Rangefinders etc

[Rayak47]

I never worried about this in Shock Force Syria since pretty much every country's vehicles are using laser rangefinders, (and I didn't play red much) but back in the 60's and 70's this was a supposedly a pretty big deal as Soviet Tanks were behind U.S. tanks in this regard. I'm going from long ago memory here, but I think t-54/T-55's had none, T62's had stadia reticle and no lasers until the 70 or 80 series?

Does the game account for this, I'm wondering? I just had three 1978 era T-55's pick off BMP's and BRDMS 1 1/2 klicks away with one shot kills and it should not have been so easy hitting small fast moving targets with primitive rangefinders?

As long as I'm at it, does the game also simulate the inability of the russian tanks to negative depress their guns (a big deal in defilade) and accuratly reproduce the time of flight of ATGMS?

[stikkypixie]

I would imagine technology to have advanced a bit since WW2 making these kind of shots more likely. Remember also that 1.5 km is not that far and it can be just a fluke . Maybe the main advantage of having a laser is the speed and accuracy of acquiring the distance, but with optics you can still get the accuracy (with enough experience) but it takes longer to take the shot?

Any way, no gun depression is not in (apparently a TacAI nightmare) and I'm from what I've noticed the flight of ATGMs seem about right.

No expert of course

[slug88]

I'm no expert either, but I believe most Soviet tanks had lrf's by the time of the Afghan war.

Starting in 1974, T-55 tanks received the KTD-1 or KTD-2 laser rangefinder in an armoured box over the mantlet of the main gun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-55

T-62 Obr.1975 – T-62 Obr.1972 equipped with a KTD-1 or KTD-2 laser rangefinder in an armoured box over the main armament. It has concealed bolts around the commander's cupola.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-62

[MikeyD]

You can purchase very early non-rangefinder tanks in the editor but there's no good way of telling if there's a difference. First, we don't know if Snowball's internal stats of the T55/T62 series are radically (or at all) different from CMSF's. Second, the tanks in the game mostly throw HE at ranges under 800m. In CMSF old non-rangefinder static tanks tended to be pretty inaccurate shooters, but I suspect crew proficiency (veteran vs green gunner) would have a more to do with accuracy than a rangefinder.

[Rayak47]

Wow, I though the lasers came in much later. I remember playing some SPI games in the late '70's where the Ruskies still didn't have them and we were just getting them in with the M60A3 (in '78.) I've very surprised the Sovs fielded them before the U.S.. The Brits were still using a ranging machine gun!

[Erwin]

Makes you wonder what else a potential enemy may already have that we're not told about heh.