Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, but I've been playing CMBB and CMAK for more than a year off and on. I figured out a lot of quirks about the game, but some things still puzzle me. Chief among these: what makes my troops and tanks hesitate so often?
For instance:
I play Soviet. An elevation is flanked by forest on both sides, and the Germans have a vehicle there. It is listed as a PzIII?, but it shoots like a much bigger vehicle. I send some infantry to get a better ID, and it turns out to be a StuGIIIF/8. There's no way I'll kill it through the front, so I decide to send a veteran T34 around the back. It does a fast move (obliterating 2 HMGs in the process, yay!) and pops up 100 meters straight behind the StuG before being spotted. The AI places a target line into the exhaust pipes of the StuG, and I wait for the shot. The StuG starts turning in place. My T34 doesn't dip its barrel. It's not reloading, it's just standing there. The minute ends with the StuG turned three quarters of the way.
I maneuver two of my other T34s into firing positions from the opposite direction, just to be sure. The next minute has my flanking T34 still not firing, and the StuG kills it with one shot.
My other two T34s then get target lines into the back of the StuG. One of the two suddenly shifts fire onto a mortar in the distance, the other (regular) keeps its target, but doesn't fire. The StuG starts turning in place again. The T34 suddenly starts doing the dance of death, and doesn't fire at all. The StuG proceeds to immobilize the dancer and kills the one shooting at the mortar.
I've had the same thing with a SIG33B that popped up in an ideal firing position behind a field gun, but didn't fire and got killed. Flame thrower troops sometimes refuse to fire for no apparent reason. I don't get what I'm doing wrong.
How do I get my little virtual men to fire?