Great units, VERY nice work. I'm using the Flak88 and have a problem with an endless audio loop - I understand that sound effects are part of unit animations? I'm using Artillery animations and sounds - but I've turned off all the sounds for this unit and still I get this looped idle sound, rather like a loud 'ticking' sound. Anyone else experience this?
Also, on a historical note regarding the famous German 88mm gun:
It was originally conceived as an AA gun - hence the extremely high-profile mount, necessary for using the gun against aircraft with the tube in a near-vertical position. However, it was discovered early on that the gun made a nasty anti-tank weapon because of accuracy and caliber. Armor-piercing ammunition was developed for it, making it a wicked anti-tank weapon. No other gun matched it's anti-tank performance until very late in the war. the '88' was incorporated into tank design on the German heavy tanks and heavy tank destroyers. Despite it's very high profile (thus making it less 'tactical' and an easier target for the enemy), it was used extensively in the anti-tank role throughout the war. The tanks of the period, especially early in the war, either had a small-caliber high velocity gun or a large-caliber low velocity gun, due to the doctrinal beliefs in effect before the war. The '88' had greater range and firepower than either and could knock off enemy tanks before they ever got into effective range. Many early WW2 tanks had thin armor and were easy targets even using non-AP rounds. After AP rounds were available, even the heaviest Allied tank armor could be penetrated by the 88. This gun performed admirably throughout the war, was greatly feared by the Allies, and earned a reputation that still resounds even today.
The PaK 43 model 88mm was designed specifically as a true anti-tank gun, after the sucess of the 88mm Flak, with a traditional low profile armored mount. In addition the gun was of longer caliber and thus had a much higher muzzle velocity and greatly improved penetrating power. These were only produced in small numbers towards the end of the war.
Towards the end and after World War 2, several things changed to make anti-tank guns obsolete. Tanks themselves now carried large, long-range guns, and anti-tank guns were at a disadvantage due to their immobility and lack of full armor protection. Also, anti-tank rockets and missiles, pioneered by the German Panzerfaust and US Bazooka, were improving fast in the areas of effective range, penetrating power, and guidance systems. Anti-tank guided missiles that were cheap, extremely accurate, could be fired by one or two men, and were powerful enough to knock out any current tank, spelled the end for anti-tank guns. Now every infantry unit could have a powerful intrinsic anti-tank capability, and anti-tank artillery became a relic of the past.
Man I should write this stuff for a living...
I'd like to see this same model but with a tan desert coloring and the gun in a horizontal position, so that it could be used as an AT weapon. While we're on the same subject, a really nice AT gun unit would be the German Pak 38 50mm gun, commonly used in the middle of the war. This would be a nice generic AT gun unit with it's traditional 'look'. The Russsian 76mm AT gun would be a good choice as well.
