Ammunition Types

Armour Piercing

The most versatile and popular ammunition in World of Tanks. These shells are essentially a large, heavy dart designed to punch through armour with the kinetic energy applied to it by the gun. Simple. Easy to use. Effective.

Strengths

Good Vs Sloped Armour:

Large Calibre AP rounds are subject to the Overmatching rules. If the calibre of your gun is double that of the thickness of the armour in question, a complex formula is applied which increases your chance of penetration. If your gun calibre is 3 times the armour thickness in theory you should penetrate every time.

All AP rounds are subject to Normalisation rules which is adjusting the trajectory of the shell Towards the armours normal axis at the point of impact. This means a higher chance of penetration.

Good Vs Spaced Armour:

Because AP rounds use Kinetic Energy alone to punch through armour, thin, spaced armour has little effect on in. In WOT tracks count as spaced armour which makes AP good at tracking targets and going through to damage the tank afterwards.

Weaknesses

AP Penetration values are rarely spectacular.

Armour Piercing Composite Rigid

Most Low and Mid Tier Tanks in WOT fire APCR as their premium ammunition. APCR is similar to the AP rounds in that it uses kinetic energy only to defeat armour. APCR generally weighs about half what the AP shell weighs, which gives a much higher muzzle velocity. An APCR round is generally made from a lightweight outer shell (often aluminium) surrounding an extremely dense metal(usually tungsten). The principle it uses is similar to the principle behind a syringe. A nurse pushing down on your arm with their thumb is not going to break the skin, but using a syringe the same force is applied to an extremely small area of your arm causing the penetration of your skin and the delivery of the payload of the syringe to your body.

Strengths

High Penetration Values:

Penetration values for APCR are only beaten by High Explosive Anti Tank ammunition.

Good Vs Sloped Armour

The game handles APCR and AP in the same way for Overmatching and Normalisation

Good Vs Spaced Armour

APCR and AP are also handled in the same way with regards to Spaced armour

Weaknesses

High Muzzle Velocity

The High Muzzle Velocity of APCR means that learning how much lead to give(Firing at the position a moving vehicle will be when the shell lands) can be a surprise for new players

Loss of Penetration at a Distance

APCR loses Penetration over distance more quickly than AP due to its light weight.

High Explosive

High Explosive Shells are the most common weapons tanks use to deal with unarmoured targets. In essence you are shooting a bomb at the enemy. This is the favourite ammunition choice of artillery. Excellent at damaging crew members and modules, but not so good at armoured targets. Many Tanks can be equipped with Howitzers which specialise in High Explosives and are often known as Derp Guns.

Strengths

High Alpha Damage

The of the shells with the highest alpha I the games fire High Explosives or a variant of it .A penetrating hit will often one hit a lower tier opponent

Splash Damage

With High Explosives you dont have to penetrate a tank to do damage. Just landing the shell on the target will cause the shell to “splash” damage your opponent. Also often you don’t have to even hit the target. Just landing a shell close enough can be enough to cause damage.

Open Top Vehicle

With nothing between the crew and an explosion splash HE will often wreck open Top Vehicles.

Weaknesses

Low Penetration Values

High Explosive is not designed to penetrate armour, shooting thickly armoured targets can produce disappointing results

Highly Inaccurate

Most Howitzers are very inaccurate. This makes hitting weak spots in the tank difficult. The Low Muzzle velocity of HE also means that your opponent has often moved by the time the shell lands where you are aiming.

Weak vs Spaced Armour

High Explosive will explode on contact with any armour. If it hits spaced armour it will explode. Often this means the tracks (which count in the game as spaced armour). If you hitt the tracks, you will break them, but are unlikely to do anything else.

High Explosive Anti Tank

High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) is completely different to the 2 previous shell types. This shell does not use kinetic energy to overcome armour. Instead this type of shell uses a shaped charge which propels a jet of metal at Hypersonic Velocity into and through the armour. If you have any doubt about the perceived effectiveness of HEAT ammunition during the cold war, consider that the Leopard 1 Tank has such thin armour because it was thought that no amount of armour would be capable of protecting the tank.

Strengths

High Penetration Values

The Highest Penetration values in the game are invariably firing HEAT ammunition.

Does Not Lose Penetration Over Distance

Because this ammunition does not rely on kinetic energy the slowing of the shell over distance doesn't effect HEAT at all.

Weaknesses

Poor vs Sloped Armour

HEAT shells do are not subject to the Normalisation or Overmatching Rules which effect AP and APCR. Subsequently they are less likely to penetrate sloped armour.

Poor Vs Spaced Armour

HEAT shells hit a target and activate their charge. If the armour in question is Spaced armour away from the hull of the tank then the shell will not damage the tank. This can often be see when HEAT hits the tracks of an opposing tank(which count as spaced armour). The shell will very likely break the tracks, but its very unlikely to actually take hitpoints off the tank

High Explosive Squashed Head

Some High Tier British Tanks have access to HESH ammunition. HESH ammunition is designed not to breach the armour, but to wreck anything or anyone inside it through spalling. Basically it creates a shockwave inside the armour which causes the inside of the armour to break up and kill anyone in the cabin. It is modelled in World of Tanks in a similar manner to High Explosive but with high Penetration Values.

Strengths

High Alpha Damage And High Penetration Values

This ammunition has the same Alpha Damage as the equivalent HE Shells and good Penetration Values.

Splash Damage

If a HESH round fails to Penetrate armour it will explode in a similar way to a HE shell doing splash damage.

Weaknesses

Poor Vs Sloped Armour

HESH doesn’t receive the Normalisation or Overmatching rolls that AP ans APCR receive

Poor Vs Spaced Armour

Spaced Armour activated the HESH shell guaranteeing a non penetration hit. You will of course still splash the target for some damage.