Gunnery

6.1. From fire command to first shot, in seconds. Skill is the seat’s effective skill after stress.

The commander’s fire command takes a few seconds, longer for an unskilled man and twice as long buttoned up. The gunner’s lay takes several seconds, quicker with skill and slower with stress, and half that when he is already ranged in on the same contact. The loader’s cycle from the ready rack takes a few seconds, likewise quicker with skill and slower with stress, and twice that from stowage. Turret traverse adds the time the turret takes to come round.

6.2. Chance to hit, first shot, stationary firer, stationary tank-sized target, average gunner, clear day: almost every time inside a few hundred metres, about even odds at a kilometre, one in four at fifteen hundred, and rarely beyond.

6.3. Modifiers multiply the chance.

Being ranged in on a contact helps a great deal. A moving target is harder; a moving firer rarely hits. A hull-down target, an anti-tank gun above all, haze, dust or rain on the line, dusk and a rushed shot all cut the chance; HE at an infantry team is a little more forgiving, since a near miss still counts. A good gunner adds to the chance and a shaken one takes from it.

6.4. A miss lands short or over along the line of fire, some tens of metres out, and is a shell impact for perception and suppression.

6.5. Ammunition. The M4A1 carries 90 rounds of 75 mm, of which 12 are in the ready rack in the turret. Scenarios set the mix. Default load: 40 AP, 44 HE, 6 WP. The loader draws from the ready rack until it is empty; then cycle time doubles. He restocks the rack only while the gun is idle, a round every few seconds, and a competent loader does so unasked. Coaxial and bow machine guns have 4750 rounds combined and are not counted per burst; a bow gunner in a wild-fire reaction burns hundreds of rounds a period.

6.6. Firing HE at a point or an area: rounds land with the position error of the contact plus a small scatter. Each impact suppresses per section 7.

6.7. Smoke. A WP round creates a cloud some tens of metres across at the impact that blocks line of sight for a minute or two, drifting downwind at the scenario wind speed. Two rounds in the same place last longer.