Today you will learn about shells and their features in War Thunder.
It is probably worth starting the story with an illustration of a model of damage to ground equipment. To do this, we will need a special DM mode, where we can check and configure this system.
You need to shoot at the T-34 with a 75-mm KwK40 cannon with an armor-piercing chamber projectile, which has protection and a PzGr39 ballistic cap. The shooting distance is very small so that you can hit the tank without any problems.
If for the first time you get into the forehead of the hull:
The developers decided to mark the squad’s movement vector in white (located in the lower left corner), the yellow dot is the place where the shell hits the armor, the blue lines are the cone of armor and shell fragments that form after the armor breaks through. The projectile has a bottom fuze and an explosive charge, which is supposed to explode near the center of the fighting compartment; the yellow circle is the radius where the HE strikes, the green sphere is the radius of the fragments. Red traces from the center of the explosion are fragments that somehow managed to get into critical modules.
On the screenshot you can see the silhouettes of the modules that were able to receive heavy damage – this includes the crew and gun breech (special red boxes), turret ring, engine and ammo rack – these are all green boxes. Crew incapacitated due to critical damage.
The combat capability of the tank has been significantly reduced, but it has not yet been completely destroyed if one of the crew members is still alive. Worth a second shot.
The second shell was able to hit the frontal armor, was able to penetrate it and eventually exploded into pieces inside – now the tank is definitely completely destroyed.
Shells
All shells that are currently available for tanks are divided into several types:
- Armor-piercing kinetic (this also includes sub-caliber);
- Cumulative;
- High-explosive fragmentation.
Armor-piercing shells
All kinetic armor-piercing shells have only one principle of operation, and differ only in that they have or do not have an explosive substance (chamber shells – APHE / APHEBC / APCBC) and the number of penetration indicators. According to the design, everything is in accordance with sharp-headed armor-piercing shells.
How to use it in the game – the projectile has parameters that affect its flight path (mass, speed at the start, as well as ballistic coefficient). And also on its properties (the armor penetration graph depends on the distance, the kinetic damage graph also depends on the distance). Other parameters affect the properties of the explosive charge, if they are present in the projectile. When a vehicle hits, then some checks and calculations are formed:
A break check is when the caliber is several times (10) greater than the thickness of the sheet along the normal, then it can break through without unnecessary checks.
If there is no break, check for a ricochet – at the moment, a ricochet can only be done at an angle of 60 gr. (from normal to armor) and even more, in this sector the probability of ricochet increases at an angle of 90 – 100%.
If there is no ricochet – check for armor penetration, which takes into account the current penetration of the projectile, the design angle of the armor, and also what the angle of inclination of the vehicle on various terrain. It is necessary to take into account the general angle of the meeting, where you can find out the thickness of the armor, and thereby understand whether the projectile can penetrate it or not even worth trying. If the answer is no, and there is an explosive projectile in the projectile, then it will be able to work on the armor, but attachments may suffer.
If the penetration happened, then the projectile will be able to damage the armor layer. In this case, any kinetic charge, when it has made a penetration, will be able to generate a cone from the fragments at the point where the penetration was, with which you can hit the crew, as well as the equipment itself. The equipment is located in this sector for a 76mm armor-piercing projectile, the height of this cone is 2.5 m, the opening angle will be 15 degrees. The damage from the fragments is enough to make a hit on one of the crew members, as well as do some damage to the internal equipment. When the shard trace happens, then it checks if the modules are closed or not.
The projectile itself will continue its flight, and if it can meet any of the modules, then you need to make the checks described above (in this case, a fragmentation cone can form only if the armor thickness is 3-4 mm or more). The checks will go on until the projectile penetration becomes excellent in order to penetrate one of the next modules, or when the projectile fuse works (if there is explosive in the projectile and the armor is strong enough for the entire platoon), the distance where the platoon of shells travels is 0.5 – 1.5 meters from the penetration point, depending on the caliber of the projectile and its type.
When the fuse is triggered, the projectile itself can explode inside the tank, which can generate fragmentation and high-explosive spheres of destruction, modules, as well as crew members who may be inside these spheres, will be able to get hit by fragments or one of the shock waves.
There is one conclusion for players that a projectile without explosives (solid or sub-caliber) will be able to hit modules not with a “laser beam” on its chosen trajectory, but also in a specially thought-out radius. Those. if you were able to get an armor-piercing projectile between the driver and the radio operator in the T-34, two crew members can suffer the most from secondary fragments, and the projectile itself, if penetrated, has the ability to reach the engine itself.
HEAT rounds
By the action itself, they have significant differences from armor-piercing shells. You can read about the principles of the work itself at any time on the Wikipedia website. The shaped charges in the game are absolutely identical to the real life prototypes.
Penetration does not depend on distance, armor penetration is the same at any distance.
When an obstacle is hit, then an explosion will be generated that can be compared with high-explosive parameters and a fragmentation projectile of a similar caliber, but in this case thin-walled elements or crew in open combat vehicles must be hit.
At the point of explosion, where the generation of an analogue of a cumulative jet takes place, which looks like an armor-piercing projectile that can penetrate all modules on its trajectory, but the penetration of the jet will be lost, and the jet trajectory is small (2-4m), then beyond these boundaries the jet does not can deal damage and simply disappear. Also, after the interaction with the armor has taken place, then the generation of a fragmentation cone will take place (but with smaller parameters of its action, as well as dimensions).
Fragmentation shells
These are analogues to aircraft shells, bombs, and rockets, which have been present in the game for a long time. If the armor hits, then spheres of fragmentation and high-explosive damage will be generated, and if the parameters of the fragments of this shock wave have the ability to penetrate the armor, then penetration will occur and normal damage will be received. Projectiles of small and medium calibers of this type have the ability to hit with bulletproof armor (ZSU Flakpanzer 1). Against medium and heavy tanks, only those shells that start with a caliber of 122mm and above can be effective.
Choose the type of projectile based on design features, armor penetration, and high-explosive properties, which can greatly diversify a tank battle. You need to choose the right ammunition, against which opponent you are playing, it is because of this that you can predict the outcome of your battle, as well as the final result.
Good luck in the game!
