How does one lay down an effective smokescreen

[Hensworth]

I've just gone through the first 10 turns of Bloody Buron II and it's obvious that my use of smoke is not up to scratch.

My essential question is : does anyone find it feasible to lay down a smokescreen progressing towards the enemy positions with your troops following in behind ? I'm talking about situations where you have to cover at least 1000m without cover with infantry on foot .

I find it very difficult. First of all it eats up enormous amounts of ordnance. By the time your troops are close enough to identify threats like AT guns and MG's, there's no arty left. Secondly, it requires a lot of fidgeting around with the FO's. Co-ordinating your different calibres and experience levels into 1 moving wall of smoke takes some doing. There is for instance a radius in which you can move a target point with only a few seconds time penalty (I'm talking no LOS here, since you're going through the smoke that is already there so no green lines). There's no way of knowing whether your newly selected target point falls within this radius or not. Getting it wrong means waiting minutes for the next round, during which time the smokescreen will lift and your troops will be caught like rabbits in the headlights.

Pray enlighten me, good fellows.

[Stixx]

The best advise i can give you is to drop your smoke in front of the enemy not in front of you. That way you will have a greater LOS than he.

Also every turn just move your target a little bit, not alot just a little so you get a 15-20 second pause. That way your smoke will last longer.

Stix

[c3k]

As part of this, I've been wondering how long the various smoke forms last. Anyone figure this out, or will I have to run my own experiments??

Thanks,

Ken

[LGMB]

Soldier,

Smoke never works for me. I'd go for a creeping barage instead. Pound 'em with arty as your troops advance, that'll keep their heads down!

[L.Tankersley]

A thousand meters of open ground is a hell of a long way.

I'm playing a QB now where the hill and tree settings are both one notch above minimal. Trees are extremely scarce, and there is basically one large (but very low) hill in the middle of the map, with everything else quite flat. I'm attacking with a mixture of US paratroop and glider infantry reinforced by 4 Shermans (well, 2, now). I don't have 1000m of completely open ground to cover, but this map allows lines of sight to extend that far in many areas.

IMO, the key to big smokescreens is to use mortar FOs. They have lots of ammo, a high rate of fire, and a quick response time. Onboard mortars and direct-fire guns with smoke ammo can help out but they are mainly useful against known point targets because of their inability to target more than one point per turn, or to target spots out of their LOS.

I echo Stixx's comment about adjusting fire to deliberately inject a short delay, extending your period of fire. OBA mortar smoke seems to last about 2 turns or so (I have the impression that the smoke from larger caliber shells lasts longer, which would make sense, but I can't confirm that as fact). Using heavier artillery as a smoke source is probably not cost-effective, I would say.

My approach was to hide my assault force behind whatever terrain features were available (a large building, a copse of trees, and a shallow depression), use an HQ in the upper level of a building to direct smoke from on-board mortars (I have something like 10 60mm mortars with this force), have the tanks fire their smoke shells, and use an 81mm spotter for OBA smoke. I targeted the on-map assets (tanks and mortars) on a line in front of what I considered to be likely defensive positions, and used the 81mm to plug the gap in the middle. The first turn after the 81mm smoke started landing, the assault force was up and moving forward. On subsequent turns I adjusted the targets to extend the smokescreen as my infantry moves forward. Once I had a thick screen I had my units cease fire to conserve ammo until the smoke started disappearing again, and then called for more 81mm. You can probably get 4 or 5 minutes of smoke barrage out of an 81mm spotter, and they're pretty cheap.

One thing you cannot do when using a large smoke screen is dawdle. You have to commit to the approach, and get the men up and moving as soon as the smoke arrives. Don't wait to be sure every possible gap is saturated with smoke; you'll waste too much time and ammo.