AFV crew roles - gunner won't reload

[Freyberg]

I had an amusing situation in a recent game. A Stug without damage was down to 2 crew members, gunner and driver.

The gun and MG both showed as undamaged, but the gunner wouldn't reload the gun, nor would he deign to use the MG. So the vehicle, although undamaged, couldn't fight (it was only up against infantry by this stage). In fact it seemed like there was one shell still in the breech, because I had the option of 'fire smoke' still available, but he wouldn't even pull the trigger on that one. Was he just stubbornly working-to-rule (perhaps he had an English ancestor) or is this is a minor bug?

[womble]

I don't know how easy it would be for the gunner to worm his way out of the shooting seat and grab shells off the ready rack to load up, or how it would affect RoF once the ready rack was empty (do StuGs have a ready rack, even?). It'd certainly be a lot to ask for every vehicle's internal layout effects to be explicitly modelled.

[Baneman]

You'd expect it to take less time than "forever", but it may just be a BFC fudge that two crew or less can't reload the main gun. You'd think the MG would be doable though.

Interestingly, I recently had a Stug immobilised ( Engine destroyed ) and 3 of the 4 crew killed. The driver was the sole survivor, but when he remounted, he showed as "Gunner" - which makes sense since it's undriveable. I thought that was pretty clever.

- I never thought to see if he would/could fire the gun though, since the battle had moved well past by then.

[Freyberg]

I'm not complaining He had a good 10 min to hop out of his set... Just noting.

I never thought to dismount and remount, that would have been a good idea.

[YankeeDog]

Honestly, you should be grateful that an AFV intended to be manned by 4 crew, but manned with only 2 crew is willing continue to work the vehicle at all. At best, you should hope that a Stug crew in that situation is maybe to move the vehicle back out of engagement and save you the point cost of losing it. But fight the vehicle? Forget it.

[John Kettler]

womble,

Ref Post # 9 at link. TC and gunner are on the left of the gun (looking forward), and the loader's on the right.

http://planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5831

Am still looking for a cutaway view so I can see whether there's any way to get under the gun to load. If not, the only real option is for the gunner to become TC and get the StuG out of the line of fire. Firing the MG requires the loader to unbutton and run it. Oops! You don't have one. Judging from this link, there simply isn't enough room under the breech to allow the gunner to get to the other side and load. And the gun bisects the fighting compartment.

http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2000/st3fGbg.html

Absent other information to the contrary, I'd say BFC's got your predicament modeled dead on, barring unbuttoning to, say, move the driver to the loader's position. This would make the StuG fightable but immobile. I suppose the really clever and motivated gunner might clamber back and forth between his position and the driver's were this to be done, allowing repositioning and shooting by turns, but AI can do only so much.

Regards,

John Kettler