I disagree there. German artillery units had artillery observation detachments. They used a range of recon vehicles/methods, and even obervation balloons (until 1942), which provided a safe method to gain extreme far-sight and to save resources (dedicated obs. planes, that could be of better use elsewhere), well .... until the Russian Air Force grew stronger. Such detachments, organic parts of German artillery units, are NOT present in the game.
Such detachments had a triple role: Artillery detection (sound ranging/flash spotting), battlefield observation to identify potential threats/targets and to create accurate maps and matrices, if there was no proper material. They could also send out scout detachments.
Some of their vehicles (trucks and armored cars) had additional EQ, like extendable telescope poles (some could be extended to a height of 6-8 meters) and also long range radios with extendable pole antennas.
If the player wants to simulate such historical method, he has to "misuse" the scout elements of tank/mechanized formations, which are then unable to fill their intended roles (to spot for their respective parent units), plus he has to bring such elements relatively close to the enemy, to a distance that seems to correspond to the view range of some medium-sized binoculars.
The US Army employed artillery observation Bns, like the 285th Field Artillery Observation Bn, for instance. That unit's task was to identify enemy artillery using sound ranging and flash spotting, and it did - unlike the German Obs Bns - not employ other observation methods, afaik.
The British Army employed quite a few similar units, and also a dedicated aerial spotting branch, as TMO (iirc) pointed out in the Market Garden thread.
So these "dedicated recon units" aren't rendered either.
EDIT: The method/tendency (during the several Battles of Hürtgen Forest and during the Battle of the Bulge) of US forward observers, just equipped with a radio and a jeep, to get near or even inside villages occupied by the enemy to direct artillery strikes, can't be recreated either. Spotting and recon on the ground remains to be an unresolved issue, imho, at least with the current tools at hand. And aerial recon is conspicuous by its absence.
The question here is, do recon vehicles have advanced view ranges? Does the engine render different view ranges (for different units/vehicles) and are these implemented/set for recon vehicles? Does a hilltop say like the one in the Hürtgen Forest (eg. the Burgberg near Bergstein) provide extreme far-sight? In reality the hill provides up to 40 km view range under perfect weather conditions, even though it just has a height of ~400 meters. The hill
"Dagon's Rock" provides a view range of up to 100 km, height: only 321 meters.
The Greek terrain depicted in the original COTA should have delivered view ranges of 20-40 km, from some of the depicted mountain ranges, yet the the view ranges amounted to a few km only, IIRC.
How does CO2 handle terrain- or viewpoint-specific view ranges?