Keeping certain troops upright (for spotting)

[Erwin]

I never noticed this b4, but I just saw that if one gives certain units like snipers, HQ units etc. two waypoints, they stay upright/kneeling at the start. If you give em no or only one waypoint or time delays at the start, they will immediately lie down.

Doesn't seem to work with inf teams... they stay lying down regardless.

Any other tricks to keep guys kneeling rather than lying? The kneeling guys definitely have far better LOS (according to the TARGET line).

[Wolfe]

Sit 'em behind a low wall or fence (on the sort-of "half-tile").

- Chris

[Vanir Ausf B]

I never noticed this b4, but I just saw that if one gives certain units like snipers, HQ units etc. two waypoints, they stay upright/kneeling at the start. If you give em no or only one waypoint or time delays at the start, they will immediately lie down.

Doesn't seem to work with inf teams... they stay lying down regardless.

I've was recently thinking about this myself while observing a platoon of mine advancing through a cornfield. When stopped some units would all lay down, some would all kneel and some would have a mix of both. I gave up trying to make sense of it and decided it was probably random, but I would love to have a way to controlling it, or at least be able to predict what any particular unit will do.

So to be clear, if you give the HQ units two waypoints they will kneel. I assume you must also give them a pause order or they will be walking rather than kneeling. But you say in the next sentence that a pause order will cause them to lie down. That would be a pause order given without any other orders?

[Erwin]

Am going from memory of yesterday, but during set-up I was experimenting with movement orders and waypoints and noticed that if not given any movement orders, only the HMG team stayed kneeling and had great LOS through a wheatfield. (I didn't try an FO, ATG or mortar team.)

When given two waypoints (didn't work with only one) certain units like snipers started kneeling. However, inf stayed lying down no matter what movement orders or how many waypoints.

But, yes, if I gave the sniper or HQ units a PAUSE, it would also lie down immediately.

So, the only advantage for the sniper and HQ was that they start moving immediately from a kneeling position (which gives them good LOS right from the first instant).

Wolfe: The problem with walls is that often once deployed an HMG cannot see over it.

[Broadsword56]

Wolfe: The problem with walls is that often once deployed an HMG cannot see over it.

True, but if you can knock down just one action spot of the wall (with a demo charge, or even just with a vehicle running over it) you can make a great "keyhole" firing position from the MG that will protect the prone team from nearly all small arms fire -- it then takes HE or a good grenade toss to get them out.

[mjkerner]

True, but if you can knock down just one action spot of the wall (with a demo charge, or even just with a vehicle running over it) you can make a great "keyhole" firing position from the MG that will protect the prone team from nearly all small arms fire -- it then takes HE or a good grenade toss to get them out.

And if you have German HMG's, you can leave them undeployed (semi-deployed, actually) and they will use the wall just like infantry does.

[Erwin]

Semi-deployed... Thanks, never thought of that...

[Medex]

Which gets me thinking are there any special benefits to fully deploying a HMG team. To deploy or not to deploy. That is the question and what difference does it make.

[mjkerner]

Medex, I assume more better accuracy and more rounds farther down field? A MG grog will come along soon and give us the straight dope....

edit: more accurate rounds downfield.

[Medex]

Hey,

Thanks for the response. I would assume those things too. I can understand why in real life you would put a heavier machine gun up on a tripod. But I was just curious do any of those benefits actually appear in the game. Is there a difference in gun/crew performance between semi-deployed and fully deployed. Any measureable differences? I didn't see anything in the manual and so far a search hasn't revealed anything other than some deployment glitches.

[LeeW]

If you watch the tracers you can tell when a mg is deployed or semi-deployed. Big difference. When semi-deployed the spray pattern is up into the air, thus most of the rounds over shoot the target as the barrel recoils up.

[Agua]

yup, far more accurate deployed.

[MattMulder]

I actually tried a few days ago, two MG teams were along a small rural stone wall and facing them was a Us platoon rushing for a bunch of houses. One was deployed, the other just arrived so was semi-deployed for a minute. They fired pretty much the same amount of rounds, but the deployed mg seemed to be a little more accurate and suppressive. I may be wrong, but there has to be an advantage, otherwise why bother deploying ?