Area fire with AP

[Georgie]

A Panther is holding up my advance and flanking him is going to be very difficult in his present position. Non of my tanks, Shermans, can target him directly in their present positions and if I move them into a position to target him then my Shermans will come out second best as it would be head on. In and effort to get the Panther to withdraw I tried area fire with three Shermans and got four hits out of twelve or so rounds fired. The Panther shrugged off the hits and stayed in place. If these hits had been AP then maybe a spalling hit or other minor damage would have caused him to withdraw. In other possible encounters where the Panther would be flank on or rear on to my Shermans then area fire with AP could destroy him without exposing my Shermans. This, I think, would be a very valuable tactic for Shermans or PZ IVs. Any thoughts on this from other Forum members?

[gunnergoz]

Trying to fight panther class opponents directly and only with inferior armor is only going to be an exercise in frustration and casualty generation, particularly if you cannot maneuver your armor to gain a side/rear shot. Try combined arms if possible. Have any artillery assets that could either lay smoke or HE harassing fire that might force him to displace to another location? Have any infantry to sneak past him through terrain he can't see or can't move through? Expand your thinking into something other than tank-on-tank if at all possible since that was often how these beasts were defeated IRL.

[dieseltaylor]

Smoke . I suspect, is your friend. Lay it on him and I suspect he he will move. And I would go with the tank smoke first as a trial.