mdoolittle Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Hi, just got the game and I'm trying the scenario Assault. 1) Is there any use for Soviet ATR besides shooting German halftracks? Is it worth shooting at enemy infantry? 2) What are Snipers best suited for? Scouting? Pick off enemy machineguns? Thanks from a new player. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 ATR is only useful vs lightly armored vehicles. I don't think they are much good vs unarmored vehicles like trucks. They may suppress inf. I don't recall getting inf kills with an ATR. Snipers are good used at longer ranges (500m+) vs exposed AFV commanders and inf. One can use em for scouting, but given their specialist ability I would prefer to lose a dedicated scout team or inf scout team rather than a sniper team. Snipers are particularly useful with higher experience levels (Crack or Elite). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vergeltungswaffe Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 An ATR in good cover at range will degrade the optics/subsystems over time of any tank, regardless of armor. They are cheap and useful. Don't think they can't contribute. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A co Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 An ATR can can penetrate the side or rear of StuG's and Pz IV's and similar vehicles, if the the range is not too great. That can mean crew casualties, morale effects, etc. I've seen a StuG crew bail out after their vehicle suffered one side penetration by an ATR. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Another thing to consider as you play more scenarios or campaigns. Both ATRs and snipers have different roles to play depending on whether your are attacking or defending as the Russians. One way to learn how to use, or not use them, is to pay attention to what they do when you are playing as the Germans. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 When not needed for anti-vehicle work, ATR teams can be employed for infantry suppression fire support. 2-3 ATRs firing on the same building location can add noticeable suppression. And, while certainly not every shot will cause a casuality, an ATR round will score one reasonably often (better than 3-4 rifles, I think), with the occasional double-kill (usually the leader plus a "red shirt"). I remember reading somewhere that the Soviets often liked to use them to rattle German infantry. Even if a hit was unlikely, those big rounds going through one wall, across the room and out the other wall would certainly add some stress to those in the location under fire. Seems a little less noticeable outside, but multiple ATRs firing on one location would probably still be worth doing if they are not needed elsewhere. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 2 hours ago, Macisle said: Even if a hit was unlikely, those big rounds going through one wall, across the room and out the other wall would certainly add some stress to those in the location under fire. Yes, I would expect it to have a high "Holy s***t! What was that?" quotient. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMS Posted November 5, 2016 Share Posted November 5, 2016 Snipers are good for long, low intensive combat. One can make 5-10 kills. Often he makes most of platoon kills. Use them in platoon lines, slight behind. ATR platoons are good for screening flank. And save you when your enemy is armored inf. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAZ NZ Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 On 05/11/2016 at 11:37 PM, DMS said: Snipers are good for long, low intensive combat. One can make 5-10 kills. Often he makes most of platoon kills. Use them in platoon lines, slight behind. ATR platoons are good for screening flank. And save you when your enemy is armored inf. Yea make sure your sniper has supports as DMS notes Keep in your line If a unit is engaging another unit a sniper will usually tip the balance in your favour and adds to suppression Get the sniper in movies idea out of your head cause its more about suppression You will get kills here and there but they are not uber units and often die quickly if alone or two far foward 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailor Malan2 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 And I find it best to find them a good position and let them get on with it. Moving them tends to get them killed, whilst often, as the others say, you check afterwards and see how busy they have been. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 mdoolittle, Welcome aboard! Here's a great article on the PTRS and PTRD in battle. Expect you'll find it quite informative. Don;t know what CMRT shows, but the basic load was 200 rounds! http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/wwii-weapons-the-ptrs-and-ptrd-russian-anti-tank-rifles/ (Fair Use) When not shooting at tanks and other AFVs, the ATR could be against infantry weapons, artillery and a varity of transport. Left out the AA use. “If no tanks and armored vehicles are present, on orders of the antitank rifle squad leader the antitank rifles can take under fire enemy machine guns, artillery and the firing slits of bunkers and forts at a range out to 800 meters and aircraft at a range of up to 500 meters.” Private Vassily Kovtun of the 902nd Rifle Regiment was given credit for destroying four tanks, two armored personnel carriers, and two armored cars. The big antitank rifles were also handy for reaching enemy soldiers behind cover in house-to-house street fighting. Antitank rifle ace Ivan Knjazev of the 310th Guards Rifle Regiment was credited in a Soviet report with “67 AFVs, MGs, guns and mortars.” Kovtun was also credited with knocking out 20 German machine-gun nests. “The Ideal Weapon For Partisans” When the U.S. Department of the Army, using interviews with German veterans of the Eastern Front, published Russian Combat Methods in WWII at the beginning of the Cold War, the report said of the antitank rifle: “It was to be found even where no German tank attacks might be expected…. If the small gun, always excellently camouflaged, was not needed for antitank defense, its flat trajectory and great accuracy were put to good use in infantry combat.” Antitank rifles were also extremely popular weapons to air-drop to Red partisans operating far behind enemy lines to give them a powerful yet portable weapon to use against German supply lines and support units. Rear-area German security forces usually had only light armored cars or tankettes, often captured enemy models, to utilize for patrols and reaction forces. These lightly armored vehicles and supply trucks could be easily defeated by the powerful 14.5mm weapons. One partisan said of the PTR dropped to his troops, “It was the ideal weapon for partisans. Its accuracy was amazing, and a trained PTR crew could hit the boiler of a railway at 800 meters. This enabled us to ambush German trains in daylight, shooting them up from a safe distance.” Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swastakowey Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 I did a test last night, enough Anti Tank Rifle Companies to the value of roughly 1,000 men vs 1 King Tiger (maximum experience, leadership etc) and after about 30 minutes the King tiger had only an Engine, the Main Gun 88mm, the Coaxl Machine Gun and had lost everything else. The ground around the Tiger Tank was burning from all the rounds bouncing off of it. So if you have enough Anti Tank Rifles then it can shut down even the heaviest of tanks, although in this case the king tiger continued to fire killing 300 of my Anti tank horde. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Overall I'd say the tank won that one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lille Fiskerby Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 I often use AT rifles for buddy aid, snipers for recon but snipers dont have binoculars, or use them as going forward in advance of the company CO. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougPhresh Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Anti-Tank rifles are good for keeping half-tracks and tanks from rolling over your trenches. Tank-Hunter teams with RPG-43s are really good at finishing tanks that have lost their optics or mobility. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony P. Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 (edited) Sniper teams are great, especially since you get so many with the Red Army. Apart from using them as scouts or marksmen directly cooperating with their platoons, I also like pooling several teams together to safeguard critical areas not quite critical/large enough to call for/fit an infantry platoon. In the video below I found I could completely shut off a bottleneck left flank by pairing some sniper teams up with one or two Su-76 SPGs; The snipers with their optics could easily spot approaching German infantry from further out than an infantry platoon ever could have, and where far harder to spot in turn. Anytime the snipers were spotted and engaged, the ease with which they could communicate with the SPG crews through their open fighting compartment expedited the target acquisition progress of said German infantry by the SPG crews greatly, causing them to plaster them with HE, teaching them that the sniper pairs weren't necessarily the biggest threat, or the most prudent one to engage. (Ignore the DP gunner in the background, that's a sniper pair No. 2 who fancied himself clever picking it up from a casualty.) Edited April 10, 2017 by Anthony P. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swastakowey Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Maybe it is unconventional, but I use my Snipers with MMG teams, since MMG teams are set up in some of the best positions I find the sniper can then take good distance shots at pinned enemies. Im sure there is a better use for them, but it's less time consuming to pair the 2 up depending on the game size. They often get a fair amount of kills. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 My concern with placing sniper near any other units that may fire, is that firing will attract attention to the sniper's location as well. Maybe it works in the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 42 minutes ago, Erwin said: My concern with placing sniper near any other units that may fire, is that firing will attract attention to the sniper's location as well. Yeah, I don't do that. MGs get he delivered ASAP. If the sniper team is there to sign for it that's bad I like my sniper teams off on their own with good concealment. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 7 hours ago, IanL said: Yeah, I don't do that. MGs get he delivered ASAP. If the sniper team is there to sign for it that's bad I like my sniper teams off on their own with good concealment. Ditto that. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swastakowey Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 7 hours ago, IanL said: Yeah, I don't do that. MGs get he delivered ASAP. If the sniper team is there to sign for it that's bad I like my sniper teams off on their own with good concealment. The AI has never targeted anything specific, the pattern is clear, they target seemingly set locations if you have units in them or not. I suppose vs Human players it's a concern. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Melchid Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 8 minutes ago, Swastakowey said: The AI has never targeted anything specific, the pattern is clear, they target seemingly set locations if you have units in them or not. I suppose vs Human players it's a concern. Well in my experience A.I. will specifically target mg's and other assets with mortars and does so to me regularly, twice in my last game. I'm fairly sure it wasn't pre-planned fire of any kind and was specifically targeting assets which had only recently deployed in those locations and started to give trouble. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 ^^^ Correct. The AI is targeting threats and it does have a way to asses priority - even comparing the threat to our orders. The recent v4 engine introduced the ability for the AI to area target locations on the map it is directed to. Before that there was no area targeting by the AI. So, what ever you think you saw @Swastakowey it was not targeting of fixed locations - it was spotting your guys and targeting them as it saw the threat. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Melchid Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 Back OT I don't tend to use my ptrd for suppression or anti-infantry work; they only have 20 rounds and I like to keep it all handy in case some of those nasty cannon armed half-tracks show up, or if a stug or light tank shows me it's backside. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 (edited) General Melchid, BFC is short 180 rounds on the ATRs, for the load is a whopping 200 rounds per two-man team. Page 125 of Panzer Killers by Artem Drabkin, in an account by a gunner in a PTRS-41 team, is explicit on this matter: " forty five-round clips", with a total weight of 28 kg. The PTRS-41 weighed 22 kg. As far as I'm concerned, his statement is dispositive, for he trained on the weapon and used it in combat, not to mention had to help carry all that. Regards, John Kettler Edited May 26, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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