Tank Shells and Choosing Your Loadout

[_SouthPaw_ 339]

 

HE shells
 
-------------------------
HE- High Explosive #HE1
 
Flat HE is a simple shell, and should only be used on large guns. I'd reccomend not using it on anything smaller than the 122mm guns, and even on the long barreled 122mm (D-25), it's extremely strange, and often does minimal damge.
 
The shell is just a wall, with a HE filler within:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
 
When to use this: When you have a large gun, and want to cripple a tank. On the 152mm cannon, use ONLY this shell, if it doesn't kill something outright, they'll have upwards of a 10 minute repair.
 
--------------------------------------------
HEAT- High Explosive Anti Tank #HE2
 
This shell makes use of a shaped charge in the front, which sprays a jet of plasticised copper* into whatever it hits. This shell is decent at long ranges, as it relies almost entirely on chemical energy.
 
It should be noted that HEAT generally fires at a lower velocity so that the shell can do it's job on impact instead of being destroyed completely when it hits. Take this into account when firing at range.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
 
When to use this: If you have the stubby 75's on the early german tanks. Other than that, there's not much use, and it seems to be behaving weirdly at the moment [1.41].
 
*Reuter provided me with a much better explanation of how these shells work:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

 

HEAT- High Explosive Anti Tank #HE2

 

This shell makes use of a shaped charge in the front, which sprays a jet of molten copper into whatever it hits. This shell is decent at long ranges, as it relies almost entirely on chemical energy.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

 

When to use this: If you have the stubby 75's on the early german tanks. Other than that, there's not much use, and it seems to be behaving weirdly at the moment [1.41].

 

--------------------------------------------------

HESH- High Explosive Squash Head #HE3

 

A special use shell used on the British L9A1 165mm demolition gun (only weapon in the timeline that fires this shell, it was used often on the L7A1 105mm cannon (1956)). It's similar to a HE shell, except it flattens out when it hits a tank before exploding. The plastic explosives within spread across an area on the tank, and explode, sending a shockwave through the armour that sends a scab of metal flying off the other side, destroying whatever is in it's way.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

 

Effects on armour:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

 

When to use this: When something needs to go away. Fast.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

Sorry this is kind of a mess, I added the ctrl+F thing to try ease the fustercluck.

 

The main shells you're going to want to use are going to be APHE of some kind for the main damage dealing, and a special shell for dealing with what your APHE can't.

 

For example, with the IS-2, I take 23 APHEBC, and 5 HE. I use the HE on Ferdinands and particularly stubborn Jagdpanthers or Tiger II (H)'s.

 

And with the T-34-57 mod 43, I take about a 30/70 split of APCR and APHE.

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any suggestions/errors, go ahead and point them out, I'll change them as Soon™™ as I see. And if you have any specific questions, I'll try my best to answer them.

 

 

Wonderful Guide! One that tells us which ones work best ingame rather then just telling us what they are.. very helpful for those who arent very savy with how these would be applied

[Admiral_Obvious 1,037]

I'm greatly appreciative for this guide as well, I thought I was pretty savvy on my knowledge of tanks and their ammunition, but this really helped. I have posted a link to this in the guide of my own that I started writing a while ago. Too bad I cant give you +2.

[BrainFilament 1]

Hey, OP, what shells should you use on the Flakpanzer 1?

[Kazumi_ 6,575]

Hey, OP, what shells should you use on the Flakpanzer 1?

To kill planes and screw with tanks to cloud their vision and disorient- Default.

To kill light tanks- HVAP..

Although HVAP seems to be quite light, and has little improvement over the default belt's AP rounds.

[Ampen 575]

A decently simple and yet very useful desctription of different ammunition types, wich seems to be sorely needed in this game.

 

HEAT rounds don't penetrate their target due to "melting" the armour, nor is the liner going to reach melting temperature.

 

The liner gets accelerated to around 10 km/s, impacting on the armour plate with an extreme pressure of several hundred gigapascals. Under these conditions even materials like bare metal act accordingly to the rules of fluid dynamics. And even though this simply is an act of cold deformation, HEAT rounds indeed often induce fires. Due to the liquification under pressure, the metal turns into a pyrophoric substance which ignites spontaneously in air.

 

Being trained in the army in the use of HEAT weapons, I still understand why the myth continues. It's actually the way it's teached to conscripts, and my guess is because you want to reduce chances of confusion. It's more easy to comprehend for the occassional grunt with explosion -> stream -> burning, instead of going into explanations around physics (on a level that most conscripts doesn't have education for either).

Edited December 2, 2014 by Ampen

[posuidexiaoming 546]

There is good advice on what ammo to load up and what to shot it at in this thread.

 

I'd like to add one more thing to consider on ammo load outs: Never load any more ammo than you think you'll use in a game.

 

The less ammo you have loaded in your tank the less of a chance there is for an ammunition explosion in it if it gets penetrated. For example I carry 40 rounds of APHE in my Tiger 1 and I noticed I get less ammo hits when I'm penetrated. I have yet to run out of ammo during a game (came close once). As a rule of thumb I go with about a 2/3 load out, maybe closer to 1/2 for the tanks that carry large amounts of ammunition for smaller guns. Like I've said, I've yet to run out of ammunition and I could always run back to our CP and reload some ammo if need be (I've done it before just to add some more APCR in a few games).

 

Try it out, you'll see what I mean.

 

Small disclaimer: I play RB and SB only so I have no idea if this works well in AB.

[Kazumi_ 6,575]

There is good advice on what ammo to load up and what to shot it at in this thread.

 

I'd like to add one more thing to consider on ammo load outs: Never load any more ammo than you think you'll use in a game.

 

The less ammo you have loaded in your tank the less of a chance there is for an ammunition explosion in it if it gets penetrated. For example I carry 40 rounds of APHE in my Tiger 1 and I noticed I get less ammo hits when I'm penetrated. I have yet to run out of ammo during a game (came close once). As a rule of thumb I go with about a 2/3 load out, maybe closer to 1/2 for the tanks that carry large amounts of ammunition for smaller guns. Like I've said, I've yet to run out of ammunition and I could always run back to our CP and reload some ammo if need be (I've done it before just to add some more APCR in a few games).

 

Try it out, you'll see what I mean.

 

Small disclaimer: I play RB and SB only so I have no idea if this works well in AB.

I once tried that in a T1 tank in Sim, it said "if you do this, you will be unable to equip anymore ammo than what you have currently equipped"

That sounded kinda confusing, but I found out what it meant.

It reduces your ammo capacity permanently for the rest of the game, regardless of your max ammo capacity.

[posuidexiaoming 546]

Yes, but you can still reload ammo rounds you have fired during the game you are in at a CP by hitting the "U" button.

[Kazumi_ 6,575]

Yes, but you can still reload ammo rounds you have fired during the game you are in at a CP by hitting the "U" button.

Shit gets annoying and you can't just reload and move, so you're a sitting duck for the whole process.

[posuidexiaoming 546]

Nobody said logistics in war was easy or safe... ;)s

 

But really, it's just another suggestion for players to consider when they load out their tanks (current battle modes considered).

Edited December 3, 2014 by _Klank_

[Nic_s 197]

Nice thread. I think a lot of new players go for the highest pen and end up very frustrated with the game. I feel more detail about ammo types and how they work and what they are good for should be added as info tabs to the game.

 

Below video shows what can happen when APCR is used on a tank with thin armor. The shots are just going straight through. He could have done much more damage if he aimed for crew or ammo racks, but he didn't.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0hQC1QmTig

 

Players will quit the game if this kept happening to them and didn't understand why. Having the info in the game will help prevent this sort of thing happening.

[Mihono_Bourb0n 7]

Thanks!
can you post about SPAA Shells? 
and i think you miss APBC which is alright for someone who "get" this post
but not for new players......
 

[Coledragonknight 77]

I'll explain it as best i Can

 

SOlid SHot rounds

 

AP, Just a slug of metal goin fast. If you have any other option, Use it

 

APC- A slug of metal with a softer bulb on the front to help dig into metal, Again Use only if you have no option

 

APCR/HVAP- Smaller but much faster and harder shell. Currently only good for sniping out crew

 

Now for HE Based rounds

 

APHE- An AP round with a bit of TNT or other HE in the rear of ir. Use this as a stape round

 

APBCHE- Capped AP round with an HE dollop. Good for killing things

 

HE- Good for derping things? If it's 100+ mm round use it to finish off, or scare an enemy

 

HEAT: Currently it acts just like a very slow APCR except it desen't lose pen if you shoot a target at 10 meters, or 2000. 

 

 

EEEDDDIIITTT: It showed me teh 2nd page as teh first DX. SOrry

Edited March 19, 2015 by Coledragonknight

[__EasY__ 127]

This is a great guide!

[Panzerzwerg 2,682]

Did the Germans have (even if experimental) APDS or HESH rounds like the British did? (in WW2)

[RohmMohc 11,494]

Did the Germans have (even if experimental) APDS

yes they built APDS and even APFSDS (the later only for 3,7cm guns unfortunatly)

http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/210586-experimental-german-apds-ammunition/page-1

Edited May 23, 2015 by RohmMohc

[BlackDog_Jack 10]

I read in another post that the shells and armor are bias toward soviet tanks. Why is that? It was about a test run of the Maus and firing the 128mm gun and the author found out the 122mm soviet round was more powerful and the designer could not explain why as far as I could tell so the author looked into the programing and found a bias for the soviet round then on further search he found that all the shells and armor were tricked out toward the soviet tanks. That seems a bit unfair.

[Evil_Angel1230 0]

Found a video teaching how to one shot heavy, high tier tanks with HE rounds. Legit???

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAElbMsD33w

[Lelketlen 2]

Do not play with German tank. the Russian game. History is false. Deliberately poorly controlled high-tech tree.A German class versus Cold War is packed with tanks. weak guns and armor sucks! germany technology. Most exaggerated the Soviet tanks (T-34 destroyed 30,000 pieces of the Second World War) were not produced a total of 2,000 tiger! The strength and technique fairy-tale version of this game. ..... Russian Ganjin the game engine gratis!

[Kazumi_ 6,575]

Do not play with German tank. the Russian game. History is false. Deliberately poorly controlled high-tech tree.A German class versus Cold War is packed with tanks. weak guns and armor sucks! germany technology. Most exaggerated the Soviet tanks (T-34 destroyed 30,000 pieces of the Second World War) were not produced a total of 2,000 tiger! The strength and technique fairy-tale version of this game. ..... Russian Ganjin the game engine gratis!

There's the Leopard 1 Prototype (B?), and soon the Leopard 1A1.

Also how few posts you have makes me not want to take anything you say seriously, especially with how you word it.

Found a video teaching how to one shot heavy, high tier tanks with HE rounds. Legit???

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAElbMsD33w

That's ISU-152, and it can be done with ISU-122, SU-152, ISU-152...

And it's arcade.

 

Proves nothing.

Also, other tanks from other nations can kill with HE.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Kazumi_

[Krazyasian808 10]

Do not play with German tank. the Russian game. History is false. Deliberately poorly controlled high-tech tree.A German class versus Cold War is packed with tanks. weak guns and armor sucks! germany technology. Most exaggerated the Soviet tanks (T-34 destroyed 30,000 pieces of the Second World War) were not produced a total of 2,000 tiger! The strength and technique fairy-tale version of this game. ..... Russian Ganjin the game engine gratis!

I do know if you basing this fact off of the large caliber guns that Russian tanks use and where is your facts that clearly states that Gaijin is a Russian biased company. Just because they are Russian doesn't mean they are biased. German heavy tanks at tier 4 easily beat Russian tanks based on how you play them. The iosif stalin tank series has a weak lower glasis until you reach tier 5 and so on.

[Darckwings 0]

So I have aTiger 2 tank and my Panther A tank in the tier 4 range of German tanks. I have researched the different types of ammo I can but I have no idea really which to use as I can't see any real difference ingame with them. Anyone have a tip of which ammo I should use?

[Erika8 0]

That all is nice, but if I schooting to green gross to enemy, then never my shells do any damage to enemy!!!

[BuBBa9R 749]

I want some HESH  :crazy: 

 

How thick was this plate?

 

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Now is that all from HESH rounds? If so i need this info to put in a bug report about the HESH round damage model for the Conqueror 120 mm round.

[pollyvx 0]

Nice!

Edited June 7, 2016 by Polly3