Great game!

[JasonC]

The US 37mm is significantly overmodeled. In reality its performance was comparable to the British 2 pdr, which bounced from the front of DAK Panzer III Hs at anything more than 500 yards. Maybe it was 600 yards for the US 37mm, but no more difference than that. In CMAK on the other hand, the US 37mm routinely penetrated 50mm front IIIs and such at 1000 to 1200 meters, about double its actual effective range in the real war.

Part of the problem is that the actual armor configuration of most Germans IIIs is not shown correctly. The most common type was a IIIH with 30mm of extra armor bolted to the front. That is shown for the hull but only for the hull, and the IIIJ short with plain 50mm is made more common, doesn't get applique upgrades, and so remains penetrable out to medium ranges.

None of it is a problem with the US 75mm on the Grant hull. That and British 25 pdrs were capable of holing the plain Panzers at such ranges, but the 37mm was not.

The actual tactical relationships reported by all the participants at the time, were that the British with 2 pdr or 37mm main armament needed to close to 500-600 yards to have a chance against the bog standard German panzers, while the latter could hole them at significantly longer ranges, and proceeded to do so. The Brits responded by employing rapid closing tactics. The Germans like to retire before those and lure the British tanks onto PAK fronts.

Meanwhile the British I tanks were invulnerable at ranges long enough that their 2 pdrs were ineffective, but were too slow to close the range effectively. They were also vulnerable to Germans Flak and Pak (and the odd Marder), but in armor war terms it was a "neither vulnerable" stalemate at range. The Grant was the first tanks the Brits got that could break out of this dilemma and that is why they appreciated it so much. It was also much better protected than the Honeys and Crusaders (but it shared that with Matildas and Valentines).

The Sherman was better still, outclassing everything it faced by the time it was fielded at El Alamein.

In Tunisia, though, the German panzers had been upgraded, and now included a large portion of long IVs, and such IIIs as were around were mostly 50L60 with uparmored fronts. Those were invulnerable to the 37mm on Stuarts and Grants. They also had a handful of Tigers that outmatched everything, though the bulk of IVs did most of the work. In every actual armor vs. armor engagement, the US was roughly handled. It was only by relying on artillery superiority in "gun fronts" made from the entire artillery of a corps, that they stopped concentrated panzer division attacks.

Part of the difference vs. the US was skill level and doctrine, to be sure, and not gun and armor specs. But CMAK is way too generous to the US 37mm and not generous enough on German up-armored configurations.