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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[T-BAGZ]Pred011586

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.

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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.