Any good memories of mines or booby traps?

[DoomMunky]

The only good use I've EVER gotten out of mines are in the mission out in that English manor in the woods where you have to capture the scientist in the basement. I planted the mines out by the corner of the wall, three of them, right where the renegade soldiers appear midway through the mission. Once, the soldiers appeared and instantly several blew up, but the other time was more satisfying. I knew they were coming so I planted the mines and retreated, keeping an eye on the spot where they appear. They showed up and none of them triggered the mines, but I tossed a grenade right into the middle of them. Then there was an explosion that knocked over barns in Duluth. When the smoke cleared, they were all dead but for one, and he was so wounded I finished him off in a second with my scout.

 

I've also been able to booby-trap doors and blow them up when I think enemies are near them, but this also tends to take out the floor there, making it a hard tactic to use near a basement.

 

Have any of you gotten enemies to come to your mines/booby-traps? Any good stories, or good methods you have found for using these wonderful but confusingly implemented devices?

[Kret]

Have you noisiest guy run around like a chicken. Once they hear you they'll investigate and boom goes the AI. I particulary like to plant mines right at the main door or doors of buildings, they rush out and the mine blows them right back in, oh, and the door is then bigger

[el_slapper]

I did just use it once. In Switzerland, the factory. In the very beginning of the mission you are outside. My team had "heard" static people on the other side of the big steel door.

 

Then I had a small combat still outside. The static people began to go towards the door... I then guessed those were NOT civilians, & trapped the door with Lydite. This didn't kill them, but they were shocked enough so that I could finish them.

[Slaughter]

I did a mission where you kill an officer in his office. I had gotten in undetected, but the commotion when I killed him alerted the guards. There were quite a few of them so I could "see" several outlines moving up the stairs towards the office. Therefore I rigged the door with a powerful mine and hid behind the desk in the other side of the room. The following explosion when they opened blew a large hole in the building. The floor was gone all the way up to the desk, and I must have killed at least 3 soldiers with the mine. Very satisfying climbing down to the first floor through the GIANT hole seeing dead bodies all over the place

[DoomMunky]

Wow! You guys are good at using them! My problem is that I can never get the enemy to come to me, and trip the trap: my engagements always end up with the enemy waiting for ME to come to them! Grr!

 

It seems that a better way is to flush them out, or get them to come to you? That's what Kret recommends and it sounds like Slaughter was doing... Rather than engage them, like I do, pique their curiosity by shooting or killing someone and getting them to come to you, and trip a trap. I've found that tossing grenades at booby-traps makes for a very big explosion, but it does require some good timing...

 

 

btw, welcome back, el_slapper!

[Slaughter]

Yeah, I think that's the correct tactic. Do some testing and see if it works for you, and let us know how it works out.

[DoomMunky]

I will as soon as I get my copy in the mail... I sent my other one to a friend of mine, as he needs a distraction and I wanted to buy the Gold Edition any way...So no S^2 or S^3 atm, except for the demo. Poo.

 

I'm playing BF 1942 again while I wait. Man, that game is totally fun when you get a good group of folks playing!

 

Otherwise, it's torture.

 

But yeah, as for the correct tactics with AI, I think their reticence to move into your field of fire is pretty cool. It sucks to not be able to draw them out during a firefight, and it sure is confusing after playing so many games where, if you fall back, the enemy will pursue (a dumb tactic, unless time is not on your side...), but when I think about it, it's actually a pretty sound tactic on their part. Makes me come to them.

 

I always kill them all anyway, but at least they make me earn it!

 

Or it could just be crappy design of AI that's masquerading as sound tactics...who knows? It's fun! Who cares?!

 

I love this game.

[Slaughter]

Well, waiting for the game you'll be all the more ready to play when it arrives. He who waits for something good...

 

OT: And yeah, Battlefield is neat. Or more precisely, Desert Combat. Didn't like BF that much, but DC is probably one of the best mods ever made. No wonder Dice signed a deal with them

[DoomMunky]

Did they? For what?

 

And yeah, it's pretty incredible, but you die even faster in DC! Grr!

[Slaughter]

Did they? For what?

 

And yeah, it's pretty incredible, but you die even faster in DC! Grr!

Well, seeing that Battlefield 2 is pretty much a prettier version of DC, I'd say they signed them to help make Battlefield 2. Don't know though, only know that Dice signed a development deal with them. That's the reason they stopped developing DC.

[DoomMunky]

And, plus, probably that they were sick to death of DC. They worked on that for like 2 years.

 

But what happened to the mines/'nades discussion?

 

Any use for 'nades as booby-traps? I just like them as sticky mines that I shoot or 'nade when enemies get close. Not as powerful as mines (whoa, momma!) but you get more bangs, if not as much buck...

[Slaughter]

Well, I haven't used grenades as mines. I guess I should give it a go!

[DoomMunky]

Unfortunately, you can't use 'nades as mines, but you can as booby traps. Booby trap a whole room that you know the baddies are going to come in (like the foyer in the mansion mission...I don't know what it's called) and just wait...they should set each other off, and if they don't, toss a couple 'nades in and bye-bye-birdy.

[Monster74]

on the second mission in the manor house i booby trapped the front door next to the big machine gun with the biggest nade that i was carrying and waited. about 4 enemy shuffled about just outside the door for 3 or 4 turns but never came in.

so i opened fire on the door taking it, the enemy and most of the upper floor out. boya!!!

[Slaughter]

Hehe, stuff like that leaves a smile on your face for the rest of the evening

[DoomMunky]

Yep! That one moment will make everything else worth it!

[brandeburg]

hello, from my own experience, mines or doors traped working effectivelly only with the engineer, but not

 

until he reach the 9 level. Before that the NPC notice the booby- trap. One time in the russian hamlet random

 

encounter, I just traped all windows & door, My men where 7levels...I made noise as usual to get them off

 

(running no stealth, firing pistol at the house's wall) they they keept quiet & I have to blow them with grenade

 

into traped windows to crumble the whole house !

 

After did the same mission, same way but w/higher level engineer, & this stupid reds did not notice the trap &

 

boom & kaboom, as they try to get outside!

 

better use of the mine is to place them directly on the ground in front of a door or a window right in the middle

 

son they open & jump directly to it, & it cost less AP than to trap w/grenade.

 

To be sure they took the appropriate" high level enginneer's traped exit" if you don't have time trap all the

 

exits, trap the other exits with other characters so the ennemy will notice them, & go to the well traped one.

 

I high level a hidding engineer can run during his turn to an enemy, put a mine just beetwen the target

 

legs & run fast to a hidding place, or in the direction of the Medic..

 

The engineer will become visible if it is in daylight but he gain the surprise & nobody will react.

 

If it's behind a window, nobody notice him & he can run back hidden.

 

At the beginning your engineer will say:" I got chance, they did not see me"

 

a at high Level"I am well trained,I surprised them"

 

At the begining I did not see any purpose to use an engineer, but after several game he is really useful to

 

trap, & with a berreta submachine gun silenced and grenade throwing it s really fun; mostly undetected,

 

very powerful at burst firing, and able to destroy an entire building, or pulverise guy with hand grenade.

[DoomMunky]

Maybe I'll have to rethink my position on the engineer...

[Monster74]

Maybe I'll have to rethink my position on the engineer... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Me too

 

also i like to use a mined door/window a a sort of remote controlled bomb. ie mine said door and at any time ap's allowing shoot it from distance causing it to blow. a huge grenade/charge is great for opening up the front of a building and exposing any survivors to sniper/heavygun fire.

[Zombie]

Was at the usual random encounter mission with the 2 buildings and the wooden shed today and decided to try booby trapping and mining. My engineer is on leave, so the guys with the highest engineering skill (Abala + Nessy) decided to have a little fun. I had a bunch of RG-42 nades sitting around so I thought they might be nice as a trap and the Mark 1's would be good for mines (obviously).

 

Killed all the enemies outside, then had Abala and Nessy get together to discuss strategies. They decided on mining and booby trapping the house with the fireplace. Ran Abala up to the front door and Nessy up to the small window next to the door and ended my turn. Got someones attention because enemies were moving all over in the house. Now I had Abala booby trap the door while Nessy did the window. They had enough APs left to move so I sent Abala to the picture window and Nessy to the other small window next to the door. More movement inside (upstairs going down the steps). Then Nessy and Abala booby trapped the remaining windows. (In a voice like Nelson from the Simpsons) Ha-ha! The suckas are trapped inside now!

 

Lots of movement now. The enemy pricks were following the movements of Abala and Nessy somehow. Whatever. Had Nessy place a mine at the front door and Abala put one under the big picture window for good measure. Movement ensued, but nobody took the bait. Abala ended up tossing a M-24 potato masher nade under the window where 2 enemies were camped. Gigantic explosion, sounds of crumbling mortar and brick and the front facade collapsed. Just before the dust cleared, I heard Arvid the sniper proclaim: "Boys will be boys".

 

Here's what get's me though. If I booby trap a door on the outside, how can the enemies detect it from the inside so easily? I could see if the trap was on the inside hanging on the doorknob or stuck to the wall, it would be pretty obvious to the enemies. But when it's on the outside, it's impossible to see. I'm sure that German soldiers were not specifically trained to look for booby traps in WWII, and most of them would probably just barge out the door without a second thought. So in this respect, the AI is unrealistic.

 

Yeah, I read this whole topic. Abala isn't an engineer, he's a medic so his engineering skills are fairly weak (30's). And my whole team is only on L6 right now so that's still a long way off from L9. But even with that, you would think there would be some stupid enemy soldiers in the mix who couldn't detect their way out of a lit room, not a whole squad trained in booby trap detection.

 

- Zombie

[FullAuto]

Here's what get's me though. If I booby trap a door on the outside, how can the enemies detect it from the inside so easily? I could see if the trap was on the inside hanging on the doorknob or stuck to the wall, it would be pretty obvious to the enemies. But when it's on the outside, it's impossible to see.

 

Basically right, it's all down to engineering/spot skill I think. Unless you place a booby trap with someone who is a stupidly good engineer, the enemies spot your traps. Even when they should not be able to. Seeing through doors is not something the Wehrmacht managed to achieve, AFAIK.

 

I'm sure that German soldiers were not specifically trained to look for booby traps in WWII, and most of them would probably just barge out the door without a second thought. So in this respect, the AI is unrealistic.

 

Dunno, they probably were trained to look for such things, e.g. land mines and booby traps improvised from grenades, but even if they weren't they'd learn pretty soon in combat. Engineers would get a lot of instruction in such things, but even normal soldiers would probably get a quick course and a pamphlet of some sort.

[Zombie]

I could see WWII soldiers being made aware of mines as that is what they would run across most often (literally). Fighting usually happened in open areas and therefore soldiers were not trained in urban warfare. I'd think booby-traps would be last on the list of items a soldier would be put through for basic training. The methods of war in the 40's changed a little from the teens with WWI, but the biggest changes happened in Vietnam where the Vietcong were known for trapping just about everything and sometimes with improvised explosives. But here again, urban warfare didn't happen that much and when it did villages suspected of harboring enemies would be burnt to the ground. So my feeling is that Silent Storm is more of a fantasy land where the enemy is better trained than you and in areas it really shouldn't (such as booby trap detection and engineering). Those are specialized roles which required more intensive schooling which a pamphlet wouldn't even begin to cover. Besides, in WWII everyone was more worried about getting those fresh-meat rookies through basic training as fast as possible to fill the shoes of the dead. Schooling just didn't happen much except for officers and even then...

 

- Zombie

[Knan]

Oh, the various retreats on the east front (in both directions) were pretty brutal sabotage- and booby-trap-wise - from what Hassel writes, at least. You'd learn.

 

And the war has been going on for some time. There would be veterans.

[FullAuto]

There were a lot of urban battles, which by their very nature tend to be more intense, and would have involved plenty of mines and booby traps. Given that every side had grenades (or some form of explosives) to hand, booby traps were bound to happen fairly regularly. The 'hide a primed grenade under a corpse' one is an oldie but a goodie, just to give one obvious example.

 

Every side, at one time or another, was focused on producing as many soldiers as possible as quick as possible, but training wasn't eliminated, it was chopped down, compressed and intensified. No doubt short cuts were taken, but a lot of training which was very shoddy in some countries was made rather better because sending untrained men meant they died, which wasn't very efficient. Maximum training in the minimum time. Some countries in desperate straits did use untrained conscripts, but only for short periods when under extreme pressure.

[Zombie]

I just don't think they (booby traps) happened as much as you make it sound.

 

Talked to my dad this weekend about this topic (he's a Vietnam vet USMC ) and his recollection is that in Basic Training they only lightly skimmed over land mines and never heard anything about booby traps. So maybe this training happened on the field? Still, he mentioned that soldiers were not taught to specifically look out for booby traps. They were taught to look for signs of disturbed ground in order to avoid land mines but that was about the extent of the training. (If they found one, they were to report it to the Sergeant who would relay that message until it reached an officer trained in defusing the threat). I doubt that Basic Training in the Vietnam era differed much from WWII content-wise. The Germans were probably the same.

 

I'm not saying they didn't happen. It's just unlikely that soldiers would be able to recognize and avoid booby traps as good as they do in Silent Storm.

 

- Zombie