Tank Man Posted May 2, 2001 Share Posted May 2, 2001 Recently I have played several hotseat games where my opponent has purchased the plain M4 Sherman. I laughed when my veteran StuH rolled behind a stone wall and overwatched a Heavy Armored Car that was behind a building. I thought to myself "M4 Sherman! Either my assault howitzer or armored car is going to put a hollow round through it with no problem." When the M4 rounded the corner of the building exactly the opposite happened. The Sherman stopped, turned its gun towards my PSW and took aim. My PSW acted as if it wasn't there at all, it just sat there and let the Sherman target it. The M4 promptly blew the PSW away. All the while my howitzer acted as if it couldn't see the enemy tank at all. The howitzer just let the PSW get knocked out. The StuH didn't even target the M4. After knocking out the PSW the M4 turned its gun to the StuH. Just like the PSW, the StuH didn't react to it at all, instead it turned to fire at some infantry in a building that was farther away than the enemy tank. Sure enough the M4 hit the StuH, brewing it up. I took the events that transpired that turn as mere bad luck and mis-management on my part. A few days later I played another hotseat game with the same opponent. He used the same setup as before but I swapped a few things, the StuH for a StuG to be precise. My PSW and StuG had a similar, yet different fate than the previous AFVs. The Stug was placed in a hull down position behind a house and a patch of woods, leaving a small keyhole line of sight to a peice of open ground amidst tall pines. His M4 moved in between two patches of tall pines and promptly took aim upon my StuG. The StuG didn't seem to notice the M4 at all as the Sherman sped across the open range and aligned its turret. Not even stopping to improve accuracy, the M4 put a round into the upper hull of the StuG, knocking it out. The PSW was my last chance at taking out his M4. I decided that it was too risky to even attempt to move the PSW into a position where it can take a shot so I decided instead to put my opponent into a position where if he moved his tank out of the wooded enclosure it would present its flank to my PSWs hollow shells. I ordered the PSW Heavy Armored Car to move as fast as it could across a mostly covered road and through a village, at the edge of which was a perfect spot to pin his M4. On the route the PSW was taking there were exactly two places where the M4 could see the PSW moving, but the PSW would be in position before my opponent could update the M4s orders. The first sightable position along the road would put my PSW into view for around 3 seconds, but the PSW would be at top speed by then. The second was a small slit between two heavy buildings where the PSW would be exposed for literally a fraction of a second. As the turn played the PSW passed across the the first area and the Sherman spotted it and aligned the turret. The PSW was gone before a shot was fired but the M4 still tracked the Armored car even though it could not see it for at least four seconds. I thought everything had gone as planned until the PSW approached the small slit between the buildings. The M4 fired at the slit and timed the shot so that the PSW (moving at top speed) was right there when the shot was. The PSW was knocked out easily. After that I had decided to see why all this happened. I can honestly say I played at least 50 test scenarios agains the AI. Half the time the AI got the M4 and the other half I did. I mixed trying the StuG, StuH, and Panzer IV (all variants), as well as other available AT setups. The best odds were with the Panzer IV at about 5 to 1. Never have I seen a tank get knocked out by a sound contact so many times. The M4 has an uncanny ability to stay invisible, even while in completely open terrain. Most the times I stopped the AI as the axis was when I abused the fact that I knew the M4 was going to go after the VL. Even then it was a slim chance that the axis tank would spot the allied tank before being shot. The most notable moment was when I had a friend try to take the M4 on with a veteran StuG. The Victory Flag was placed in a village where the sight was blocked by buildings. The M4 had apparently rolled itself into a corner formed by two of the buildings that were right next to the road. The Stug was ordered to hunt around the outskirts of town then hunt down that road through town. At the time my friend had no idea where the AI controlled M4 was. As the unbuttoned StuG hunted down the road it passed at most 10 meters by the open end of the corner that the M4 was in. As it was about to pass out of view the M4 appeared with its turret completely pointed at the rear-flank of the StuG with targeting line drawn. As suddenly as it had appeared it fired at the StuG which was roughly 15m meters away, knocking it out. The StuG didn't even notice the M4 there until it was absolutly too late. The Sherman literally fired mere tenths of a second after it appeared. It had been targetting the StuG since it first rolled down the road into view of the corner. Among the friends I play CM with I refer to the plain old M4 Sherman as the stealth ubertank. P.S. I forgot to mention that it was a 700 point ME [ 05-02-2001: Message edited by: Tank Man ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tank Man Posted May 3, 2001 Author Share Posted May 3, 2001 Wow... thats a lot of words... now that I look at it. Anyone want me to edit it so its more readable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcm1947 Posted May 3, 2001 Share Posted May 3, 2001 I got you. You don't need to edit it for me but maybe some of the more difficult guys might want you to. Anyway, that sounds like that would piss me off if I were playing the German's but since I prefer playing the American's - sounds great to me. I play the earlier years alot so am always getting the original M4 but they just get knocked out alot by damn near everything including infantry. I will have to try them even more often to see if I can have the same luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMcGuire Posted May 3, 2001 Share Posted May 3, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tank Man: Anyone want me to edit it so its more readable?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> No way, very interesting, and well written. That says "readable" to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PantherGunner Posted May 3, 2001 Share Posted May 3, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tank Man: . Never have I seen a tank get knocked out by a sound contact so many times. [ 05-02-2001: Message edited by: Tank Man ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> A sound contact is just that...you hear engine noises (for a vehicle) in a general direction. The M4 might have been (obviously it was) in a good concealed position. Just because the sound contact symbol was in a location which only offered a slim chance to hit or even see you, it might have been a location which let it track you for a long distance and get a reasonable shot. Sound contacts do this all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tank Man Posted May 3, 2001 Author Share Posted May 3, 2001 Panther, my point isn't that I have never seen it happen before (which I have), my point is that I've never seen it happen so many times. As a player I literally watched the turret on the sound contact rotate to an angle off in the distance. A few seconds later I watched a round come out of the barrel of the sound contact, disappear, then change course and knock out my tank. It was very disconcerting to find out that the M4 was on an open hill. The sound contact was several meters in front of my tank in an open field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfish Posted May 3, 2001 Share Posted May 3, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tank Man: Anyone want me to edit it so its more readable?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Nah, but can you translate it into Portugese? That would be really helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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