RO:Ost's penetration model was far from realistic. Angling and sloped armour was far too effective, and even lightly armoured tanks like the T-60 or the SU-76 managed to bounce KwK 40 and even KwK 42 PzGr.39's under certain conditions.
RO:Ost's armour angling was a hell of a lot more difficult than what they had in RO:CA.... the Panzers were easier to angle and deflect shots, T34's were almost always invincible, and the Panther & IS2 were immortal in the game if you didn't get a straight side or back shot..... heck the Panther's front armour couldn't be penetrated straight on with any other tank other than the IS2, so you'd see Panthers just strolling through the battle field with KV1's and T34's firing everything they had at them and nothing happened most times..... while the IS2 could still be taken out if it was a straight on shot.
I loved when on the map Karlovka, I'd take a T34 and cover the Bridge by the house.... I'd have it angled so perfectly, that the only way the germans could take me out was with Arty or if some Engineers/Anti-Tank's flanked from the second bridge..... but if my team knew what they were doing and covered the second bridge, we could easily hold the first caps almost the entire round.
In RO:Ost, they made the Panther much easier to kill, the IS2 is about the same as it was in CA, the T34's have a smaller angle area for deflection and the Panzers are just cardboard boxes on tracks.
If someone knew what they were doing with the tank they were in, of course angling was easy to do.... that was the whole point of having angled armour in the first place..... to save your sorry arse from getting blown up.
In RO:Ost, if a tank is angled and you can't seem to get a good hit on them, aim for the tracks and almost always, you'll blow em out and they're stuck..... then move around to a better angle and toast em.
You could also take a sharper angled shot away from the angle towards the edge of the tank and closer to the ground.... it might still deflect, but it usually doesn't deflect very far and commonly explodes almost in the same spot you hit and can still produce damage to the tank. You might have to hit them a number of times, but you'll eventually see smoke and then fire..... if so, then just keep firing in that spot.
I always wished one of those shells could bounce and nail some infantry standing on the side of it or something.
Yeah it does happen..... I've splattered a number of enemies near a tank from a deflect or a shell exploding near the tank.
If you have a few enemies using an angled tank for cover and you can't seem to damage the tank, switch to HE rounds and hit the tank again.... you'll usually splatter those troops using it for cover.
Ping pong is real life thing on tanks that are properly aligned. I have seen real WW2 picture of tanks with 10 or more bounces/scars and the IS2 with its heavy and slanted armor is the worst. They only tank you should be having trouble from the Russians is the panther slanted/strong armor front. Only option is putting you self into proper firing position is moving using cover and with grace. skill is the key.
Indeed, last night I was playing K