truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

i have played several games with pgm strikes with several versions of winspmbt and i find quite strange that the unit that has most toughness against an pgm attack is a basic truck and often it takes 4 pgm strikes to take a truck down

i have never needed 4 pgm strikes against anything else not even the best tanks with virs or ciws and still truck takes 4 of them and that seems to be almost an average (sometimes i need 4 to those ciws tanks)

and those pilots that pilot pgm strike airplanes are eager to target trucks and jeeps over other targets even visible ones

i find this quite strange

an effective counter against pgm strikes have been in games of me and my friends empty trucks that gets pgm:s like magnets

just deploy them near sams aa:s tanks etc you dont want to be hit and the planes pgm them instead

anyone else know why is this happening ?

for what i think it should be weaker than a tank or armored vehicle (the truck) against anything and pgm

i have this same thing against tank shots and bazookas etc trucks/jeeps takes more of them than armored vehicles making an unarmored target actually harder to destroy with anything but machineguns or similar pen 0 weapons than an armored target


seems quite a silly tactic in a real war


i bet the pilots in real pgm airstrike planes wont target empty trucks with their missiles and i bet those trucks aint that tough (it's usual to first get 1 men killed etc and only after that it is destroyed)

and it seems quite a waste to pgm a truck

a pgm might actually cost more than one truck in money (and in steel panther points)

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

For starters you could make trucks illegal in your PBEM's.
Then you wouldn't be able to do that.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

I rarely have this problem, but I can see how this can be annoying. Would be nice to be able to set Y for air strikes too.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Its the way it works, gun or missile rounds often pass straight through soft targets doing little damage unless hits a strong point like the chasis thats why you fire at them with your tanks MGs unless there are several together when a HE round could damage several at once. If the SAMs a soft target to the paveway will not do much so attack them with arty. Alternativly why not buy deadicated SAM planes SEAD will target them directly as thats there role if have radar or planes with bombs though Skirmishers suggestion is the most logical, mind you if you want to use them like that just exploit it, 3 trucks is 2 less squads & an easy kill thanks for the points.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Yeah, it might (MIGHT) help against air strikes, but buying trucks for this purpose means basically that you are buying less other units. A truck might survive a pgm, but it might also be destroyed if an enemy unit farts near it.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

no point in banning trucks because they are needed to move artillery / aa guns etc around

but isnt the thing same with hard target that you can hit a part that doesnt matter just like the truck but still there is more of it in truck

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Yes much less chance but just last game I had 3 ATGM missiles hit APCs, 1 lost its gun the other 2 were unharmed so 80+ Heat vs a 5 hull must have just clipped the top or something. Same thing happens with tanks & the like & its great the game models the uncertantity of war. Frustrating occasionly but generally smile inducing when your unit that cant miss & will overkill manages to die because the target said bring it on.

As a point thinking about it I have hardly ever hit transport for arty instead of the target.
On occasion on a first try but often have an idea where they are then so come in from a diffrent direction & can often get it to hit the ammo rather than the guns if thats what I want by using the right direction.
Your easiest solution is simple dont buy any air then all those trucks & SAMs are dead points & can be mopped up later by the extra platoon or 2 of tanks you bought.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

yeah thats one tactic but in the game we are having you have to spend at least 2000 points to air strikes because we think that they are cool

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Well SEAD then or save them till half way through the game & someone can spot SAM sites.
Still Skirmishers point is valid trucks have to have a reason to exist if its by the SAM its there to move it & thats it from me.
I have not come across a game trick yet that cannot be countered you will lose a few till realise but so long as you have a fairly realistic force it can adapt to counter which is probably why they are that way. I have fought 40 odd helos, hordes of snipers & ATGMs & won just because they annoyed me for wasting my time. makes for a slow boring game with loads of low% hits but in the sniper ATGM game it was quite easy once realised I just lost a few troops finding them & killed with armour & they are expensive & tied to the spot if want to fire so just work your way slowly over the entire map with a concentrated force.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Yeah, air force works great when the enemy has no real way to defend against it. If it is a modern enemy, then it is a bit of waste of money, most of the time.

I still get it though.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

God and the Air Force work in mysterious ways.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

And in the spirit of Suhiir's sigy, I'm not sure about God! :D

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

There is also SP ARTY & SPAA (self propelled) no trucks needed.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

The true measure of anothers intelligence is how much they agree with you.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Sometimes below par.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Perhaps but both parties would be affected by the rule.

It's up to you as the commander to "pick it up a notch" and get it done with less than desirable equipment.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

With kinetic rounds yes. Something like a M829A1 or even just some plain bullets could hit a truck and pass throught without hitting anything of vital and trasmitting little energy to the target, thus doing little damage. However large,
blast-fragmentation warheads which are typical of air to ground ordnance are definitively bad news for softskins.
Cars don't look good after an Hellfire hit for example.

Note that decoys are often used in war, the use of trucks in this manner might be interpreted as such.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

Another solution is to turn off your PGM if there is a truck around.
IIRC, the game is hard coded to make trucks a priority target for an air strike. I seem to remember this from a thread at the blitz.
At the time the Cammo Boys thought it would be to much work for too little gain to change it. That was years ago (ver 2.1?) and things do change.
It isn't that big a deal. You won't lose any games over it. If you think you will, then you are wrong. Trucks are extremely valuable IF they are used properly. Use them like APC's and you will get hurt.

Re: truck trick vs pgm strikes
 

And the cavalry were known to occasionally eat their horses but that doesn't mean that they didn't need proper supply eh!:D

The "humble" truck is a valuable commodity in any army. No need to rationalize an aspect of the game that might be not so realistic....

BTW Marcello, "decoys" is a very interesting idea to include in a scenario design! :up::up: