Combined Tip Thread/Grunt School

[Jeff Conner]

Good Evening Gentlemen:

Been a while since I hung out here with any regularity. I am going to try and change that. With that in mind, I thought I would add a couple of comments to Rabbit's excellent tips.

I can't swear to it, but I believe that a vehicle is a vehicle if it is listed in the dat files as a vehicle. There are three separate listings in the dat files, loads, weapons and vehicles. Towed guns are on the weapons tab as are crew served weapons (anything with a crew of more than one) which can be moved by an infantry squad (they have a smaller counter). Vehicles have a movement allowance. As Rabbit pointed out, bunkers and pillboxes are also considered vehicles. I would use a load that is for vehicles only (usually a solid penetrator), as opposed to another load with a high penetration value (usually a HEAT round) against any vehicle as your lethality will increase if your penetration is greater than the armor value.

If you are on the other end of the spectrum and your AT gun's penetration is less than the armor value, you still have a chance of killing the AFV, although not a very good one, as long as your penetration is more than half the armor value. For example, you have a .50 caliber machine gun with a penetration of 12. It is possible to destroy any vehicle with an armor value of 23 or less, but the odds are very much against you until the armor value approaches your penetration value. Machine guns can be very effective against lightly armored vehicles such as halftracks and armored cars. Don't leave them out in the open where they are exposed to fire.

Someone asked about what type of load to fire at an infantry target inside of a protected terrain hex or a fortification. If the unit is inside of a pillbox or bunker, I would fire AP (vehicle only type loads). This would be true even if the fortification was inside of a building as in some of Ozgur's Berlin scenarios. If the target does not qualify as a vehicle, I would fire HEAT if it is available. The penetration value of most HEAT rounds is greater than the protection value of most terrain meaning that your fire is calculated at full lethality. Last choice would be HE as the lethality will be severly diminished by the low penetration values. For example if the defending unit is in a city hex with a protection value of 24 and the penetration value of your HE round is 6 than your lethality is divided by four. If this is your situation, you are trying to disrupt the enemy, thus reducing his firepower, so that you can get close enough to assault.

Infantry AT weapons (bazookas, RPGs, LAWs) are some of the most potent in the game against infantry targets. They have both high lethality and penetration values (for small arm type weapons) meaning that they can nullify almost any terrain protection. You will notice that many of the current scenario designers are reducing the lethality of these weapons by 50% and giving them the increased value against vehicles flag. For example, an RPG in Vietnam has a lethality of 70. The same weapon in Soviet Afghan War has a lethality of 35, but it has the ampersand flag meaning its lethality is 70 against vehicle type targets. Even with these modifications, HEAT weapons are very potent in infantry versus infantry battles. You should also notice that there are two types of these weapons. LAW rockets are single use weapons and are removed once they are fired. Consequently, their effectiveness does not decline as they are fired. RPGs are not single use weapons (at least not normally) and their effectiveness does decline as they are fired. To better simulate the use and limitations of these weapons, the current designers are generally giving them lower reliability ratings (often D) so that their effectiveness can decrease very fast. This means you need to save their use for where you really need them. Hold fire lets you choose that situation rather than have the computer fire your shots during defensive fire.

I have to go eat dinner before it gets cold. I am sure I have raised more questions that I have answered. Feel free to send me an email or a PM if you would like something clarified. I am also willing to play a training game or two where I will make comments about game play as we go along.

Jeff Conner