War Thunder

[Raptor1]

I find that with the Germans the Panzer IV F2 or the Panzer III J1 (and, I imagine, the long-barrel variant of the StuG III) can start penetrating the armour on the Shermans and T-34s pretty consistently, whereas beforehand you might as well have been hitting them with wet noodles. KV-1s are still a pain, but well, KV-1s. German armour protection is still (as it was historically) about as good as a piece of paper, though, so they still explode more often when the Allied tanks look at them funny.

[Arclight]

I keep underestimating the J1. I get in a situation where I know the armor will save me, as it would against anything short of a Su-122, but then the little blighter blasts right through. In style at that, with the shell punching clean through the front plate and embedding itself in the engine at the rear... Generally ends in a nice fireball.

APCR rounds can be quite good, but certainly not at range. Their high penetration makes me think of them as a "sniper" round, but then it just doesn't have the energy to cause much damage after penetrating. Fired from a shorter distance it practically goes the full length of the tank, and that is what makes it powerful.

* I remember when starting out, I saw that after-death animation thingy; the shell came in through the front, bounced off the bottom plate and ended at the back of the turret. It pretty much hit anything functional inside on its way through. Scary.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

I find that with the Germans the Panzer IV F2 or the Panzer III J1 (and, I imagine, the long-barrel variant of the StuG III) can start penetrating the armour on the Shermans and T-34s pretty consistently, whereas beforehand you might as well have been hitting them with wet noodles. KV-1s are still a pain, but well, KV-1s. German armour protection is still (as it was historically) about as good as a piece of paper, though, so they still explode more often when the Allied tanks look at them funny.

Could be that I've yet to get more than the primary shells on the IV F2, hopefully the armour penetrating stuff will work better. I have found though that generally though I get knocked out a lot easier than I knock others out. The StuG is fairly good though, but still, flat forward armour just seems to magnetically attract shells, which automatically murder everyone on contact.
That being said, when I penetrate an enemy tank, I see the enemy men get hit which if it had happened to me would either knock me out, or make me immobilised, and yet the struck tank will immediately start reversing.
That being said (again), there are a few one hit kill points, in particular for the HVSS Sherman, the rear of the turret (which is IIRC where the ammo is stored) will make it go up like a firework nearly every time.

[Arclight]

It could be there's quite a few people playing on a lower tier than they could. Their crews would consequently be a lot more "experienced" - i.e. they prolly pumped quite a few points into their vitality stats. Not sure how crew health works, but I imagine it increases the threshold where they get knocked out along with their maximum health.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Could be that I've yet to get more than the primary shells on the IV F2, hopefully the armour penetrating stuff will work better. I have found though that generally though I get knocked out a lot easier than I knock others out. The StuG is fairly good though, but still, flat forward armour just seems to magnetically attract shells, which automatically murder everyone on contact.
That being said, when I penetrate an enemy tank, I see the enemy men get hit which if it had happened to me would either knock me out, or make me immobilised, and yet the struck tank will immediately start reversing.
That being said (again), there are a few one hit kill points, in particular for the HVSS Sherman, the rear of the turret (which is IIRC where the ammo is stored) will make it go up like a firework nearly every time.

I use the standard APC rounds with the F2. The HEAT rounds are only useful at very long range (if they even hit) or against unarmoured targets and the APCR is useful only if you aim it just right. It does seem like I get disabled much more easily than the enemy, which could be their crew vitality or just the German tanks being horribly protected. At the least the placement of the ammunition on the Panzer IV seems rather questionably thought out to me...