Defend command for tanks: MG's not being used

[ComradeP]

Tanks that have run out of HE ammunition won't use their MG's against infantry when defending. They'll just stand around doing nothing. You have to manually target enemy units using the Engage command if you want tanks to use only MG's.

[ComradeP]

Tanks also fire APCR at infantry, maybe AP too sometimes.

[ComradeP]

It would be nice if this could be changed/fixed. I just spend about half an hour assigning targets to be MG'ed by my tanks, which is a bit too much micromanagement if you have to do it in most phases, in a ~30 turn battle. Automatic targeting with MG's would significantly reduce on the amount of time required in battles where ammunition levels are low.

There's also the problem that units won't change targets after the target you selected has been killed (because they don't automatically select infantry targets when they no longer have HE or APCR ammo), which also means firefights last longer which can in turn be dangerous to the tanks.

[junk2drive]

We are not ignoring you.

The targeting killed units has to do with the method of checking everything for every unit during a turn. If checking was done every second the game would play in slow motion as the CPU worked it out. There is a delay after a unit is killed for your unit to change what it is doing. I could try to say it is realistic target fixation. Or human reaction time to being given new orders by your superior.

[ComradeP]

Yes, but my point is: no targeting is done at all. The tanks will just stand there, with the crews doing nothing, until the infantry moves up and close assaults them or you give orders to fire MG's at a certain target.

Try it yourself. Fire all your HE and APCR (which for some reason is also fired at infantry) ammo and hit end phase a few times. The tanks won't fire a single MG burst.

[junk2drive]

Yes we see that. Working on it. Sorry you didn't get a reply sooner.

[ComradeP]

No problem, I'm glad it's being worked on. Now that I've arrived in winter with 7th Panzer, the lower ammunition levels and thus lower amount of HE shells mean I have to use MG's to kill the majority of the infantry on the map, so it would be a real timesaver if the tanks would automatically target the infantry.