M36 vs. Pz. III/IV (aka. "NASHORN" or "HORNIS
According to the several tank books I have:
1) The Nashorn has ONLY a TOTAL of 30 deg. traverse (That's 15 deg. to the right and 15 deg. to the left). In game terms, a Nashorn would have to move around quite a bit to actually cover ALL of the CA that the game sys. represents (CA in game is appx. 60 deg.) Especially if firing at a moving target or @ AREA target type. Also, this AFV was designed to engage targets @ 1500m+ (that's 3/4+ of the length of one board) range, therefore the further the range, the less the gun needs to be traversed, and vise-versa. Most ASL tank battles take place at much less range. FYI, the Nashorn had a crew of 4, Commander, Driver, Gunner and Loader/Radio Operator. Contrary, to what someone posted earlier on this thread, the Nashorn did NOT use a modified 88 AA gun, but a specifically designed 88 AT gun (aka 8.8cm PaK 43/1) and the gun traverse was thusly geared to be easy to traverse despite the size/weight. Also the crew STOOD in the OT to serve the gun (Except Driver & Gunner).
2) The M36 was called a TD (by some odd tactical doctrine) and was also OT to give better visibility. Now this gun WAS an 90mm AA and was used to prevent R&D time, but was put to good use, as it was mounted in a turret WITH power traverse. Therefore much easier to "lead" a target. In addition, the M36 crew had the creature comfort of being able to SIT while fighting. The M36 had a crew of 5, Commander, Loader, Gunner, Driver, and Asst Driver (radio op).
Now, considering all this, imagine standing in Nashorn (with 8.8cm AT round in your hands), and the gunner losses the motion target out of the traverse limits, so the driver has to traverse the whole vehicle to re-acquire, the tank jumps and YOU have to grab hold of something just to keep from falling on your a#$. (standing in an AFV in motion is NOT to be relished, BEEN THERE DONE THAT). Compare this to sitting in your comfy leather seat in an M36 while the turret smoothly rotates to track that Panzer running circles around you, LITERALLY!!!!!!
IMHO, I think this explains you're ROF question.
Noe, given this inf