[Guide] Grenades & Etiquette

[BloodInTheSand]

So, I've spent a few hours testing in the editor against a variety of units and I thought it was worth sharing my experience here. I have tested the primary BLUFOR grenades available on the enhanced server. Fragmentation grenades, stuns and concussion grenades, incendiary, smoke and finally anti tank grenades. I thought I would share my experience here. I tested them against a group of infantry spaced about 5m apart from each other, a BTR-70, a BMP-2 and a T-55 MBT as I believe these are all fairly standard representations of what we see on a day to day basis. For testing against infantry the grenade was thrown directly beneath the middle soldier with a spread of 20m between the first and last soldier. For vehicles, the grenade was thrown depending on what would suit it best. Frags underneath, incendiaries on top or on tracks, AT on rear armour. For the most part if a grenade is produced by multiple authors, I tested all variants available of the same model number.

 

Grenade Etiquette:

Please understand that people on this server, despite for the most part being proficient, are not mind readers. If you intend to throw any damaging grenade call this out several seconds in advance over your radio, and ensure that there are no friendly targets whatsoever within 30-40m of the blast radius to minimise damage to friendly assets. Although a pilot appreciates a smoke grenade to mark an LZ, please only throw one - and of the colour that has already been designated to the pilot. This is often blue as it stands out against most backgrounds and is rarely if ever used by enemy troops.

Upon seeing an enemy grenade, regardless of what it may be - get yourself on the ground, preferably with some cover between you and the grenade, and while doing so make sure everyone nearby knows there's a grenade incoming. Keep it short and sweet as those fuses don't burn very long! Try to avoid calling this out over radio if it's coming towards you, as if the server is busy and there are friendlies in another location throwing down fire, you may interrupt them for no reason if they think they have a grenade incoming.

Call out smoke you see with those nearby or over radio if you're really unsure - as much as smoke grenades can throw off your visual of an enemy, they can often be used as an indicator for the last known position of hostile forces. In the worst case, smoke near your position may be a mortar lining up to fire.

Should you happen to make a mistake when cycling through grenades or have some other sort of accident, don't panic! You're going to want to get yourself moving away from the grenade if it's right next to you and you're close to cover you can hide in. If not you're going to need to get some distance and get on the floor, facing away from the grenade, to minimise damage. BUT the first thing you want to do is call it. Yell "Bad frag!" or something to that effect in local to let everyone else know to do the same. Cycle through your grenades using the 6 and 7 keys, 6 for lethal and 7 for not.

 

 

 

Fragmentation

Tested M67

Infantry: Kills infantry within a very short radius, approximately 3-5m. However this can be random. During several tests, other people were knocked out closer to the grenade, and some were killed further away. This is due to the fragmenting nature of the grenade - they let off shrapnel, just like vehicle explosions, which have the ability to kill out at longer distances than the initial blast radius of the grenade. On every test, every soldier was at least partially injured.

BTR-70: Fragmentation grenades were surprisingly effective. On every test, two grenades thrown directly under the vehicle caused it to cook off despite doing very little damage on the first throw.

BMP-2: Five grenades, no effect

T-55: Five grenades, no effect.

 

Stun/Concussion

Tested CS Gas

Infantry: For testing here I primarily used the CS Gas grenade as it offers the effects of a stun grenade (white screen and blinding sound) with a damaging component. All infantry looking towards the blast within the 20m radius were forced into an animation that caused them to be ineffective for 10-20 seconds. Infantry within 5m of the blast were injured, albeit minor injuries.

Vehicles: No effect

 

Incendiary

Tested AN-M14

Infantry: This to me was perhaps the most surprising test. The incendiary grenade, the standard AN-M14 had very little effect on infantry. Only injuring the soldier it was thrown directly under with no effect at all to anyone further away. 

BTR-70: I did two tests here, one on the wheels and one on the top of the vehicle above the driver's compartment. On throwing at the wheels, as soon as the grenade popped - it started to damage the wheels. Immediately destroying the two wheels closest to the grenade. This, however, is not enough to disable a BTR though it may force a crew dismount as the vehicle is severely impaired (Speed limited to approx. 16km/h with a strong pull to the damaged side)

BMP-2: No effect

T-55: No effect

 

Smoke

Tested M18

 

Smoke grenades have no damaging effect on soldiers. However, white smoke grenades will obscure enemy vision. Coloured grenades seem to do this less effectively, but will reduce the accuracy of enemy fire. The major problem faced by smoke grenades is WIND. Similarly to bullets, smoke grenades are affected by wind speed and direction. Press Shift+K to check the wind direction, and throw the smoke grenade so that the wind blows the smoke towards your position to make sure you are properly obscured.

 

ALL SMOKE GRENADES ARE AFFECTED BY WIND, HELICOPTER BLADES INCLUDED.

 

Tested 3CB Smoke Grenades

 

Here we have a screenshot for comparison, with a reasonably fast wind to the back left. Here you can see the impact point of the grenade, then the direction of the drift of smoke. On the left is an RHS M18 red smoke grenade - on the right, the 3cb blue smoke. The 3CB grenades do not seem to be as heavily affected by winds. From my experience, in these faster wind conditions where a normal smoke grenade is blown almost flat into the ground, the 3CB ones offer a higher plume which obscures enemy vision better. Despite there still being the same drawback to the coloured smoke, I.E it doesn't hide you quite as well as white or black smoke, it does offer you more cover due to the increased height of the plume on a flat surface in strong winds.

 

 

Anti-Tank

Tested RKG-3EM

 

Infantry: For these tests I used the RKG-3EM anti tank impact grenade. Against infantry, the grenade must be thrown from almost the furthest possible distance - and even then, it will kill only the soldier it lands directly next to. Upon further testing the fragmentation effect seems to be minimal.

Vehicles: No measurable effects. Thrown against every part of every vehicle I have above for testing, they were almost entirely useless. After five grenades against each type of vehicle, I gave up on testing these. I am unsure if they're bugged, as some of the Russian Armed Forces weapons appear to be, but as of the time of writing this post they seem to be a waste of carry weight.

 

Bonus Feature: M72A7 LAW

 

The effectiveness of this launcher is often contested. As a very light, portable and disposable anti-tank launcher they are often an invaluable part of any infantry squad.

BTR-70: At 100m, one round was enough to destroy the vehicle on 10/10 tests from different angles on direct impact.

BMP-2: The same results, however the BMP was still able to move and fire for a short while after impact before it started to cook off (thick black smoke as it did so)

T-55: No effect from one shot. However, the M72 was enough to destroy a T-34 in one shot on 10/10 tests. 

 

 

Thanks for reading folks, and I really do hope this will help you to effectively pick your loadouts in the future - potentially save you some carrying weight, or increase your effectiveness as a soldier out there.

 

[GhostDragon]

This is a good guide and will really help players.

 

Out of interest what frag and smokes were tested?

 

 

 

[BloodInTheSand]

For smokes I tested the vanilla and RHS M18 versions. Despite the vanilla smokes seeming to deploy slightly faster, the difference in behaviour between the two was negligible. Same goes for frags - both the vanilla and RHS M67 frags - again, very little difference in performance.

[GhostDragon]

Ok, awesome. That clears up the fragmentation question fully. 

 

Now on the server, we actually have access to the 3CB smoke grenades and these bloom more than the others if you could also test these it would be great then i will be happy to move this to the guides section of the website. 

[BloodInTheSand]

I'll get a good set up with some wind when I get home later this afternoon and see how infantry respond to it.

[BloodInTheSand]

I'll be gradually making edits to this post to clarify wording or due to results from further testing.

[GhostDragon]

Awesome, really liking this. 

[BloodInTheSand]

Added 3CB smokes including a screenshot to show difference in plumes.

[Stanhope]

Great guide.

I do have one thing that i'd do different about the grenade etiquette:

3 hours ago, BloodInTheSand said:

Although a pilot appreciates a smoke grenade to mark an LZ, please only throw one - and of the colour that has already been designated to the pilot.

This could be used by the enemy to lure helis into a trap if they deploy the smoke first.  What i'd do is call out to the pilot that the LZ is marked with smoke.  The pilot would then tell me to colour of the smoke.  Infantry on the ground would then either confirm that the pilot is at the right LZ or tell the pilot that it's not their smoke.

It's not really a big issue and on gauntlet it's not gonna matter as AI don't throw smokes to lure helis in for an ambush.

 

 

[BloodInTheSand]

9 minutes ago, Stanhope said:

Great guide.

I do have one thing that i'd do different about the grenade etiquette:

This could be used by the enemy to lure helis into a trap if they deploy the smoke first.  What i'd do is call out to the pilot that the LZ is marked with smoke.  The pilot would then tell me to colour of the smoke.  Infantry on the ground would then either confirm that the pilot is at the right LZ or tell the pilot that it's not their smoke.

It's not really a big issue and on gauntlet it's not gonna matter as AI don't throw smokes to lure helis in for an ambush.

 

 

I'd say that sort of thing would fit better into a pilot guide rather than one about the grenades themselves, fitting into better coordinating landings. The issue can also almost totally be circumvented by checking the CTab first. The only colours of smoke I've ever seen AI actively use are orange and white, so for the most part it's generally quite safe to assume that if someone says "LZ Marked with blue smoke" that there's only going to be one plume of blue smoke.

[GhostDragon]

only thing I would add is to the beginning  about saying frag out for throwing and yelling Granade for an enemy granade coming in

 

(Yes they do throw nades if your close enough)

[BloodInTheSand]

1 hour ago, GhostDragon said:

only thing I would add is to the beginning  about saying frag out for throwing and yelling Granade for an enemy granade coming in

 

(Yes they do throw nades if your close enough)

Done! 

[Stanhope]

Another suggestion: maybe mention what to do in case of a bad frag?  If you were trying to lob it into a window and it didn't work out for example.

[BloodInTheSand]

12 minutes ago, Stanhope said:

Another suggestion: maybe mention what to do in case of a bad frag?  If you were trying to lob it into a window and it didn't work out for example.

Scream, run away and hope everyone else noticed?

 

*DISCLAIMER: Please don't do this

 

Good thinking. I'll add it now.

 

[GhostDragon]

Moving into the Guides section of the forum. 

 

Thank you for the work and effort that you have spent working on this it will really help players. 

[BloodInTheSand]

My next intention for testing is underbarrel grenade launchers, such as the M320 and GP25

[GhostDragon]

Awesome, Feel free to submit new guides as you did this one and then once it has been checked over we can move it into this section

[Amentes]

It's worth noting that everything else being equal, the RHS M67 frag takes up less space than the Vanilla frag. I've never actually paid any attention to which one weighs less, so that's worth finding out.