Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
Not sure what tutotiral videos you have seen, but this one is a fairly recent tutorial for on-map artillery (when the guns/mortars are present on and firing from the active battlefield):
https://youtu.be/ynmXglz6MFc
And this is a more recent one for off-map artillery (when you only have an FO present on the active battlefield while the gun batteries/mortars are firing from "off-map" positions):
https://youtu.be/OY1L0OrmpJo
I'll just add a couple of things:
This game is not as difficult to learn as its reputation has it. It's just that the interface has a special 'different kid in class' logic to it. Once you get your head around that, it becomes much easier.
A lot of the tactical stuff is highly situational. Even when you know the theory of how to do something, the actual map you're fighting the battle on will often cause you difficulties. Especially about finding line of sight when you need it - and avoiding line of sight when you don't want it.
Much of the game comes down to knowing the effects of your weapons against those of your enemy at different ranges, and then figuring out how to use the terrain to your advantage.
Forget the thing in the tank guide about letting the tanks get closer than 100 m before you open fire. It might be a typo. Do NOT let tanks get that close unless they are light tanks and you have only AT rifles and similar.
And even with AT rifles, they should usually fire at around 300m. I've seen them take out Panzer IV frontally at that range. 300m is also about the range where tanks can start to spot and destroy infantry even if they are prone in the grass.
Especially as the Germans, the right engagement range is often more like 1000m than 100m.
With experience, you start to pick up all these small things and become more succesful. Good luck and have fun.
1. Prepare a layered defense with light/medium/heavy AT guns & howitzers.
2. Use infantry as disposable distractions to create opportunities for AT guns. Overwhelm your enemy with noises so he can't stay calm and aim for your AT assets.
The preferred AT killing zone is on and behind the Main Line of Resistance (MLR). Take out these tanks when they are busy shooting your infantry men so they won't penetrate the MLR.
Your primary objective is to prevent a mechanized penetration, so as long as the enemy stops not far behind the MLR, it's a success (to some extent).
This is valid for heavy AT guns and howitzers. Yet, in some extreme cases, 100m is the ideal engagement range, e.g., 3.7cm Pak35.
Pak35 needs a T-34 to get within 100m to use the StGr41 HEAT projectile.
Pak38 needs a KV-1 to get within 200m to be effective.
With the small AT guns, I prefer to put them in defilade so they can hit the enemy tanks from the side, or behind a small hill so that the moment the enemy tank gets in view, it's also very close.
I avoid simply placing small AT guns on a big hill and tell them to hold fire - I find they will get spotted before the enemy gets close enough to be effective.
Maybe it could work if you have some terrain to hide them in, but I find it difficult to understand how the game engine "sees" cover. Does it need a square with a green inner square, or is concealment based on the actual bushes/trees in the square? From reading this forum, I have the feeling that nobody really knows...
This range can be improved if there's background concealment (vegetation, tall grass, etc.). This conceals the silhouette of the gun position.
Yet, I'd recommend concealing an AT gun by actively interfering the enemy with small arms fire, so that the enemy is busy shooting poor GIs, not searching for your AT guns.
PS:
1. If an AT gun is not placed in a gun emplacement, then forget about concealment. Tanks with 78 sight can easily spot it from 850m away. Even hiding in thick vegetation only improves this range to ~500m.
2. Tanks has less observability outside the frontal arc. So a flanking position may be placed as close as 300m and remain unspotted (depends on the direction the enemy tank approaches, a glimpse to the side then the gun's cover is blown).
2. Background concealment, this is one of the algorithm for concealment level calculation. The full algorithm for concealment isn't that hard to understand but needs some profound understanding of the "art of concealment" (military class, lol).
FYI: A quite thorough showcase on tank concealment against ground & air observation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj2bjhgDlIU&list=PLosT1C2PpeAHt0vVSyg1R0EZqgJ8XES67&index=4
Probably a rule of thumb: drag the camera away and check the position, if you can't really identify the silhouette, then it's properly concealed. (An emplaced AT gun on the ridge line could still be easily spotted 600m away.)
Flanking fire positions can't be placed too close, normally 200m+. Ideal for Pak38 and 53-K, but not Pak35 (StGr41 only has a range of 100m.)
I remember using "Priority Target" for MGs in some cases, to get them to fire at approaching, far away enemy tanks for a moment: forced the tank crews to button up, reducing their spotting ability.
The "squares" are just a helper for the player to deploy his units, afaik? Once the battle starts, they do not "exist" anymore. So they have no relevance for the combat sim engine doing its work during a tactical battle, just a guide for the player...
So send some patrol squads 200~300m ahead of the MLR, then the tanks passing them will be busy killing these poor GIs when our AT guns do the revenge. We may lose 20 infantry men, but all AT assets are protected and tanks knocked out.
PS:
Recently I noticed that "AI fire control" offers a similar effect as "priority target" (maybe even better). Infantry and HMG are then firing all they have at tanks regardless of penetration.
Well if even very knowledgable players like you are not quite sure...?
Often, the green square will be one devoid of bushes, but the square right next to it that has some vegetation will not have any displayed concealment value.
Interesting numbers, thanks. Especially that hiding in thick vegetation only provides concealment till 500 m. You'd think an AT gun in heavy vegetation would be extremely difficult to spot before it opened fire.
Also surprising to me that trenches would offer such good concealment, since they visually stick out a lot in the game, and since they are quite open to the front. I assumed they only offered decent protection against artillery, small protection against direct fire, and next to no concealment value.
Trenches dig deep into earth, so they actually offers a hull down position.
Yes, real ones do. The ones in the game not all that much. Especially when it comes to things like AT guns and machineguns that mostly just get a bit of soil around them, but don't really dig in.
On setting up smaller AT guns, does the game represent crew morale/training, so that even non-penetrating impacts might scare the crew into bailing out? What about detracking? Weak points like hatches and such?
I'm basically wondering if I should only employ the 37 and 45 mm guns in situations where they can get consistent penetrating hits rather than disabling ones.
In short, always place AT guns in penetrating effective range to get the most of them. Recommend using small arms and mortars, not AT guns, to suppress tanks, since they are either disposable or hiding beyond LOS, while AT guns are too valuable to lose. (AT guns are organised in AT batteries, 18 or so per division. Replacements won't be available for days.)
PS:
One of the most difficult AT scenarios: try defending against 2 KV-1 with Pak35/Pak38/leFH18. They will steam roll over the map unless most guns are so placed in effective range. You may be lucky to disable 1 of them, but the other KV will ruin everything.