Rdm1, on Jan 28 2012 - 14:10, said:
Turning to make your armor angled increases your armor (technicly) but not by alot, the thing is there is no 100% of not being pen.ed just becuase of angling your armor, plus the russians have vertically and horizontally sloped armor, you just have 1 of those...
Every little bit helps. That said, against a skilled player, it generally doesn't make a difference to angle or not and, if you angle more than ~25 degrees, you actually end up making the side armor an easier shot than the front to pen.
The big thing with armor, Mortician, is it often is only good against tanks lower tier than you. Tanks like the IS-4, taking a logical extreme example, can be penned from the front by every tier 9 tank. That said, this tank is very good against tier 8 and lower tanks, except the 225 or greater pen guns aimed by people who know what they're doing. Every bit helps, but armor should never be relied on to accomplish your goal. It should always be a bonus.
Remember, even though your front is sloped an additional 25 degrees of rotation in a T32, as an example, the compound angle is actually only increasing by a couple degrees. As a direct example, the T32's front plate is 54 degrees from vertical. At a 25 degree rotation, this is increased to 58 degrees, a mere 4 degrees increase (technically it's a bit lower). That 4 degrees brings the front plate up a little over 15mm thicker, to ~205mm, mind you (above the IS-3!), but that is still within the realm of 225 pen guns penetrating you.
The same compound angle of 58 degrees is still well inside the margin for any shell coming in to not automatically bounce off the plate.
The only tip to really tell you is a rather simple one. If it's the same tier as you, odds are it has a good chance of penetrating you to the front somewhere. Angle your armor anyways, since every little bit does help, but never rely on your armor to bounce tanks. I've bounced a T34 off the front hull of my T32, but I attribute that more to luck than careful hull positioning. Just keep that in mind and don't expect unrealistic outcomes from a tank that has as little as 190mm front armor on a straight shot into the front armor.
For the King Tiger, same thing. Always assume if it has a 170 or higher pen gun that it can get through your front. Angle the plate anyways, but never assume it's guaranteed to bounce or at high risk of bouncing, and just try to hedge your bets based off these assumptions.