SABOW M60 gunnery tutorial & another horid install guide

This was intended as an article for simhq but its ended up here instead.


Basic Gunnery 101 : For SABOW M60
by
FlashBurn



First off the included English manual "Handbuch" (in pdf format) skips quite a number of important aspects of exactly what does what in both the M60 and T62 tanks as depicted in "Steel Armor: Blaze of War". As both a 19 series soldier (US Army) and as a 1960' and 70's tank tech buff, what Graviteam has presented in SABOW is quite accurate. First off in this block of instruction, the M60a1 MBT.

If you have not patched the game and are running the initial release (major issues), go get the latest unofficial patch off graviteam web sight. Most big issues are fixed with only small ones you might not even know there are left. Even those issues will not remain for long.






Brief History of the M60a1

The M60a1 entered service in 1963. It features a gun stabilization system, a stereo coincidence range finder coupled with a primitive electro mechanical ballistic computer, near infrared spot light, a 105mm M68 rifled gun, and of course its very distinctive needle nose turret. Vary high tech equipment for the 1960's.
More importantly, Graviteam has modeled all these features into their depiction of an M60a1. If you ever wondered how Israeli's did so well during the Arab Israeli wars, SABOW may answer some of these questions for you (No Israeli/Arab wars in SABOW unfortunately). The earlier M48 also used a stereo coincidence range finder coupled with its 90mm gun.



Fire Controls: Commanders Station




From this position the primary job of the M60 tank commander is to find targets, give target to gunner, range the target with range finder, direct the tanks movements, and defend the tank from aircraft and infantry that get too close. In order to do the ladder, the M60 is equipment with an M85 .50cal (12.7mm) heavy machine gun.
To use the M85, hit V. This brings up the sight view (Fig.1), but you may have to use the C and X keys to get the sight you want.




(Fig.1) Here we have the m85's gun sight.

Using the C and X keys you also can get to the commanders vision block (Fig.2) and range finder (Fig.4).




(Fig.2) Commanders vision block

Now for the meat and potatoes of the Commander Station, the range finder.




(Fig.3) Range finder M60a1 internal view




(Fig.4) Range finder

Notice how the image is a bit fuzzy? No this is not an artifact. The range finder works by imposing 2 periscope views onto 1 plane. To determine range you adjust the image (middle mouse wheel) to clear on the target (in this case that tree in middle). The tree is ranged and the ballistic computer has pick it up and passed the data to the gunner. The range is also displayed to right of commander. The numbers that read 2192 is the range.




(Fig.5) range display for commander

NOTE: To use range finder the commanders turret needs to be at 12 o'clock!
That just about wraps up the commander station.

Commands to know are:

Ø To designate a position for driver to go CTRL right mouse click.
Ø To designate targets from Commander Station to the gunner is CTRL left mouse click.
Ø F5 allows commander to over ride gunner station and fire main gun.
Ø H key allows a lit reticule.
Ø To turn out is the O key (commanders turret has to more or less be at 12 o'clock to do this. Yes, that is a bit weird.
Ø Just like an FPS WADS keys also tell driver where to go. I recommend those over other ways. The longer you hold the A and D key, the more turning the driver will do. Its odd at first, but works vary well once your use to it.



Fire Controls: Gunner Station







(Fig.7) Gunners Cadillacs' (no idea why they are called that)


To bring up gunner sight hit V and just like the Commander station X and C bring up different views. A back up reticule with ranging lines and gunners vision block.




(Fig. 8) Primary sight.

Gunners sight is an 8x power sight. It does not have any other zoom level. If you live your tanking life in here you will think that 2000 meters is not vary far. The zoom is not a bastardized game land hack like others. Ie. they say its 7x but its actually more like 3x. It is 8x or vary close to it. This reticule means its coupled to the ballistic computer. Whatever its set to, its going to try and shoot to that point, Default is 500 meters.




(Fig. 9) Manual range setting and super elevation for gunner
From gunners station you can set the range manually by pressing the N key. Use the mouse wheel to set your range. From Fig.9 also shows the azimuth (B + mouse wheel) dial. This coupled with the super elevation (N, ALT insert and delete) allows your M60 to be used as ad hoc artillery. While I understand the concept, I have no idea how to actually do this. But all the dials work and the turret and gun do there thing. If you like trigonometry and ballistics have at it.

The last major tool of accurate gunnery is using the side level. (Fig.10)




Fig. 10 side level gage

This is very simple to use. If your tank is not on level ground, which it will almost never be, this allows you to correct your shot to point of impact to your gun sight. Hit M and mouse wheel to adjust. All you have to do is get the bubble in the middle of the gage and your set.

Commands to know for gunner position:

Ø CTRL Left mouse click target to have commander range it.
Ø N for manual range on ballistic computer
Ø M for side level
Ø R to load or stop loader loading
Ø CTRL backspace to get rid of GUI. GUI is great to learn with but once you have everything down get rid of it.

Ammo

You certainly know about the sabot, heat, and high explosive round. But did you know your m60 also has smoke and canister rounds? Easy way to change to these types of rounds is using the GUI and CTRL click on heat and high explosive icons.

Final Thoughts

When I first picked up SABOW I had no idea most of this stuff was in the sim. Yes, all this attention to detail means this is a sim. For some odd reason some things that should be controlled by the player such as lights and night sights are fixed to time of day, what's buried in here out of plane sight of the publisher is an extremely good depiction of a working M60a1. If your not aware, Graviteam is the developer but other companies actually own the game and publish it. If they say dumb something down Graviteam has to do it.

SABOW is an extremely well put together and vary rewarding sim. It gives what you put into it to get the most out of it.








Next part will be gunnery of the T62. If you played Karkov 1942 with the T34 you will be right at home. Just with a few improvements......



Or not............heres a REALLY bad install guide I threw together while on the phone.....









Like I said.................BAD.

impressive!! thanks, will be reloading for the T62 one!

Thanks. Ill update as I go. Many people are having problems understanding set up phase, supports and such. So that may be next. Started collecting screenshots for that already. But ya t62 will happen. But its way easier than m60. I prefer the t62 over m60 personaly. Its just neato with the ejected casings out the back.

Excellent Flashburn. Thank you very much for your time an effort.

Thanks a lot, now I finally know what the side level gauge is used for.

Not sure when I can finish with t62 and unit placement part. I REALLY spread myself thin. Got 4 projects I'm working on. I cant beleave I do this for fun. LOL But it is.........Im crazy.

That's great, thanks Flash. I still haven't used the M60 yet so I'll have a head start now when I do

Thanks Flashburn, superb Tutorial!

How do I get the commander to range it, without him opening fire with the 12.7mm MG?

ramas

WOW missing CTRL in that line. CTRL LEft click DOH!

I didnt even realise that the sentence was missing "ctrl". I was, and am obviously using ctrl left-click to assign the target and get the range, but the tank commander also opens fire on MBTs and APCs at ranges below 1000. It´s a total waste of ammo and just looks stupid.

ramas

AT apc's ok, that makes sence. Tanks no. WIERD. Well your tank commander is doing his own thing. Nothing to do. If its m60 you 900 .50 cal rounds. Would not worry to much about that. In next beta Andrey fixed issue with .50 cal ammo. It should now kill APC's, and IFV's like the real deal.

Flashburn -

Many thanx for this excellent tutorial.

Two things had been bothering me about gunnery in the M60 - how to get the side level to work and where the repeater was for the range finder in the TC's station - I've been looking for weeks! Both of which you have cleared up. Good stuff.

Just to add a couple of points - if you cntrl left click to assign a target, once it is destroyed de-assign it by cntrl left click on a bit of dead ground to cancel the target, otherwise the dead target remains the point of interest until you cntrl left click on another live target. This will be confirmed audibly by the crew. And if you try to cntrl left click an an already dead target - say a tank that has been abandoned by its crew but still looks live, cleverly the program won't let you. So if you try and you can't it's already dead. Saves unnecessary waste of ammo.

As you rightly said the more you delve into this tank sim the more brilliance you uncover.

Cheers mate. Looking forward to the T-62 tutorial.

MTB

I noticed that the gunner is doing his own thing or at least he is way better than me. He spots a target and he is firing away before I set the range. Often his target is not visible to me be. sometimes a bush is in front of me so that is all I can set the rangefinder on.

Thanks a lot, FlashBurn! Purchased SABOW a few days ago and got very confused by it so far, so this tutorial is extremely helpful to me as well.

Just went through the lengthy sign up and waiting for clearnce process as I wanted to thank you for the tutorial mr burn. As yet I still have not entered the sim par of the game and am still scratching my head over the tactical element lol!

Am I to understand you will also be covering this tactical stuff in a later tutorial? Hope so - youre gunnery tuttorial was all very lucid and intelligent - I await with Baird breath!

Thanks again

Skimbo

Bugger and damn that predictive text malarkey! Meant to say baited breath not 'Baird' breath whoever the hell he is.

Skimbo

thanks FlashBurn!

They call the gunner's control handles "Cadillacs" because the turret and controls were designed by Cadillac-Gage Co.

Just a bit of military trivia :*)

Great tutorial, but this feature doesn't work anymore with SABOW's latest version (version : 5.81 (1983) Update : aug.12B2, if I applied the patch correctly) : the F5 key takes me to the driver's seat.
Is there another key to override the AI gunner now ?

As TC, with range finder view, how do you suppose to find targets?
You can not move it left or right.

Do you switch to other view?
And how to bring range finder view to new target?

? i not understand question, sorry my friend, my english has forgiven me for bad....


commander remember has great view! (for m-60 patton tank he has tower cupola for superior vision over battlefield, gunner has low vision, sometime target is block for marksman.. but within visual optics for commander)


locate target and use rangefinder for know range and tell your marksman the range

Well you would not use the range finder to find targets. As the range finder is built into the top of the turret. Its the 2 bulges on sides of turret right before the crew hatches start. Its fixed facing forward indexed to the 105mm gun.

So the tc to get range after finding the target would go that thing and start adjusting. In sabow this is one big issue as it requires the tc cupola face forward. I have no idea if that is actually needed in the real m60. I seriously do not think so. So long as you can get to the dumb thing you should be able to use it.

No, it doesn't.

As range finder is fixed you can move it only with the turret. To take control of it away from the gunner press "5" two times (first - "manual targets" mode, second - pass control to commander).

Hi General_Sultan, FlashBurn & Krabb

Thanks for the replies.
However, I am still confused.

Let's say I find new target on my M85 gun sight.
I left click on the new target.
Then I want to range it with range finder.

However, I find the range finder sight is not on the new target.
How do I make it see the new target?

Switch to the range finder, press "5" two times, then turn it on target.

Thanks Krabb.
Pressing "5" twice works.
Now I can move range finder view to find targets.

is it possible to shoot at target in range finder view?

Yes, if you have control (the "5" twice thing). Otherwise, you can only send the range to the gunner.

Thanks Krabb.

I have tried to shoot target with my range finder view.
However, I notice the tracer hits slightly to the left/right of the target, not right on center.
Why is that?

It's because range finder is basically binoculars. You see objects from two points. Both "pictures" are blended together into one, which you see in the scope. So, tracers are seen right on center only at the range of coincedence.

Hi Krabb,

Thanks for the picture and explanation.
That makes it very clear.
I did not know that these things are modeled in the sim. Very nice.

So for shooting, it is better to do in gun sight as gunner.

However, I notice that the range finder view has bigger magnification than the gun sight.
Is this correct?

Yep, the M17 range finder is x10, and other sights are x8.

thanks Krabb.

however, I find switching between tc range finder to gunner sight is rather cumbersome.

you have to press F6, then v, then c.
is there shortcut?

No.

But as a gunner you could click on a target (press Ctrl to show the cursor first), and AI TC will "use" his range finder and send the data to you (into the ballistic computer actually). Or you could estimate the range yourself, and either enter it into the computer, or use the M105D telescopic sight, which has a range scale.

Hi Krabb,

Thanks for the advice.
Yes, it is a lot easier playing as gunner and click the target so that TC can give you the range data.

If the target moves, does TC update the data?
Or I have to click at it again?

Yes, he updates the range until he loses the target. You can check this by the blue small triangle on the marked icon below - the target is tracked. If the triangle is red, TC can't track the target for some reason (target is not visible in the range finder, for example). If the icon itself is grey, TC can't see the target.

yes, I notice sometimes the triangle is red.
why is that?

so what should I do to make TC looks at my target?

Red means that TC can't track the target. On M60 this means that target is not visible in the range finder, you have to turn the gunner sight on the target, because the range finder is fixed facing forward just like the gunner sights.

Thanks Krabb,
sometimes, when I try to shoot, nothing happens,
even though I have selected ammo (1) and reloaded (r).

why is that?
is something damaged?
how do you know?

Probably the gun was damaged. Press Ctrl+I to hear damage reports from the crew.

If gun is damaged, is it possible to repair it?

If one of my crew is dead,
can I replace him like in steel fury?

Weapons and other heavy damage are repaired between battles in the operative phase.

Yes. Lean away from all sights, and press the 6th button to the left on the bottom panel. Crew selection popup appears, select the checkbox there, and then a crew member. Now just wait for the switch. It's better to not touch any buttons, rotating your head is OK.

Thanks Krabb for all the replies.
I really appreciate it very much.


Is it possible to hit target when moving?
I find it really hard.
Can you give me some hints?

From FM 17-12 (1964):




See my Quick Start on what are mils: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3560927/Range_determination_using_the_.html#Post3560927.

Thanks Krabb.
It seems rather complex, it will take a while to learn.
And that is for hitting moving target.

How about if my tank is moving?
Is it possible to hit target while my tank is moving?

I see the enemy tank moves and shoots at the same time,
however, I do not think I can do it.
Is there a trick to it?

The principle is the same, look at relative speeds of your tank and of the target. You may wish to read the FM I referenced earlier: http://everyspec.com/ARMY/FM-Field-Manual/FM_17-12_13831/, and a newer one (1977): http://steelbeasts.com/Downloads/p13_sectionid/250/p13_fileid/1810, http://steelbeasts.com/Downloads/p13_sectionid/250/p13_fileid/1813. The second is more cartoonish, and maybe is easier to understand, but it lacks the M60 supplement (or I couldn't find it on the Internet).

Soviet tanks have gun stabilizers, but M60 have not (M60A1 got this system in 1972, but it was still worse than Soviet; only M60A3 finally received a good gun stabilizer).

thanks Krabb for the explanation and the links.

so is it easier to shoot from moving t-62 than m60?

Yes, but the T-62's cons is lack of a range finder. It only has a stadiametric range scale.

thanks Krabb.
so each tank has its advantages and disadvantages.

Hi Krabb,

those steelbeasts.com links do not work.
do you have other links?

Sorry for long reply. Hmm, not sure what is wrong, for me these links do work. Anyway, I can upload the FM, if you still need it.

They are working for me ok.

I am very grateful if you could upload the FM somewhere else.
I have just tried the links again today, and they still do not work.

Both FM 17-12 1964 & 1977:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/rmkbyvel03kyyd5/FM17-12.7z

Thanks Krabb,
I can download it now.