Just got the Thunderer Smoke round.
Is it me or is the Thunderer Smoke Round not that usefull - it is a level 10-11 stratagem???
I was hoping for a smoke version of the Incendary Bombs … but the area of effect is sooooo small and cooldown takes forever.
Any tips on when to use it?
I take Thunderer Smoke and Smoke Grenades as a stepping stone from standard gameplay experience, don’t take them seriously.
Thundering Smoke is most useful when trying to solo, capture the flag or defend an objective. I’m still grateful Thunderer’s cooldown got buffed, it was 120 secs before.
I usually take x3 Thunderer and x1 Resupply + Strategem Priority, Weapon of your choice If I want to do solo runs. Usually works and enemies can’t see me.
Smoke also makes IFVs and Warlords/Hulks not shot at you (blind), if they are inside, making them melee unit only. That’s worth mentioning.
EDIT: Difficulty Planet Reward doesn’t matter, you get decent stuff at difficulty 3-4 as well. RL-112 Recoilless Rifle or EATs for example.
Hmmm - makes sense … I guess I have to give it some more runs.
I usually have a defensive loadout. I was really challenged when soloing level 6 bugs with two Oil targets. I never got to throw it at the terminal … only next to it … the alarms kept triggering but I survived and completed the mission.
Yeah, I think the best option it to throw Thunderer at the objectives and hide inside it. Though if you play against bugs, make sure you pay a lot of attention around or they will sneak inside and trigger alarm.
Thank you YOPG I will give it a try 
I’m pretty sure the community as a whole considers the Thunderer smoke round useless, since nobody seems to use it any more in multiplayer games (it probably still gets used solo).
There were plenty of people who used it right after it was introduced, but that dropped off rapidly. A few stealth-focused stragglers used it for a few weeks afterward, but even they seem to have stopped doing so. As YOPG stated, they threw the smoke at the objectives and hid inside it.
I suppose Arrowhead could tweak it by making the smoke last longer. That might increase its usage.
Yeah it never made sense to me for the Thunderer to have the exact same effect as the Smoke Grenade.
Why launch a grenade from orbit when you can launch something more potent?
They actually are a bit different, but I’m not sure it’s enough to change many opinions on the matter. I’ve made a video (+description) about it in the past.
I won’t argue about the visuals, my gripe is that the durations are the same
Yeahhh, I getcha… if you weren’t too big on smoke before (like me), I don’t think this will be enough to change almost anyone’s mind.
Thinking about this further, does anyone know if the Thunderer hides the beacon light that goes up into the sky?
That is to say, if you drop an ammo beacon and drop a Thunderer on it, does the Thunderer hide the light that extends up to the ship from enemies?
I don’t think it does, but I haven’t used Thunderer enough to find out. If it did, then it would be much more valuable to me.
It doesn’t hide the beacon visually, but it MIGHT nullify the effects…
Someone should science this.