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Tank-Infantry tactics


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Originally posted by throwdjohn:

Yes the American TACTIC might have been to shoot up anything that looked bad. However, that is hard to model in-game due to often comically low ammo. .50 cal anyone?

Admittedly, the .50 cal ammo load seems to be on the small side. It seems that CM models the .50s on Shermans and many other AFVs as having just the one belt of ammo attached to the gun. I don't know what the "official" .50 ammo load was for Shermans, but from photos I've seen, it appears that crews often had additional boxes of .50 ammo strapped to the hull.

But .50 flex mounts excepted, Allied AFV ammo loads are quite high, and this includes the Shermans. I'm not sure, but I suspect what the difficulty here is that additional ammo for the .50 was not stored close to the gun, and was also pretty heavy, so reloading after emptying the belt immediately attached to the gun as a bit of an operation -- you probably couldn't do it while moving or under fire.

Since the present CM engine can't really model this kind of occasional longer ammo reload, I guess they just decided to give the .50s on Shermans about 1 belt's worth of ammo. Though I don't understand why some Shermans have 12 ammo for the .50, and some 24 -- AFAICT, they all used the same ammo belt.

Anyway, if you want to do some recon by fire with your Shermans, but you want to save your limited .50 ammo for more important targets, just button the Sherman when you give it the area fire order. Works like a charm. I don't think there's really much of a penalty in terms of reaction time, either -- from what I've experienced, it seems that units engaged in area fire orders are already considered "distracted" by the game, and therefore react more slowly to new threats. Being buttoned as well seems to make little additional difference.

I usually use a buddy system when doing recon by fire with Shermans -- while one group of Shermans area fires, a second group holds their fire and overwatches. This way, if any new enemy threats to reveal themselves as a result of the recon fire, they are immediately engaged.

Recon by fire is also a tactic where concentration and mass really count. IOW, use entire platoons, not individual tanks. One Sherman area firing into a treeline is only marginally useful because it's a small enough amount of fire that any enemy in the area will probably just put their heads down and weather the storm unless you get really lucky and plot the area fire order right on top of their position. Three Shermans firing into a treeline (with the remaining two from the platoon overwatching) puts out a pretty impressive amount of fire (even if you only use the MGs!), and will usually make any enemy in the target area very uncomfortable.

Cheers,

YD

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