Quick 4X4 Mk4 vs Sherm Test

[nik mond]

Found the rock paper scissor here. It was pretty obvious but had to test it. Its range dependant. If you are knife fighting at 300m or less you want to be a Sherman. If you are engaging at 500m or more the Mk 4 cleans up with ease. Not scientific, didn't count shots etc.

All Vets Leadership 0 repeat as necessary

300 meters: 2 Sherman II survive vs 4 Mk4 H early killed

500 meters: 4 Sherman II killed vs 4 Mk 4 H early survived

I chose the basic Sherman II cause I was getting clobbered by these. If you are playing a scenario and have no choice but to close in on Sherman's with Mk4's, then apply a strategy with that in mind I suppose.

[John Kettler]

nik mond,

Doesn't surprise me. In a knife fight, ROF and turret traverse rates are the name of the game. Against a Panzer IV, the Sherman's 75 makes a fine can opener, and though your test is with tanks static, the Sherman can traverse it's turret 1.5 seconds faster than the Panzer IV, but it's the ROF that eats up the Panzer IV. That long powerful cartridge takes significantly longer to reload than does the much weaker, shorter Sherman 75mm cartridge. So, if the Panzer IV misses its first shot, it gets smothered by return fire, and the problem keeps getting worse as the Germans take casualties. What once was a 1 on 1 rapidly becomes a many on few, so the Germans get eaten alive.

I suspect that what's happening at 500 meters is that the loopy trajectory of the Sherman's projectile starts to enter the gunnery calculations, requiring more time to range in, allowing the flatter shooting PzGr 39 (L/43 and particularly the L/48) time to hit and kill while the Sherman crew is frantically trying to get get steel on the target. Also, not only is the Panzer IV two inches lower, but the effective height of the tank is really the base of the cupola, whereas the Sherman height IS the top of the turret. Thus, deflection errors hit the Sherman harder than they do the Panzer IV, because there's simply a lot bigger target to shoot at.

Regards,

John Kettler