Smoke mission duration in multiple hexes

[mssm45]

Hello,

I am going through the tutorial 3.

On page 66 of the tutorial document, a smoke barrage mission has to be created.

When doing this on 5 hexes to create a screen of north-to-south east of the river, I notice that with the default settings, the misson will take a long time (from 4:10 until 5:30).

I had to manually change each hex duration from 20 min to 2 min in the order screen to reduce the total mission duration.

Is this the normal way of doing this ?

I don't understand why the tutorial indicates to use the 20 min default value.

[IronMikeGolf]

We have no way of knowing how long, you, the Commander, needs smoke in a given location. are you screening a valley so you can move a battalion across it undetected? If you use smoke to obscure maneuver, you probably don't want to start it just before you really need it (units will be there) and end it just after. When I see smoke, I put some arty into it. That often pays off.

So, what do we as developers do for a default value? what number do you want? Why?

Show your work on this answer.

[mssm45]

If you want to create a smoke screen over a 5 hexes line like in the tutorial, then why waiting 20 min after firing the smoke on each hex? It will never be a screen covering the entire line.

I am just trying to make sense of what is described in the tutorial.

[Comcikda]

So, what do we as developers do for a default value? what number do you want? Why?

I noticed that the interval is even longer than 1 RPM by default, wouldn't the long interval result in the smoke not being fully functional? I would like to fire one smoke round per minute.

[CapnDarwin]

For smoke screens, it is better to cut the interval time closer to 5 minutes or use additional batteries to fire on hexes to get a screen up faster. I let the default stand in the tutorial. I probably should have shortened the time.