Cassius guide to Grenade Launcher.
The grenade launcher is a great support weapon, to use against bunched up infantery or infantery in cover. It holds 8 grenades and 4 smoke shells which all detonate on impact and is equipped with a scope. The rounds wont detonate if they impact at a distance less than 50m away from the gunner.
Fiering
Fiering the grenade launcher is pretty straightforward, select the shell you want to fire, right click and adjust the elevation according to the scale. Other guides on grenade launchers on Project Reality : Battlefield 2 Mod suggest that the scale is affected by screen resolution, therefore it is recommended to extensively practice the fiering of grenade and smoke rounds offline.
Start by practicing on flat ground, pick targets, such as a vehicle or simply a spot to the ground you know the distance to and try fiering shells on it. Using the smoke rounds instead of the grenade round for practice makes it easier to tell where the shells did land.
After you mastered putting grenades on target, practice shooting up a hill or down a slope to learn to compensate for elevation.
Next it should be practiced to fire shells through doors and windows into buildings and rooms.
The grenade launcher should be used to attack infantery that is surpressed behind cover, taking cover inside a structure, or bunched up in the open.
It should NOT be used to engage single infantery in the open. No matter how good of a shot you are, if you attack a single soldier in the open chances are quite low for a hit, unlike when you fire a round with multiple targets in the targeted area, in which case it is very likely that you wound or even kill multiple hostiles. Use the rifle if you have no good use for the grenade launcher.
The smoke grenades develop smoke on impact unlike smoke grenades which have a build up time.
The grenadier should be with a squad at all times. If your squad managed to surpress hostiles that are taking cover behind structures such as rocks or trees, the grenadier has good chances to finish them off by putting rounds against elevations behind the surpressed squad, such as a tree, or by targeting the squad directly, if their cover isnt so high that by shooting above it the grenades detonate too far away to do damage. To overcome obstacles it is particularly important for the grenadier to seek out positions where he has an elevation over the enemy squad.
If enemies are hiding in small structures such as Bunkers or towers rounds fired inside the structure through openings are almost certain to inflict casualities. To target structures the rest of the squad needs to lay down surpressive fire so the grenadier can aim and shoot, since the hostiles will obviously use the openings of the targeted structure to return fire themselves.
The smoke grenades the grenadier holds can be fired over a long range, just like the regular grenade rounds. That means instead of fiering smoke to cover the squad from the enemy, the grenadier can deploy smoke in the proximity of the hostile squad obstructing the view of the enemy, providing more effective cover. However one round holds less smoke, to obstruct the view of one hostile or one hostile squad all smoke grenades should be fired.
The grenadier in the jungle
Jungle maps are tricky for the grenadier. The trouble Starts with telling if he is up against a single soldier in which case he should use his rifle, or if there are further hostiles around the soldier he discovered. The smoke isnt of much use either, because the vegetation offers plenty of cover, however there are trees and the like to detonate grenades against, if the path isnt obstructed by even more trees. It really depends on what part the soldier is in on wether or not to equip the grenadier kit. If you have a good reason, like targeting a fortified structure or attacking an open spot, by all means, equip it.
The grenadier in the desert
Large groups of infantery are obvious targets on desert maps, however the smoke launcher is what really shines on this map. If the squad needs to retreat, smoke can be deployed in the proximity of the enemy squad, obstructing a greater field of view as opposed to tossing smoke in the proximity of your own squad.
The grenadier in Urban areas
In Urban areas engagements can be so close that there is little use for the grenadier kit, since rounds will only detonate when launched further than 50m. However if there are a lot of streetfights going on, rather than housefights the grenadier kit is a very good choice. Typically Infantery is adjacent against a wall to detonate a grenade round against, or grouped up behind a piece of cover and therefore easy prey.
The grenadier in woodland areas
Woodland areas are a good terrain to use the grenadier kit. The view and paths arent as obstructed as on jungle maps and there are plenty of objectives like trees rocks etc. to detonate grenades against.
However hostiles tend to use the cover to approach your squad and engage at close range, so make sure you are not overrung while trying to targer hostiles with grenades.
The grenadier in the squad
Generally the grenadier should just stick with the squad. Unlike the AR who can form a fireteam with an rifleman supporting him, or the marksman who occasionally falls behind the squad to provide accurate fire from a safer distance.
The grenadier really relies on supressive fire. If you want to target a squad or shoot grenades into openings ask the rest of the squad to lie down supressive fire, so that you can aim carefully.
Grenadier putting rounds in a squad while the team surpresses with rapid fire.
