Tips from the Frontline

[RNL Tiger]

Second tank fight

Things seemed to be going well, I had repositioned the Tigers deep into the Allied rear and the range to the T34 platoon on the hill was well over 500m. Looking at the statistics this should be an easy contest: the Tiger armour was 102mm and the T34/85 gun was 76.2mm L/42 with an armour penetration reading of 73mm at this range.

It looked like the other T34 platoon was spread out at different points but out of LOS so I should be able to engage the T34s on the hill and then go after the others. The firing starts:



Surprise!!! My veteran crew starts to bail out after a partial penetration. However, what is far worse is that there is a T34 on the reverse slope with a point blank shot. This is not good by any stretch of the imagination…and inevitably a second Tiger is knocked out:



The plan focused on the Tiger manoeuvre has failed miserably. The biggest problem was that I had initiated an attack without knowing exactly where the second T34 platoon was, although I did know that they were in the area. This directly resulted in being surprised by a T34 at point blank range. It was also clear that the second problem was over confidence in the statistics and POS’s comment “Don't rely too much on printed statistics, I never do, just use them as a very rough guide and play by gut instinct and experience most of the time.” was clearly true. I had not expected my Tiger to bail out from a partial penetration but that is exactly what happened. Of course, that may have been a little unlucky but practical battle experience has just been shown to have a greater insight into the possible outcome than a reliance on the statistics.

Inevitably, I had a few questions that I wanted to ask. Can a single T-34/85 take on a single Tiger at distance [500-1000m]? Looking at the statistics it should have no chance... “A T-34/85 can certainly take on a Tig at 500m +, but it's got little chance of penetrating unless it gets lucky. You saw how mine at closer range only got partial penentrations, but at least partials mount up like bludgeoning a beast with a club until it falls, to rise no more..”

Tactically, I split the tigers off and put them into the rear to both scare your tanks, dislodge them and kill them. It didn't work. My question is tactically should I have kept them with the STUGs or was I just unlucky this time? “In your place, after wiping out my 3 T-34s early on, I'd have kept the Tigs and Stugs together to make a concentrated attack on the defenceless Russian infantry at the flag, subjecting them to a merciless saturation of area-fire followed by a German infantry assault to finish them off. Then I'd have moved on to attack the next flag.

Splitting your Tigs off to go T-34 hunting cost you a lot of time.
Remember, my infantry at the flag are happy to sit tight and undisturbed to the end of the game, happily ticking off each turn and willing the clock to run out.”

What if I had left the tigers down there for a couple of turns whilst I tried to establish where your other T-34/85s in the valley were? What would you have tried [if anything]?
“Nothing. I had 3 T-34's down there so it was 3 against 3 at very close range, very even. I was looking for a fight for the fun of it and waiting for your Tigs to appear.”

If I had left the tigers with the STUG how would you have tried to get the tigers? “I wouldn't have bothered trying, the odds would have been too stacked against me, 6 v 3”

I've noticed that on occasion my orders seem to get lost i.e. the unit ignores them - is that part of the game? “It's normal. The units artificial intelligence sometimes over rules us, especially if its infantry, they're very jumpy.”