One thought on “MBT – Live look at Armour ratings!”
There is definitely nuances in the way the sides must battle each other. The Soviets will not be able to fight the same way as the Americans and hope to win. I have the luxury of my main wargame opponent was in the real-life OpFor of the American Army. So he learned to think and operate as a Soviet or opponent to the Americans. He’s a darn good player of the Soviet forces in MBT!
The main thing to keep in mind when playing is the CE and KE (Chemical Energy and Kinetic Energy) of the weapon types. APFSDS is KE. HEAT and ATGMs (like Songsters and Snipers for the Soviets) are CE.
When CE weapons impact a tank like the M1A1 Abrams, the listed armor rating is MULTIPLIED by 2. So instead of having a Level armor rating on the Turret Front of 110 (which is the KE armor protection rating), it is doubled to 220 when the Soviets use their Songsters or Snipers to shoot at the M1A1s.
Makes the M1A1 and M1A2 rather nasty!
Likewise, the ERA on the Soviet vehicles is usually only a bonus against CE rounds, as the reactive nature of the Reactive armor counter-explodes into the jet of HEAT that is used to penetrate, thus reducing the penetrative power of the HEAT. ERA is much less effective against kinetic rounds, such as AP, APDS, APFSDS. So check the rules to see what the various reactive armors do and to what extent they protect.
There is definitely nuances in the way the sides must battle each other. The Soviets will not be able to fight the same way as the Americans and hope to win. I have the luxury of my main wargame opponent was in the real-life OpFor of the American Army. So he learned to think and operate as a Soviet or opponent to the Americans. He’s a darn good player of the Soviet forces in MBT!
The main thing to keep in mind when playing is the CE and KE (Chemical Energy and Kinetic Energy) of the weapon types. APFSDS is KE. HEAT and ATGMs (like Songsters and Snipers for the Soviets) are CE.
When CE weapons impact a tank like the M1A1 Abrams, the listed armor rating is MULTIPLIED by 2. So instead of having a Level armor rating on the Turret Front of 110 (which is the KE armor protection rating), it is doubled to 220 when the Soviets use their Songsters or Snipers to shoot at the M1A1s.
Makes the M1A1 and M1A2 rather nasty!
Likewise, the ERA on the Soviet vehicles is usually only a bonus against CE rounds, as the reactive nature of the Reactive armor counter-explodes into the jet of HEAT that is used to penetrate, thus reducing the penetrative power of the HEAT. ERA is much less effective against kinetic rounds, such as AP, APDS, APFSDS. So check the rules to see what the various reactive armors do and to what extent they protect.