Ryujin

I'd like to assemble as much information as possible in this one thread to then be consolidated into an easy to read .pdf or stickied post as threads can quickly become convoluted.

So feel free to comment and contribute in here and it'll all be condensed into something easier to read when we have the a good chunk of material.

About the guide
It appears that new players could use a guide of CMSF(and even CMA) basics to ease them into the game. The goal is not to provide an advanced or highly technical guide, but try to boil it down to the basics needed to get started and learn the game. As such, if you contribute material (of any length, all comments and additions are helpful), try to focus on primarily conceptual information that is concise and easy to understand. The manual provides much of the technical information and basics, I think we need to fill in the gaps and practical application. Screen shots/graphics can help.

I'll start by picking up where I left off in the "marine AT assets thread". Please let me know if I miss anything or make any mistakes .

Ammunition types

Ammo often goes by it's acronyms for it's warhead/type and caliber(dimensions). The name of the corresponding weapon is generally not listed, so be sure to check the caliber of the weapon you want to acquire ammo for (sometimes possible in game, if not, you can check a manual).

Learning the acronyms will make it easier to understand the roles of each type of round. When acquiring rounds, "ATM" at the end of the name stands for "Anti Tank Missile", “ATGM” is “Anti Tank Guided Missile”.

-No acronym/size 14.7mm or less = "standard" bullet. Unremarkable solid metal round used in machineguns and small arms. Best employed on soft targets. Note that rounds under 12.7mm (.50 cal) and hand grenades will NOT cause friendly fire (game abstraction). All other rounds should be employed with much more care INCLUDING ARTILLERY SMOKE AND THE CHALLENGER 2's CANNON FIRED SMOKE ROUNDS!

-WP = White Phosphorus, an incendiary used in smoke rounds used to create a concealing smoke screen. Note that large WP shells for artillery and cannons can cause friendly fire on impact. However, it is not dangerous to then move through the smoke or over the point of impact. Smoke grenade discargers on tanks or thrown smoke grenades ('pop smoke' command) are not dangerous to your troops.

-AP-I = Armor Piercing Incendiary. Generally used with heavy machinegun ammunition, a dense/hard bullet combined with an incendiary element for "after armor" effects (causing internal fire/setting off ammo).

-HE = High Explosive, just explodes on impact, lots of shrapnel and blast effects, good vs infantry, light building walls, in windows, and other soft targets. Not good vs armor or hard targets (think of throwing a water balloon at a wall, the explosion, like water, will take the easy route and "splash" off the surface). Related round type is HE-I, high explosive incendiary. However the incendiary seems to have little effect ingame.

-PPHE = Programmable Prefragmented High Explosive, anti-personnel round that can be programmed to air burst at a certain range (generally over the target so as to be render most cover useless) and is designed for effective fragmentation.

-HESH = High Explosive Squash Head, a variation of the HE round where the plastic explosive “head” of the round “squashes” on impact. Much like throwing clay at a wall, the explosive flattens and spreads across the impacted (hard) surface before detonating. This sends a powerful shock wave forwards into the target. As a result this rounds is more effective against structures and armored vehicles than standard HE. Against buildings the powerful shock wave directed into the target has devastating effects on walls, making it one of the most effective rounds against hard concrete structures (it'll do much more structural damage than the armor piercing HEAT round or plain HE). When employed against armor it relies primarily on internal spalling to cause casualties, it will not penetrate most armor (spalling is the deadly spray of armor fragments thrown into the crew compartment, in this case caused by the shock wave impacting the outer armor and being transmitted through the armor, causing spalling on the inside). This is only effective against older tanks without spaced armor or internal “spall liners”.

-HEAT or HEAA= High Explosive Anti Tank or High Explosive Anti Armor. Shaped charge warhead with metal pentrator cone (short version, explosion liquefies and propels metal penetrator in warhead through armor). Also known as a Chemical Energy (CE) or Explosively Formed Pentrator (EFP). The combo of shaped charge/pentrator makes it good vs armor and though buildings.

-T-HEAT = Tandem High Explosive Anti Tank. Two HEAT warheads, one behind the other. In front is a small "precursor" charge that is designed to set off any addon-armor like Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) on the tank. The main charge then reaches the armor unhindered.

-HEDP = High Explosive Dual Purpose. Generally a HE warhead warhead with a smaller HEAT warhead at the front. As the name implies they can be used against armored or soft targets, but does not excel in either role.

-NE or Therm: Thermobaric (aka Novel Explosive for SMAW) warhead. Fuel-air explosive (mixes a huge cloud of fuel vapor into the air and detonates it), kills via overpressure and blast effects. Deadly in enclosed areas like buildings where pressure reaches massive levels.

-APFSDS = Armor Pricing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot, it's essentially a big solid metal armor piercing dart, relies on kinetic energy to penetrate armor. Also known as a Kinetic Energy (KE) or sabot round. It's sub-caliber and has a 'sabot' to stabilize it in the barrel, falls off on exiting muzzle. Two things to note, sabot rounds rely heavily on their velocity and contain no explosive. This means they lose penetrating power over distance and kill vehicles by a direct hit on a vital component or spalling for the most part. They can pass through thin surfaces with little effect and are really only useful against vehicles. Some of the highest quality western ammo found in CMSF is made of depleted uranium. DU is not only a good penetrator as it's self sharpening, it's also pyrophoric (short version, small particles of DU thrown into a vehicle after penetration of the armor will catch fire on contact with the air, increasing chances of a vehicle fire or ammo detonation).


That should be all the ammo types to start, giving an overview of each type without going into specific rounds.

This came up in another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread as it seems to not be widely known (at least I had no clue it was different from a normal fast move).
 
The point being after some quick tests it seems it's the "Don't Stop!" move I had been missing for a long time. Unlike a normal fast move the troops will try much harder to complete an evade move under fire. 
 
So if your units get pinned in the open, an evade may get them on their feet and running to cover rather than laying there to be picked off. 
 
But the really interesting thing is it can be used preemptively. You can use it to say run across a street with much less risk of them stopping in the middle and all being killed. You can even use it to charge an enemy if you're feeling a bit desperate/suicidal. Obviously because they won't hit the deck, they'll be very exposed standing and running. So use it wisely.
 
They also seem to stop to fire while carrying it out. I need to test it more, but it might work in some cases for an assault or room clearing move when you want them to keep going. Ironically, evade may be the closest thing to a proper 'assault' order...
 
 
The evade button is the 4 arrows '+' looking button next the to the 'M' button. When you press it it'll create a waypoint you can drag around. Try putting it on an enemy and watch your guys keep running under fire to see it in action. 
 
 
Should save a ton of pixeltroopers, especially in urban combat. 
 
EDIT: Also seems like you can change the waypoint type and it'll keep the effect. Not so sure about following waypoints after the first. 

This came up in another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread as it seems to not be widely known (at least I had no clue it was different from a normal fast move).
 
The point being after some quick tests it seems it's the "Don't Stop!" move I had been missing for a long time. Unlike a normal fast move the troops will try much harder to complete an evade move under fire. 
 
So if your units get pinned in the open, an evade may get them on their feet and running to cover rather than laying there to be picked off. 
 
But the really interesting thing is it can be used preemptively. You can use it to say run across a street with much less risk of them stopping in the middle and all being killed. You can even use it to charge an enemy if you're feeling a bit desperate/suicidal. Obviously because they won't hit the deck, they'll be very exposed standing and running. So use it wisely.
 
They also seem to stop to fire while carrying it out. I need to test it more, but it might work in some cases for an assault or room clearing move when you want them to keep going. Ironically, evade may be the closest thing to a proper 'assault' order...
 
 
The evade button is the 4 arrows '+' looking button next the to the 'M' button. When you press it it'll create a waypoint you can drag around. Try putting it on an enemy and watch your guys keep running under fire to see it in action. 
 
 
Should save a ton of pixeltroopers, especially in urban combat. 
 
EDIT: Also seems like you can change the waypoint type and it'll keep the effect. Not so sure about following waypoints after the first. 

This guy's hiding spot was a little too good. some time after driving onto these foxholes by accident I noticed this poor guy still alive and squeezed under one of my abrams. That said... it might be the safest place to be given the circumstances...

Until the AI is smart enough to find a good position themselves, it's necessary to some degree. You can't tell your ATGM team to go up on the ridge and find a spot overlooking the road. They'll just go exactly where you say and happily stare at the backside of the ridge, even if moving two meters forward would give them a good view. I'd rather deal with a few exploits of the target line instead of having my troops stand around in a useless spot just out of LOS when moving them.
 
Aside from that, in general CM simulates the combat very well, but not being in the commander's boots. You almost always have far, far more information and command power than an actual commander. Just comes with the perspective and the fact you play as every leader on your side.  

Until the AI is smart enough to find a good position themselves, it's necessary to some degree. You can't tell your ATGM team to go up on the ridge and find a spot overlooking the road. They'll just go exactly where you say and happily stare at the backside of the ridge, even if moving two meters forward would give them a good view. I'd rather deal with a few exploits of the target line instead of having my troops stand around in a useless spot just out of LOS when moving them.
 
Aside from that, in general CM simulates the combat very well, but not being in the commander's boots. You almost always have far, far more information and command power than an actual commander. Just comes with the perspective and the fact you play as every leader on your side.  

Until the AI is smart enough to find a good position themselves, it's necessary to some degree. You can't tell your ATGM team to go up on the ridge and find a spot overlooking the road. They'll just go exactly where you say and happily stare at the backside of the ridge, even if moving two meters forward would give them a good view. I'd rather deal with a few exploits of the target line instead of having my troops stand around in a useless spot just out of LOS when moving them.
 
Aside from that, in general CM simulates the combat very well, but not being in the commander's boots. You almost always have far, far more information and command power than an actual commander. Just comes with the perspective and the fact you play as every leader on your side.  

I noticed this BTR-4 driver doesn't seem too impressed with my plan... he had a bit of close call with a BMP-3. Surprisingly not even injured. They went over his shoulder, past the gunners leg, and out the back of the vehicle without injuring anyone with spall or damaging anything important.

I noticed this BTR-4 driver doesn't seem too impressed with my plan... he had a bit of close call with a BMP-3. Surprisingly not even injured. They went over his shoulder, past the gunners leg, and out the back of the vehicle without injuring anyone with spall or damaging anything important.

This came up in another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread as it seems to not be widely known (at least I had no clue it was different from a normal fast move).
 
The point being after some quick tests it seems it's the "Don't Stop!" move I had been missing for a long time. Unlike a normal fast move the troops will try much harder to complete an evade move under fire. 
 
So if your units get pinned in the open, an evade may get them on their feet and running to cover rather than laying there to be picked off. 
 
But the really interesting thing is it can be used preemptively. You can use it to say run across a street with much less risk of them stopping in the middle and all being killed. You can even use it to charge an enemy if you're feeling a bit desperate/suicidal. Obviously because they won't hit the deck, they'll be very exposed standing and running. So use it wisely.
 
They also seem to stop to fire while carrying it out. I need to test it more, but it might work in some cases for an assault or room clearing move when you want them to keep going. Ironically, evade may be the closest thing to a proper 'assault' order...
 
 
The evade button is the 4 arrows '+' looking button next the to the 'M' button. When you press it it'll create a waypoint you can drag around. Try putting it on an enemy and watch your guys keep running under fire to see it in action. 
 
 
Should save a ton of pixeltroopers, especially in urban combat. 
 
EDIT: Also seems like you can change the waypoint type and it'll keep the effect. Not so sure about following waypoints after the first. 

This came up in another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread as it seems to not be widely known (at least I had no clue it was different from a normal fast move).
 
The point being after some quick tests it seems it's the "Don't Stop!" move I had been missing for a long time. Unlike a normal fast move the troops will try much harder to complete an evade move under fire. 
 
So if your units get pinned in the open, an evade may get them on their feet and running to cover rather than laying there to be picked off. 
 
But the really interesting thing is it can be used preemptively. You can use it to say run across a street with much less risk of them stopping in the middle and all being killed. You can even use it to charge an enemy if you're feeling a bit desperate/suicidal. Obviously because they won't hit the deck, they'll be very exposed standing and running. So use it wisely.
 
They also seem to stop to fire while carrying it out. I need to test it more, but it might work in some cases for an assault or room clearing move when you want them to keep going. Ironically, evade may be the closest thing to a proper 'assault' order...
 
 
The evade button is the 4 arrows '+' looking button next the to the 'M' button. When you press it it'll create a waypoint you can drag around. Try putting it on an enemy and watch your guys keep running under fire to see it in action. 
 
 
Should save a ton of pixeltroopers, especially in urban combat. 
 
EDIT: Also seems like you can change the waypoint type and it'll keep the effect. Not so sure about following waypoints after the first. 

This came up in another thread, but I think it deserves its own thread as it seems to not be widely known (at least I had no clue it was different from a normal fast move).
 
The point being after some quick tests it seems it's the "Don't Stop!" move I had been missing for a long time. Unlike a normal fast move the troops will try much harder to complete an evade move under fire. 
 
So if your units get pinned in the open, an evade may get them on their feet and running to cover rather than laying there to be picked off. 
 
But the really interesting thing is it can be used preemptively. You can use it to say run across a street with much less risk of them stopping in the middle and all being killed. You can even use it to charge an enemy if you're feeling a bit desperate/suicidal. Obviously because they won't hit the deck, they'll be very exposed standing and running. So use it wisely.
 
They also seem to stop to fire while carrying it out. I need to test it more, but it might work in some cases for an assault or room clearing move when you want them to keep going. Ironically, evade may be the closest thing to a proper 'assault' order...
 
 
The evade button is the 4 arrows '+' looking button next the to the 'M' button. When you press it it'll create a waypoint you can drag around. Try putting it on an enemy and watch your guys keep running under fire to see it in action. 
 
 
Should save a ton of pixeltroopers, especially in urban combat. 
 
EDIT: Also seems like you can change the waypoint type and it'll keep the effect. Not so sure about following waypoints after the first.