Newbie Smoke Question

[Canuck21]

So I was playing the Raff Campaign (the Training Campaign in CMBN), first Mission today. One of the things I thought would be a good idea when I went to assault the farmhouse, was to lay down smoke in the field near the farm. I had 2 of the tanks (Shermans) there and they both indicated they had smoke on board. So I tried several times to shoot smoke mortars out into the field, and in each case, I got the target symbol as being ok (no LOS blocks, etc) and hit the "Smoke" button. Unfortunately nothing happened (well, I did get smoke alright, but in this case it was that *I* got smokED myself during the assault ). I did check through the manual and saw that those tanks do carry smoke mortars on the roof so I'm not sure why they never fired. I'm wondering in retrospect, if you have to hit the Smoke button (which was not greyed out, so they should have been available) and THEN hit the target button? I really don't know. I tried that with 3 tanks and none fired the smoke, and I didn't see any reports in the Damage pane that the smoke mortars were inop. Can anyone clue me in on what I might have been doing wrong or what to check for next time? Thanks very much (and a really big thanks from the survivors of that <ahem> not-so-great outcome of a battle ).

[Bulletpoint]

For smoke mortars, you need the order button "pop smoke".

To fire smoke ammo from the main gun: "target smoke".

For the rest of Task Force Reefer: Puff puff pass.

[Canuck21]

17 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said:

For smoke mortars, you need the order button "pop smoke".

To fire smoke ammo from the main gun: "target smoke".

For the rest of Task Force Reefer: Puff puff pass.

Ahh, ok, I'll redo the scenario and see if I can't do better with that. Thanks very much for the help. If I don't do better, I'll try your last idea .

[danfrodo]

Also make sure smoke is 'on'.  alt-k hotkey allows you to turn smoke visual on/off.  I once couldn't get smoke to work then realized (via the forum) it was off and when I turned it on I already had monstrous smoke screen. 

Note that 'pop smoke' is under the 's'-button menu, not the 'c'-button targeting menu

 

[Canuck21]

Ok, I think I have it figured out. I suspect I was too close to a bocage. I could fire the main gun, and I had LOS, but I couldn't fire smoke. Once I was out in the open, then it worked as expected. 

@danfrodo - Thanks for this. Yes, I hadn't toggled the smoke effects off and so that part was working fine. I appreciate the head's up on the 'pop smoke' option though. I was kind of wondering about that and hadn't found it yet. Thanks for that.