Armor Flaking

[Sgt. Beavis]

I've played the game quite a few times, and the message of 'internal armor flaking' comes up fairly often because of non-penetrating hits. But I think I've only had crew casualties from it one time out of the many times it's happened. I'm wondering what other people have experienced regarding that.

Just a bit curious today.

[Barrold]

I am sure there is some sort of algorithm based on the model of tank being hit included in the game, but this result definitely happens often in the games I have played. A grog of greater knowledge than I will no doubt have more precise information describing why this phenomenon happened in relation to particular types or origin of country's armor.

My assumption is that the lesser quality of the armor would increase the possibility of the inside of the tank being dinged around by these flakes even though the initial round not penetrating. Another calculation in the game no doubt deals with the chance that these bits of internal shrapnel causing a casualty within the crew. Regardless, it does happen and I consider it a better result than brewing up the entire tank.

This brings up another question. I wonder how many tanks were disabled or destroyed due to the effects of flakes hitting some vital system.

Inquiring minds?

BDH

[Sgt. Beavis]

That is what I have thought about... The flaking is based up on some calculation, along with any resultant casualties. It seems that I hardly ever take crew casualties when it happens though.

I do tend to use German stuff. Perhaps the vehicle interiors were larger on average, thus reducing the chance of shrapnel hitting an unfortunate crewmember. I believe that both the Tiger and Panther are larger than the Sherman. Not sure about the PzIV.

Just thought of another issue, somewhat related. How often do you guys take a penetrating hit w/ casualties on a vehicle, and the crew does not bail out?

I have had that happen a few times, but again not very often. Which makes sense, I'm not debating the realism Just wondering about frequency of the event.

[Guest ckoharik]

I've rarely had one of my vehicles take a penetrating-casualty causing-no bailing out hit but I've inflicted them on quite a number of occasions.

[General Petrovsky]

I've never taken a crew casualty from armor flaking, but in a current PBEM game I scored hit/penetration on a M8 Greyhound TWICE with two different Panzerschreks to no avail. I have no idea how many crew casualties I caused, if any, but the AC is still alive. I've never seen any vehicle survive two armor penetrations. Have you?

[Hanns]

I just had a SPW 251 survive a 75mm penetration in a current game. Now he's looking for revenge!

[tiborhead]

I too have had numerous armor flaking hits. To my memory, none of them have caused casualties. It's a little odd that with so many flaking hits I've never experienced a casualty, much the same as many of you. I'm not one to complain though.

[Sock Monkey]

In a PBEM game in heavy fog an alert opponent got on my flank with a stuart and put three (3!) holes in my Pz IVH at close range without causing a single casualty. The panzer then blew the stuart sky high with a single shell. I felt pretty bad about that one, but since there was nothing I could do about I decided that I was just going to have to live with it

[Silvio Manuel]

I once had two M4A3 Shermans take two non-KO penetrating hits each (no crewmen were hurt)...and this was at close range (200m or so) from Soddball's StuG and a PzIV...now get this- they were side hull/turret penetrations, i.e. the thinner armor. Unfortunately, both tanks were KO'd by the Germans' next shots.

IIRC I read that the (face-hardened?) more brittle armor was hard to penetrate, but was more likely to flake/spall. The more malleable armor (cast metal?) was easier to penetrate, but was less likely to flake.

[ February 05, 2002, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Silvio Manuel ]