Johannes replied to me: > > Say the tank is optimized to go after 'crunchies' -- infantry, > > artillery, and so on. That means heavy armor, a turret-mounted > > weapon, and high RoF and area effect weapons (an equivalent of > > MGs and plenty of HE shells in a mid-size gun). > > > > The tank destroyer is just against tanks. No heavy armor and > > no turret mount because it doesn't go in close, and a weapon > > to penetrate armor at long range. > > > > Tanks can kill tank destroyers (small gun vs. thin skin) and > > tank destroyers can kill tanks (big gun vs. thick skin), but > > tanks are generalists to break defensive lines and then run > > wild in the rear area, tank destroyers are specialists only > > against tanks. > > > > Now, I'm not saying this is likely, despite the paragraphs > > I've just spent on it, but it is a possibility. The mix works > > until somebody spends the money on a tank with heavy armor > > and a big gun -- if that monster doesn't break down a lot, > > and doesn't wreck roads. > > > > A tank vs tank battle (should one happen because they are, what's there) > would be interesting.
The tanks close in with each other. They use their mobility and those nifty turrets to outflank each other and shoot the weaker side and rear armor. At least that is the goal, if two forces try that they might actually intermingle in a close-range knife fight. If there are combined arms elements to the tank force, the tank destroyers stay back and seek good firing positions to 'snipe' into the melee. Artillery will shell enemy concentrations, and infantry will probably stay out of the way and prepare fallback positions. > I guess that setup would be more likely with energy weapons. With > slugthrowers you have plenty of different ammo types, to fill both anti > tank and anti crunchy role. You could have low-caliber railguns with higher muzzle velocity and high-caliber railguns with a lower muzzle velocity. > It could also be, that there are tanks specially built for assymetric > warfare. They might not be all that good against a proper army, but if you > seldom fight one, but are often faced with insurrections of badly equipped > guerillas, you might still build some of them. The PSO variant of the Leo 2 didn't get the long barrel for the 120mm gun. It still has a credible main gun, of course. > Are there any rules regarding the speed to turn a turret and the speed to > turn a vehicle? In the WWII rules, for example, but not in the 'mainstream' or 'generic' 3E tech rules. > It depends on how agile reactionless vector thrust vehicles actually are. For contragrav vehicles, aMR depends on size, TL, and some options. Generally speaking, it should be in the 2-4 range. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
