THH149

Here's some data to help reset the convo....
The Soviets plan to achieve certain density nonns
for artillery, depending on the tactical situation. In the
penetration of well-prepared enemy defenses, for
example, high numbers of tubes per kilometer of
frontage are desirable, even under nuclear-threatened
conditions. However, modern artillery and methods
of fIre control will allow lower densities than
those which were considered standard during World
War II.
Some average guidelines for desired densities are•
Attack of a well-prepared defense, in the direction
of a main attack: 60 to 100 tubes per kilometer of
frontage.
• Attack on a hasty defense in the direction of a main
attack: 60 to 80 tubes per kilometer of frontage.
• Attack on a supporting axis: 40 tubes per kilometer
of frontage.
These densities include all calibers of guns,
howitzers, and mortars. Densities computed in
number of tubes may increase by 50 to 75 percent
when multiple rocket launchers are included
Based on the fIre plan, artillery is deployed to
provide preparatory fIres and the initial fIre support of
the attack. The fIgure below provides tactical deployment
guidelines for Soviet artillery.
Source: FM 100-2-1 Soviet Army and Tactics page 9-21

I agree with your approach, and one scenario that demands something similar is Valley of Ashes.
In VofA, its vitally important as the Soviets to give the artie and air time to reduce the critical defenders to ashes, and then assault with the full soviet force against whatevers left.  Ironically, the Soviets have reinforcements that keep piling up and have to be hidden in the woods until the type is right to do the armoured assault while still using the terrain to your advantage.
 

I get a clothing brand when I search for Armour Winter 2022. This is the actual source: https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/earmor/content/issues/2022/Winter/1Hines22.pdf

Yep, I reckon scenario designers need to be aware that not all Bradley crews are sighting and firing gods! And it realistic to have crews as green!
The source btw was the Armour Winter 2022, so a credible source.

I beat RR as the Sov and I'm pretty pleased. Potential spoilers below. 
I did something somewhat unconventional compared with how I've seen the scenario played out in various videos. I wanted to solve these two problems: 
1) Find and attrit the enemy.
2) How to hit the enemy with maximum concentrated force. 
Given how your units dribble in over the first 30 minutes I wanted to wait until I had my whole force together before trying to cross. 
My plan was:
1) Don't try and cross the river until the last rifle company arrives (they will go straight from march to assault). 
2) Dismount some of the ATGM battery vehicles and tank crews and use them as scouts to get early spots. 
3) Plaster the mid depth of Rumpenheim with a 152mm contact fused barrage from the start until the 3rd company is crossing. 
4) Hit the side of Rumpenheim facing the river with VT fused 122mm barrage right before contact (heavy/maximum) to suppress any defenders hiding in the building. 
5) Any exposed targets get hit with the 120mm mortars as they are seen, paying particular attention to ATGMs and tanks. 
6) 1st and 2nd rifle companies dismount while out of contact and move up with their BMPs and the tanks. Any enemies that fire back have a tank company and 2 rifle companies with dismounts all looking for them. The BMPs are easily penetrated by pretty much anything that hits harder than a slingshot but this way I only loose the crew and not the whole squad. 
7) Smoke. Smoking the riverfront would just isolate 3rd company from their supporting fires on the other side of the river. I biased tanks and 1st and 2nd companies towards the left and I did use a 120mm smoke mission on the right flank to keep the swimming BMPs from taking flanking shots. 
8 ) 3rd rifle company crossed the river and seized the castle. After that they pushed deeper into Rumpenheim. This gave them access to the cross streets and they were able to kill the units fleeing 2nd and 1st companies when they crossed and grabbed their chunks of Rumpenheim. 3rd was also able to interdict the reinforcements as they tried to get to the riverfront. 
9) 1st and 2nd companies crossed one after the other and grabbed more riverfront before pressing inland. 

The plan pretty much worked. The river was crossed, there was FISH & CHIPS, mouses were holed, and all that good ****e. 
An observation is that the BMP and Sov infantry squad is a pretty lethal urban combat team. The scouts find the enemy (usually by being shot/shot at), the squad suppresses, and the BMP rolls up to the contact having an idea of what to exterminate because of all the green tracer heading out. Stalking enemy armor is another nasty trick the Sov can pull off better than the Americans can. The Sov squad has more RPG rounds than the Americans get LAWs and has another set of reloads in the track, so they don't run out of their organic AT weapon as fast as the Americans do. 
 
Against a human I would have had a tougher time, particularly as my supporting force could only move so much and remain, well, supporting. I did have > 50m dispersion between units and when I did take artillery from the AI I was able to move the affected units out of the bombardment by shifting them around some. 

 
No Soviet AFVs were sunk in the making of this post...

Judging by where the posts are, this forum is for crackpot discussion of the Ukraine conflict and very little else.

It's so that I can do this:
The linear battlefield may be replaced by the fragmented, or nonlinear [очаговый], battlefield, where brigades maneuver like naval flotillas, deploying maneuver and fire subunits over large areas, protected by air-defense systems, electronic warfare and particulate smoke. Strongpoints will be established and abandoned, artillery fires will maneuver and difficult terrain will become the future fortresses and redoubts. (source: Grau Bartles Armour Winter 2022)

This is the Cold War forum. So in this case Soviet tactics do not cover WW2. 

So, essentially, the Soviets plan for some serious artillery fires. In the CM world some things seem to be truncated - access to artillery pre attack is limited for instance. So CM is a reasonable but not a perfect analog of the real world.
To make CMCW a little more realistic a player in a QB could spend more on artillery than they think is 'fun' so better emulate Soviet approach, eg a 1/3rd at least on artie, its cheap and plentiful. Some of the scenario's aren't great at CW soviet tactics, they limit the degree of artie. The pic below is perhaps extreme (IDK but its from the relevant US FM, but shows an artillery battalion taking on a platoon.
A counterpoint is would US tactics work in the attack in CW? Given the defenders advantages and unreliance on artie, I'd be surprised if they did!
Anyway, the lack of perceived success with the "Active Defense" doctrine (limited to the universe of the immediate battlefield itself) led to the Air Land Battle doctrine which expanded the battlefied to include the logisitcs train of the Soviets as the place where the US could win. But then long range fires is not the monopoly of the US either.

I have been slowly playing through Cold War's campaigns and standalone scenarios and have been completely blown away with the fidelity of the singleplayer experience. The AI plans have almost universally been some of the best I've seen in any title. It's been immersive. As I often do when I play, I started snapping pictures and making small gifs. When I arrived to scenario 3 in the US Campaign I thought "I should start making an AAR." So, I paused, went back to play the NTC campaign, a few of my favourite scenarios from the Soviet perspective, and started writing. 
I've learned two things: I can't write to save my life, and I really enjoyed it regardless. I already have 6 AARs completed of my experiences and will share them with you all, if only to distract. They strike a more narrative tone, but I have done my best to explain the tactics and decisions. I will label the scenario/mission at the start of every AAR. Without further ado...
 
Prologue:
Kiev Military District, Ukraine SSR.
It was a clear, late spring day somewhere south of Kiev. The open pastureland was starting to show the signs of recovery following the harsh winter. Grass grew tall and the sea of mud was firming up into dry terrain. To any casual observer it would seem a scene of idyllic pastoral calm.

It is a façade. The calm is shattered in an instant, and a brutish ballet begins.

A thunderous barrage deforms and rapes the landscape. It builds to a howling, shrieking crescendo. A cacophony of mortars, howitzers and “Grad” rockets form the orchestra. The impacts smother two wooded hills with a mix of high explosive, smoke, and chemical irritants similar to CS gas. It was all the fury and violence of war, at its apparent worst.
This was not war, however. Merely a facsimile of it. An exercise. To the stern-faced evaluators observing from several kilometres away, and the attached state TV camera crews, it was real enough. Real enough for citizens of the Soviet Union who would watch these scenes play out on their TVs, real enough for Western defence analysts who would pore over every frame of the video, and real enough indeed for young conscripts sat waiting in their tanks and personnel carriers a few kilometres away, in readiness behind a low ridge.

Belly crawling forward among tree, bush and scrub on this same ridge, were more of these young Soviet conscripts. These men were equipped with heavy weapons:  machine guns, recoilless rifles, grenade launchers and potent anti-tank missiles. They would soon make their presence felt, reaching out into the roaring inferno across the open field, destroying any target they could see which remained unharmed from the bombardment. Their missiles began reaching out, flying towards real and simulated targets. TV cameras panned, keeping up with the missiles, visible as green dots against the background.


The evaluators would duly note “hits” recorded by these weapons and, using an intricate set of rules and modifiers, adjust the amount of fire (and therefore casualties) the unit would be deemed to receive when they began their attack. The prospects were good: everything appeared to be within nominal parameters for this drill. The artillery was on target, the missile fire accurate.
As the artillery fire began to abate, the MRB commander – a tough, professional soldier who had been through several prestigious state academies and had seen service in Afghanistan – knew the time was right to begin his attack. Ensconced within his personnel carrier, his voice simultaneously filled the headset of every vehicle commander of this force: begin, armour forward, came the command.
A company of T-64s, a marvel of Soviet technology and a demonstration of its single-minded design philosophy, rumbled up the ridge they had sheltered behind. Taking effective hull down positions, their imposing 125mm cannons crashed out in volleys, striking targets on the forward edge of the forested hills.

The fire is deemed highly effective, scoring several “kills” of enemy vehicles.  With this report crackling through his headset from the tank company commander, the MRB leader issues the next orders, this time via pre-assigned codeword. Repeating himself so there could be no confusion, he tersely speaks: Hornet, hornet, hornet. The unit roars forward as one.
Again, the tanks lead, pushing up and over the ridge at top speed. They fire, with much less accuracy now, on the move, too fast for even the gyro stabilizers to compensate. It is no matter, movement now is key, rather than fire. 

As they pass the exposed area, their rate of advance slows again. Their fire becomes highly effective once more, volleys crashing out across the valley. The observers would note “losses”, of course, losses would always result as an attack neared an objective. They were well within normal parameters, however. What was expected, acceptable, in the science of the attack.

Then come the personnel carriers, surging over the ridge. They move with alacrity behind the armour, in two extended lines.

With pinpoint timing, the artillery fire redoubles on the wooded hills, once again smothering the MRB’s objectives. Any surviving enemy who would chance a shot at these vulnerable vehicles would undoubtedly be discouraged by the howling high explosives.

Again, losses are incurred by the observer/evaluators. Not enough, however. Again, everything is within acceptable parameters.
The MRB closes with shocking speed, crossing several hundred meters in only a few minutes. The momentum and impetus is irresistible. Most of the tanks halt 500 meters away from the wooded tree line, redoubling their fire into and around it. A handful of T-64s move forward with the personnel carriers to provide intimate support. They close the distance aggressively, moving through the final rounds of their own artillery. This particularly impresses the camera crews, still diligently recording, delighted at the realism of the exercise.


The vehicles rumble into the woods, their heavy machineguns thumping away at silhouette targets meant to simulate enemy infantry in their foxholes. Then, the orders come: “Dismount! Forward!” Soviet infantry scramble out of rear hatches and side doors, over engine decks, and into action. Units move in an extended line, firing bursts from their assault rifles. Occasionally, a squad halts at the knee, spraying down foxholes with automatic fire and rocket propelled grenades. They press forward, moving with astonishing speed, newer conscripts desperately sucking for air as they gallop forward.

Leaning out of the hatch of his command vehicle, the MRB commander witnesses his forward companies safely debussing on the objectives. Smoke, as planned, begins to land at the edges of the hills, isolating them from one another. Exultant, for he knows his unit is performing excellently, he urges forward the remainder of his force. Not onto these terrain objectives, these are not of the greatest importance, but beyond them. Breakthrough.
The tanks form into two columns and  roar through the hole ripped in the enemy’s defence, and the MRB commander pushes his command group, air defence vehicles and his third company through in the vacuum they create. They fire as they move, riflemen spraying the smoke-shrouded treeline from open cargo hatches on the rear of the personnel carriers.


***
“15 minutes.”
“What was that, comrade Colonel?” the TV producer asks, overhearing the supervising Colonel despite the dull thuds and crunches in the distance.
“15 minutes. That’s the average time it usually takes to complete this drill.” He explains.
“Is that good?”
The Colonel laughs, “Yes, 15 minutes is quite acceptable… this commander has done it in 12.”
The dismounted infantry may take hours, in reality, to comb through the wooded hills and defeat the surviving enemy infantry. That they would suffer heavily whilst doing so was not in dispute, nor was it of any particular importance. Even the uninitiated TV crewmen could deduce that. The real takeaway, the true objective, was that most of a tank company and an entirely unscathed set of motor riflemen were through the enemy’s defensive position. Havoc would ensue, and the destruction of the notional enemy unit was almost presaged. What the Colonel observing knew, and that the TV crewmen did not, was that inexorably, inevitably, behind this breakthrough would come a tank battalion, then another regiment, and then entire brigades. Victory would follow. It was as simple as that.
Notes/Thoughts
So, the scenario played here was "Soviet Tactical Doctrine 1 (MRB)" by Miller. I wanted to play because I thought it would make a great little compare and contrast piece to how the US would have to do things, especially in the NTC campaign. It's also just a solid concept for a mission, and a trend that I hope continues. For the absence of doubt, I played it straight, precisely as the briefing guides you to do. 
I also think there's some subtle criticism to be made, through the scenario, of how we know the Soviets trained in reality. Big, choreographed exercises. Useful for producing units that knew a series of SOPs and battle-drill evolutions, perhaps not as useful for producing units that know how to keep pushing through when BTRs and BMPs are exploding. They weren't organic like say, I feel the NTC was. Keep that in your minds for now. 

@Battlefront.com
Here is some recommendations from UKR frontline soldier for your collection
ATTENTION TO ALL, WHO FIRST TIME COMES TO EASTERN FRONT
1. Enemy has significant advantage in aviation and artillery.
2. There are no more stupid conscripts, but really trainned murderers, whick know own work
3. Our positions have been betraying by locals and drones ajust fire
4. Vehicles are target #1
RECOMMENDAIONS FOR DOGFACE
1. Dig in deep, but never wide.
2. Dig in in the places with additional protection (tree) or with obstacles for enemy artillery (hill,railwau embarkment)
3. Dig several positions, join its after in the trench (if enemy allow you to do this)
4. Do not concentrate many people in one shelter - no more 2-3
5. For rest and cover to dig a grave. Yes, a grave with steps (on the photo) for two. While the first on position, the second rests in the grave, then change.
6. Evacuation point must be maximally hidden, to make a pathway and the hole for aid. In the hole only combat medic have to work, you shouldn't be there.
7. Do not bring with you neither too much ammunitions nor any other supply - its betrays you. Get out the trash - bury even cigarette butts.
8. Prepare good off-road jeep, take away all superflous, take away lights and give NV device to the driver. Let he stays in 5 km from your positions. This will save most of your WIAs.
9. Ammunition and supply delivers when jeep drives to take WIAs or if you have a need in resupply. Two days reserve of ammunition and supply for comany have to be always near the jeep. 
10. BMPs and BTRs are also have to be in the rear, dug in deeply and disguished or hidden. They drive to the battle only and dont's carry people! Your trucks you can shot out yourself, thus will be less victims. But better hand over its to artillerists. 
11. Comms, steady encriptes comms and interaction with tanks and artillery. Infantry finds targets, recons ajust arty with drones, arty fires. But artillerists are people too and they also primary target for the enemy. They will not stand-by continuously and they also have a limit of ammunition and supply. 
12. Do not deploy on infantry positions ATGMs or MANPADs. Deployits aside or behind, but never on positions. If this stuff works at least once, your position will grounded.  
13. Most important!!!! The time for supply it's twilight (dawn or dusk). Safe time you will understand yourself.  And do this with jeeps with engine volume no more 2,5 l
14. Despite on written above, the war is dictating own rules. At this war the best are speed and mobility. And remember - they don't know how much of you, until you expose yourself. And during this time eliminate as more of orcs as possible, while they will be probe. Best way - to shot, when you see the enemy, and not hear his bullets. In this way they check your nerves. When the come close, try to kill as more as possible in order they will not call or adjust own artillery, because without accurate adjustment their arty is skew and only something random can hit your positin.   
 
The "grave with steps" for R&R
 

Yom Kippur is a must do in CW - its the first conflict that started the era of modern warfare!

Plus you can add to that list a frozen conflict along the Kherson Oblast to Karkiv Oblast, well beyond Donetsk and Luhansk, with fake referendums in those wholly occupied oblasts transferring themselves to RF (over Ukr objections and not internationally recognised) before November this year, plus I guess a ten year program to reform the RA into something more than an artillery park with the money it gets from selling resources to China and India etc, while it prepares for the next war. Putin will die an old man in office.
Not what I'd like to see obv. but what I think is most likely.

Some excerpts of the descriptions of the Battle of Voznesenk, including a map of the area, excellent scenario material:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-russia-voznesensk-town-battle-11647444734?mod=djemalertNEWS
-
- The Russian assault began with missile strikes and shelling that hit central Voznesensk, destroying the municipal swimming pool and damaging high-rises.
- Helicopters dropped Russian air-assault troops in a forested ridge southwest of Voznesensk, as an armored column drove from the southeast.
- Mr. Velichko said a local collaborator with the Russians, a woman driving a Hyundai SUV, showed the Russian column a way through back roads.
- The Russian tanks  would fire into Voznesensk and immediately drive a few hundred yards away to escape return fire,
- Mr. Rudenko was on the phone with a Ukrainian artillery unit. Sending coordinates via the Viber social-messaging app, he directed artillery fire at the Russians. So did other local Territorial Defense volunteers around the city. 
- Mayor Velichko worked with local businessmen to dig up the shores of the Mertvovod river that cuts through town so armored personnel vehicles couldn’t ford it.
- He got other businessmen who owned a quarry and a construction company to block off most streets to channel the Russian column into areas that would be easier to hit with artillery.
- Ukrainian shelling blew craters in the field, and some Russian vehicles sustained direct hits. Other Ukrainian regular troops and Territorial Defense forces moved toward Russian positions on foot, hitting vehicles with U.S.-supplied Javelin missiles. As Russian armor caught fire—including three of the five tanks in the wheat field—soldiers abandoned functioning vehicles and escaped on foot or sped off in the BTRs that still had fuel. 
- Russian survivors of the Voznesensk battle left behind nearly 30 of their 43 vehicles—tanks, armored personnel carriers, multiple-rocket launchers, trucks—as well as a downed Mi-24 attack helicopter, according to Ukrainian officials in the city. 
- We didn’t have a single tank against them, just rocket-propelled grenades, Javelin missiles and the help of artillery,” said Vadym Dombrovsky, commander of the Ukrainian special-forces reconnaissance group in the area and a Voznesensk resident. 
 
 

- Ukrainian officers estimate that some 400 Russian troops took part in the attack. The number would have been bigger if these forces—mostly from the 126th naval infantry brigade based in Perevalnoye, Crimea, hadn’t come under heavy shelling along the way.
- Russian forces set up base at a gas station at Voznesensk’s entrance. A Russian BTR infantry fighting vehicle drove up to the blown-up bridge over the Mertvovod, opening fire on the Territorial Defense base to the left. Five tanks, supported by a BTR, drove to a wheat field overlooking Voznesensk.
- A group of Territorial Defense volunteers armed with Kalashnikovs was hiding in a building at that field’s edge. They didn’t have much of a chance against the BTR’s
- Russian troops in two Ural trucks were preparing to assemble and set up 120mm mortars on the wheat field, but they got only as far as unloading the ammunition before Ukrainian shelling began.
- The Ukrainian army’s 80th brigade was towing away the last remaining Russian BTRs with “Z” painted on their sides. About 15 Russian tanks and other vehicles were in working or salvageable condition, said Mr. Dombrovsky. 

I dont know Ukrainian but the first tank doesn't seem to have been penetrated from the front/side, though its very hard to tell. The second obviously had a catastropic explosion.
One candidate could be a Ka-52 firing ATGMs from the rear perhaps, but that would suppose some kind of air power that we haven't seen since the first days of the war.
A different perspective might suppose that they are both pointed to the left and hull down behind the roadway and another road to the further left at a higher elevation (a poor defensive position for them I guess) so some kind of fire from the trees on their left or right.

Somebody needs to tell him, cough @Battlefront.com cough, that he has the wrong computer analysis. 
Take any CM title, seriously any CM title, and play an Attack Quick Battle. Choose mechanized/armoured/motorized attackers. Be generous and say 20% are Crack, 30% Veteran, 30% Regular and 20% Green. Set morale to High, Normal, Low and Poor respectively. Leadership levels from +1 to -2. Give them one off map battery for every Company.
For the defenders, make sure they have an abundance of AT assets. I think the force skill level can be the same, however the leadership should all be +1 or better and morale a mix of Extreme and High. One off map battery for every two Companies.
Choose a large rural map, fields and forests with a small town or two. A river or a couple of streams would be ideal. Set the ground conditions to muddy, cool or cold and light rain.
Play the battle as the attacker, on iron mode, ideally with enemy icons off.
Let us all know how that turns out.

IMO the below house rules (hard cat rules) developed by Bil & IanL are very useful.  This is what I use.  I sometimes add my own modifications to the rules when I want to test a new idea.   Hard Cat Rules v2 is a good place to start.  
 
 
I also made a CMRT scenario (mini-campaign) Alarmeinheiten that features runners assigned to each infantry platoon to facilitate C2 when using Hard Cat Rules v2.
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-red-thunder/cm-red-thunder-campaigns/cmrt-mini-campaign-alarmeinheiten/ 

This thread is an offshoot of the Co-op AAR that @IanL and I have ongoing in the CMFS 2 forum.  In that game we tested a set of realism rules we called the Hard Cat Rules.
Well I have been doing a lot of talking about perhaps adding some rule additions to that basic set and got some great feedback and ideas along the way.  What follows are my extended rules, my intent was to maintain ease of use, and the basic rules fit on one standard page, so they can easily be printed out and referred to during play.  My main goal was to create the feeling of Command and Control without overwhelming the players with spreadsheets or writing stuff down (like my previous attempt).  
I am looking for feedback and suggestions with these, if you think they are too complex tell me why.. if they don't make sense to you  let me know, etc.
Here are the basic rules - a formatted PDF Version available at this link This PDF includes all of the latest additions (version 2H) - UPDATED 01JUN22
Click the image to see full size.

The following Advanced or Optional Rules also fit on one page, they are on page two of the PDF linked above. 

Click the image to see full size.
 

Not sure if someone already posted this but this is the first video of CMCW that has crossed the 1M views line.
 

I saw RF drone footage of a MLRS firing at Rf positions then driving across the city to this Sport Life gym and reverse in. The RF knew what was there and bombed it in the same drone footage YT upload. The explosion seems aimed to flatten the gym and the ground floor adjacent.
Not sure if the rest of the building was flattened as well but the gym doesnt exist anymore.
Good RF use of drones and a precision strike, I guess.

Russian drone videos of strike at Kyiv mall:
 

Why on earth did the Russians attack in the Rasputitsa phase of the seasons? I think I know the answer: overconfidence!
But still, why do that if they know their tanks and vehicles are going to be confined to roads? Even if they're onverconfident, any defence is going to be stronger against a narrow thrust, and the attackers supply lines are vulnerable to ambush. So so overconfident!
And why don't they know their vehicles are going to get stuck in the mud?
The list of fixes required to bring them up to be near-peer to NATO is going to long and extensive and costly and undoable if their ppl arent empowered, their access to technology is zero and have a crippled industrial base. 
Zelensky and some retired US generals have been saying the next 10 days (from around March 15) are going to be the critical days for Ukraine to survive, after which the additional weapons the US promised and NATO have begun delivering would have been fully deployed. 
Will Ukraine start their counteroffensives from March 25th?
 
 

Haha!  Thanks.  The Ukraine war thread has sucked up all our attention!
I felt the same way, both with that slope in front and just how BIG in general it was!  I knew the M1 was big and all but it's really impressive when you actually see one for real.

I have to agree with BFC on this stuff.  Plus mixing the fictional (CMBS) and the non-fictional (Russo- Ukrainian War or RUW) after two weeks of history, wont given an accurate read on how the whole war turned out. CMBS doesnt need to adjust for factors outside its artificial scope, ie an invasion by a competent invader.
But, if one wanted to use CMBS to recreate the RUW then thats up to the player and BFC have made some suggestions on how that may be achieved. 
Now if we had a CM RUW 2022+ released in like the year 2030, then that would be a different story. 

Oh gosh, there's a lot there to consider here, and probably learnt by experience or reading the manual, very carefully, and then looking at wikipedia for arms and ammunition types. CMBS does cry out for a wiki of its own with much of the answers to what you're asking. This is extremely apt when doing a QB or DYO scenario. Also, spotting is extremely important in CMBS, at very long ranges, and still well within killing range. For example,  in QB i had two Abrams hit my T-90 three times from 4km.
You can set up in a home made QB the forces to test all the gear. Many players do these tests so they get first hand experience with what the weapon systems do.
Maybe some tips.....
1. The manual describes Krasnopol-M and Kitolov-2M which are laser guided etc and Kitolov may be top attack. If they hit an abrams in the right place often enough eg sides/rear, maybe one will knock it out or degrade its systems.
2. Those with ATGMs and big bombs might damage an Abrams.
3. The damage panel will show vehicles with IR optics, but the better question is which have thermal sights, the answer to which can be found in the manual or maybe wikipedia.
4. Nope. But, there some chance if the russian is on a crest and is reversing away, or has APS.
....and there are many more ppl here with better insight than I can give.
THH