Elevation/Depression of AFV main arms (and a microarmour comment or two)

As was pointed out, the range of elevation/depression angles for most
modern
AFVs is a product of the space in the vehicle and the weapon's shape and
size (which serves to restrict the amount of elevation or depression
possible. 

Now, if one was using a casement turret (unmanned), one might have more
capability in this regard. The crew could occupy the body of the tank
(safe
and sound behind a hill or wall if a fight erupts). This type of design
was
proposed in Twilight 2000 for the next generation US MBT. I believe
2300AD
had a hovertank with this type of remote turret. But a standard
gun-in-turret-with-crew style of tank has limitations based on tank
profile
(height mostly). 

It may vary based on weapon type, but since the "size" of a class-n
weapon
is the same regardless of type, I'd suggest the variance (type-based)
not be
very great. If you wish to argue that all class-1 weapons in 2185 should
have 30 degree elevation and 15 degree depression capability, I won't
disagree - this may well be one of the areas tank/weapon design
progresses
in. AA guns obviously want to be able to go from about 15 degrees
depression
to nearly 90 degrees elevation. 

Someone commented about microarmour and dead zones. Whereas it is true
that
a tank parked on top of a flat hill has a noteable dead zone in front of
it,
it is also worth noting that as the enemy tanks close, one of two things
usually happened: Either the defending tank withdrew from the elevated
position (pulled back down the side of the hill to use the hill for
cover,
or pulled at least onto the retrograde slope to make the enemy tanks
climb
the hill and briefly expose themselves as they crested the front-slope
of
the hill) or they would move forward to the front edge of the foreslope
so
as to be able to engage the closing enemy tanks without a dead zone.
Presumably the same smart tactics would apply in DS2. Dead zones exist,
but
they can be compensated for by a little thinking ahead. 

Microarmour had about it one interesting flavour: It was a game about
two
things: armour and spotting. If you didn't get spotted, you were safe.
If
you did, you were likely to get hit if the range was under 1.5km. If you
did
get hit, you wanted to be in a Challenger or M1 or Leopard II as these
tanks
could shrug off many front arc hits from older Soviet tanks. I've never
seen
anyone play DS2 (other than in passing). Is spotting a big factor in
DS2? If
it isn't, the game boils down to how long your armour and ECM can hold
against enemy systems like GMS, heavy weapons and AT arty. 

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008