HE rounds better than AP rounds?

[fair_weather]

Odd thing...but I found it faster to sink ships with the HE rounds...and I'm talking about DDs too.

Plant a few on the superstructure and it'll blow. Compared to blasting it with AP rounds, it'll merrily chug along.

So...why use AP rounds? They do little in the way of sinking an enemy ship...except you can punch holes below the waterline, but the boats will self repair the damage...so...what gives!

[canimodo]

last week a extensive thread about it was on.

I think the name was deck gun ammo

[Avatar]

Thanks for the re-direct, I've wondered this myself. When you use HE ammo on planes, watch out for flying bodies! I also like HE for fishing boats and the like. I noticed my crew prefers HE, too. I went to the gun after ordering them to the gun, and open fire and they selected HE from the list.

edit: YUT! now I'm a soundman, I was elect. mate for about 2 days, damn I'm good! :)

[Sailor Steve]

In real life ammunition issued to subs usually wasn't true HE or AP, but a semi-armor piercing round called Common by the British and HC (High Capacity) by the Americans. In the game, who knows?

[nattydread]

HE is best for unarmored/soft targets. AP is good for armored units.

DDs, merchants, trawlers, junks..they all unarmored/soft. HE places as much energy into the area possible, like using a hollow-point on flesh. More energy means more damage. An AP on a soft target would hit the target and pass right through and out the other side. Since that round is still moving and in this case, moving away form the target, it didnt apply all its energy to the target...it makes a pretty hole, but its a waste of energy. It only damages what it hits and thats a small area.

Now a HE round against an armored unit applied all its energy to the armor, but the armor is able to take that energy and then some. So you get a pretty scorch mark on the side of teh ship, but you didnt damage any of the soft & squishy stuff or fragile mechanics inside. You can pepper that ship all day and you'll do nothing but leave pock marks on the hull and annoy the crap out of the people inside...granted they may come streaming out ears bleeding and begging you to stop.

The AP round on the other hand can hit the armor, punch threw and hopefully hit something on the inside, or weaken the armor/hull enough to get HE to work later, cause spalling that sends shards of metal from the hull inside the ship like a little frag grenade in order to hurt squishies or fragile mechanics. But teh problem is, once you penetrate with the AP, you still have a smaller chance of hurting something compared to an HE...but atleast you have a chance now.

So then comes AP/HE or HEAT rounds to use against armor. Im not sure if any of our rounds have these characteritics...I doubt it. Anyway, these guys are able to penetrate the armor like an AP(sort of) and still deliver a nice amount of energy right on teh othe rside by use of a fused HE blast(no we doing something real damage again) or they send a high energy blast molten metal through a small point in the armor, spraying the internals, including fragile mechanics and squishies.

[Teh_Diplomat]

I find the best way to conserve deck ammo is to put a few AP round in the hull around the waterline, then once the hull is breached use your HE to further open the cuts into gaping wounds. In Silent Hunter III I could sink a C2 Cargo with 9 rounds(4 AP/5 HE).

[jarhead0341]

I find that with a pair of 40mm AA guns I can sink waaaay more shipping than if I stuck with the deck gun and torpedoes. At one go, I sank an entire convoy of 13 ships including 3 destroyers using ONLY my 40mm AA guns. And yes, the 40mm HE worked better than the AP, even on those armored destroyers.

[nattydread]

I find that with a pair of 40mm AA guns I can sink waaaay more shipping than if I stuck with the deck gun and torpedoes. At one go, I sank an entire convoy of 13 ships including 3 destroyers using ONLY my 40mm AA guns. And yes, the 40mm HE worked better than the AP, even on those armored destroyers.

They have armored destroyers?

And I hope to God you arent doing this on 100%