Introduce a soft flak vehicle and perk the flakpanzers.

[Tank-Ace]

It was in AH1, so about ten years ago.

Yeah, so it has virtually no relevance to the current situation.

I agree with you; I think friendly ground icon range should be reduced. I'm just not as draconian about it as you are. But even if I were to want it extended, why cherry pick your anecdotes when its not necessary to do so?

[Karnak]

I don't recall any changes to tank durability in the intervening years, so as far as I am concerned it is still 100% valid.  Heavy tanks are very hard to kill with 500lbers.  1000lbers probably make it much easier, but I don't have much experience with them so I can't say.

Panzer IV Hs have always been very much easier to kill with bombs.

I don't understand your position really.  Either it should stay as is or it should match enemy GV icon ranges when seen from aircraft.  I don't see an argument for it to be reduced, but not all the way to where enemy icons are.

[SirNuke]

I confirm that the Tiger I's used to be much harder to bomb a 500lb before. A 1K was mandatory except if your drop was right on the tank.

Strafing it with a 20mm's is useless and will put you in harms way for nothing, as demonstrated above 

[Tank-Ace]

I don't recall any changes to tank durability in the intervening years, so as far as I am concerned it is still 100% valid.  Heavy tanks are very hard to kill with 500lbers.  1000lbers probably make it much easier, but I don't have much experience with them so I can't say.

Panzer IV Hs have always been very much easier to kill with bombs.

I don't understand your position really.  Either it should stay as is or it should match enemy GV icon ranges when seen from aircraft.  I don't see an argument for it to be reduced, but not all the way to where enemy icons are.

Karnak, I don't know about you, but I've been on both sides recently. Tiger I's are not excessively hard to kill with bombs, fact. If you use 500lbers or smaller, yes it will require either a direct or near direct hit to kill, but that's because of the limitations of our current damage model; no spalling, no blast turning the crew into jelly, etc.

And the argument for the merely reduced icon range is simple; briefings were usually better than field Intel for telling you where something was. Because we don't have intel, this will have to do. Second, to keep encouraging cooperation. Use of any strafer aircraft will die almost entirely with this, simply because that flacker might not be friendly, even if you see it 6000m out (not impossible).

I've never been shot down while chasing things; clearly there is more going on than the icon range.

[RotBaron]

Maybe a chart might help make some of this clearer. Lusche don't know if you've got anything of the like, and of course it would be variable depending on where/angle the ord is dropped from.

But maybe we could start here:

I often, as most should, try to cover the backside of my tank (if at all possible) by positioning the rear of the vehicle against a berm, bldg or any other object I can find. Because of this I often find planes flying in at me and dropping bombs from 45deg>. So lets say is there a chart/spreadsheet that might give us a general idea of the amount of ord necessary to kill each tank and its' variable frontal armour say within 100ft?

I say 100ft because not many drop directly on you (although some are very good at it,)  but most, even mediocre at it can get with 100' or so. I'd imagine the 1000lb'ers are still effective at that distance, but are the 500's, 250's?

Maybe this isn't possible to do , but we should be able to come up with a basis/approximation for what amount of lbs need to be put within a certain radius to cause great to catastrophic damage...

[RngFndr]

I remember when the Tigers were virtually bomb proof..
One day they were like eggshells, and the next day impervious..

I wasn't the only one who noticed either..

I remember doing a test, buddy rolls a tiger and waits for me..
I fly over in my A20, make a perfect DB pass, drop all 8 500lbers..
Buddy tells me, MULTIPLE DIRECT HITS, but he was still there..
One tight little crater, with a tiger sitting in the middle of it..

That lasted for little while, but it evened out eventually..
That was very strange tho,