Tank Hunters, Pioneers, and other HE-chucking units that fail to chuck HE

[Tigrii]

When I get pioneers, they never seem to throw their charges at tanks OR infantry. Two examples: Example 1: A pioneer platoon fights a suppressed german squad at 10m. They are all unsuppressed and there is no reason why they shouldn't chuck. They don't chuck, and pop away with their 100 40m firepower. Example 2: a pioneer squad unhides and targets a panther D at 20m. It does nothing, and just rotates to follow the tank as it clanks innocently past. After 20 sec. of inaction, it is seen and the pathetic computer-generated outcasts from pioneer training are sent to the Big Hard Drive in the Sky.

Same problem with tank hunters. When they actually have somthing that doesn't come in a vodka bottle, they engage tanks inside their cover vehicle arc (which is 30m) and track it, just like the pioneers, before beeing seen and joining their fellow failures in the aforementioned location. Why is this? :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Gpig]

Try setting an ARMORED COVERED ARC for your Tank hunter teams. This works great for me. Mostly, you don't have to do this with the Tank Hunter teams, but it sure helps.

As for Pioneers, it would seem that you were just unlucky. I've seen them throw thier demo charges at tanks before but it is VERY rare. If they have Fausts they'll let loose with them first.

I don't think that Demo charges are an ideal anti tank device.

Hope that helps.

Gpig

[SgtMuhammed]

I have gotten good results with my tank hunters. In fact it seems they sometimes throw too many AT grenades or what not.

I have noticed though that my pioneers only seem to want to throw HE when they are INSIDE a building. I don't know how many times I have seen a building suddenly explode and then re-run it just to see my guys turn into suicide bombers. :mad:

[Tigrii]

Originally posted by Gpig:

[QB]Try setting an ARMORED COVERED ARC for your Tank hunter teams.

I did, as I said in my post, but thanks anyway.

[Tigrii]

Originally posted by Tigrii:

Oooops!

[KursruK]

Pioneers are excellent tank killers. 20 meters is good, but don't target the tanks, they will do it for you. Maybe you are just unlucky because Pioneers almost always work perfectly for me.

In terms of using the demo charges against soft targets at close range. NEVER, NEVER just let them fire away. Try and engage the enemy with a squad or two, and then "area target" just in front of the foxhole you're trying to take with the pioneers. They'll use the demo charges.

I don't know what you're doing wrong with the tank hunters. They also work wonders against armor. Try searching some of the threads on "tank hunters", there are a few that are very useful if you don't know what you're doing.

[ January 11, 2003, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: tigger ]

[Eden Smallwood]

Originally posted by Tigrii:

A pioneer platoon fights a suppressed german squad at 10m. They are all unsuppressed and there is no reason why they shouldn't chuck.

...except that this particular squad didn't want to blow *themselves* up; bold mine.

If you experiment, I think you'll find that pios prefer to be *between* 20 and 30 meters to use their BiggenBoomen.

In re arcs, it is unfortunately the case that a unit Hiding with a Cover Arc will Unhide when an enemy enters the Arc... which is completely *distinct* from saying 'when the unit is Ready to Shoot'. In fact, they can (still, in 101), unhide even though the appearing enemy is not even in LOS.

Try and keep your Ambush-ish Arcs within LOS, in such areas which strongly imply that your unit will have a 'Good Shot' for anyone in that Arc.

For roadside ambushes on travelling vehicles, I find it helps to counterintuitively extend the arc

towards the oncoming traffic, so that the unit has a second to stand up and look around and remember what the heck his job is before the enemy has already driven off...

In re other mentions here, like 'never never' and things... In my e' they seem to do pretty well on their own; I let them make the decision to Blast or not in 'normal' combat. The exceptions are at night/fog, when multi pios can easily blow each other half way to the Zip disk, and when you're trying to Area Fire yet not use up all charges- that's a toughie.

Eden

[Tigrii]

I just had a battle where I lost all my tanks (3 T-34/85s) to a platoon of panther Ds, but only killed one in return. I then had spectacular success with close assualt. I killed two panthers with 1 Tank Hunter team, 1 with a Pioneer squad (finally) and the last one miraculously succumbed to a squad and HQ, which hit it with 3 grenades and a molotov, but apparently it was too much for the crew. I don't blame them: they were immobilized by one of the grenades and lost the TC to a sharpshooter. I had two sharpshooters that were a tremendous help, they shocked every panther but one, which caused them to blunder blindly onto my HE-chuckers. The 20-30m pioneer advice was especially helpfull: My pioneers had 25m cover arcs, which a panther had the misfortune to blunder into. Thanks for the tip!