I’m talking about Sim where the Matilda only faces later Pz IV’s. To say it’s unfair would be an understatement when you’re fighting an entire team of H model Panzers which get three spawns and are better tanks across the board.
Those tanks can pen you straight through the front at seemingly all ranges and angling doesn’t help as your turret is a magnet for OPHE whilst your shots bounce off of their armour at all but the closest of ranges.
The least Gaijin can do is give it three spawns and class it as a medium tank. Historically it isn’t an issue as it’s lighter than the P40 and later PzIV’s and gameplay wise it’ll just give the poor thing slightly longer legs which in my opinion it blatantly needs.
Then move the Matilda II, or just don’t use it. The Pz. Kpfw. IV Ausf. F1 is also in its sim range, as are the Pz. Kpfw. Ausf. J1, L, M, and N. It doesn’t only face later Pz. IVs, it also faces its normal BR contemporaries. It’s just that both it, and tanks like the F1 and the rest of the Pz. IIIs, are at the bottom of that range.
It mostly faces the H though that’s the issue. Look at the team line-up for that tier in every game and it’s 70% Pz IV(H). This tank shouldn’t even be in the line-up considering its B.R is higher than allowed.
But that still doesn’t change the fact that the Matilda is miles from a heavy tank. It’s lighter than a lot of mediums… if the P40 is a medium then so is the Matilda.
From a balance perspective the Matilda has: A gun that struggles to penetrate anything it’s made to fight, armour that barely works even when angled as they’ll just one-shot your turret, it’s slow as sin (historical though), and it fights tanks that are literally three years younger than it.
Give the poor girl her third spawn. She’s no heavy.
I’m the first to admit I’m crap at tanks and in RB it might be superb. In Sim however it’s completely useless.
Tell me what advantage a Matilda has over a Pz IVF2 or H that warrants two spawns? No matter the range the Panzer will one shot the Matilda every time, because the Matilda isn’t a heavy tank. It’s a well armoured (but not that well considering its opposition) medium tank that as mentioned is LIGHTER than the mediums it faces. It’s a medium just like the superior P40 is (despite the P40 being actually listed as a heavy in reality).
At around as little as 300m the Matilda struggles to penetrate the PzIVH. I can also say from experience that the Stug III F’s driver viewport weakspot also bounces at that range as well.
If we want to get pedantic it was never considered a “heavy tank” but as an infantry tank. The Russians also considered it a light or medium tank. Because by that time that’s exactly what it was. Judging by what it fights in SB (1943 vehicles) it’s most definitely a medium tank at most. It deserves those three spawns.
It also fights 1940 vehicles. The issue isn’t that the Matilda II is a heavy tank, the issue is that it sits at the bottom of its range. The Pz. Kpfw. IV F1, the Pz. Kpfw. IIIs, the Pz. Kpfw. 38 (t) n. A., the M 15/42, the Turan I and II, the Ho-I, the Chi-Ha kai, and the Chi-He all have the exact same issue as the Matilda II by virtue of sitting at the bottom of that range. They all also would have trouble, or just outright can’t, penetrate a Matilda II. The issue you’re describing is an issue with how simulator matchmaking works, not an issue with the Matilda II itself.