What does the "Acquire" button do??

[thejetset]

Some of the units have the Acquire button available. What is this command used for??

[YankeeDog]

It's used for acquiring more ammunition (including "specials" like infantry AT weapons) from vehicles. The command doesn't work unless the unit has embarked into a vehicle carrying ammunition.

You can, however, split off a team from a squad, and have just the team board the vehicle to acquire the ammo. Then the ammo will be shared amongst the squad when the team re-joins.

Edited to add: Same as in CMSF.

[MikeyD]

If you're in a vehicle that has 'stuff' stowed Acquire gives you a menu of things for your men to pick up. Everything from extra Colt pistol ammo to bazookas and zook rounds, depending on the vehicle and the unit. In the CMSF Marine module the big armored trucks were a regular treasure trove of acquireable weapons/ammo.

[thejetset]

Great! Thanks! .... Si I guess that US Halftrack in the "Closing the Gap" scenario is good for something after all! It's got a bunch of AT rockets in it but I had no idea how to access them ... until now.

[Rabid_Rabbit]

At first I thought it might allow you to pick up mg's who had their crew killed but I was mistaken . . . any idea how to re-man mg's?

[YankeeDog]

"Buddy Aid" will sometimes pick up weapons. Just leave another unit next to the WIA/KIA crew, and they will perform first aid (reducing the chance that WIA turn into KIA), and also scrounge any, AT specials, etc. They may also swap their weapon for the downed soldier's weapon, if it's better than their own. There's a random chance thing here that's beyond the player's control; sometimes, they take the weapon, sometimes they don't. Units with very poor weapons (vehicle crews with pistols, for example) seem more likely to pick up a new weapon.

Units doing buddy aid will definitely sometimes pick up the squad automatic weapon of another unit that's down for the count (BAR for Americans, or bipod MG42 for Germans in CMBN), but I'm not sure if units will pick up an HMG42 or .30 Browning from a dedicated MG team... I suspect not. Other soldiers within an MG team will definitely take over the MG gunner position in a dedicated MG team, if the gunner goes down but the MG is still operable -- note that the MG itself can be knocked out by incoming fire, in which case, even if the MG team is still at 100%, obviously they won't be able to fire the MG.

[Drescher]

i was just playing "Closing the pocket" and had a platoon hq give buddy aid to one of its squads. After a while i clicked on them to see that they were now armed with 1 MP and 2 MGs, quite a lot of firepower for a 3men team

One other thing i noticed was that their MGs both had the drum magazine. Could this be because there was no dedicated ammo carrier in the team? Or just coincidence, meaning the squad they picked this one up from was equipped with drummagazines instead of belts?

[Hawkmek]

I was trying to Acquire a schrek last night. My 2 man team lost the original shrek gunner so I wanted the other guy to pick it up and help me out but he wouldn't do it. Very frustrating.

[YankeeDog]

I was trying to Acquire a schrek last night. My 2 man team lost the original shrek gunner so I wanted the other guy to pick it up and help me out but he wouldn't do it. Very frustrating.

There is always a chance that a soldier performing Buddy Aid will not pick up the particular weapon or AT you want him to, even in situation like you describe, where the weapon in question is the primary weapon for the team (as the Panzerschreck is for a Panzerschreck team). I assume this is meant to represent a situation where the weapon has actually been damaged and therefore is no longer usable.

As to the 3-man team with 2 MG42s, I've noticed this sort of thing can happen -- it happens in CMSF too. Seems to me like the weapons scrounging algorithm could be tweaked a bit -- a 3 man team with 2 MG42s strikes me as unlikely and unwieldy.

And in re the MG42s having drums rather than belts, from what I've seen, CMBN always portrays squad LMG42s with a drum. But this may just be a graphical thing. As I understand it, IRL they would use drums or belts, depending on the situation.

[MikeyD]

Sometimes the 'valuable weapon' in question simply exceeds the buddy-aiding soldier's weight limit so he can't pick it up.

[chas_in_mlb]

I was trying to Acquire a schrek last night. My 2 man team lost the original shrek gunner so I wanted the other guy to pick it up and help me out but he wouldn't do it. Very frustrating.

If you form an antitank team out of a full (or mostly full) squad they will most definitely be able to acquire the weapon.

I wish I had known about this command a long time ago. All those extra zooks would have come in verrry handy with all the building clearing I find I'm doing. Having AT teams running about with full loads of 8 or 10 rounds never hurts, either. Now I use PIATs for building clearing, which is rather a bit of fun.

[Peregrine]

If near buildings or orchards your units also grab chickens and apples and such serving as a type of power up.

[chas_in_mlb]

In the series "The World At War" a British tanker describes how one guy in his tank kept two jerry cans of water in the engine compartment, always on the boil. If he spied a pig wandering around, he'd kill it, drag it into the tank and scald the pig some time later, skin it and they'd have fresh pork chops.

That is scrounging, my friend.