Smoke Tanks

[TacCovert4]

Note: This has special application to those that participated, and are still participating in TtT round 1.

Early war, the Brits especially put alot of resources into building cruiser class tanks with a main gun that would only fire smoke shells. In your experience, what is the best way to utilize these vehicles when they are given to you, and are they even worth the points?

[KGPanzerschrecK]

Well, i never understood the concept myself. Why build a Tank that could only fire Smoke? The Smoke shell is a great concept, dont get me wrong, but it should of been capable of firing a HE shell as well. Cannister would be an awesome addition to line up as well.

But as it stands now, a Tank that only shoots a Smoke shell and only has a few Mg's is IMHO a waste of points and i would never purchase one myself. That being said if given one in a scenario to use i would try to use it to my best advatage. As it is now in the current Tourney game.

Its a useful, but expensive toy that could be replaced by a cheap mortar.

Ive never been able to come to grips with some the wacky equipment the Brits made their soldiers use in WWII. Bren Carriers, Smoke Tanks, the Cromwell Tank, the Archer TD and finally that insane shorts outfit they made the Tommies wear in the desert that had socks up to their knees, lol. Why wear shorts at all then? lol. No one can ever tell me the Brits dont have a sense of humor. :laugh:

[Neilm85uk]

No one can ever tell me the Brits dont have a sense of humor. :laugh:

We're natural entertainers.

The idea came about because of the British decision to build different tanks for the potential different roles. As you'll have noticed the other Cruisers in the scenario are the AT versions with no HE or smoke shell available for there guns. If you wanted smoke then you needed a different gun but you couldn't have HE for it because you're in what is essentially an AT platoon. This doctrinal blind alley didn't get fixed (in British tanks) until the Cromwell and early Churchills appeared. The use of M3 and later M4 was an attempt to overcome the problem through our 'special relationship' with the US. You guys are on top! :rolleyes:

[Palantir]

The "handi-cap" of having a Brit tank fire only 1 type of shell (smoke/AP) is more clearly seen when you use them in a small scenario where every unit counts. In those having them forces more planing on the Allied players part as you just can't send "A" tank over there to do a job: no HE watch out for INF/ATG's, no AP or HE watch out for everything = support only.

Running such tanks in the open desert is quite an eye-opener.

[Nemesis Lead]

These are not as bad as you think. I actually like them.:laugh:

Smoke is damn important. It allows you to close with the enemy to ranges where qualitative differences in armor are mitigated and infantry advantages can be exploited. Everyone says they like smoke, but I have only seen one guy on this ladder use it in a serious way.

Long lasting smoke that can be accurately fired is worth its weight in gold. That is what this tank puts out. I wish the Russians had a similar vehicle in CMBB because they really need one!

And don't forget........that tank has an MG with 150 rounds! MGs are killers in CMAK.

Too many folks judge the effectiveness of AFVs solely on their ability to kill other AFVs. This is only scratching the surface of what an AFV can do.

[Iron Mike USMC]

In one of my early PBEM games, I was the Brits and purchased what I thought was a big bore tank. I was very unpleasantly surprised to find our the tank only fired smoke. Needlees to say, I did not do well. My whole plan was thrown off, and I couldn't compensate.

In the current TTT toruney, I am finding the tank comes in handy. I can stand off, at what appears to be a safe distance from the Italian ATGs, and fire smoke to cover my advances, or directly blind the Italian positions. Very useful.

Personally, I prefer a tank/gun which can fire multiple types of rounds, so I can adjust to the situation. Unfortunately, smoke rounds do not appear in suitable quantities for any non-specialized gun or tube. I will need to look into using the smoke tanks in future scenarios with the Tommies.

[TacCovert4]

Yes that is a problem I don't like with some of the other tank versions. The Brits especially never have enough smoke rounds unless you buy smoke tanks, the Italians don't really have anything that smokes (save burning AFVs), and good God, the Italians could really use some smoke screens.

[antonius]

Regardless of how flawed an idea smoke tanks were I'm enjoying learning how best to use them in the TtT tournament scenario. I personally like to get a feel for historical force compositions and weapon types and understand how historical commanders used them, rather than just having optimum weapon types purchased. So whether they are worth the points is not such an issue for me.

I wouldn't say I have made optimum use of the smoke in this scenario but am finding the tank is a useful sturdy machine gun platform to support the infantry when I'm not using the smoke. Of course it's best to make sure that it is supported by the AT version tanks in case enemy armour is lurking.