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HIDE! Dont fire at that range! CM quirks and AT guns being more or less one shot wonders, patience!

Having said that I just let fly at 400-500m with 2 75mm (Pakfront?) on a large pack of T34's (Kursk) and got two confirmed kills before the retaliatory barrage knocked them both out. points wise thats ok but cant help thinking I could have got more, still not sure of the optimum range to fire with an AT gun. The answer as always is probably "depends".

I have had some success with pakfronts of three or more guns that reveal themselves and fire at the same time. I back them up with officers with good stealth and fire ratings and snipers and mg's to button the opposing tanks. In one encounter a half dozen tanks were taken out with no losses to guns which I then re-hid. Another way to save the guns is to fire smoke with mortars in front of the guns so they will have a turn or two to fire at targets and then be covered by smoke which can even result in your being able to mount up the gun and move them out to another location. Timing is everything. Of course, there are plenty of time when some of my guns have been taken out after the initial volley firing too but a grouping of tanks under attack with sniper, mg's and guns firing volleys usually will be confused for most of the turn so the guns can fire several times before a response comes.

Minute three:

Moondog's Elite Panther stalks up the road behind his three stugs. He has no worries now with his artillery barrage totally screening Arrow's LOS to the East. All of the MG42 teams and HQ disembark from the stugs and move towards some buildings West of town.



A lot happens from Arrow's side in town. His lead Sherman, which was spotted by Moondog's stug last minute, bolted forward on "fast" behind some houses. The reg stug got one shot off at it but missed. The Sherman then drills a 251/1. Arrow's green sherman stays to the rear and fires smoke to break the menacing stugs' LOS. The Sherman platoon leader then advances behind the smoke cloud. Arrow's 57mm gun is spotted and pinned by some 251/1 mg fire before it can reach cover. His vet and reg Sherman continue to flank to the South.



GET ME TO THE CHURCH ON TIME! Cocky Americans - this bold halftrack saves the day - it drives right up to the central church - its bumper scraping the church wall, and delivers its platoon. The U.S. Rifle platoon advances inside the church and waits. We can see they pick up a sound contact of German soldiers nearby.



The sound is Moondog's Pioneer platoon on the other side - trying to fight through the bushes. These are Pioneers and no one brought hedge clippers? They lose precious seconds fighting the dense growth....



Meanwhile Moondog's vet Tiger hunts down the road and spots Arrow's precious Elite Sherman trying to get repositioned. If Arrow hadn't backed up from the artillery drop earlier, he would not be in the Tiger's sights now - but that's the way it works. One problem causes another problem. The Tiger has already gotten one shot off and missed, and as the minute ends the unlucky Sherman crew still hasn't seen it. Will the 88mm monster miss again?

I perdict a knocked out Sherman and Arrow's hopes and dreams in ruins with the next shot of that 88!
Bane

Lord Bane Wrote:I perdict a knocked out Sherman and Arrow's hopes and dreams in ruins with the next shot of that 88!
Bane

I agree with Lord Bane. That first shot from the Tiger was to warm the gun barrel :) The second shot....... :stir:
Should be interesting with the pioneers advancing on the church. Will they get into the building before that squad spots them? :chin:

Here's a pic I forgot from the past minute - we see Arrow decides not to go for the German halftracks with his Elite Sherman - he doesn't want to risk immibilizing it in the 120mm barrage. So he carefully does what we would think is the absolute safest thing. He shoots smoke up the road to cover his retreat and moves behind a house. Unfortunately he moves right into the LOS of Moondog's deadly vet Tiger.

We can see to the right that Arrow's 57mm gun made it through the barrage and is rolling into some scattered trees unseen.

Minute 4:

We'll start with Arrow's Elite Sherman - during his orders phase, apparently Arrow tells the the crew here to fire more smoke at the ground. We can see the white target line in front of the vehicle. Perhaps this has distracted the vehicle enough to slow its spotting of the tiger in the distance.



Barely five seconds into the minute, the elite crew spots the tiger and a red target line goes out. But not in time - there is already another 88mm shell flying towards the tank. We can see it in the air in this shot.



The shell slams into the Elite M4A3 - gun damage! Now there is nothing Arrow can do but try to hide. The AI takes over and crazily tries to pivot the vehicle on "fast" behind the nearby building.



It doesn't work - the next hun shell does the once proud vehicle in. A nearby U.S. rifle '44 platoon sees the whole debacle unfold right before them. So, unbelieveably, Arrow's elite Sherman is destroyed within four minutes! Not only is it destroyed, but the crew never got to even fire a single shell, other than smoke - the 20 tungsten shells are lost!



Hitler hasn't been this giddy since France fell...once again, he is able to joke around with his men.



But the Germans aren't finished. At town center, here is the regular Sherman platoon leader that pulled up behind the smoke cover last turn.
Arrow gives him a "hunt" command to go around the house towards the street. It turns out to be a fateful order - the platoon leader spots a German stug through the windows of the house behind it. Because the tank is hunting, the stupid AI stops the tank with it's vulnerable arse exposed to the Stugs, and starts turning it's turret towards them.



The result is predictable: the platoon leader goes up in a huge fireball. It was a +2 morale commander, too. To make it worse, two MG 1919 crews were riding on the tank - they were incinerated.



Looking at a straight down angle - it doesn't look like the vehicles could possibly have LOS to each other - but the red line says they did - right through the edge of the house and the smoke cloud.



Turns out the one that actually fired the deadly shot was not a stug, but Moondog's elite Panther further up the road, showing off their uncanny targeting ability. One shot, one kill.



The minute and the misery goes on for commander Arrow. Here we see his 57mm ATG doesn't make it into the trees, it is overcome by halftrack MG fire and abandoned.



Four minutes into the deadly struggle, commander Arrow's 10-1 shot of winning has just become - oh - more like 50-1? He just lost his main hope - along with all 20 tungsten rounds. His platoon leader, which was carrying two more tungsten, was also knocked out. His remaining four Shermans have no tungsten - NONE - between them. He also lost a valuable 57mm gun.

He's now down to 4 out-of-command Shermans and two regular 57mm guns vs. Moondog's full arsenal of German might. In the real war, Arrow could just call in a squadron of P-47s, but not in this match!

Commander Arrow very dryly says (in the understatement of the century) "well you won that turn..."

Almost sympathetically, Moondog says "Ouch, I see what you mean..."

Main Entry: ca·lam·i·ty
Pronunciation: \kə-ˈla-mə-tē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural ca·lam·i·ties
Etymology: Middle English calamytey, from Latin calamitat-, calamitas; perhaps akin to Latin clades destruction
Date: 15th century
1 : a state of deep distress or misery caused by major misfortune or loss
2 : a disastrous event marked by great loss and lasting distress and suffering <calamities of nature> <an economic calamity> <losing an Elite tank in Turn 4 without anything to show for it>



Wow that has to hurt. Although at least the Elite Sherman isn't dead & its points won't go into the German tally.

He he he....Moondog (FGM) does not disappoint! Poor Arrow...his goose is cooked. Very nice DAR so far DK.
Lord Bane

Tommy cooker! :smoke:
DK, what happened over at the church? (with the infantry) :chin: