5 replies to this topic

[Schogun]

OM1 is "no movement taken," why are some tanks penalized for firing while stationary?

 

Thanks

 

Chuck

[Kenny Noe]

Because their gun systems are that crappy!!

 

Seriously, The formula to determine OM123 takes a variety of inputs about the overall gun systems.   Fire control systems, Gunner optics, barrel length, traverse system (if there is one), etc.  Some of these have a bad negative that the other positive doesn't compensate.   This formula is applied evenly over all systems.  It works well enough that the results mostly bear out documented performance (when available)

 

Hope this helps.

[Schogun]

More negatives than positives. Makes sense!

 

Thanks.

[Kenny Noe]

Glad to help.

 

Holler if you have more questions.

 

--Kenny

[Mark 1]

I thought I might add a bit of my own perspective to this point. No change to Kenny's answer, which is the correct reply.  This is just an added bit of observation ...

 

As you probably know from reading and playing the rules already, almost any time that you need to throw the dice in MP, the number you are going to try to make starts with your TQ (Troop Quality) rating.

 

I don't know about you, but I really like this aspect of the rules. I really like it a lot. Because any time I've ever talked to a veteran (and in particular any veteran who has ever seen combat), and in the great majority of my readings of personal combat accounts and even small unit histories, what I have found is the general agreement that "any weapon is only as good as the soldier using it."  So in MP, instead of having a to-hit number that starts with the weapon, and then is perhaps modified by 2, 3 or 4 troop quality levels to add or subtract from your to-hit, you instead start with the troop quality, and then modify it by some aspects of the weapon that add or subtract from your to-hit.

 

The result is close to the same, but not exactly.  Close because, well you have a starting number and you modify it with another number, so like who cares, right?  But not exactly because you get more steps in the troop quality with a basic TQ rating in MP than I've seen in any other ruleset. And well, who cares is ME.  I care. I like to start with troop quality because it reminds me, or I might even say it confronts me, for almost everything I do in the game, that my troops are better (or worse) than my opponent's troops.

 

But then, let's be honest, some guns are da suck!  Give them to the best troops around, and the guns are still da suck. 

 

So my French Legionnaires in Tunisia may be well trained and skilled veterans of many campaigns, but when they use a French 37mm/L21 gun, they are just not going to get notably better results than an Italian opponent using a 47mm/L32 gun, even if the Italian is a green conscript fresh off the boat from Naples. So they had better use their "superior" skills to ensure a maximum advantage before they take their shot!

 

In MP that would be:

 

French Foreign Legionnaire:  Elite, TQ = 12

Vehicle:  Laffly AMD 50, Gun: 37mm/ L21   OM1 = -4

 

Italian Tank Crewman:  Green, TQ = 9

Vehicle: Semovente da 47/32 (called Semovente L20 in the rules), Gun 47mm/ L32    OM1 = -1

 

So for my Elite Legionnaire I have a to-hit number of 12 - 4 = 8.  While my opponent's green Paisano, on the other hand, faces a to-hit number of 9 - 1 = 8.

 

I like to start with troop quality because it reminds me, or I might even say it confronts me, for almost everything I do in the game, that my troops are better (or worse) than my opponent's troops. But then, let's be honest, some guns are da suck! 

 

Your tankage may vary.

 

-Mark

(aka: Mk 1)

[Peter M. Skaar]

I think that the importance of troop quality in the game is one of its best features.  It means that good quality troops with inferior equipment can often defeat lesser quality troops with better equipment.  Having the TQ as the starting basis for all the die rolls is a great way to account for this often overlooked aspect of combat.

I do like the fact that some of the OM1s are negative.  This reflects that it took good quality troops to get the most out of that equipment as Mark I has stated very well.  Using a short gun that basically lobs shells at a target instead of having a high velocity gun that requires almost no super elevation does take great skill.  And imagine if you are lucky enough to have a good all round tank with a good gun that has an OM1 with a positive number.  You are then very dangerous indeed.