Codreanu

I did have them buttoned up but there was some infantry in the area and wanted to play it safe, plus some of my nearby infantry already cut down the tank commanders of both of the SU-76s so I figured that would have evened the playing field a little. I think trying to hit the SU-76s with "target area" HE was a bad idea too, instead of stunning them like I hoped it would, the muzzle flash just made it easier for them to see me. Do you know if all tanks have the same spotting ability if they're buttoned up or not and how open topped vehicles like the SU-76 play into that? Even with their commanders dead I guess the rest of the crew would still have much better visibility but I don't know if that's modeled. As for the weather I completely forgot to check it, does poor weather increase the difficulty of spotting closer in targets as well even if it's within the maximum sight distance? That would also make sense logically but I don't know if that's modeled either.

Yes, that was definitely where I messed up, although I'm more miffed about my tanks being unable to spot the 76s than the fact they penetrated me, especially since I was ordering one of the Panthers to manually fire HE at one and he still couldn't manage to see him despite multiple hits, but that's just part of the game I suppose, close range spotting with vehicles has always been weird.

Really great mission minus Steiner's Panthers being cursed in my playthrough, two getting taken out by SU-76's through the lower front plate that they couldn't see 50m away and one catching an 85mm shell to the mantlet, but I guess that just gives me impetus to play it again later and see what other AI plans there are.