The FIST-V - tricky!

[smithcorp]

I played the FIST-V artillery scenario last night. Great fun, but gee that vehicle has some traps for young players. For a start, the periscope always starts looking over your back deck, so you have to reverse into position or rotate the thing through 180 degrees to see anything. I spent a little while able to see baddies through my binocs, but only able to see trees and foliage when I switched over to the periscope! And when you decide to reverse towards another position (or to jockey before emerging somewhere else) and go to commander’s position looking over the back deck, as you move off the periscope parks itself facing to rear again, so this huge structure moves to block your view! LOL.

The other tricky bit is remaining hidden and being able to lase enemy positions. Lots of times last night my ability to lase would be constrained by foliage that I couldn’t see in the binos (I suppose the periscope reaches into the lower branches of the trees at times), so I needed to jockey around to get a clear view, or estimate the enemy positions on the map from landmarks.

Good fun and quite tense at time and a cool feature of the FIST is its ability to swim, so I could cross a little creek and get right up into the forest south of the town.

The planning and management of the arty was challenging. I spotted some T72s close together in the open (the scenario has random placement of enemy positions, so no spoilers here) and was able to lase them. I then chose an ICM strike using 2 tubes (didn’t want to waste my arty), with a 200m x 200m box. The strike, when it came, killed only one tank and it took two more strikes (HE) to kill a second one and damage the third. I also clobbered some infantry and PCs with HE strikes.

I definitely need some more practice on arty, but the FIST is a fun platform.

[Blackmuzzle]

My problem in that mission is that vehicles and troops tend to move around, and I never seem to be able to plot a strike at a location that still makes sense at splash time. Most of the times the enemy has already packed up their gear and moved on to another location... :/

[Elf`]

Blackmuzzle, you plot your strike and send adjustments based on continued observation of enemy movement during the strike processing time. Hard, but worth it.. I still havent really got the hang of it though...

[Blackmuzzle]

Bah, you're not helping. I was expecting an answer like "oh you just hit Ctrl-B and right click" or something to that effect. Gee, do I have to do everything myself there? ;)

[LZ_Xray]

It's definitely an interesting vehicle and so far is my favorite, probably because it is so unique. I was finally able to complete the tutorial mission on hard after three tries. It tells you that you destroyed over 60% of the enemy forces so you can quit the mission successfully or maneuver around and finish the job. So being the adventurous type, on the fourth go-around, I continued after achieving 60% and eventually got waxed by a T-72 hidden deeper in the village. Haven’t got 100% yet but I’m a persistent cuss.

Be careful about going from GPSE view to the Map and back because the target designator will flail wildly about due to the mouse movement transitioning from the Map Exit button to the GPSE screen. You don’t want this to happen when a tank is trying to draw a bead on you. It is better to go from GPSE to Eye View to Map because then when you exit the map, you go back to Eye View. From Eye View back to GPSE keeps the reticule on target. Or make sure you quickly return the cursor to center screen as soon as you pop back to GPSE view. I tried that but it is still wiggly.

Adjusting fire is the trickiest part for me but I found that good practice is luring the grunts to come after me on foot, calling for some HE then scooting away to call for an adjustment if necessary. Grunts move slower than vehicles and I can take more time to evaluate my adjustments. Also, I try to lase a reference point where I anticipate the grunts to be when the rounds splash when I call for fire. It would have been nice to have a machinegun in the tutorial.

Be sure to do the tutorial under the Leo 1A5 menu, however. It gives you a couple extra choices of positions like External and Gunner, but Gunner and Commander seem to be the same thing, though in the tutorial. The M1A1 menu only gave me Commander and Driver.

I use an X36 joystick/throttle control combination, not the mouse.

Sorry, this should probably be in the Tactics forum.

[smithcorp]

Be careful about going from GPSE view to the Map and back because the target designator will flail wildly about due to the mouse movement transitioning from the Map Exit button to the GPSE screen.

Yeah, I noticed that! First time it happened i thought Aiee, what's going on? :lol:

[MatsW]

Be careful about going from GPSE view to the Map and back because the target designator will flail wildly about due to the mouse movement transitioning from the Map Exit button to the GPSE screen. You don’t want this to happen when a tank is trying to draw a bead on you. It is better to go from GPSE to Eye View to Map because then when you exit the map, you go back to Eye View. From Eye View back to GPSE keeps the reticule on target. Or make sure you quickly return the cursor to center screen as soon as you pop back to GPSE view. I tried that but it is still wiggly.

You can avoid this by toggle between map and sight with F5 and F2.

[Volcano]

A couple of ideas:

Try to use immediate suppression on moving targets. It is quicker but less accurate and I think wider spread. We use immediate suppression to force the enemy to button up.

Also, using indirect fire on the offense is pretty easy as most of the time the defenders will be in one place in a battle position. What I am assuming you are talking about is using indirect on the defense. In this case it actually is the most handy. What I do is place some TRPs out there then when the enemy moves in, set up an ambush. Once they make contact after they enter your killbox (EA, Engagement Area) then start with a spotting round to an TRP vacinity and walk it in. Fire for effect and watch them scatter. At the same time you should counter attack.

[Ssnake]

The art here is good timing. Your counterattack should neither arrive too early nor too late.