The AMX 40, SuperPershing, IS-7, and Maus.
What do they have in common?
Good armor for their tier.
Their enemies are used to hearing "We didn't penetrate their armor!"
Of course, this is only true if you use these tanks properly,
which is a permanent problem for many players.
Here you can see the Е 100 trying to block shells with the front of her turret.
And here's the IS-7 in a sidescraping position.
In five minutes you'll know what they are doing wrong.
We'll tell you how to use your armor wisely
and help you carry out personal missions.
How to block damage
Thick armor, sloped turrets,
and well-angled armor plates.
All this increases a vehicle's survivability.
However, you cannot have a tank that's completely invulnerable.
The lower glacis plate, sides, rear, and cupola—
these parts are easy to hit and penetrate.
That's why it's important to learn how to protect your tank.
World of Tanks players call it "blocking damage."
How to block damage
It is based on the rules of penetration mechanics.
A vehicle will block a hit if:
1. The armor's relative thickness
is higher than the shell's penetration capability.
2. The shell hit a screen or an external module, lost energy,
and failed to penetrate the main armor.
3. A ricochet occurred.
Any of these events can happen
thanks to either the designers who've taken care of the vehicle's protection
and equipped it with thick and well-sloped armor,
or the commander's decision.
This tank doesn't have thick and sloped armor.
But an experienced player would position it in such a way
that shells hit the armor at more than 70 degrees to the normal and ricochet.
In this case, we say, "The tank is in a sidescraping position."
If the vehicle turns further, the risk of penetration increases.
Greater angles are required against stronger guns.
The techniques to protect your tank are well-known.
Here are the most popular ones:
1. Blocking damage with the turret.
2. Blocking damage with the hull's front.
3. Sidescraping and blocking damage with the side.
4. Reverse sidescraping.
5. Forcing the enemy to shoot.
These tricks are also accompanied by "hull dancing,"
which means wabbling your hull and turret.
This makes it difficult for the enemy to aim and fire at your vulnerable spots.
It may seem that everything's simple— roll out and block damage.
But we fight battles on different maps and face different enemies.
How do I choose the technique that works best?
First of all, you should take a closer look at your tank.
How to block damage
Let's start with the turret and assess the armor thickness.
If its official values are about the same or higher
than the penetration potential of most enemies in battle,
everything's great. The tank will avoid damage effectively.
If the values are lower, all is not lost yet.
Let's take a look at the turret shape.
If it is streamlined, the armor can meet the shell at an angle.
The relative armor will be much thicker than the nominal armor.
And the thick gun mantlet will become a nice extra piece of protection.
A turret like this should be kept straight towards the enemy
and not expose its sides.
What can be easier than that?
If you hide your hull,
you can resist enemy shells and fire in response.
Doing this when you have the IS-7 is unequaled pleasure.
The ideal shape!
If your turret has a rectangular shape, it's a bit more difficult.
The gun mantlet can still take a blow,
but the turret cheeks will be penetrated by virtually anything.
To protect yourself, you can turn the turret
and put it in a sidescraping position.
This will increase the nominal armor thickness.
However, if you overdo it, the enemy can penetrate the side.
So it's important to remember the ricochet angles.
After the enemy has fired a shot, you can fire in response.
And return to the starting position.
The geometry becomes especially interesting
when you're facing several enemies.
You've got to block shells coming from different directions
while firing in return.
In this situation, it's important to turn the turret
to an impenetrable angle to the enemy that is about to shoot.
These are the basics of playing your turret.
These techniques will work if you're behind cover on a horizontal surface
and managed to hide the tank's hull.
You can use arcs, embankments,
terrain features, destroyed tanks, etc.
And it doesn't matter where your turret is mounted on the hull
or how good the elevation and depression angles are.
Problems can arise if you meet an experienced enemy
who aims for your weak spots.
So you should learn to protect them.
Here's the commander's cupola.
In most cases it's quite easy to penetrate this part.
This one is small, so moving back and forth
is enough to make it difficult for the enemy to aim.
Some commander's cupolas are big.
In this case, you should choose a position
from which the enemy will see only the part of your tank's turret
that doesn't have vulnerable spots.
If that's impossible, you can go for another variant:
turn the turret like this, and the cupola disappears.
Magic, isn't it?
How to block damage
Life becomes more colorful
when your tank's gun depression angle is more than 8 degrees.
Hills, mountains, and other sloping surfaces become your best friends.
You hide your hull and meet the enemies in full control of the situation.
This is how you can protect the commander's cupola and thin turret roof.
If you get to sloped terrain, these parts will become a difficult target.
However, a lot depends on where the turret is attached to the hull.
If it's closer to the rear,
you can forget about taking position on top of a hill.
You're better off riding down to the foot of the hill.
However, even small depression angles
aren't critical for a tank with strong armor.
You can look for a good place on irregular terrain
and position your vehicle so that you can fire conveniently
without exposing your weak spots.
Now here's a trick that works for tanks with a strong turret.
There's an unexpected way to use terrain.
We're all used to tanks moving on a horizontal surface.
And so we look for relevant shelters.
Now look at the foot of the mountain.
The enemies are waiting around the corner.
They're aiming at the place where the front wheel will appear.
This is what usually happens!
And this is why nobody wants to attack first.
But there is a way out!
You should climb up a slope!
Now it works like a regular hill, hiding your lower glacis plate
and allowing you to absorb damage with the turret.
Just look at this from a different angle.
Sometimes the slope can help even in hopeless situations.
Climbing up with the rear.
Using irregularities like piles of debris on Himmelsdorf.
And even if we don't win the battle,
one or two shots could grant a mark of excellence on the barrel.
This is basically all the theory on soaking up damage with the turret.
If it seemed simple to you, that’s great.
Now it's time to engage all your mental capabilities.
We proceed to the hull, the largest and most sophisticated part of a tank.
How to block damage
Following tradition, we'll start with the hull's front.
It would've been nice to have thick armor here.
So that no one could penetrate it at all.
But then the tank would be very slow.
Seeking a balance between protection and mobility,
designers experimented with the shape.
Here we will take a look at different variants of a hull's front
and see how they can help you survive in battle.
Let's start with this one. It's the pike nose.
It consists of sloped armor plates.
The sharper their angle, the thicker their relative armor.
Front armor like this is effective when it's directed straight towards the enemy.
Your task is to find piles of debris and terrain irregularities
to hide the vulnerable lower glacis plate.
And then just stay still.
Still doesn't mean completely motionless!
Even the thickest front armor has vulnerable spots.
And you shouldn't let the enemy aim at them. So dance!
Back and forth a bit, left and right a bit.
If you turn the pike nose too much, the relative armor thickness decreases.
The chance of penetration increases.
Forget about shootouts from around corners.
When facing an enemy of equal strength, play defensively,
move out to fire when the enemy is reloading.
When playing tanks that have a straight front, with vertical armor plates,
you have to work a bit harder.
You see an enemy, put the hull in a sidescraping position.
Like with the turret, you should take the correct angle,
otherwise the enemy will penetrate your side.
The best solution is to find shelter,
from which you'll expose only your front part at a ricochet angle.
Tease them. In most cases, the adversary will take the bait and fire.
This is called "forcing the enemy to shoot."
Now you can fire in response, rinse and repeat.
When doing this, try not to expose your front wheel to the enemy.
It may be helpful if you zoom out the camera and view the tank from the side.
This makes it easier to control the angles.
However, with some tanks you just can't avoid exposing their front wheels.
Look what the good old Churchill is doing.
You think he's carelessly exposed his side to an enemy shot?
Nothing of the sort— the side is still safe.
How to block damage
Let's continue our discussion.
The next topic is blocking damage with the tank's side.
To resist the shot,
you should put the tank in a sidescraping position behind cover
and hide your lower glacis plate.
The efficiency of blocking damage will depend on
a combination of the hull shape, relative thickness of its armor plates,
availability of screens, and armor protection of the running gear.
This is the E 100.
Everybody knows that this tank soaks up damage with its side.
Why? First the shell has to penetrate a 60-mm screen.
If the tank is positioned properly, this value more than doubles.
The projectile loses part of its penetration potential
and hits the chassis, which is 40 mm thick.
The running gear is an external module, so, irrespective of the angle,
her thickness is always of nominal value.
Anyway, the shell will lose part of its energy again
and try to penetrate the hull's relative armor, which is over 250 mm thick.
And fail. This tank will definitely play its side.
No doubt about it.
But the problem is that most vehicles can't boast armor like this.
Moreover, in practice, one tank can play its turret pretty well,
while another fails to do this efficiently.
And even thorough analysis of the specifications
doesn't always help reveal the reason.
But there is an answer to this. And it's not about the numbers.
Let's find it using two tanks as an example.
The Kranvagn's hull is officially 70 mm thick,
and the running gear is 30 mm thick.
The Т57 Heavy's hull is just 44 mm thick,
and its running gear is 20 mm.
Judging by these figures, the American tank doesn't have a chance.
The IS-7 will test how strong their sides are
by firing shells with an average penetration capacity of 250 mm.
Here's the result.
The Swedish tank is penetrated with almost every shot,
while the Т57 Heavy resists the hits much better.
This is what it's all about.
The Kranvagn's running gear is as strong as that of the IS-7.
Having pierced through it, the shell loses 30 mm of its penetration capacity.
But then it meets the vertical armor plates,
whose relative thickness is 140 mm or higher.
The tank's side can block the hit only if a ricochet happens.
But when it's no longer a ricochet angle,
the shells start penetrating the armor.
In the heat of the battle this happens almost every time.
Therefore it's best to recall that this “Swede”
has an excellent hull and can use it to soak up damage.
The T57 Heavy has weaker armor on its running gear.
And there is a thin hull behind it.
But the US tank's hull has a rounded shape, which can work wonders.
Look at the angles at which a shell meets the armor.
The Т57 Heavy can be less careful,
but still receive ricochets and non-penetrations.
If the shell flies a bit lower,
you may well hear the annoying "Critical hit!" message.
So here's some advice: when facing the Heavy,
fire at the upper part of the tank's side or at the lower part of its turret.
Then it's much easier to damage the tank.
How to block damage
What else should we pay attention to
before beginning to block damage with the side?
Often you can see a pretty thin side between the track lines and the fender.
Here you can rely only on the relative armor thickness.
So you should put the tank at a very sharp angle to the enemy's line of fire.
It is also important to hide the front part of the chassis,
as one can easily penetrate the thin hull through it.
This position for the tank would be ideal.
It makes the vehicle quite difficult to destroy.
This position will help protect the pike nose.
In this case, you should try to expose the rear part of your tank's side
and encourage the enemy to fire.
By the way, when a tank with a pike nose
is exchanging shots from around a corner,
you can use a different sidescraping position.
It's called reverse sidescraping.
The most important thing is to hide the tank's rear behind cover
and roll out for a shot without exposing it.
How to block damage
Now you know everything you need
to figure out which tanks can soak up damage and which can't.
And, most importantly, what the appropriate protection techniques are.
However, theory alone won't be enough.
Go to the training room and try to block different types of shells
from the most dangerous enemies.
Find the angles that allow you to resist their hits.
And watch guides by the video makers to reinforce your knowledge.
Good luck in battle!