Bug Tank Units No Opfire (Scenario 143 )

RightDeve · #1 November 16th, 2021, 10:27 AM

Those Stugs didn't fire a single opfire shot. Infantry did fine though.
I remember the same opfire problem happened in an SPMBT scenario too, those american tanks just don't do opfire.

Some other scenarios, tank opfires work well.

Could be something to do with old (ancient) scenarios, as opposed to the recent creations.

Mobhack · #2 November 16th, 2021, 12:55 PM

I tried that just standing still and got loads of opfire on the Soviet trucks. But none on the armour - because the trucks are at the top of the Soviet OOB and so move first thus soaking up the opfire of the very few stugs.

I then put an opfire policy to fire at any range on armour of 1-255 and the truck engagement range at 3 and set that for the stug platoon as a whole. The stugs did not shoot the trucks now, but also did not engae the soviet armour for a turn (or 2?) however when presented with side shots on t34/85 and ISU as they went up the diagonal road they started to fire - possibly as the rangehad also dropped as well.

so:
A) There are a heck of a lot of trucks which can soak up your opfire. Use a filter policy to ignore them. Worry about them later, and the Soviet infantry if you have managed to delete his armour. The sole infantry element standing out front as a scout can hose down the trucks, and keep the Soviet gunners happy for a bit...

B) The 75mm L/48 is a little bit weedy by this point in the war, and it only has the HEAT and no sabot as well. So they aren't going to fire much unless it is at lighter side armour and/or close. The ISUs are strong on the front, even the T34/85 is at range. The IS-2s that come up your rear are not certain shots even at 4-5 hexes...

Dunno how one might play this one, but probably look to side shot ambushes and wait for him to trundle into you around the village a few hexes to the rear of yoour start position. Debus the infantry there and form a redoubt, if you can kill all his tanks, then maybe think about advancing on the Russian flipped V-hexes?. You only have 14 turns and nothing very fast to sweep them up though.

RightDeve · #3 November 16th, 2021, 08:24 PM

Well, yes and no.
It's not specifically caused by the hordes of trucks. One isolated case showed an ISU unit got away within range of 3 hexes and no Opfire (the Stug's opfire wasn't wasted either, as it's hidden behind a tree).

But yes, setting the Opfire filter a certain way does fix the problem, even at turn 1 the Stugs fired away at those soviet armor, even those near the edge of the map.

Can't pinpoint exactly which one filter setting fixed it, but:

-AFV toggled On.
-Max Armor 255.
-Min Armor 1.
-Armor engagement range: 255.
-Soft vehicle range: 1

RightDeve · #4 November 16th, 2021, 10:28 PM

I fiddled with it further and confirmed that both "Steel Armor Front Max" and "Armor Engagement Range" should be set to 255, for the Stugs to engage the enemy armor.

But then, they wouldn't engage the trucks. So I have this OpFire Filter setting applied on them:

Good thing there's that Save and Load profile buttons (blue and red, respectively) so you can save such settings, and quickly load them to be applied on each and every armored platoon.