The recent influx of ‘veteran’ BT-7 tanks in the game have highlighted something that I hadn’t noticed up until now, and that is a very fragile balance in ‘endgame’ tank combat. As it stands, the Germans have to work their way up to the Panzer III Ausf. E (their ‘endgame’ tank) whereas the Soviets can get the BT-7 through watching a stream for a few hours.
Where the field used to be a mix of whatever was available on both sides, with the Panzer IIC & IIIE for the Germans, and the T-60, T-126 and BT-7 for the Soviets, it has now grown relatively stale. Within a day, the BT-7 seems to have become the go-to ‘meta’ for the Soviets, with a high speed, good turret rotation and powerful gun.
This contrasts starkly to the most common tank I’ve seen on the German side; the Panzer II Ausf. C. Often used simply because it has a relatively high rate of fire, quick reload, and a good MG. Its armour is fine, but the turret rotation speed combined with the average speed balance it out.
The BT-7, however fragile it may be, has been dominating the past few games I’ve seen it appear in. With its 45mm HE actually working and succeeding in its goal of making quick work of any infantry seeking to blow it up with a well-placed shot from a Panzerbüchse-38 or a skillfully yeeted explosive charge. Its reload speed allows it to make short work of the Panzer II Ausf. C often seen being fielded from the German sides.
The combination of speed, reload & working anti-infantry shells in combination with a 45mm gun currently makes the BT-7 an extremely powerful force to be reckoned with. While it’s not a bad thing that top-tier tanks (as they currently are top-tier) perform excellently, it shouldn’t be the case that it performs excellently for only one side. This would be ideally be solved by giving the Panzer III Ausf. E a functional high explosive shell, or by simply giving out ‘Veteran’ Panzer III Ausf. E’s in a future drop event.
Sounds like someone has never gone up against a Panzer II.
Something is janky about its damage model so that it’s the hardest tank to penetrate, and it destroys any Russian tank by blindly spraying in their general direction.
Panzer IIs constantly bounce shots against them that have no business bouncing, including shots through their roofs.
As someone who plays mostly with the Germans, i think that the BT-7 is not an issue to the Germans as Shanghai_Shrek said before
Something is janky about its damage model so that it’s the hardest tank to penetrate, and it destroys any Russian tank by blindly spraying in their general direction.
I think that the problem is the damage models in the light tanks, because when i am using a Panzer II it’s impossible to kill a T-60, even if i am shooting him on his sides (it takes 2-3 belts to actually kill it), but yes, i agree with you that they should be giving people Veteran Panzer III
I agree that in the next drop they should drop the panzer 3 E but we already know that the Germans are OP (around 56% win rate) so I am pretty sure it won’t effect the game so much, I would like to see panzer 3 E veteran tho (but the pz2s are still pretty good when it come to destroy every tank)
I did have one kinda ridiculous game after receiving the twitch drop BT-7
And yes, the BT-7 is pretty good, or even a bit over powered? Or it might just be the german guns not working idk
I prefer the Pz2 over the Pz3 any day as it has much better anti-infantry capabilities. The 37mm HE is awful (and not historically accurate, the shell we use now is an outdated, inferior variant)
Have you actually had it stop a shot? From my experience the only Russian tank with any kind of durability is the T-60 if it’s hull-down.
German antimaterial rifles have no problem getting through any Russian tanks. Same goes for Panzer IIs. More often than not when I get killed by a Panzer it doesn’t even have to aim, it just sprays while it’s still traversing and either wipes out my crew or detonates my ammo.
Traverse is also a huge factor with German vs Russian tanks. German tanks have much faster gun traverse, and with the exception of the BT-7, are much more agile in moving as well.
For tanks I still think the Germans could use a counterpart for the T-26: Pz38('t)
The Pz2 and T-60 are good enough counterparts of each other but I think they should be moved to behind the 38t/t26 as they require a bit more skill to kill each other.
Pz3B obviously has to go, no source places any unit at Moscow as it was retired to training units. So easy replacement
“Oh no an easy to kill tank that can move faster than a T-26” Bro calling it end game even it it’s somewhat true technically makes me cringe BT-7 is fine there’s literally nothing wrong with it being a twitch drop
As a Soviet player - the BT is pathetically vulnerable - the P2 kills it easily regardless of angle or range, whereas it can struggle with a slightly angled German tank of either type.
Certainly the 45mm HE seems to work well, but speed is not really important on these maps.
I keep taking it because I can train up 3 crew in it, but it has to hide or it dies quickly - at least my ones do…
