If anything, the Pz.IV could go up since the Finns made an APDS round in the 50s for the German 75 mm. It was meant to extend their Stugs’ viability, but it should theoretically be compatible with the Pz.IV J, which also served into the 60s. There’s currently not sufficient data to add this round tho, and I’m somewhat against adding CW ammunition to this BR range. The 37 mm APDS is odd enough as is.
The Finnish T-28E is really the only other hope to patch up the gap. If it did turn out to have access to some later ammunition types, then I could see it maybe getting pushed up to 2.7, but having something at 2.3 would still be a significant improvement.
Forgot about this, would definitely prefer it alongside the (domestic?) AP rounds developed for use with Soviet 76mm gun equipped with muzzle brakes, T-34 included.
Unfortunately you are right, even ISU-152V cannot be added as the 20mm proposal was in tandem with one to reduce the height of the tank by half, which of course was never carried out.
Supposedly there were plans to equip the T-28 (and KV-1) with a muzzle brake for use of Finnish made AP ammunition, something that was tested on other Soviet 76mm guns already. Of course, muzzle brakes are to reduce recoil, so if these ammunitions really do exist, they can possibly be added to an ingame T-28 without worry of malfunction. I don’t have permission to view them, but there are apparently some documents here: Finnish 76 mm tank guns, ammunition and muzzle brakes - Axis History Forum.
If the above is true, then I would wager that a Finnish-uparmored T-28E with a domestic armor-piercing round at 2.7 is the next best thing we have to fill this gap.
If the Finnish T-28E isn’t sufficient there are always the Norwegian Panzer III Ausf. H and N. Not Finnish, I know, but Gaijin has started filling gaps with Danish and Norwegian vehicles already
ehhh…
The main reason why people found the Finnish sub-tree underwhelming on release was because of the low-effort copy+paste. I fear adding Norwegian Pz.III’s into the gaps is just retreading the same issue.
Granted, many of their Pz.III’s are hybrid tanks instead of 1:1 copy+paste. I could see one becoming a premium, but I’m on the fence for actually putting any others in the tree.
Yes and no, conciddering that Germany itself often made Hybrit tanks of parts that were still around. However i doubt we would see such for the German tree.