I’m a German main. I am, however, very sympathetic to the overall thrust of the argument regarding the T32 and E1. Generally speaking, all heavies in-game have a bad time. I greatly disagree with Gaijin’s idea of balance when it comes to heavies, and I can think of several Allied heavies that are grossly overtiered, for example the Black Prince. So, don’t take what I’m about to say as a general disagreement with your whole argument, but as a more specific nitpick.
I don’t see why you need to say factually incorrect claims, to support your opinion on balance.
You claim:
“There isn’t a single US light or medium tank below 6.7 that can frontally pen the Tiger II H or Jagdtiger with full caliber AP.”
And @sartt here claims:
“meanwhile he ignores the Jadgtiger, King Tiger and other tanks at 6.7 on other nations that can’t be penetrated by tanks in its same BR”
What Sartt says is especially egregious. M-51, Ontos, Scorpion, ASU-85, T-44-100, Centurion, stop me any time. All these tanks either lolpen (in the case of HEAT-FS) or can definitely pen a Jagdtiger’s frontal weak spots, and even one-shot it, if the player knows where to aim.
The Jagdtiger DOES have frontal weak spots, in fact, the same frontal weak spots shared by many heavies at this BR (a point I’ll return to later). In particular, lower front plate and machine gun port. Not to mention that barrel damage is obnoxiously frequent, and we all know how that one ends.
Given the ammo placement on the Jagdtiger, hitting these weak spots can result in a one-shot. In particular, protection is the lowest at the very corners of the LFP, right next to the tracks; even a T45 APCR round pens both these weak spots, and is likely to cause decent damage, especially if it hits the ammo. While sub calibre, that’s a shell you find on the 5.3 Jumbo…
T-44-100 to the lower front plate results in ammo rack detonation. Ontos, well that’s a point and click adventure. T92 as well. Some APDS can get through the superstructure… I could go on. Trust me, I play the thing a lot. It’s strong, and it can take some damage, but it’s not impenetrable. Even M41 Bulldogs, light vehicles below 6.7, can in fact frontally damage the Jagdtiger if they’re not in an unfavourable position. They don’t lolpen it of course, but it’d be bizarre if they could.
Besides, this is exactly how heavy vehicles are supposed to work. How many lights and mediums at 4.3 - 5.3 can frontally pen the Jumbo unless they aim for the machine gun port? Exactly.
Now we come to the Tiger II.
No one who knows what they’re doing plays the Tiger II as a heavy. Not even with the recent BR changes. And that’s not just because you frequently meet the aforementioned lolpenners, but because its weak spots are well known, and almost perfectly symmetrical with the weak spots of its American counterparts.
Lower front plate. Machine gun port. Flat turret cheeks (vs flat gun mantlet in the American case).
Yes, the upper glacis is great. But even if you ignore all vehicles that can lolpen it, the truth is, no player who knows what they’re doing is ever going to bother with your upper glacis. They’ll go for the weak spots, every time. As they should.
Now, here’s the thing. Turret armour is always more important than hull armour in this game. You can mitigate the lack of hull armour by using cover and terrain, but you can’t mitigate the lack of turret armour unless you simply not shoot at all (or have a really good position that allows you to shoot and scoot, and are facing only one enemy). And the turret cheeks of the Tiger II, well… you wanna see how many guns at nearby BRs are able to pen them? And therefore neutralise it even before you do get to kill it?
Tiger IIs have an amazing gun, especially at long range, and fantastic gun handling. But everything other than the gun sucks. They’re oversized and slower Panthers, with a strong UFP that will only circumstantially save you, and an armour layout you simply cannot rely on to save you. Even if you’re, in this case, a “heavy”. A Tiger II will never be able to play like an IS-3 can. It’s not overperforming at its BR, and it’s certainly not frontally impenetrable. In fact, given that map rotation features some 70% of small urban maps with engagement distances lower than 500 metres, it barely gets to use its strengths in long-distance duels to begin with.
Tiger IIs are easy to kill. They’re fine at 6.7, especially with the recent BR change. Unlike many heavies across the board, which should go down. Please understand, this isn’t an “American tanks should be easy to kill” thing. Your gripe isn’t with players of other heavy tanks, going through the same struggles, it’s with “the current meta” where armour is effectively meaningless.
