How to use smoke?

[cristianwj]

Greetings!
I'm looking for some guidance and advises about how to use smoke effectively during battle.
(1) What's the best SOP settings for Mtr units?
(2) How long the smoke will dissipate? (During my test, some smoke disappear in 10 minutes, and multiple smoke in one hex will last 20-25 minutes longer than one shot, under same wind-speed)

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[cristianwj]

It's seem like my Mtr units were ignore my orders (rounds and duration) of smoke mission.
When I set 10/12/6 rounds at 10 minutes in different three test, the Mtr unit shot every 3 rounds during that time, and created three "bulk" of smoke.

QQ截图20230225152532.jpg (233.15 KiB) Viewed 666 times

[CapnDarwin]

I'll pass these questions on to William. He can answer better than I can.

[WildCatNL]

It's seem like my Mtr units were ignore my orders (rounds and duration) of smoke mission.
When I set 10/12/6 rounds at 10 minutes in different three test, the Mtr unit shot every 3 rounds during that time, and created three "bulk" of smoke.

Artillery delivered smoke (and the corresponding smoke marker on the map) stays on average 20 mins, but may dissipate later or earlier (die roll). To avoid the smoke screen from dissipating too early, it is good practice to fire additional volleys spread over time.
In contrast to HE and ICM artillery, the game doesn't model individual rounds. Its volleys that matter (to create new smoke markers).

If I check your screen shot, then (a) the unit executed correctly the missions of 10/12/6 minutes (and 12 rounds, so 2 volleys each), and (b) you had 3 non-dissipated smoke markers still present by the time you grabbed the screen shot.

Does this answer your question?

[cristianwj]

It's seem like my Mtr units were ignore my orders (rounds and duration) of smoke mission.
When I set 10/12/6 rounds at 10 minutes in different three test, the Mtr unit shot every 3 rounds during that time, and created three "bulk" of smoke.

Artillery delivered smoke (and the corresponding smoke marker on the map) stays on average 20 mins, but may dissipate later or earlier (die roll). To avoid the smoke screen from dissipating too early, it is good practice to fire additional volleys spread over time.
In contrast to HE and ICM artillery, the game doesn't model individual rounds. Its volleys that matter (to create new smoke markers).

If I check your screen shot, then (a) the unit executed correctly the missions of 10/12/6 minutes (and 12 rounds, so 2 volleys each), and (b) you had 3 non-dissipated smoke markers still present by the time you grabbed the screen shot.

Does this answer your question?

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, there is one volley at the beginning, and several minutes later there are another tow volley to create two smoke markers on the map. So I take the screen and found Mtr units shot 18 rounds in this mission.

[IronMikeGolf]

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, there is one volley at the beginning, and several minutes later there are another tow volley to create two smoke markers on the map. So I take the screen and found Mtr units shot 18 rounds in this mission.

We check for smoke dissipation every 5 minutes. The first check happens 5 minutes after the last round of a mission is fired. With each check, there's a 15% chance of dissipation.

Smoke missions are greatly simplified from real world. We don't model weather effects on smoke. We also don't look at ammo consumption to establish a screen and then what it takes to maintain it. Number of rounds in a mission does not affect smoke density. Number of missions does.

It does require some planning when you want to emplace an extended area or line of smoke for an extended time (on the order of 30 minutes or more). Here's what I do:

Fire more missions of very short duration. This enables a single firing unit to cover multiple hexes more or less simultaneously. It does take some time for the wall of smoke to build up, but that is something you have to wait on real world, too.
1. Identify what locations you want screened and the known or possible threat locations. That helps you determine what locations to smoke. Pay attention to elevation. Enemy at higher elevations can look over smoke, as it only goes up one elevation step.
2. Prioritize your smoke locations.
3. Determine how many firing units to allocate. There is a delay between fire missions (NATO: 5 min; WP: 10 min). Playing NATO, I often can have a firing unit cover 3 hexes, with an occasional gap of coverage of one hex for one minute. With the WP, doing that risks more frequent and longer lasting gaps in the screen. The answer to that is more firing units. I find that the times I need a large smoke screen is doing something that is the priority effort at that time of the battle.
4. A simple example: Playing NATO, I want to smoke 6 hexes for 30 minutes
a. Rank the target hexes in priority 1 to 6, with 1 being highest priority
b. Use two firing units, each covering 3 hexes.
c. Set up Barrage order for firing unit 1. 6 missions, with targets being hexes 1, 3, 5, 1, 3, and 5.
d. After clicking "Commit", set each fire mission SOP to have the number of rounds equal to the number of tubes and the duration to 1 minute.
e. Repeat steps c and d above for firing unit 2