How to deal with better tanks than yours ?

[Matt W]

I particularly enjoy the ease with which PG illustrates what was wrong with the Soviet 1941 doctrine of tank only forces. The introduction of tank riding SMG platoons in later war (see KSF for tons of examples) shows that just like us, the actual commanders learned from their mistakes!

Seriously, the best way to deal with superior tanks is, as mentioned above, combined arms tactics. For me these boil down to:

1. Infantry pressure, especially assault, many of the "superior" tanks gain their high armor values through slower movement.
2. Crossfire with reasonable AT capability
3. Extensive use of cover. "Charging" with your own AFVs is a great way to end up with wreck counters.

A certain level of losses need to be assumed when running up against such beasts so don't expect to get off scott free.

Also, be very aware of your victory conditions. If town control is part of victory, try to get the superior armor to commit to the town where, if you can strip off its leg supports you get an extra column bonus. The same thing can happen in woods but the armor has much less reason to chase you into the woods.

Use of bombardment is typically not worth the shot unless there isn't anything else to shoot at. You need to get an X or higher to even make the tank check morale.

Oh, and morale is a big deal. If you can get the tank disrupted you can get into position to swarm it. If you can get it to demoralize you can ignore it, usually for a few turns.

As the commander of these nasty things, nothing is more annoying than having it sit still because it doesn't have targets. They are typically counted on to provide some benefit through losses or intimidation and being ignored will get them all upset and possibly entice them to expose themselves (no, not that way!!, I mean to enter into a more dangerous position...) where you can pursue the above remedies.

One final note: For the commander of a flock of Shermans battling a Panther/Tiger/whatever: if losses aren't a significant piece of the victory conditions and you outnumber your opponent by 6-1 or so, move to get into crossfire positions and take the losses, a single hit dramatically changes the situation. The goal is to, at a minimum, reduce the opponent (typically the reduced morale at an M2 check following the loss will render the superior tank relatively toothless for a couple of turns permitting you to provide the coup de grace.