My IS-Tank Experience - Long Story

[Angriff_Steiner]

I had my first IS-Tank experience during the first day of the second phase of the Beta.
I played “Breakthrough” and the IS1 broke my defense Line, by some miracle overlocked my Infantry, which got a lucky hit on the IS1, not destroying it but killing the Crew … so far so good.

The unlucky Infantry Man got slaughtert moments later by the Russian Support Troops.

Me playing the 78.Sturm for the first time, saw this and did a successful counterattack, including two Stug IIIs
#Stuglife

After killing the Support and getting back my defense Line, I could see the Tank still there and said to myself: “Ah fuck it!”

So I clicked and send my Stugs to destroy that thing, and didn’t thing more of it.


After blocking another Russian Attack at the other Side of the Map, am minute later or so, I discovered that my Stugs are still shooting that damned thing.

I was confused.

I hovered the mouse over it and then it showed 0% Penetration.
… o yeah … that should explain it



Than lets drive closer to get this thing! I thought.

So I clicked, but the pen did not rise, my two Stugs stood directly in front of the IS and hit was 100% but Penetration still 0%.

Defaq?

Because this was a Stug not some low tier bullshit, the same weapon as the PAK 40 and quit a good tank killer to the End of the War.

…

Yeah! That must be a Bug!
I mean its still day one … and in Beta, shit like this is going to happen, right?
At least that was what I was thinking.


So got into the Armory and look that IS-1 up and … oh … oh shit!
170mm!? … really?
Than my Brain kicked in again and I could explain that the most probably used the highest Armor Value in the Front to represent the hole Front of the Tank. Ok, I get it and its not really the worst system I had heard of.
Ok … Looked up the Tiger and … 110mm … yeah!

Note I am not some Wheraboo trying to say the Tiger is uber perfect but for balancing I was kinda expecting something different.

Knowing the IS-Tank had better Amor I would have expected 30-40mm more but 60mm?
That’s like taking a Tiger Tank and welding a complete Panzer IV to his Front … a bit extreme.


So … this could be ok just let check what can Pen this Russian Heavy.

Can the Panzer IV Pen it?

*click*

Well … that won’t work, but I already was expecting that.
I had guessed already that for a heavy I have to step up the game and …

*click*

*starts sweeting proudly*

Ok … even the mighty 88 can´t pen this thing ether, not even from up close and personal … well … shit!

*clicks Panther A*

*vivid Stalingrad Flashbacks*

Shit ! Shit ! Shit !

*clicks Panther G*

*Calm again, feeling cute maybe annexing Poland later idk*

??? … ok it can pen the IS, but why does the G Variant has so much more Pen that the A Version?
… Ah fuck it!


The Panther G is the most expensive an Powerful Tank of the 5.Panzer Division so its mostly reserved for Phase C … but hey perfect timing lets check how the numbers compare …

*clicks IS-1 again*

*Heavy Sweeting and Stalingrad Flashbacks return*

Phase A?! ONLY Phase A? and on Veteran Level 3!? … the Hell??
This must be a mistake, they must mean Phase C and Level 3, maybe Phase B and Level 2 or something like that.
This is gonna be corrected soon, am I right … right?


Well till than I have to make my Deck to make op for it.
Gonna have a special Unit of Panther Gs always ready to attack if an IS come out of nowhere.
The “I is gone Gang”
#Isgonegang

The Gang is quit expensive and means I have to sacrifice some Slots for early Phase A Panthers, which means less attack power overall and much less Points for my initial Start.
In short not quit the perfect balance, but hey it works … maybe … sometimes …

And all of this just to get a chance to kill one Tank.

But Hey! That’s what this Beta is for, or not?
To find stupid shit like this and get it fixed. I am sure that Eugen will have fixed this by Phase 3


////
Timeskip
////

Start of Phase 3:
Revenge of the Russians


I look up the Russian Divisions and yes … Russian Rape Tank is still there … and still Phase A … gulp!
Lets see what the other Division got in Store.

*click 29.Panzer Corps.*



*Check Google how to surrender in Russian*

Panik!!!

Now I have to rebuild my hole Deck to defend against an IS Push!

*Looks at screen*

Where is my 5.Panzer??

*Hear Rapetrain enter Station*

Gulp … well … now I at least know how Field Marshall Paulus felt …

Now I look up what the new German Division got
At best Panzer IVs … gulp
And the 78 Sturm still only hast bloody Stugs … gulp even harder
Look at Russian Division mostly made up out of heavys …
Look back at Wehrmachts Plan B (at best)

….

*takes “How to escape to Argentina for Dummies” from the Shelf, puts the “Panzerlied” on full Volume and drops Sunglasses*

LETS FUCKING TO THIS!!!!


The Russian Medium AI (which is normaly easy to beat) raped my so flippin hard that I got my Great Grandfathers PTSD.

Fuck!
A metric shitton of Heavys grinded my defenses to a fine dust.
This heavy tank are completely made of Stalinium and personally blessed (and probably operated by) inner Party Members of the Sowjet Communist Party.


… So … what now? …

Only these things can even start to pen an IS:

-Pak 88
-Nashorn
-Panther G
-Pak 40 (Only 6 Shots)
-Infantry



-Pak 88
I can only get one at Phase A and then I have to correctly gues where to deploy this massive pile of junk. Because if I choose the wrong side I cannot simply get up and change positions.
Also the PAK 88 is quit expensive in first deployment and can easily be destroyed by:

-Arty
-Mortars
-Infantry
-Airplanes

And its quit slow, overall a defensive weapon, not attack weapon to go out and hunt an IS.
So lets hope the IS like attacking the Frontline where you got this thing deployed.


-Nashorn
You still get only one of this things.
Because its an open Top Vehicle most of the complains from above are still there like Airplanes and so on, but now, because it cant hide, you also have to fear tanks, even the small shity ones, because the Nashorn itself has close to no armor.
But is more mobile at least.
But like the PAK is to few with Verteran Level 0

-Panther G
No 5.Panzer no Panther G
The only good answer to the IS god patched out.

-PAK 40
Only 6 Shots which is not nearly enough because the mostly do not hit and even is the bounce or destroy only tracks. All the while the Tank is firing at you and giving the PAK locations to the hole Red Army.

EDIT:
Note the Eugen, make the AI use APCR ONLY if normal AP Round won´t work.
The APCR is mostly wasted on some shit like 6 ZIS Anit Air Trucks.
I don’t have the time to spare to micromanage every gun to use the correct Ammo at the correct time.

-Infantry
If you get lucky and the IS stops next to a building or forest and you can get an shot in … go for it.
In every other case your Infantry can not cross open filed without the IS escaping or holding down the Infantry. Mostly because the IS comes with a lot of Support.



Ok what about Arty?

I tried to fire tow Nebelwerfer at that thing and it did shit nothing

Ok and regular Arty?

You could try that, but in my test run I could only scare the tank for a little bit.

Airforce?

Tried the Junkers 188 with the 50kg Bombs, scared them good for like a minute or so

And the 1000kg Version?

I ordered a strike, but in the last moment the IS drove like 5m forwards and again only got scared for a little bit, till he Party Members inside could regain there fighting Spirit.



So in Total:

-Cant shoot it with Arty

-Cant Airstrike it

-Currently the Germans have 0 Tanks that can Pen it

-Only some few Anti-Tank Units can even put a dent in it and they are rare, expensive and not made for attacking.

-Infantry is only good if your lucky

While on the other Hand the Russian have a wide array of units that can Pen ANY German Tank.
In great Quantities and with Veteran Level even at Phase A.


So seeing the current Meta of the Game I cannot really get how, or why the 5.Panzer got taken out.
Taking away all the more heavy hitters for Germany.

So I would propose:

A. Instead of taking the highest Value of the Front Amour the represent the hole front, how about finding a compromise between weaker and harder Spots and getting like a Front Amor of like 150mm?

Still Powerful, still a hard nut to Crack and still much higher than the Tiger but not impossible to beat

B. Get the German Heavy’s back!
Maybe … even Buff the German Anti-Tank up a bit.
It good if only fighting T-34 in my Opinion with Decks that are mostly Heavy’s it can feel a bit underpowered, because many of the available Options like the 50mm Pak or lower are close to useless against a T-34 not to mention against a Russian Heavy.



And I want noted that this is only my Opinion because i most likly suck at this.
Because i could not see anyone else complain about this.
Which means I must do something wrong.

So if you know how to properly deal with the IS-Tanks, pls let me know because I sureley dont know and would like to learn more

[Min]

You need to manage your ammo and rely on the anti tank tab. All of the 75mm in the AT tab should come with a limited amount of APCR rounds with 190mm penetration, which they load as AT by default. You should turn that ammo off when you spawn them so they don't waste it on light armor the regular AP is capable of killing. Eugen should make AP ammo the default, and if they really want to be impressive make the crews ai automatically changes ammo depending on target like they do with HE

[中铁四局]

No need to be so dramatic when fighting against a heavily armored tank in video games. The thing I learned from your post is you never play allied faction in WW2 games. Dealing with something with heavy armor and a instant gib gun is a allied player everyday practice.


be calm.



PS: IS-1 armor is a little bit too much, 150-160 armor looks like a good value, but since a panther APCR has a whopping 250 pen..... I don't understand the pen value here. besides armor inflation is quite nomal in SD2.

PPS: yeah, 5th Panzer needs to be back in beta phase 3, right now every lobby is full of empty German slots and full of Reds.

[evilbob]

At close range the chance of doing damage even against heavily armored targets should drastically increase as long as its with an Anti-tank weapon.

Example would be in 1941- the Germans with 37mm guns often tackled and destroyed T34s and KVs...how was this so...at close range and targeting weak points. From reading some tankers real life examples when facing a KV they would shoot at the barrel to make the main gun inop...then they could pick at other weak points or suppress the tank while engineers or other elements moved in to finish it off.

Same effect should work in 1944...good optics and training should allow undergunned units to still disable and destroy heavily armored targets at close range. The main advantage of heavy armor and big long range guns is you can kill people and enemy tanks at long range....if you get in a knife fight the gun size and armor start to matter a lot less and a knife fight in a tank is something like 500m or less.

Also AT guns should have higher stealth or Tanks a lot less ability to spot and engage them until the AT gun fires...as typically AT guns got the first shot unless infantry had ID the AT positions before the tanks moved in...also an emplaced gun at 1,000+ meters I would think would be very hard to spot even for infantry....IDing targets at long range seems very easy so far in the beta.

[caskwine]

i have noticed alot on non-historical values for units in the game, so i'm just wondering if thats more the problem, rather than the units themselves. its still beta so theres plenty of time to change things though

[matrin]

Ever heard of flanking or surrendering a unit?

[Grabbed_by_the_Spets]

When the Wheraboo's laugh at the first beta when they could just shit all over the Russian's with nothing but Tigers and panthers.

Shoes on the other foot, and this happens!

[shuai-jan]

When the Wheraboo's laugh at the first beta when they could just shit all over the Russian's with nothing but Tigers and panthers.

Shoes on the other foot, and this happens!

Reminds me of the NATO fanboys in WG.

[Grabbed_by_the_Spets]

When the Wheraboo's laugh at the first beta when they could just shit all over the Russian's with nothing but Tigers and panthers.

Shoes on the other foot, and this happens!

Reminds me of the NATO fanboys in WG.

HAHA Israel and NORAD shit on all Soviets!

What's that? Yugoslavia gets the same treatment? Impossible!

[AlphaKilo]

Well, it was pretty entertaining to me non the less, so thanks for that.