German 88 AA

[sdr633]

Last night, I had two 88s covering an open area through which two T34s wandered (at different times). The 88s did not fire on their own. Once I targeted the T34s, they went down in short order but the 88s ignored visible infantry as well. Both 88s were in command and quite happy.

Do 88s need a covered arc to engage ground targets?

[Pzman]

Just one question, were the 88s hiding? Also those units may not have been in LOS to the targets.

[Bone_Vulture]

Yep, if the flaks were hiding, they'll only fire back if fired upon.

Otherwise, it might've been a case of neatly blocked LOS, since even 88 HE shells should be enough to penetrate T-34's.

[sdr633]

The 88s were neither hiding nor out of LOS because I was able to target and fire on the tanks. The 88s even took enemy small arm fire without responding.

[stikkypixie]

Did you use cover arcs? If yes were the T34's in the cover arcs?

Btw do you have a save of that perticular action.

[Pzman]

Originally posted by sdr633:

The 88s were neither hiding nor out of LOS because I was able to target and fire on the tanks. The 88s even took enemy small arm fire without responding.

Were the T-34s moving? If so they may have just moved into LOS, which might explaine why they didn't blast the 88s to bits.

[Bone_Vulture]

Yes, a screenshot would always be practical.

[sdr633]

The T34s came into LOS at the beginning of the turn and remained in LOS for the rest of the turn. Once I had control again, I told both 88s to fire and both did.

I didn't think to save the file and don't have a screen shot program. (Any suggestions for a good one?)

I was playing the scenario "CSDT B14 Eisen Faust" which I had downloaded from the Scenario Depot in case the designer may have had some input into the actions of the 88s.

[sdr633]

Oh, and the 88s did NOT have covered arcs assigned to them.

[Other Means]

Originally posted by sdr633:

I didn't think to save the file and don't have a screen shot program. (Any suggestions for a good one?)

On a PC:

INgame, get to the image you want. press "Print Screen".

Alt-tab out of the game. Press windows-r. in the box, type mspaint and press enter. mspaint will now open. Click in the blank image & press Ctrl-V.

The image is now in mspaint & can be saved (best as a jpeg) as normal.

Of course, now you need to find somewhere to host it as BFC won't.

[Sergei]

The time it takes from the unit to react to visible targets depends on various things:

hit chance (they won't be likely to open fire on their own if it is low)

visibility (clear midday or overcast dusk; is it a perfect LOS or is there brush or scattered trees on the way)

experience level

range

are the guns facing that direction

etc.

Units don't always open fire immediately even if they could. The ways of the TacAI are unknown.

[Conscript Bagger]

Originally posted by sdr633:

The 88s even took enemy small arm fire without responding.

Might the 88 crews have been suppressed?

[sdr633]

The crews were not suppressed. They hadn't even been fired on when the first T34 passed in front. In fact, they didn't take incoming until after I told them to take out the 2nd T34 two turns later.

I'm replaying the scenario and the 88s (in about the same position) opened fire on the first squad that they saw in the woods. (The T34s, on the other hand, refused to wander into the fire lane that I'd created.)

OTHER MEANS, thanks for the print screen tips. Hard to believe I've ten years of PC support under my belt.