Where is the sweet spot?

[Whiteowl]

I had an 120mm gun shooting at the enemy from a nice vantage point at a range of 3000 meters. I shot 19 sabot rounds at a light tank only to watch them bounce off. They were even bouncing off the wheels. I changed to HEAT, let fly about 5 more rounds and they landed on the vehicle and made a nice fire, but still no kill. I changed to HE, let fly 3 more rounds and made a lot of explosions, went back to sabot, fired one more shot and killed it. That is a lot of rounds to kill a light tank. I was stationary, hull-down, it was stationary (moving a few meters back and forth) and in the open. What am I doing wrong? I am not aiming at the turret...point in fact, with all of those rounds, I was aiming everywhere trying to find a sweet spot. In the end it was just luck I think. What is up with that? Rounds shouldn't bounce off the road wheels, should they?

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

HEAT is the way to go in this case. against an apollo (or paladin), aim at the hull,preferably in the middle of the side ,you should get lucky within 3 shots. i think you just had bad luck with your 5 shots in this case.

[Whiteowl]

Ahh...ok. Thanks for the reply. When should I use SABOT? I am guessing shorter ranges (maybe less than 2500 meters?) and against the main battle tank? What is HE effective against? Once in awhile when I have HE in the tube and have no target, I superelevate and launch a round into the enemy camp...once in awhile it reports that I knocked out a sensor, one time I took out three sensors with one un-aimed round! Now that was luck. Will HE kill enemy turrets like the 76 and 90mm? What is the difference between the 76 and the 90mm turrets other than tube diameter? Does the 76 shoot faster to compensate for less wham? Otherwise, why use it?

[ThePhantom]

Whiteowl, I noticed you were getting frustrating when we were playing. Practice a little. As for a sweat spot? I just aim for the sides of the vehicle. If I can't - I aim for the turret to chassis and pray. :eek:

Just play to win - you will get better and better.

[Redcon-5]

OK first off I got to ask WhiteOwl where did you learn a term like "Super Elevate"? You are talking like a tanker.

Drop Team Thor Gunnery 101- Always watch the air density when the map loads, a lot of maps are 2.0 or higher. On these maps you are right, 2500m or less for Sabot(at 2.3 I'd even say 2000m), HEAT for all targets over 2500m even MBT's. HEAT will not punch through the front armor of a Thor so hold your fire.

On Vaccume maps it SABOT paradise so, lase and blaze away.

Appollo and Palidian have a sweet spot mid chassis and low (check out the sniper and inf forum I posted a picture of where to shoot the Appollo) One shot one kill most of the time. Still I would use HEAT for any side flank shots and save the Sabot for front or aft shots (going through 'em longwise)

So far I have only found HE good for killing soft targets including the Shrike, AA Turrets, Inf, and sensor types.

[poesel]

This:

http://dropteam.johalla.de/Threats/100/Thor0.html

should give you a feeling for the weapons.

Shells bouncing off/not penetrating means that you have a bad angle of attack.

HE is pretty useless. Even if you have a target it could kill the time to switch forth and back leaves you defenseless. Add to that that anything you can kill with HE can be killed with your secondary anyway.

The Paladin has its battery very low between the wheels. Go for that from the side. From the front its that small flat band. AP goes through from end to end.

The Apollo is smaller than the Paladin and its more difficult to find a surface thats perpendicular to you. HEAT is usually the ammo of choice. Any hit to the front will either damage or kill the motor thus making it a sitting duck.

Thor from the front: forget it. You can try to shoot through the track which is a glitch in DT. Only AP from very close with a VERY good angle has a chance. From the side its also the battery but there is a sloped piece of armour so better aim a bit higher for the flat surface (again for better angle).

[Chilibird]

If I'm in a MBT, I usually stick with AP rounds, and try to close the distance. Against lesser armored vehicles, like the Paladins, AP rounds are devestating. As all of the others have said, it's easiest to plant a shot right on the side of the hull.

As for where to shoot.. aim for the center. If you can get even one shot to penetrate near the center of the hull, it's near guaranteed that you took out at least one subsystem. (On Thors, aim under the turret, and you'll probably hit the gunner/driver)

[Junglist]

First off, aim low! Tracks are often the most vulnerable and largest target available. If your shot to the tracks doesn't outright kill the enemy it will usually slow them down or stop their movement, making the subsequent killing shot easier. For the near sure kill you should be aiming a little up from the tracks, anywhere from crew section (starts usually about 1/3 - 1/4 in from the front of most vehicle) to the back engine area (about 1/3 to 1/4 in from the back of most vehicles).

Personally, as some of you would know, I like to get much closer to the enemy; to the point where it becomes a game of 120 AP to the death! For in close combat involving heavies (1500 m or closer, depending on the atmosphere) you should be using armour piercing, and you must be prepared to be quick or be dead. For front on Thor on Thor action (or Apollos for that matter) you want to aim at the tracks, preferable on an angle which will propel your shell inwards towards the vital components and squishy human bits inside. If you want to be really fancy and punish someone who comes out of hull down too early, on the Thor there is a tiny metal grate right in the centre front hull armour, or what I personally think of as the "sweet spot". If I can hit this spot at will against opponents early on in a game it definitely gives me a sense of being in the "zone" so to speak. Kinda like playing darts.

This is of course all moot if your enemy isn't paying attention and you can get a shot away at the side or rear of their turret. When the turret shot presents itself it is the surest way to quickly incapacitate your enemy.

[Chilibird]

Aye. There is nothing quite as humiliating as having your turret nuked while having the rest of your subsystems intact *looks at Bane*

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

Originally posted by Whiteowl:

What is the difference between the 76 and the 90mm turrets other than tube diameter? Does the 76 shoot faster to compensate for less wham? Otherwise, why use it?

The only difference is the stronger punch of the 90mm, it will kill at greater distances. (i´m not entirely sure about the firing rate)

I put 76mm turrets in concealed positions, i.e behind rocks, so that the prospective prey will wander into the line of fire at less than a 100m.

I like to put 90mm turrets on buildings, they will start firing at ranges that you wouldn´t expect.

speaking of 76mm AP, the 76mm paladin is quite useful for clearing out "turret farms", because you can fire from far away with high precision at a high rate.

[Whiteowl]

That was a lot of good information. I will have to practice some with this new data and see if I can get a better shot/kill ratio.

Hey Redcon-5, I am a former US Marine. I spent some quality time with 2nd Tank Bn. I am not a tanker though, I was a tactical air controller and one of the ideas I came up with was to mount a PPN-18 transponder on a tank....long story, but it was so that the A-6E Intruder could see where the tank was, and the tanker could tell the pilot where the enemy is relative to his position, thus enabling a nice airstrike with very little communication and a smaller chance of friendly fire. I am not sure if it is in practice today since comm technology has changed so much. But that was my claim to fame in the early 80's!

I have a degree in electronics engineering and know a few things about physics. Sometimes it seems like what I see is just not real, but then I have to stop myself and remember...these battles aren't happening on EARTH! LOL, there is a learning curve, and I am on the baby end of it. Thanks for tolerating my frustration, I am just trying to get better at it, and it is a fun game, one of the funnest I can remember in a long time.

[Imperial Grunt]

Hello there Whiteowl. Semper Fi!

DT gunnery just takes practise. Playing agianst bots is good for that.

[Redcon-5]

I was with the First CAV Div in the late 90's Got to play one some of the first M1A2's

What IG says is true just takes some trigger time. I fire up Call of Duty 2 some times just to get a little eye/mouse coordiantion in target rich enviroment. But even good old DOOM or quake will do it. Not Rainbow six it has autotargeting, yes you can turn it off but its just not the same.

[Whiteowl]

Semper Fi. I have a favorite map now...house to house. I sneak around to the hill just East of their base and it gives me a chance to practice gunnery.

Call of Duty 1, 2, Soldier of Fortune 2, Delta Force 2, and Far Cry gave me my mouse coordination. All are good games but sabot or heat rounds bouncing off road wheels just seems queer to me. If you hit a road wheel with a shot from a 120mm cannon, that road wheel is coming the hell off, and chances are great that the fragments from that road wheel disentegrating are going to involve some track dismemberment.