Pop Smoke

[Ivan Zaitzev]

Is there any way to use this action reliably or is it just luck?

The soldier appears to throw the smoke to whatever direction he happens to be facing when he managed to pull off the grenade. Pretty useless?

Edited January 3, 2016 by Ivan Zaitzev

[weapon2010]

use the face command blue line, then click pop smoke, the line will change back to purple and go in that direction

[Ivan Zaitzev]

Yes, that works in ideal conditions, but if you are under fire and the grenade guy decides to reposition before throwing the grenade, then the smoke will go to wherever he was facing when throwing the grenade. And that's the exact situation that just happened to me before making this thread.

[domfluff]

Sure, but throwing smoke whilst under fire isn't the best idea for maximum efficiency - it should be tossed before an advance, and given a little time to develop, before charging across the open ground. Obviously, sometimes you're desperate...

The thing that's usually got me is when I've chucked smoke around a corner of a house, and the smoke grenades have bounced off the house and landed in useless positions.

[weapon2010]

Ive used smoke many times and it works good, not under all conditions, there are no absolutes in this game, also if the enemy is within hand grenade distance, its a little late for smoke use.

[Warts 'n' all]

Weapon's advice about changing the facing before throwing the smoke grenade is the best option. But as he quite rightly says it doesn't work under all conditions.For example, if your men are already taking fire and are cowering then they might ignore your orders. So as Domfluff says think about how, or if, you are going to use smoke before you get into trouble not, afterwards.

[Ivan Zaitzev]

When I say "grenade", I mean "smoke grenade".

I was taking fire, let's say from the north, the  enemy was not in grenade distance. I wanted to pop smoke between my troops and the enemy to disengage under cover. I issued a face command towards the north but my guy tossed the smoke grenade to the east because that just happen to be the direction he was facing when he was ready to throw the smoke grenade.

You can't choose how far away you want to throw the smoke either, so if you want to close a gap between two houses for example, you will have calculate it pretty good.

To me, the pop smoke seems like an afterthought. It could be greatly improved with a line of sight command just like the fire command.

[weapon2010]

all I can say , in the situation your describing, ive used smoke many times with success, it normaly goes where I want it to go, I don't understand why your having issues

go practice with a platoon on a small map

[weapon2010]

Is there any way to use this action reliably or is it just luck?

The soldier appears to throw the smoke to whatever direction he happens to be facing when he managed to pull off the grenade. Pretty useless?

its not just luck, they do throw to the direction they are facing, but you can control that direction unless they are pinned,under great suppression, green and out of c2, so not useless at all

[weapon2010]

Also you can never take one instance in this game where something didn't work to your satisfaction and decree it as "useless". Try it 10,20 ,50 times.

[slysniper]

What weapon is saying is correct. But I will admit, there has ben times when it does not work. Normally under the situation you are in.

What is happening , is you can give the unit a command, but if they are about to panic. They could ignore your command, face another direction to run and then throw that smoke you wanted.

Oh well. its not like your unit was already in a world of trouble anyway.

If the unit is in good order, that command works every time.

[Ivan Zaitzev]

Also you can never take one instance in this game where something didn't work to your satisfaction and decree it as "useless". Try it 10,20 ,50 times.

Not the first time at all. I'm just talking about what sparked this argument.

Useless might not be the word, but I will repeat that it can be improved and it's far from optimal.

[weapon2010]

 your initial argument is describing "one instance", now your altering it to "not the first time at all", and I'll take your word for that, all as I can tell you is I have had very few issues with smoke and smoke direction, infact BF tweeked smoke so you could choose the directon, initialy it was an ai decision

agree on improvement,in smoke and a lot of other issues, were all in agreement on improvement , disagree on "far from optimal"

 

[Bulletpoint]

I might be wrong about this, but I suspect that during the orders phase, you might need to do the face command first, then click the pop smoke button. If you click the smoke button first and the face command afterwards, they'll throw the smoke before changing facing.

This advice is just based on my general experience with the game, I haven't done any testing. I don't have my CM computer with me right now, so can't do a test of this.

[MOS:96B2P]

<Snip> I suspect that during the orders phase, you might need to do the face command first, then click the pop smoke button. <Snip>

You are correct sir.  Face command first and then Pop Smoke.  I think if you give the Pop Smoke command and then the Face command the Face command will cancel the Pop Smoke. 

[RockinHarry]

I think popping smoke sometimes needs to be prepared tactically. Popping smoke in the midst of a firefight might be not that good an idea in certain circumstances. Haven´t tried myself, but I´d attempt with first going into hide (breaking contact), then a timed face/pop smoke command (5-10 seconds pause) and then further pause before actually moving away. Does that work?

[domfluff]

If the hide breaks contact (say, behind a wall, against non-HE fire), then that should work fine - they can throw smoke whilst prone.

[Warts 'n' all]

I have noticed that "cowering" troops can take a couple of minutes to "pop smoke". It can be frustrating, but who wants to get a bullet in the head just so that they can throw a smoke grenade? Admittedly the last time I saw that behaviour I was playing as the Italians.