How is armor that stops medium caliber automatic cannon fire, not useful?
The T-34-85 is practically immune to any aircraft strafing and also doesn’t die when a rocket lands 2m next to it.
And of course the same applies to SPAA firing at it.
It’s also not getting killed by US 75mm or German 50mm off a Puma simply by looking at it, which eliminates the thread of other mobile vehicles the M18 faces.
IS-2 gun is only overkill compared to other 5.7’s. When you compare the IS-2 and Tiger 1 in an uptier though, the IS-2 will struggle with a lot less enemies.
Short 88 only has 20mm more pen over it’s peers, 10mm if you’re using the shell with 280 grams of filler. I don’t see how people still think it’s OP when there’s the US 90mm on the M36 with significantly better statistics.
As for the panthers, they are extremely unwieldy in close quarters because of:
Reverse speed
Reload Time
Front Sprocket Weakspots
Turret face Weakspots
Large muzzle brake
Horrible hull traverse rates
An angled T-34 will have significantly better chances at bouncing shots than an angled KV-1, especially if the T-34 keeps moving
Angle. The kv1 has better all around better armor which allows you to better angle.
I am with you there, the KV-1 relies on fear factor to make the armor effective.
Most experienced players know that the flat LFP and UFP of the KV-1 hull are just barely thin enough to be penned by US 75
And if the KV-1 angles, just go for the mantlet cheeks
45mm of side armor doesnt allow for much angling.
The lower sides can allow for pens if the t34 angles
Same, i also picked the 34/85 up for playing the event and haven’t had any problem facing tiger 1 and 2 variants.
Can still damage them on the side while at a decent angle, and have been able to lol pen some sides at pretty good distance.
Not to forget the T34/85 round does wonders to german capolas haha.
Think the post creator might just be having some bad luck.
The 85 can pen the front of the tiger 1 in most cases.
The T34E’s body can achieve a protection level of 180mm through appropriate angles, equivalent to KV1e, which KV1s cannot achieve.
Kv1s only have 120mm
Having some immunity to aircrafts strafing you is a nice bonus, but you’re more than likely to just get bombed anyways, CAS finds a way if they hate your guts, since this game is disgustingly CAS-sided. Against automatic cannons from the ground, you can still get penned by something like the 20mm APDS, only heavy tanks can completely negate those.
An M18 is barely even gonna find US 75mm and German 50mm at 5.7 unless someone literally wants to grief themselves, they’re mobile enough to shoot back themselves in the first place. Not to mention the German 50mm can still easily shoot through the turret of the T-34-85.
The main advantage of the M18 is the mobility and it literally shows, having the mobility of an actual light tank is much more different than what the T-34-85 has. It accelerates much faster (has around 10 P/W ratio more), has much better max speed and has a much better reverse speed. Not to mention it gets smoke shells and actual gun depression.
Moreover, the flexibility of KV1s is not as good as T34. In fact, the Horizontal directional machine of KV1s is only 12 °, while the Horizontal directional machine of T34 has 25 °
The 85mm cannon cannot penetrate the front of the Eastern and Western front tigers at a 40 ° angle
It’s an overkill when you compare it with the Tiger 2 long 88 aswell which still has great explosive filler, 3x better reload rate and just simply better flat pen. The US 90mm, as you said, is also a great middle ground (granted, many vehicles they’re on are mediocre), but for a cannon with a similiar size, the US 120mm, while being solid shot, atleast can punch through virtually anything it faces. The IS-2 cannon is just underpowered for what it goes up against, because in a downtier, it’s an overkill, in an uptier, you don’t have a guaranteed chance to one shot vehicles just by looking at them, because many heavy tanks have effective armor that go over 205mm. Object 248 in general is literally just straight up better than the IS-2 due to having the much more balanced 100mm cannon.
Do they not have the 100mm front plate?
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
France has the Jumbo at 5.7 and the EBR at 5.3.
You’ll also find a lot of players bringing the Puma into these battles, as well as Japanese and Italian M24s.
Both Italy and France have 40mm Bofors SPAAs which are quite deadly even to medium tanks from the side. And you also see tons of Ostwind IIs driving around.
All annihilate a M18 in the blink of an eye.
For the premiums tigers. Do they have the 100mm front plate? Or is it more?
You actually don’t know this?
The Premuim Tiger tank has special tracks on the front to provide additional protection, which makes it impossible for 85mm cannon to penetrate them.
The purpose of the Premuim Tiger tank is to target USSR tanks
I hope you will eventually learn that the US 120 is nowhere near as effective as the USSR 122 based on penetration alone
Those two tanks are hard counters (tho I’d argue only the Jumbo 75mm is), yeah, but every vehicle has their hard counters after all. The others you mentioned are tanks far away from their intended BR, they’re literally griefing themselves over against anything that is not gonna be a light tank (which is much more rare at this BR).
Surprise, that’s why the mobility is the key component of light tanks, you don’t have to face anything head-on at all. That’s also why scouting exists aswell for light tanks. A T-34-85 on the other hand can’t retreat, hide and ambush tanks as well as an M18 and only thing it has to face tanks if it wants to be useful. Like your whole point just smells like saying light tanks are useless compared to medium tanks when they both have completely different roles in the first place.