Author Topic: being a "grunt"  (Read 4144 times)

Offline Wraith

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being a "grunt"
« on: 15-07-2009, 00:07:21 »
I've been lurking around on these forums (and the old ones) without contributing anything for quite some time now. I finally decided to change that, and what better way to do so would there be than sharing some of my long-time FH2 experience to players new to the mod.
There are already lots of tips and tactics around here, but none of them involve the most basic combatants, the backbone of any army: The regular infantry grunt.
You might not get a top score playing as infantry, you might not be the most annoying bastard in the whole match, but you will know that you contributed to the victory of your team, or at least helped to preserve it from an even more humiliating defeat.
But why listen to me when you can read a quote from Field Marshal Earl Wavell who served in the Middle East during WW2 and therefore should know a ‘little’ about the topic:

"Let us be clear about three facts: First, all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman. Secondly, the infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier, he suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms. Thirdly, the art of the infantryman is less stereotyped and far harder to acquire in modern war than that of any other arm."


Chapter I: Squads

Alright, do I have your attention now? Do you want to spawn on the frontmost flag and charge at the enemy shouting something patriotic like “For the king!” or “Deutschland!”?
Stop right there.
If you decide to play as infantry, (or simply can’t find a vacant plane or tank, which is more likely) join a squad. That doesn’t only give you a forward spawnpoint (a.k.a. squad leader) and the ability to completely turn your brain off because someone else is giving you orders, but also lets you play way more organised.
Stick with the squad leader, or even better, advance before he does. Why? Your expendable, he isn’t. Sounds mean, but that’s how it is. In case you get picked off by a sniper or blown up by a tank, at least your leader is warned and can take cover. You can respawn on him and take out the threat, or at least inform him and find a way around that nasty rolling tin can or hidden coward of death.
If advancing, try to stay low, but not lower than your SL. If he gets shot your whole squad is doomed to respawn at a friendly flag if it follows him to nirvana, and from that flag it’s probably a long way to your attack target.
Another big benefit of joining a squad is the access to more advanced manoeuvers than dropping prone on the ground.
Flanking and pincer tactics are just two of the most common tactics you can use to defeat your opponent. Use the environment and your imagination to form attack plans. When advancing, always think of where an enemy could pop up, where the nearest decent piece of cover is and how you could outmanoeuver an enemy machine gunner laying down cover fire from underneath that burning truck.
When in combat, communicate these plans to your leader using your voice or, if you don’t own a microphone, your keyboard. Try to take cover first though. You wouldn’t want to be shot while typing.

That’s it for now. I’ll post some more chapters covering proper weapon usage and infantry based defenses.
Well, at least unless you guys think that wall of text above is just a useless, overflowing piece of crap. In that case I’ll just shut up and keep playing this great mod. (btw my ingame name’s Unit_04)

And lastly, sorry for my bad english.

Offline Aggroman

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #1 on: 15-07-2009, 01:07:00 »
+1
Very nice post, welcome to the forums.

Offline Ekalbs

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #2 on: 15-07-2009, 07:07:02 »
+1
great spiel, not too long but enough information.
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Offline flyboy_fx

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #3 on: 18-07-2009, 03:07:31 »
+1

If you want to be a forum grunt act like me  :P ::)
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Offline von.small

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #4 on: 20-07-2009, 18:07:33 »
I like to see how long I can survive as in on intense maps like fall of tobruk, invariably I always get killed at least once, I've only managed to survive Sfakia with no deaths as a rifleman.  I'm very much in agreement - so many people spawn and charge the enemy hoping for what? (My mind reminds me of the Chevy gunner who starts shooting the lewis gun at an otherwise sleeping pzIII, only to brick himself and bail out when the turret turned to anihilate us - what did he expect?).  I guess some folks play FH2 as a game, a simple war game.  But there is a large network of veterans now that play it with some real tactical awareness.
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Offline Cin3k33

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #5 on: 21-07-2009, 09:07:28 »
I like to see how long I can survive as in on intense maps like fall of tobruk, invariably I always get killed at least once, I've only managed to survive Sfakia with no deaths as a rifleman.

I can`t stay alive as infantry, I just take my thompson and run into enemy lines, kill 3-4 and then gain headshot from hidden camper who want to stay alive, hate them. ;D

Offline Roden

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #6 on: 25-07-2009, 12:07:58 »
I like to see how long I can survive as in on intense maps like fall of tobruk, invariably I always get killed at least once, I've only managed to survive Sfakia with no deaths as a rifleman.

I can`t stay alive as infantry, I just take my thompson and run into enemy lines, kill 3-4 and then gain headshot from hidden camper who want to stay alive, hate them. ;D

If you cant beat them, join them  ;)

Offline Meadow

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #7 on: 25-07-2009, 13:07:03 »
Great post. I enjoy squad play and the employment of tactics. I like being an SL and indeed working with one - it's really satisfying to hunker down behind a rock or car and let your lads spawn while you pop smoke so they can flank the position up ahead. Did that with great success on Tunis a few weeks ago. Following orders is also something I enjoy - as long as the bloke giving them knows what he's doing. Thankfully, this being FH2, he usually does.
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Offline Wraith

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #8 on: 26-07-2009, 16:07:23 »
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 evening
But 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. ;D )
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” distance
Note 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).
Screenshot
Keep 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” distance
Maximal effective aimed firing distance
The 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!!"
« Last Edit: 26-07-2009, 16:07:00 by Wraith »

Offline Meadow

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #9 on: 27-07-2009, 17:07:03 »
 :o that was YOU! Blimey, it's not often people recognise me from in game on the forums or vice versa. I just don't play enough. Glad to see that little hoo hah stayed with you  ;)
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Offline Torenico

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #10 on: 09-08-2009, 23:08:41 »
If you have 3 weapons to choose..

-No4
-StG44
-Fg42

Wich one would you pick Wraith ?  ;D


Offline theUg

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #11 on: 11-08-2009, 09:08:53 »
Few things:

1. Field dressings. Absolutely positively always maraude them from the corpses of friends and foes alike after being shot, before using my own, while possible.

2. LMGs. For ambush or defence, with long sustained automatic fire — MG34, no exceptions. It has decent size drum and very favourable iron sight for defence — you see everything and are able to quickly point and shoot the target. Bren’s iron sights are horrible for covering wider spaces, and in close quarter defence you wouldn’t have much time to react while zoomed. Besides, relatively small magazine size spells many a deaths at close range.

Bren has it’s advantages — being able to shoot from the hip is one of them. Also, it is good for supressive fire — single-shot/short-burst pinning down of enemy sniper/rifleman, while the rest of your squad is advancing/flanking. MG34 could be used the same way too, but it seems to be more effective in short burst at long range rather than single shot.

Didn’t have much chance to practice with Italian gun, still waiting on American, Russian, Japanese MGs. :)

3. Tripod MGs (Vickers and Lafette MG34). Those are very good mobile supressive/covering fire points. Vickers has iron sights without much zoom, while MG43 has optics, wich helps a lot. However, Vickers can be turned around 360° without much problem, while MG34 has limited lateral range and you have to slowly move the whole lafette using strafe buttons (A/D by default) to turn it around.

Both are very accurate though and even with Vickers I was able to mow down targets that are only as little as 5mm tall on the screen. Better than you can do with standard infantry rifle. Plus, giant-sized magazines.

Negative side of using those is that you present high-profile target for the enemy, compared with prone machine gunner and you can hardly find decent cover. But, unless there are enemy snipers or armored vehicles around, you have nothing to fear from the distance when it comes to small arms fire. At close range though, you have measely sidearm at your defence, so, in squad play, I would also have rifleman or assualt next to the machine gunner to protect him. NCO would work fine for that. Also, NCO or scout could act as the spotter with binoculars for hidden targets (works charmingly in Project Reality as well).

4. Cars with mounted MGs and APC can also be used as mobile supressive fire bases. I recently put emphasis on it in BF2 — you can rack up tons of kills on maps like Jalalabad.


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Offline Wraith

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #12 on: 11-08-2009, 13:08:49 »
If you have 3 weapons to choose..

-No4
-StG44
-Fg42

Wich one would you pick Wraith ?  ;D

The MP44, definately. Except if I get a scope with that FG42, that might make it a little more useful on long ranges.
I was talking about the bolt action rifles already ingame when I said my favorite was the SMLE. Comparing it to automatic rifles is like comparing a Stuart tank to a Tiger II.

Offline Havoc2090

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Re: being a "grunt"
« Reply #13 on: 10-09-2009, 00:09:17 »
i also don't like being infantry that much, i love my tanks too much! lol, but im not bad as infantry either, its just i get alot of deaths most of the time, either my tactics aren't right or im in the wrong place at the wrong time, but i still get some pretty decent kills though

also another tip if you are infantry, before entering a trench or a buildingor even crossing roads use grenades to kill whatever is inside the house/trench and use smoke grenades to help you move from A to B more safely, you probably already know these tips but i just thought i'd suggest them anyway :)
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