Where's Your Smoke, Soldier?

[Col Deadmarsh]

I'm playing a game right now where I'm using a 60mm to try to take out my opponent's Marder. I told him to fire directly at it but instead of using the HE rounds, he uses the smoke rounds instead--only when they hit, there's no smoke. This leads me to believe that the smoke rounds were never fired by him and yet all 4 are gone (unless they magically reappear in the next turn)

Has anybody experienced this freak thing? Needless to say I'm not very happy at all since the best part of those cheap 60mm teams are their smoking capability.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Try hitting Shift-I.

[Banshee]

sounds to me like you need to hit Shift - I a couple times

the instant cure for invisible smoke

[Col Deadmarsh]

Yeah, that was the problem. For some reason, that option got changed.

Of course, I'm still left with the question as to why the 60mm was firing smoke at the Marder when I ordered it to fire HE, (hoping to get a shot inside the thing.) Is this a bug?

[Dirtweasle]

"Hey Sarge, that crazy Officer ordered me to fire at that big SP Gun over there."

"Private, fire a smoke pattern maybe he'll go away"

"The LT or that God Awful Huge thing??

"Either one"

[Michael Emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh:

Of course, I'm still left with the question as to why the 60mm was firing smoke at the Marder when I ordered it to fire HE, (hoping to get a shot inside the thing.) Is this a bug?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sort of. I think the answer was that the AI got coded so that if a weapon's crew didn't feel that they could score a kill on a unit that could put the hurt on them, they would fire smoke (if they have it). Interestingly enough, now that they have fired off all their smoke, if you wait a turn or two for it to clear off, and retarget the Marder, they just might fire some HE at it. Then again, maybe not...

Michael

[CMplayer]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh:

the best part of those cheap 60mm teams are their smoking capability.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't underestimate the lowly 60mm morter.

Put two or three of them together into a

battery and give them area fire orders

and they can do an excellent job of:

Blunting leading attack elements preparing

to jump off from woods.

Interdicting reinforcements moving through

woods.

Taking out guns.

Harrassing and occasionally killing open topped vehicles.

More?

Just remember that _timing_ is very important

in getting the most out of these weapons. They need

to work together with the rest

of your plan, and cause some confusion or

reduced enemy effectiveness at just the right

moment.

regards,

--Rett

[ 07-20-2001: Message edited by: CMplayer ]

[Col Deadmarsh]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CMplayer:

Don't underestimate the lowly 60mm morter.

Put two or three of them together into a

battery and give them area fire orders

and they can do an excellent job of:

Blunting leading attack elements preparing

to jump off from woods.

Interdicting reinforcements moving through

woods.

Taking out guns.

Harrassing and occasionally killing open topped vehicles.

More?

Just remember that _timing_ is very important

in getting the most out of these weapons. They need

to work together with the rest

of your plan, and cause some confusion or

reduced enemy effectiveness at just the right

moment.

regards,

--Rett

[ 07-20-2001: Message edited by: CMplayer ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Funny you should mention this...

After posting the first time, another 60mm team of mine was ordered by myself to fire at a 20mm halftrack engaging my infantry on the other side of the map. I'd say the halftrack was about 400m away. After about 10 rounds, one of them landed a shot 5m or so in back of the vehicle and immobolized it. Didn't think that an area blast from one of those things could go through 8mm of armor. Good to see that they can do more damage than just put up smoke screens and suppress infantry.

[offtaskagain]

It's not the blast that immobilizes vehicles usually. It's a larger size fragment hitting the track and snapping it off. Or else it hits the drive wheel and jams it.

[Col Deadmarsh]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by panzerwerfer42:

It's not the blast that immobilizes vehicles usually. It's a larger size fragment hitting the track and snapping it off. Or else it hits the drive wheel and jams it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That makes sense. I guess those tracks and drive wheels are pretty much unprotected.

[CMplayer]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh:

Good to see that they can do more damage than just put up smoke screens and suppress infantry.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Try suppress, rout and _kill_ infantry. And

I've had them take out guns lots of times.

It gave me a new respect for them. In fact

I'm starting to really like the entire

'vanilla' US weapons platoon: zooks, 60mm

mortars, 50-cals. Those weapons all have

useful and interesting properties beyond

what you might expect at first glance.

--Rett

[ 07-20-2001: Message edited by: CMplayer ]

[Michael Emrys]

I've had good luck with the 60mm mortars chasing stubborn enemy squads out of foxholes. Usually a pair of them will do the trick handily along with a platoon of my infantry starting to get close. Nice thing about the 60mm is that you can shoot them right up to the last moment your troops close in because they are so accurate and their blast radius is so short.

Michael