ChrisWerb

That's very useful. Thank you. I cracked it with the M60A3TTS and M1A1 and understand the way they (and other pre M1A2 Abrams) apply lead. I'm now having a problem with the Leopard 2A4 in that no lead appears to be applied with either round when correctly indexed. I am lasing each tank as I would with the two US tanks. Obviously the reticle does not move because of the two axis stabilisation of the sight, but I'm really puzzled as to how to get the FCS to apply lead. I had the same problem with the Leo2A5, but not the Challenger 2 which I would have expected to be similar. That was just a case of lase and shoot. I take it there is no need to dump the previous lead as you have to with the two US tanks? I'm off to read the manual - again.

I think I've cracked it. It's just down to being aware what you have up the spout and that you need to manually re-index the FCS when the Commander calls for a different type to be loaded for the next shot. HESH in a British accent seems to mean HEAT in USAian in the game which is a tad counterintuitive as I keep thinking HEP.

You are correct! I figured that out and changed the OP. Thank you MDF. I'm still puzzled about the wrongly indexed rounds issue. I realise I'm screwing up; I just need to find out how.

I have just been trying out the M60A3 TTS on the gunnery range. I had a few problems that were doubtless the result of my limited understanding of the sim. When lasing a moving target, I found the sight jumped when I lased the target almost instantly - I really didn't feel I had tracked it for long enough to generate the correct lead, but invariably hit at medium ranges. Does the game require actual tracking or is it enough simply to have the sight on the moving target when you lase? It seems a little counterintuitive - on the CV9035CK I would track for at least a second and release before shooting - with a multi axis stabilised sight I have no idea how long was taken to compute the firing solution as there was no visual cue. With the M60, the lead stayed applied with the sight reticle offset until I pressed P to dump it. This is where things got a little weird. Tanks were engaged with FIN, but once a BRDM-2 appeared, the display top right still showed Sabot, but the gun was definitely shooting a CE round. The commander was calling for HESH, but I suspect what was going down range was HEAT (I don't think I had any HEP/HESH onboard). With first shot fired, the rounds would fall short and apparently without sufficient lead being applied. The rounds would generate an explosion that I would expect from a CE round. The commander would call for a 200 metre adjustment (and always 200 metres regardless of the distance by which I undershot). I am guessing what happened was that the commander called for FIN but there was still a HEAT round in the tube and that this was corrected, because subsequent rounds had a flatter trajectory and lower time of flight and usually hit. How do I prevent firing HEAT rounds with FIN/SABOT indexed? Needless to say I got into the habit of tapping the button of whatever ammo nature was requested, dumping lead and re-lasing. I'm not sure it did any good though. How do I prevent firing HEAT with SABOT indexed, assuming that's what happened. I lost track of how much CE ammo I fired at distant BRDMs - it usually took at least 10 rounds to give them anything more than a slight ringing in the ears.

In a hull down position, using MILAN the Marder is/was a tiny and very inconspicuous target. Not as inconspicuous as a Puma launching a Spike LR in lock on after launch mode, but close.

I wasn't claiming to be a crack shot - those figures are for comparison with the last ones I posted for the other vehicles - I might be able to shave a second or two off those numbers with practice though, although I'd be in serious risk of RSI/carpal tunnel syndrome attempting it There are big problems with Warrior in trying to bring it into the 21st century - the most intractable is internal volume. Soldiers nowadays wear body armour and carry a lot more gear. They are also getting bigger and mine protected seating is a really good idea. I think having a door in the back rather than a ramp is not great. Not sure how the mid life upgrade addresses mine or DPICM protection either. From what I can gather the CTA cannon is proving to be a bit of a CF. Even if it works the ammunition is apparently "eye wateringly expensive" and the vehicle will (if I remember correctly) only carry 8o rounds total. At least it won't be loaded with 3-round clips! http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/cased-telescoped-armament-system/

OK, I had a go on the mighty Warrior! That was a bit of an ordeal - no powered traverse or elevation. Still it keeps up the proud British tradition of sending our troops into battle in comedy vehicles. First attempt stuffed up because you start the scenario without a view - I had to find how to get a view first 2nd attempt 51/100 18% hits Av time 14.8 sec 3rd attempt 51/100 18% hits Av time 12.0 sec 4th attempt 55/100 24% hits Av time 11.4 sec 5th attempt 53/100 21% hits Av time 12.5 sec So, on average, a tad over 3x slower to get first round on target than the Marder 1A3 / Luchs A2. Perhaps 3x with practice. What seemed to work best with long range crossing targets was aiming well in front and walking the rounds to where they were just in front of where you expected the target to arrive, then waiting. An added complication was that the gun crept up slightly in elevation after each shot. I wondered if that was a design feature to help cope with poor range estimation?

A single hit or a single penetration? I was pasting chieftains with 30mm and they didn't die until they turned their hull or turret side or rear on. I had my doubts about a truck dying from a 20mm apds through its canvas awning

A couple of hours on the gunnery range in SB was a real eye opener to me. The combinations I tried out were as follows. Marder 1A3 - no FCS + fast, flat shooting APDS-T. Essentially shooting a ranging machinegun with attitude. BMP-2 - not very flat shooting AP-T, stadiametric ranging (guessing!), and setting a battlesight range of 1200 metres M2A2 - flat shooting APDS-T and lasing the target for range and leading manually. CV9035DK - ultra flat shooting APFSDS-T, space age sights and FCS (other than no autotracking) lase/track and aim on 1. Marder. With a bit of practice I got the kill time down to around 4 seconds - my fastest was 2.9 seconds. This was basically "using the force", but wasn't wildly excessive in ammunition expenditure with frequent first round hits. 2. BMP-2 - I found it really hard to hit - particularly moving targets. I only had a few goes, but kill times vs targets moving at range were c. 20-30 seconds. To be fair I was using the gun against MBTs a lot of the time though. 3. Bradey - this worked out at about half the ammunition expenditure of Marder, but kill times were up around the 8 second mark. Without lasing the Bradley would probably be very similar to the Marder. 4. CV9035dK - this was phenomenal in that it proved hard to miss, but enagement times were around 12 seconds. I dare say I could have gotten this down a bit with practice, but it would still have been higher than the Bradley. I remember taking 29 rounds to kill all 10 targets - in reality that would have been 11 more than I could have shot without overriding the belt end warning. Now clearly there are other factors at work here as 20 and 25mm APDS are clearly going to be less lethal than 35mm APFDS, but even then, the reduced engagement time of the Rh202 equipped Marder could prove decisive in a close range duel or if having to engage multiple targets in rapid succession. I know a big bang/hole is better than a small one, but I can't help but think this rather unscientific test tends to vindicate the Bundeswehr's choice of the Rh202 for the late Cold-war period. The world has moved on though.

Apologies if these have already been reported. Latest patched version of V4. On the shooting range at the start of the game. M2A2 Bradley - in day sight no reticle in low magnificaiton. In high magnification both gun and Tow reticles appear superimposed with the TOW reticle slightly low and left of centre - this might be how the real vehicle does it, but I don't remember this from the videos. M2A2 Bradley - elevation and traverse are hypersensitive and run away easily so the turret literally spins. This does not happen on Marder, BMP-2 or CV-9035DK.

Having finally accessed the sim, I may be gone for a few days.....

Got it! I am a noob.... I am a noob.... I am a noob.... I am a noob....

Having installed both the game and both the patch and codemeter, and then having activated the one month licence (the dongle won't arrive for a while yet), I see an Esimgames folder in C:Drive, but don't see any executables in it and the installation process did not put an icon on my desktop. How do I actually start SB?

Do you not get problems when the autofocus insists on focusing on an object in the foreground though? For example you looking at a distant enemy PC through a row of fenceposts or through a gap in trees a short distance away and it insists on finding those more interesting than the BMP-2 that's about the AT-5 you.

I read that at least one of the 35mm armed CV90 variants has a TI that constantly autofocuses. Speaking as a camera user, autofocus is as much a curse as it is a boon - is there a way to override autofocus on these vehicles?

" it is important to make our present generations aware of what the Indian Army did for us: we couldn't have won the two world wars without Indians, " Amen to that!

Are the K9 Thunder-hulled Krabs entirely built in Poland now or are you still buying the hulls in?

Guys, assuming you are members, can you please also post the SB videos you post here with a short explanation over on the gaming subforum over at tank-net.com - we are try trying to generate some momentum for SB over there.

Thank you Ssnake.

I keep thinking about the Red Tide 1985 campaign and how realistic the infantry looked accompanying the BMPs forwards. If I remember when this was last discussed it was explained that these infantry were sprites and that, with the new realistically modelled infantry, the AI has changed, meaning that infantry is capable of more realistic behaviours and much more direct human control, but at the cost of not having a relationship to the continued movement of the vehicle from which they disembarked. GibsonM pointed out (and I am heavily paraphrasing him from memory here) that the more options are provided to have infantry controlled to do other things realistically the more human input is needed. This increases the logistical burden/cost and severely detracts from the value of SB as an armour training aid. Where I am going with this would it be possible to reinstate sprite infantry as a scenario designer selectable option so you could run gunnery and tactical drill simulations where the enemy infantry were essentially targets at the expense of the ability to micro manage individual soldiers and do fancy things with them?

Great video Damian! i'm assuming that is the command vehicle for Krab batteries? Am I right in thinking that there is some MTLB ancestry there?

Sorry about that! I only got the full dongle licence yesterday along with the new PC necessary to run it which I have yet to unbox. I have only watched videos and read tutorials and other supporting material so far. In the videos all I have seen are URAL and what look like MAN SX/HX cargo variants (probably because you'll need ammunition a lot more frequently than fuel in the scenarios)..

Not strictly speaking content, but (assuming it hasn't already been done) I would like the helicopters in the sim to have a built in terrain and peer avoidance capability to avoid some of the scenarios highlighted in GibsonM's excellent "Heliborne insertion" tutorial. Also separate fuel and ammunition replenishment vehicles for armies where these two types of consumable are not both delivered on the same platform. Assault Breacher Vehicle - M1 variant now in use with both US Army and USMC.

How do you boresight or assure sight alignment of both the 35mm and the coax?

More old news, this time from 2012 on NL exploring 35mm options.