Foster

the alphabet game. lol

Jury

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

Yup, we probably need some back story eventually to him just handing a sandwich over mid combat lol.

That cannot just come from nowhere.

@PrinceAlexus

The joke is that it did seemingly come out of nowhere.

But context for the quote is that the tank had previously been at bivvy, and one of the crewmembers was brewing up tea and grilled-cheese on the engine-deck when they were engaged, and each crewman saw something different and was reacting accordingly while the commander was grappling with the situation as said errant crewman was getting in the tank, and handed him the sandwich to hold so he had both hands free to clamber inside.

The 37mm was engaging friendly tanks behind them (as he heard the tank ordered to move forwards, he thought the front was the same as the tank's rearward travel). And A-set radio was for communicating with other tanks, and not internal comms.
-iirc, this was the same tank that got penned and had the hole plugged with a sock to improve morale as an unexpected 3-inch hole directly viewing the countryside from the loader's seat is a bit disconcerning.

ICly, Marcus is basically making a joke in reference to this to calm Anakin down like a snickers-commercial.

With some help from the radio-operator (grilled cheese snadwich-man) Ken managed to sort his tank out and get back into the fight. The problem stemmed from Ken being bumped from an M3 Grant to a Lee.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

Yee, Shotgun Shine is moving fast and far to recon and start suppressing as the hammer of the main force drives in, so I just took some fun liberties for drama and action sake and rolled with it. The chaos and excitement of the beach! Fun day!

Shame we dont have Google street view for Iran (though for obvious reasons)

@AvaP

We actually do, surprisingly. Apparently it's a tourist destination and folks love posting pictures of the bay's many beaches. Apparently there's some redneck sand-trucking that goes on SE of Chabahar and they've even uploaded videos of their shenanigans to google maps of all platforms.

But the spot of our landing is closer to here.

Anyways... I was compelled to make a ref to the Ken Giles quote regarding the M3


So I'm picturing Anakin's SPG just deployed smoke, requested urgent support, and up trundles a T-62 as the TC and crew casually unbuttons to operate the pintle-guns, and hands Anakin a sandwich before buttoning up again and trundling off into the smoke to draw enemy fire.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

During the run-up to the beach, Richard Paterson Sawyer was making ready the tank's snorkel as Adrian was busy affixing the exhaust-plate to keep the seawater from backflooding the engine. Thus, their tank would be able to ford through the waves up to five meters deep, although they'd hoped they would never need to worry about anything deeper than the four meter draught of their landing-craft, accidents have historically happened, and helping push the landing-craft free if the beach back out to sea as the last tank out would be their responsibility. As a beached LST would prove quite the valuable and inviting target.

Further assisting the tank in its role of preventing any of the other tanks foundering in the sand, including themselves, were a pair of un-ditching logs strapped fore and aft of the tank to be secured to the treads for added traction if necessary.

Inside the tank, Marly their gunner was already sulking and keeping busy with the gunner's optics and general state of the tank's interior while everyone was making final outside preparations.

Sitting atop the turret, Captain Grable looked up from his map and at the helicopters as they made their run and came back to tip their rotors to the side indicating good suppression of the bay's naval assets. He gave a re-assured nod at them before going back over the map, trying to find good positions, vantage-points, and other points of interest they should focus on reaching if they wished to survive the mission.

Soon it was time, and Marly thumped the turret roof with a wrench to tell Marcus to patch into the intercom as Maddie gave their pep-talk and Adrian lept into the driver's position and revved the engine to keep the manifold pressure high enough for the exhaust system to work as Richard became seated himself and closed his hatch. Marcus hesitated a moment as he watched Ash performing some strange ritual on a Patton tank, but had more important things to worry about than witchcraft; in this business, sometimes it paid to be a little supersticious.

When the ramp dropped, all tanks gunned their engines and everyone at the back of the boat could feel the hull groan as all that mass shifted forwards and suddenly off from the ship, their tank following the K2 and the self propelled artillery into the surf just as the ramp was closing. By now the beach defenses had come alive and the team went into action.

"Driver, smoke! Loader, manual ejection. Gunner, HE, trenches, 100, coax and ricochet." Marcus bellowed orders in rapid succession as Adrian injected raw fuel into the exhaust to create a plume of thick low-hanging smoke to surround the landing-craft while Richard quickly disabled the shell-ejection port and slammed in an delay-fuzed HE round which Marly lined up and shot into an otherwise inconspicous stretch of trench that looked perfect for an RPG team to hide in, penetrating into the sand and blowing up inside the bottom of their foxhole, followed by some .30 caliber machine gun rounds and another delay-fuzed shell that bounced off the sand before exploding, cutting down any defenders who'd suddenly lost their nerve and tried to flee. The two shell-casing clattered to the floor, filling the tank with acrid fumes as Marly continued to mow the defenders down with her .30 caliber machine-gun.

"Driver, reverse, easy." Marcus's order was non-standard, but Adrian complied, and the sudden jolt and shudder of bumping fender-to-fender with their landing-craft and pushing it off against the sand until the silent sound of freedom and waves lapping over the hull could be heard.

"Driver, advance!"

Some time later, as Adrian's vision periscope cleared from the surf, he chimed in "Surf clear" and Richard promptly ejected the tank's snorkel and reactivated the auto-ejector for the tank's main gun. Adrian also was quick to open the radiator-vents to keep the tank from overheating now that it wasn't being cooled by copious amounts of seawater as it took up position besides Itonhide and Marcus poked his head out as the SPG was laying down a defensive smoke-screen and 30mm covering-fire. He clanged on their hull with his Uzi to get their attention, Richard also unbuttoned from the tank to man the tank's grenade-launcher as Marly switched to the mantlet-mounted 14.5mm KPV machine-gun to make swiss-cheese of the nearby concrete bunkers.

It was here, at this moment, when Marcus calmly handed 'Anakin' a grilled cheese sandwich, smiled, nodded, and ordered the tank to move forwards once more as the crew buttoned-up once again.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

Id not worry too much, I focused on the chaosnof the landing and the fact the big self propelled gun is protected but not safe to anti tank weapons.

And the crew are not the best geared for closed combat, bar the 30mm auto cannon that is rather handy with explosive ammo.

@PrinceAlexus

Yeah, the T-62 will likely be escorting you and bouncing HE-frag rounds off the sand because V-429E point detonating fuzes can do that.

gunnery infodump

To use the shell in the "Frag" mode, the fuze is left in the "O" (superquick) setting and the protective fuze cap is removed. With the fuze cap removed, the striker is protected only by a steel foil membrane, which is thick enough to prevent the striker from being blown back by the flow of air, but is too thin to survive a collision with anything substantial. Upon impacting any obstacle, the steel foil membrane, which has a thickness of just 0.12mm, is pierced and the striker is driven into a percussion cap, triggering the detonator. The shell detonates instantly upon impacting practically any surface or obstacle, which can be useful as the tank may fire at the canopy of a tree to produce an airburst over infantry taking cover beneath it. However, it is forbidden to use the "Frag" mode in heavy rain or hail because a collision of the steel foil membrane with big rain droplets is enough to trigger a detonation.

If the fuze cap is left on but the fuze is set to the "З" (delayed) setting, a "HE" effect is produced. The fuze is detonated not by a strike upon the nose, but by the deceleration force from the shell impacting an obstacle, which allows the percussion cap in the fuze to overcome the small resistance of its creep spring, and impact the unmoved striker. Then, the flame from the percussion cap ignites the retarder, generating an additional delay before the detonator is finally initiated. The shell is detonated after a much longer delay of 0.063 seconds after impact. This enables the shell to explode after penetrating the earth down to an optimal depth, thus displacing the largest possible volume of soil and delivering the maximum shock effect to enemy fortifications which tend to be below ground level by nature. In this way, a trench can be destroyed by firing a HE shell at a point just in front of the trench. The shell penetrates the earth at an oblique angle and explodes just next to the wall of the trench (a lucky shot may even explode inside the trench itself), thus demolishing it and possibly injuring or killing anyone in the way.

If the fuze is set to the "З" (delayed) setting but the fuze cap is removed, the fuze is in the so-called "ricochet" mode. In this state, the fuze is reliably initiated upon impact with the surface of the ground, even on soft marshy ground or snow, but the delay ensures that the shell does not detonate until well after it has ricocheted off the ground, hopefully producing an airburst effect.

Will probably deal with the funny yet still deadly Tiam tanks. (Type-72Z [T-54AMV] turret on M-47 Patton hull)

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

Secondly - I don't know why you're going after the theme park? The orders are to move up the beach and take out defences, and that's the scene that's been set up, not anything else. Maddy literally gave the orders and specified what the objective was. This is just a quick opening to throw us into some fun action. Anything bigger or more elaborate will come after.

EDIT: I made a cruddy map

@Rhona W

Mostly because I was focused too much on the village that was the bay's namesake, ie: I was was looking at landing at the wrong beach and the theme park was basically the only access-point inland over there, and wanted some clarification as to why it appeared (at the time) that we would be landing on the opposite side of the bay to drive the entire bay-coastline before traveling inland.

Somewhere towards the end of writing my post I realized my error and wanted confirmation that we were indeed, landing near the objective instead of clearing every single marina and fishing-pier of naval-defenses along the way in a two-pronged landing on either side of the bay (a much bolder strategy, but still a plausible one considering the order to clear every/any strongpoint along the way).

Plus AvaP was engaging fortifications and a tank to their southeast shortly after disembarking. But being a fast-mover, they may have cleared themselves far enough inland that a tank and anti-tank relic to their rear would pose a problem.

On the upside, I took a pretty nifty virtual tour of Iran's beaches.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

Um... we do realize there's a giant vertical cliffwall like 50 meters inland of the beach irl, right?

Like, the only places they flattened out the cliff-face for access are at the tourist resort-beach at Tiss, and it's kinda flat at a manicured beach by the local soccer-field at 25.33489367210045, 60.616280479037876.

Oh, you mean south shore... so like Rocky-Beach/Komb Beach/Lion King Reef.

Still a literal uphill battle, though. Right now I'm working on the contingency-plan of being dropped off in 4 meters of water and needing to blindly snorkel ashore. Then thankfully not needing to. Will probably help clear-out the nearby amusement-park unless we need to acquire the port-facilities.

Edit the third: Just realized we're probably landing closer to Naserabad/Konarak Airport, by the water treatment plant... which actually does have a flat beach. But literally everywhere else is cliff-face.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

My Hider

@Massasauga

You know the rules and so do I, Doc isn't giving me permission to die.

He's never gonna give me up.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

I considered it, but I purposefully didn't take it, so I had something to upgrade to later down the line

@Rhona W

Cool, I always thought the MEXAS kit with the custom thermal netting always looked a little neat, plus it's an obscure tank that regrettably no longer exists in real life. Had either this timeline or the one in the story been a little different by a matter of months, there could have been quite a lot of potential behind those tanks.



Plus it gives @Massasauga OF-40 grind flashbacks.

Shattered Steel - Armoured Fist. An RP about modern armoured vehicles in an alternate world- ON HIATUS

<Snipped quote by Foster>

That takes me back.

But you can't beat the pure early 2000s alt-rock vibes of the main trailer



Man, I miss this game.

@AvaP

T-62 chan thinks she can fly


Also, reading through the after-action reports of Koh-Tang... very much an assault on Ellis Island vibe as it was the USMC just spamming Jolly-Greens into a hot LZ and even had an AC-130 show up and drop a daisy-cutter.

Eastern LZ at Koh Tang with 2 downed CH-53s visible, at left is Knife 23 at right is Knife 31. which was hit by an RPG round fired from the tree line at middle right. Cambodian Swift boat, upper right, was knocked out by Air Force A-7s.

Knife 31 was hit by two RPGs, which ignited its left fuel tank and ripped away the nose of the helicopter. It crashed in a fireball fifty meters offshore. The copilot, five Marines, and two Navy corpsmen were killed in the crash, another Marine drowned swimming from the wreck and three Marines were killed by gunfire trying to reach the beach. A tenth Marine died of his wounds while clinging to the burning wreckage. The surviving ten Marines and three Air Force crewmen were forced to swim for two hours before being picked up by the gig of the arriving Henry B. Wilson.

Among the Marine survivors was the battalion's Forward Air Controller, who used an Air Force survival radio while swimming to direct A-7 air strikes against the island until the battery failed. The second CH-53, Knife 23, was hit by an RPG which blew off the tail section and crash-landed on the East Beach but it offloaded its 20 Marines and crew of five. They set up a defensive perimeter and the Knife 23 co-pilot used his survival radio to call in airstrikes but they were cut off from reinforcements and rescue for twelve hours

Knife 21, landed safely, but while offloading its Marines came under heavy automatic weapons fire, destroying an engine. It managed to take off, protected by suppressive fire from the second CH-53, Knife 22, and ditched 1.6 km offshore. Knife 22 was damaged so severely that it turned back with its Marines (including the G Company commander) still aboard escorted by Jolly Green 11 and Jolly Green 12, and crash-landed in Trat Province on the Thai coast, where its passengers were picked up by Jolly Green 12 and returned to U-Tapao.

Knife 32 was inbound to the East Beach when it was hit by an RPG and aborted its landing, instead heading out over the West Beach to the Knife 21 crash site where it dumped fuel and proceeded to rescue the three Knife 21 crewmen

Of the eight helicopters assaulting Koh Tang, three had been destroyed (Knife 21, Knife 23 and Knife 31) and four others were damaged too severely to continue operations (Knife 22, Knife 32, Jolly Green 41 and Jolly Green 42). Of the helicopters used in the recapture of Mayaguez, Jolly Green 13 had been severely damaged in the East Beach rescue attempt. This left only three helicopters (all HH-53s – Jolly Greens 11, 12 and 43) of the original eleven available to bring in the follow-up forces of BLT 2/9, so the 2 CH-53s (Knife 51 and 52) whose mission had been search and rescue – the last available helicopters – were reassigned to carry troops

For perspective, a CH-53 is a big plane, it'd be like Russia spamming Mil Mi-26s in combat operations.