Smoke barrage, when and where?

Smokes, and how to use them... I'm clueless.

I understand smoke canisters on tanks for safer retreat if you cruise into an ambush, but on offense, how do you guys use it or do you use it at all?

Is it more useful to drop smoke barrage on top of enemy MG/AT position to blind it and rush it with infantry, or just barrage the sh*t outta it with HE?

Is this the most useless ability in game or just overlooked?

Then how about stuka smoke bombs? Drop along the route of attack, or across to hide movements from wide area?

I wanna hear your opinions on this!

I have same q as OKW player. When ?

Tank smoke is best used on retreat becuase it will cover your tank from any AT gun shots, because smoke blocks vision directionaly.

Better player will attack ground behind smoke with AT gun, but still chance of hiting tank blindly only by attacking ground is much smaller than normal autoattack.


On offense its not all tha useful because smoke is directional and is fired on position where you tank is right now, so if you move more forward it will be useless.

So all in all I think tank smoke is best used as defensive tool when you extend your tank to save his ass. Smoking mg or AT gun is a bit contraproductive because one you flanked it, you will just circle-starfe it (so AT gun cannot target your tank) while you mob it down with your main gun/coaxial lmgs.

On offense its not all tha useful because smoke is directional and is fired on position where you tank is right now, so if you move more forward it will be useless.

Heh, yes. I don't think the tank smokes are not to be used in offensive (excluding the churchill fart).

But the mortar smoke barrages, or offmap Ju-87 smoke drop. They could be used to screen infantry rush through enemy MGs field of fire, or to cover pioneers while setting mines or defusing enemy mines, yeah?

Judging from your answer, Hector, i assume you haven't ever thought of using any other smoke than tanks smoke? Just joking, but really the question is: is the smoke ever used anywhere and is it succesful or not?

there are many uses for smokes, defensively and offensively.

and using tank smoke for retreat is kinda useless against good players since they will just attack ground anyways. only worth on cheap smokes like the werhmatch ones. Sherman smoke is too expensive to use to try to run away, unless you are full health.


the big problem with smokes on my opinion is that they don't last long enough and they take TOO LONG to set up (and mortar smoke barrage glitch out like 90% of the times)

Heh, yes. I don't think the tank smokes are not to be used in offensive (excluding the churchill fart).

But the mortar smoke barrages, or offmap Ju-87 smoke drop. They could be used to screen infantry rush through enemy MGs field of fire, or to cover pioneers while setting mines or defusing enemy mines, yeah?

Judging from your answer, Hector, i assume you haven't ever thought of using any other smoke than tanks smoke? Just joking, but really the question is: is the smoke ever used anywhere and is it succesful or not?

As ostheer mostly not. As ostheer you often want to give your hmgs clear vision so they can supress allied superior infantry and if you see enemy mgs, like maxims in house, I found it much better to just shell it with fast firing ostheer mortar than dropping (bugged) smoke on that house, waiting til its lands and then marching forward with pioneers and attacking ground with their flamethrower.

I tend to spot mines with sweeper enginner squad and then attack them with tank or at gun or any kind of explosive weapon. You aren´t putting your enginners in danger that way because enemy cal always land some shot on mine resulting into explosion and death of engineers, even if you covered them with smoke.

Stuka smoke drop is really good to screen your tanks in both attack or retreat, you just need to take into account time til it lands there.

Also for ostheer smoke - mortar, stuka is very good tool to smoke enemy AT guns, so your tanks can approach without eating shots and then circle starfing AT guns once smoke wears out. This is also primar use of stuka smoke. It is excelent ability, only problem right now is doctrine avability. In current state of balance there is no way to keep yourself in game as ostheer if you won´t use tiger/tiger ace/puma/ostruppen doctrine or you´re really good player. Next patch will help ostheer to survive mid game better (light tanks nerfs, guard-penal nerfs, USA mortar nerfs), so you can start experimentating with these "non-meta" commanders more

I have same q as OKW player. When ?

I cannot thing about any OKW smoke except puma smoke - same use as ostheer panzer tactical smoke and titanium tetrachloride smoke. This one smoke grenade is really good against HMGs or tanks becuase it slows any infantry down, disallows them to shot and damage them over time. Tanks in this kind of smoke cannot operate their weaponry.

well yeah, true.

I was not thinking clearly, perhaps safer way is to just shell the minefields with mortar, if you know it's there.

But it seems that smokes are not commonly used. Maybe it could be used sometimes to trick enemy into using costly sector artilleries in a panic move. Maybe using smoke could just add confusion into enemy lines? It's so rarely used, that using it could really mess up someones planning.

well yeah, true.

I was not thinking clearly, perhaps safer way is to just shell the minefields with mortar, if you know it's there.

But it seems that smokes are not commonly used. Maybe it could be used sometimes to trick enemy into using costly sector artilleries in a panic move. Maybe using smoke could just add confusion into enemy lines? It's so rarely used, that using it could really mess up someones planning.

The thing with ostheer is that you generally use smoke to close distance and ostheer performs best at long range. I could see mortar smoke creatively used with assgrens, or maybe some kind of flamer pios blob. But generally, it is more beneficial to put your spare micro elswere as ostheer.

Smoke barrages can be used against MGs if they surprise you, smoke on top of your own infantry so that they break suppression and close up for a grenade after that. There are things like this you can do with the smokes but personally I almost never do anything like this since I almost never get a chance to

But since you mentioned the ostheer smoke drop... It's very effective while planning a tank attack against enemy TDs etc since you're able to close up to a range from which you're able to take them down from, also works as a poor mans Panzer Tactician (Tank smoke screen).

The thing with ostheer is that you generally use smoke to close distance and ostheer performs best at long range

You won't be performing at all if you get suppressed by an HMG team though. I would disagree that smoke is used more often to close distance than to avoid getting pinned down.

@OP: Any kind of smoke is incredibly useful, both in attack and defence. Even if your opponent knows how to use attack ground, the appearance of smoke can still cost them some seconds before they switch to using attack ground and manually tracking their target. Also, attack ground produces more misses than normal attack mode when stationary.

It can also be the decisive factor against long-range TDs like Firefly/Jackson/Su-85 in disrupting their LoS at the same time as using blitz ability on your vehicles to close distance and flank.

Does target attack (the normal attack, click on target) require personal LOS to target?

Example: Enemy wants to attack my frontline with a tank, i drop smoke barrage on my own pak, to hide it from enemy fire. Normally, pak couldn't see the attacking enemy but if i use spotters? Can the pak directly attack the assaulting tank?

This might need some looking into...

And since most smoke barrage abilities take a few seconds to actually arrive and conceal, i guess they're more useful in offensive uses than in defense. The tank tactician smoke canisters on tanks is immediate, so that's most useful in saving tanks under attack...


And one more idea for use: I managed to smuggle a hidden sniper over a open crossroad, where he would have lost the camouflage. The stuka smokedrop could be used to smuggle a sniper or other hidden ninjas over a longer distance. For creating nasty ambushes or to spot enemy positions. Both in best cases.

The thing with ostheer is that you generally use smoke to close distance and ostheer performs best at long range.

Unless you close the distance to throw a Bundled grenade on trench. Or with flame pioneers. Or just plain assault, DPS and range is not everything in every situation.

All depends on situation, and map and about thousand other factors, but with a little creativity and luck, the smokes can become very useful, while not that destructive tool.

And one more idea for use: I managed to smuggle a hidden sniper over a open crossroad, where he would have lost the camouflage. The stuka smokedrop could be used to smuggle a sniper or other hidden ninjas over a longer distance.

This is actually a very cool idea. You learn things on forums even after six years of playing this game I guess.

This is actually a very cool idea. You learn things on forums even after six years of playing this game I guess.

No problem. Just thinking outside of the box. Not everything is in build orders and meta.

"Fire and steal" as Patton told. In these situations i would try to use my mortar to fullest. You use attack ground of your mortar (G) on position where you know enemy is. They will usualy have their support weapons on two different places. Reason you i use G is that it is less accurate but your intention is to move one of his support weapons. You will know did he moved it because you wont see flashes on your unit. When he moves that unit you should smoke another one and than move in. While he is moving his stuff it will give you few secs to move. Tanks can use their smoke really nicely in offensive. However it is limited to anti infantry support weapons. You can use that to smoke enemy anti infantry weapon and than move in with your infantry and you get his at so your tank can join in.


So to recap mortar is the best use it with attack ground G and barrage to get enemy on the move and than smoke.

Offensive smoke on tanks you use to block anti infantry weapons of enemy to allow your infantry to move on enemy's at weapons so your tank can join.

This is at least how i do it myb not the best case but would like to hear it.

And if you smoke your own at enemy know where it is it can still attack ground it tough

The most creative thing I made using smoke it was luring a T34 into an ambush.

It was in kholodny ferma. I placed the smoke near the truck north of the church, he kept chasing my grenadiers into the smoke, on the other side, from the ammo point, my pak used target weapoint and melted the tank with a faust for good mesure

I managed to lure enemy tanks into moving to center of the map in Langerskaya. Opponent had the middle hill fortified and tanks on the east fuel as a reserve. I smoke barraged his middle positions, and as he moved the tanks to secure and counterattack, i snuck to the east fuel decapping it without any resistance.

It's useless when it's not firing after you gave the order

honestly you can use this ability rarely .
all friends said was true but in some case ive used it more :
1) use ju somoke vs arty cover , although it cant protect you completly but when your tanks get stun in that area use carpet smoke bombing ju on your tanks(you have chance miss attack).
2) use somoke mortar barrage vs bofor specially you want to cap vpoint that block by bofor or you want to kill it by infantry shreck.

Oddly enough, I do remember a time when I decided to smoke out the front of a building because there was an MG in the church.

As a guy who loves using smoke abilities, I can put some input.

For me, I like to use it as a sight blocker for MGs. However, here is the twist for it. I deploy it on the unit itself or on the building itself. I'm closing the distance as my opponent is forced to redeploy to get away from the smoke. Plus, throwing grenades through smoke can be effective sometimes when an MG crew is packing up.

I can't say for the Ostheer since I primarily use smoke barrage as the USF and like to play around with the Pershing commander most of the time.