unlimber time

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by Andreas:

Another issue is that the time here includes the time it takes to transfer the ammo to the gun. IRL™ you would not need to do that if you just wanted to deploy quickly. So if you wanted to have the 'fire from the march' possibility, it would need a new type of code for guns, divorcing ammo from the gun, and treating it separately. That is done to some degree now (when you move after having incurred crew losses, you lose ammo), but this would go further. I would hope the engine rewrite can address the issue. (some engine rewrite that will be...)

It would be a very nice feature to have, though, specifically for infantry and their support weapons. The defence would have the advantage of being able to dump large quantities of ammunition in prepared locations. Panzerschreck gunners who had expended their last rocket would no longer have to contemplate the dismal career change to "Gamey suicide scout". Jeeps, carriers and other light vehicles would suddenly acquire much greater importance than they currently have if they could be used for ferrying small-arms ammo and mortar bombs to platoons who have depelted their stocks. The fans of the mega-whoompatah-blast-wave graphic would have a new justification for their case, as it would be necessary to model the effect of a hit on one of these ammunition trucks.

All the best,

John.

[TSword]

Maybe unlimber times seem so long because in real a typical battle took the following form:

- Probing the attack zone to estimate frontline took hours

- 15 minutes - hours preparatory fire with shellnumbers in the thousand for each gun

- The infantry attack supported by tanks which normally lasted hours.

Usually a given formation had objectives for the day (eg. until Noon or the like) , and i suppose only stupid Commanders would give their subordinated units an order like I. Battalion takes that enemy ridge within the next 30 minutes...., even the biggest idiots wouldn't do that and rely on it.

Also tankbattles to catch a handful of tanks could last for hours.

So time in CM for playability reason is compressed not that 1 sec. realtime is not 1 sec. gametime but in real things are much more difficult and as anybody knows even the easiest things tend to go forever in the army..., not so in CM (or nobody would play it i suppose, imagine one needs 45 minutes (45 turns) to load a company on trucks as it might take in real..)

Greets

Daniel

[Foxbat]

Historically possible or not 20sec on/off for guns is just not on, that would make towed the most gamey unit ever.

Remember these figures quoted (30 sec to drop the tail and strat firing, firing limbered in 20 sec) are for relatively safe situations.

IRL no commander would be insane enough to tell his guners to pull up to the actual frontline and shoot&scoot stuff there.

ICM you could pull your gun in firing range and shoot, inside a round. If you're succesfull you can then limber and evac the area inside a round. That means the opponent can't really react, let alone have the capability drop some mortar rounds on the worlds biggest AT-gun!

It would also make all those wimpy ATguns utterly useless because you could set up quick ambushes with the FLAK 88 )or whatever major arty piece you have) whenever and wherever you wanted. Even if smaller guns would get the same anywhere, anytime capability the advantadge would be with the big guns because they give more bang for the buck and you can't make unlimber time short enough to make a real difference (1 sec unlimber time for 37mm? ).