Tactics Suppression

[Atomskytten]

Just out of curiosity..

Just out of curiosity..

How many of you have experienced being truly suppressed in RO by enemy fire, not artillery dropping on you but direct fire from infantry or vehicles, which made you run for cover and do nothing more than wait behind full cover till either the suppression fire stopped or the enemies was killed by your team mates?

I can recall only a few instances where that have happened and in all instances the sources of me being suppressed was either tanks/vehicles or a machinegun hosing the area around me down, normal rifle/smg fire very rarely appears enough of a threat to me to make make me crawl into cover without firing back at the ones who tried to nail me.

 

[Reznor]

Well, you can't use the normal infantry weapons for longer suppression fire, but often its enough if you force the enemy to take cover for a brief second - which simply means he won't shoot back for a short time.

Suppression alone doesn't kill - its more like gaining a little bit control over the situation or distracting the enemy and using that against him.
MGs tend to "hold down" the enemy, the normal infantry weapons are usually more distractive.
Suppress your enemy into cover with a SMG/Semi-auto at the beginning of the encounter to take control over the situation: While he is in cover its your turn to decide what to do:
In any case, change your position from where your enemy saw you last - either take cover a few meters away and get ready to pick him off once he raises his head (watch for nades and/or use nades yourself) or advance quickly to suprise him at close distance.
Works perfectly with the russian smgs

 

[Trendkill]

Of course MGs are very good for supression, whether they be vehicle mounted or carried by infantry but snipers can also do this; I've thrown myself behind cover numerous times when a bullet thuds into the ground near me, somehow you can usually tell when it's a sniper rather than just a stray bullet.

 

[Wiglaf]

Supression isn't atleast in the game. The reason why atleast some armies are so concerned in volume of fire is that it kicks up dust, depris and is morally frigtening/ nerving.
This is modelled in game by motion blur this how ever fails to get their heads down. On closer range compat is about who kills fasted and that is indeed all very well and fine, but on longer range many simply wait it to wear off and shoot the mg as yuo can rely on being more accurate whit rifle.

What would happen in real life is that the burst would cause yuo to hug the ground and yuo would have to aim again.Instead in game yuor aim is rock solid and yuo can reply faster than the mg can reaim.
Indeed I hope that enough volume close enough could cause yuo go off the iron sites so yuo would have to take time rising the again or atleast cause swaying/twitching.
Blur as such is fine even overdone.

Ofcource the advantage of highvolume in penetrating objects is not possible whit current engines. This is not such a big deal as wall penetrating bullets rarely have enough power to kill anymore reliably. Mainly it's the bullets shatter.
It exist, but not to degree it's pimped out in CS, still small feature that would be nice. Not just priority.

 

[Sabre242]

All this is a valid point. Providing you don't mind you're position being given away, supression is great for stalling enemy attacks, and if the enemies are wise they'll know not to pop their head over those sandbags for a bit. Even if you know you're not hitting anyone, if you keep firing at the same spot, the enemies wont go there, and if you diversify a little, you could get a team mate to help by shooting nearby to effectively pin the enemies down, and then you can get in there and hunt 'em down

 

[DaedalusAI1]

It sounds like most people don't understand what suppression and fire superiority is. One rifleman trying to suppress another rifleman is obsurd. Now if you have 6 people with boltys/semi's/mg's fireing on 2-3 people, chances are they won't be able to take aim. If the people that are suppressing are horrible shots close to where the enemy is then they aren't being effective. You want to aim your shots, but you want to aim quick and take the shot. Even if you miss, it will be dangerously close. If you don't have people that are moving up on their position then all you are doing is getting yourself into a firefight that will be won by the better shot.

The situation that most of you are talking about is when you see someone, you shoot a few rounds at them and miss, they take cover, barely peek out and kill you. Or someone else kills you while you were distracted with the guy you were fireing at. If this happens then that just means you don't have fire superiority in that engagement and you also need to work on your aim. You were one guy trying to, in essence, take on two guys and that is a bad situation.

I for one do like to use suppressing fire when i'm working with people. This new Clan I joined, we work on assaulting positions and when we do this we use suppressing fire, we also do the drills with only one life so if you die, you don't go reenforce. When you do this and use suppressing fire, then a team can take an objective rather quickly and with one life or hold an objective for some decent time. If not then it becomes a drawn out shoot out and takes longer. I strongly beleive that if you have a team that works together and uses fire and maneuver tactics, (includes suppressing fire) the assaulting team can win most maps relatively quickly. Most people are just concerned with their own virtual life so they won't be supporting you and that is why suppression doesn't work in this game. Because most people never practice it and learn how to do it effectively as a team. If you are the only person on your team trying to suppress the enemy, then you are just asking to get shot.

 

[Bonzer5]

It would be nice to get things organized to the point where you could have true suppression and assault teams, probably only in a dedicated clan scenario. You would have to have people dedicated to their role in the squad. Have any of you ever played Brothers in Arms, the suppression/assault system there is modeled pretty closely on US WW2 infantry squad tactics. I'm not sure what exactly the Russian or German squad tactics were, but I imagine that they were pretty similar.

 

[Demjansk]

I'm not sure what exactly the Russian or German squad tactics were, but I imagine that they were pretty similar.

Here is the U.S. Army's thoughts on the subject circa 3/45:

http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/FreeFiles/Downloads_Misc/german tactics.txt

 

[MattyDienhoff]

Suppression does work in RO to an extent. While it's true that it's impossible for any player to truly fear for their virtual life, I think it's safe to say that you instinctively take cover when the bullets are getting too close because to not do so results in death more often than not. Death is an inconvenience and while it is unreasonable to go to extreme lengths to avoid danger (staying in spawn, for example), most sensible players will act to avoid death within reason, this includes taking cover when taking heavy fire.

Also, it's easily possible for a unit to be pinned down by another with equal or even inferior firepower if the receiving party has no idea where their attacker is. For example, the other day I was playing as a Russian machine gunner on Moscow beta 2, I was guarding the ammunition bunker. I had the DP28 set up on sandbags, and I had a wide arc to cover, so I had to keep my wits about me. I know this sounds strange, but a German with an STG44 actually managed to suppress me a few times. "How could this be?" You may ask. I had the MG set up, I was waiting, staying completely still so I could see movement up ahead, and I suddenly started taking accurate fire from somewhere, I didn't see where it was coming from, his first shots missed but as he adjusted his aim they came closer and closer, and I still couldn't see him, to stay in view any longer searching for the source of the attack would almost certainly have resulted in death, so I took cover, and I was suppressed. I had distinct advantages over my attacker, my weapon had a higher rate of fire, I was already in position and ready to react while he had to move into position, and yet I was forced to take cover because I couldn't see the enemy but he could see me. That's suppression.

 

[rossmum]

Yeah, Matty's right. More than once I've kept a DP gunner's head down with a few carefully-aimed K98, StG44 or G43 rounds. I also tend to hit the deck if I can when being shot at - I actually physically flinch and duck down as I play as rounds come close or the ground starts blowing up around me, just instinctual I guess.