Won't Fire AP Ammo

[Warnevada]

Take a look at the attached save. For some reason unit AQ3 in hex 46,54 won't use its AP ammo against the unit in hex 43,53. It continually fires HE. Why?

[scorpio_rocks]

I haven't looked at the save file (sorry), however this is usually because the HE has a better chance of penetration at that range than the AP - Remember AP pen falls off sharply as range increases whilst HE pen stays the same.

You can run the app that ships with the game (WW2_APCALC) it will show the range at which HE starts to surpass the penetration of the AP round.

[Warnevada]

Originally Posted by scorpio_rocks

Remember AP pen falls off sharply as range increases whilst HE pen stays the same.

Is there anywhere that shows AP penetration at various ranges for specific weapons?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Warnevada

Is there anywhere that shows AP penetration at various ranges for specific weapons?

WW2_Apcalc utility does that - and as with HEAT HE pen is unaffected by range as it is CE, not KE ammo.

[Warnevada]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

WW2_Apcalc utility does that - and as with HEAT HE pen is unaffected by range as it is CE, not KE ammo.

Thanks, that's very useful. I notice there are two lines of each ammo type, e.g. AP and Best AP. What's "Best" entry represent?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Warnevada

Thanks, that's very useful. I notice there are two lines of each ammo type, e.g. AP and Best AP. What's "Best" entry represent?

Open the Game Guide and type APCalc into the text search utility of your browser and you will find the help on it.

You will find the entry for APCalc comes under the release notes for the version 4.0 upgrade patch at its bullet #20 in the Game Guide.

Read that bullet point and then the text file (WW2_APCalc_Help.txt) that's provided. Details of the programme's operation is in there.

[Mobhack]

And this was reported as a bug recertify, so the routine that determines whether or not to fire HE or AP has been tweaked for the next release. (It was a bit too keen to use the HE round where AP was low but still viable - the HE pen is less reliable the AP pen).

[Warnevada]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

And this was reported as a bug recertify, so the routine that determines whether or not to fire HE or AP has been tweaked for the next release. (It was a bit too keen to use the HE round where AP was low but still viable - the HE pen is less reliable the AP pen).

In this instance the target is in an adjacent hex, its armor is 1, the firing gun has an HE penetration of 2 and an AP penetration of 3. It has fired nine shots, all HE, and the target is undamaged. Sure seems like something's not right.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Warnevada

In this instance the target is in an adjacent hex, its armor is 1, the firing gun has an HE penetration of 2 and an AP penetration of 3. It has fired nine shots, all HE, and the target is undamaged. Sure seems like something's not right.

As I said above - it has been fixed for the next release.

[sigeena]

As an aside question,

How does the game decide to use AP or Sabot? Does it always go for the higher penetration? Or does it also weigh against the target? For example, if my target only has 1 for armour, would it still use Sabot at range of 1?

I'm asking because I wanted to conserve my sabot rounds against the heavier targets, but the heavier ones tend to be slower as well, so it'll take awhile before my units meet them, in the meantime, their AP are usually sufficient to take out the lighter faster targets.