on foot flamethrowers

[Chad Harrison]

we all love the vehicle mounted flamethrower! but it seems like i can never get a "shot" of with my foot ones. i know smoke, and supression, and all that jaz, but are the any NEW suggestions to how to best utilize those slow juicy targets?

[Rebel]

The only time I have ever had success with 'em was in an urban setting, and with a special set of circumstnaces.

In a city fight, every house becomes a stronghold-with multiple doors.

What I do is throw up and attack- then run a Flamethrower around the back side, and get toasty

Works absolute friggin WONDERS on morale.

[Agua]

Chad, if you could just get JasonC in here ...

FT are just plain hard to use offensively. They stand probably better than a 50% chance of surviving if you are in heavy wooded terrain, your squads have the OPFOR surpressed, and you bring the FT up from the rear. Then you will frequently end up with fire in the woods, though which may be as much of a problem for you as it is for your opponent.

They're really much more likely to be successful, though, when used in ambush rather than on offense because, as you know, everything that has LOS to it will target it. There's just no way around that.

[edit follows] This is pretty obvious, but I'll just throw it out there. If you can get them some transport to a spot, through the LOS, it certainly helps quite a bit. Its even further help if the transport can aid in suppression such as a tank or HT. You're still going to have to have the target surpressed though.

[ 07-27-2001: Message edited by: Agua ]

[ 07-27-2001: Message edited by: Agua ]

[tenfive2]

They also work well on defense. Keep them out of the distance fire and they toast the enemy when he gets within range.

Like trees behind buildings. Love to watch the flames.

[olandt]

I've only found them useful on defense. Placed in a town with a supporting squad behind them they cn wreck HAVOC on an attacker. I usally place mine in the second row of buildings and let the attacker enter the first building. Once entered, light it up and watch em run. This has 2 very useful effects, first the obvious damage causing ability. Second, it denies important cover to your enemy increasing the distance his troops have to run for cover on the attack.

This will hopefully break up his first attack, then move your forces back and wash rince repeat.

On offense, no new ideas. If I have them, I usually have them hitch a ride to the front and have them only attack a properly suupressed strongpoint to wipe em out. Generally, my forces usually move far to fast for them to keep up.

[coralsaw]

IME, on offense, they are only useful if hidden to guard VLs.

Otherwise they cost too many points as casualties to keep on the map.

The TacAI has a cunning nose for backpacked fuel tanks, FSs are a real bullet magnet.

/coralsaw

[Chad Harrison]

good comments from everyone. i have never had much success with them on the offense, but i have had great stories of good, close, and toasty ambushes!

i always try to keep a halftrack with them when i can for both the MG suppression fire and for transporting, seems to be an effective combo.

maybe in CM2 they can add a little animation to the flamers dying with some FLAME! atleast when they got toasted by every gun weilding succer in sight, it would be cool to watch!

[imported_Wildman]

A great tactic that got used against me in a URBAN setting.

Guy brought three flamethrowers in the middle of town and set every building I could use to approach the VL on fire. The only way to get rid of the burning building is to drop arty on it, but the big block buildings just don't like to get blown up much.

[Cos]

I've had some sucess with them at night and/or fog, as the los is shorter. Move forward till the edge of their range and roasted the building with all those airborne boys in it.

[Ronf]

my bro just told me that he toasted a mg nest with a flamer in a recent ip-game, but it was lonely and suppressed by inf-fire from opposite direction, so that the flamer could savly approach.

[nedlam]

In a current PBEM battle i've use the FT's strictly in defense. One was used to set a wheat field on fire to deny the enemy the only possible approach with cover. The other I used to cover the movement of some of my troops caught out in the middle of nowhere. I set some woods and brush on fire. The ensuing smoke and flames worked as a nice screen for my boys.

I've never really had much success with them offensively. Save the occasions firey burst that would make an infantry unit wet there pants and start running. But then they FT would get lit up by the surrounding unitsthe very nesxt turn, if not sooner.

Nedlam

[EricM]

I once managed to get a flamethrower into action on attack and knocked out a bunker . The rest of the time they just seem to be targets. I just had one riding on the back of a Sherman with a .50 cal unit and he got snuffed from very long range.

:eek: It didn't even cause the tank commander to button up. Must have been an expert sniper that got a head shot.

Eric

[CMplayer]

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

my bro just told me that he toasted a mg nest with a flamer in a recent ip-game, but it was lonely and suppressed by inf-fire from opposite direction, so that the flamer could savly approach.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ha! That was in a game against me! It's

true, I had an LMG42 doing picket duty

out on a flank, and it was shooting at

some Yank infantry when a flamethrower

appeared behind it and, well, squirt...

you know the rest. I believe his comment

in the chat window was 'my flamer aint

no lamer'. To be honest, since it was

an IP game, I wasn't watching that area

of the movie, so I had to rewind to go

see it.

--Rett

[jwxspoon]

I see the on-foot flamethrowers used most effectively on defense. The way I use them is to hide them and place an ambush point in the area you want them to attack. Once they fire they will not last long but you can have some spectacular successes with them when they work. In an urban setting I will put them on the second floor of a building (hidden). In the woods on dfense I will put them hidden to one side and slightly behind a platoon. Your enemy will almost always be ambushed by your infantry first, and there's no better way to cap the ambush than to add some liquid flame to the mix.