What all heavy tanks in the game frankly need is 1) all the rounds that should be able to pen them restoratively buffed to their real postpen levels and in some cases also penetration amounts 2) abolition of barrel damage as a mechanic so they aren’t artificially punished for daring to carry big guns with slow reloads and 3) see sharp BR reductions precisely due to all the rounds that easily pen them now killing them a whole lot more quickly, dragging their stats through the floor, which then places their heavy armor at BRs where (god forbid) they can frontally shrug off opponents again.
In effect this entire problem boils down to people screaming “I can’t frontally pen it with the weakest thing in my lineup in a full uptier! ITS OP!!!”
We should reserve the right to say that is wrong then. They shouldn’t be based on ‘balance’, that’s what the battle rating system is for. They should be as accurate as possible, and if that affects the balance? Then move them up, or down.
No, I can’t do anything about it but complain and argue on some internet forum with random strangers. But here we are! Reload buffs and nerfs should be based on what is realistic, not because ‘I felt like it wasn’t doing well’.
I was speaking to @Savage_Virus_R6 about this somewhat recently. It would seem IS-4M can’t have 3BM7 and 3BK10. This is what I gleaned from the 1949 IS-4 technical description, though there’s always the chance I missed some important information while running pages through image translate.
While the rounds are compatible with the gun, its ammo racks weren’t universal. The IS-3 and T-10 used folding trays with sufficient vertical space for a larger ammunition variety, and were explicitly updated in the early 60s to use the semi-combustible casings of the newer rounds, including APDS and HEAT-FS. The IS-4 on the other hand, used metal sleaves to hold its shells, which offered limited space for the round. It needed two separate types of sleeves just to accommodate the standard APHE or HE. They even color coded each sleave with red or yellow paint respectively, still faintly visible on the Kubinka IS-4M.
The base model IS-4 has clamps for two vertically stowed rounds, one on each side of the hull under the turret, which could’ve possibly held a greater variety of rounds, but these seemingly weren’t retained during modernization to the IS-4M if the in-game model is accurate.
The amount of both types of sleeves was seemingly fixed, with no apparent means of readily altering them in the field for a different ratios of ammunition types. For the normal IS-4, it was 12x APHE, 16x HE, + 2 of whatever rounds in the hull. IS-4M would be fairly close to this.
This means that, not only can the IS-4M likely not use APDS or HEAT-FS, but it should also have a fixed separate limits of APHE and HE it can carry, sort of like the Gepard’s limited APDS supply. It also might not even be able to use the longer BR-471D rounds.
There’s always the chance that the refurbishments IS-4Ms received in the 60s did something to address this shortcoming, but otherwise, it’s not looking good for our IS-4M in-game.
It’s kinda a bummer. I would’ve liked for there to be more Soviet heavy tank variants with differing ammunition loadouts, but some things weren’t meant to be ig.
