Sorry about continuing so late after my last post, but the nice weather prevented me from doing anything else then going to the local lake with a bathing suit on and a sixpack of beer under my arm.
Of course that action involved getting pretty drunk and hence not being able to write a halfways decent post in the eveningBut anyways, here it is;
Chapter 2: Proper Weapon Usage
Just because you can't shoot yourself in the foot in FH2 doesn't mean that you know how to use the weapons. Take some time to get familiar with all of them in SP before you jump into battle against other players, that can save you a lot of "OMGWTFBBQ, how did he hit me when I couldn't hit him??".
Let's start with your kit, as that determines the weapons you carry.
The rifleman is never a bad choice, it’s pretty much the allrounder class. The engineer is mostly useful when defending an area (or when driving a tank, but I’m covering his use as infantry here) while the recon class is very useful for breaking through enemy defenses with his smoke grenades. The assault class is good for any CQB, be it attacking or defending, and the AT class is the only one that can aggressively destroy a defending tank. In my opinion, the NCO kit is more a danger than a benefit to the SL wielding it, as enemy snipers, and to a lesser degree grunts, will usually target an officer first to prevent his squad from spawning on him. As for the machine gunner: I almost never use it, but I think it might be very useful in an ambush situation. I guess I’ll just wait for someone else to post some advice on how to use them.
The first thing you should train is the rifle. It's the most important weapon in your arsenal when playing as an infantryman. The 5 types of rifles ingame differ mostly by their magazine size and accuracy, power doesn't really matter since one shot to the torso or head with any rifle instantly kills an enemy.
Take some time to find your favorite rifles
-when playing Aussies vs. Italians.
-when playing Brits (with No.3 and No.4) vs. Jerries.
I personally favor the Lee-Enfield rifles over anything the axis forces use, but that’s just me being comfortable with knowing that I got twice as many bullets in my gun as the guy that shoots at me.
Now, the point of choosing a rifle as your favorite is that you can still steal it from a fallen enemy if you happen to spawn on the side with crappy rifles *coughitalianscough*. In addition, the enemy might think you’re one of his buddies when he hears you shoot, but doesn’t see you.
Remember to check your minimap if you suddenly hear shots in a rather quiet area, no matter what gun they’re coming from.
Just as with rifles, you should also steal any other equipment that might be useful for your task from the enemy.
(Just like the other day when I wounded Meadow. He crawled back into his foxhole and threw a field dressing into the sand. By that time I had reached his hideout, also wounded, killed him and took his bandage instead of using mine up.
)
Lots of people don’t know when to use the iron sights and when to shoot from the hip, so I made a screenshot (I couldn’t get anyone to stand still and let me aim at them, just imagine that red barrel was an enemy)
maximal effective “shoot from the hip” distanceNote that this is my way of using the rifle. I’ve been quite successful with it, but if any of you thinks I’m telling crap, just leave a comment.
Now for things that go
[click me].
Explosives of any kind have the highest TK statistics of all weapons (there are no actual numbers about that, but everybody with a little FH2 experience will probably agree). While pretty much everyone can shoot rifle grenades and actually hit something after they’ve practiced a little bit to get an idea of the arc they fly at, hand grenades pose more of a threat to your own team than to the enemy if you don’t know how to use them right.
Instead of just pressing the left mouse button and sending a metal ball filled with high explosives relatively unaimed over the battlefield, try to hold the right mouse button when you want to throw a grenade. That way you’ll have some time to aim it, and in the case of the British sticky grenades, you don’t need to wait for the whole readying animation to finish when the tank has rolled into your range. If you want to practice using grenades, try throwing some through the small window of the “African Villa” static found on Supercharge (and probably some other maps).
ScreenshotKeep in mind that every grenade has a unique flight behaviour, the Stielhandgranate for example has a way flatter trajectory and therefore higher range than the Mills Bomb.
If you want to get rid of some enemies chasing you, just tap the right mouse button, dropping the grenade instead of throwing it, and run away, preferably around the next corner of a building. This also works with smoke grenades and covers your escape.
Important: the British smoke grenade, the Thermos grenade from a Brit pickup kit and the Italian bomba a mano have impact fuses, using this tactic with them will damage you or – in the case of the latter two – send you flying sky high.
Now for the last weapon, the SMG. When using it, just leave enemies that are out of range alone, they might not notice you until they get close enough for you to shoot them down. At point blank the ironsights become useless and firing from the hip is more effective.
Again, I made some screenshots to demonstrate the approximate range of an SMG, this time abusing an innocent tank barrier. Shame on me.
Maximal effective “shoot from the hip” distanceMaximal effective aimed firing distanceThe effective ranges differ greatly from SMG to SMG, the Tommy Gun for example has a way lower effective range than the MP40, the Beretta being somewhere between the two.
If the enemy hasn’t spotted you, you can also try to fire single shots or short bursts from a way higher distance at them to take them out. Especially with the drum-magazine Thompson you won’t have to worry about shooting your entire magazine empty and being vulnerable while reloading.
A few last words about the knive/bayonet. It isn’t only useful to kill enemies that are unaware of your presence without making too much noise, it is also often the best weapon at very low ranges, seeing as cycling the bolt of a rifle takes longer then just stabbing again.
Next up: “Infantry Based Defenses” and “Tanks”
Inspired by getting killed a f**bunch of times by one and the same tanker.P.S.: Thanks for all the positive comments, I wouldn’t have thought my english is even understandable…
P.P.S.: Oh, and, Meadow, "I'm in ur foxholes, stealing ur field dressings!!"