Was reading Defense of Hill Somethreedigitnumber, sorta a modern-day
Defense of Duffer's Drift by someofficer (It's 1 AM and the book is upstairs.
This is as coherent as I get). It's about a Ranger who eats 3 MREs in one day,
which kills him and he goes to Purgatory. Well, suprise, Purgatory is at Fort
Irwin, California. Anyway, in last scenario, the one he gets right, he uses a
Chemical Platoon's
M-113-mounted smoke generators to screen an attack. And TC's Armored
Cavalry also mentions M-113-mounted smoke generators as part of an NBC
company. Now, as an Engineer, I worship the Gods of Smoke. But as a light
type, I've never seen these things in action. But they sound good, and I want
'em on my Dirtside II table. I figure it can lay smoke out the back, no
problem. 12 or 15 inches of smoke in relatively thick cloud (rather than
measuring radii, when someone shoots smoke fire mission we take cotton balls
and pile them along the line of fire until it looks right. But we're informal)
each turn. My question is how to point these puppies? Any suggestions? And how
many turns of smoke can each one lay before it runs out?
> John Atkinson wrote:
Why not use smoke ammunition? 10 points and you get a smoke cloud 2" inches in
diameter. Or if driving along in your smoke(ing) APC, leave a trail of 1" inch
wide,
say 4" -6" inches long trail or 1/2" wide and, say, 12" long (tracked
APC movement length in normal terrain). 10 points of smoke light artillery
shells use about 2 cargo points in my house rules, (4 points officially).
Hope this helps!
> You wrote:
> Why not use smoke ammunition? 10 points and you get a smoke cloud 2"
inches >in diameter.
Limited space. If I've got, say, five fire missions per RAM Howitzer battery
(my current standard Artillery Support Vehicle is only size 2) then I want to
use it to kill bad guys rather than smoke if there is an alternative. Of
course, I've usually also got a pair of mortars on the table too.
> John Atkinson wrote:
On thinking about it more, the smoke ammunition you're firing out the back
of your APC/MICV doesn't need propellant charges and so is cheaper, so
only use 1 cargo point (not 2) and only 5 points for smoke shells, to get one
12"
stream out of the back of your APC/MICV. The smoke stream is as
effective as your normal artillery smoke ammunition. If you want your APCs and
MICVs to do what the Bradley MICV can do, which is pour diesel? fuel on the
exhaust pipe to create a cloud of smoke, it won't be effective enough to block
all sensors, only the Mk1 eyeball. I believe that advanced smoke should block
all sensors and so includes smoke, chaff, noise makers, active emitters of all
kinds, and probably other things I haven't thought of. Which would mean that
it is very bulky.
[quoted original message omitted]
> Owen Glover wrote:
I'm assuming the smoke shells are set off at the rear of the vehicle as it is
driving along. Thus the vehicle laying the smoke is totally exposed to enemy
fire. Feel free at any stage to interrupt the smoke laying vehicle's turn and
blow it away with direct fire. If you want a launcher that fires the smoke in
an arc or line, I would put in a mortar system and use it like normal
artillery firing smoke.
Glover, spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> OK, so doe we need to consider that the vehicle using the "smoke" is
As I understand such things, there are advanced aerosols which block visible
light spectrum, IR, TI, and (I assume in the future) you will expect them to
block some of the EM band with suspended particulates. This blindness is a two
way blindness as Owen points out, but I was pretty sure this was deployed out
the rear of a vehicle. As long as the vehicle wasn't stationary, it wouldn't
be blind, but would lay smoke in line behind it. You might have a flanker on
each wing doing
this to prevent flank fire by blocking LOS during an advance - but
that flanker itself will be quite vulnerable.
Another tactic I have seen armour perform for their own defence is to activate
the generators and back through the smoke. This blind them, but they exit LOS
of the enemy, which in some cases is more important.
Remember with smoke you have the following concerns:
1. Who can see through my smoke? What spectra does it block? If I'm fighting
partisans with poor equipment, normal smoke may blind them but I may be able
to see through it just great (If I'm a sealed tank, I'd even think of using
something nastier than plain old smoke like a chem agent.... but I'm nasty).
If I'm fighting modern forces, my smoke better blind all spectra and that
means it'll blind me too, but if I deploy it smart, that can help make it more
effective for me than my enemy. But I'd better keep recce forces that can see
past it because I'll be blinding myself to enemy actions otherwise.
2. What's the wind like? How fast does the smoke drift or disperse? This can
be a real problem with chem weapons as well.
Just my 0.02 as usual.
Tom.
One could also lay smoke from a aerospace craft loaded with a dispenser
carrying a number of smoke shell rounds. Along the path of the aerospace
craft, leave a trail of smoke 1/2" wide by up to 12" long for each 5
points and 1 cargo point of smoke shells. One run across your half of the
board at the start of your turn, will give you a quiet trip for the rest of
your force for the remainder of the game turn. Naturally, the enemy is free to
attack the aerospace craft in any way available as the aerospace craft is in
no way concealed by the smoke trail it's leaving.