The events are great, SB and RB. No small maps, Mozdok, Kursk, Eastern Europe and Poland hoping for a few bigger ones in the next few months, love the long shot battles. Tiger is going down to 5.3 and the new Tiger with APCR is at 5.7. Going to have to choose only one for the events i think but at least when the events are not on you won't be facing 6.7 tanks in the 5.3 like currently in the 5.7 Tiger.

Great mode, hope they move it to standard as the MM with the whole BR deal is annoying as hell, and the icons in sim are grim.

Have any of you noticed any wonky behavior when engaging certain tanks? The other day I shot a Sherman 6 times in the side of his turret with an 88 and never even damaged him. Of course, he then saw me, turned his turret, and promptly dispatched my Tiger with one shot through the frontal armor. This type of thing has made playing at tier III a very frustrating experience.

edit: the Sherman was the "First in Bastogne" tank, which I think you have to pay $$$ for.

Hmmm... can't say that fills me with hope, regardless of how graphically gorgeous it is

I honestly started thinking that until I blew up two higher tiered tanks with one shot each couple nights ago.

I actually think that there are so many variables involved that striking under "pay to win" it's a bit too easy.

That said, Shermans in general have this "aura" of death. But quite honestly they are quite e beast compared to most of the tier I and II German tanks.

I cope with that with smarter movements, better aiming, closing up and knowing the enemy.
I spend quite some time studying the Armor/X-ray vision of Shermans.

Now I can quite easily one shot them, should I manage to maneuver the way I want.

I have been playing every Saturday morning with Hammer_757 the sim mode for more than a year. The absence of markers is a plus. It is an interesting, tactical, challenging and fun game. YET, what they call sim, is not i.e RO2 with interiors, real port views and 2 players per tank. However, I can't say what this game will be in a year. It might well be like RO2, because they seem to be making effort to sway very slowly the sim mode toward a real WWII Tank sim.

One of the thing that is noticeable, is the modified ballistic. A 88 will not necessarily destroy a Sherman depending upon the hit angle and the distance. On record, a T-34 was destroyed by a Tiger from a distance of 3 km away. In the game, 1,5 km would be a safe distance to stay away from a Tiger. Below that distance the likeliness of being destroyed would increase exponentially. On another hand a 76 m/m from a Sherman at close range would destroy a Tiger. The Tiger was not a safe machine to be in, under certain distances from any allied tanks. The slopped front of a Panther was safer.

Also keep in mind that the Sherman was in par with the PzIII and PzIV.

I didn't like it much. Sure, better than the regular arcade battles but still far from realistic. Multiple penetrations and little to no damage, and despite sitting in an uparmoured T-34 I got killed by a PzIII with 2-3 shots to the front from long range because he knew where the Achilles Heels were, and could easily hit them even far away.

True, the Sherman is on par or even superior in some cases to the Pz III and IV. In tier II I dont have much issue with the results of the matches. It is once I got to tier III that I started to notice....questionable...results. In the Tiger, assuming that my rounds dont glance off the armor, I should be able to penetrate a Sherman even beyond his own 75mm main gun penetrating range. Furthermore, the 75mm gun was incapable of penetrating the frontal armor of the Tiger from any range. As the Sherman's guns get better, it has an increased potential to knock out the Tiger, naturally.

It has been my experience that when battling most Shermans I am able to penetrate their armor, when hitting them at the appropriate angles, at almost any range. It is also my experience that there are certain Shermans that I am incapable of killing with repeated shots at very close range. The "First in Bastogne" tank that I referenced above was hit 6 times in the side of the turret at a 90* angle and from a range of about 300 yards or less. That should not happen.

I still enjoy the game, but the exceedingly frustrating nature of the tier III battles has caused me to revert back to playing tier II.

My Sherman Jumbo is good for supporting other tanks, but not good for doing anything on it's own. It can take a few hits, but that 75mm pop gun at Tier 3+ just doesn't compete. I was in a simulation-battle shoot out with three Tigers with me in a Jumbo and an ISU-152 supporting. I'd pop the Tigers with HE - possibly causing some crew injuries or light damage - and distract them while the ISU-152 was reloading. This went on for about ten minutes till the ISU killed all three Tigers. Not elegant, but it worked.