Quote:
Originally Posted by PopskiPPA
A 30° angle (towards enemy) adds 2 to the front armor of 14 and doubles the side armor from 5 to 10. Side hits come in at an angle of 60° and should ricochet very often, as you experienced (just like me).
I would (and I do in the game) angle my tank and pray that the auto pivot does not kick in, especially when the range is such that the enemy round is just barely able to penetrate the armor. On the other hand I'm praying for my opponent to present the full front, which is the stupidest thing to do for that crew.
|
The shot coming from marginal penetration range is what makes the angling work for the tanks I'm using. If the ranges is too close or the enemy's gun is so big it doesn't matter, the angle isn't going to help and in reality would hurt. In reality, an angled tank presents a larger visible target to be hit and should be hit more often. A 0 degree angle presents the smallest possible target to the firing unit.
Quote:
The probability of a side hit should be very small compared to a frontal hit as there is only a little bit of the side visible, so I'm taking the chance (and counting on ricochets). I hope the game takes this into account when determining if it's a front hit or a side hit.
|
Hit probability on the side is going to depend on the angle you set. With the Pzkw IIIe tanks I tested, assuming 0 degree armor sloping (not sure what it really is), a 45 degree angle to target should be best as it will create a ballistic armor balance between the side and the front since both are 3. In that case, the side should be hit more often than the front simply because there is more side to a tank than front.
As far where hits actually landed, I didn't get into those kind of details when I ran my test. I set the range and angle of the target and fired. Tracked were if the shots deflected or penetrated. On the angled tank, I didn't check to see where the deflected shots actually hit (front or side, turret or hull). Also, I didn't check to see how many shots missed as that can be influenced by the gun firing and the crew experience. It would be possible to check to see if an angled tank gets hit more often, but that was more than I was looking to see. In the case of the Pzkw IIIe, even if shots hit twice as often, it still would have had a better survival rate than taking shots straight on. That's just this one tank, however. It will vary with different tanks as will the optimum angle. That's where it becomes a programming nightmare to figure out and I wouldn't bother with it.
One thing that did seem to occur and this may be more perception than reality was, during a firing sequence, kills seemed to be more frequent after a damage penetrating hit occurred. In reality, if a tank is penetrated, the overall armor integrity would be compromised. Armor fractures, weakening it. If it's welded as opposed to cast, seams break. A kill would be more likely on subsequent hits. I didn't track it, however. It just seemed that way and I don't know if that aspect is incorporated into the game. If it's not, I'm not asking for it. It was just my perception.