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Using smoke/mortars and indirect fire


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So how are people getting on with this? Smoke plays an important part in this game, and I can't really make the best use of it yet. Smoke from mortar rounds doesn't really last very long, and certainly doesn't linger like you'd expect it to so you don't have very long in which to plan your moves.

As for indirect fire from either mortars or infantry guns, this is playing an increasingly important part in this game too. I find the howitzers more valuable than mortars, because they offer more rounds, larger explosives, and generally better performance in my opinion.

What do you guys think?

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I've ditched the mortars for howitzers for the same reason, but they are harder to protect from airattack. I have a field battery of 4 howitzers with a backup of AA and an inf platoon.

I agree smoke is important, I haven't worked out to use it efficiently yet. I wish tanks could use their smoke grenades tho, I wouldn't loose so many tanks then.

I'm starting to get the hang of infantry as well and am not loosing them all in the first 5 min anymore. I think people are loosing inf. all the time not because of bad AI, but because the little buggers require alot of micromanagement. (maybe that IS bad AI). Anyway it is do-able

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I tend to agree with you - mission 4 is a good example of micromanagement where infantry is concerned. If you adopt these tactics with all your infantry you stand a better chance of surviving, but it's still a turkey-shoot up against machine gun nests from afar. I still think certain aspects of this game need addressing, but it is pretty good.

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my hummel's don't seem to have the same indirect fire capabilities on mission (*) (german), that is the same as the demo mission. They don't seem to be able to fire indirect at all. has something been changed in the patch?

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The reason is the arc of fire is realistically modelled in this game. Wespes and Hummels were used at much greater ranges than are possible in this game. On a 1 or 2km square map only direct fire is possible with such weapons. They cannot raise their guns high enough for a short range indirect shot on a game map.

It is possible to use them in some instances as the physics are there however it is rare that the cursor shows a possible indirect fire possibility.

You have to be thankful that these vehicles are in the game (just for variety etc) and when they appear on the front line they are not really in their element, they should really be 5 to 10km behind the front line firing indirect and never see the enemy.

What can be modelled here are instances where a battery behind the lines is overrun by a surprise breakthrough etc.

Smaller calibre indirect weapons like the 8cm mortar can and do fire indirect fire reliably are they as designed for short range front line usage.

I find the best little indirect weapon in the game is the German 7.5cm infantry gun. This too though of larger calibre is designed for front line usage.

Cheers

Alan

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In the manual, maybe you have the explanation:

Note that a gunner calculates the shell trajectory for the currently

loaded shell and you cannot reload the gun without firing it first. So if a howitzer is not already loaded with a high-explosive shell,

it won’t be able to fire a high arc and will have to first fire a grazing

shot at a target in line of sight (e.g. by means of Area Fire), before you

can manually change the shell type to high-explosive (and you should

in fact do that BEFORE firing the old ammo, see Vehicle Information

Panel).

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In the manual, maybe you have the explanation:

Note that a gunner calculates the shell trajectory for the currently

loaded shell and you cannot reload the gun without firing it first. So if a howitzer is not already loaded with a high-explosive shell,

it won’t be able to fire a high arc and will have to first fire a grazing

shot at a target in line of sight (e.g. by means of Area Fire), before you

can manually change the shell type to high-explosive (and you should

in fact do that BEFORE firing the old ammo, see Vehicle Information

Panel).

so the hummel will fire indirect?

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yes Robecq, almost every gun in the game can fire indirect within the map, but the minimal range depends mainly on the gun's muzzle velocity, the gun max. elevation and the height of the obstacle over which to fire. I've made some testing, it's better to fire HE but it's only a few meters nearer. The Wespe is better for indirect fire than the Hummel btw.

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One of the difficulties that I've had re: indirect fire is that if you choose say 2 hummels and try to fire indirect, the cursor showing is a yes for area firing, but if you choose each tank individually, the cursor has a cross thru it.

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