Signal Flares and Colored Smoke

[Maturin]

These troops put up an incredible amount of signal flares with colored smoke.

Do these signals actually mean anything? Can I learn what they indicate about my and enemy plans? They certainly do give away enemy positions.

What are they meant to simulate? The officers must be carrying some sort of special mortar tube to get a smoke grenade that high in the air.

[FlashBurn]

Flare pistol is what they would have. And they DO mean things. But only you, the human get that advantage. Green is a movement or attack. Red is brake off/fall back. The purple one is a marker for an air attack (usually given after you set a priority target. Hmm orange and yellow I forget. Is there a yellow? Wow guess I only pay attention to green and red. Or black one is spotted target. basiclly gives a basic direction to something that unit spotted.

Actually red only pops when a unit took a ton of looses. But I like to think its more a get out of dodge order. Effect is the same.

[andrey12345 v2.0]

Originally posted by FlashBurn:

....

Actually red only pops when a unit took a ton of looses. But I like to think its more a get out of dodge order. Effect is the same.

It is for the Germans :)


In GTMF all sides have own signal pattern, and division for day/night signals

Defence/retreat, Recon, Attack, Air spotter, Targeting, Misc, Flare
Red Army: Orange, Green, Green/White (Yellow smoke), Red, Red, Green/White (Yellow smoke), White
Germany: Red, Green, White (Yellow smoke), Violet, Blue (Black line), Orange, White

All signals are naturally not accidental and associated with the ongoing activities of AI

[Old School Internet Warlord]

I know that thread is old. But I`m still wondering what the meaning of different colours is. And Andrey`s answer is as always....dodgy.

[andrey12345 v2.0]

Originally posted by Old School Internet Warlord:

I know that thread is old. But I`m still wondering what the meaning of different colours is. And Andrey`s answer is as always....dodgy.

It is not clear what is not clear. Everything acts exactly like in real world.

1) If the AI wants to take some action, and it has flares/smokes, it reports this action (different colors for different action - action list and colors for both sides I quoted in a post above) for all subords.

"
Action: (1)Defence/retreat, (2)Recon, (3)Attack, (4)Air spotter, (5)Targeting, (6)Misc, (7)Flare
Red Army: (1)Orange, (2)Green, (3)Green/White (Yellow smoke), (4)Red, (5)Red, (6)Green/White (Yellow smoke), (7)White
Germany: (1)Red, (2)Green, (3)White (Yellow smoke), (4)Violet, (5)Blue (Black line), (6)Orange, (7)White
"

2) If AI commander sees the enemy and it has flares/smokes, it releases them in the direction of the enemy group to point it to the allies.
This happens automatically. At night, night means (flares) are selected, a daytime ones (smokes) are selected during the day.

3) The player can illuminate the targets for airplanes through the air spotters, as mentioned above.

[Old School Internet Warlord]

Ah...I think I got it now. That was really helpful. Thanks a lot.

[ThunderChief]

Bump - v useful and should be in the manual.

[Sunscreen]

Originally posted by ThunderChief:

Bump - v useful and should be in the manual.

Agreed. At the moment this is all I could find in the manual- "Signal flares - allow to give a rough target designation on the enemy (draw attention of allies), and usually
each commander has them. In the daytime smoke signals are used, and at nighttime - flares of different colors."

The finer details and detailed descriptions of them really do expand the understanding for the player hugely. There's lots of info out there but its scattered, unverified and often unstructured.

[andrey12345 v2.0]

Originally posted by Sunscreen:

At the moment this is all I could find in the manual- "Signal flares - allow to give a rough target designation on the enemy (draw attention of allies), and usually
each commander has them. In the daytime smoke signals are used, and at nighttime - flares of different colors."

Yes, that's right, that's all that can be said specifically.
The rest all depends on the side that shots the flare and the situation. What exactly do you want to be added to the manual?

[Koshkinets]

Originally posted by andrey12345 v2.0:

What exactly do you want to be added to the manual?

I would imagine they want a reference table showing the flare colours for each side.

[archibaldthe1]

I thought for the last two years that it is in manual, since I have a printout. But apparently, it's from the manual made by "few good men" folks. Here is what they did (caveat - Soviet colors may be different):
https://imgur.com/Q24JqS1

[MarkShot9]

One issue with flares is nothing gives away a position better than a flare with can be seen for miles. You might be thinking some field looks quiet when all of sudden flares start to pop.

This is the high level equivalent of using tracers.

[Rex Seattle]

Originally posted by andrey12345 v2.0:

Yes, that's right, that's all that can be said specifically.
The rest all depends on the side that shots the flare and the situation. What exactly do you want to be added to the manual?

Action: (1)Defence/retreat, (2)Recon, (3)Attack, (4)Air spotter, (5)Targeting, (6)Misc, (7)Flare

Red Army: (1)Orange, (2)Green, (3)Green/White (Yellow smoke), (4)Red, (5)Red, (6)Green/White (Yellow smoke), (7)White

Germany: (1)Red, (2)Green, (3)White (Yellow smoke), (4)Violet, (5)Blue (Black line), (6)Orange, (7)White

[archibaldthe1]

From what I read in US “lessons learned”, they were told to change things up, and use different colors for different activities in order not to give away the intentions to the enemy. But as long as the game does not take advantage of the opponents smoke signals/flare colors, we can just pretend they are randomized.

And apparently, sometimes flares are just there to annoy the enemy:)

Originally posted by LIEUTENANT COLONEL RINGSOK 6th Armored Infantry:

The German flares and night sigrials'.gave my battalion a lot of trouble at first. The Germans fire flares continuously all night long, mostly to annoy and disturb troops . My troops, at first, would cease firing and attempt to G-2 what the enemy meant. But really, in most instances, it didn't mean anything but was meant to distract the troops. And it will distract them unless you teach them to pay no attention to it, but to continue the battle and fire flares in return. After all, you can't do anything after the flare is fired.
We fire lots of flares in the battalion now, and when Jerry fires at us, we fire in return.

[PaulTheWall]

your answers help a lot

Originally posted by Sunscreen:

What exactly do you want to be added to the manual?

exactly the stuff you explainrd in your posts in this thread: which color means what for each side under which circumstances, more general: how the AI uses smoke and flare signals and what they (can or might) mean

[Rex Seattle]

Originally posted by andrey12345 v2.0:

Originally posted by Sunscreen:

At the moment this is all I could find in the manual- "Signal flares - allow to give a rough target designation on the enemy (draw attention of allies), and usually
each commander has them. In the daytime smoke signals are used, and at nighttime - flares of different colors."

Yes, that's right, that's all that can be said specifically.
The rest all depends on the side that shots the flare and the situation. What exactly do you want to be added to the manual?

I do appreciate your explaining it, BTW. I searched and this was literally the only place that I found the answer. It was very helpful.