Vanir Ausf B

Ah, I didn't know that. I just know I used it once months ago and it worked

You should be able to, yes.

I suspect the search software only recognizes letters and numbers so the dash throws it off.

Fixed that for you

You would indeed have had a better argument before the last patch. Prior to that it did literally nothing at all.

There are two problems with abolishing the Hide command for vehicles. One is that it is occasionally useful. The other is that it was just recently given the function of preventing AA units from firing at air targets.

Ah, right you are. I didn't realize they are not available in June.

I don't know about in reality, but in my experience it is a sure thing in-game.

The old CMx1 manuals specifically stated it as a "low idle". The CMx2 manuals don't use those terms but the underlying assumption appears to be the same. How realistic that is I am sure is debatable but that is why turrets can still turn, ect.

The game assumes a low idle rather than turned off. That is apparent by it still being possible to get a sound contact on the vehicle of you get close enough.

Keep in mind the game assumes the Abrams is using M892A4.

Hide just reduces the range at which enemy units can get a sound contact on the vehicle. It has no effect on visibility. It will also make them hesitant to engage enemy units so I don't recommend using it when there is a good chance of enemy contact. You should keep you vehicles unbuttoned when they are not under fire.

There is no + marker next to it to show subordinate units. I'm not sure what would cause that except perhaps a messed up installation. I just checked my game and had no problem with purchasing them or having them appear when the game starts.

Known bug.

It's missing. So is the M7B1 Priest. *sigh* Looks like I need to comb through the QB editor again.

Oh, it would be fun, no doubt. But "The Bear and the Dragon" is about a war in Siberia with the US and Russia on the same side against China. That would be an entirely different game.

Not really. The US at least has the transport and logistics capacity to show up there if the political will was present. China couldn't even if it wanted to.

The effects of optics on spotting in the game are not well understood, but they appear to be abstraced to a large degree, so while they work realistically in most situations most of the time there will be exceptions. Having said that, we have it on very good authority that it is SOP for Abrams crewmembers to primarily use the thermal sights during the day. I don't know if the same is true for Russian tankers.

I haven't done any formal testing, but my observation has been that while the Abrams does spot better than the T-90 the differences are not massive. US vehicles in general spot better than Russian. I think this is mainly because their Gen II FLIR is a little more advance than the Russian/French Catherine-FC thermal sights. This is not universally true, however. The Russian Khrizantema-S is very good since it can use radar to detect targets.

There is presently an issue with tank commanders being highly resistant to damage from nearby impacts and explosions, and consequently not bothering to button when those events occur near them. It will hopefully be fixed in the next patch.

That's more of an anecdote than a test. When I test spotting I abtain dozens of data points for each side at a minimum, sometimes hundreds if the differences are not large. Spotting is very random so anecdotal evidence is of limited usefulness. Buttoned/unbuttoned affects spotting but not accuracy. Optics also affect spotting. It is unknown if they affect accuracy. Well, unknown to anyone but Charles, I suppose. They also break a lot. This is realistic. They are made of glass

AFAIK, the changes to the Abrams armor was for kinetic energy penetrators, not HEAT. But even before that it was not 100% invulnerable to the latest Russian missiles from the front.

The game takes place in 2017, so M829A4 it is.

The guy who wrote that doesn't actually play the game. Map sizes have increased quite a lot recently and seeing what the hell is going on is not an issue. There are these things called "icons"... Tank and ATGM engagement ranges in reality are mostly dictated by terrain and I think for the most part that is also true in the game.

No. He meant that there will be exactly two Jagdtigers in the game. Once they are destroyed they will no longer be available in future scenarios and QBs, so treat them well.