smoke screens

smoke screens (Full Version)

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nukkxx5058 -> smoke screens (9/4/2006 5:58:26 PM)
Hi all, I need advices on how yo use the smoke screens efficiently. It seems it has no effect for me. (i have fpg 1.11) Should i fire i directly on enemy units ? one squarre before ? or even on my own units ??? Thanks. nukkxx

CapnDarwin -> RE: smoke screens (9/4/2006 6:08:27 PM)
Nukkxx, Depends on what side you are playing. In most cases the NATO forces have thermal imagers which can see through the smoke making it a tough day for Soviet forces who can't. As NATO I use smoke to screen units from advancing hordes of Soviet tanks. I'll lay a screen about 500-1000 meters ahead of my forces to block the Soviet view. There is one minor glitch to watch for though. Units can see across the contacting points of two diagonal squares (something we will fix in the new game). Also smoke is not 100% effective and in some low percentage cases foul even thermal sights. From the Soviet perspective you need to know who the enemy is. Some German and British units do not use Thermal Sights (mainly infantry units) so smoking them will allow you to close with the greater numbers. If they have armour use HE or mines on the tanks to slow them down and beat them up. Works good if NATO is defending. Hope that helps.

Gudgey -> RE: smoke screens (9/6/2006 7:58:05 PM)
Hi, Didn't I read somewhere in the manual that smoke blocks thermal sights by about fifteen percent? If this is the case then by layering the smoke screen you might have a chance of masking an approach. Of course your Warsaw Pact units will be completely blind too! Gudgey.

CapnDarwin -> RE: smoke screens (9/7/2006 1:10:41 AM)
Gudgey, Point well taken. If you have a lot of smoke to pour into a narrow approach you would have a chance to mask some of your units. I'm more inclinced to shake them up with a good arty/rocket barrage myself, but a little smoke never hurts. [:D]

Gudgey -> RE: smoke screens (9/24/2006 1:20:43 PM)
I'm a bit confused about this. If you look at the T-80U/UK they both have an Infra-red gun sight, but the sitrep says no line of sight through smoke. What's the sight for if not to see through smoke, a night sight? In the manual it says that by 1989 almost all the vehicles have this ability, so the massive amount of smoke shells the Soviet Union had is mostly redundant. Gudgey

CapnDarwin -> RE: smoke screens (9/24/2006 6:12:11 PM)
Gudgey, The Infra-red sights are an active system which required the use of the IR spotlights on most Soviet vehicals and had a limited range. In the 80's the US starting using a thermal sight, a passive device that sees the world in a different wavelength and could see objects through most of the smoke around at the time and in the dark. You have two different systems. The IR search light was first used at the end of WW2 by the Germans. At night you would have to use a standard searchlight which is of course visible. The IR searchlight did not have a "bright" beam and only required special sights to see with. So yes most of the Soviet smoke would have been useless on Thermal sighted NATO units, but not all NATO units could see through smoke (mainly infantry). Soviets started to field thermal sights in the 90's and both side developed smoke that could obscure Thermal imagers too. A game of cat and mouse.

Gudgey -> RE: smoke screens (9/25/2006 9:45:13 PM)
Cap'n, thanks for the explanation. I still find it strange that the Soviets started using thermals so late, it seems like a huge oversight to me! Was it a doctrine thing, i.e. there were so many Soviet tanks that the opposition would simply be overwhelmed (no matter how good a tank is, it can still only fire so many rounds a minute!)? Or was it simply a technology issue? I can't remember which book I read, might have been Ralph Peter's Red Army, but there was a large scale Soviet assualt on a Nato position at night, and the Soviet armour was supported by massive amounts of star shells to illuminate the battlefield. (Something for the next patch maybe? [;)] Come to think of it, it might have been Sir General John Hackett's The third World War. Gudgey.

CapnDarwin -> RE: smoke screens (9/25/2006 10:38:42 PM)
Gudgey, I would say a combination of all of those points. Soviet tech in many areas was about 5-10 years behind the West. Most NATO hardware in the 80's had very good computer fire control, weapons had good seekers, and the hardware itself was pretty good too. Somewhere in the 70's the Russians began to change from quantity to quality in military platforms. The Air forces seemed to go there first looking at planes like the MiG-29 and Su-27. Of course, they still had a ton of quantity to use too. Even in favorable conditions NATO forces can get overrun by numbers. As you put it only so many rounds can get fired. You can see some of that in certain FPG scenarios. If a NATO player is soft with artillery or air strikes, you end up with Russian armour in your face.

Panta_slith -> RE: smoke screens (11/21/2006 10:28:09 PM)
I wonder whether prior to its release FPG has been played/tested mostly from the NATO point of view. Playing WP against other fellow human can be very frustrating in many aspects, and smoke is one of them. NATO player's extensive use of smoke screen can seriously unbalance the game, as units placed in squares covered by smoke are invisible to WP units, thus almost invulnerable to everything but arty. On the other hand, the lack of ICM ammo by the WP (or almost9 reduces very much its effectiveness. Leaving aside the realistic-unrealistic discussion, as you can't edit artillery units's ammo (to reduce/increase the quantity of smoke, chemical or ICM), you are not allowed to fine-tune that aspect of the game either Cheers, Panta

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