Why can't this tank fire?

[FroBodine]

In the image below, why can't my PzIV fire at the Russian 1-4-4 squad?

My tank started at the green highlighted hex, and used three points of movement. The manual says it can assault move and still fire if it uses half its movement.

I used less than half movement, I have 7 MV left out of 10 as shown in the unit box. When I click to fire on the Russian squad, I get an unhelpful message that says, "The PzIV cannot fire".

Most every message in the game tells you why you can or cannot do something. It would be great if this message said why the tank cannot fire.

Thank you in advance for the help.

[Tom Proudfoot]

He moved in that impulse (see Move marker on him). You have to specify Assault Move to move and fire on the same impulse. It will cut your move in half and you have a penalty to the attack, but you get to do both.

[FroBodine]

Aha! I forgot to use the Assault Move command! Can't this game read my mind and know that's what I meant to do? [;)]

Thank you! As a follow up question then, since that one was so easy, why does it show the road hex as degrading terrain, in the popup text box? for hex I16?

[Tom Proudfoot]

Yeah, for a while we had vehicles default to Assault Move but it didn't work out well in practice.

The degrading terrain (and the +2 TM) is because of the vehicle itself. It's not going to trace LOS through its own hex, obviously, but it's there as a reminder.

[FroBodine]

Ok, cool. So vehicles do affect LOS. Good to know.

[Barthheart]

Be careful driving tanks around unbuttoned when infantry are close by. They can shoot at your crew and cause the tank to shake... or even to bail out! [X(]