Spotting IED's

[Eagle2]

I'm sure this has been covered before, but I really don't have the time to sift through thousands of posts looking for the one peice I need. So is there any way to spot IED's? I'm sure if it's a wired one it wouldn't be too hard to spot, but I've played various scenarios with wire and radio IED's and have never had one of my units spot them. It gets really annoying when I keep walking my men into IED ambushes after they've been sitting 25 meters from it for 3 minutes.

[Alan8325]

As far as I know, no, but some British vehicles have IED jammers, which only work against radio and cell IEDs, and of course it's always possible to kill the trigger man. He normally opens up with his AK at some point giving away his position, especially in missions against the AI.

[Eagle2]

Really now? Which vehicles would this be? Or a more focused question, how can you tell these vehicles have this equipment? Is there a symbol, like with the BFT?

[Paper Tiger]

Both the Warrior and the Bulldog are fitted with anti-IED and ECM mounts. When it's present, the symbol is the blue horizontal saw-tooth wave line.

[c3k]

Wouldn't it be nice if a tool-tip brought up a balloon stating that when you ran your cursor over that symbol?

(Ducks and runs...)

Ken

[Jonny(FGM)]

Yes i have no idea what most of those symbols in the defence panel mean (apart from the obvious ones like slat armor and ERA)

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Wouldn't it be nice if a tool-tip brought up a balloon stating that when you ran your cursor over that symbol?

(Ducks and runs...)

Ken

*runs alongside c3k*

Honestly, I don't get it. I would've expected tool tips all over the damn game by now. Not least in the artillery/air support section, which is only marginally informative at the best of times.

[Chops]

*Jogs along with c3k and Elmar* yeah, seriously. How about some more tool-tips?

[Dietrich]

*gazes in puzzlement at three men running side by side off into the distance, then shrugs*

I'm all for more tooltips.

Isn't the IED jammer listed by name in the "components" panel?

In the vast majority of the scenarios which have IEDs, I only notice the IEDs when I spot them during the usual after-action map review -- for whatever reason they don't go off.

[Ryujin]

I've noticed the same, it's been a long time since I've actually had one detonate. Usually the triggerman gets killed, runs away, or it just doesn't go boom. They're really not much of a threat.... I've parked on several before without it ever going off. I think they at least need unarmed triggermen so that there's a slight chance it'll go off, especially vs the AI.

[Jonny(FGM)]

I've been owned by IEDs before several times. I think a good solution would be to allow the equipment quality affect how well they can be spotted, IE how well they've been buried. But i don't see it happening

[Jonny(FGM)]

I think they at least need unarmed triggermen so that there's a slight chance it'll go off, especially vs the AI.

I suppose the scenario designers could set the triggerman to vet or better with ambush 50m orders, then at least the triggerman would obey the cover arc order, i think low quality troops get jittery and tend to fire outside their cover arcs

[Sgt Joch]

In the vast majority of the scenarios which have IEDs, I only notice the IEDs when I spot them during the usual after-action map review -- for whatever reason they don't go off.

IEDs have a 10-20% failure rate to begin with and the cell phone/radio ones can be jammed by the BLUE player's vehicle IED jammers. The wire controlled IEDs are more reliable (10% failure rate) and they cannot be jammed.

Of course, if your triggerman is killed before you activate the IED, all bets are off.

One of the more frustating aspects of playing as RED is when your IED fails to go off when you have a BLUE vehicle parked right on top of it.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Well it happens lol.

Saw a documentary about jihadists in afghanistan and they messed up an IED ambush because one of the guys forgot which IED he put on which radio channel lol

[Sgt Joch]

just a few more thoughts, in real life, IEDs are very difficult to spot which is why they unfortunately account for the death of a few NATO soldiers almost every week these days.

In the game, IEDs are, of course, simplified compared to RL. IEDs are different depending on the country and the terrain. As a general rule, IEDs in Iraq were more complex and sophisticated than what is found in Afghanistan. On the other hand, IEDs in Iraq were somewhat easier to spot, if you knew what to look for, since they could not be easily buried under paved roads. This is not an issue in Afghanistan were almost are the roads are unpaved.

further reading:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/ied-iraq.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/world/asia/15ied.html?_r=1

In game, the most prudent tactic is to presume the Red player has IEDs or mines and that he will place them at chokepoints where your vehicles will go: i.e, roads, crossroads, entrance to a town/village, etc.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending what side you are playing ), scenario designers rarely give the Red player the amount of IEDs/mines which would cause a real headache to the Blue player.

[DaveDash]

How to avoid IEDS:

Take a MGS, Tank, or Engineer Platoon. Create a big hole in the walls surrounding enemy structures. Go that way.

Avoid roads when possible

Go the non-obvious route, even if it appears more difficult. Im a big fan of going up around mountians and hills, along the sides of swamps etc, instead of along roads.

After losing two Strykers full of men way back in the day to an IED in Mission 2 of Task Force Thunder (airfield mission) I will never go the 'obvious' route again. IEDs havn't bothered me since, and I get GREAT enjoyment after finishing the map seeing loads of them sitting around uselessly doing nothing.

Because of this, I don't feel they should be easier to spot (simply because they can be avoided relatively easily, you can't IED everywhere).