aren't you?"

"I can't put The Beast.. thingy back into place without tweezers, I'll knock over 3 other stack in the process."

"Just leave it laying there and take the blue die to represent your damn stack. You can't knock that over can you?"

"*grrr*" --scrapes all the engineers and their weapons onto one big heap and drops the blue die into the vacated hex so recently occupied by The Beast.

Now that was something worthy of being called a "clump of counters".

Also, I thought Bragg was a Master Driller, not a Trainer. So his ability would work for the whole stack regardless of position in the stack, right?

I don't know why I keep thinking that Bragg had the Training Officer ability. Maybe because I think he should. But yes, a unit with the Master Trainer ability only has to be in the stack for the ability to take affect. This is also the ability used by the HQ Support units.

So what I posted previously about the leader needing to command his stack for the Training Officers ability to be used is still valid, just not for Bragg, who actually has the master Trainer ability.