Target Light for tanks

[Georgie]

Target Light for tanks, as far as I can tell from the manual and from actually using it in the game, puts a few rounds into the target. If this is really the case then what I would like to see Target Lite for tanks do is, put a "whole bunch of rounds into a target". Tanks carry like 5k or so of mg rounds and one of the best uses that I found for a tank in CMx1 was to be a mobile armored mg nest. It seems that in CMBN the Target Lite for tanks doesn't have very much effect on an enemy squad even at close range. Any thoughts on this?

[Georgie]

I'm mistaken on one aspect. I looked close up on both M4 machine guns and they are firing bursts throughout the entire one min action phase so it isn't just a few rounds. But it still doesn't seem to have the suppressive effect that it should have. Maybe these are fanatic troops that refuse to be suppressed.

[womble]

As far as I can tell, for tanks, "Target Light" means "Don't use your main gun". That's the only difference. If a Sherman is unbuttoned, they'll use their flex-mount Ma Deuce.

As to suppression effects, I find that two .30cal MGs isn't quite enough to keep a unit quiet behind Bocage. You need the Stuart's popgun or the Sherman's fifty (or HE) or another tank.

Whether it's just like CMx1 is irrelevant. Tanks, especially for the Allies, are still great mobile MG nests.

[Georgie]

In this game is the effect of machine gun fire determined by the rate of fire only, assuming all other factors are equal, whether it originates from a MG 42 or a US medium or the combined fire of the two 30cals on the M4. AFAIK the mg 42 cartridge and the US med mg cartridge are almost identical.

[womble]

In this game is the effect of machine gun fire determined by the rate of fire only, assuming all other factors are equal, whether it originates from a MG 42 or a US medium or the combined fire of the two 30cals on the M4. AFAIK the mg 42 cartridge and the US med mg cartridge are almost identical.

True for ".30-cal" (including German rounds of approximately that calibre). Not true for the exceptional fifty-cal. BMG rounds will penetrate cover that ".30M2", as the game terms it (or its German equivalent), won't. For suppression purposes, it's difficult to separate the .50's killing effect from its 'suppression' effect, since killing half a squad produces its own suppression effect.

[sburke]

True for ".30-cal" (including German rounds of approximately that calibre). Not true for the exceptional fifty-cal. BMG rounds will penetrate cover that ".30M2", as the game terms it (or its German equivalent), won't. For suppression purposes, it's difficult to separate the .50's killing effect from its 'suppression' effect, since killing half a squad produces its own suppression effect.

LOL I couldn't help but laugh reading that.

***Sgt Daniels nudged the body of the enemy lying face down in the ditch then muttered, "He certainly seems suppressed".***