Tank damage mechanics - official guide

[Instinct]

Tank damage mechanics - official guide
Updated: 13th February 2011


Introduction
The game features a very complex damage system for tanks resulting in very different damage behavior depending on the type of tank you use and the shell size. The following guide will explain you some details of the system to better understand the game mechanics. It doesn't necessarily teach you how to play, but rather than that helps you to understand how the game works and why things happen as they are.


The game differentiates between 4 type of armors:

• Armored Car[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• Light Tank[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• Medium Tank[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• Heavy Tank[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]

Each type of armor has it's own definition for different shells that hit it:

• Heavy machine gun[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• Anti-tank rifle[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~20mm auto-cannons[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~37-47mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~50-57mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~75-76mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~80-85mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~88-105mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~122-128mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• ~150-152mm guns[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• Hollow charge weapons (bazookas, at-grenades etc.)[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]

Some type of weapons/shells can't cause any damage to a specific armor, for instance an AT-Rifle can't destroy a heavy tanks armor in any circumstances.


Each type of shell can cause different sort of damage and has a different likelihood of causing damage

• damage gun by gun penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage tracks by tracks penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• explode ammo/inventory storage by storage penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• set tank on fire by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage hull by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• destroy hull by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• stun crew by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• explode ammo/inventory storage by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage turret by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage gun by front/mantle turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage gun by left/right turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage gun by back turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• damage engine by engine penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• set engine on fire by engine penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill charger by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill gunner by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill driver by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill commander by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill AA-mgunner by hull penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill charger by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill gunner by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill driver by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill commander by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]
• kill AA-mgunner by turret penetration[/*:m:1dd6m3t3]

This combined produces over 1000 different sort of combinations and gives you a slight insight of how complex the tank penetration mechanics in Men of War: Assault Squad work. And we are only talking about the sort of damage here, no other mechanics. Also keep in mind that a shell which penetrated a turret, or hull or other component still can continue to penetrate another body part or exit the tank on the other side of the armor and hit something else.

Each likelihood of causing a before mentioned sort of "damage possibility" depends on the size of the caliber and armor of the tank. The stronger the armor the less damage a certain shell will cause, the larger the shell, the more damage it will cause to a certain armor.


For instance, a Tiger shooting at a Stuart will cause a:
100% chance of damaging the hull
100% chance of destroying the hull
90% chance of damaging the turret when penetrating the turret
9 seconds crew stun time when penetrating the hull
40% chance to kill the charger when penetrating the hull
25% chance to kill gunner when penetrating the hull
100% chance kill driver when penetrating the hull
25% chance kill commander when penetrating the hull
25% chance kill AA-mgunner when penetrating the hull


And a Tiger shooting at an IS-2 will cause a:
20% chance of damaging the hull
35% chance of destroying the hull
70% chance of damaging the turret when penetrating the turret
6 seconds crew stun time when penetrating the hull
30% chance to kill the charger when penetrating the hull
25% chance to kill gunner when penetrating the hull
100% chance kill driver when penetrating the hull
25% chance kill commander when penetrating the hull
25% chance kill AA-mgunner when penetrating the hull

For turret penetration the crew kills will reverse. So each 25% converts to the second highest value vice versa, while instead of the driver, the gunner dies 100%. Of course all this comes together with whether a shell will penetrate a tank in first place, depending on the enemy tanks armor, your tanks gun strength and penetration table, as well as impact angle of the projectile.

[The Soldier]

Ah, this should come in handy when thinking about tank comat and the all-around infantry vs. tank. So, the bigger the shell, the weaker the enemy tank is, the longer the crew is stunned, correct?

[Hartmann]

For instance, a Tiger shooting at a Stuart will cause a:

9 seconds crew stun time when penetrating the hull

And a Tiger shooting at an IS-2 will cause a:

6 seconds crew stun time when penetrating the hull

Are you sure these stun times are correct? Aside from the Vet Tiger I haven't seen any tank achieving longer or the same stun times as its own gun reload time.

[Ossian]

So critical explosion is just based on a % chance or like in mow there is a special spot to hit? I've been wondering since AS exclusive testing.

[Instinct]

There is a special location inside a tank that can cause an explosion, but an explosion with much smaller chance will happen if the hull is penetrated. Simulating shrapnels that cause an explosion inside.

Ah, this should come in handy when thinking about tank comat and the all-around infantry vs. tank. So, the bigger the shell, the weaker the enemy tank is, the longer the crew is stunned, correct?

Yes and vice versa.

Aside from the Vet Tiger I haven't seen any tank achieving longer or the same stun times as its own gun reload time.

Read above again and you will quickly see why you don't see this to happen often.

[Ossian]

Hm, I'm going to have to work on finding those spots now

[GeneralJ927]

Hm, I'm going to have to work on finding those spots now

They are not that hard to find, i had a play around in the MoW editor, i managed to find the instant kill spot for a M4A2 Jumbo with a 2pdr, also found the instant kill spot on a King Tiger with a 6pdr. Ossian, while testing, shoot at the side of the hull for a good chance of finding them.

[CzaD]

Shouldn’t it be the other way round? Shouldn’t a tiger shell penetrating a Stuart cause less stun coz of the fact it is a lot more likely to pass right thought it and less armour generally means less fragments flying around inside the hull?

Game play wise, why punish light tanks for being so lucky to survive it? Light tanks have a really hard time in AS: it is easy to destroy them and now it is easy to turn them into sitting ducks. Heavy tanks, however, are not easy to penetrate and even after lucky penetration a medium tank will find it hard to advance for a kill coz of the shorter stun time.

[Instinct]

It's in relation to the mass of a tank and a shell, the closer they are too each other the higher the impact on the crew. Additionally considering there is much less room in a small tank than in a big tank, it's also more likely that you will hit somebody. The higher the kinetic energy of a shell the higher the stun and the higher the chance of killing someone inside. (That's the logic the game follows)

Since a Stuart is getting a 100% kill by a Tiger, you will rarely see him being stunned when hit by such a caliber.

[triumph]

From the tactical stand point if you're using lighter armor with a good rate of fire you should be using more than one of them to create a stun lock effect. So like using a hellcat or wolverine with a chaffee or zippo or ambushing with a pak38 and a stug on units that cost more than their combined MP can work out pretty well when the map allows it.

The issue that remains is that trying to flank with speedy units feels punished by fast turret rotation or quick turning by TD's because the nature of the game is no longer one good shot and that defending tank is dead.

But you shouldn't really expect a stuart to be taking on more than a G.