Artillery

[Korsakov829]

I've had no problems against enemy heavy artillery. I just rush in 4 infantry squads and a jeep, then steal the guns. Artillery can not turn fast enough unless its a ISU-152 or the like. Of course, thats on unprotected artillery. On protected artillery I would just sneak in some flame throwers or dynamite them with a scout.

[CzaD]

I wish art could fire smoke changes to provide cover for your advancing units or to blind the enemy temporarily. Esp, that would be useful for attacing a flag in the open, where infantry is prone to any mortar and artilery fire. That would be cool. What do you think?

[KnightFandragon]

I wish tanks had thier smoke shells to =D Smoke is like the one thing that is missing from this game that is keeping it from being the ultimate WWII RTS =D Id love nothing more than to be able to launch a mass assault w/ Halftracks, that dont die to 50cals, a few tanks moving up while the infantry use it as cover, some mortars in support and a nice pre-attack air strike of P47s or Stukas....w/e haha. I can almost do it in this game but thre is no smoke to cover my advance....those panzy infantry smoke nades dont count

[Crni vuk]

I agree more and better smoke systems would be welcome. Using the smoke grenades just doesnt cut it for me. They can be very helpfull. But using it is very limited. Particularly since the yield of them is to small. Artillery could fire a heavy smoke shell that could really blind or cover a whole area.

something different though, is it normal that one can sometimes not see enemy artillery firing ? I noticed that while gaming that I can see the enemy artillery when its firing and sometimes I would see nothing at all. Has that something to do with how close your troops are to it (so they could hear and see it eventualy) that you can know its exact location ?

[KnightFandragon]

Originally Posted by Crni vuk

something different though, is it normal that one can sometimes not see enemy artillery firing ? I noticed that while gaming that I can see the enemy artillery when its firing and sometimes I would see nothing at all. Has that something to do with how close your troops are to it (so they could hear and see it eventualy) that you can know its exact location ?

I guess, thats all that I can figure out from it. Sometimes ill see tanks sitting out a long ways out where otherwise I wouldnt and even at times Ive seen, for a very breif second when my opponent deploys a vehicle. It flashes on the minimap for like a second then it goes away. It must be that infantry can see it if they have a good enough view or something

[Korsakov829]

Originally Posted by KnightFandragon

I wish tanks had thier smoke shells to =D Smoke is like the one thing that is missing from this game that is keeping it from being the ultimate WWII RTS =D Id love nothing more than to be able to launch a mass assault w/ Halftracks, that dont die to 50cals, a few tanks moving up while the infantry use it as cover, some mortars in support and a nice pre-attack air strike of P47s or Stukas....w/e haha. I can almost do it in this game but thre is no smoke to cover my advance....those panzy infantry smoke nades dont count

Use creeping artillery/infantry tactics.

As for when you see a vehicle spawn on the map, its not easy to fix if you can. What happens is this:
1. Your enemy calls in a tank
2. Tank spawns first
3. Adjusts decals such as camo and texture on said tank
4. Tank crewmen are spawned into tank
5. Tank crewmen are set to play as player 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.
6. Tank is ready all in 0.2 seconds depending on PC speed.

The reason you see the tank is because of 4 mainly, along with another string of ordered commands such as AI tweaking and such that cost tank spawning a extra tenth of a second.

[Nikitns]

Originally Posted by CzaD

I wish art could fire smoke changes to provide cover for your advancing units or to blind the enemy temporarily. Esp, that would be useful for attacing a flag in the open, where infantry is prone to any mortar and artilery fire. That would be cool. What do you think?

Infantry can throw smoke grenades at 30 meters, that's pretty far.

Though I don't do attack flags from cover of smoke, it is suicidal. The enemy will just counter attack and drive you off easily, as they control that area. I personally just prefer to slug it out in the open until the enemy is decimated and then take their flags.

Now on your point: While it would be pretty cool to blind an enemy, it would also be extremely frustrating and probably laggy.. I bet everyone would be shooting smoke shells all over the place, so that everything becomes a chaos.

[CzaD]

Originally Posted by Nikitns

Infantry can throw smoke grenades at 30 meters, that's pretty far.

Though I don't do attack flags from cover of smoke, it is suicidal. The enemy will just counter attack and drive you off easily, as they control that area. I personally just prefer to slug it out in the open until the enemy is decimated and then take their flags.

Now on your point: While it would be pretty cool to blind an enemy, it would also be extremely frustrating and probably laggy.. I bet everyone would be shooting smoke shells all over the place, so that everything becomes a chaos.

I play GSM a lot and tanks and artillery can fire smoke. We seldom use it but the idea is that it is there for us to use if a need arises and sometimes it helps ( esp you have a wounded/weaker tank and you need to withdraw it to a secure place).

[Korsakov829]

Smoke in Battle Zones is very good. If you throw smoke your enemy will think you shall be moving in on it, thus triggering a rocket or artillery barrage on a target. After the enemy fires his barrages, while he is reloading you can move in on the area, send one guy to take out a Calliope, D1, or something heavier like a T29. After that you would take your own artillery out of hiding and fire ahead of a flag. After such a move you hook left or right cutting off your enemy from reinforcements while moving your own reinforcements up.

With so many elements in such a move, taking smoke or artillery out of your plans will result in a phyrric victory. Thats how important artillery is to war.

[Nikitns]

Crni, mate, no offence but I think u just dont have enough exp in multi.

T29 has the strongest gun in the game, and has similar frontal armour to tiger2. the weakness of the T29 is terrible side armour.

ISU152 is without a doubt the best tank killer in the soviet army (just as it was IRL). It eats panthers, jagdpanthers and jagdpanzers for breakfast (HE shell at their roof = dead, the armour piercing shell of the ISU-152 destroys any slope made due to the arc of fire).

Sturmtiger has reload speed similar to Katusha. It is easy target if tracks are knocked out.

Crni, in the hands of a skilled player the UK is just as strong as Germany. I've won with UK when playing with veteran teammates, against veteran german players on maps like suburb2. Especially with beasts like the land mattress and 17 pounder.

When things boil down to it all, I think the factions are beautifully balanced. Thing is, with some factions you have to rely less on armour, while using primarily infantry and artillery (infantry and artillery can kill armour well if used correctly).

Also remember that things like Panther and Tiger 2 are the German strengths, which cost allot and won't appear in spammage numbers if u put pressure on the enemy.

PS. the americans have the priest, and the British some other heavy SP art gun (don't remember the name, I haven't played in a month).