95mm howitzer

[hithero]

Anybody got an idea for stats for a 95mm howitzer as fitted to Churchills and Comets? I was thinking:

48"; D10+2; Lethal Zone/2"; Slow; Innacurate.

Innacurate - a new trait for very low velocity guns unsuited for shooting at small or moving vehicles. Innacurate guns must alway's re-roll the damage dice unless targeting buildings, this may cause them to re-roll twice if the tank moves and shoot.

This does allow them to shoot with HEAT ammo against vehicles but accuracy is reduced, but makes the gun good enough to demolish buildings.

 

[DM]

Suggest you change the trait so that the reroll comes ito effect when firing at MOVING targets rather than at buildings.

I suspect you were thinking "Cromwell" (or Centaur) when you said "Comet"

 

[Agis]

Way to much punch IMO. :roll:

If you want it consistent with the WaW stats try the following:
95mm Howitzer: 24", D6+2, Lethal Zone/2”, Slow

And definitely not the double re-roll; it is contradicting Page 6; quote:
"You must always accept the result of the second roll, even if it was worse than the first..."

 

[hithero]

I would have thought that a 95mm would be better than a 20mm gun. Its reported that the 95mm could penetrate 102mm at 2400 yards and the 20mm around 60mm (depending on actual gun and ammo) at 100 yards and should certainly be better at destroying buildings something a d6+2 weapon cannot really do, whats really needed is a rule to limit the 95mm accuracy rather than the effect it can have, but as you say shouldn't go against the current rules. How about the inaccurate trait, becoming a 4+ needed to hit moving targets (or non-buildings) before rolling damage dice.

I think the main problem is that the rules do not diffrientiate between HE and AP ammo, low velocity weapons are given D6+X guns with a bigger lethal zone which have trouble dealing with soft skins and buildings for which they were mainly used against and anti-tank guns just become a super sniper rifle against infantry.

 

[Rabidchild]

The Osprey book on the cromwell says that it could "theoretically penetrate 110mm (4.32in) armor at any range it could reach."

The main advantage of the howitzers and their HEAT rounds, as opposed to HiVAP rounds, is that their armor penetration isn't as significantly reduced due to range, something that is beyond the scope of WaW.

Myself, I would go with a good high number and a fair blast size, it was a howitzer after all. Then to make it different from it's anti-tank gun cousins, I would give it little or no Piercing trait, making it rely on reaching the kill number to represent blasting through. Finally, the Ready trait on the gun represents the (generally) lower rate of fire of these weapons and makes it so it can't be fired on the move, making it more difficult to get a target and thus representing its inaccuracy.

This has the effect of making it
a) very good at hitting infantry
b) good at damaging buildings and emplacements
c) good at taking on AFVs when it can reach their kill score
d) different from other guns, needing new tactics and providing new options.

I tend to like your stats for the gun hithero, just add Multihit and Ready. If you don't like the Ready action, shorten the range a bit.

Can you tell I've been mulling over howitzers lately?

 

[hithero]

Yeah, the Trait would be good I think.