By Dragoon 45
I. INTRODUCTION: This short article is designed to help the novice and experienced “Steel Panthers World at War” war-gamer in the use of smoke on the tactical battlefield. I have seen a number of discussions about smoke and its use on various web boards over the past couple of years. In my estimation, these discussions, while quite good in a limited way, do not go into great depth on how to use smoke in the various military operations portrayed in the SPWaW Game. While there are some game specific uses for smoke due to the game engine, I will first touch on the use of smoke in the attack, then the use of smoke in the defense, the use of smoke in the delay, and finally use of smoke for game specific purposes.
II. WHAT IS MILITARY SMOKE? Military Smoke is smoke produced by a number of various methods (white phosphorus mainly, burning ground cover, burning petroleum based fuels, etc.) that is used to obscure vision and in WW II also to obscure targeting systems. Smoke works by isolating a portion of the battlefield visually by use of smoke screens or smoke clouds. In SPWaW the means of employing smoke are artillery, mortars, smoke grenades, smoke projectors mounted on vehicles, and by setting fire to buildings or woods. Although in real life use, smoke can be fired through usually without too much accuracy, in SPWaW the game engine will not let direct fire weapons fire through thick smoke. This in effect sometimes creates a force field like environment that is not realistic. But this is a limitation of the game engine that until improved has to be lived with.
III. USE OF SMOKE IN THE ATTACK. For an attack to be successful, the attacker must concentrate an overwhelming force on a narrow frontage (the width of the land where the attacked decides to attempt to penetrate the enemy’s defenses.) How can smoke help to concentrate the attackers’ forces? Smoke does this by limiting the defenders visibility to where only a very few of his actual units can obtain direct line of sight to the attackers units and thereby accurately engage them. This can be done by laying down a smoke screen perpendicular to the enemy’s defending line on either side of the advancing attacking units. (See diagram 1). These two perpendicular smoke screens should be laid from the attackers initial positions to at least 3-4 hexes deeper than the defenders front lines. What this does in effect is to break the battlefield up into three distinct sectors. Only the defending units in the attacker’s zone of attack can accurately target the advancing forces. The defending units on either side of the zone of attack can not effectively target the attackers and are therefore forced to move to gain positions to engage the enemy, thus losing the advantages of defensive positions. Also the redeployment of defending units to overcome the smoke screen takes time, which allows the attacker to mass a number of attacking units on one defending unit at a time.
Another useful technique of using smoke in the attack is lay smoke parallel to the defenders lines to his rear (see diagram 2). This has the effect of further isolating the defenders. Any smart defender will keep back a mobile counter attack force in the defense. By dropping a smoke screen to the defender’s rear, this mobile counterattack force will appear piecemeal as it advances through the smoke screen allowing the attacker to engage a single target with multiple units at a time. Once again the key is to isolate a portion of the battlefield of the attackers choosing which allows the attacker to mass his forces against a portion of the defenders force.
Also smoke can be used as a deceptive measure also. Multiple smoke screens will confuse the attacker as to where the main point of attack is being made. If the battlefield is broken up into three or four different compartments by smoke the defender will be under the difficulty of deciding which area is the main attack and which is a feint.
Another use of smoke in the attack is a smoke screen laid down just forward of the attackers front lines to screen movement laterally across his front. Let’s us say the attacker has a tank platoon on the right flank where it has been spotted by the defender. The point of the attack is on the left flank and the attacker needs to get the tank platoon there unobserved. The attacker lays a smoke screen across the portions of his front where terrain will not mask his movement so that he can move this tank platoon across his front to where he needs it for his attack.
IV. USE OF SMOKE IN THE DEFENSE. Once again the principle use of smoke is to deny the enemy observation of an area of the battlefield. How does denying the attacker observation of the defenders units help? Okay let’s say the attacker has developed his attack to the point that the defender has identified the area of the main attack. The attacker has used smoke on both flanks of the zone of attack to isolate it from the rest of the defenders forces. If they can’t see the attacker they can’t target him. This can also work to the defenders advantage also. The defender determines his optimal engagement range of the weapons his defending units have. Just at the edge of that optimal engagement range the defender lays a smoke screen parallel to his defensive line. This defensive smoke screen has the effect of further isolating the battlefield by now limiting the attacker’s observation of the defenders units. As the attacker moves forward he can no longer see the defenders units until he passes through the defensive smoke screen. In SPWaW this has the effect of the attackers units moving into the defenders fire one unit at a time. The defender can now mass his fire on an individual attacking unit and either suppress, destroy, or cause the attacking unit to retreat. A further technique is to drop HE fire just behind this defending smoke screen to further string out the attacker’s forces (see diagram 3). Even though this is unobserved fire, the attacker will have to move through this beaten zone to continue his attack. Some units will move through unaffected and others will be suppressed or forced to retreat. All this has the effect of lessening the massing of the attacker’s forces on the defending units.
Also strategically placed smoke screens are very useful to screen the movement of counterattack forces, repositioning of defending forces, and as feints. Then also as a last resort if the defense is collapsing, a well timed and placed smoke screen will allow the defenders to break contact and withdrawal, thus allowing them to retreat to form a new defensive line or mass to attempt a counter attack.
V. USE OF SMOKE IN THE DELAY. As mentioned in the defensive part of this article, smoke is excellent to use to help a defending unit break contact, i.e. drop a smoke screen just in front of the defending or delaying unit to allow it to move to a new position unobserved by the enemy. Once again it is also very useful to screen movements of units that are redeploying. It also can be used if placed correctly, to moderate the enemy’s numerical advantage by allowing friendly units to engage only a part of the enemy’s forces at a time. I.E. A tank destroyer is placed to cover a road network. The enemy is advancing with a tank platoon down this road. The defending TD has a visual range of 10 hexes down the road and the player decides to drop a smoke screen at 8 hexes out. As the enemy tank plt advances through the smoke the tanks emerge one at a time out of the smoke and allow the TD to engage them one at a time. If successful, the enemy tank platoon is unable to mass fires on the TD.
VI. “GAMEY USE OF SMOKE”. I use this term here because of a drawback in the game mechanics. When using onboard artillery or mortars they create a smoke cloud every time they fire. Knowledgeable players and sometimes the AI will target these smoke clouds to suppress these units even though they cannot spot the units themselves. One way to counter this is to drop a smoke round at unoccupied spots on the map in an effort to fool the opposing player as to the location of your mortars and artillery on board.
VII. VEHICLE MOUNTED SMOKE DISCHARGERS AND DIRECT FIRE SMOKE. Most of the tanks in the game and some other vehicles are equipped with smoke dischargers. By highlighting the unit and then typing the “D” key, the smoke dischargers will fire. This function shoots smoke into the hex immediately in front of the unit and the two adjacent hexes. This is very useful in allowing a vehicle to retreat from a bad position. But be careful as the vehicle only can trigger these smoke dischargers once per scenario.
Also most cannon armed vehicles have smoke ammo included in their on-board ammo supply. This allows the unit to fire smoke into any hex it has observation of. Depending on the smoke load out in the ammo supply, most vehicles will have 3-4 smoke rounds it can fire. When firing smoke sometimes the unit will miss its target and the smoke will land in an adjacent hex. This vehicle fire smoke can be quite useful. Lets say an American Infantry Company is advancing across an open area supported by a 75mm armed Sherman. On the far side of the open area a German MG Bunker opens fire on the infantry. Unless up close the 75mm armed Sherman does not have a good chance of destroying the bunker with cannon fire. Instead the Sherman fires smoke right in front of the bunker to blind its guns, thereby saving the infantry from casualties. This same method can be used to blind opposing tanks. Fire just in front of the tank to blind it so it can’t fire at you.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS. Smoke is a very useful feature on the SPWaW battlefield. Its use is only limited by the imagination of the player. It can be used offensively or defensively by obscuring the line of sight of opposing units. Its chief drawback in the game is the limited amount of smoke ammo available to any given unit. Also if the player has air support, the use of smoke will cause problems for aircraft to acquire targets. This can cause aircraft to target friendly units. Therefore the use of smoke should be considered beforehand and the limitations and benefits of its use should be clearly understood. I hope this helps players understand the use of smoke and also I hope that this article helps players come up with new and novel uses of it. This is by no means the all-inclusive list for the use of smoke, I tried to explain the most common uses and hopefully the attached diagrams will help explain it also.
