Profile of cataclaw

Jump back to quoted post18 Dec 2013, 23:24 PMMr. Someguy

I'm talking about just Penal Troops. I'm well aware that the "unarmed Russians charge into battle" was just an act of severe desperation during the Battle of Stalingrad. Penals on the other hand were just prisoners plucked from Gulags, rounded into a group, charged at enemy positions, then the survivors were put into another group and charged again. Sometimes they held sticks to make them look like Soldiers, and in winter they wore the darkest uniforms so the Germans would fire at them first and not the Red Army men nearby.

Jump back to quoted post17 Dec 2013, 14:54 PMCieZ

I believe he was talking about the doctrinal "baby" Stug from the AGren commander

Normal Stugs are awesome, the baby Stugs do kinda suck.

Jump back to quoted post17 Dec 2013, 04:47 AMMr. Someguy

Expanding on this, the ZiS crew is essentially a Conscript squad, they share the exact same health and armour. There's 6 men, they can be instantly reinforced from any nearby Cons squad, and are faced against Armour that's average at taking on Infantry, so Tank flanks are less threatening.

Now the PaK 40 crew, is not like a Grenadier squad, as they lack the 1.5 Armour that Grenadiers have, making them more like Conscripts. There's also only 4 of them, they also can not be reinforced from infantry squads, and are facing Armour that is above average at killing Infantry, so even a tank from the front is a threat (in one extreme but rare example, a T-34 decrewed a fresh PaK in one hit + 2 Grenadiers bunched up next to it).

The threats they face are also different, a PaK is more far less sustainable under fire than a ZiS. A PaK can be molotov'd, grenaded, mortared, or even artillery'd by a ZiS! The weakness of the crew members and small size make it more difficult to keep alive on the front. A ZiS on the other hand, is threatened by rifle grenades and mortars, but has a larger squad that can be reinforced on the fly at the cost of another squad. This makes the ZiS overall far more sustainable even after multiple attacks.

Overall, unless the PaK is recrewed by Grenadiers*, I don't think the 30% faster RoF makes up for all of its' shortcomings. I personally think the ZiS is the better gun in this case.

* Only Grenadiers. Panzergrenadiers are the same as Grenadiers except for their weapons and abilities, which are lost when you crew a weapon. This would mean you pay more to reinforce the PG's AND PaK, but gain no benefit for using PG's over Grens. Osttruppen are much weaker than the original crewmembers, and would not last half as long. Pioneers would be totally identical to the crew they replaced.