As regards any troop carrying Merkavas.
We have to take cognisance of the fact that this capability is a 'party trick' that is in reality only of use in
very special circumstances in the real world.
Now - should we make a merkava as an APC class,
wargamers would simply stop buying namer etc APC as there would be "no need for these". But the Israelis are
still building APCs, even ones based on the merkava chassis. So there must be some "need" for such in the real world.
All videos I have seen of any such deployment of infantry from merkavas shows only troops in belt equipment order. No packs, no sign of any heavy weapons (LMG, AT weaponry etc). In other words - there is little or no room for anything else other than personal weapons in the tunnel of the thing.
No doubt the infantry cannot carry any useful load when sardine-canned in there. They probably have to be
very good friends with each other too
!. The game does not however, have any fatigue levels to apply to such a sardine pack after some rough country crossing.
We could make a "merkava dismount team" with reduced ammo, no heavy weaponry etc to reflect the light belt order - but if they were 8 or 9 men, then the
wargamers would naturally ignore those units and stuff in para squads, rifle sections etc. to make up the carry capacity of 8 or 9 as the game has no way to limit the infantry carried. Wargamers will exploit any loophole they can.
I think that at the best, a carry of
4 would be the most I would ever credit them with.
Maybe 6 to alow sayret scouts (sp). That would allow a scout team or a bailed tank crew. An APC class to allow the protected flag to be set, so they don't get hosed off the back deck by MG fires. And then merkavas would need to be in another unit class from the MBTs (or umpteen duplicated APC slots would be needed). The AI also handles APCs differently from MBT (it will probably scarf up any loose scouts, inf-at etc and load them into such "APC"). It will drop and retire these (maybe good, maybe expose their rear ends) and attempt to shuttle troops with them. APCs are
not tanks to the AI!.
There would also be no formations of merkava (APC) with integral infantry though - any pax would be random pick-ups. The tank units don't command the dismounts.
But firstly kevineduguay1 - go to tanknet (
http://208.84.116.223/forums/index.php?act=idx) and set up an account there and post a question on the practicalities of the merkava's alleged dismount capability in the AFV forum there. I'll monitor the response from the experts. I'm more interested in what
they have to say than some amateur enthusiast's website.
Should they think it is in some way practical,
then we can think about it for the next patch.
Cheers
Andy
Re: Merkava.
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