• I have a topic for discussion about the “no defensive fire for vehicles” rule.  Every vehicle in both Set I & II with the exception of the Jeep have at least one hull or turret mounted machine gun. Most of the tanks have both.  These were mounted on the vehicles precisely for shooting at approaching infantry.  So, wouldn’t make more sense to allow defensive fire on the front hexsides and not on the rear? Not allowing the vehicles defensive fire at all makes no sense.  Does any one else agree? If not, why?

    -Magoo


  • It makes sense.  Armored vehicles were noisy and had limited visibility.  It was easier to sneak around a tank than an infantry squad.  If nothing else, a squad had more eyes.  Maybe the vehicles should be allowed to make defensive fire when the opposing unit has already fired on your unit or your unit has fired upon them (this would represent the armor unit being aware of that unit’s presence).


  • I would partially agree. There were several viewports on most tanks and yes, your visibility is more limited than an infantryman’s on foot. But, I think a squad sneaking up on a vehicle from the front is questionable. More than likely, they would be spotted and shot to pieces. I’ve read many books on WWII and have never read an account of infantry “sneaking up” on an armored vehicle from the front. It was always done from the sides or rear and even then not very often. If they did, there was lots of cover, like in a town.  That said, for game purposes, a squad sneaking up from behind would be more feasible. Thus, no defensive fire in the vehicles rear hexes makes more sense, than none at all.

    -Magoo


  • But you must remember the hexes are 100 meters from side to side, so even if an infantry squad approaches a tank “from the front” there is a lot of room to maneuver in the hex itself, so your infantry can ostenibly be approaching from the side, around trees and hills, in the FOG OF WAR as bullets are flying and the tank is preoccupied with other things.

    Too many rules will encumber the game.  You can’t expect this to totally resemble real war.

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    It’s probably also a game balance issue to make soldier units more effective. It’s hard enough to justify a balanced army (speaking of tournament play here) but with vehicles defensive fire against infantry, there would be even less of a reason to bring soldiers to a tournament.


  • ^^
    agreed

    but if you feel this rule should be different in your games, than make it a house rule that vehicle have defensive fire in front hexes against infantry…


  • @General:

    But you must remember the hexes are 100 meters from side to side, so even if an infantry squad approaches a tank “from the front” there is a lot of room to maneuver in the hex itself, so your infantry can ostensibly be approaching from the side, around trees and hills, in the FOG OF WAR as bullets are flying and the tank is preoccupied with other things.

    Which is the point I was about to make. I’d also like to add to it that though the hex might be a clear, grassy field as far as game mechanics, you gotta keep in mind that the grass is usually very high, has some scrub and trees scattered about, rocks, gullies, maybe even a cottage or two… they’re not flat and empty. So at 100 meters and having some clutter (but not enough to warrant making cover rolls) and such it isn’t unrealistic for infantry to be able to avoid defensive fire from a tank. It’s only when the infantry gets close to the tank (ie: in combat) that the tanks machine guns defend it. Otherwise the infantry isn’t visible to the tank regardless of how many peepholes it has.

    -=Grim=-

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