Break through tanks

Hello, dear tank crew! In this issue, Entertaining Mechanics, we'll talk about such an important aspect of the game, as the penetration of the armor of the tank. Knowledge of armor-piercing algorithms is twice necessary for any tanker, on the one hand it will allow more effective engagement of the enemy, and on the other hand it will help to prolong the time of your combat vehicle under enemy fire. Therefore, we divided this broad topic into two issues: the security of armored vehicles and the destruction of armored vehicles.

Do not forget that the World of Tanks is a game, not an educational simulator, it, of course, in many ways strives to comply with the laws of tank battles. But all the same, it has a number of conventions necessary to give the fighting proper dynamics.

The processes that take place in reality when a projectile hits a target are too complex to be calculated on the fly, and the scatter of results is such that the great Belarusian randomly will seem to be a model of predictability. For example, a projectile that struck strictly perpendicularly into the armor has, it would seem, a maximum penetrability, but when the billet breaks from internal stresses at the moment of impact, this parameter drops to zero. In the game, he has only a 25% spread from the naminal indicated in the description. If, say, your gun MC1 has an armor penetration of 51 mm, then we should expect a spread of 38 to 64 mm. The spread of values ​​for damage is built in the same way.

Before we start talking about the geometry and mechanisms of penetration, let us explain the terminology that we will use. We take a point on the armor and draw a tangent through it, the normal is a straight line drawn through the selected point perpendicular to the tangent, in simple language it is the usual perpendicular. Also, we will explain what we will regard as the angle of the projectile's entrance - this is the angle between the normal and the trajectory of the projectile's flight at the point of impact, that is, at 0 degrees, the chance of armor penetration will be maximum, and say at 80, most likely, there will be a ricochet. It is worth noting that many players define this angle as the angle between the tangent and the trajectories of the projectile, noting, for example, that at angles less than 30 degrees the chance of ricochets is very high. We will adhere to the terminology adopted among the developers of the World of Tanks and military-technical literature, and take the angle from the normal.

Another important concept is the cited armor. In addition to the large angle of entry into the armor, it is necessary to punch a much larger thickness than indicated in the description of the tank. In accordance with the laws of geometry, the resulting layer or reduced thickness of the armor to be pierced is calculated as the thickness of the armor to the cosine of the angle of entry. Of course, during the battle no one will sit with the protractor and calculator, and calculate the given armor, it is enough to remember an intuitive rule: the larger the angle of the projectile's entering, the thicker the layer of armor that it needs to pierce.

In order to beginners it was easier to understand who and where you can punch, the game was introduced a breakout marker for the arcade and sniper scope. If it is green, then if the projectile hits the armor on the normal, you will damage the combat vehicle, if it is orange, then the probability is 50 by 50, if it is red, then it is not worth spending an armor-piercing projectile. However, to believe unconditionally the color of the marker can not be, the armor of the tank can be placed under the most bizarre angles, in addition, your shell can deviate from the aiming line and get a little wrong where you aim. And if you aim at the lower frontal part of the opponent, but he stood up as a diamond, then you can not break through it, because even in the description of the tank, the thickness of the armor is 50 mm, in this case your shell will have to punch 60-70-80 mm of the above Armor, and even more, but the color of the marker will not change. But do not get upset, since armor in real battle conditions behaves exactly the same way and tank designers made shells for guns so that when they hit they try to reach the normal at the point of hit and slightly approach the angle of the encounter with the armor to 0 degrees. This effect is called normalization of the projectile and since the update 0.8.0 is 4-5 degrees. Thus, we can adjust our formula of the given reservation taking into account the angle of normalization. So, in the game when hit in the armored car at an angle of 45 degrees, the shell will be entrusted to 40 degrees to the normal, and it will not be enough to penetrate the armor, but all the same it is easier. For an example, we'll calculate the given armor with allowance for normalization for two tanks familiar to all - the Tiger and the Royal Tiger. For clarity, we, on the contrary, will shoot the upper frontal part from a distance of 50 m from the guns, armor-piercing of which is approximately equal to the thickness of the tested armor. For the sake of simplifying the calculations, we will assume that the projectile is flying parallel to the ground, start with the World of Tanks Tiger. The thickness of his frontal armor is 100 mm, and it is located with a deviation of armor only 9 degrees from the vertical, the same will be the angle of entry, and taking into account the normalization, we get 4 degrees. We shoot from the gun L40 KVK48 with an average armor penetration of 106 mm. We see a lot of penetrations of the armor, since the thickness of the armor will be the same as 100 mm. Now we invite to the stage of the Royal Tiger with the thickness of the upper frontal detail 150 mm, we will check its resistance with a 90 mm gun M3 with armor-piercing 160 mm. A sufficiently large number of hits did not inflict significant damage to the tank, since the armor has a tilt angle of 160 degrees, which means that the armor given has an impressive 212 mm, and since the maximum possible armor penetration of our gun with an armor-piercing projectile is only 200 mm, we can not disturb the royal equanimity by firing at the top A head piece.

Normalization does not help if the angle of entry is more than 70 degrees, because in this case the armor-piercing shell simply ricochets. This is very important to remember, do not waste wastes, shooting aby where, you should at least approximately imagine at what angle it will fall into the armor. By the way, after the first ricochet the projectile does not disappear, it still can cause damage, but only within one tank, billiards will not work here, so do not expect to be able to masterfully ricochet to another tank. Ricochets when firing armor-piercing or sub-caliber ammunition does not occur if the caliber of the gun exceeds the thickness of the armor. In this case, the projectile tries to penetrate the armor regardless of the angle. When hit in external modules, for example, the chassis, gun or surveillance devices, the ricochet also does not occur regardless of the angle, they generally have a special mechanism of damage. Each module has its own booking and strength points, and the rules for calculating the given armor for them do not apply, and it is always necessary to punch, strictly a certain thickness. In the event that this happens, the module loses its strength points, and the projectile continues to move and thus may well damage the tank's shell as well. However, the index of armor penetration of the projectile is reduced by the thickness of the armor of the damaged module, and it will be harder for it to penetrate the main armor. This is the secret of the widely discussed nano-gusli.

The armor of the main machines in the games is divided into the main and so-called screens. The penetration of the main armor removes the strength points from the tank, and the screens of all - only weaken the projectile, reducing its armor penetration.

The screens are located at some distance from the main armor and usually have a small thickness, except for the shields on the masks of the guns. It is very important to remember that when the screen penetrates only the tank does not lose points of durability. Why is it important? Because this is one of the main causes of hits without damage. Remember the spread of armor-piercing values. Even if the shell has crossed the screen, its armor penetration may be so weakened that it will not be enough to break through the main armor.

You probably already know that in the game there are several types of ammunition, which affect the armor in different ways. Armor piercing shells - they are subject to the rules of normalization and rebound in full. World of Tanks sub-caliber projectiles differ from armor piercing only by increased penetration. High-explosive shells do not ricochet, they have weak armor-piercing, however, they are even blown up on the armor or close to the combat vehicle. Cumulative shells have increased armor penetration and do not ricochet, however, they do not apply normalization rules.

Well, it's time to sum up the theoretical part and demonstrate the armor-piercing mechanism in action. We select the target and shoot, at the meeting point of the projectile with the armor and there is a screen. What happens in this case?

  1. The server builds the trajectory of the projectile according to the ballistic formula, determines the point on the screen into which it hit and the velocity vector of the projectile at the moment of hit. After this, the angle between the normal to the armor at the point of impact of the projectile and the velocity vector is calculated. If this angle is more than 70 degrees, and the caliber of the projectile does not exceed the thickness of the armor in this place 3 times, then a ricochet occurs.
  2. If the rebound has not occurred, and the caliber of the projectile exceeds the thickness of the armor more than 2 times, then in armor piercing and subcaliber ammunition the normalization increases in proportion to the increase in the caliber of the projectile to the thickness of the armor according to the following formula. Thus, the larger the caliber of the projectile, the easier it is to break through the armor.
  3. The value of the armor penetrability of the projectile is calculated, it depends on the shooting distance. Starting from 100 m the armor penetration of the projectile decreases and from the accidental deviation from the accident, the same plus - minus 25%.
  4. If the projectile penetrates the screen, then it flies further, and its armor penetration decreases in proportion to the thickness of the screen. After that, if the projectile meets the main armor, the algorithm repeats. Check for ricochet, normalization of the projectile, calculation of final armor-piercing and in case of penetration of the main armor, the damage caused to the weapon specified in the description, taking into account 25% of the spread, is inflicted on the tank. Interestingly, in reality, the projectile when hit in the armor will change the trajectory under the influence of normalization, but in the game for the sake of simplicity of calculations it continues to move rectilinearly, along the initial trajectory. The algorithm is applied sequentially, first for screens or external modules, then for the main armor. In this group of screens and armor in the path of the projectile can be several, and they make their way one by one.

About the adventures of shells inside the tank, the features of the cumulative projectiles and the action of high-explosive fragmentation ammunition, we'll talk in the next issue.

Finally, it's time for the most entertaining part, namely for stories about tactical techniques that increase the survivability of the tank in combat. Will this help us in this, of course! And now we will consider the simplest techniques that logically follow from the knowledge that has just been obtained.

So, the reception number 1 - setting the tank diamond or, so-called, a pose of invulnerability: you must place your tank in this way in relation to the enemy, so he had to punch the armor of your tank at the least profitable angle. This technique requires a good knowledge of the booking scheme for your combat vehicle. However, with his skillful execution, your tank will be much harder to break through to the enemy. For example, let's talk about two well-known machines: the Soviet heavy tank IS-7 is armored so that the rhombus is not worth it to put, because it is worst of all breaks in the front when it's straight, but the German Tiger, standing at an angle to the direction of the shelling , Begins to reflect shells with his rather thick forehead.

Reception number 2 - exit from around the corner: you need to leave, cutting the corner and not opening for the enemy vulnerable side and the chassis of the tank. You also need to remember about the layout of your car and the scheme of its booking, trying to put under attack the least vulnerable part of the tank. Sideways makes sense to leave, only if the enemy has already fired a shot and does not pay attention to you. Let's remind one of the basic laws of tank building: almost any combat vehicle is armored from the front much better than from the side, and from the side, much better than from behind and from above, so we must always try to set the forehead, turning to where the most dangerous shells fly.

Reception number 3 is a horizontal swing: this is probably the most common technique. It looks like sharp short movements to the left - to the right. These movements complicate the enemy's targeting of vulnerable areas and prevent him from firing at vertical booking areas. Also this technique works well on tanks, the front part of the tower is flat. Rotating the tower to the left - to the right, while the gun is being recharged, you seriously complicate the opponent's aiming at her cheeks.

Admission number 4 - catching on bait: this is an element of aerobatics and it is very difficult to execute it in motion. We expose the opponent's side, giving him the opportunity to aim and at the time of his shot we turn the body. The missile ricochet from the armor without hitting the tank itself. In general, sharp unexpected maneuvers, if you learn not to shoot down your aim - a very effective reception of a tank duel. But remember that any turn of the hull of a moving tank reduces its speed.

Admission number 5 - shootout with the enemy because of shelter: many tanks in the game tower is better armored than the hull, so you need to hide the lower frontal part behind some kind of shelter. If it's a battered enemy tank, an undetectable obstacle or an earthen hill, that's wonderful. But you can hide behind one-time obstacles - cars, stone fences, flimsy sheds. One - two shots on you these obstacles will survive. Hiding the tank behind the obstacle, you force the enemy to heal the less vulnerable parts of the combat vehicle, shoot the board and track at a very sharp angle and either get a ricochet or critical damage to the external module. But do not lose strength. For a shot, you can turn around or roll back a little, and then, do not hesitate to return to the starting position. The enemy will have to strain very hard, aiming at the vulnerabilities of your combat vehicle.

Reception number 6 - use of natural shelters and shooting from unexpected places. Buildings in the game World of Tanks have windows and doors through which a shell can fly. In the ruins there can be breaks, through which it is convenient to shoot. Fences and strings of stones also allow to fire on the enemy, showing him only a small part of the tower. Use it, study maps and memorize such hiding places and positions.

That's all. We hope that by looking at this issue, you will be able to look at the enemy in a sniper scope for much longer, and visits to the hangar will become more rare.

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