A Second Bite at the Apple

It seems that perhaps I was not clear when I discussed the relative virtues of the PaK36, the PTRD and the Lahti ATR.  Allow me to go back and be more systematic.

PaK36
The Panzerabwehrkanone 36 was an anti-tank gun with a 37mm caliber (1 29/64ths inch) and a 1.33m (5' 5" or 45 callibers).  It had a muzzle velocity of 762m/s and could penetrate 34mm of armor sloped at 30 degrees at 100m.  For reference, the side turret of a T34, also sloped at 30 degrees, was 52mm.

PTRD/PTRS
While there are differences in game terms between these two Soviet anti-tank rifles, there is not a difference in penetration between the two.  It had a caliber of 14.5 and its barrel length was (is, actually, there are some of these still around) just a tad over 1.3m.  It has a muzzle velocity of 1114m/s.    Some sources talk about two different types of ammunition, a steel core and a tungsten core.  The tungsten core penetrated 45mm of armor at 30 degrees, while the steel only punctured 35.

Lahti 20mm ATR
Lahti actually developed two ATR's in the run up to the Winter War.  While it was fully automatic, it couldn't penetrate any of the Soviet armor and the 13mm was deemed ineffectual and production ended after the Winter War.  The 20mm was an absolute pig, weighing over 40kg (100lbs.)  Yet, for its weight, it packed a rather light punch, with a penetration of 29mm.  It had a number of different types of ammunition, including some experimental French and Hungarian special AT rounds, but most Lahtis were rendered inoperable at the end of the war (by welding a steel bar in the chamber), so tests and combat figures are not available.

Penetration Comparisons:

 100m 500 1000 1500 2000
37L 34mm 29 22 20
R76L 98 92 80 75 65
PTRD/PTRS 35 25


Lahti 20mm ATR 28 18 10 6
.50 cal 23 13



Penetration at 10 hexes vs. a PzKwIIIc (15mm armor):
37L  = 29/15= 193%
R76L =92/15= 613%
PTRD=25/15=166%
Lahti=18/15=120%
.50 cal=13/15=87%

Now, this is a simple calculation and not truly the likelihood of destroying a PzIII with these weapons.  It is only a naked comparison of the rough chances assuming a hit in the same location using each of these weapons.  Your mileage may vary.  All of the penetration numbers were taken off of web sites and, where there were conflicts, the most authoritative were used.

ASL to Kill
There are several components to the To Kill.  A weapon has a BTK.  This is compared to an AF.  Then a random component is added to the calculation.  The random component is between 2 and 11 (a 12 is a dud.)  This Gaussian function makes it increasingly unlikely that numbers farther from 7 will be rolled.

Therefore, we can calculate the possibility of getting an effect (CH are ignored as is possible shock) on a PzKwIIID (the earliest model ASL version) is:
37L = FTK 8 = 72%
R76L = 12 = 98%
PTRD = 5 = 27%
Lahti = 5 = 27%
.50 Cal = 4 = 17%

So, comparing the ratio of penetration to armor and FTK/AF we get:
The 37L gets an ASL effect probability that is 37% of its penetration ratio.  The Lahti gets 23% of its penetration ratio.  The PTRD gets a paltry 16% of its penetration ratio.  If you examine the probability of an outright kill, it's even worse.

Hopefully, backing up and walking through things has helped make a more convincing argument.

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