What's wrong with my Panzerschreck?

[Industrializer]

In a late-war QB I had a crack Panzerschreck team inside a Church with two Sturm squads at the top floor to scare away enemy Inf.

Than an IS-2 drove up to the church, I ordered my Panzerschreck from the middle of the church to run to the side the IS-2 was, they did that and fired two rounds at the side of the IS-2 at a distance of 18m ... missing both ! Than, at aprox 30 sec into the turn an enemy HQ ran into the church and the Panzerschreckteam switched targets from the IS-2 to the HQ ! Great, the next 20 sec they pointed their Panzerschreck at the enemy HQ without fireing (understandable if the Panzerschreck would be useless against infantry but than why would they switch target ??) (the enemy HQ was probably broken and was also fired on by my platoon HQ in the church, being no threat for my Schrecks)

At the beginning of the next turn I manually reassigned the the IS-2 as a target (now ponting his rear towards the schreck) but the target pointer showed me clear LOS, 47% hit probability (at 18m ??) and kill: very low ??? How's that, a 88mm HEAT into the rear should kill an IS-2 easily, what's wrong with my HEATs ?? And more important, what's wrong with the TacAI of my schrecks ? Or is this low hit probability / crude target selection normal ?

[YankeeDog]

A few things:

(1) When Panzershrecks fire from inside buildings, the backblast from the weapon supresses the Shreck team after they fire (imagine a room full of smoke and hot exhaust gases). This means that the Shreck team will usually go to at least "Cautious", and usually "Pinned" after one shot taken from a building. Supression state affects both accuracy and rate of fire, so if you don't hit on the first shot from a building, your chances go down dramatically after that. Occasionally, the backblast from a Shreck will even set the building on fire, putting you in an even worse pickle.

(2) Your Shreck team targeted the enemy HQ because it felt the enemy HQ was an immediate threat to it's survival. Assuming that the IS-2 had not spotted the Shreck team yet (a pretty good guess if it proceeded to rotate it's rear to face the Shreck), then the greatest threat to the Shreck team was the enemy HQ right next to it in the building. Think about it, if you were part of a 2-man shreck team, would you be more worried about the tank outside that hasn't seen you yet, or the 3-4 enemies with rifles and SMGs in the next room? Keep in mind that the Shreck team doesn't necessarily 'know' that the enemy HQ is panicked.

(3) Your shreck team probably balked at firing at the enemy HQ because it was already supressed from it's own backblast (as noted above). While it's not a great anti-infantry weapon, shrecks do have some effect on infantry, and teams can and will fire them at infantry if they feel threatened.

(4) Once you manually retargeted the IS-2, I am again guessing that the relatively low hit % had to do with supression from backblast. As far as the "Very Low" kill chance, I'm not sure. I don't have the game on my work computer, so I can't check it in the senario editor, but being a heavy breakthrough tank, the IS-2 is pretty well armored all the way around. You also need to take into account angle - if the IS-2 wasn't presenting a "flat" rear shot, this would effectively increase the armor's slope and therefore it's resistance.

Hard to say whether any or all of the above apply to your situation without looking at the movie file, but that's my semi-educated guess as to what's going on.

Cheers,

YD

[Lars]

PS – put the Sturm squads on the bottom floor next time.

[V]

Also, the weather might help a schreck to miss at short distances.

I have always wondered why people are shocked when a hand held AT weapon missed at a short distance?

Think about the situation realisticly. The team is in the middle of a savage battle for life or death. Nerves can force even the best shot to miss some of the easiest shots when there are bullets flying around, shells exploding, enemy infantry appearing out of nowhere in their rear (industrializers situation).

These kind of things will rattle anyone.

A miss at short range could also be a defective round in some way.

maybe the first shot was defective round and when he made his second shot, he was not so sure of himself and missed all together.

Any number of variables can be at fault for why they would miss.

Excellent post, YankeeDog!

[Industrializer]

YankeeDog, thanx for the answers!

Indeed, my panzerschrecks got pinned, guess that's why they missed the IS-2 with the second shot.

Concerning the enemy HQ. Well, if I were in an anti tank team, faced with an IS-2 at 18m who's slowly turning his 120mm gun towards me and a few enemy men who are pinned by my own guys I'd know at whom I'd point my HEAT projectile

And about the Low Kill chance: well, the IS-2 was pointing its side/rear towards me (60-100mm armor) therefor my HEAT would have struck his armor probably at an unfavorable angel (171mm penetration at 0°, 86mm at 60°), explaining the low kill probability.

Thanx again for the quick answers!

[Industrializer]

Originally posted by V:

Think about the situation realisticly. The team is in the middle of a savage battle for life or death. Nerves can force even the best shot to miss some of the easiest shots when there are bullets flying around, shells exploding, enemy infantry appearing out of nowhere in their rear

Well, actually my (crack !) Shreck team missed their first two shots before the enemy HQ appeared. And they didn't shoot too much to the left or right but into the ground before the IS-2. What were they aiming at, the wheels ? You can still see the imacts near the rear of the IS-2 at the picture I've attached.