Cue-Ball
12-09-2010, 01:33
I'm curious if anyone has any insight into this, but I'd really love to know how the TacAI decides when/if to use a tank's main gun, and what steps, if any, can be taken to get greater control over large caliber fire.
I don't have that many games under my belt yet, but I can't recall ever seeing a tank fire HE at a soft target without specifically being told to. Armor and anti-tank guns, yes, but troops, buildings, etc.... I've never seen it happen without issuing an explicit target order. Similarly, once you do issue a target order, it seems to "stick" until it is either canceled or a high priority target comes into view, regardless of whether or not you've accomplished what you wanted to. For instance, I needed to lay down a smoke screen so that I could move between two groups of trees. I set a PzIVF to fire smoke to cover another vehicles movement. The tank laying down smoke fired four or 5 smoke shells into the same spot, when one would have done just fine. That one command used up pretty much my entire load of smoke shells in a single turn. Another example is when I ordered a tank to area fire a light building that I knew contained troops (but no LOS to them). My tank opened up with HE and leveled the house after only two or three shells, but it continued to fire for the rest of the turn. I think it fired at least six times, when two would have been sufficient. For the rest of the turn it ignored men running all around (targeted with the flexible MG up front, but ignored by the turret) and continued to pound the rubble of the building it had just destroyed.
Other than issuing a pause command and then hoping that you leave enough time to accomplish the objective (ie: pause for 40 seconds and hope 20 seconds is enough time to level the house), is there any way to exercise more finite control over these actions? It would be nice if I could get my tanks to be a little more liberal with their main gun usage. On the flip side, it would be really nice to be able to lay down two smoke shells or four HE shells, then move on to other targets, rather than wasting an entire turn pumping rounds into an already dead enemy.
Is there any way to accomplish this?
I don't have that many games under my belt yet, but I can't recall ever seeing a tank fire HE at a soft target without specifically being told to. Armor and anti-tank guns, yes, but troops, buildings, etc.... I've never seen it happen without issuing an explicit target order. Similarly, once you do issue a target order, it seems to "stick" until it is either canceled or a high priority target comes into view, regardless of whether or not you've accomplished what you wanted to. For instance, I needed to lay down a smoke screen so that I could move between two groups of trees. I set a PzIVF to fire smoke to cover another vehicles movement. The tank laying down smoke fired four or 5 smoke shells into the same spot, when one would have done just fine. That one command used up pretty much my entire load of smoke shells in a single turn. Another example is when I ordered a tank to area fire a light building that I knew contained troops (but no LOS to them). My tank opened up with HE and leveled the house after only two or three shells, but it continued to fire for the rest of the turn. I think it fired at least six times, when two would have been sufficient. For the rest of the turn it ignored men running all around (targeted with the flexible MG up front, but ignored by the turret) and continued to pound the rubble of the building it had just destroyed.
Other than issuing a pause command and then hoping that you leave enough time to accomplish the objective (ie: pause for 40 seconds and hope 20 seconds is enough time to level the house), is there any way to exercise more finite control over these actions? It would be nice if I could get my tanks to be a little more liberal with their main gun usage. On the flip side, it would be really nice to be able to lay down two smoke shells or four HE shells, then move on to other targets, rather than wasting an entire turn pumping rounds into an already dead enemy.
Is there any way to accomplish this?