Shell Types

Work in progress

This wiki is still being written. Pages are incomplete, numbers may change, and some mechanics are not covered yet.

Every gun fires one of a handful of shell families, and each defeats armour a different way. Knowing which round to load, and when, is the first real gunnery skill.

Kinetic and chemical

Every shell belongs to one of two camps, and almost every rule on this wiki branches on which one it is. Kinetic rounds carry their penetration as a number that decays over distance. Chemical rounds create their effect on contact, so distance does not weaken them, but air gaps do.

	Kinetic	Chemical
Members	AP, APHE, APDS, APFSDS	HEAT, ATGM, HE, HESH
Loses penetration to	Distance flown	Air gaps between contacts
Armour table used	Kinetic multipliers	Chemical multipliers
Speed affects damage	Yes	No
Stopped early by APS	No, penetration is cut instead	Yes, detonates at intercept

The families

Round	Camp	What it is
AP	Kinetic	Solid shot, no filler
APHE	Kinetic	AP with a time fused explosive filler that detonates inside
APDS	Kinetic	Sub calibre dart in a sabot that falls away after firing
APFSDS	Kinetic	Long fin stabilised dart, rated at two penetration values
HEAT	Chemical	Shaped charge that fires a jet on contact
ATGM	Chemical	Guided missile, often with a tandem warhead
HE	Chemical	Thin shell packed with explosive
HESH	Chemical	Explosive that squashes onto the plate then detonates

Per family constants

The same handful of constants show up across the penetration, ricochet, spall and damage rules. Collected in one place:

Family	Overmatch divisor	Pen floor	Spall coefficient	Damage divisor
AP	3	C / 3	0.24	5
APHE	3	C / 3	0.24	5
APDS	6	0	0.21	6
APFSDS	6	0	0.18	6
HEAT	7	no decay	0.10	5
ATGM	7	no decay	0.10	5
HE	n/a	no decay	full sphere	5
HESH	n/a	no decay	full sphere	5

C is calibre in mm. The overmatch divisor decides how thin a plate has to be before the round ignores angle entirely, and the spall coefficient sets the fragment cone width.

Note

Sabot rounds get the better overmatch divisor and the narrower spall cone, but the larger damage divisor, so they punch through more and do less on the way past. Each of these is explained on its own page.

Why APFSDS has two penetration values

APFSDS is the only family rated at both a straight penetration and a separate value at 60 degrees. The ratio between them feeds the refraction index, which is what lets a good dart shorten its path through sloped armour instead of lengthening it.

Note

The other kinetic families derive their index from their ricochet angle instead. Both cases are covered on the penetration page.

Shell Types

Kinetic and chemical #

The families #

Per family constants #

Why APFSDS has two penetration values #

See also

Kinetic and chemical

The families

Per family constants

Why APFSDS has two penetration values