The truth about Steel Panthers "Light"

[Great_Ajax]

I had two StuGs in the Bocage scenario move to nice little attack spots and they did not fire at all during my turn. During my opponent's turn, four Shermans showed up, popped off two rounds a piece and destroyed one of the StuGs. The StuGs never engaged with any Opfire. When it was my turn, I targeted one of the Shermans with my remaining StuG and it only had a 3% chance of a kill. In this game, I have never seen any of StuGs engage in Opfire against enemy tanks. I have seen my other tanks engage and my StuGs did fire upon enemy infantry at close range. The StuGs seems quite helpless against enemy armor and that seemed strange to me.

Trey

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

ORIGINAL: Obsolete

Tanks need covering infantry to actually root out enemy troops.

That isn't quite correct.  You can still kill or cause infantry to surrender with just tanks alone, even if they are in cover terrain.

I won a game, where I had NO infantry, but the objectives belonged to me last and the remaining tank couldn't take them, so I just dropped 10 tons of hell on the tank, eventually blew it up, and scored the win with my bren carrier (which of course wisely avoided the tank.

1 lousy enemy infantry unit would have defeated me.

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: el hefe

I had two StuGs in the Bocage scenario move to nice little attack spots and they did not fire at all during my turn. During my opponent's turn, four Shermans showed up, popped off two rounds a piece and destroyed one of the StuGs. The StuGs never engaged with any Opfire. When it was my turn, I targeted one of the Shermans with my remaining StuG and it only had a 3% chance of a kill. In this game, I have never seen any of StuGs engage in Opfire against enemy tanks. I have seen my other tanks engage and my StuGs did fire upon enemy infantry at close range. The StuGs seems quite helpless against enemy armor and that seemed strange to me.

Trey

I think the opfire logic also checks the chance to kill before firing. So in your case, they'd rather not fire since there is low chance to kill.

Maybe the StuG in the game is primarily anti-infantry as they are initially designed that way historically. The tank destroyer role came secondary but it eventually proved itself to be good at it in the Eastern Front through superior tactics.

[Great_Ajax]

These are long barreled StuGs in Normandy with the same cannon as the Pz-IVH. They should be just as capable as my normal tanks in engaging armor. One StuG, with full Opfire remaining, stood by and watched as an adjacent Panther was engaged and destroyed by a Sherman and the StuG never fired a shot.

Trey

ORIGINAL: jomni

ORIGINAL: el hefe

I had two StuGs in the Bocage scenario move to nice little attack spots and they did not fire at all during my turn. During my opponent's turn, four Shermans showed up, popped off two rounds a piece and destroyed one of the StuGs. The StuGs never engaged with any Opfire. When it was my turn, I targeted one of the Shermans with my remaining StuG and it only had a 3% chance of a kill. In this game, I have never seen any of StuGs engage in Opfire against enemy tanks. I have seen my other tanks engage and my StuGs did fire upon enemy infantry at close range. The StuGs seems quite helpless against enemy armor and that seemed strange to me.

Trey

I think the opfire logic also checks the chance to kill before firing. So in your case, they'd rather not fire since there is low chance to kill.

Maybe the StuG in the game is primarily anti-infantry as they are initially designed that way historically. The tank destroyer role came secondary but it eventually proved itself to be good at it in the Eastern Front through superior tactics.

[Lukas]

I must admit I never got the chance to try MP - and thus actualy controlling StuGs - but I always found them to be quite lethal in singleplayer.

Maybe there is something wrong with the opfire chance calculation, because the unit seems powerful enough.

How do you feel they perform in your own turn?

[Great_Ajax]

I tried using them to engage the Shermans and all I could manage was a 3% chance for a kill. I finally had a StuG do an Opfire shot when an enemy Sherman got within three squares. I couldn't manage a single kill with the StuGs. I need to play this scenario again with this knowledge and see if I can do any better.

Trey

ORIGINAL: Lukas

I must admit I never got the chance to try MP - and thus actualy controlling StuGs - but I always found them to be quite lethal in singleplayer.

Maybe there is something wrong with the opfire chance calculation, because the unit seems powerful enough.

How do you feel they perform in your own turn?

[Great_Ajax]

Okay, this Opfire business needs to be seriously looked at. My veteran Tiger just got attacked by at least five American tanks who took pot shots and them shuffled off to hide without a single Opfire from my Tiger. A US infantry squad moves out from a building at least six squares away and the Tiger decides to open fire on that infantry unit alone.

I also want to qualify my criticisms here that I am really enjoying this game overall. I have been waiting for a good turn based tactical game for awhile and this is fitting in nicely. I plan on digging into the scenario creation here soon. Keep up the good work guys.

Trey

[Obsolete]

I have never seen Op-Fire work perfect in any game.  Even in the best of war-games, it's open to exploitation and other problems.  This is one reason I would always avoid this type of game mechanic when writing a wargame from the ground up.  I guess some people want it, but then you have to realize there will be many cases where you won't be happy with how the results are auto-handled.

[sabre1]

Opfire works pretty well in JTCS.

[IainMcNeil]

Stugs are tank destroyers. They have not turret and are not designed to move and fire. If you moved fast which I assume you did to get a 3% chance ot kill this is why they got chewed up. Stugs will take out Shermans head on all factors being equal.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]