BillyR Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Is there any reason why my M1A1s (and other tracked vehicles) appear to NOT want to go through a little wood? It's very annoying watching my M1A1 get taken out because I didn't hand hold it...before I'm shot, I would like to point out that I expect to some hand holding of units through towns, but a wood? Surely they should be ploughing through? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 As in knocking the trees down? It doesn't really happen that often in real life. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyR Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 mmm...suppose so...but I'm pretty sure my tanks are avoiding other things (like shrubbery!)...Not too sure though, so I will check. Thx 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dietrich Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 In movies, you'll see a tank driving through forests, simply crushing all but the biggest trees in its path; or you'll see a tank plowing straight through a building and out the other side. (Yes, I'm talking about you, James Bond, you reckless over-sexed assassin, giving real spies a bad name....) Driving a tank through trees runs the risk getting a branch or trunk jammed in the tracks or the wheels. If you were to drive a tank through a building, it could easily get pinned by the roof collapsing on top of it. And what if the building has a basement? Standard floors are not built to support even a few tons, let alone the 60+ tons of a typical modern MBT. Even if the tank doesn't get trapped by the roof above or collapse into the basement below, some other piece of rubble from the building could lodge in its running gear. Contrary to the stereotype, tanks are surprisingly vulnerable if you know how they're built. A tanks is typically though of as being effectively invincible against anything except another tank (though the increasing public awareness of RPGs is gradually deflating that stereotype), but there are a lot of things you can do even against an Abrams with a little know-how. So yes, it's reasonable that your tracked vehicles prefer to avoid trees and such -- they don't want to run the risk of getting immobilized. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smaragdadler Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 "Every Panzer fears a lurking Schreck, because it's just a rolling egg!" (old wargamer saying) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtMuhammed Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 I have seen tankers avoid large puddles because they didn't want to risk becoming mired. Yes tanks can bull their way through some fairly substantial obstructions but as a rule it is usually not worth it because of the risks noted by Dietrich and others. Here are a couple real world examples from my time with tracks. As OPFOR in Hohenfels we were using M113's as BMP's (I know they don't look anything alike but the Army has a lot of them not being used anywhere else and they don't look like most other BLUEFOR vehicles). The 113 is only about 13 tons soaking wet but that is still pretty hefty when compared to a typical young tree. Anyway, my Lt. asked me to clear a patch of sapplings, about 5 or 6, each about 2 inches thick, that was in front of one of our fighting positions. He didn't want us to get out and chop them down because we would have to get permission for that but running them over can always just be explained away as a training incident. So we ran them over center mass and they just flexed under the hull and popped back up behind us. I figured we needed to actually crush them to get them to stay down and so I told my driver to run one of the tracks directly over the trees. It worked but it damn near flipped the track! The sapplings lifted the side of the track up so high that my driver nearly panicked and I had to talk him through some fancy steering to settle back down. On another occasion I decided to see exactly how big a tree I could knock over with my 113. Not wanting to just zoom into one, I moved up to about an 8 inch thick 30 foot pine and began to push. The tree fell all right, right onto the top of my track! I had to tie the top to another tree to pull it off. So yes tracked vehicles can squash trees but it is often best to avoid doing so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wengart Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 I was wondering, is it possible for tanks to push destroyed vehicles out of the way or does that also run a high risk of destroying the tracks? I only ask because of a case in CM:SF where my T-72's were stopped by a destroyed BRDM. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyR Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 Do they make tanks less durable than in the second world war? Because I'm playing ToW at the moment, and those PzIIs are chopping down trees like great big Canadian tree fellers!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dietrich Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 In ToW, most vehicles, whether halftracks or King Tigers, can push over most any tree. Of course, in ToW almost all trees are more or less the same size. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadioactiveMan Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Yes, Steel Panthers taught me that driving tanks through buildings is a bad idea. So many immobilized digital tanks... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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