BattleSchool
Forum Guru
First, my rejoinder was simply a reminder that the German tanks have a lot more going for them than Black TH#. For example, I didn't mention Smoke Dispensers, which are unique to the German tanks in this scenario.Well,.... actually, the Russian tanks are better off than you think.
The Lee's have a fast turret
The Stuarts are a small target
An APCR # of 5 is actually quite low and should not be factored into the German "tactics". A "no APCR" result effectively ends the threat of a 50 gun to the Lee's front AF.
A Pz IIIGs hull AF is 3 meaning the 37LL has a final TK of 8 (immob, 7 kill)
A Stuart's hull AF is 4 meaning the 50 has a final TK of 7 (immob, 6 kill)
The terrain means LOS hindrances render long range hits unlikely if a tank moves.
Russian armour will usually get the first shot with better TH and TK possibilities.
A German tank w/o an AL that moves has a +4 to hit as a bounding firer, +5 if BU (likely), +6 if shooting at a Stuart (+5 if there is an AL)
A Stuart has better or equal to hit chance in this case even if it must change its TCA: +2 TCA change, +3 if BU, +5 for the moving tank.
The Stuart will also win a gun duel as its Firer based To Hit mods (w/ a TCA change) are +3 while a Pz IIIG is +4 (BU w/ AL) or +5 ( BU, no AL).
Once the numbers are parsed, the 1942 era Stuart III has marked advantages over the 1940 era Pz IIIG. The Lee is in a class unto itself against the Germans in this scenario, which is actually historically accurate, so no complaints.
In the game betwixt von M and myself, the Pz IIIGs failed to kill a single Russian tank. The five killed were shot by the Pz IIIJs.
As for tactics, that's another kettle of catfish that I won't get into here. Suffice it to say that only the Pz IIIJs had APCR on the original card. On the MMP card, all eight baby cats have APCR. And that shouldn't be dismissed as "tactically" insignificant because APCR effectively grants each panzer two TH attempts in its first encounter, three if we include IF, and ignore the higher ROF of the 50mm guns. That's not nothing. IOW, four Pz IIIG and one Pz IIIH are more evenly matched with the three Stuarts--their priority targets--than your analysis suggests.