War Thunder; Strv 81 (RB 52); Not the greatest APDS round can be irritating; Ground Arcade

The APDS round this tank uses is quite weak with poor angled penetration and low post-pen damage. This tank also doesn't have the greatest armor. I'm just not a fan of this vehicle.

[@richardwilliams2914]

excellent game well played

[@_Poul_]

Oh I barely survived this battle. I don't like this tank, I usually don't do well with it.

[@nighthawk8104]

The APDS is shit... It just shattered on a Rooikat. With the normal Shell its ok but too high in BR because of that shitty apds

[@_Poul_]

Yeah, the effectiveness of APDS mostly depends from the caliber of the round (which hugely affects post-pen damage) and angled penetration.
For example, the Strv 81 has relatively poor APDS, because it's a lower caliber gun (83 mm) with not the greatest angled penetration (107 mm at 60 degrees from 10 meters).
But if you look at something like the Magach 3 (ERA), it uses much better APDS with higher caliber gun (105 mm) and much better angled penetration (134 mm at 60 degrees from 10 meters).
For me, the Strv 81 is poor and not enjoyable to play at 7.7 BR, but the Magach 3 (ERA) is actually pretty good at 8.0 BR.
So it really depends a lot from the round. Some APDS rounds are actually good, but most of them aren't. I usually don't like APDS on guns with a lower caliber than 100 mm.

[@nighthawk8104]

@@_Poul_ yeah the russian 100mm and the 105mm apds are good, but with the Strv 81 you dont even need to shoot in a full uptier against anything 8.0+ when not using apds. The apcbc is the better round but the tank is too slow for flanking so it can't shine mostly. Had a few good Games and against Tanks that arent Armor monsters the apcbc is just devastating and a almost oneshot garantee