Even if you buff the APCR ammmo pen to where you think it should, that type of ammo has a drop-off with A) distance and even more-so B) armor slope. If Panthers are bumped up in BR they will be facing tanks with better sloped armor which will more than offset the “bump” in pen you propose.
Panthers have weak side armor making them vulnerable to many light tanks at 6.7+. And if facing a lot more cold-war vehicles with HEAT/HEATFS even their front armor won’t do much to protect them.
It would face the “French Panther” AMX M4 regularly, and I don’t think there is much doubt the M4 is a much more effective combat vehicle than the German Panthers.
You mean the Panther D that hasn’t had any major changes to it since its addition? VK is irrelevant since again, it’s just a lighter armored Panther - It’s not a unique playstyle in comparison to the other Panthers.
The bit about the KV-85 pen is not true. It has more post-pen damage, but…
VK has much better pen overall and has a wider range of targets it can effect
Post pen damage of the VK is more than adequate at it’s BR - it’s the same exact gun the Panthers use up to BR 6.0 - I don’t think there have been many complaints about the KwK42 gun being underwhelming.
That’s just the Tiger II. So no, not “unique to the vehicle”.
The bits that are unique to the Gaijin T2-105 are:
105mm gun with two loaders. This was proposed but discarded almost immediately because of the low RoF. The gun was never developed, let alone built.
Rangefinder: tested on regular Tiger II, never went into production because the war ended. Pairing it with the 105 is fictional because that modification had already been discarded. Since this upgrade was intended for the regular Tiger II, it does not qualify the 105 for addition.
Engine: was not developed specifically for a 105. It was a separate proposed upgrade programme for Tiger II and Jagdtiger.
As for the Coelian, a wooden mockup exists, but the turret was never built in metal IIRC. The hull was a Panther D’s I think, while the in game version has the G for some reason.
Tbh… It is the fastest Panther. Better acceleration than the D too since it’s lighter. You’d be surprised how much difference that extra mobility can make on some maps.
At such a low BR, you can be very aggressive with it. I also bring it in my lineups up to the 6.3 one, precisely because it’s the fastest Panther - with a dearth of light vehicles, the extra mobility is really appreciated.
I’m aware that it’s the fastest Panther but I wouldn’t call that a unique enough playstyle in comparison to the rest - But I’ll hold that such is my opinion as it doesn’t wow me enough to make me want to go out of my way just to play it when the rest of the VK’s vehicle behavior is the same as the early production Panthers.
Part of the package of being able to be so aggressive with it is also how reliable and potent the gun is, especially that low in the BR range. There’s very little that you can’t just outright " point & click " with that gun. Same holds true for the higher BR’d Panthers - The gun only starts to require more attention aiming when it gets uptiered to the 7.0BR range.
I don’t disagree. Compared to many others here in this thread, I’m not one of those underselling the Panthers. I’d go as far to say they’re among the top mediums of their BR range in comparison to their contemporaries.