Basic fire and movement

[Debaker]

The American Army of the WW2 era adopted the fire and movement technique for a few simple reasons.

- It is easy to teach, learn and put into practise in a short amount of time.
- Practising and using the technique gave green soldiers confidence to move on a battlefield.

When it comes to the game I hardly see anyone adopting this tactic. I see people running around with the MG, not using it for covering advancing riflemen. You see clumps of riflemen staying back sniping while no one moves forward.

If you see somone crossing open ground, lay fire at any area you think an enemy may be, doorway, window or mound of rubble. If your amongst a group of sniping infantry move forward under their cover fire. Many maps are lost from people being to tentative to run grenades throwing at an objective while a MG lashes it with aggresive fire. If you are banging your head against a good defence find anohter way around.This is how most assaults took place on enemy positions. It wasn't elegant but it worked. Try it out and encourage teamates to think about this simple but proven tactic.

 

[Hyperion2010]

They've go the fire, they just need the move.

 

[akd]

The concept of "fire and movement" tactics is not the opposite of "camping." Fire and movement tactics do not work without suppression, and 15 second respawn times means no suppression. The whole idea is that the application of significant firepower pins the enemy in place and prevents return fire, allowing another friendly element to maneuver into a position to destroy the enemy. Also, this was in no way unique to the U.S. Army during World War II.

In this game, if you fire to suppress, you more often than not just attract immediate pinpoint return fire on yourself, without achieving any change in your opponents ability to respond to subsequent movement. It is better not to fire at all unless you are assured an immediate kill. No matter the volume of fire applied, shooting in the area of the enemy simply broadcasts where you are. Supporting fire or covering fire is a more useful tactic, where one friendly unit is availabe to provide an immediate response to enemy actions while another unit is moving.

Forcing suppression in a game environment that lacks the real world psychological impact is tricky. America's Army is on the only game I know of where it has been attempted, with your proximity to active enemy fire affecting your combat effectiveness (basically your aim). Most FPS players balk at the idea of having psychological effects imposed on their game avatar.

 

[druid]

Hehe, perhaps then we should have a 'morale' meter instead of just 'stamina', with a similar effect on swaying . Actually that's really not such a bad idea, is it? If a MG has been filling your sandbag with lead, your aim is probably going to be a little shaky for a while .

 

[Teapot]

I personally think that the MGs suppression blur should make your aim unstable so that it can emulate suppression. At the moment, if the mg is missing you, you have a perfect jump on it; which is all the time.

akd kinda hit the nail on the head there

 

[Lonestar Ranger]

Fire and Movement

Fire and Movement

Fire and movement is done as part of a small unit. Brothers in Arms game has great way to do this. Squad and team leaders have tools to tell their bot teams/squads to move to a location and to either lay down a base of fire or maneuver and assault. Bad part of that game is the team members are all bots. But same tools in RO with real people making up the teams would be great. In my humble opion and expressed in other threads, I believe RO needs similar type of tools and need provide time at beginning of scenario to organize for combat before the game begins. The problem with RO is that the game opens with everyone spawned and no time to organize anyone and most just move out to do their own thing, not all, but most. Noone in charge nor are their tools to enable this. I would at the very least add to the name ID of each person what small unit 5 man team they are on. You could have three five man teams on each side with A, B, C and then also Squad leader. Have the letter team show up on each man's name ID when you aim at them as is the case now with their name showing up. So you can know what small unit you are to working with and ID the members on your designated team. But don't expect fire and movement unless there is some organization for combat and ability to lead at the squad and team level. I would also not spawn individuals, I would spawn when you can provide a five man team. Units went into battle not individuals. Reinforcements should be in small five man units and when you spawn that becomes the unit you now work with. The remainder of your former team fights until all are eliminated and as they die, they go into pool to build another five man team. Spawning by teams would also be way initially to let you know the group you work with. YOu could have at the opening of each game three spawn sites, a different one for each five man team, but within supporting and visual distance of the other teams. My two cents.

 

[Theodrake]

I personally think that the MGs suppression blur should make your aim unstable so that it can emulate suppression. At the moment, if the mg is missing you, you have a perfect jump on it; which is all the time.

akd kinda hit the nail on the head there

Just turn off blur and you get a little darkening, but nothing that interferes with returning fire. I had blur on and ART/mg fire made it difficult to fire. My son hated it so turned it off. Without the aim point moving there is no effect.

In WW II the MG became more of a suppression weapon versus the mowing down a full frontal assault charge of WW I. I would say just increase fatigue instead of blurring. You would then need to rest to get back stamina. You also can't easily run away.

 

[[5.SS] Karlssen]

Hi all,

Well, all of this discussion could turn out very nicely into a concept for a mod; wouldn't you think. I have thought a lot about this too, but am still a noob in mod-creation, so it might take a while for me to learn the tutorials. But it'll be a dream to have these modifications of gameplay incorporated eventually for the tactically and real-world-simulation minded gamers like you and me; since now at least we have the tools. All in all, I meant to say that I share your opinions on this.

Regards,

[5.SS] Karlssen

 

[Bluehawk]

My clan's used this before on Koenigsplatz during a match. Our tank and DP pinned down the Germans on the opposite mound while the rifles rushed across and exchanged grenades, I even bayoneted an MG42 gunner We did this all the way to the steps of the Reichstag, with artillery loosening up the enemies when they started to bog us down.

On most maps, and obviously on random pubs it's much more effective to simply advance, dig in, kill the next wave of enemies and then advance in their wake. No flanks or facny coordination. I guess that's more WW1 style push and hold tactics but that's what the game descends into after heavy attrition plus the common player's disregard for survival.