Move that TOW! What are you? Girls?

[Secondbrooks]

Marines seemed to be quite okay. Then i saw TOWs on foot.

First:

-2-3 men teams? Is this correct in US viewpoint? In Finnish viewpoint this is fecking wrong, how those men are going to handle that bu*ger? We had full squad (7 men) dedicated to one of those.

This leads into second issue:

-Deploy 6 mins, pack up 10 mins... This piece of... er... tool is going to get blasted. We had less than 3 minutes to deploy and less than 2 minutes to pack-up and leave firepositions, this includes kevlar-mats and alumium-cage. I alone could deploy and pack up that thing faster than CMSF's marines. Sure once again i dont' know how US does these things and what it's drills are, but to me it seems complitely wrong way, team is too small and it performs too slow.

Third is related to second:

-They pack up TOW slower than deploy... It should be other way around.

I understand that CMSF can't handle TOW drills 100% like in reality, but still... Oh and same goes for Syrian ATGM's (why in the earth i havent' whined about them earlier? Because TOW didn't exist? I don't know)

So there. Sure i overreact, it's just that i feel myself important right now. However if this is the way US Marines (or Army) does it then okay i will cease my complaints here.

[JohnO]

That is the way USMC and US Army does it.

[MarkEzra]

Here's what I learned when playing with the TOW's: heavy inf weapons like the TOW are "deployed" at set up. That's great for defense but if you are attacking or just need to move than you'll want to click off deploy during the setup phase.

[Battlefront.com]

The way it works in the US is that it's the same team that drives around with the weapon mounted on a Humvee or stuck in the back of a truck/track. When they feel the need to dismount, they do so knowing that they aren't going anywhere without a ride. That's because they don't have the headcount to lug all that crap more than a few meters at a time. In theory they have their own ride and in theory it is nearby in case of emergency.

According to doctrine, dismounted TOWs, Mk19s, and M2s are for static defense only.

Steve

[Secondbrooks]

Thanks for replys. I quess i shut up

[Battlefront.com]

It was a good question! Some people have wondered how different the game experience will be between Army and Marines units. This may be one of those subtle differences, but those plus a few major ones add up. I can tell you that after all this Marines testing, when a scenario comes up with Army guys in them I feel like I'm handling something completely new, even though I've been playing with Army units for 3 years now

Some of the differences are obvious and can be pointed to, but the overall feeling can't be so easily pinned down. The Marines are definitely not the same as the Army, which is exactly how it should be

Steve

[Lee]

Secondbrooks: I guess the Finnish army places a greater priority on their TOW teams being able to move the TOW launcher around for best tactical positioning in a fast, flexible and efficient manner, so they make sure to provide enough men to do the job right.

I think this is a good idea that Finland has, you don't want to have to load the TOW back up onto a truck every time you want to move it more than a few feet (during which time you are quite vulnerable and much more visible to the enemy). That would pretty well limit the TOW's practical use to completely static defenses. The Finnish method provides much more flexibility and stealthy movement.

[SgtMuhammed]

The American use of the TOW in Hummers is as a Shoot and Scoot system. We rarely ground mounted the system, at least in the Army.

[purpheart23]

The U.S. military is built for the offensive. The Tow system is hardly ever grounded as far as I can tell for the exact reason that it is an unwieldy(is that a word?) beast. Being Artillery it's a system we don't get to play with a whole lot though so I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not