The Panzer IV/70 (A) is a German tank destroyer ranked at BR4, but it is completely obsolete on that battle rating and I believe that it can be lowered to BR3 without any problem. Recently the Panzer IV/70 (V) was moved to BR4, and it is very similar to this tank destroyer in ost every regard, but eliminates one of the biggest weak spots, that being the large flat 80mm plate, which defeats any point of using this tank destroyer. On BR3, this will be much more viable and won’t be too powerful or be unkillable by any means.
One of the big weaknesses mentioned earlier is the flat 80mm driver’s plate, the most obvious place to shoot. At BR3 though, it may seem like too much and would make it unkillable, but there are a decent amount of vehicles on BR2 and 3 (even a BR1 tank) that can penetrate this plate, with those being the:
T-34-57, T-34 1941 and T-34 STZ
Su-76
75 mm gun on the M3 Lee and Grant
M5A1 “Rhino”
all Shermans
Crusader
Churchill III
M8 and M8A1 Scott
M24 Chafee
M10 and M18
Of course some of these are premium/event vehicles, but there are still many tech tree tank able to penetrate this.
Then of course, is the other, much more compromising weak spot. While not as common a place to shoot, the upper front plate is only 20mms thick, and while angled, it only increases the effective protection to ~55mms frontally. This allows pretty much any tank with anything bigger than a 20mm to penetrate the PZ IV/70 A, so long as they know where to shoot.
T50 vs Pz IV/70 A
To summarize how it will preform on BR3:
Good gun with high that even deal with churchill IIIs and has slightly better HE shells than KwK 40s
Casemate design which heavily limits main gun and MG traverse, so in most situations it will struggle if not in a good position (especially in CQC and urban maps where other tanks and infantry can get close)
Good armor, but still killable by anything so long as the enemy knows where to shoot
Bro, great post! I’ve got a poll going too. Unfortunately, I can no longer comment there since the BR rating of the ISU-152 has been finalized.
I’ve attached a poll about the tank you discussed right below, feel free to cast your vote!
The statistics are still available for viewing.
I mean, I feel like there’s a decent chance it’ll be lowered since it isn’t that crazy of an ask, but considering how long it took the devs to lower the Marder 3H, you may be right.
Rather, turreted tanks are the optimal pick in this game. Turretless tank designs are mostly a compromise made in pursuit of superior protection. Since the game only allows deploying up to two tanks, it is wiser to go for the most practical option.
German players favor this vehicle largely for its improved anti-armor performance and enhanced defensive capabilities. As a transitional variant, it only offers better protection for the upper turret structure compared to the Panzer IV H. Having stayed at its current battle rating for so long, it deserves a downgrade.
Additionally, the addition of the short-barreled Panzer IV makes the BR reduction of the ISU-152 more reasonable. This tank can nearly shrug off 76mm cannon fire from the front.
Since it doesn’t even have a machine gun, I’d say it would be better suited for BR3, especially since the standard Panzer 4 already struggles in BR3 because several tanks, especially Soviet ones, can withstand its fire quite well, but the Panzer 4 can’t even withstand a single shot from them, also we need Panzer III N to BR2 since is a joke in BR3
I’m not voting but will point out that your logic is pretty busted. The fact that there’s a better BR4 tank is not a reason to push it down a BR. Think about it. If that logic made sense, there would be one tank per BR in each BR and the others… I guess deleted from the game?
Honestly, this whole matter is quite troublesome, yet we have to face it anyway—it’s simply how it should be. The game ought to have six battle rating divisions in total.
In high-tier matches, the gap between late propeller fighters and jet aircraft is extremely drastic and creates a total divide. Many transitional vehicles between Rank 3 and Rank 4 cannot be properly included due to large gaps in battle rating, which reduces the variety of playable content.
If we want to extend the game’s lifespan, this adjustment will be necessary in the future.
Speaking of which, I suddenly remembered a Sichuan-made submachine gun. I’m going to make a post about it later; feel free to check it out if you’re interested.
They could add BR6, but I seriously doubt there’s any weaponry suitable for that BR level, since the top tier is BR5. However, if they added high-capacity semi-automatics, like 20-round rounds, to BR5 and moved the automatic weapons to BR6, or if they didn’t do that with BR4, I don’t see how to fill that intermediate gap. Alternatively, they could just add two more weapons of each type to BR5 and make it their own BR level.
So no to it’s BR being lowered, just because it looks bad? I mean I won’t deny it’s bad looking, but is that reason enough to prevent it from being useful?
Not trying to argue, just confused why appearance should impact balance.
Idk, I feel that might be the more controversial of the two to lower to BR3, but I’m not all that against it.
