The Armored Vehicle Thread

The back forth between weapons and protection is pretty much constant.

But Ach, don't you see that all tanks should be like hedgehogs.

But instead of spikes, they should have machine guns.

What I find odd is odd that the US never adopted an M1 Abrams ARV, instead containing to use M48/M60-based M88.

M 88 is way cheaper.

Random question.

Would it be accurate to say that T-54/55 is the tank equivalent of AK-47?

Depends. Does the T-55 have an upgraded variant that's better than the base T-55, and therefore has become widespread, but people still call it the base T-55?

^ Yeah it's called a T-72. You'd be surprised just how many people can't tell the difference from Soviet era or current tanks.

What I was trying to say is that the AKM is the most widely-used gun in the world, not the AK-47.

So the answer is yes, the T-55 is the AK-47 of the tank world. And just like the AK-47 it was never actually used as extensively as you think it was and it was replaced by it's nearly identical but far superior sister the AKM/T-72.

edited 11th Dec '14 6:14:49 AM by LeGarcon

I propose we all go play World of Tanks right now.

You know I never actually played World of Tanks. Warthunder yes, World of Tanks no.

Haven't played Warthunder in a long time though, my new computer has a weaker graphics card than my old one and an update to the game gave me some massive framerate issues.

I have World Of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition, but my connection is too shit to play it.

Well, you could have grabbed the old Grafx card and put it in the new one. Other than maybe needing a new Power supply box thingie all should be well. Why the power drop dude?

Old computer up and died entirely. The new computer actually has a more powerful processor though. And is slightly stolen.

I'm not sure if I could salvage the graphics card or power supply from the old one, they were always a bit finicky.

edited 11th Dec '14 6:32:25 AM by LeGarcon

I would not bother with the power supply at all, but the graphix card should not be a problem. Just blow it clean.

Possibly but I'm not sure if it'd work. I needed the power supply on the old one because the graphics card was too much for the stock PSU. Dunno the exact specs on this new one yet. The old owner forgot.

Post a picture and I'll tell ya. You know, cause I am a nice guy and all.

Otherwise just go for the biggest, meanest power supply you can grab. Also, the old power supply should have a tiny data sticker somewhere. Are you comfortable opening up computers?

My pictures are all potato quality and living area is a complete mess but I have some of the old boxes here.

My old computer was this $250 pre built Lenovo. I had to get that after my old old computer exploded. My plan was to eventually gut it part by part until I had something respectable so I got a new card. Asus HD 7770. I was dumb and didn't check my old computer's power supply so I had to buy one that could accommodate the card. Was a Corsair with 650 watts I think. Too lazy to crack it open and check. The card didn't like to play well with the old motherboard because of some acronym. It died because I dunno why actually. Was bad though.

New one is a slightly older Asus I lifted off a friend. Front of it says Essentio series. Dunno exactly how many parts are stock and how many are new. I know it has an aftermarket card and I think the power supply is aftermarket too. I haven't cracked this one open yet.

And if you're wondering how this relates to armored vehicles my old old computer was an HP. Which are all tanks pretending to be a PC.

edited 11th Dec '14 6:50:32 AM by LeGarcon

250 W and you are good too go. It should work fine. The thing is, its gonna become underpowered really soon.

Also, not checking the power supply is a common mistake. My brother did it once.

What difference would it have made to the German war effort if instead of building the over-engineered, over-weight, and under-powered Panzer V and VI, they had instead went for a tank in roughly the same weight class as a T-34 M1944 class, with a three-man turret mounting the 88mm gun?

And like captured T-34 models which they had in reasonably large numbers, had instead of using the Maybach petrol engines, which were notoriously unreliable in the Panzer V and VI, just used the V-2 class 12 cylinder diesels? Which, btw Hitler had originally wanted to use in the tank which became the Panzer V...

They tried. It ended up being the Panther, because German tank engineering wasn't actually very good.

—

The T-72 is not an upgraded T-55, it is a new design, though it shares many design concepts in common. The T-62 was the upgraded T-55.

edited 11th Dec '14 8:53:55 AM by Achaemenid

Actually, they wanted to go for a tank pretty much as I described.

But then a wild Hitler appeared. Speer was pretty much apoplectic in his memoirs talking about how a tank in the thirty odd tonnes range suddenly ballooned into something near fifty tonnes, the same sort of weight as the Panzer VI because of GröFa Z's* interference.

• GröFa Z - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gr%C3%B6FaZ

You mean the VK 30.01 from Daimler-Benz? Was never going to be equipped with the 88, and was still 5 tonnes overweight - in fact, it weighed as much as MAN's Panther design, and used the same engine and had the same power to weight ratio. It did have a better - or at least simpler - suspension design, though, using four pairs of roadwheels on leaf springs, as opposed to MAN's complicated torsion-bar/interleaved roadwheel layout.

edited 11th Dec '14 9:10:05 AM by Achaemenid

I play a lot of War Thunder Ground Forces, but have hardly played World of Tanks, though I'd probably enjoy it. I'm just of the opinion that I wouldn't be that good at switching mental modes for similar-themed but different-mechanics games. I'm on the edge of Tier V for both German and Russian forces, and I'm looking forward to the US Army coming in 1.45, sometime very soon (they've already had the test server open a couple of times, which generally means they're in the fine-tuning stage before release).

Interesting article a while back on the identities of damaged/destroyed tanks in Ukraine. That picture of the upgraded T-72, scorched and with empty ERA cells—yowza. I wouldn't read too much into it as far as technical quality or protection goes, though; you can place a poorly-trained crew in the best tank in the world, or a well-trained crew but poor supporting forces, and the results will be devastating, as any Wargame-series player can tell you. (A column of T-64BV1s tooling around without AA cover? Terrifying for ground forces—but bring in the Apaches and watch the kill scores rocket.) Or, for the actual world...well, it's the reason ISIS had a few of those shiny, shiny new Abrams tanks, courtesy of the Iraqi Army.

On the other end of the armored vehicle spectrum, I've developed an interest in 90mm-armed armored cars. Some of them pack surprising amounts of punch on a light, cheap chassis. Hard numbers are not easy to get, but we're talking about a 90mm round that has as much penetration as early-mark 105mm APFSDS rounds.