German vs Soviet AT capabilities

[=ARTOA=Bombenleger]

I think the main problem is the russian 23mm cannon being an effective tank killer.
Yes it can penetrate german tanks from the top and side, but how much energy is that projectile going to carry after penetrating, which it just barely manages, almost none.
If even the BK 37 has problems killing tanks (the amount of hits required in game is ok imo) then the 23mm which is not even close to coming close to the 37mm in AT effectiveness is extremely overmodeled.
I think we should focus less on penetration values because penetration is only one quality of an AT gun.
I think being able to kill more than 2 tanks with the complete ammo of the 23mm is astronomicaly too much and even those 2 tanks kills are a far stretch from reality, but hey its a game.

Edited January 26, 2018 by =ARTOA=Bombenleger

[=RvE=Windmills]

Yes it can penetrate german tanks from the top and side, but how much energy is that projectile going to carry after penetrating, which it just barely manages, almost none.

 

From the top its actually not that unlikely, German armour is very thin there and should be fairly vulnerable to the 23mm from even a moderately steep dive. Easy enough that it should be able to still do damage inside.

 

The bigger issue is side armour, which is quite a bit thicker on most German armour ingame. Not quite thick enough to be invulnerable to the 23mm, but sufficient that it probably wouldn't be worth it over targeting the rear/top considering the angles and distance you would have to fire from realistically speaking. The fact that the 23mm does do considerable side damage from long distance, plus that the sides are by far the biggest surface area to hit makes it overly effective imo.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Windmills

[=ARTOA=Bombenleger]

I think it should be possible to kill medium tanks with the 23mm but it should not be feasible, at least when attacking from the side.
When attacking the top plates on german tanks from a 30° dive it should still take more hits than it does now, or one 37mm hit in the same situation should be enough to kill a tank.
The way it is now the 23mm and 37mm get an unequal treatment in terms of how many penetration constitute a kill.
I would love for the 37mm on the IL2 to become a feasible choice.
The amount of hitpoints lost to a 23mm penetration should be lowered, easy solution and one that would make the game more realistic.

Edited January 26, 2018 by =ARTOA=Bombenleger

[=RvE=Windmills]

Armour values are modelled to at least some degree, so it's also possible that some armour values are set just a bit too low on those particular areas making things too easy for the 23mm.

[LLv34_Stafroty]

one thing which havent brought up is the armor value what fuel in the fuel tank itself provides. In swedish tests its 10mm armor value from each 200mm of fuel.

so sniping from behind at full tank fw the pilot pretty much should survive the Vya23mm ap hit which had 25mm penetration value.