Rocket-Man
Space is only 100Km up
I am working on a scenario that will pit PZ IVs vs. Shermans. To see how the two tanks compare, I set up a test with 40 tanks firing at each other at 1000 meters as shown in the picture below. For the test I used all regular tanks and gave each command tank a +1 command with no moral bonus. The Panzers were IVHs and the Shermans were III (mid). FOW was set to none for the tests, all tanks started buttoned and none of them were moving. All tests were done in Hotseat mode.
Much to my surprise the Shermans consistently beat the PZ IVs. I ran the test multiple times and each time the Shermans would win. I then reran the test ten times and counted how many tanks from each side survived the turn. Out of 400 Shermans, 210 survived and out of 400 PZ IVs, 177 survived. Survival was determined as not knocked out, abandoned, gun damaged or immobilized.
Being an engineer, I had to look at the underlying numbers to see if this result made any sense.
The Sherman III (mid) has an armor quality of 90%, giving it an effective frontal armor thickness of:
Turret: 80.1mm @ 0 degrees
Upper hull: 45.9mm @ 56 degrees
Lower hull: 45.9mm @ 15 degrees
The PZ IVH has an armor quality of 95%, giving it an effective frontal armor thickness of:
Turret: 47.5mm @ 10 degrees
Upper hull: 76mm @ 10 degrees
Lower hull: 76mm @ 14 degrees
Using my armor penetration spreadsheet, which calculates values for armor penetration at intermediate angles and ranges, at 1000m the Shermans gun can penetrate:
82.8mm @ 10 degrees
77.5mm @ 14 degrees
And the PZ IVs gun can penetrate:
116mm @ 0 degrees
50.7mm @ 56 degrees
106.4mm @ 15 degrees
Meaning the Shermans gun has the following percentage over the minimum penetration power against the PZ IVs armor:
Turret: 174%
Upper hull: 109%
Lower hull: 102%
and the PZ IVs gun has the following percentage over the minimum penetration power against the Shermans armor:
Turret: 145%
Upper hull: 110%
Lower hull: 230%
Meaning both of them can easily penetrate each others turret, they have an almost equal chance of penetrating each others upper hull and the PZ IV can easily penetrate the lower hull of the Sherman while the Sherman can barely penetrate the PZ IVs lower hull.
Now take into account the fact that the PZ IV has a silhouette of 94 while the Sherman has a silhouette of 100, the PZ IV has good optics to the Shermans standard optics and the PZ IVs gun is higher velocity than the Shermans gun and these results don’t make any sense (as an aside, if immobilizations were counted as surviving, the Shermans would have done even better).
Next, I ran some tests to determine why I got the results I did, and I will post my findings at a later date.
Much to my surprise the Shermans consistently beat the PZ IVs. I ran the test multiple times and each time the Shermans would win. I then reran the test ten times and counted how many tanks from each side survived the turn. Out of 400 Shermans, 210 survived and out of 400 PZ IVs, 177 survived. Survival was determined as not knocked out, abandoned, gun damaged or immobilized.
Being an engineer, I had to look at the underlying numbers to see if this result made any sense.
The Sherman III (mid) has an armor quality of 90%, giving it an effective frontal armor thickness of:
Turret: 80.1mm @ 0 degrees
Upper hull: 45.9mm @ 56 degrees
Lower hull: 45.9mm @ 15 degrees
The PZ IVH has an armor quality of 95%, giving it an effective frontal armor thickness of:
Turret: 47.5mm @ 10 degrees
Upper hull: 76mm @ 10 degrees
Lower hull: 76mm @ 14 degrees
Using my armor penetration spreadsheet, which calculates values for armor penetration at intermediate angles and ranges, at 1000m the Shermans gun can penetrate:
82.8mm @ 10 degrees
77.5mm @ 14 degrees
And the PZ IVs gun can penetrate:
116mm @ 0 degrees
50.7mm @ 56 degrees
106.4mm @ 15 degrees
Meaning the Shermans gun has the following percentage over the minimum penetration power against the PZ IVs armor:
Turret: 174%
Upper hull: 109%
Lower hull: 102%
and the PZ IVs gun has the following percentage over the minimum penetration power against the Shermans armor:
Turret: 145%
Upper hull: 110%
Lower hull: 230%
Meaning both of them can easily penetrate each others turret, they have an almost equal chance of penetrating each others upper hull and the PZ IV can easily penetrate the lower hull of the Sherman while the Sherman can barely penetrate the PZ IVs lower hull.
Now take into account the fact that the PZ IV has a silhouette of 94 while the Sherman has a silhouette of 100, the PZ IV has good optics to the Shermans standard optics and the PZ IVs gun is higher velocity than the Shermans gun and these results don’t make any sense (as an aside, if immobilizations were counted as surviving, the Shermans would have done even better).
Next, I ran some tests to determine why I got the results I did, and I will post my findings at a later date.