Possible Tank maingun bug

[Baneman]

While the trend for bug hunting is going strong, thought I'd bring this one up.

Playing an Italy scenario and have several tanks.

The enemy are on the run and my tanks are advancing and firing. But I've noticed ( at least twice ) that when a tank fires its main gun at enemy infantry, it appears to treat the gun as though it's also an MG - ie. it fires at the body of the infantryman - on both occasions, it has hit, but this effectively takes his head off and the round then whistles off into the middle distance.

That would be fine if it was a machinegun, but with the main gun it should be aiming at his feet so that the HE actually does its job ( and has the chance to affect his buddies ).

Now I know I've seen tanks actually do this, ie. plant the HE where it will do the most good, so maybe this is because the enemy are at a distance - at least 300m+

It's possible that this is working as intended and it's a game limitation - I don't know, therefore I mention it here.

[sburke]

While the trend for bug hunting is going strong, thought I'd bring this one up.

Playing an Italy scenario and have several tanks.

The enemy are on the run and my tanks are advancing and firing. But I've noticed ( at least twice ) that when a tank fires its main gun at enemy infantry, it appears to treat the gun as though it's also an MG - ie. it fires at the body of the infantryman - on both occasions, it has hit, but this effectively takes his head off and the round then whistles off into the middle distance.

That would be fine if it was a machinegun, but with the main gun it should be aiming at his feet so that the HE actually does its job ( and has the chance to affect his buddies ).

Now I know I've seen tanks actually do this, ie. plant the HE where it will do the most good, so maybe this is because the enemy are at a distance - at least 300m+

It's possible that this is working as intended and it's a game limitation - I don't know, therefore I mention it here.

That is actually something that has been around since CMBN at least. Sniper fire by Main gun.... I don't think I have ever seen an explanation or discussion, but I have observed it a lot. It tends to happen mostly with infantry in the open as there are no intervening objects to cause the round to detonate. You then get to see the individual trooper getting nailed as the round sails blithely on (hopefully to detonate against some other unseen opponent, but usually heading for the horizon).

I think the first time it really stood out to me was a QB Pbem broadsword and I played where I watched my StuGs repeatedly take out individual infantry this way and the one thing I did note was in most cases the overall squad was obscured by smoke, dust etc and I only had a clear view of maybe one or two individual members of the team.

[dpabrams]

I have seen it and I think its an AP round and the casualty is caused by the ballistic pressure wave created when a solid projectile passes near an living thing at high velocity.

[dpabrams]

Hydrostatic shock or hydraulic shock describes the observation that a penetrating projectile can produce remote wounding and incapacitating effects in living targets through a hydraulic effect in their liquid-filled tissues, in addition to local effects in tissue caused by direct impact

[Kosigan]

I've noticed this on occasion as well, although I've also seen my tank act correctly against infantry and "area fire" with HE rounds to do the most damage. Perhaps it has something to do with the way the tank chooses its targets? Is it the same behavior when we manually target an infantry squad?

[Baneman]

I've noticed this on occasion as well, although I've also seen my tank act correctly against infantry and "area fire" with HE rounds to do the most damage. Perhaps it has something to do with the way the tank chooses its targets? Is it the same behavior when we manually target an infantry squad?

You could be on to something, Kosigan, I've only observed this ( granted, my sample size is small ) with the tank choosing the target.

[womble]

I've always assumed it's just the shell going a bit "long" when the trajectory for a ground shot is pretty flat. 57mm are particularly prone to it, IME.