| Smoke: Smoke, your best friend and your worst enemy! Smoke has many uses, offensively and defensively. Offensively you can use it at the start of an attack to mask the movement of your troops and similiarly defensively to hide movement when you come under fire. It works by hiding your men, and the end of a contact line so your opponent cannot fix their position and fire upon them. If you are unsure of enemy positions pop smoke onto roads before you cross them, this causes distraction and provides cover. One drawback is that it also works for the opponent, it says "look over here, I'm going to attack", and gives the position of your combat troops away. One way to overcome this is with the use of mortars. Mortar smoke does not give the position of your troops away, and if they then come under fire they can use their own smoke to withdraw. Mortar smoke is also good for distraction moves, you can use this smoke in a set position to draw your opponents gaze while you move other units into other positions. A word of warning: not all units carry smoke so when choosing your battle sections, take this into consideration! More Tips: 1. It isn't possible to hit roads with mortar smoke in GJS 4.3, cause of a bug. Infantry is able to throw smoke on the raods! 2. It is possible to kill with smoke rounds. Even destroy open vehicles with it! 3. You can slow down enemy tanks with smoke rounds. Just pop some smoke in front of a moving tank, it will slow down, sometimes even stop. Can be useful when the opponent is driving fast to give some support to his troops. 4. Not sure about this one, didn't try it yet: you can scare off enemy infantry with smoke.When an enemy infantry squad tries to rush in a house, running over some open space, you can pop some smoke in front of them, scare them off, they go down on their belly's, and you can counter attack on them. 5. Deception! Smoke one side of a building (with enemy MG in it), the MG will rush to that side, you can attack the other side. Deceptive smoke can also be used for other things as well like wasting enemy mortar ammo, or luring enemy tanks into an ambush or trap. Smoke may also cause undetected enemy to fire, thus disclosing their location. Since smoke is usually a signal of impending attack, it can at the very least, cause the enemy great alarm, confusion, or even panic! 6. How to use smoke when attacking or defending? See the two sections! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mortar & mortar barrages: - Mortar fires are inherently inacurate. Mortars are an area weapon. Mortars are best used for suppression and to obscure. The smoke of a mortar provides more obscuration and has greater range than grenade smoke. But it is easy to kill with it as well. Drop some shells on running infantry or stationarry open topped vehicles, and you will have some kills. - When I take mortar in my BG, I always take at least two teams. If you have to attack on a map, and you want to suppress the enemy with mortar shells or give some protection to your own units with some smoke, one team won't be sufficient. The same with defending a map. When the enemy has to clear a lot of terrain, and he's not stupid, he will do so with several teams in different sections of the map. One moartar team can't suppress (and kill) everywhere at the same time. - The mortar teams go from light, over medium to heavy. I don't like the light teams much. Thier blast simply isn't big enough to cause much damage. But they carry more shells and they have smoke rounds. Most of the players use the medium mortars. Nothing wrong with these guys, can kill infantry and open topped vehicles, even immobilise tanks, and have smoke capability. But they are limited in shells, so pick your targets with care. When they are available, and the map isn't to big, I like to select a heavy mortar for my troops. They fire shells like a mini Naval barrage, but they are limited in quantity as well. And they can't lob smoke. I use them a lot to immobilise those big tanks and assault guns. Some more tips: 1. Don't waste ammo, rounds are limited. Don't waste rounds on: unobserver targets - bad targets - distant targets that do not support your mission. Select targets carefully. 2. Firing mortars at units near the edge of the map should be avoided, as many of the rounds seem to disappear off of the edge...Also beware of the water. Not as much so as the screen edge, but if it hits the water, there will be no shrapnel or impact damage! 3. In GJS 4.3 it is not possible to fire mortar smoke-shells on paved roads. The mortar will land off target (sometimes quite far!) 4. Try to select experienced teams for your BG, they will fire more accurately. Even more when you put a command team near it in deploy (better morale and efficiency). 5. Very important! Number your mortar teams for quick reaction. Select a team and press control-1. Now, if you ever see a running enemy team in the game, just press 1, then V and fire. It's very quick. And every time an enemy team tries to run you can drop a mortar shell right on it. It is important to stop them ASAP, from the moment they stand up, that's the moment they are still close together. 6. Don't move the moratr teams around to get perfect LOS, although it helps. The closer you are the more accurate they will be. But keep these guys dug in until they have no ammo and no smoke. The reason for this is that you need them to be ready to fire the shells you need so badly. And after moving them, they always ned some time to set up. 7. When you have picked two (or more) mortar teams, put them in "ambush" mode, but not in the same direction. Put one of them more to the south and one more to the north (different directions from where you can expect enemy units). When you order a mortar team to fire to another direction than it is facing at, it will take more time to fire, the team has to turn to that direction first! 8. In GJS 4.3 AT-guns are not so vulnerable to mortar shells as in the regular CC5. Even the gun crew is difficult to kill with mortar shells. That's because in GJS 4.3 the AT-guns are treated as if they are topped vehicles with their crew inside. It is much more easy to destroy an open topped vehicle on the move than a stationarry AT-gun. 9. It is possible to kill with smoke rounds! Mortar barrages: - These barrages use medium shells and come with 4 shells at a time. They drop around 50 to 60 shells (so 15 drops of 4 shells). You know when the last shells are landing, because the last one often has only two shells. - Don't launch the barrage on the first moving enemy unit you see. Use it wisely: - when the opponent has to attack from a small deploy zone. Use it ASAP, you will kill a lot of infantryand maybe immobilise a vehicle. Or even destroy an open topped tank. - in a meeting engagement, with the same results as above. You surely are going to slow down his troops in the advance. - to rescue an almost lost position when the enemy is closing in on a flank, giving you the opportunity to call in some reserves. - to prevent that last rush towards your VL('s) you need to keep for the victory. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Air Support: - Is it possible to know in advance from what direction the plane is going to come? I have tested this a lot and I believe (pretty sure) it is random! So, sometimes if the approach the aircraft has taken is unfavourable, you can kill as many of your own troops as of the enemy. Beware that, if you use air support in close proximity of your own troops, you are taking a calculated risk! Only when it takes a fortuitous line of approach, you will geta good result. And not all air strikes will have the same devastating power. It all depends on what aeroplane is called in. Don't use the lighter planes on enemy armour, use them on infantry! When you are alerted via radio message that "air support is now available", look at the "Message Window" and see what air support has been dispatched: UK: - Typhoon: this plane comes in 3 different versions! They all got 2cm guns, but one comes with an extra bomb(s), the third one has extra rocket(s). Only the last 2 are real panzer killers! - Spitfire: use this one only to kill some German infantry or maybe (if you are lucky)to destroy a gun in the field. The Spit only carries MG's. Picture is coming up. German: - Focke Wulf 190: has one bomb (like heavy mortar shell) and MG's. - Messerschmitt BF 109: only MG's - PATIENCE! I wait as long as possible to use my air support. I use it only early if I see my opponent massing for a large attack. Otherwise I try and save it for the "final rush" or for a target VL I am assaulting. I believe the single biggest mistake by newbies is using support on a spot that you think thereis an enemy at (from PROTO - TH forum). __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Intelligence Report: - When you host a game, you have the advantage of choosing the map. But that's not all, you will get more info during play than the joiner! Read all about it: 1. You can spot an enemy mortar team without having LOS on them, even when you don't see them! But only when you host, you don't get that info when you join a game. There are a few different ways you can get this info: |
| - When you have any team with LOS on the place from where the enemy mortar squad is firing, you will notice a small smoke cloud. The enemy mortar team will not show though, until they are out of mortar shells. When they start firing their rifles, you will see them immediately! In PIC 1 you see the small smoke cloud. In PIC 2 the mortar squad starts firing their rifles and there they are! - When you have a Recon team, with "dark green LOS" on the same spot, you will see the smoke cloud too (not with other squads!). You can see this in PIC 3 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 1 |
| 2 |
| 3 |
| You can always listen for mortar fire too, the better you can hear it- the closer it is. When you know its position after you spot a smoke cloud, you can try suppressing it with your own mortars and take some actions against enemy squads. Very useful during all infantry battles. Killing a member of an enemy mortar team with mortars of your own is very refreshing. The opponent will lose the ability to use his mortar for some time. He will never like that! |
| 2. When an enemy tank crosses a hedge you will see a gap appearing in this hedge, but only if you host. And you don't have to see the tank doing that, the gap will show on your screen! The hedge will stay complete when you join, even on the map (side) of the tank that crossed the hedge. 3. You will never get a damage report (for instance an enemy tank that immobilises) when you join a game. I have tested this a lot. Even when a Recon team is very close to the tank and with "light green LOS" on it, you still don't get the info! When you join you will always get the info, even when you are very far from the tank, with any team and with red LOS on it. This means even without seeing the tank. Look at the picture below. This is a regular rifle squad, more than 300 meters away with red LOS, and it doesn't see the tank. But it is there. A heavy mortar squad (you can see them in the "inset map" more to the north - they can't see the tank either) has immoblised it. There are no other teams on the map: |
 |
| As joiner you don't even get the info about your own tank immobilising in the Message Window. You only get it in the Soldier monitor. Check it out! - In contrast to what I have heard very often, both host & joiner can see the smoke of a gun firing. Even when you have no team with LOS on it. I tested this on different maps. Placed an enemy gun on the other side of town in a building and ordered it to shoot in the opposit direction of the enemy. The other side (enemy) will always see the smoke of the shot, host & joiner. This works the same for the muzzle smoke of firing tanks, "firing lines" of hand-weapons, and any kind of explosion. BUT NOT for the smoke release of a firing Schreck, this time you will need LOS on it again! - And the damage done to buildings will appear for both sides too. BUT, in fact it will only work for the host only. For the joiner the wall will still be there! (See the section "Tanks"). - Did anyone notice that you get different measure readings when you use a "move line" (sneak - move - move fast) and when you use a "fire line"? Try it! Start from any team, use "fire" first, draw that line to a certain spot and read the distance. Do the same with a "move line", it will not be the same! The "fire line" will give a higher number! Some good tips from other players: - Attention! There is no such thing as automatic and "always rational" LOS. It is possible to have one way LOS...it is possible to have no LOS and still fire... likewise it is possible to have LOS and not be able to fire. Some notes...LOS is measured from the commander of a unit to the commander of the enemy unit. If he can't see, the rest of the unit tends to react individually. Quirky LOS's are a part of the game. As far as I know, there is no way to cheat and alter LOS in game, so if any of these things happen please do not accuse your opponent of cheating. There is such a thing called the "Fog of War", and I believe the things that sometimes don't make sense in this game are essentially just that (from PROTO - TH forum). - About Mortars: The calibre and the rate of fire give these guys away. If you count 2 or 3 simultaneous hits then you know he's got 2 or 3 mortar teams. This is important because you can substract 14 - 21 men from his assault force. Check your minimap when a red dot shows up, if it's a mortar squad you may be safe to start "move fast" commands on your troops. - Dead bodies: Always count these. They can indicate team strength. If the bodies aren't mangled to bad you can count more accurately how many from a certain team are dead. A bodie trail leading into a house is a pretty good give away on the houses defence strength. You can also count dead bodies as a total, not as how many from each team are dead. If you count 21 bodies, you can write off 3 assault teams even if they are not from only 3 teams. It helps you realise how many more troops you have then your opponent. - Tank fire: If an enemy tank is firing on soft targets, he's using HE shells. This is your chance to move your own tanks up and fire off AP. The enemy tank will discharge his HE on you then reload AP. So basically you get to fire 2 AP to his 1 AP. A very good advantage. Here are some ways to find hidden tanks. Look for crushed hedges, mine blasts, exhaust smoke and gun smoke. - Trenches and gun pits: Sometimes you can see these but not the troops or equipment in them. If it's a new gun pit then there is a gun in it.Trenches may or may not have troops. Don't waste indirect fire on trenches unless assaulting. - Recon by fire: Stuarts are great for this. 3x30cals and 1 rapid firing 37mm cannon with hordes of ammo. Start pounding any likely position to find enemy troops. ( All from MOOXE - TH forum) - Explosions: You all know that when crossing a hedge or a wall with a tank it is possible that there will be an explosion. And sometimes some of the crew get killed, sometimes even your tank is destroyed. That your tank is damaged or immobilised doing these crossings, that I can understand. But some of the crew killed or the tank destroyed, that's a bit (or better a lot) overdone IMO. And when you "move fast" an infantry team through that small barb-wire, you have to be careful. Often there are those "minepoles" in the barb-wire, and some of your men could get killed! -Jager's site: map intel PICS: Before you click on the map thumbs remember one thing, these maps show hidden bunker placements on each of the maps. The reason I have included the hidden bunkers is since this site is dedicated to helping the new players, hidden bunkers are not the norm in the Close Combat series and therfore totally unexpected: |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Typhoon |
 |
 |
| FW 190 |
| BF 109 |
| Elevation Towers: I read about them in one of the forums, but I never could find them. PL_mik told me about the exact place on the Cagny map.They almost look like a tree. After that I noticed the 2 others on the Sword map. They can give you almost full LOS on the maps (with a sniper or MG), but they don't give much cover: |
 |
 |
| Cagny |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Sword |