Bulletpoint

Yep, the heavy stuff needs an FO.

That post was not about units opening fire at each other by mistake like @theforger reported. My post from back then was saying that small arms could cause casualties if the firing unit did not spot the friendly unit in the target zone. I thought it was a great detail, but unfortunately it was seen as a bug by BFC and removed. Small arms no longer cause casualties this way.

There's not supposed to be small-arms friendly fire in the game. So I'm curious what you're seeing.

Never saw this happen. Are you sure you did not give them an area fire order by mistake?

https://combatmission.fandom.com/wiki/What_the_Germans_say

How to take afternoon tea like a Brit https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p08j3sc4/how-to-take-afternoon-tea-like-a-brit

When you see them throw hand grenades at bunkers and vehicles, it's an abstraction to represent running up and throwing grenades through vision slits etc. You can knock out even the heaviest tanks this way. The real problem with bunkers is that they are way too easy to destroy by direct fire. It takes only 3-4 shots of 75mm HE shells to knock out even a concrete bunker. In reality, many special weapons were invented to knock out bunkers, but in the game, they are not needed.

I'm not. I would like to see this game progress. It has such potential.

I actually saw something like that in a game I'm currently playing. An enemy tank rolled forward, and my PaK crew spotted it and started "aiming". The tank went behind some trees and spotting was lost. But then it emerged on the other side, and my gun immediately fired, scoring a hit straight on the turret. Another thing you can notice is that often, troops will keep firing after you as the player can't see an enemy unit any more. I think troops spot a bit better than the player. Join the club

Completely agree. It's just that sometimes, the TacAI prefers to fire on the halftrack at 500m instead of the Panther at 600m. In general, I think it works OK though.

If there's a halftrack at 20m, I would be fine with seeing a grenade assault, even if there's a panther at 600m.

I never knew the most experienced troops were the ones most likely to ignore their target arc. I find that in general, troops of all kinds mostly obey their arc.

We agree on that. Another example is that sometimes, a tank will fire at an enemy tank, but then enemy infantry will appear, and your tank will start to fire at those instead. I think the answer is not to add another command, but to tweak the TacAI to be more focused on taking out the bigger threat.

I understand well what you are saying and it makes sense in a rational way. I just don't think average soldiers in WW2 could always keep their cool like that. You're in a platoon of what, 30 really young guys? They haven't slept for days and they have been shelled and maybe lost friends. Now suddenly Germans walk past. Who knows if there will be a guy with an MG. Who knows if the next moment, they'll spot you and your mates?

Easy to give the order maybe, but do you think average Joe Trooper will keep his cool and calmly let those German armoured cars roll by? I think regular WW2 troops would be pretty jittery when getting overrun. Executing a normal ambush would be hard enough, cherrypicking enemy targets would be even harder.

If you set one,they will ignore all infantry and only fire at armour inside the arc. This is very useful, also to defeat "dirty tricks" like the one you described above.

OK, I see. But that kind of fine-grained situation is getting into special forces tactics. You'd need very well trained and led troops to set up such a specific ambush. And even if you did have a special "target only heavy armour arc" you'd get into many grey areas. Many armoured cars are basically small tanks on wheels. Should they be targeted? How about the German halftracks with heavy guns? How about a Stuart, is that a real tank or should the command wait for a Sherman? Or a Firefly? I'd still say the best would be to set a short target arc to prevent firing. Hide, then watch the sound contact markers pass by. Light vehicles have a different marker than heavy tanks, so you should be able to realise from about 400m that a convoy of vehicles is approaching and that there's a light vehicle or two at the front. Wait till the light armour passes, then unhide and make the arc bigger.

Not sure. I'm no expert. But I assume that light armour was often used in a screening role, which I guess also means to keep pushing forward as long as the enemy doesn't put up any serious resistance. When the main line of defence is found, that's when you bring up the real tanks. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You have some hit decal mod active that doesn't show penetrations?

I understand it's frustrating to waste a valuable AT asset on a halftrack or armoured car, but I actually think it's a valid gameplay design decision to have it work like this. It allows the attacker to use light armour to bait the defender into revealing his positions. If you really want to prevent firing at lesser targets, you can make a very short arc, and then manually give a target order once your enemy's prime asset rolls into view.

Ok, I understand where you're coming from. Of course my intention was never to break anything - I was just explaining the point I made about foxholes above.

I'm already quite well acquainted with the game. Maybe when you also get more familiar with it, you will see there's some sense in what I'm saying.

Great catch. I hereby nominate you for the most obscure nitpick prize

Whether or not it's realistic to see 37mm penetrate depends of course on the exact gun, ammo, and model of the Pz IV. If you want to play around with the combinations, here's a good site for it: http://www.wwiiequipment.com/pencalc/#

I've seen Greyhounds knocking out Panzer IV's frontally from 600m plus. The Panzer IV is a rubbish tank in this game, IMO. Probably it's modelled correctly - I honestly don't know. But you need to play it as an armoured car because it's so fragile. The only real problem I have with it is that it seems way overpriced in terms of points in the game for what you get.