Ran an interesting test again, out off curiosity of course..
Wanted to see if there's anything the Russian T34 can handle (one on one)or at least par with, in the Axis panzer arsenal.
Set up a QB.. meeting engagement on a large map/mid day/village/open/gentle slopes, etc.
Gave both sides lots of room for maneuver and the opportunity for long range engagement.

Choose a Russian T34/M43(late) platoon of(3)for myself.. against the AI's StugG/IIIF also a (3)vehicle platoon.
Crews for both sides were veteran for fairness and also to ensure quick and immediate positive action from them, etc.

On about the sixth turn into the game, as my armor crested a small slope, a lone StugG/IIIF opened fire on them, from a range off well over 2000m
My tanks were under a hunt order at this point so they kept on advancing.
To my surprise though, they immediately opened fire on the lone Stug also.

The Stug scored a hit on the lead T34, on about it's third or fourth shot.
The shell ricochet and caused internal armor flaking to my T34.
Two shots after, the T34 was hit and destroyed.

I the next minute, I continued to close range (hunt order) with the two remaining tanks still firing.
Both of the T34's got hit and knocked out.
During the two minutes, all of my tanks failed to score a hit on the Stug!

Interesting that the StugG/IIIF had only a 75mm L/43 gun.
My understanding is the 43 calibers don't make a high velocity gun..
Even more interesting is the fact that at the end of the two minute fire fight, the range was still a whooping 2043 meters!

Is this for real?

Soldier

Could be due to the superior optics of the gun sight.It's usualy not a good idea to get into long range gunnery duels with german armour.

Not knowing much about the practical capabilities of WWII tank guns, versus tanks, etc. I basically devote my free time to playing the game and hardly any for research on the technical data, etc.
Therefore have only my CS gaming experience to draw from to make comparisons.

There (CS)a Stug could hope to either disrupt or retreat a T34 at such an extreme range, at the most.
And all of that, in a six minute turn.

Just wondering, why there "seems" to be such huge disparity between the two games (CS and CM) on this..

I've never played CS so I wouldn't know

If you select a tank then hit the return key it'll give you all the data for gun,armour slope and thickness,etc

First off the T34s gunnery optics sucked. Shooting on the move was a near impossiblity. Buttoned, the tank commander/gunner had only a 14 degree view of the battlefield. Making matters worse was that there were only 9 rounds racked for the loader (and those being a mix of AP, HEAT, and HE. After that the loader had to rummage thru storage bins in the floor for further rounds. So, trying to load while bouncing across open ground was a pain in the arse. On the other hand, the Stug had pretty good optics and more racked rounds. All that being said, in a game with Lighthorse, I had 3 T34s crest a rise and took on 1 Panther a Stug (G?) at approx 800m. My T34s fired off one volley and I retreated em out of LOS behind the hill. The panther scored one hit for a turret lock (no kill) and the Stug was destroyed (upper hull hit).   As Max indicated, long range duels with German armor is a no win situation. You play hide and go seek until you can close it up to less than 1000m (preferably less than 750m). Randy taught me that the hard way by slagging an entire company of 34s (not to mention the inf. riding em) crossing open ground at full speed with a firing squad of Stugs, Nashhorns and Marders from approx. 2000m.

Wile E.

Yes, I'm aware of that pop up!

What surprised me in the above example, was that both sides opened up on each other to begin with, at such an extreme range, etc.

Of course I did not expect the Russian tanks to hit anything, their effective (marginally at that) range was only 1500m according to the CS game.
Also, there were only few tanks in WWII that could even fire on the move and expect to hit anything and they arrived in the very late stages of the war.
So why did the Russian tanks even bothered to shoot, is questionable.
(On the move and outside their effective range)

I know for sure that the American M26 heavy tank had a gun stabilizer.
I heard of German's using it on some of their late tanks also.
That being besides the point, why did the "game" low velocity gun on the Stug, do so well, on three moving targets, in a two minute time span!?

It seems to me, that this kind of a feat, was only achievable by the King Tiger's 71 caliber Kvk43 88mm gun, if that!?

Soldier

Yes I agree with all of the above!

It's just that my past experience with Stugs or any other tank for that matter, (again from CS games) mounting a 43 caliber main weapon, great optics or not, did not commence firing at 2500 meters.. nor did "one" score three knock outs in two minutes time.
During the "low velocity tank gun" war period, German crews complained of not having powerful enough guns, to deal with the new sloped armor on the T34 tanks, unless they closed in with them.

Now when I see this take place in the game, contrary to everything I've heard/learned about that era and what the weapons capabilities were, just surprised the hell out of me..
Not sure that it is right, that's all...

Soldier

I discovered pretty quick that I needed to "un-learn" my CS experiences when playing CM. It's like being a Chevy mechanic all your life and one day saying I think I'll start fixin' Ferraris...apples to oranges, bud. I'm not sure which engine is "more correct" but I tend to believe the CM version of reality more...uh...realistic. BTW, your T34s fired at that extreme range possibly because you gave them the "hunt" order...they were only following your orders.

Wile E.

Ha ha.. blame it on the commander.. right!
Those guys were veterans for Chrit's sakes, one would think they knew when to disobey a "stupid" order.. :-)

Anyway, just goes to show you my inexperience with those weapons systems true capabilities.
Live and learn.. right!?
Only problem is, that I've lived a long time now and learned a very little.. :-)

Soldier