"S - tank" Topic

We had a go with 1/72 S Tanks on Thursday using the basic Maneouver Group rules. I realised afterwards that some of the changes were not right. I assumed it was lower and could find hulkl down easily. This was incorrect apparently as the Brits found it worse for hull down than a standard tank. andf is very similar in height to Russian tanks of the period. We did let it drive at normal speed in reverse, correct. All the tanks for this early period should really have been made to stop and fire as stabilisation was apparently of little use except on perfect ground.
It did not matter but I had not allowed for the HEAT rails on the front, but as it was a tank fight it was not an issue.

However I did not allow for the higher rate of fire of the auto loader 15 rpm by some accounts and I could not find any useful data on armour thickness and effectiveness.

So data on armour thickness and effective thickness would be appreciated.

Also a supprise, was that buttened up it spotted targets faster and shot faster than a Leopard 1 when buttoined up but slower on both counts unbuttoned, this from a Swede report so no bias. This may be too subtle for the wargames we play without a major re-write and too much detail for all but very small games.

Also contray to musch sckuttlebut in trials the vehicle achieved 90% reliability, impressive.

So data you have on the S Tank wouls be helpful. Plus does anybody make a sensibly priced 1/144 model?

YouTube link

That is a link to part one of several videos on youtube about the S-tank

Worth watching

Wiki says 40-70mm of armor, laid back at something like 80 degrees from vertical, for LOS thickness of 192-337mm.

Unfortunately, by the late 1980s, we had figured out how to defeat sloped armor with APFSDS rounds, the Swedes were rather distressed to discover that East German T72 ammo would usually blow clear through an S-tank stem to stern as long as the shot missed the engine block!

Lots of info on the S-tank:
tanks.mod16.org/tag/s-tank

Lion has it right. The performance of hyper velocity long rod penetrators came as a surprise to just about everyone. Put simply, they don't act like your old school AP shot. And all that slope of the S-Tank's armor means nothing to them…

Cojoman, thanks for that I had seen the Brit report but not the damming swede report. It makes interesting reading. Unfortunately there seems to be no sensibly priced 1/144 S tanks so I may not go much further with this at the moment. It does raise interesting issues about crew quality and tactics. Why would the Brits open up at 500m is puzzling as it's not a good tank range. 2 to 3 km gives time to move.