Angling
Turning a vehicle so incoming shells meet its plates at an angle, multiplying effective armor without changing a single stat.
Also known as angled armor, auto-bounce angle.
Presenting the front at roughly 30 to 45 degrees off the enemy's line raises the effective thickness of both the front and the side facing them. Done well, it turns a flat plate that anything penetrates into one that most guns bounce.
It is the fundamental armor skill and the reason a heavy tank driven straight at the enemy is wasting its armor. The limit is the other side of the vehicle: over-angling exposes a side plate at a shallow enough angle to be overmatched or simply penetrated.
Related terms
Effective armorThe thickness a shell actually has to defeat once the angle of the plate is accounted for, which is what penetration is compared against.SidescrapingHiding the front behind a corner and presenting the side at a sharp angle, so shells bounce off armor they would otherwise penetrate.OvermatchThe rule that a shell with a caliber at least three times a plate's thickness cannot ricochet off it, no matter the angle.Damage blockedPotential damage that hit the player's armor and failed to penetrate, the ledger entry for playing a heavily armored vehicle well.