Funny...I've been killing Ostwind/Panzers with INDIRECT hits believe it or not. I've landed some close hits in the dirt that were close enough to knock out the turrent/treads where the tank driver ditched so I got the kill.
Got alot of 1 ping kills too...provide you hit the front, rear or top armor. Hitting the turrent and side hull does nil.
Anyone notice the 37mm has a range of like 2k? I didn't even notice how far it shot till I was offline messing with it.
In response as to why the VVS 37mm kills armor so much easier then the Flak VR on the Ostwind...
The damage model on armor is way over simplified. Even with either of the massive 37mm's fitted to air planes, the roofing/engine grill had to be attacked for a sure knock out in real life. Attacking the 80mm thick frontal, 30mm side and read armor on the Pz IV was futile with any small caliber (Hispano included) because they are not really capable of penetrating that much armor. And neither were the 37mm's from any kind of range. The Ostwind must always hit the thickest armor of the tank (because in order to arc for the roof the round loses alot of it's kinetic energy at the ranges needed to do so) and is not very effective. The planes however can attack the roof armor from a high angle where enough kinetic energy is retained to punch through (In real life). As a gameplay concession, armor penetration is augmented on aircraft guns, to a point, to compensate for the complex strike angles and other terminal ballastic calculations regarding a several hundred mile an hour air plane attacking an armored surface. In other words, you don't actually have to aim for the roof armor/engine decking to kill the tank, because in essence it's not really like armor, but more like a very tough object. I've bore witness to what enough .50 can do to a tank, although a overloaded P-47 with 90% hits barely has enough to blow a track of a Panzer. But it can, with enough hits.
- Bess
