zook trajectory and sloping armour

[novice]

The Hetzer i am up against is a distance away from my zooks. Will the distance work in my favour, because the projectile will come in at an angle? Say the trajectory means the projectile comes in at 20 degrees to the horizontal. The Hetzer has 60 degrees sloping armour at the front. Is the effective slope therefore 40 degrees in this (hypothetical) example?

I hope so

Pants-err von Nuebie

[Determinant]

Originally posted by novice:

The Hetzer i am up against is a distance away from my zooks. Will the distance work in my favour, because the projectile will come in at an angle?

Will the long range not work against your favour as the zooks will miss while the Hetzer will not? But best of luck anyway.

[Maj. Battaglia]

That's an interesting thought. I don't know if that is modeled. However, the trajectory is not going to be great if both firer and target are roughly the same level. Although the bazooka, according to George Forty, had a range of 700 yards, you could not hit much that far out. Certainly at such extreme ranges, not modeled by CM, you would have higher incoming trajectories. But at 200m or less they will be much less than 20 degrees I suspect.

And relative impact angles are less important for HEAT type weapons than the AP family, anyway.

[novice]

i suppose the more general question is about the range/angle trade-off. natcherly this will be specific to the weapons involved, but has to be an issue with highly sloped armour. a projectile loses kinetic energy to air resistance, the moreso the range, but coming in at a more 'normal' angle (ie close to 90 degrees) must aid penetration too - so where is the break-even point (in this example)? i have been impressed by the extent to which CMBO models trajectories - a long-flung zook does seem to come in at quite an angle - so presumably angle of contact is factored in on kill calcs?

i realise this is a much more general issue than zooks v Hetzers. but light hand-launched AT rounds i guess are particularly prone to slowing by air resistance? on the other hand, landing at 90 degrees is good news... unless you are in the AFV itself and havent taken yr aspirin..

any comment either on the CM engine or the real-life situation?

Pants-err Von Neubie

[pants-err]

Originally posted by Maj. Battaglia:

That's an interesting thought. I don't know if that is modeled. However, the trajectory is not going to be great if both firer and target are roughly the same level. Although the bazooka, according to George Forty, had a range of 700 yards, you could not hit much that far out. Certainly at such extreme ranges, not modeled by CM, you would have higher incoming trajectories. But at 200m or less they will be much less than 20 degrees I suspect.

And relative impact angles are less important for HEAT type weapons than the AP family, anyway.

[pants-err]

OK!! The second point about HEAT v AP answers my point, thanks Major.

For the record, if the maximum range of a zook is 700m, then to a first approx the angle it will come in at shorter (more realistic) ranges is 8 degrees at 100m and 17 degrees at 200m.