Sure, but no Wunderwaffe.
As with most German stuff, it is just a weapon that might be a little better than comparable designs but is simply handled and operated superior.
Wunderwaffe, Secret Research, Megalomaniac schemes!
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As with most German stuff, it is just a weapon that might be a little better than comparable designs but is simply handled and operated superior.
No, I think this is wrong.
Whilst I’m not saying that the German gunners weren’t better trained (although more comprehensively might be a better term hence, doctrinal) the flak 88 was a better system.
The British 3.7” couldn’t fire close to the horizontal very often without breaking itself because it’s recoil system was designed to have the gun pointing upwards, not surprisingly, at aircraft and dissipate the energy in to the ground.
The US 90mm AA gun was in a similar situation and efforts to develop it as an AT gun were made but, like everything else the US made, they were so far behind in 1940, (remember that they didn’t have an AT gun of their own bigger than 37mm) it was going to take a long time for them to catch-up. They did, however, put a derivative of their 90mm AA gun in their TDs. Like the 17pdr, it wouldn’t fit in the turret so they came-up with the brilliant engineering solution of leaving the top of the turret off.
Well it worked. Kinda’.
Likewise, the Russians shoe-horned their 85mm in to a tank as soon as they could but still had the major problem of being able to move & deploy such a heavy gun as an AT weapon.
But the flak 88 was around before 1936! And that’s the key thing. What would appear to be a 1942/1943 tech’ in 1936. It had a massive half-track to tow it, which also carried the crew and some ammunition. Its carriage was also specifically designed for rapid deployment under battle conditions. Later designs allowed it to be fired from the carriage without being deployed.
It was a superb weapon system, way ahead of its time, which only the Italians were (eventually) able to replicate with any degree of success. They had a lot of German help, of course, and were unable to build many due to the limitations of their heavy industry.
Whilst I agree with shri that people will cry “unfair”, like him, I feel that’s just tough. Germany had this weapon system and it had a profound effect on the war. It should be included.
What I don’t agree with shri about is it being the only wonder-weapon which needs to be modelled. The Long Lance was the basis of Japanese strategy against the USA in the Pacific. Also before 1936! So it too should be included.
I can’t think of many other wartime technologies that were in-place prior to game-start in 1936 but a few of my pet subjects are:-
British landing craft that can deploy tanks (or troops) on a beach.
Japanese landing craft that can deploy troops on a beach.
Japanese assault ship.
Britain was already building Radar stations (Chain Home) in December 1935.
Amerika Bomber, ICBM were not that crazy, think that now the US has a lot of ICBM an the B52... Germans were ahead of their time in some aspects (in other they simply wanted to spend money in nice but useless things)
Make Cold Fusion a pre-requisite. Those death-rays will need all the power they can get.
I'm secretly hoping for some mods or DLC that adds batsh*t crazy Wunderwaffen to the mix. Maybe an autumn of 1944 scenario where the Axis finally had breakthroughs in their secret techs. Smashing the Allies with a single Landkreuzer Ratte and fending off amphibious invasions with death rays... come on, who wouldn't want that?
Meh, only if we even the odds with the US getting the Davy Crockett (I mean, man-portable artillery that shoots mini-nukes? way cooler than an unusually large tank, plus the US actually built these post-war).Make Cold Fusion a pre-requisite. Those death-rays will need all the power they can get.
I'm secretly hoping for some mods or DLC that adds batsh*t crazy Wunderwaffen to the mix. Maybe an autumn of 1944 scenario where the Axis finally had breakthroughs in their secret techs. Smashing the Allies with a single Landkreuzer Ratte and fending off amphibious invasions with death rays... come on, who wouldn't want that?
It's a perfect option for DLC. Optional research of trivial use other than flavour.
Other weapons ahead of their time: T-34, M1 Garand rifle, Illustrious class Carriers, 2.75 inch Bazooka and Panzerfaust, MP-44, ME-262, radar and kamakazi's.
Yes, if they include a single "fun" scenario like this or an Alien invasion (Worldwar style, not invincible aliens.) I would be very happy.
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[voice of well-known insurance mascot] Ohhh YESSS!! [/voice of well-known insurance mascot]
I think this would be absolutely brilliant.
A War of The Worlds scenario where you have to unite (at least most of) the fractured Earth governments to survive would be brilliant.
Especially if Japan gets attacked by Godzilla at the same time.
Well besides being fictional there's also the part where it doesn't make any military sense.
Comrade, I can't hear you over the sound of the 7 turrets firing at the enemies of communism.
Pah, a nuclear powered land battleship could crush this midget under it's treads!
Many of the "wunderwaffe" were unreliable and were too few to make a difference. Either that or they did not perform well enough to justify the investment(V-2).
Superweapons would be awesome for recognizing the things that certain countries were vastly better at than their competition. Things like proximity fuzes for artillery shells, an anglo-american invention which made AA fire vastly more effective and could've made artillery fire considerably more lethal if they decided it was worth the risk of the enemy capturing duds. Another good one would be tachymetric aa fire control, which made AA fire control much more effective. If the war drags on much more than historical I could also see US AWACS and pseudo-AWACS planes from project Cadillac (the PB-1W and TBM-3W, for example of both types respectively) being a very useful asset to allow the protection of ever larger fleets.
I'm a bit less sure about a ballistically mediocre (the US 90mm fired a heavier shell faster for reference, and could be mounted on their medium tank hulls to boot) AA gun with a good mount that allowed it to serve as a heavy anti-tank gun being treated as unique when the Soviet 122 mm proved its performance against armor repeatedly and the British 25-pounder had the "Super" charge and an AP projectile for much the same purpose, all on a very nice mount with a circular platform for the mount to rotate on. The 88 isn't a vastly better solution than either of those, not enough so to be considered a superweapon, it's mostly that the allies had a lot of heavily armored tanks at the start of the war to overrun the AT guns, while there aren't many mentions of the 25 pounders desperately firing AP to save a battle from otherwise unstoppable tanks.
Jets, both allied and axis, could be cool, especially if they're modelled realistically so they're an interesting decision to go to something that's tricky to run and short legged that's mostly useful in interception duties.
You are aware that the B-36 was the result of a 1941 design proposal, yes? Not only was the Amerika bomber not ahead of its time, it was behind its time, since its competition was capable of flying from Bangor to Berlin and dropping a B-29 when it got there, flying at 45,000 feet or higher all the way as part of the way to achieve its range (read only interceptable by specialized high altitude fighters), and with significantly more range. If Germany succeeded in rendering Britain non-viable as an airbase, the US plans were to prioritize the R-4360 and the B-36. (Incidentally, there's a huge number of designs with that engine for various roles that never got built in large numbers because the B-29 and R-3350 got the lion's share of the funding. That could be a very interesting decision for the player, rewarding them for predicting the state of the war three years from when the decision is made.
I'm a bit less sure about a ballistically mediocre (the US 90mm fired a heavier shell faster for reference, and could be mounted on their medium tank hulls to boot) AA gun with a good mount that allowed it to serve as a heavy anti-tank gun being treated as unique when the Soviet 122 mm proved its performance against armor repeatedly and the British 25-pounder had the "Super" charge and an AP projectile for much the same purpose, all on a very nice mount with a circular platform for the mount to rotate on. The 88 isn't a vastly better solution than either of those, not enough so to be considered a superweapon, it's mostly that the allies had a lot of heavily armored tanks at the start of the war to overrun the AT guns, while there aren't many mentions of the 25 pounders desperately firing AP to save a battle from otherwise unstoppable tanks.
Jets, both allied and axis, could be cool, especially if they're modelled realistically so they're an interesting decision to go to something that's tricky to run and short legged that's mostly useful in interception duties.
You are aware that the B-36 was the result of a 1941 design proposal, yes? Not only was the Amerika bomber not ahead of its time, it was behind its time, since its competition was capable of flying from Bangor to Berlin and dropping a B-29 when it got there, flying at 45,000 feet or higher all the way as part of the way to achieve its range (read only interceptable by specialized high altitude fighters), and with significantly more range. If Germany succeeded in rendering Britain non-viable as an airbase, the US plans were to prioritize the R-4360 and the B-36. (Incidentally, there's a huge number of designs with that engine for various roles that never got built in large numbers because the B-29 and R-3350 got the lion's share of the funding. That could be a very interesting decision for the player, rewarding them for predicting the state of the war three years from when the decision is made.
From the perspective of scientists and engineers at the time, weren't jet engines and nuclear bombs long-shot "wunderwaffe" that were theoretically possible but had no guarantee of ever being practical?
Jet engines had been designed and tested independently in Britain, Germany, and Hungary before the war, and, while the Me-262 gets all the press, the British actually had the Gloster Meteor in development since 1936.
Jets were certainly untested and experimental, but the only question with them was how fast the bugs could be worked out. They weren't longshots. For most of the belligerents, 1000 prop planes now was a better investment than 100 jet fighters 3 years from now.
Nukes were more as you described. They were all based on what the math said, but no one had worked out the exact details and this was the closest to "physics = magic“ that humans had come to. It speaks to America's trust in science that the Roosevelt administration actually believed that slamming 164 pounds of uranium (then a metal of no great renown in popular culture) together would do more damage than 32,000 pounds of dynamite.
Definitely would want to see more secret weapons in HOI IV. What about Fire balloons?
