Soak off attacks, love or hate them and what to do?

[Steel God]

Soak off attacks have been used since war gaming was invented. Even is board games on a larger scale than SP, they're a part of the game.

While Chris is right and it will never be "real life" I always pictured soak offs as fair play and not at all gamey. My way of looking at it is that although we're moving one unit at a time, we're simulating a turn during which everything is in motion at once. Soaking off therefore represents what is essentially suppressive fire. It's usually not even suicidal for the infantry to engage the AFV since there's a good chance the infantry won't even be spotted unless they have to move to get the shot off.

On today's modern battlefields the lethality is much higher, and I can see Chris' point about infantry not being too willing to "suppress" an enemy AFV, but in WW2 I think it's a very valid tactic. I have read of many documented accounts in Russia in the opening weeks of Barbarossa when the Germans routinely "killed" KVs by incessant small arms and light Flak fire against them. None of the rounds penetrated, but the sustained rates of fire created such a deafening noise the crews would bail.

So, no, it doesn't bother me. At least not in a WW2 battle. MBT battle, well, I may feel a little different about that because the tactics on the modern field are so different.