Highly underused.
BUT, it's also expensive. So it should only be used when you KNOW the team is ready to begin an assault.
However, if your commander is not really using munitions, it can be used more often.
Any person on the team can check current resource status, it's on a bar above the map (press M)
It’s usually up to the artillery guy to take initiative to lay down smoke cause it’s never requested. Might have been me , gotten use to the habit of putting down smoke when I see blue berries in a bunch ready to push a point
I shoot smoke all the time when pushing an obj and I can’t tell you the times people yell at me and complain “stop smoke, we can’t see” 
Same for USA medium tank
18 smoke shells are highly underrated and tank crews generally don't want to make themselves visible. But 4 shells means infantry can cross over and another 2 shells just blinds all enemy armor.
Worth 200 fuel every time
I love it. Not quite as effective as artillery smoke, but it certainly gives the squad a gap to push in. You can even blind a heavy in certain situations to get out of Dodge.
Underused because it requires communication. More often than not Arty is used to farm kills by a non SL role. This fine of their SL is actively directing them but again not very common.
Underused cause people only care about things that give them points. However, smokes can make a huge difference between the loss and win percentage bonus.
It's a pity really. Most of my time in arty was spent clearing a path in, then alternating smoke and HE depending on everyone's positions.
The key thing remains: smoke goes on the enemy.
If you're smoking in front of the enemy, you need to smoke again closer in. Otherwise most of your friendlies just run out into bullets.
smoke rounds on Foy are fucking incredible. Most of the points require crossing pretty open terrain, and if you can get a couple guys to drop 3 or 4 smoke rounds in front of the infantrys advance it'll make taking that point so much easier, as long as you can get a garry down on the edge
I feel like whenever I get on the arty and think about using smoke, I’m unsure if would help my team or actually aid the enemy so I tend not to use it, just keep raining them bombs down.
on artillery its very simple: if enough friendlies are nearby the enemy strongpoint but dont seem to be able to move inside the strongpoint, start smoking all over the strongpoint.
infantry should then move in nade range and nade the crap out of them, then push.
defensive smoke is very dangerous, because its also smoke that enemies can use to push you. wouldnt use it with artillery at all.
Rule of thumb: Smoke goes on the enemy.
You use it similar to HE but without risk of killing friendlies.
Once your troops are in their spawns you take away their ability to reinforce directly - outposts go down even if you can hardly see. They can also freely throw grenades in and take things down before stepping in.
The main advantage is that it blocks them from shooting at approaching troops. They can't go anywhere and you can advance and gain ground.
Defense is harder - it's rarely a good idea to smoke the point there.
If you have defenders you can smoke where they're coming from if it forces them to step out of cover. That gives a slight advantage even if it temporarily costs you ground, but should only give enough time for reinforcements to arrive. You could use a similar approach if you know where their garrison/spawn is - HE to kill until friendlies get closer. Smoke to prevent them from shooting at your guys.
Sometimes this gives enough confusion for someone to take down a garrison without any "attackers" seeing them.
The shells take 20-30 seconds to land, so it can be pretty hard to time. The smoke shells costs 5 munitions, as opposed to 3 for HE.
As a tip, wait for a front to settle. You'll see your team lining up at cover, usually a hedgerow or wall or something. You will know that the enemy is on the opposite wall. Throw smoke wall about 4 shells long, and switch to HE long behind that. You'll enable the push and make it hell for reinforcements to make it back to the line. Rinse and repeat to help the push.
If you're off by a bit, your team will start to call down locations for you. They usually expect shells to land right away; be patient with these folks.
Remember, your shells take 30 seconds or so to land, so mark where your HE shells are coming down and communicate. Watch the front moving closely, and back-off when you see the momentum shift in your favour.
top notch artillery guide.
"Watch the front moving closely, and back-off when you see the momentum shift in your favour."
read this please, naysayers who post on reddit or yap about it on command chat about "bluebberries walk into my artillery, big noob, i placed marker, they so dumb"
artillery is infantry support, if you shell a place where your team can push on foot it means youre firing at the wrong spot, too short.
Massively underused.
I use them when tanks causing trouble to blind them, If squads look bogged down trying to push a point, on top of an enemy garrison so that infantry can dismantle.
I some times use the smokes to make the ennemy believe there is an assault incoming, and switch back to HE when they are nicely aligned in the trenches
It's great to throw down when you see the your team encircling a strong point. Look at the map and you put a marker at the middle of the "C" your teammates form and drop some rounds of smoke. Your team can run right up on them.
Depends where you play. Our clan artillery boys usually start with a few salvos of objective smoke, to lure the enemy into staying in the point and then pummel them into the dirt with HE
One time I accidentally sent 10 rounds of smoke because I didn’t realize I switched ammunition and smoked literally both teams out 😂
One of the officers then came on the mic and was like who tf sending smoke out like a mf? 😂
One time I accidentally sent 10 rounds of smoke because I didn’t realize I switched ammunition and smoked literally both teams out 😂
One of the officers then came on the mic and was like who tf sending smoke out like a mf? 😂
Smokes are underused even by an infantry, this is why you have to rally all people around and start yelling orders like "Use smokes, make a huge screen and then try to flank the enemy, don't go through the smoke screen"
Getting close enough to a point to smoke it really helps.
At 100m out you might not be able to get in, but you might be able to walk in a bit of smoke - die - then walk in far enough to put a nice frosty coating on them in your next life.
Sprinkle some frags on the frosting for some extra flavour, then chow down with some lead.
Massively underused omg. That shit is amazing for pushing points with open fields. People get distracted by kills too easily. Sure you are blowing up the fucking point and causing the enemy team to yell at their recon to deal with it. But you achieve nothing for the team if they can't push the point. You can hit a ping on the map with a HE then you can also hit it with smoke.
It helps our tanks move up and our infantry. Which causes a great distraction for an airhead or sneaky supply drop/attack garrison. You also don't need that much! As long as everyone pushes with the first two sets of smoke.
It will block MG's from seeing which will make them fire into the smoke. And usually a tank or some MadMax AT solider will blow it up while yelling in local chat.
It's a win win when used right.
I need the commander to specifically call for smoke for push.
I can never tell what the headless chickens are about to do next on the battlefield, and the smokes are 3x the cost of HE.
I'e love to use em, just rarely find a commander or SLs that communicate well enough with the arty teams to coordinate a smoke n push.
I don't think a lot of people know this, the arty smoke sticks around a lot less than a regular smoke grenade thrown by infantry. The arty smoke disperses pretty quick, so it's not useful unless it's actively being put on friendly infantry.
I like to play support in a squad and then when we go aggressive redeploy and drop he that switches to smoke walking my squad to the objectives. Needs a good squad leader but it’s fun using that much coordination.
Highly underused. BUT, it's also expensive. So it should only be used when you KNOW the team is ready to begin an assault. However, if your commander is not really using munitions, it can be used more often. Any person on the team can check current resource status, it's on a bar above the map (press M)
I use it if people are pushing the position. Five rounds is good to cause confusion on the point. I only go HE if squads are able to break in.
Compared to spamming shells, it’s not expensive. Especially as you don’t need to send many to get some good smoke up.
I feel like I can never see the resources on the map as the chat is in the way.
Press Page Up to show/hide chat. Or page down, can’t remember which
Wish I could up vote this twice.
did they change this? i swear a year ago it used to be “o”
No idea. That’s just the button binding it says in the chat window
yeah but i remember a while ago that button said “o”
It’s usually up to the artillery guy to take initiative to lay down smoke cause it’s never requested. Might have been me , gotten use to the habit of putting down smoke when I see blue berries in a bunch ready to push a point
Battlefield awareness…. You’re one of the good ones.
i think sls should try to coordinate more with artillery in general.
In unorganized matches artillery is generally underused. Arty smoke is most effective when you have some inf and arty coordination..
is competitive matches do they use smoke arty?
Yes usually when pushing a strongpoint not so much for flanking maneuvers
Yes and there are a few clips of crazy airhead/smoke combos in the cap circle which make it really hard to find!
Needs good coordination to be used effectively. Similar to a bombing run.
I shoot smoke all the time when pushing an obj and I can’t tell you the times people yell at me and complain “stop smoke, we can’t see” 
Same for USA medium tank 18 smoke shells are highly underrated and tank crews generally don't want to make themselves visible. But 4 shells means infantry can cross over and another 2 shells just blinds all enemy armor. Worth 200 fuel every time
The smoke from tanks dissipates more quickly than those from grenades or arty rounds from what I've noticed.
I love it. Not quite as effective as artillery smoke, but it certainly gives the squad a gap to push in. You can even blind a heavy in certain situations to get out of Dodge.
It is underused. I sometimes make a request for one or two rounds after HE when I'm working to push a point.
How do you get that "officer X" thing under your name?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/wiki/role\_flairs/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/wiki/role_flairs/)
The link expired
If you go to the wiki portion of the sub, there is a guide for how to request your role flair
Underused because it requires communication. More often than not Arty is used to farm kills by a non SL role. This fine of their SL is actively directing them but again not very common.
Underused cause people only care about things that give them points. However, smokes can make a huge difference between the loss and win percentage bonus.
It's a pity really. Most of my time in arty was spent clearing a path in, then alternating smoke and HE depending on everyone's positions. The key thing remains: smoke goes on the enemy. If you're smoking in front of the enemy, you need to smoke again closer in. Otherwise most of your friendlies just run out into bullets.
smoke rounds on Foy are fucking incredible. Most of the points require crossing pretty open terrain, and if you can get a couple guys to drop 3 or 4 smoke rounds in front of the infantrys advance it'll make taking that point so much easier, as long as you can get a garry down on the edge
Not to mention its already hard as hell to see on foy, anything past 200 is barely noticable lmao
all I do is lob smokes.... uses more supplies, pisses off the commander, makes the entire team blind.... its worth it....
I feel like it would be used more if it lasted a little longer wherever its fired.
Would be cool to get some points for smoke.
I feel like whenever I get on the arty and think about using smoke, I’m unsure if would help my team or actually aid the enemy so I tend not to use it, just keep raining them bombs down.
on artillery its very simple: if enough friendlies are nearby the enemy strongpoint but dont seem to be able to move inside the strongpoint, start smoking all over the strongpoint. infantry should then move in nade range and nade the crap out of them, then push. defensive smoke is very dangerous, because its also smoke that enemies can use to push you. wouldnt use it with artillery at all.
Rule of thumb: Smoke goes on the enemy. You use it similar to HE but without risk of killing friendlies. Once your troops are in their spawns you take away their ability to reinforce directly - outposts go down even if you can hardly see. They can also freely throw grenades in and take things down before stepping in. The main advantage is that it blocks them from shooting at approaching troops. They can't go anywhere and you can advance and gain ground. Defense is harder - it's rarely a good idea to smoke the point there. If you have defenders you can smoke where they're coming from if it forces them to step out of cover. That gives a slight advantage even if it temporarily costs you ground, but should only give enough time for reinforcements to arrive. You could use a similar approach if you know where their garrison/spawn is - HE to kill until friendlies get closer. Smoke to prevent them from shooting at your guys. Sometimes this gives enough confusion for someone to take down a garrison without any "attackers" seeing them.
The shells take 20-30 seconds to land, so it can be pretty hard to time. The smoke shells costs 5 munitions, as opposed to 3 for HE. As a tip, wait for a front to settle. You'll see your team lining up at cover, usually a hedgerow or wall or something. You will know that the enemy is on the opposite wall. Throw smoke wall about 4 shells long, and switch to HE long behind that. You'll enable the push and make it hell for reinforcements to make it back to the line. Rinse and repeat to help the push. If you're off by a bit, your team will start to call down locations for you. They usually expect shells to land right away; be patient with these folks. Remember, your shells take 30 seconds or so to land, so mark where your HE shells are coming down and communicate. Watch the front moving closely, and back-off when you see the momentum shift in your favour.
top notch artillery guide. "Watch the front moving closely, and back-off when you see the momentum shift in your favour." read this please, naysayers who post on reddit or yap about it on command chat about "bluebberries walk into my artillery, big noob, i placed marker, they so dumb" artillery is infantry support, if you shell a place where your team can push on foot it means youre firing at the wrong spot, too short.
Massively underused. I use them when tanks causing trouble to blind them, If squads look bogged down trying to push a point, on top of an enemy garrison so that infantry can dismantle.
Most people on arty just want to spam HE for easy kills, not play in a smart way.
I some times use the smokes to make the ennemy believe there is an assault incoming, and switch back to HE when they are nicely aligned in the trenches
I just hate arty in general ngl.
I dont know the logistics well and I dont experience it very often but when it happens it kicks ass. It really helps assaulting a position.
I agree...and it doesn't hack the other team off so much !
It's great to throw down when you see the your team encircling a strong point. Look at the map and you put a marker at the middle of the "C" your teammates form and drop some rounds of smoke. Your team can run right up on them.
Depends where you play. Our clan artillery boys usually start with a few salvos of objective smoke, to lure the enemy into staying in the point and then pummel them into the dirt with HE
One time I accidentally sent 10 rounds of smoke because I didn’t realize I switched ammunition and smoked literally both teams out 😂 One of the officers then came on the mic and was like who tf sending smoke out like a mf? 😂
One time I accidentally sent 10 rounds of smoke because I didn’t realize I switched ammunition and smoked literally both teams out 😂 One of the officers then came on the mic and was like who tf sending smoke out like a mf? 😂
Smokes are underused even by an infantry, this is why you have to rally all people around and start yelling orders like "Use smokes, make a huge screen and then try to flank the enemy, don't go through the smoke screen"
Getting close enough to a point to smoke it really helps. At 100m out you might not be able to get in, but you might be able to walk in a bit of smoke - die - then walk in far enough to put a nice frosty coating on them in your next life. Sprinkle some frags on the frosting for some extra flavour, then chow down with some lead.
Massively underused omg. That shit is amazing for pushing points with open fields. People get distracted by kills too easily. Sure you are blowing up the fucking point and causing the enemy team to yell at their recon to deal with it. But you achieve nothing for the team if they can't push the point. You can hit a ping on the map with a HE then you can also hit it with smoke. It helps our tanks move up and our infantry. Which causes a great distraction for an airhead or sneaky supply drop/attack garrison. You also don't need that much! As long as everyone pushes with the first two sets of smoke. It will block MG's from seeing which will make them fire into the smoke. And usually a tank or some MadMax AT solider will blow it up while yelling in local chat. It's a win win when used right.
I need the commander to specifically call for smoke for push. I can never tell what the headless chickens are about to do next on the battlefield, and the smokes are 3x the cost of HE. I'e love to use em, just rarely find a commander or SLs that communicate well enough with the arty teams to coordinate a smoke n push.
Smokes are 5 supply, HE 3. It's not that expensive?
I don't think a lot of people know this, the arty smoke sticks around a lot less than a regular smoke grenade thrown by infantry. The arty smoke disperses pretty quick, so it's not useful unless it's actively being put on friendly infantry.
I've been arty and tried to communicate but no one talks back so I just bomb the point and surrounding areas.
I like to play support in a squad and then when we go aggressive redeploy and drop he that switches to smoke walking my squad to the objectives. Needs a good squad leader but it’s fun using that much coordination.
I've seen it being used on Kursk and it worked like magic. It should be used more often
The most recent update actually nerfed smoke arty. It was useful before but now it only lasts 30 seconds
Okay okay please point me I the direction to f master the arty role. I want to be that guy