quick question

Hiya,

Ehmm, i tracked a KV-1 with my T49. Now additional shots in the track area gave normal damage instead of 0 dam penetrations. So the question is :
Does a broken track still "eat" damage? Or will shots just go through and do damage ?

Cheerio

It eats damage.

Shooting the tracks and whether it results, in 0 damage penetration, tracking, damage or tracking + damage (axle jam) is very complicated.

0 damage penetrations happen when you either hit the tracks too low and and miss the hull behind them. When you hit high enough, on the part where tanks hull is behind the track, you penetrate the tracks (they work as spaced armour), but not the tanks hull. Or when your gun doesn't have enough damage to destroy the tracks (hp of the tracks is more than whatever the RNG happened to come up with for you shot). 

You can track enemies when you hit the first or the last road wheel (technically a sprocket, but a road wheel is easier to understand) of the tracks. This can be done from the side or from the front. You can also track them by hitting the track itself, but that is more due to luck than skill.

Damaging and tracking at the same time by hitting the axle. Axle, simply put, is the metal rod that links and front wheels (and rear wheels) together and to the engine. The part which you need to hit is the spot where the axle goes inside the tanks hull, that spot has no armour at all, hence it's easy to damage a tank this way. But to hit it you need to go through the road wheel, which in turn tracks the enemy. The spot where you need to shoot depends on the angle you're shooting from, easiest way to hit it is directly from the side. But you should always keep in mind it's the axle where you do the damage and tracking is just a fortunate byproduct.

Just doing damage to tank means you penetrated the tracks, in a spot where you can't track them, and then the enemies side armour, resulting in damage done. The tracks are and everything inside the track links is considered a single module, but you can only break the tracks by hitting the first or last road wheel (sprocket) or the track links. When you hit anything in between they only act as spaced armour. This is why it's useful to aim, in tanks with no additional side armour, above the tracks, to easier penetrate the enemy.

When the tracks are broken (enemy is tracked) tracks have no hp, meaning it's easier to damage the tank instead of wasting your shots in the tracks.

Without seeing where you hit the enemy it's hard to say which of the above happened, but I hope this helped you to make your own conclusions.

hiya,

Shame , must have been lucky then with those shots getting through.
I will not be counting on that the next time

Thanks for explaining that Vallu ,I was at 90 degrees and hitting that KV in the side in the track area.
I was waiting for a 0 dam pen so i decided to shoot the turret and promptly bounced.
I have a replay .
Need to find out how to link that.

http://wotreplays.com/site/225369#arctic_region-flash64-t49

I was not paying attention and took the wrong turn in the beginning

Thanks

Cheerio

Your shots went in to the middle of the tracks while the tracks were broken, basically you only had to pen the side armour.

Couple of unrelated tips though.

Don't shoot the KV-1 in the turret 110 amrour all around, hull is always easier to pen, unless extremely angled.

Repair your gun always, especially in a TD. Unless you have something more important to repair, but gun almost always the most important one.

just to add, in 8.6 you will be rewarded for tracking a tank which is then subsequently damaged, assist damage i think its going to be called, the same as spotting does now.
always worth learning to track an enemy, hopefully he'll use his repair pack, and then you do it again!

vorlontank wrote:just to add, in 8.6 you will be rewarded for tracking a tank which is then subsequently damaged, assist damage i think its going to be called, the same as spotting does now.
always worth learning to track an enemy, hopefully he'll use his repair pack, and then you do it again!

I believe you're also going to get xp for maintaining track damage to enemy tanks, and for maintaining the spot. So say someone else spots an enemy, you drive into spotting range, then the initial spotter fucks off dies or is otherwise unable to see the enemy, you'll get xp for keeping the enemy on-grid for your team. I think, anyway. I'm pretty sure thats how it was explained.

Also, another thing to add. You may already know this but I'll put it out there for people who don't. Using High-Explosive (HE) shells on tracks is extremely effective. With AP or APCR, the only real way to track an enemy is shooting the front/back axle from the side or front, which when done at range or on a fast-moving target is pretty hard. If you load HE, you create a larger splash which deals more damage - as a result, shooting even the direct side of the tracks themselves often destroys them. Note that you should avoid using HE directly on tank armour, as HE penetration values are very low and you are unlikely to do much damage.

heh..ehehheheh. penetration.