The Commander Series Forum

Can tanks assault tanks?

I had a case last night where one tank was holding a gap that I wanted to get through. But since units cannot move within 5cm of an enemy unit without assaulting it I could not drive past it, and it does not seem that I could assault it?!

40+ dice rolls and that pesky M1A1 was laughing off hits left and right. I could not destroy that thing!

I don't think they would do, no.

What's the chances of both parties getting immobilised?

High.

IanS

Hi ya!

"40+ dice rolls and that pesky M1A1 was laughing off hits left and right. I could not destroy that thing!"

That sounds about right. In 1980 at Ft. Knox, they brought a truck load of service ammo to the range for our M60A1s. Then the engineers parked a combat-loaded M1 prototype down range, came back and told us to kill it. Over 50 hits from HEAT and APDS later, they drove it back to the testing area. We didn't put a dent in it. The engine didn't even stall out.

I have seen what happens when a tank rams another. One ran into a stationary one in the dark. We medevaced both crews due to multiple broken bones and concussions. It didn't hurt either tank. Some of the crews wouldn't survive a deliberate head on ram.

Yikes!

There are WWII examples , mostly T34's with the odd Sherman. Rammed vehicles normally Tigers. Result - both dead.

IanS

Cold Steel, I'm not surprised - the M1 was designed to be an astonishingly tough beast to kill, proof pretty much against anything in Soviet service. A rare case of the mil-ind-intel pork acquisition process getting something that's actually really, really good *right*.

Well, mostly, it should have had the 120mm from the get go, but hey

Sadly in game terms if you get that right they become uber-monsters and impossible to deal with without "cheating", e.g. napalm, chemical munitions, thermobarics etc. Which for the original poster, do work wonders!

Thermobarics is how I usually start off turn 1 or 2


Speaking of which.... I think I forgot. When I drop thermobaric bombs on a wooded area - it becomes normal/unimproved terrain? They lose the concelemnt bonus, now getting hit on a 4+ - correct? Do I still need to stop to enter the area terrain and to exit?

The M1 was designed for survivability, but it was not the best model developed. The GM prototype performed better in most testing, but Chrysler was teetering on bankruptcy, so the politicians gave them a shot in the arm.

The M1 was originally designed so the main gun could be swapped for a host of different weapons. Besides the 105 mm, it could handle both the British 120 smoothbore and the Rheinmetal 120 mm rifle, a 76 mm 3 shot burst gun then under development with the 25 mm Bushmaster for a coax. A turret alternative had an externally mounted gun using a drum magazine and liquid propellant that could be raised a couple of feet to shoot from a completely concealed position. We even played around with the idea of a small rail gun or pulse laser, but the engineers told us we would need 3 tractor trailers to carry the batteries for each shot!

the British 120 smoothbore and the Rheinmetal 120 mm rifle

Whoops.......

ianS