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lp_lima, on 08 June 2018 - 11:20 PM, said:
Guys, I'm really sick of shooting armorless tanks at the side with 120mm+ guns, aiming for the area above the tracks, and doing only half the damage because I hit those stupid tracks. Honestly, what is the logic on that? I mean... it is told that the HE of the SU-152 could blast a Tiger I's turret out, just by the raw explosive power. So, where does it come from, that a RU251 is protected by a big shell by 5mm of tracks? Like... what is the sense of it, it HE doesnt need to pen to deal damage? Othen that that, it is not HE, but APHE - and APHE shells have some minimum armor penetration fuse, before actually exploding, this allowing it to do fo through tracks and the actual armor itself.
My thought in the game: if you have like 30mm or armor, you would be better off just having 10mm and your sides covered by tracks. Compare, for instance, SP I C armor to the Type 62 armor, or even LTTB. It is MUCH MUCH easier to hit SP's side armor for HE (which should be, of course) than it is to hit those other two tanks. I feel like, in the game, if you would stick a paper frame around the tank, it would protect it all the same from HE damage.
Where does it come from, HE stopping at tracks? Is there some logic on it, am I talking nonsense here?
OK just gonna explain why HE detonates prematurely on tracks compared to primary armor. The only reason is because if you shoot say, the drive wheel of a tank, that actually counts as pretty thick spaced armor. And realistically, that's never going to work, because it can count to up to 300mm (30cm) of armor. So, unless you have an HE shell with nearly 50cm of penetration, good luck with that. Can't forget that HE shells also have s shorter fuse, because like I explained above, it's for spalling armor, not penetrating it. Penetrations cause catastrophic kills with HE, which is a big no-no nowadays. It's also more for infantry support. Blast an HE shell stuffed with the equal of 3kg of TNT at the ground near a cluster of soldiers and half of them will be goo and the other half will be severely wounded, making allied infantry's job a lot easier.
Fun historical fact, did you know the 76.2mm gun in the front hull of the Churchill 1 is actually a howitzer? It's for infantry support, because the classified role of the Churchill was Infantry Tank (Like the Matilda and Valentine). That's why its main gun is only a 40mm pea shooter. It's not supposed to shoot other tanks.
Same also goes for other various short barrel guns on tanks (T-28 76.2mm L-11, T-34 L-11, KV-1 L-11, etc etc.). They're designed to blast infantry to bits to allow allies to advance more safely without getting wasted by the enemy.
