Relative spotting for tanks - a request

[Juardis]

I'm reading the Bloody Forest by Gerald Astor and happened upon the following:

"Tank Platoon leader Fleig said 'You'd never know we were in the same army. We married up with the infantry on the run. There was little or no coordination of communication, routes of attack, etc. Even though each tank had an external phone for ground forces to use, the infantry didn't know that. The phone was in a box at the rear of the tank and painted the same color as the tank. The usual method of communication was to bang on the side of the tank until you got the TCs attention and then point to the target. Often, the infantry would not approach the tank for fear of drawing arty and mortar fire'

American tankers labored under a severe communications handicap. Aside from the unfamiliarity of their partners with the external phone, the armor relied upon SCR506 line of sight radios that depended on a clear path for transmissions. Mountains, hills, and thick stands of trees interfered with the signal. If the antenna touched a tree branch, it grounded it. Furthermore, the external aerial, necessary for any distance, often was damaged by enemy fire or from simply plowing through obstacles. According to John Alyea, the radios in most tanks could only receive orders and lacked ability to call back. Only the tanks carrying a platoon leader or a platoon sgt had 2 way radios"

Now, relative spotting is a personal crusade of mine and since BTS is reworking the communications aspects of tanks for the Russians, I want them to be aware that allied tanks could also labor under similar constraints. As somone on this board proposed a while ago, perhaps tanks can be organized into platoons (like in Steel Panthers) where there is the plt leader with 2-way comms and then there are the rest that can have 2-way comm under ideal conditions but generally can only receive orders if their radio/antennas are damaged. Furthermore, if out of LOS of the plt leader, then the tank should be considered out of C&C. I get more and more frustrated by the ability of tanks facing 180 degrees to spot my infantry from 100s of meters away as if they have a direct overhead view of each and every unit on the battlefield.

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Jeff Abbott

[JoePrivate]

As you can guess there have been many threads on this. Here's a few links but bottom line BTS has said no major change with regards to relative spotting until the engine rewrite, CMII. Hope that helps...

The Lewis MOVE/RUN line length limitation

Spotting in CM2/CMII

What Is "Relative" Spotting?

[Juardis]

Originally posted by JoePrivate:

As you can guess there have been many threads on this. Here's a few links but bottom line BTS has said no major change with regards to relative spotting until the engine rewrite, CMII. Hope that helps...

The Lewis MOVE/RUN line length limitation

Spotting in CM2/CMII

What Is "Relative" Spotting?

Thanks Joe, I knew we had to wait for CMII for relative spotting, but IIRC, Charles is working on what to do with Russian tanks since many did not have radios (early war). Without radios, the way tanks are modeled now is incorrect. My intention was to point out something that is applicable in CM1 that could benefit from whatever Charles is working on for early russian tanks and the subsequent CMII rewrite provided Charles knew about what I was describing. Specifically, the modeling of communication break downs from tanks for whatever reason.

[KiwiJoe]

External radios eh?.. I wounder how many brave solders planted a magnetic mine on the outside of an enemy tank, and then used the radio to yell "your all dead meat!" before running away :0

[Simon Fox]

Bloody Kiwis!

[Guest hal9000]

ROFLMAO!!!