In War Thunder my main nation is germany when it comes to tanks becasue they have Leopard's and they offer really good mobility and firepower, but at cost of armor. When I started playing USSR I noticed that a lot if not all Leopard I faced carried full load of ammunation and if you know where their ammo is stored then you can one shot kill them becasue they loaded all amunation while going into battle. While I understand why they do it (I also did it) it gets them killed really fast and dead tank is of no use to the team. I will explain problem of full ammo load and how to "fix" it on Leopards A1A1 and 2A5 in their separate sections.

Leopard while having great mobility and really good firepower lacks in department of armor and keep that in mind. On large open maps like Poland or Maginot line where there are hills its recommended to play Leopard in hull down position as seen on image below becasue all Leopards have 9° of main gun depression which is great for this playstyle. In hull down position you can take quick shots on enemy and then return to cover and if you work with your teammates and done properly you can stay undetected for a some time. Squad (2-4 player's) of Leopards can do a lot of damage to enemy team if their speed and firepower are used correctly. Only poke out if you are sure you are not beeing watched by any enemy tanks or any other vehicles that may compromise your position and report it to enemy team. Of all Leopards only Leopard 1 on battlerating 7.7 doesnt have gun stabilazer but still play it in hull down. On city maps use your speed to flank spoted enemies and try to deliver that deadly blow and always be on alert becasue Leopard doesnt have a lot of armor, you might be lucky and bounce a shell but dont count on it at all.

When you get Leopard A1A1 dont go right into battle with it, first open it in x-ray like in image below and look where ammo is stored and where and how much ammo is going into first-stage ammo stowage or know as ready ammo rack.



When you know number of shells going into first-stage ammo stowage in image below then while going into battle load only that +1 in barrel. So if first-stage ammo stowage holds 14 shells load 15 while in battle because one shell will be in gun breach when you spawn and rest ot ammo will be ready to load when main gun breach is empty.



If you load more shells then it goes into ready ammo rack that exces of ammo will go into ammo rack from where it will be pulled out to refill ready ammo rack. Refilling ready ammo rack takes time and can be interupted by firing from main gun and loading it becasue its all done only by a loader. On image below red square indicates exces of ammo when loaded more than ready ammo rack and that is big weakspot becasue frontaly Leopard A1A1 upper plate has 70 mm of armor and lower one 50 mm. If you get penetrated there from front and there is ammo loaded in that rack it will be instant kill if ammo is hit.

Same thing applies to Leopard 2A5 once you get it. First look where ammo is sotred in x-ray view like in image below so you will know how much ammo to take into battle. Difference between Leopard A1A1 and 2A5 is that 2A5 has blow out panels for ready ammo rack in back of a turret so when ammo is hit there it will explode but wont kill crew or any other module in tank unlike A1A1 if it gets hit in ready ammo rack it will still kill a crew and destroy a tank. Fire caused by explosion in ready ammo rack can't be extinguished with FPE, you'll have to wait for it to extinguish by itself.



While Leopard 2A5 has more armor then A1A1 its still best to use hull down tactics while playing it. Blow out panels give you a lot ot survivability but ready ammo rack will be empty if ammo is ignited there and you will have to go to cap to rearm or if you brought exces of ammo wait for loader to fill ready ammo rack which is located in back of a turret as can be seen on image below.



Ammo that isnt in ready ammo rack is storaged in same place and it is in Leopard A1A1, next to the driver and without any protection. While you gain a bit of armor its still not enough to protect that ammo rack in front. In first image below red square represents where exces ammo is stored and blue on second image below shows where armor is waekest and easiest to penetrate to ignite and explode ammo if there is any in that rack and if its hit.

Dont load all of your ammo while going into battle. Load only for ready ammo rack +1 for barrel when you spawn. That way you will force yourself to play conservatively and with that playstyle you should have an eye out on your number of shells left and also you will have to go for kill shots to waste as little ammo as possible.