Today I’m going to talk about my friend the Smoke Grenade. I was planning on doing flashes next, but I typed smoking in the title, and don’t feel like tweaking it. Plus I have a few things I’d like to say about smoke grenades, so it works out.
This post will probably address COD4 a bit more than the last one (on frag grenades), as smoking tactics are a bit more universally applicable. How long a smoke grenade lasts will vary from game to game, so take that into account when deciding if and how to implement this information.
Effects of Smoking
Yeah, it’s a bad joke. I’m going to talk about the two main effects of smoking. Of course it reduces visibility. Everyone knows that; we’ll talk a little about where to place your smokes. The other main effect I want to talk about is sound. Smoke grenades are really noisy. In America’s Army they’re probably a lot more noisy than they have a right to be. It’s important to know how to use both effects to your advantage. I’ll also wrap up by talking about a couple other effects that smoking may or may not have depending on the situation.
The Sound of Smoke
I figure I’ll start with the less obvious effect and work my way back to the more obvious one. When you play in matches and scrims this becomes an extremely important effect. One of the problems (features, if you know how to use it properly) in AA is the sound. It’s really difficult to move without being heard. The only way to do it and know it’s going to work is to get down into a prone position and slow crawl. Even then, the enemy may hear you as you go prone and come back up. Smoke grenades, while they are guaranteed to make your presence more noticeable, will tend to make you a much more difficult to hear. This is because of the loud hissing noise made by the smoke grenade in America’s Army.
My favorite times to smoke for cover of sound are in situations where I need to take an objective. Taking Primary Valve on Pipeline is an excellent example. One trick is to not smoke the objective itself, but just somewhere near it. The sound of the smoke easily covers the squeaking fo the valve. This can be applied to many maps. Anytime you need to move quietly through an area, smoke is a good idea. Remember that it does not really have to be near the area you’re trying to get through. It just has to cover it with sound.
From a team perspective, smokes can also be extremely useful for covering movement. You can use 2 or 3 smokes and move your entire squad into position without being heard. The most important thing is to get everyone to smoke designated places at the roughly same time. While the smoke is still making noise you need to make your move, so everyone needs to be ready when the smokes are being thrown. The sound can make it a lot harder for the enemy to hear, and will make them a bit jumpy, so you’ll want to be careful.
Smoking and Visibility
Smoke grenades make it hard to see. You probably already knew that. You also probably already figured out that they tend to attract enemy fire. When you smoke underpass on Hospital for the VIP to rush out, it often seems as though you’ve put up a sign that says “Fire here, the VIP will be rushing out!”. When you smoke primary valve on Pipeline grenades seem to come out of the woodworks. This is because of two reasons; a psychological reason, and a simple logical reason. The psychological reason is that smoke reduces visibility, which removes an element of knowledge from the enemy. People tend to fear what they don’t know, since they’re carrying guns they shoot at it in the hopes that they can kill whatever is in the smoke before it eats their brains.
The logical reason, is of course, that you probably intend to go where you smoked. This is especially the case when you smoke somewhere that most people intend to go (like an objective or the underpass on Hospital). Now sometimes this cannot be avoided. Not smoking the underpass when the VIP rushes out is almost suicide (unless you have people rushing across to deal with campers). However, I believe that the most useful application of the smoke grenade is not to conceal but to confuse. Let me see if I can make that make more sense.
If you know where your enemy is and where you need to get to, there’s a very good chance that he knows the same things. That is, where he is and where you need to go. Smoking the place you need to go doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because when he sees it, he’ll just start shooting at it (and he should, always spam smoke, it’s bad for the environment). The best application of smoke in this sort of a scenario is to smoke the enemy’s position. Rather than making him unable to see you, make him unable to see anything. This gives him two options. He can either hang out in the smoke (unable to see his hand in front of his face), or he can move to a new position. Assuming he moves to a new position, that’s your opportunity to shoot him. If he does nothing, that’s your opportunity to take the objective.
This tactic tends to work better when you’re working as a team and can have other people covering you, smoking, or taking the objective themselves. It still applies in public servers and when you’re the last one left, though. Rather than smoking your position, or the position of your objective, you may want to smoke your enemy (roll him up, light one end on fire… wait, no). This tactic applies in both America’s Army and Call of Duty 4.
General Smoke Stuff
No matter what you do, always make a point to give your smoke some time to… smoke. It’s always sad when I see a team mate throw a smoke, and run out before it’s had a chance to do anything. He typically gets shot and laughed at. Additionally, cooking smokes can be useful. If you cook it long enough you can create a vertical wall of smoke in the air as the smoke goes up and comes back down. It won’t last long, but may come in handy in certain situations.
Another thing to keep in mind is that smokes behave just like frags (minus the exploding part). They have a 5 second timer, bounce like frags, and sound like frags (again, minus the exploding part). They also make people run away from them just like frags. If you choose not to cook your smoke, you may be able to convince an enemy that you’ve thrown a frag grenade at him. Please keep in mind that this effect only lasts a few seconds, and will only make your death that much more funny if it fails miserably.
As always, the most important thing to do when learning a new tactic… practice, practice, practice. Get on empty servers and throw a few smokes. Just do it responsibly. I wouldn’t want you smoking a pack a day and getting lung cancer or anything. Have fun!
