sc1ence

Smoking!

The utility of smoke grenades in 2142 has been debated in a few threads here and there. This thread will not settle the issue. It will lay out how they can be useful in the right hands.

You want to use smoke grenades for 3 purposes. Almost all of them involve attacking.

1. To conceal friendly soldiers
2. To block the vision of enemy soldiers
3. As a diversion/distraction

1. Concealment
When you are using it to conceal friendly soldiers that are moving you will want to throw the smoke to provide maximal cover from all directions. The players that want to be concealed should be inside of the smoke. This means throwing it in the movement path of yourself or your squad.

Typical concealment usage will involve throwing smoke in a path towards the flag and then throwing smoke in a wide area around the flag capping area. Players should be encouraged to stay in concealed in the smoke with med hubs out and smoke being thrown. Expect nades and rockets and random bullets so spread out a bit in the smoke. The idea is not to hide, the idea is to give yourself a bit more concealment so you have more time to take a flag or run through an open area.

Example:
Going from statue to playground: throw smoke in a path as you cross the road, then throw it in a large radius around the flag and keep smoking till you cap. I have capped playground right under the noses of plenty of troops this way. Doing this attack in reverse has also helped me take statue when it was well held. This is an especially useful tactic for flags that are not held by a close flag defense.

2. Blocking enemy view
The next usage is to put a visual barrier between you and the enemy. You can do this two ways. The first is by putting smoke between you and the line of sight of an enemy. This is helpful when the enemy is at some distance and you want to hide yourself from them visually. The goal here is not to be IN the smoke concealed, but just to place a visual wall of smoke between you and the enemy you wish to avoid fire from. The second use is to smoke out a defensive position to force an enemy to move from behind cover. here you want to put the smoke right on a defensive position to smoke out the enemy.

Smoke grenades go off on impact. They are great for blinding defensive positions and vehicles. 2nd floor ledges and balconies are great spots to smoke up when they are occupied. Just aim for the wall below the point where people are firing. The smoke will go off on impact. Even smoking the top of a walker can give you some cover. Firing rockets requires the ability to range them. You cannot range them well through smoke. Be aware of enemy defensive positions and smoke them out. This puts you on the same terms as the enemy. When your squad is trying to cover open terrain it may make sense to throw smoke AT the enemy, forcing the enemy to change their position and come out from cover! If you are directly assaulting the enemy this can give you the critical element of surprise.

3. Smoke as a distraction.
Throwing smoke on a probable attack route then going in an opposite direction can be very effective at moving the enemy out of position and exposing their flanks. They will go inspect the smoke or watch it for concealed players. Then you come from a direction they were not expecting. I will use smoke as a distraction about as often as I will use it as cover. I will use it as a distraction at the same time I am using it as cover. I will throw one for distraction at one approach to the flag, then one for concealment approaching the flag. then one at a defensive position. By the time an enemy reacts we will have the flag neutral.

These things are useful at the squad level and at the level of the individual. Even in 1 on 1 battles smoke can be used to gain a strong tactical advantage.

I have seen smoke being used more frequently on the server. I am asking my squadmates to carry smoke quite often. If you have smoke, use it! but make sure you use it for all three purposes. If you always use it for concealment, enemy's will just rocket and nade the smoke.

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pred011586

When I SL as an Assault kit, I always carry smokes and defib. I use smoke most often on Camp G as PAC. If/When PAC eventually takes Harbor, and we push to just outside Toll Station, I'll call for smoke to be thrown down the right road then have my squad storm the center through that passage under the cover of smoke. If a SM also is packing smoke, I'll take the Radar Grenade so that we know where the enemy is within the smoke. I've seen this tactic work beautifully, especially when my squad holds spawn and spawns in on me all at once when I'm in capping range. Unexpected caps ftw!

EDIT

I'd love to see more use of smoke grenades, with my next squad I lead on TG I'm going to try to get smokes involved with my squad. I can imagine smoking an enemy tank on Belgrade would make it alot easier for a Recon to RDX it, and get away safely to detonate without suiciding.

Also, I love the idea of smoking the enemy's defensive point, if I knew smokes popped on impact I would've been utilizing this tactic alot more. I thought it was just a really short timer as I'd always throw them about the same distance away from me. Thanks for the tip!

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Exploding_Silver

smoke is great for moving across open spaces (that normally mean death), I've been using more smoke lately

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Uranium - 235

Smoke as a distraction usually works best if you yourself just stand behind it and spray gunfire. I've used it before on routes of access but the simple fact is, most people rarely notice it (as there is a lot going on in the game). I recommend you just stand behind it and send bullets in the directions of defenders before, or after you use the smoke. It'll work better that way at any rate. The duration is hideously short so be careful.

daithi1

Smoke = awesome (sorry E1st). It had to go in my sig.

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SharinganTH1422

I rarely used smoke grenades, but when I did, I didn't find them hugely useful. I mean, I was in a squad as PAC on CampG and the squad was told by the SL to storm the East side, and that everyone should carry smoke. It provided pretty see through smoke, and less time with our guns out meant more times for enemies to set themselves to get a good shot off. The plan ended up failing.

Apart from the lack of thickness of the smoke, which means that concealment isn't huge, i found that numbers 1 and 3 sometimes clash. You're trying to move unnoticed, but hat big puff of smoke can draw attention to you. I think when doing that run from Statue -> Playground or vice versa, a camoing SL and a squad that spawns in when he is on the flag and says so would probably keep the squad more concealed...

On blocking enemy view, you are pretty much correct...I say pretty much, because of those times when they can still see you on their netbat through the smoke, yet you can't see them, but this is rare.

I can definitely see smoke working in certain tactical situations, and I'd really love to be in your squad so you could show me how to use the smoke nades effectively, but personally, I find them hard to use, and I'd prefer to go with the good old rockets instead .

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BrotherJustice

Smoke has been a huge help in taking titan console corridors. When there is a squad using team work, this has been the big equalizer in the storming of the hallways. Its very effective and I dread seeing the smoke when im defending a corridor now. It makes it much more difficult in where to concentrate your fire and gives the attackers the ability to get much closer to the defensive line.

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timusafa

I find smokes very useful as an SL assault pretty much like what pred011586 said. I have found smokes most useful as tools of diversion on Titans and on small Inf. maps. Try a squad throwing smokes and the SL Recon running through to get behind enemy lines, say on Cerebre. I haven't tried this but it seems like it could work well given enough chaos and the lack of an enemy UAV.

Mercenary90

BUUMMMP
I want to revive this thread because I unlocked the Radar Grenade from NS with a field upgrade, and discovered it was actually has its little niche to fill.
The Radar Grenade deploys TWO different types of smokes (grey and brown) as well as an IDS effect.
What this essentially means is that it conceals MUCH better at close range as well as giving the IDS effect for a reasonable amount of time. However, each assault kit can only hold one.
I propose that this Radar Grenade be used more often in close-quarter squads or squads with only assault medics. The regular smoke still conceals effectively at long range, making it more useful for bigger maps, like Suez or Sidi.

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He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the Army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed.

FL1Pmode

In close quarters I will still find rockets/herzog to be a much better use than smoke/radar grenades.

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pred011586

Depending on how close the quarters are, smoke grenades have alot of use. When I lead a squad as PAC on CampG, I start off as recon trying to get past toll like everyone else (it's just too useful to not at least try it!), then if that doesn't work I go Assault with the radar grenade to rush Harbor. Harbor's flag area is small enough that one smoke is all I'll need so I go with the radar grenade. However if I get a chance to switch kits before we move to Toll, I go back to regular smoke grenades since a single smoke's area of effect isn't big enough.

When you're assaulting Harbor or Toll, neither the Herzog, or Rockets is going to do you much good, especially since as SL, I don't focus as much on the fighting, as much as spawn point placement. The smoke grenades are "fire and forget" which lets me focus on other aspects of the battle.


*EDIT*
... I just read the whole thread, and I just realized I already made this exact post about a year ago.... it must be effective if I've been using it for over a year!!

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jazy2

The effectiveness is multiplied when used WITH EMP nades' !!!!!!

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INTEL the newest political party.....Keep the IDS's up.....open your Battlefield eyes!

Mercenary90

!!!OMG!!! No defib?

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He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the Army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed.

FL1Pmode

*facepalm*. The defib is ALWAYS THERE I am talking about the other slot.

Also Pred, most TG people know that whenever the smoke grenades come flying, there is a squad trying to do a sneak run and so they get into a super scavenger mode and check all possible routes twice to make sure no one slipped through. At least that is what the team did whenever the squad I was in attempted that maneuver.

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Lyramion

Any time some SL ordered us to bring smoke I actually found it very disturbing.


I end up sitting on Harbour flag as PAC bringing it down in a cloud of smoke. Meanwhile I can´t see enemies coming and can´t defend myself properly.

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