Heavy Armor Susceptibility to HE

[Norman Stewart]

I noticed in an earlier thread (which I can’t find now) that WaW-85 differed from NaW in heavy armor now being subject to reduction through HE barrages (essentially).

I also saw some comments siting field fire studies that indicated various damage to tanks that have undergone a representative attack. It sounded pretty convincing – particularly given the Soviet proclivities to over-do it.

Still not totally convinced, I asked my former office mate, an armor officer in Germany at about that time and previously involved in new tank development, about vulnerability, and he was dubious. Short of a direct hit from a large caliber shell, he felt M1s could take a licking and keep on ticking. He specifically noted their ability to operate without road wheels, regular training in hand-signals, super-tough tracks and barrels, internal hydraulics, and back-up sighting systems.

I’m sure the designers must have carefully considered these issues, but if any further testimony is desired, let me know. I have no clue, especially since I have yet to play this new series, but John would.

 

[Keith Tracton]

Hi Norman, that would be me, and thanks for the additional info! From a design perspective, I have to go with studies (and had to make that choice for the series), as I prefer as many metrics as possible - and there are not many on such a specific situation! But I appreciate your friends perspective, and details!

The specific scenario we considered when trying to describe the situation to design for was this: if the effective blast radius of your average off-board artillery shell - a 155mm shell we used as our generic - is about 45 yards (meaning a diameter of 90 yards, almost two-thirds the size of our game's hex, the latter being 150yards), what is the sum effect of a barrage of MANY 155mm shells in that hex arriving within quick succession? Obviously direct hits are as your friend pointed out, deadly to all. As for other effects, the study pointed out simply confirmed our much less sophisticated mental-gaming of the result. And the net effect for the game is that artillery is a potential big killer, but...there is just never enough of it (like the M-1s in the game...). I used frequency of availability of artillery (i.e. scenario design) to mitigate the affects somewhat on our very small scale of platoon level combat.

FYI, our take on this was not influenced by NaW, but by the old WaW, where it did not seem appropriate that Heavy Armor was in fact invulnerable to the artillery of 1985. I say invulnerable, as you can always recover from Disruption.

I hope you get the opportunity to play the starter kit in the free downloadable version of the rules!

 

[Norman Stewart]

I suppose if the barrages are massive enough, that makes sense. Even more so in the short period of time scenarios cover.

You're preaching to the choir - I've pre-ordered WaW-85.

 

[Keith Tracton]

;-) I like to think of these as additional designer's notes. I have been collating them for later use. Thanks for your support, BTW!