Girls und Panzer

Shiho explains that the Tankery tournament's organizers have dedicated rescue crews on standby exactly for these situations, and that Miho should've trusted them to handle the rescue instead of deserting her command post. Heck, while I do sympathize with Miho, she did make a very huge mistake with the way she dealt with the situation: She could've at least commanded her crew to retreat behind the other tank and try to rejoin the rest of team before she jumped out; if you rewatch that part, you can see that the tank is just sitting there like a sitting duck, strongly implying that the crew had conflicting ideas about what to do in the absence of their commander (which, incidentally, is how one fanfic author depicted the scene; the driver wants to retreat, the gunner wants to fight, the radio-girl and loader are indecisive), which would highlight yet another a major weakness in Kuromorimine's metaphorical armor of seeming invincibility — namely, that there is no clear chain of command within any given tank crew, and thus no clear way of deciding who takes command if the commander goes AWOL or is incapacitated.

Assuming that the tanks used in Tankery are modern recreations of the original models rather than refurbishings of the genuine articles that were produced during that era, I'd say that they'd be limited by the actual expenses involved with building the tank in question, so if a team's sponsor school is rich enough, then theoretically they could field 10 or more Maus tanks in their team.

edited 14th May '14 3:21:35 PM by MarqFJA

Oh Miho... somehow that makes me respect her more.

10 Maus would be even more stupid impractical that KMM's lineup in the final. If you said: "Ach, put together a tankery team", I'd take six Luchsen, one Panzerbefehlswagen Panther ausf G to command from, nine Panther ausf Ds, and four Jagdpanthers. Fast, lots of situational awareness, and the Panthers are good enough to kill most of what I'd face, with those long 88s on the Jagdpanthers to crack any IS, Centurion, Tiger, or Pershings that sneak up on me.

Personally, I think KMM's biggest weaknesses are lack of mobility (they're effectively limited to the 20mph top speed of their slowest tank - the Jagdtiger) and lack of visibility: they have no scouts whatsoever. I suspect Shiho might have had a hand in their absurd lineup for the final.

edited 15th May '14 12:41:25 AM by Achaemenid

Doesn't the Panzer III count as a scout?

It seems to in the context of the show, but IRL it was actually slower than the Panthers and the Tiger I.

edited 15th May '14 6:28:26 AM by Achaemenid

Honestly, Pravda's lineup was actually very good. I'd just swap out the useless KV-2 for another IS-2.

Everyone's lineup apart from KMM's was good. Kay's Shermans were all good, and whilst Darjeeling's formation was a bit on the slow side, her tanks were overmatched every one of Oarai's except for the III Assault and the Pz IV. As I said, my own WMG is Executive Meddling from Shiho to try and demonstrate the super-superiority of the Nishizumi style; Maho seemed to go for better choices the previous year.

If you get rid of the KV-2, then Katyusha gets angry...do you want to be the one to tell her? OTOH, if you can convince the Federation to let her have the even more absurd KV-5 instead, you might just make her life.◊

OTOH...if Katyusha had been feeling really ruthless, the KV-2 was historically equipped with anti-concrete shells that could have made Oarai's cover in the church...interesting.

edited 15th May '14 3:37:31 PM by Achaemenid

Black Forest it was noted was rocking the multiple heavy tanks and tank destroyer's to deal with Pravda's armada of T-34s and other Russian heavy tanks.

I was honestly more expecting Pravda to throw out something silly like the T-35 with all those turrets

edited 15th May '14 3:39:03 PM by RevenVrake

So they did...I'd forgotten about that. Crippling Overspecialization, it seems; it would have worked better against Pravda, I imagine.

I wouldn't be surprised if Maho didn't change her lineup because she was rattled by her little sister and wanted to be certain of victory. Even then, I think she wasn't certain she'd win.

Except that if Maho knew the exact lineup of Miho's company, she wouldn't have brought so many heavy tank destroyers along. Really, the only real heavy tank Miho had was the Porsche Tiger, which was noted for being unreliable as hell. And Maho's own Tiger could have tackled that.

Which raises a good question. Do both sides keep their tank numbers and makeup secret? Miho had no clue about the Maus, and you'd think she'd know if Black Forest was planning to ever get their hands on the prototype.

It's not clear if the tanks are actual historical survivors or simply modern reconstructions that conform to a set of Federation specifications. If the latter is the case, then one would need only to buy the Maus (or commission it from a manufacturer if it isn't sold), and KMM seems not to lack for funds.

It does seem that they don't know each other's lineup beforehand: Yukari had to spy on Saunders for them to find out, for instance.

edited 15th May '14 3:50:45 PM by Achaemenid

There are a couple of throwaway lines suggesting that the teams are limited to exactly how many tanks they can field in a given match (ten normally, expanding to twenty for the final) so while it's not so much a case of knowing what tanks a given school has it's trying to figure out what particular tanks they're going to use in a given match, at least for schools well enough off to have more tanks available than the numbers set by the match limit.

Miho's surprise about the Maus would probably mean either a) it was acquired (or at least made operational) after she left or b) her surprise was more for the fact that they actually used it in a match.

Though that does mean that school like Oorai (and Anzio going by the details of the upcoming OAV) are at a disadvantage since they're line-ups are less than even the lower limit so everyone knows what they're going to be bringing in a given match.

edited 15th May '14 4:20:51 PM by KnightofLsama

Anzio are also disadvantaged because the poor things have to take Carri Veloci tankettes, which are armed with measly little 8mm machine guns and with armor that offers about as much resistance as, oh, a piece of cardboard.

Which is why I quite like them.

You know, I had an idea for how Tankery got so it was considered Female only.

The first tanks appeared in World War I, and they were lumbering behemoths. Well during the formation of the first Armored Forces a new form on Influenza struck, which seemed to only strike men. In a panic, the British and French reequipped their tanks with female crews (not without some grumbling from the higher ups) and in a panic unleashed their tanks on the Western Front, in which case they were very effective. Something about a metal monster piloted by women seemed to scare the hell out of the Germans and Austrians.

Well, the first attacks were often bogged down, so when the Tank crews finally got the terrain they wanted to advance on, which was hard packed...the Germans it seemed had learned something as every last tank they had captured and the mere handful of lumbering metal boxes they called tanks were all rushed into action. And, copying the British and French practice, the crews were Female, which now revealed a whole untapped source of soldiers for both sides.

How come Erwin Rommel exists as a tank commander, then? To the extent that a character cosplays him in her day to day life?

WWI tanks were actually very small for the most part, at least on the French and English side.

The Flower Arrangement Melodrama

"Will you not come home and surrender to my tastes?" "Oh, alas! I must defy these tastes of yours, and take up tankery, so that my arrangements gain vigour and strength! I mean, look at you! There's being a delicate flower, and then there's fainting at the slightest emotion! I can't help but wonder how you were even able to bear children, laughably frail as you are!"

I take it you're not really enjoying the show so far?

Are you kidding me? I haven't had such mindless fun since Tiger And Bunny!

I just think old feminity values get really ridiculous when taken to such extremes, though. This woman is the Distaff Counterpart of Okonkwo, that jerk.

Ahh, I see.

I think it's supposed to show that Hana is the most mature of Kampfgruppe Miho - or at least, the most life-experienced and socially adept.

@Handle

So...drop the show and don't look back if it's not to your liking. Life's too short to be wasting it on something that you don't like.

But I love the show! It's so jaunty! It's got cute girls and big tanks! The girls make the tanks cute! The tanks have cute little bunnies painted on them! And the absurdity of everything only enhances the fun. It's like Advance Wars, except more tactical.

You've gotten to the early-morning wake-up scene, I persume?

Yes. Such accomodating neighbors!