[X] Plan Improvement
-[X] Advise AV-4 and GK-1 developers to improve ventilation to the crew compartments, if possible.
-[X]Request samples of armored plate from all designers/producers
--[X]Conduct controlled weapons test and post-shoot analysis on plate at various angles, utilizing bacon as potential stand-ins.
-[X] Ask for W1 design improvements.
--[X]Add geared teeth on the drive sprocket and some rollers to improve track retention during maneuvers, as well as additional center guide; potentially widen tracks, as well.
--[X]Add armor to cover the forward axel or shift the armored plating forward to cover it and prevent damage from shells, etc.
-[X]If improvements are made (W1, AV-4, GK-1), conduct revised mobility testing to see if crew and vehicle endurance is improved over the first round.
-[X]Conduct weapons testing on remaining models.
--[X]Evaluate degrees of arc and elevation of weapons, as well as visibility from gunner position
--[X]Evaluate ease of reloading while moving.
--[X]Determine if fumes from either sustained machine-gun or light artillery fire are enough to be detrimental to the crew.
--[X]Determine accuracy, both on the move over flat ground and at the halt, on flat ground and on various slopes (ties back into degrees of arc and elevation).
--[X] Determine weapon effectiveness against most likely targets, i.e. bunkers, trenches, and sandbagged positions.
--[X]If time and budget allows, conduct weapons testing against armored plate; this should be considered a low priority since we don't plan on fighting enemy armor. These are infantry support weapons.
-[X]Consult with Schwarzenegger on crew armor possibilities.
Main Guns/Mounting | Additional machine guns | AA Usable | Frontal armor | Side armor | Engine | Notes: | |
KW-1 | 5.5cm turreted/7.5cm hull | 8 | 1 | 30 | 19 | 2 Wanderer Diesel | Acceptable |
GK-2 GK-3 |
3.5 rotary + 2x5.5 sponson 2x5.5cm in separate turrets |
5+10 8 |
10 0 |
22 spaced | 16 | 2x Three-cylinder hot bulb | It's time to stop |
SzW-1 | 10.5cm turreted, 3.5cm hull | 6 | 0? | 45 | 20 | ? | Delete the hull gun for an MG/plate, Penis Compensator gun (should hold a tank-tank gun should that ever be needed) |
W-5/6 | 2cm autocannon or 3.5cm light tank gun |
RIP |
Same old? Possibly improved | Same old? Possibly improved | ? | Autocannons go, proven design | |
W-8 | 5.5cm short | Same old? Possibly improved | Same old? Possibly improved | ? | A nice middle ground between the monstrosity of the Skoda an the failtanks that the others entered |
Hmm. Point. That may be worth a modified plan. I'm on a phone, but if someone did the transport part I'd vote for it. Not sure the explosives part is the best use of limited budget and prototypes, though.I'd like the testing plan to also evaluate the ease of preparing the tank for strategic transport by rail, and for the armor testing to measure effectiveness versus explosive traps and grenades.
I'd like the testing plan to also evaluate the ease of preparing the tank for strategic transport by rail, and for the armor testing to measure effectiveness versus explosive traps and grenades.
The GK-2 is also an option, because you know, rotary 35mm.Thanks for making those changes!
[X]The Tank Train Has No Brakes
My poor irrational heart wants the W-5/6 because autocannons. I know that it's not meant to be, but still.
I'd really consider the merits of the 10.5cm gun as a bunker buster. The ability to direct fire a weapon of that caliber would be tremendous in knocking out strongpoints.
I also like that tank, but this is not the competition for it. This is to be decided between the W-8, the KW-1 and the SzW-1 IMO. Depending on the speed of the Skoda tank since I suspect it to either be the slowest of the bunch or the least reliable (hoping for the former, slowness can be dealt with easier than constant breakdowns). I really want to get that massive gun into the field.My poor irrational heart wants the W-5/6 because autocannons. I know that it's not meant to be, but still.
I think that gun is pretty likely to be in the dead zone of uselessness - the 2cm autocannon Wanderer has chosen is likely to be able to deal with most if not all things it can deal with, but it lacks the pure punch of a 75mm or 105mm when it comes to removing fortifications from the battlefield.
Bigger shells means more shrapnel to kill infantry dude, there's a reason why vehicle mounted anti-infantry has been generally about bigger calibers, because it's overall more efficient. Something like that rotary is more akin to a 40mm AGL, something notably seriously deadly against infantry.I think that gun is pretty likely to be in the dead zone of uselessness - the 2cm autocannon Wanderer has chosen is likely to be able to deal with most if not all things it can deal with, but it lacks the pure punch of a 75mm or 105mm when it comes to removing fortifications from the battlefield.
This is a silly vehicle, is it supposed to be a miniature baneblade or something? A turret, plus a heavier hull-mount, and then a heavy coating of dakka. I'm not sure what the goal of this design was, other than "just pile some guns on there." It just seems weirdly put together to me.The first designs for you were from Thryssen's new Independent Panzerwerke, and you had to scratch your head at 'em for a few minutes. Packing the 5,5 gun in a top-mounted turret and a 7,5 in the hull, it also came along with eight machine guns scattered through hull sponsons, linked to the cannons, on pintle mounts (ostenably for flak purposes) and one even dangling out the back. With two monstrous Wanderer compression-fired engines and the general shape of the AV-4, this… this KW-1 was ridiculous. With thirty millimeters of bow armor and nineteen on the sides, though, if it was anywhere near what it was claimed then it would be a ridiculous monster.
With these designs, they're still pretty silly but perhaps less so. In the GK-2's case, the armament is pretty silly, as why in all reason did they decide that a 35mm rotary cannon was the weapon to go with? And then they bodged some 55mm guns on the sides, for some reason. And then, because that armament wasn't enough, they made it able to carry 15 machine guns - that's more machine guns than the infantry it'll be operating with by a wide margin. On the other hand, the GK-3 is rather more reasonable, though the multiple turrets is kind of strange. I can see why they'd do it (one gun isn't enough dakka, so we should have two main turrets! Or somesuch) and it seems like the best out of the madtank group, as if nothing else it has a unified armament. The forward 8 MGs is kind of excessive, but managably so.Reinhardt had naturally sent in their own designs, a GK-2 and GK-3 platform respectfully. Both were built on an enlarged GK-1 hull, but they had very different armaments. The base hull had twenty-two cumulative millimeters of bow armor and sixteen on the sides, along with a dual three-cylinder hot bulb engine from Ursus. The differences were purely in weapons. The GK-2 came armed with a cannibalized Balkh design for a rotary 3,5 cm cannon in the nose and two 5,5 guns to cover the sides, along with an additional five machine guns scattered throughout the compartmentalized hull. In addition, it could mount up to ten machine guns on pintle mounts on an optional roof as flak. The GK-3, meanwhile, had two turrets- one bow, one stern- mounting 5,5cm guns, as well as eight machine guns in the bow compartment.
With this, though, we firmly reenter the land of if not sanity at least vaguely stable design. It's certainly a big tank, but it's very well armored and the armament is not bad. The presence of that 105mm howitzer reminds me vaguely of a KV-2, especially with the otherwise large size, but they had to decide that wasn't enough and added another 35mm howitzer (which is a really weird howitzer caliber) and a bunch of MGs. Outside of wanderer's things, this is the best of the bunch in my opinion, though testing could change that.Skoda, not one to miss out on what was turning out to be lucrative tank contracts, sent in their own hat for the contest: the SzW-1. Clocking in at more than ten meters long and three wide, this massive bus of a tank carried a short 10,5cm howitzer in the turret, a 3.5cm hull howitzer, and six machine guns. Relying on their Reichsmarine-given casting experience, the forward hull was a cast forty five milimeters, with the side hull segments being twenty milimeters universally.
I say outside of wanderers things because these look quite good. While underarmed, the W-5 and W-6 look pretty well put together, and the W-8 resolves the small size of the gun. To be honest though, the big shortfall of this design is that it has no machine guns. It's certainly nice that they didn't go FULL DAKKA like everyone else, but I wouldn't have minded a machine gun or two to shoot up enemy soldiers. I do want more information though, because armor is pretty important and it's totally ignored here.Wanderer, of course, was coming to the competition with his latest and greatest too. The W-5/6 was a completely different tank from the W-2, shedding the hull mount in exchange for an elongated hull, turret, and fairly light armament of a 2cm automatic cannon or 3,5cm lightened tank gun. After reading your RFQ however, Wanderer put his new partners to work in designing the W-8, an enlarged version with a longer and wider hull to fit in a 5,5 shortened barrel gun on what was almost the same chassis.