these are both vehicles at BR2 armed with short 75mm cannons with HEAT,which at face value may make them seem amazing,but there are some very large issues with these 2 that could justify the BR lowering.
Armour
the armour profile of the Sdk.Fz is just about as bad as it seems,to the extent that M13s can destroy this thing with no problem at all (it’s already happened to me a few times).with only 30mms of armour at the thickest and less then 15 everywhere else,anything and every can penetrate this,and especially if an enemy tank has APHE you are done.Not to mention the open top nature of this vehicle with the crew sticking their heads out,you are able to be eliminated by almost anything,artillery,grenades,snipers,strafeing,AT weapons,HMGs,and any infantry who are able to shoot at your crew.As for the StuG,it’s armour profile is much better indeed,but still has it’s downsides,and has some fairly large weak points,wwith armour being only 23mms.The average armour values are similar to some BR1 and much worse then B2 tanks commonly seen.if we compare the armour values to the Panzer 3J,a BR1 tank,they share the same general armour values,but it lacks the weak spots of the StuG 3A (the Pz3N is the same but with 20mms extra and Schürtzen).If we look at the T70,the 37mms of armour may appear weak,but the angle of it’s armour gives it close to 70mms of armour,and the T50 is an improved value from that.Any cannon can penetrate it with ease,and due to the cramped crew,even if it is solid AP,you will most likely be crippled or die.below are the armour values,and take note of the 11mm weak spot on the StuG
Main gun
the primary reason this may come with controversy is the main gun,which is the German short 75mm cannon with HEAT,which is pretty good at fire support.This is very much true,but there are some very limiting factors that limit the gun compared to normal tanks armed with the same gun.The first point is the amount of ammunition available,which is actually about only half of the ammunition you would get on a normal tank with this cannon,around only 40~50 shells in total for both of these while the normal tanks get around 80,which is much less ammunition.another matter is the shell placement assigned for these tanks,with around 2/5 of the shells being APHE,which has limited use when HEAT can penetrate more and fight infantry,of which this can’t.Also,smoke shells,which unfortunately has little use,occupy 7 shells,around 1/5 of your ammo stowage.
Sd.Kfz ammunition
StuG 3A ammunition
Panzer 3N ammunition
Panzer 4E ammunition
Machine Guns
the machine gun for the Sd.Kfz is the MG42,which may seem like a great tank MG due to the ROF,but is far from it.this gun overheats incredibly fast to the point you can only get around 40-50 shots out in a period of around 2 seconds before it overheats,making you wait for somewhere around 10 seconds for it to cool down,leaving you very exposed to infantry,which can easily tear you apart.This MG also has the limited traverse of the main gun,which is another negative mark to it’s performance.The StuG 3A flatout does not have any MG to speak of,much needed in an infantry based game,which severely hampers it’s ability to combat infantry attempting to destroy it.
Casemate design
this is one of the largest limiting factors to these vehicles’ performance,the limited traverse of the gun,making you swing the entire vehicle,is a very large bad aspect of performance,leaving you vulnerable to fire while you try to wiggle your gun at the enemy.this makes any urban fight immediately go to any turreted tank you would fight.the wheeled design of the Sd.Kfz means that it is unable to turn on the spot,and needs a bit of wiggle room in order to turn,which isn’t always available.
speed
while this is the one area the Sd.Kfz does well in,the StuG severely lacks in this area,making frequent rearms a pain,which is often due to the limited ammunition available.
Availability
this doesn’t have an effect on the balance,but I though I might as well add this.both of these vehicles are limited in some way,either to a current every that won’t ever return except for possibly the veteran boxes (but the rates on them are terrible,so it’s unlikely to pull it),and a premium squad that is fairly pricy for what it is,so both of these are not accessible to everyone.
Summary
these are much worse then the Panzer 3N,the primary BR2 tank,due to being casemate,bad MGs if any, and worse armour
More like Tech Line.