Hapless

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions:

This was a great video series! I’m on the last episode myself. Sad to know that it’s ending, but also congrats on finishing! It’s certainly one of the single longest campaigns in any CM game if memory serves. 
 
Looking forward to what comes next!

Love your videos, thanks for taking the time. Your videos have lead to many hours of entertainment and lack of productivity at work for me. 😀😀😀😀

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions:

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions:

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions:

After a full year and a half I've finally finished CMBN's original Road to Montebourg campaign. Only took me a decade to get round to it after buying CMBN!

Here's the full playlist, there should be a link in the top right of the embed you can use to swap between missions:

It's been essential viewing. Well done.

Relief. Sweet Relief.
It's important to note that everything posted yesterday and this evening takes place in two minutes of game time.
North
Elvis' Sherman puts another round into the knocked out JzPzIV as it tried to get a shot onto the surviving JzPzIV(A). Meanwhile the timid PzIV halts as ordered and lines up the Sherman. It then took a hit from an unseen AT Gun, it has to be only light calibre (luckily) as the round ricochets off the front hull. Their morale holds long enough and they drill a hole straight through the rear of the Sherman knocking it out in one.

The PzIV's morale breaks, it pops smoke and retreats, taking another ricochet from the unseen AT gun as it retreats to safety behind the buildings.
South
Meanwhile in the last turn (the same as sheer craziness in the last post), my other PzIV takes it's chances and charges through the smokescreen it's deployed hoping it's enough to block the LOS from the SU-85 that is only meters away. (Pic below it's right next door to the knocked out T-34).

I get momentary spots on a huge clump of Soviet infantry in the street trying to scavenge weapons. I have more important priorities, saving KG @benpark.

In the following minute the PzIV gets into position and starts blasting the buildings providing sweet relief to my pinned down Pioneers. Two Soviet squads fall to a barrage of HE and MG fire from the PzIV. Tide turns quickly in this back alley.

The SU-85 starts to move through the same smokescreen I deployed earlier to try and get around to the rear of my PzIV. I can't see it but the smoke is slowly drifting west which reveals it (I suspect bogged in a crater). KG @mjkerner's 'Wall of Aluminum' Fallschirmjaegers let loose with around 4 Panzerfausts. The final one hits the roof of the SU-85 and it's enough to knock it out.

It's a near thing, all the Fallschirmjaegers go to ground and panic immediately after firing the Panzerfausts - so poor is their morale state. They hold position but are not watching the main approach to OBJ Beer.
There's also some scattered small arms fire in the centre and Elvis is actually causing a few casualties compared to these two flank engagements which is holding my attention. I am pretty confident that the SU-85 was Elvis' last piece of armour and he's taken another serious hit to his infantry reserves with the PzIV redployment. I've received no message from Elvis so unsure if he is giving up or going to keep pushing with his infantry. One slight push at OBJ Beer... 🤕
For now...

In memoriam KG @Josey Wales
KG Josey Wales has been wiped out to a vehicle. Well except the Ostwind but it's done nothing all game.
North
Up first just a nice scenic shot that I think summarizes the upcoming module - minus the snow.

Josey Wale's last surviving halftrack saw an opening as the lend lease Sherman on my far left flank pounded some infantry from KG @benpark. The Sherman's turret was facing away from the halftrack so with bravery it rolled forward. Mistakes were made. It easily got into position, aimed and was elevating the long 75mm gun barrel, but Elvis had been sneaky over the end turn. The Sherman began reversing to break contact with my infantry and in the process swung the hull and therefore the turret back in the direction of the my halftrack. The halftrack came off second best with two quick 76mm rounds through the hull.


(Centre right of the gun shield. A thin piece of metal doesn't protect much against a 76mm round. )
Payback was quick, but not against the Sherman. The tank retreated further back into the main road that has been Elvis' main logistics line all battle. It did however give up it's overwatch position across the park that dominates the north east side of the map.  @DoubleD's Panzer IV (minus DoubleD himself who sits dead in his commander's seat!) rolled into the park and took out a Soviet AT gun and some infantry that hand been loitering for a while.

It then successfully rolled back to safety after popping smoke. Unsure why which has me a little concerned. The green crew is rattled following the death of it's commander but it saw something. Back in it's position of safety, it immediately came under fire from a Soviet mortar position. A few close calls but one some scuffed paintwork.

Meanwhile elements of KG Benpark are setting up to enter the park. There is preciously little Soviet defence now on this side ( I hope they haven't traveled south) so time to apply some more pressure. Elements of KG Benpark are occupying the old Sherman position with their panzerfausts, daring the Soviets to come back to the park. To the far north, Elvis rains down some off map mortars (I assume). Takes out a kubelwagon and some infantry gun crew but I think it's falling well off it's intended target which is the Benpark's infantry closer to his lines.
Centre
Strangely all silent. KG @Bootie has pressed some Volkssturm forward and even the crossroads of death appears vacant of enemy troops. Probably not the best shots but they hold a lot of panzerfausts covering the intersection. They are also doing a little to much thinking for their commander's liking...

KG Double D is just about ready to spring it's trap.
South
The final KG Benpark platoon has crossed successfully to flank to Soviet's trying to take OBJ Beer. I'm getting eyes on a lot of Soviet corpses which I don't remember killing. Mortars actually did something other than damage some buildings?


And then their brothers in arms show up and try to even the score with their SMG's. The one positive is I think these were troops ELvis was setting up to assault OBJ Beer which I don't think my 'Wall of Steel' of @mjkerner's fallschirmjaeger would be able to hold. Elvis did conduct a probing movement towards OBJ Beer since my last update, and even though they were dispatched my troops still panicked and went to ground. I don't think Elvis realises this. My 'wall of steel' is actually a 'wall of aluminum'.

20 minutes remaining.
Finally the map and the next moves.

KG DoubleD will launch it's attack once one of it's tanks crosses the park. We'll hit that Sherman from both sides while covering the approach the SU-85 in the south may take to react.
KG @Hapless is firing some smoke rounds and will race past the Su-85 to assist Benpark's pioneers. Hopefully he won't be too late.
KG Bootie surprisingly holds the centre of the whole operation.

This is true. I think I watched one of your video's (based on your sn) where you absolutely pounded the Germans across a river in CMFB. It also requires the opponent to spend points on AA.

The AI doesn't care, but air power has immense psychological value against human opponents.

IIRC it gets significantly cheaper as 1944 goes on. By Final Blitzkrieg a strafing P-47 costs 30 points. That's not bad for 8 .50 cal MGs and 2400 rounds of ammo, but when you consider that you can buy ten of them and an FO for the cost of a Panther... quantity has a quality all of its own!

Really the big trick Battlefront is missing is that these games are packed with detail but essentially none of it is explained. If the game explained why something happened or changed it'd go a long way to improving player interaction because right now you practically need your own military library to get much depth out of the series. And while I'm okay spending $80 for Bloody Streets most people aren't so the fact that the game is detailed doesn't really matter.

 

There are a ton of little factors but to engage it in the broadest terms the farther back you go in time the less deadly being spotted is. Essentially combat is a SEE -> SHOOT -> KILL loop but the efficiency of that loop changes.
Black Sea to Shock Force sees a reduction in that efficiency. Shock Force to the WW2 games sees a reduction. '44/'45 to '41/'42 sees a reduction.
  To put it in the simplest in 1941 fighting is quaint. You've got nearly all bolt-actions, the scary 37mm gun, what is a shaped charge? jump ahead to '45 and its MORE DAKKA. More automatics, more semi-autos, more shaped charges, larger caliber guns , etc....

After Action Report UK Armoured Assault
This is one of George MC's excellent scenarios, originally made for SF1.
Summary
A battlegroup of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in their Challengers, supported by mech infantry and engineers, with arty and air support, attack Syrian positions.

Challenger on overwatch
AAR:
Firstly, one of the nice touches is you have recon in position when the game starts. It is a minor gripe of mine that you often go into battles blind, and have to expose a few hapless soldiers to incoming, to find out where the enemy is: Reconnaisance by Taking Fire. I don't like it or think it is realistic.
It's a fairly big battlefield. I decided on a quite conservative plan, given that I seemed to have plenty of time (2 game hours) to achieve the objectives. Basically I was going to hide in the deployment zone and take the first enemy position which is in a dip then move forward and see what revealed itself. I pushed some Challys into overwatch. Two were promptly hit by ATGMs – both survived, one with its 120mm knocked out, the other with its commander dead.
I pulled back immediately and dialled in my artillery and the Harriers that were on station.
I spent 20 minutes pounding enemy positions with 81mm, 155 mm and one of the Harriers (keeping the other in reserve, which proved to be a wise move). So I destroyed all of the AT threats I could find.

A recent portrait of Syrian ATGM team No. 2
Digression – We are fighting with the Jocks here, and the infantry brigaded with the RSDG maybe should be the Black Watch, so we have two units that fought together at Waterloo. Not having Scottish accents irked me (it's some form of orcish, I believe 🤣) I couldn't get HQS sound mod and George MC's and Mord's Cuss mod* to work together – they seem incompatible, so I wasn't entirely happy, as it didn't seem right to have legendary Scottish units speaking rather plummy English.
(*further investigation by @George MC , it seems that the Cuss mod won't work with SF2. I might be wrong about the Black Watch – George checked when he wrote the scenario and the Orbat should be correct for the right time in an imaginary war.)
(Politics Alert! British rankers traditionally come from the poorest parts of the country – Wales, Scotland, the North/Midlands of England, Cockneys (East End of London), and Ireland. It is probably nitpicking, but it would be good to hear more of these sort of authentic voices in BF games. /Rant over.)
The first advance
My forces moved forward. The infantry took the first dug-in position directly to the front, backed up by Challys and Warriors. I sent forces to the right to take a good position for the Javelin team. I didn't bother flanking to the left.
After I'd bounded forward I consolidated then moved on to the next set of objectives, using light bombardments of 155mm to mash anything that seemed to be well hardened. I was taking hardly any casualties. Identified enemy tanks didn't last long, either hit by the Harrier or Challenger gunfire.
One of the Static Tanks was still functioning, having been under an intense artillery barrage, and been struck by 2 x 155mm rounds and a 66mm to the back of the turret. I didn't find that believable, even if the crew had survived, I think they would have abandoned the tank. /End Rant 2.
 

Infantry and armour advancing in close co-ordination, having taken the central farm. Out of shot to the right, the engineers are about to flank  OBJ Elgin
Infantry and armour move forward and consolidate on the next enemy positions
I'd moved forward on OBJ Elgin and Keith. My leftmost troops were closing in on OBJ North Queensferry from both front and flank. One of the nice things about this scenario is you can use the terrain to move infantry forward under cover.
SPOILER COMING BELOW PICTURE

A Challenger advances, the commander is an ancestor of James T. Kirk.
Enemy armour reinforcements arrived. My Challengers in overwatch and the second Harrier dispatched them without any losses. One Chally took a 125mm hit to the added lower hull front armour pack, and survived. So that is 2 ATGMs and a 125 KE round that failed to penetrate.
Pushed the enemy out of North Queensferry, a mainly infantry assault, supported by Warriors.
 
(CM WEIRDNESS – BUT IS A SPOILER)
 
Bizarrely, when the game ended I found that there was a static tank in the middle of one of my positions that I had overlooked. In RL I can't see how this could have happened, given that one of my observer teams was in an adjacent house and my footsloggers and armour were all around. As I prepared for the assault on the final objective, South Queensferry, I saw that my forward infantry were tired, so I mustered the engineers as a 2nd assault wave, bussed them into FV432s and drove them at high speed to the E of North Queensferry. The muster area was within metres of the static tank. I guess the high speed move must have not given it time to spot, because they must have crossed its gunsights....
 
The Final Assault on South Queensferry
 
I sent my infantry and armour forward under a smokescreen over one of the bridges. I had miscalculated (again!) as there were a few enemy infantry in the vicinity of the N/S Queensferry Bridge. I thought they were suppressed/destroyed/surrendered, and I had sent a Warrior to finish them off, but I gave it Hunt orders and it stayed where it was. A brief firefight took 2 of my 3 man scout team down. The Syrians were neutralised, but it felt an unnecessary loss.
Some of my engineers were speeding to the other bridge to cross and flank. I was laying down immense amounts of small arms and MG fire on all known enemy positions.

The final assault on South Queensferry - armour, infantry and engineers attacking under covering fire. The Challenger has run out of ammo and is parked in a safeish position.
Time was running out. I was – typically – less careful about moving forward and took some more casualties, which were unnecessary. Most of the enemy troops were forced to abandon their positions and as they crossed the open streets, were gunned down in a deadly crossfire, from smallarms and vehicle MGs, and Chaingun/50 cal from Challengers a long way off.
Another digression – I've become inordinately fond of the L94A1 Chain Gun and often use it in preference to other weapons. It saves the too few, and valuable, HESH or HE rounds for when you really need them.
Results Screen
I achieved a total victory: 30 British casualties to 410 Syrian, knocked out all but two tanks for the loss of none. I lost a few Warriors and 432s. Nevertheless some of my lads should not have copped it. I'm arranging to court martial myself. Oh wait, I'm a general. That will never happen. Queenie's going to pin another medal on me.
 
Amusing moment of the game:
Road Traffic Accident – one of my 432s rearended a Warrior on the bridge, entirely due to my inept vehicle handling. You can see it in the image above. Classic. I hope I don't get a ticket.
 
Music
I think appropriate music really heightens the enjoyment of a video game. Usually I find the in-game music track palls, however good it is. So I turn it off and have YouTube open in my browser. So I can do a quick search and find something that is atmospheric and feels right for the moment, then save it as a playlist. I have game music on my computer, like the Doom era soundtrack of pumping metal, which can work, but YouTube is more convenient and you can just search again and use something different if it doesn't feel right.
For example, for fantasy games, Lord of the Rings soundtrack works brilliantly, but feels completely wrong if I am playing Shogun 2. There's lots of westernised Japanese samurai movie and anime soundtracks which really juice that game up.
 
For this CM scenario I was playing various heroic tracks, and I also interspersed this with Scottish martial bagpipe music. My boys love it!
I have also been known to play Ride of the Valkyries when the attack helos go in...
 
Conclusion
I enjoyed this game a lot. However the British side has a considerable advantage, in technology, military competence and arty/air support.
(SPOILER)
The armoured counterattack could be deadly if the T72s ganged up on the Challys – which are already zoned in by Syrian troops. But the AI can't do that, and just drove around aimlessly, getting shot.
I could have improved with better fire discipline: I wasted a lot of rounds that I should have saved for later, running out of ammo at the last stages of the game. I thought Challenger 2s had 52 rounds but the game only has 48. Could really do with those four shells.
In longer games, keeping track of ammo is very important. I blasted away with the 81 mm when more careful use would have kept some in reserve. Use more “Target Briefly” rather than using T and hitting a target with area fire for the full minute. I've been doing TB for 30 or 45 seconds so I don't shoot up something ( and forget about it) for several turns, and run short of MG ammo in a Chally (which I did!).
Finally, if there's anybody who's good with sound, perhaps contact GeorgeMC and Mord to upgrade the Cuss Mod. It might be something simple like needing reformatting? It's a mod I would like to see operational again. I could listen to it fine in my media player so there's nothing damaged.
 

Not much I think I can add on top of the last few posts.
We know that CM aims for centre mass and we know that's both realistic and infinitely easier to code than using a thousand variables to calculate exactly where the gunner should aim.
We know that for some German tanks, presenting a hull-down target means the centre of mass is shifted from the effective armour of the hull front plate up to the less effective armour of the turret mantlet and the vulnerable muzzle/gun barrel.
I think the question has gotten to be: how does the player manage that? In one corner we have "expect to get hit, get into the open so centre mass is the better protected hull front"; and in the other corner we have "don't risk getting hit at all, play pop-up from a hull-down position".
There's an argument for both, but I know which point of view I would rather my opponent held.
Two things I'd add would be:
Testing is good, but unless it includes ingame behaviour then it's of limited use (and if you fight from a static exposed position with the pause command overriding the (reasonably sensible) TacAI then I'd love to play you). Ideally what we would need are examples from actual games under ingame conditions when players are trying to win. And finally: no one complains about this happening to Shermans. There are elements of this discussion that feel a lot like "Invincible Panzer Syndrome" vs reality. Heavy armour doesn't exclude any tank from basic tactical principles- it's insurance against the worst case possibility.

I'm reminded of 17 pounder and 6 pounder APDS rounds. In the real world either the round was accurate or it REALLY wasn't, all having to do with how  the core and sabot separated. Ideally, in CM titles the occasional round would just go crazy, fly off at an odd angle. But I suspect players would REALLY REALLY hate that happening. There's a bit of 'be careful what you wish for' in this debate. If all of a sudden Stuarts are KOing all the PzIVs with turret front hits all the time, or the round's you're firing on a stationary target aren't hitting anything half the time, someone's going to get frustrated.

No, no, and no! I don't want my gunners to randomly  hit around center of mass. It's hard enough scoring a KO against a Tiger without throwing this into the mix. The randomness you are advocating for already exists in the game when you are actually playing rather than running tests on a target range which is what you all have been observing.
My vehicles blow-up real good as is for all sorts of hits. A main gun getting knocked out is not common for me. Therefore, the very same must also apply to everyone else. No?
 

I am still working on this and the updated missions are being play tested. I have a few missions left to update but progress is being made. I will admit this campaign is taking a backseat to my gardening work, I have a large family and with all the fun from Corona, I want to make sure I can keep them all fed.

Been reading this discussion with some interest between work etc
For a part it seems that some dialogues have been going past eachother.
Personally I don't see what the game should fix, apart from it's always nice if the simulation becomes more fine grained. Yes in certain tactical situations in the game, it can be advantageous to not go hull down. More specific, when you are rolling with tanks and are in close range of several enemy which lack the ability to penetrate your tanks frontal/hull armor but can damage the turret (or gun/mantlet area). 
Many players still will choose to go for shoot and scoot hull down, because that's still the best thing to do. Others will go for hull up because in specific situations they know it can help their game.
I think this is were the misunderstanding is focused. It's 'parameter X has too much influence on outcomes in situation A' vs 'situation A is not, or should not, be a desirable situation whatever parameter X is'. 
Personally I am happy that CM doesn't artificially reward a 'hull down'  position. Yes, sometimes outcomes of battles can feel unnatural. In certain situations, being aggressive and or not caring for certain advantageous like hull down + shoot and scoot, can reward (which is not 'unrealistic'  imo). The way how the ballistics simulation of CM compares to the real thing can sometimes be off. It's still a simulation.
Also, afaik 'hit mark' visual representation is just a visual representation of the place where the impact occurred with a static texture for the type of round. It's just a texture bolted on a spot, not sure how accurate it is. So if we see 10 penetration textures on the barrel, it might not represent 10 actual APFSDS (or whatever) projectiles making a full penetration through the barrel/muzzlebrake. 

Not much I think I can add on top of the last few posts.
We know that CM aims for centre mass and we know that's both realistic and infinitely easier to code than using a thousand variables to calculate exactly where the gunner should aim.
We know that for some German tanks, presenting a hull-down target means the centre of mass is shifted from the effective armour of the hull front plate up to the less effective armour of the turret mantlet and the vulnerable muzzle/gun barrel.
I think the question has gotten to be: how does the player manage that? In one corner we have "expect to get hit, get into the open so centre mass is the better protected hull front"; and in the other corner we have "don't risk getting hit at all, play pop-up from a hull-down position".
There's an argument for both, but I know which point of view I would rather my opponent held.
Two things I'd add would be:
Testing is good, but unless it includes ingame behaviour then it's of limited use (and if you fight from a static exposed position with the pause command overriding the (reasonably sensible) TacAI then I'd love to play you). Ideally what we would need are examples from actual games under ingame conditions when players are trying to win. And finally: no one complains about this happening to Shermans. There are elements of this discussion that feel a lot like "Invincible Panzer Syndrome" vs reality. Heavy armour doesn't exclude any tank from basic tactical principles- it's insurance against the worst case possibility.

With 30 odd minutes on the clock it looks like Elvis is making his move. Update soon. It's kind of lucky the fighting was ramping up again, the pixeltruppen were starting to contemplate the war...

 

Personally, I think center mass was used a majority of the time in the real situation.
The only time I think gunners in the war did anything else was  when they knew they had no chance of a kill doing such a shot.
 
That would mean the gunner would have had to have the knowledge that he needed to do that. (So that means he would have been informed he had to do this from command) or he had experienced it in his unit or from others in his  unit and was still alive to try to resolve the issue.
It also means he would have to be at a range that he could see to take such a shot.
 
But there is accounts of units knowing they needed to aim at weak points on certain tanks.
 
From the writing of German tank aces from 1941, they found they could not take on a kv1 to any extent. word passed quickly and there is plenty of accounts of how they were aiming for the gun to disable it of the tracks to immobilize it so as to be able to out position it.
We also have plenty of accounts from Sherman tankers that knew they needed to aim for the turret ring when possible when engaging from the front, which again could only happen if the range was close enough to do so.
But we also read that they were quickly trained to split their force , with the units from the front engaging and trying to use shoot and scoot tactics  and smoke to stay alive while one or two of their units tried to flank the enemy. All of which only works if you have the numeric advantage to do such a thing. Which at the end of the war they generally did.
Its not that the concept is incorrect for a gunner to aim at something other than center mass. But how and when would it be logical for such a thing to be implemented.
In your test, I can guarantee that a 1000 meters is not when such a tactic would have been used.
 

Picture from your very own testing.

So. About that 1x1cm square.

Yeah, when they have the time to precisely zero in the gun on an immobile target in the open with a great number of rounds, they reliably start hitting close to center mass on the target. It's to be expected. The rounds still have a decent spread across center of mass, as is also to be expected.

What are you asking for here, the implementation of some kind of RNG where even after the enemy gunner has accurately dialed in the range and found the target, the shells should just occasionally randomly curve to miss your Wunderpanthers anyway?

E: anyway this talk about "I put my tanks in the open to cheese hits by putting the hull armor at center of mass" is not really an issue with the game honestly - yes, a Panther is possibly more survivable in a situation where it sits still in the open because now it can take hits on the strong hull armor and not its glass jaw of a turret, but if you are sitting still and counting on your armor to save you from hits, you have committed major tactical mistakes to begin with

the best defense is not getting seen or hit in the first place (your armor is your last, not your first, line of defense), which is why real militaries fight their tanks in hull-down BP engagements using shoot and scoot tactics

Not much I think I can add on top of the last few posts.
We know that CM aims for centre mass and we know that's both realistic and infinitely easier to code than using a thousand variables to calculate exactly where the gunner should aim.
We know that for some German tanks, presenting a hull-down target means the centre of mass is shifted from the effective armour of the hull front plate up to the less effective armour of the turret mantlet and the vulnerable muzzle/gun barrel.
I think the question has gotten to be: how does the player manage that? In one corner we have "expect to get hit, get into the open so centre mass is the better protected hull front"; and in the other corner we have "don't risk getting hit at all, play pop-up from a hull-down position".
There's an argument for both, but I know which point of view I would rather my opponent held.
Two things I'd add would be:
Testing is good, but unless it includes ingame behaviour then it's of limited use (and if you fight from a static exposed position with the pause command overriding the (reasonably sensible) TacAI then I'd love to play you). Ideally what we would need are examples from actual games under ingame conditions when players are trying to win. And finally: no one complains about this happening to Shermans. There are elements of this discussion that feel a lot like "Invincible Panzer Syndrome" vs reality. Heavy armour doesn't exclude any tank from basic tactical principles- it's insurance against the worst case possibility.

Not much I think I can add on top of the last few posts.
We know that CM aims for centre mass and we know that's both realistic and infinitely easier to code than using a thousand variables to calculate exactly where the gunner should aim.
We know that for some German tanks, presenting a hull-down target means the centre of mass is shifted from the effective armour of the hull front plate up to the less effective armour of the turret mantlet and the vulnerable muzzle/gun barrel.
I think the question has gotten to be: how does the player manage that? In one corner we have "expect to get hit, get into the open so centre mass is the better protected hull front"; and in the other corner we have "don't risk getting hit at all, play pop-up from a hull-down position".
There's an argument for both, but I know which point of view I would rather my opponent held.
Two things I'd add would be:
Testing is good, but unless it includes ingame behaviour then it's of limited use (and if you fight from a static exposed position with the pause command overriding the (reasonably sensible) TacAI then I'd love to play you). Ideally what we would need are examples from actual games under ingame conditions when players are trying to win. And finally: no one complains about this happening to Shermans. There are elements of this discussion that feel a lot like "Invincible Panzer Syndrome" vs reality. Heavy armour doesn't exclude any tank from basic tactical principles- it's insurance against the worst case possibility.