kwk 38 cannon or machinegun

[chuckfourth]

Hi All
The KwK30 and KwK38 Guns were fitted into the panzer II, sdkfz 222, sdkfz 231, sdkfz 234, sdkfz 250 amongst others. It was obviously a popular and widespread weapon used throughout the war. It was an adaption of a flak cannon able to fire single shots. In version 6 of this game this weapon had its "correct" ammo loadout of 90 HE and 90 AP. However when this weapon was reclasified as an autocannon for v7 its ammunition loadout was drasticly reduced. For example in the case of the current sdkfz 222 to 10 HE and 10 AP the assumption being that the gunner is unable or unwilling to fire single shots. So the vehicle now has 20 bursts rather than the previous 180 shells.
For the 10 HE bursts the gun gets the compensation of a higher HE Kill factor. for the loss of 80 AP rounds it gets AFAIK, no compensation. If the vehicle is facing either a hard or a soft target it is out of ammo for its main gun in two turns, ie as currently modeled it can have a useful battlefield life of 6 minutes, which to me seems a bit short. One of the underlying assumptions for this change is that commanders are in the habit of firing off the entire magazine in one burst ie 10 shells. The reason the germans used this gun in particular was because it was magazine fed, not to increase rate of fire but to relieve the commander from the burdon of reloading allowing him to concentrate on command, in a two man turret and command and gunnery in a one man turret. Firing the large bursts as currently modeled means the Commander is busy continually reloading which ignores the reason for its use in the first place
Some arithmatic, if the weapon fires single aimed HE shells then each should have a HE Kill of 1 (my preference) if it fires a 90 round burst HE kill should be about 90. Currently it fires a 9 shell burst so the HE Kill should be about ten. (actually 12 in game, giving a conversion factor of 1.2). If the commander was a little more sensible then he might fire two five shell bursts giving 18 instead of 10 HE bursts, each burst with a HE Kill 6. Or if he maybe has had some training he is firing three shell bursts giving 30 HE bursts in total, each with a HE Kill of 4.
After some mobhacking and testing I think the weapon if by far most useful with 90 HE rounds each with a HE Kill of 1, not forgetting that you get 6 or so shots per turn. This gives the weapon some battlefield persistence and allows it to zero in on a target without wasting all its ammunition doing so, especially after moving. I justify this with the assumption that it is employed as a main tank gun rather than an oversized machine gun.
So HE is simple to model, bursts of AP are another matter. Again each burst is firing 9 shells if the burst hits is the routine that calculates penetration called 9 times? if not then the AP ability of this weapon is seriously underrated, even if this were so would any tank commander seriously fire 9 round bursts of AP? Surely he would fire one shell at a time until he is on target? just like any other tank gun? and then perhaps, just perhaps fire a burst but most likely single shots would remain most advisable.
For these reasons I think that 90 AP Shells is a much better option than 10 AP bursts and for simplicity and practicality 90 HE at HE Kill of 1 seems sensable also. As far as I can find the weapon recieved 180 rounds no matter what vehicle carried it.
To summerise I believe this magazine fed weapon was chosen to remove the neccessity of a extra crew member, the loader, not to increase ROF. So its employment should be as a single shot main gun, jusifying the ammo loadout of 180 shells.
I would appreciate it if this thread wasnt moved into the OOB area as I think it deserves some general discussion.
Berst Regards Chuck.