Please teach me how to use smoke effectively

[Murph]

Folks:

I've been playing this game avidly for MONTHS, and I've got to admit it...I've NEVER EVER used smoke.

Now, I read this forum and all the great tutorials, and it's obvious that smolke is a vital element in attack and defense.

Can anyone give me a few tips for both? Like in the attach, when you have to cross a field to get to the enemy on the other side, do you just put up a smoke screen and "charge through it"?

Perhaps there are other informative threads on this topic. If you could point me to it instead of telling me to do a search, I would much appreciate it.

Cheers,

Murph

[109 Gustav]

Use it when you don't want the enemy to know what you're doing. If you don't want him to know that you're assaulting across that open field, use an 81mm arty spotter to put some smoke down there first. When you advanced into a horrible ambush and there's no way out except over open ground covered by your opponent's MGs, pop smoke to cover your retreat.

I don't use it all that often either. Try it a couple of times against the AI and see if you like it.

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And pray my body will be found, Alaska salmon fishing, boys, Alaska salmon fishing.

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[jasoncawley@ameritech.net]

Usually you don't have smoke to spare for just a dangerous-looking field. Someone has to scoot across it and see if anyone is looking and able to shoot first - LOL.

Seriously, you can't afford to use 1/3rd of an FOs rounds on a nervous feeling. But if you know the field is covered by lots of enemy fire, then sure getting across it might be a job for smoke.

Other jobs for smoke are -

1. taking an individual enemy weapon out of the battle temporarily. This is a favorite use for the few smoke-rounds an on-board mortar may have available, or for tanks with smoke rounds. Just pick an "area target" in open ground about 50-100 yards ahead of it - closer for short-range firefights obviously. When the smoke boils up, that shooter can't see, and for a minute or three he is out of the fight. If he caught people in the open, or his fire was giving your company HQ fits and had them pinned, or to save a vital FO from that machinegun that just noticed him - all clear cases. This works best against a gun or bunker that can't move at all, and reasonably well against other types if movement foward or to the side of the smoke would be dangerous for them or take too long, when the target can get clear of LOS soon.

2. A more offensive-minded use is to isolate a portion of the enemy force from the rest. E.g. you drop a smoke screen that lets all your guys fight just his forward, or right flank platoon, while the supporting fires of the rest of his forces are all masked. The off-map mortar FOs can deliver smoke this "big", if you are hitting someone from the right angle or some of his guys are much farther forward than others. With all your guns against 1/3rd of his, you may wipe him out quickly, and by the time the smoke clears the overall odds can be in your favor.

3. Another use of smoke is to even the odds against ranged weapons, especially for infantry AT weapons or the special engineer's toys. A Panzerfaust doesn't have much range. But a tank can't see any farther than the squad that has one, in smoke. Smoke the tank and rush next to it, and the Faust may bag it at 10-20 yards. Without, the tank's MGs would chew up the squad easily. Or, a flamethrower can take out that pillbox, but only at 30 yards or less, and the MGs in it fire 500 yards. Well in smoke, the flamethrower's range is as far as the eye can see - LOL. Similarly, SMG armed infantry can get an edge against rifle or MG armed enemies, by tackling them in smoke.

4. Another defensive use of smoke is to break contact with an attacker who has too much firepower for you to stay and shoot it out. Dump smoke on, or just ahead of, your guys in a jam, and then run to the rear before it clears. Pulling out like that means your own fire slacks off, and enemies stop being suppressed. So you can get cut up pretty badly without some sort of help, and smoke can do the trick.

Just some examples. Smoke is very useful. Learning when and how to use it can save your bacon in many different ways.

[Gremlin]

I'd recommend playing the scenario "Merry Xmas at Hemroulle" (included with CM) as the Germans. Experiment with your 81mm FO's, as they have lots of ammo for setting up some big screens. You'll find it very useful and instructive. A very fun scenario all around, and also good for teaching how to lead a tank assault on dug-in positions.

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[Matt the Paladin]

Smoke is tricky to use because it can function as a double-edged sword. If the situation changes your own smoke can end up saving the enemy. I don't really see how smoke can be used defensively, it seems like an attacking weapon to me. I use it to block out the powerful high-range defensive weapons that attackers often face. A few smoke shells can take an AT bunker out of the fighting lon enough for me to get a flamethrower nearby.

Another favorite of mine is to make a huge smokescreen that covers a whole bunch of enemy troops. Then I move in a bunch of heavy SMG units and flamethrowers, who will then massacre the riflemen at close range. In my opinion, all smoke is good for is to let close range units get within striking distance of long range units.

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"War is like a cat, it is easy to let out of the bag, but hard as hell to put back in!"

-Me

[BK6583]

I don't know how I'd play this game w/o smoke - I find it indespensable. I do agree, however, that using arty spotters to lay smoke is not desirable. I have found in most of the scenrios and operations that I've played that tanks, on-board mortars, and on-board sp arty usually have enough smoke rounds to put down decent smoke screens, leaving a arty spotter for strictly HE fire.

[Matt the Paladin]

Smoke is tricky to use because it can function as a double-edged sword. If the situation changes your own smoke can end up saving the enemy. I don't really see how smoke can be used defensively, it seems like an attacking weapon to me. I use it to block out the powerful high-range defensive weapons that attackers often face. A few smoke shells can take an AT bunker out of the fighting lon enough for me to get a flamethrower nearby.

Another favorite of mine is to make a huge smokescreen that covers a whole bunch of enemy troops. Then I move in a bunch of heavy SMG units and flamethrowers, who will then massacre the riflemen at close range. In my opinion, all smoke is good for is to let close range units get within striking distance of long range units.

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"War is like a cat, it is easy to let out of the bag, but hard as hell to put back in!"

-Me

[Pak40]

Hi Murph, I posted this last month but here it is again:

Smoke is very usefull, but needs to be done properly and timed well. Don't use onboard mortars or tanks to make a mass smoke screen. They usually dont have enough rounds to effectively make one. They are only good for blocking the LOS of one MG or AT gun.

To properly make a mass smoke sceen use offboard mortars. It's cheap, fast firing and plenty of smoke rounds in a massed area. The smoke, however, will only last 1.5 turns typically.

Use smoke in 4 different ways:

1. Smoke the open ground which your men will have to cross before reaching some sort of cover. This is effective if your enemy is on the flank.

2. Smoke the cover which your men will move into. This should put up a big enough screen so that the enemy never sees your men moving into the cover. When your men get to the cover, hide them so that they are not seen when the smoke goes away. Then bring up supporting tanks etc. to launch your assualt.

3. Send scouts ahead to "find" some enemy forces. Once you determine where the main enemy forces are, drop smoke on top of them. They will be blind and your infantry and tanks will be able to move into position. I like this tactic the best, especially if I need to get some tanks in to position.

4. Use smoke as a bluff. Drop it in an open or semi-open area but have your men sneak up a different route using as much tree cover as possible. He may see a couple of your sneaking men but he will suspect your main attack is coming from the smoked area.

[jasoncawley@ameritech.net]

One fellow said - "I don't really see how smoke can be used defensively"

I mentioned using it to break contact with an attacking enemy. Smoking a single weapon also works the same for either side, except that the attackers are usually a bit more mobile. Not always, though (e.g. if the ground ahead is too dangerous).

But another defender's use is to mask an attacker's "fire base" or overwatch positions, leaving his forward manuevering or "bounding" elements without covering fire. This is similar to its use of the attack, when one set of defender's is cut off from another by a smoke screen and the attack them shoots up the defenders that aren't masked by the smoke. But there are some differences.

The attacker almost always will have some units well ahead of most of his firepower, simply because he does not want to put all of his guys into the same potential ambush zone or walk them en masse under a TRP. It is a very common tactic to have a large force able to shoot at a potential defender's position, then advance a smaller force to actually enter the position. The idea is, if he shoot the men in the open, the fire base replies and kills the defenders who thus exposed themselves. Clear enough.

But if there is smoke between the attackers trying to enter your position, and their overwatch fire-base, then the attackers come in basically alone.

One reason this isn't all that common is that it can be better to dump HE on the fire-base instead, if off-map artillery is available. That won't work if you've only got 81mm mortars and the overwatch force is a tank platoon, though. The mortar shells won't do anything to them (cept maybe button them if they aren't already), whereas the smoke would block their fire fine.

[CombinedArms]

I just thought of another important use for smoke to go with all of the excellent suggestions above--use smoke, in conjunction with infantry recon, to attack over a ridgeline. Let's say you suspect the enemy has a group of AFVs waiting to ambush you on the reverse slope of a ridgeline. As you crest the ridge, you get targeted and nailed before you can go hull down or bring your guns to bear.

Now, to follow the suggested tactic, slip an infantry squad or two over the ridgeline on either or both flanks, preferably under trees or other cover, and get a peek at where the suspected AFVs are waiting to whack you. Then, if conditions look favorable, lay smoke along the ridgeline and hanging just over it with your own tanks for a couple of turns, which will allow you to precisely build up a solid but well defined line just where you plan to cross. With your infantry spotting on the flanks, you can still see the enemy AFVs, so pre-target them with your own tanks and order your tanks to move forward simultaneously over the ridgelines so that they burst thru at the same moment and their turrets just stick out of the smoke. Suddenly you're over the ridge and firing en masse on the surprised enemy. He gets ambushed instead of you. Then, if you're worried about shrecks/zooks or ATs, pull back into the smoke.

I first tried this in the Demo scenario Chance Encounter--I assume this isn't a spoiler for anyone-- where the five allied Shermans can knock out the three German StuGs in one turn--perhaps in a few seconds.

For this to work your tanks' guns have to be able to penetrate the enemy's frontal armor--so I would not try it with Shermans against a Panther or King Tiger. Against these, you might try similar ridgeline tactics but use the smoke to mask a flanking maneuver. It also helps if your AFVs outnumber the enemy's, so he's suddenly presented with more targets than he can handle. Turretless assault guns or tanks with slow turrets are particularly vulnerable to such surprises. Again, it will only work under the right conditions but under those conditions can produce dramatic and spectacular results. This might work best in Meeting Engagements like CE where the enemy hasn't had the chance to get too dug in, but it can be adapted to other situations involving ridgelines.

[This message has been edited by CombinedArms (edited 02-17-2001).]

[Clubfoot]

Murph,

I'll admit that I do frequently use artillery fire for smoke.

It's useful for covering large assaults (when the enemies main position of strength is known) as well moving weighty columns of men and armor in a surreptitious manner.

The ability to move units past defensive firing arcs and directly into a defenders area of strength limits (a little) a defender's innate advantages. This also allows you to take advantage of turret and ground speed when playing as the Allies.

For the clandestine movement I mentioned, my specific example would be bridge crossings. Smoke the hell out of a well covered bridge and move over and past it, often to positions of concealment on the other side of the bridge (play All or Nothing). The enemy will know you've made troop movements over said bridge, but when the smoke clears and there's nothing to see, he'll have no clue as to the strength of the force you've moved.

just my own .02

Clubfoot.

[This message has been edited by Clubfoot (edited 02-17-2001).]

[aka_tom_w]

bump?

[xerxes]

Part of using smoke is to also not misuse it. Smoking a position you plan to assault is questionable unless there is no way for the defender to retreat.

I've been in a number of situations where the attackers smoke has effectively covered my withdrawal.

I've also seen smoke obscure the bulk of the attackers force but a firelane here and there lies through the smoke. The attackers that happen upon these firelanes get slaughtered and the rest of the attackers weapons can't be brought to bear on the defensive units that are firing.

Some of the best uses for smoke are in city fighting. Isolating a defensive position is often critical. Onboard mortars, as Jason pointed out, are often the weapon of choice. You can get nice isolating smoke screens on each side of the approach to a position.

[PiggDogg]

Murph,

The real short answer on smoke:

"Drop smoke between your guys and something that wants to whack your guys."

Cheers, Richard