Tactics Squad Leaders: Use your damn SMOKE!!!

[TheRealGunther]

The general rule for smoke is its mainly an offensive tool to smoke the enemy line so your team can advance to the cap.On the defensive is where you have to be smart smoking your own defensive lines will often help the enemy team.

A smart way to use defensive smoke is to the flanks on the approach to the defensive cap.Its often more effective to just smoke screen blockers killing your guys getting into the cap.Than to actually push the flank to kill them leaving the cap with fewer defenders.

Many players get this wrong though smoking their own defensive lines blocking any effective lines of fire your team has.Allowing the attacking team a easy path to the zone.

Learning to place effective smoke can be tricky you just have to think how will this help my team.Just be careful on the defense not to block your defenders line of sight.Which you need for an effective defensive position.

 

[mothyp]

i think this is all quite subjective and down to the individuals idea of what are good tactics, ive never been in the military but then again i doubt anyone has from this era and from what ive read smoke grenades were not the norm or used heavily, anyhow i play sl a lot and tend to use smoke to enable my side to get out of spawn in the follwing examples

fallen fighters allies, dropped on the left flank as far as possible to stop the tank or mgers that have set up on the border of C and D, it save a lot of lives even though they tend to blind fire through it, this at least give us a chacne to populate c and get in some defensive positions to hold c

commisars allies anywhere there is open ground as the corridor between water,ref,81,and north park are pure kill zones for long range also upto c as they are flanked by elevated positions

red october factory allies i always attack the right flank and without smoke at that oil/gas tank you are a sitting duck from all over and better to run through open ground in smoke than in fresh air,having played a lot as a german on this one that little hidy hole next to the explodeable garage door can be manned by a couple of semis and decimate the attacks with clear site

pavlovs allies when we hold zabs but not the square the spawn can be flanked by a tank from 200m away and without smoke you loose half if not more of the new spawn from the camping tank

anyhow just a few examples but playing SL properly you should be shephearding your men as well as capping

i do get narked sometimes by players shouting down others when they may only have there own little bit of map to think about

i remember getting chewed out by a MGer on barracks as i was smoking the passage between nco barracks and the room with the radio in it and the big stalin picture,anyhow a good friend of mine was a light support gunner and drew him a little pic of the scenario and he suggested that a support gunner should have been more forward of his position to provide cover to the advancing troops, but whats the point of having an internet arguement about whos right

its also nice to smoke the corner where nco,infirmary and political school are as an allied as you can cover the incoming axis and there snipers cant get at you from the school

 

[RAF_Pstyle]

so much objection to smoke in capzone ;(

This depends entirely on the situation.
If the capzone is fresh (i.e your first assault at it), it is likely to be full of defenders. In addition, on many maps the capzones are also defensive strongholds. Best thing to do? Drop smoke in front of it and cut of their defender's sight lines.

Once, however, some friendlies get in cap and need to start defending it, they will need to see.... so don't block their vision up with smoke, thus making it easier for the enemy to get close again.

Commanders/ Squad leaders need to realise that even when on attack, you are sometimes defending, and to employ smoke as a defender in that situation.

Also, the folks who get angry about bad smoke, need to remember that S/Ls and Commanders get shot too. Often that's why they (commanders at least) throw smoke at the door exit first, to enable them to get through the door so that can then put a second, canister further forward.

Holding off on using smoke until the perfect moment results, more often than not, in death and a long wait, during which time your team mates will be demanding smoke..... which you would have been able to throw, had you not tried to get into the perfect position.

SLs and TLS should tell people when they are using smoke, and where it is being deployed. On some maps you can sit at a re-arm position and throw canisters every 30 seconds, completely masking and entire flank of the map. Do this, and more often than not, the cap will fill up with friendlies.

Also, if other players would give precise requests for WHERE the smoke is to be deployed, rather than just demand "smoke" generically, that would help SLs and TLs place better smoke.

 

[Blinde]

I've only really started playing squad leader since the patch, especially on servers with classic loadouts, since I like the rifle, and if nobody else is doing it, I can't be worse than nobody, right?

On Mamayev Kurgan, as a russian squad leader, I've taken to smoking some of the choke points between the spawn points and the cap zone, because we were losing a few people to long range snipers or machineguns while they were trying to get to the cap zone to defend. Other than that, I don't use smoke on defence all that much. I try to remember to put arty markers on concentrations of the enemy, but being reminded by the Team leader is always good.

Happy to take suggestions, though that might be better in a squad leader specific thread.

 

[Uniform764]

As a rule I throw smoke whenever we're forced to cross open space under fire/observation. I aim to get it as close as possible to the enemy positions.

Simples.

 

[Trotskygrad]

I use my smoke on the friendly sniper who sits 200m away from objectives and has 2 kills 10 minutes into the game. He tends to be pretty close the the ammo box so I usually can get another one

 

[Jahangir]

Nooooooooo
smoking is bad for the lungs and causes cabcer and sin

 

[Guggy]

So smoke is best used (generally) not to block LoS to objectives, but to block LoS from enemy fire that would be incoming from other angles to hinder your squad's advancement INTO that objective? Indoor combat would be a bit different of course (looking at you, Grain Elevator )

 

[I. Kant]

Yes, you have it correct Guggy. This stems from the simple rule that it is better to see, than to be blind.
Personally, I frown upon using smoke for indoor combat.

 

[Mike_Nomad]

As I indicated HERE:


"Use smoke wisely. Just tossing smoke to blind the enemy is self defeating - it blinds your support teammates thus eliminating the possibility of covering fire by MG'ers, team snipers and riflemen."

 

[stern]

this! i was trying to do this the other night on spartanovka, to block the ruskies from the side village (those houses on the right flank.. i hate them houses!) an the guys on the left so we could push though... its very hard to smoke 2 flanks with 1 nade, and sometimes you dont get it 100% where you plan, too close to the wall, too short, too far.. or you get shot while throwing it. but that was my idea.

yet while staying in the gullies waiting for more people so i could move in, i kept having 1 guy yelling at me to use the smoke (just because ive already thrown it when you were some where else doesnt mean im not using it!)

but basically i try to use the smoke to either block the enemies LoS or to provide cover for use to move in: the vast open spaces on grain and FF etc. and LoS on barracks so you can run corner to corner: infirmary to nco barracks.

yet sometimes throwing it in front of you is also useful: mamakevyav (the bunker hill map) throw smoke out in front use the smoke to cover your men, then run and drop into a trench (hopefully with the smoke still infront rather than in it).

those are my tactics, an i tend to do so at least 76% of the time (used it the same way in ostfront)