Overview
Hello fellow tanker! My name is madclonewarrior and I am here to teach you the basics to German tanking. Many claim that Germany is underpowered but I don’t think so. Read through this guide and I assure you, you will see that German tanks can pack quite a punch if used correctly.
Introduction
Hello! Nice to see that you decited to give my guide a read, and that you’e recognized your need for guidance. You’ve come to the right place! This guide will give you all the necessary information needed to keep you alive on the battlefield, as well as some tips and tricks on disbatching some difficult and heavily armored tanks.
Helpful techniques
Look at these techniques carefully. I can assure you that they can save you, your tank, and your crew when you are in a pinch. So please try to use them. I would hate to see another beautiful Tiger become scrap metal because the amature player did not know what he was doing.
You do not know how many beautiful Tigers I see get scrapped because they do not follow this one simple technique. Angling is the act of turning your tank in a way that would make the enemy shell have to pass through more armour than if they had a flat shot off of your front armour. A tank’s frontal armour is strong, but you can NEVER rely on it completely.
Some commanders will have their crew just shoot willy-nilly at a tank until they get a lucky shot. That kind of shooting will get you killed really quickly in the field. Here’s a helpful tip, learn the weaknesses on the tanks you fight! One shot in a weak spot could save your life in the field!
Camo can save your tank even before someone shoots at you. Camoflage breaks up your silhoette and can help hide you. If you are one of those players who will chage onto an with those stupid tournament skins on, well I can tell you that you will be scrapped pretty quickly.
Combat
In this section, I will go over the basics to combat and spotting. These are the most important things you need to know.
This is probably one of the most important thing I will go over in this entire section. After all, how can you destroy a tank you cannot see?
Hill Lines: This is probably one of the easier ways to spot enemy tanks. When enemies crests a hill, he and his entire tank stands out quite nicely. I also find that hill cresting enemies never consiter wider angles before going over a hill. How do I know this? Often when you shoot them, they panic and try to reverse down the hill again or go full speed down the hill. Either way, I always manage to get them in the end.
Movement: Movement will always give away a tanks position. No matter what. So when you move, it is best to do it when you are in a very pearlious situation you are certain that there are no enemies around. A moving tank may be easier to spot, but it is also harder to hit. My advice to you for this is to hit the enemy when he stops moving.
Shooting: When you shoot, your tank sends up a big cloud of smoke. This will make you easier to spot but this is a two-way street. Shooting enemies are also easier to spot.
MG’s: I love the enemy players who shoot their MGs at you while they are reloading. I would kiss you if I did not want to blow your head off so badly! Back to the point though, shooting your MGs at an enemy while reloading is always a bad idea. All it does is give away your position
Before we start, I just want to say something. If you do not think you are able to make a shot,
That just gives away your position and you will be quickly dispatched to hell. With that, let us get started.
The Rules of Engagement
Over my 400 hours playing this game, I have come up with some very simple rules of engagement. It’s good to have them because they can dictate wheather you live or die so pay attention.
1) Try to get the first shot.
2) Always aim for the gunner on the first shot. If a shot on an ammo rack or fuel tank is open though, feel free to take that too.
3) Be sure to angle the armour before engaging an enemy tank.
4) If an enemy tank sees you first, shoots, and his shot bounces or hits the dirt in front of you, use this as an opening and shoot him.
5) If you are behind any sort of cover and there is an enemy tank in front of you, use your binoculars to try and see over the obstacle and wait for him to lose interest. Most of you probably don’t know that there are binocs in this game so to activate them go to Controls>View Controls>Binoculars and assign it a button.
6) Once you engage an enemy, YOU MUST DESTROY HIM!
Pre-engagement Before engaging an enemy, ask yourself these questions:
- Am I in a good position to fight?
- Do I have a big enough gun and enough armour to finish the job safely?
- Do I have a clear shot at one/multiple weaknesses?
- Does he have any allies nearby?
- Has he spotted me?
When engaging enemy tanks, aim for the turret or a weak point with an ammo rack behind it. You ususally aim for the turret to destroy the horizontal turret drive, which is used to swing the turret around, destroy the gun breech, and to kill the crew inside. If you aim for the turret, you will usually get the job done in three shots at max, depending on how bad of a shot you are and how thick the turret armour on the enemy tank is. Hitting an ammorack is usually a ka-boom, splat moment so one shot maybe two
Ammunition
There are many types of Ammunition that we have at our disposal while on the battlefield. I will go over some of them for you so you do not have to figure it out later! Just remember that this is NOT all of the ammunition types.
Your gun
This may seem insignificant to you right now, but your gun is probably one of your most powerful assets on the battlefield. The gun on a German tank usually has a high velocity. This means that the shell you fire will drop a lot less while in flight. This will increase accuracy because you need to account for less shell drop and it also increases penitraition so even a 50mm cannon becomes as lethal of a weapon as a 75mm.
Sprgr: If you ask me, this shell is probably the most annoying out of all of them. Sprgr is an HE (High Explosive) shell that is pretty much useless, in my opinion. It is supposed to explode against the side of a tank and make any ammunition explode. Let’s be honest here, the only tank in this game that will get consistant kills with Sprgr is probably the KV-2.
PzGr39: This is an APC (Amour Pearcing Capped) shell that is great for anti-personel work. When it penetraits into a tank, it explodes and sends a storm of shrapnel through the tank.
PzGr 39/43: This is an APCBC (Armour Pearcing Capped Ballistic Capped) shell that works a lot like PzGr39. It can be used to take out personel inside the tank but it also has a delay timer so it can make ammo racks explode if it hits one.
PzGr40/43: This is a APCR (Armour Pearcing Capped Ridgid) shell. It is a completely solid shell that, instead of exploding into a shrapnel storm, is used to hit vital components on heavily armoured targets. This will punch right though some very heavy armour.
Tanks
Now lets get to some of the tanks that the Fatherland has to offer us. All of the Fatherlands tanks are exellent if they are used correctly. The only problem is, if I tried to tell you about ALL of them, then you would stop reading a quarter of the way though. So I am going to tell you the pros and cons of my favorite tanks.
The Tiger E is a good and reliable tanks. It has a massive 88mm KwK36 cannon as the main cannon and has good armour. The frontal armour is 102mm thick, the side armour is 82mm thick and the turret armour is 82mm thick. This will blow a T-34 and M4A1s clear into the air.
Pros:
- Thick frontal armour gives good survivability in a confrontation.
- Massive cannon can take out almost all tank
- Cannon is relativly accurate
- Lots of ammo space
Cons: - Turret traverse speed is really slow when horizontal turret drive is broken
- Acceleration is slow
- Side armour is very thin and opens up an ammo rack shot when exposed. This gives the Tiger the nickname “Ammorack City”.
- Transmission is in the front, causing it to become quite a large target for enemy fire
Tiger II (H)
The Tiger II (P) is also a good and reliable tank when in the right hands. It has an 88mm KwK43 cannon and has nice armour. The frontal armour is 150mm thick, the side armour is 80mm thick, the side turret armour is 80mm thick and the front turret armour is 185mm thick.
Pros: - Big and relatively accurate cannon
- Frontal armour is nice and thick, making front penetration much harder
- Lots of ammo space
- Turret traverse speed is surprisingly fast
Cons: - Slow acceleration and speed
- Frontal turret armour makes and ideal point for crew kills
- Transmission is in the front, making it a huge target for enemy fire
- There are ammo racks in the thinly protected turret, another ideal point for IS-2 fire. This is counterable by leaving out 22 shells out of the tank at the beginning of a match. By leaving out 22 shells, you are emptying the turret racks so that your tank is less likely to blow up
Jagdpanther
This tank is a SPG (Self Propelled Gun). This tank has very heavily sloped frontal armour, increasing armour effective thickness and making it almost invulnerable to far off return shots. The cannon is the 88mm PaK43 and this tank can hold a maxemum of 60 shots. The frontal armour is 80mm, the side armour is only 50mm, and the rear armour is only 40mm thick.
Pros: - Heavily sloped frontal armour increases armour effectiveness
- Massive cannon can take out any enemy foolish enough to stand against it
- Suprisingly manuverable and fast
Cons: - Thin side armour makes for a very juicy shot from that IS-2
- Ammo is stacked in huge piles along the side. More jucy targets for IS-2s
- Secceptable to flaking because the gun is mounted on the front
- Transmission is in the front making another juicy target for IS-2s
- Left side of the gun mantlet is weak
Panther D
The Panther D can be a great tank in the right hands. Not only is it fast but it also has a good 75mm KwK42 cannon. The frontal armour is 80mm thick, the side armour is suprisingly thin for a meduim tank at 40mm, the frontal turret armour is 100mm, and the turret side armour is 45mm.
Pros: - Good acceleration and speed
- Cannon is good and relativly accurate
- Lots of ammo space
- Heavily sloped armour makes it hard to pen the front
Cons: - Turret traverse speed is PAINFULLY slow
- Lighter side armour makes it easy pickings for IS-2s
- Cannon can be underpowered in higher tier battles
- Transmission is in the front
- Engine is MASSIVE
Enemy Tanks
Learning the anatomy of tanks that you encounter in-game is very useful.. By knowing where to aim, you’ve already one half the battle. In this section, I decited to take a few tanks that I encountered often on the battlefield and show you where to aim to take them out. Just remember to look at the tanks you have every once in a while and figure out their weakpoints. All it does is make you more likely to survive. So let’s get started.
The IS-2 is definitly something to fear on the battlefield. The IS-2 is a monster of a tank, carrying a 122mm D-25T cannon, this thing is easily capable of cross map sniping. The frontal armour is 120mm thick, the side armour is only 90mm thick, and the turret armour is 100mm thick.
Where to aim?
On an IS-2 there is one glaring weakness in the tank, it’s frontal armour. The armour is shaped like an arrow, making shots bounce off the sloped armour more frequently and making the front hard to pen. But this type of armour comes at a price. If the IS-2 is angled even slightly away from you, that nearly impenetrable frontal armour isn’t so protective anymore. Now you’re looking at a flat shot into the crew compartment and quite a few ammoracks. One shot will more than likely disable or destroy the IS-2. If you’re facing the IS-2 front on, go for the driver’s viewport or the gunner’s position.
Ther M4A3E2 (76) W Jumbo is an okay tank. It’s 76mm cannon is alright but not as big as other cannons in it’s tier. It has 38mm of frontal armour, 76mm of side armour, and 152mm of turret armour.
Where to hit it?
Unless you’re being stupid, you should be able to take out the Jumbo easily. Hit it in the upper part of the frontal armour and you have just killed the entire crew.
The Panther is a good tank in early teir three battles. It’s 76mm gun is still pretty good and can pen most opponents still. It has 80mm of frontal armour, 40mm of side armour, 100mm of frontal turret armour, and 45mm of turret side armour.
With the Panther you never go for the frontal armour unless you’re in an SU-152. The sloped armour makes it highly likely that the shot will bounce off. Instead, aim for the gunner’s viewport which is on the right side of the cannon if you are facing it. The shot will more than likely pen and do some significant damage.
Tank types and how to use them
Not all tanks are used the same way. I am sure that most of you have figured this out by now but some have not. Anyway, there are five different types of tanks and I will detail and go over them in this section
Light tanks are very fast and manuverable but have very low armour and their cannons are not the best. You can use this tank to dash into a point, cap it, and dash back out. Sniping with light tanks is also different than other tanks. After about three shot in one spot, move quickly to another so that it is harder for enemies to find your position.
These tanks are the backbone of an army. Ususally they have good manuverability and their armour and cannons are an upgrade from light tanks. Like light tanks, meduim tanks can be used to dash up to a point and cap before relinquishing control to the heavy tanks. Sniping is a bit different from light tanks because medium tanks can now affort to take a few hits.
These tanks are usually the clean-up crew, coming in last to take out any remaining resistance. Heavy tanks are often slower than meduim tanks but with heavier armour and a huge cannon in comparison to medium tanks. These guys are the last on the cap point to make sure that the enemy cannot retake it. Sniping is still the same as medium tanks.
SPAA are mobile Ack-Ack guns used to shoot down enemy fighters and bombers. They are especially handy to have around when capping points to keep the bombers off those on the point. Make sure you protect them well though because they have little to no armour.
These guys are the support class of the tank world. Tank destroyers usually come with thick frontal armour, thin side armour, and a massive gun mounted on the front. SPGs usually hang towards the back or near the center of a map to pick off enemies as they try to cap a point. They can usually afford to take a few hits but no more than that. German and Russian SPGs are secceptable to flanking from medium and light tanks because they use the casemate-style of tak destroyer. This basically means that they have their gun mounted on the front so when they want to move the gun they have to move the entire tank.
Closing statements
Hopefully you took a few things away from this guide. Perhaps I will see you on the field of battle one day. Anyway, I hope you have taken away a few valuble lessons from this guide. Good luck and good hunting!
P.S. Feel free to tell me mistakes that I made or things you think I should add in. I will also be adding more section and guides soon so be on the look-out for those!