Guest Babra Posted May 20, 2000 Share Posted May 20, 2000 Just finished playing the Germans in VoT again against the A/I (Amis bumped up 50%). For once in my whole stinkin' life everything went right (well, almost) and lady luck was smilin' when it counted. Final result 92:8 for the Jerries! No bunkers lost, only one mortar and the infantry gun knocked out. 44 casualties (13 KIA) versus 298 American (72 KIA) and 7 Shermans. An 8th Sherman taken when the A/I surrendered on turn 34. Some concerns though: First off, once the Infantry gun was engaged, and every ami squad that could see it was blasting away at it, the gun ignored targets within 5 or 10 degrees of its current facing and began rotating over 100 degrees to engage Amis much further away. Due to its slow traverse, it never made it. Although it was surely doomed anyway, I feel certain it could have got off a few more shots if it hadn't tried to rotate so far. I think there's a fault in the A/I logic there. There were literally over a dozen targets within 30 degrees of arc and almost all of them were shooting at the gun, so were undoubtedly valid targets. Secondly, after the gun was knocked out, an American company sized attack hit the outskirts of Plomville. Broken up by the minefields and the still active 75mm Bunker, the attack faltered and my platoon strength defenders supported by the Panther were able to eliminate the attackers. 3 Ami squads captured, an entire platoon eliminated, and the remainder routed to the rear. The problem is, I had difficulty shuttling the prisoners back to the Church where I was collecting them under guard because most were routed and/or panicked when they surrendered. It seems to me that if prisoners don't do what I say ("Move! SCHNELL!") when I say it, they're not going to be around long. During this period there was a real danger my defence would be overrun and the prisoners would escape. Maybe surrendered units should cease to be routed or panicked immediately upon surrendering. Victories against the A/I aren't worthy of braggin' rights, but whoowee that was fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeAcH Posted May 20, 2000 Share Posted May 20, 2000 Excellent points on both accounts. I wholeheartedly agree!! TeAcH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannheim Tanker Posted May 20, 2000 Share Posted May 20, 2000 Your comments on the possible faults with the AI (regarding the Infantry gun) reminded me of something similar happening with my Panther. It was pounced on by 3 Shermans at moderate range, but the Panther continued engaging MG targets on the other side of the map. Eventually, one of the Sherm's got a shot through the armor and snuffed out Jerry. What gives with this part of the Tac-AI? I've seen this happen before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanzfeld Posted May 21, 2000 Share Posted May 21, 2000 About the prisoners.........Do you actually have to send them off the map to get the points for them???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazooka10165 Posted May 21, 2000 Share Posted May 21, 2000 Same thing here with the Tac AI target selection. In my current PBEM, I targeted the IG gun at a Sherman less than 500 meters away. Perfectly unobstructed shot against side armor of a stationary tank. About 20 seconds into the turn, the gun takes some harmless incoming fire from an MG about 1000 meters away and decides to forget about the Sherman (without getting off a shot at it)and rotates about 45 degrees to shoot at the MG. (The IG died from artillery fire before he could get off a shot, but that's beside the point.) One other problem, which I've seen addresed before. I had the IG area targeting a building. Before it gets of a round, an infantry target pops into LOS and the IG gun trys to line it up. Since the target was only visible for about an hour (ok 25 seconds, but it seemed like an hour)the IG gun couldn't get off a shot at. With no infanty target, the IG just sat there without returning to its designated area fire target. Doesn't seem right. I know that the beta demo had the opposite problem (tanks getting obsessed with their area target orders), but this is equally frustrating. Since the IG gun is lucky to survive for two minutes after being spotted, it really has to make every turn count. I guess this fact coupled with its slow rate of fire magnifies the little quirks of the Tac AI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted May 21, 2000 Share Posted May 21, 2000 The infantry gun has a very slow reload and will tend to track mg's in between shots. In a pbem game I'm having a 105 sherman was dueling with my inf gun and between every shot the inf gun would change it's targetting line to the mg firing at it only to fire at the tank anyways when it had reloaded. I'm wondering if the gun crew are trying to point themselves towards incoming fire. Maybe they get some protection from the gun shield??? At any rate, I've been watching my guns and although their behavior seems strange they generally return to target what I wanted them to when they're ready to fire. I suppose this could be a problem if it's threats were at wide angles though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babra Posted May 21, 2000 Share Posted May 21, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lanzfeld: About the prisoners.........Do you actually have to send them off the map to get the points for them?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> No. I like to move them to a place where I have lots of troops nearby so that they will remain surrendered and not make a run for it if an opportunity arises. This seems to happen far less frequently than it did in the beta demo, but it's still good practice I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts