Tiger I
Heavy Tank · Germany
The 8.8 cm gun: the flattest, most accurate shot in the field, deadly at long range. Thick but upright armour, so angle it. A slow hand-cranked turret and fussy running gear: keep flankers off it.
(the vehicle's description in the garage)
At a glance
| Nation | Germany |
| Role | Heavy tank (HT) |
| Modelled variant | Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger Ausf. E (Sd.Kfz. 181), mid production (built Nov-Dec 1943), Normandy 1944 |
| Price | 960 credits |
| Team stock | 2 per five-player team (scales with team size) |
| Hit points | 1360 |
| Main gun | 332 damage per AP shot, 7.9 s reload |
| Speed | 38 km/h on roads, 22 km/h off-road |
| View range | 200 m |
| Ability (B) | Artillery |
| Garage ratings | Armour 4/10 · Firepower 5/10 · Mobility 8/10 · Spotting 6/10 |
History
The Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E was Germany's first true heavy tank to see large-scale service. Henschel built about 1,350 between mid-1942 and August 1944. Its 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56, derived from the famous 88 mm flak gun, could knock out any Allied tank of the time at long range, and its 100 mm frontal plates made it nearly immune to most Allied guns from the front in 1942-43. The price was weight (about 57 tonnes), a complex interleaved running gear, high fuel use and slow production.
Tigers were issued to independent heavy tank battalions (schwere Panzer-Abteilungen) and a few elite divisions, and were moved from crisis to crisis. They fought in Tunisia with s.Pz.Abt. 501 (the period of the Kasserine Pass map), at Kursk with the Leibstandarte's heavy company (Prokhorovka), and in Normandy, where Michael Wittmann's Tigers of s.SS-Pz.Abt. 101 ambushed the British 7th Armoured Division at Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944. The game models a mid production Tiger built in late 1943, as it would have looked in Normandy.
In Armor Heads
Compared with the other 34 WW2 vehicles, it is top 5 for hit points (#3 of 35); top 5 for effective hp (#5 of 35); top 5 for turret front armour (#4 of 35).
Survivability
- Hit points: 1360. Damage taken multiplier: 0.97 (effective HP 1402).
- Track repair: 13 s.
| Zone | Damage multiplier (lower = thicker) | Raw shell damage to destroy through this zone |
|---|---|---|
| Hull front | 0.59 | 1,485 |
| Hull side | 0.66 | 1,328 |
| Hull rear | 1.3 | 674 |
| Roof | 1.25 | 701 |
| Turret front | 0.54 | 1,623 |
| Turret side | 0.66 | 1,328 |
| Turret rear | 1.3 | 674 |
Main gun
- Mount: turret, 360° traverse at 28°/s.
- Elevation +15° / depression -8°, at 14°/s.
- Reload: 7.9 s.
- Damage per minute (AP): 2,522.
- Accuracy: 0.065° dispersion when settled, aim time 1.6 s, move bloom 0.045.
- Gunner's sight: TZF 9c, 2.5x / 5x (binoculars 6x / 10x / 15x).
| Shell | Type | Damage | Splash | Blast radius | Muzzle velocity | Penetration threshold | Rounds | Crew shock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Armour Piercing | AP | 332 | 30 | 3 m | 773 m/s | 0.5 | 30 | - |
| Heavy High Explosive | HE | 216 | 166 | 7 m | 820 m/s | 0.843 | 16 | 1.19 |
| 8.8 cm Pzgr. 40 APCR | APCR | 249 | 15 | 3 m | 930 m/s | 0.28 | bought (key 3) | - |
The penetration threshold is the thinnest zone multiplier the shell gets through: zones below it stop the shell (10 % damage for AP, 20 % for HE). See how the numbers work.
APCR (8.8 cm Pzgr. 40 APCR) is bought in the garage, not issued: 3 rounds for 200 credits, at most 6 carried, from a team stock of 3 per player for the whole match (never resupplied). It gets through far thicker plate than the AP up close but loses its punch quickly with range:
| Range | AP needs | APCR needs | AP damage | APCR damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | 0.5 | 0.28 | 332 | 249 |
| 300 m | 0.5 | 0.36 | 305 | 194 |
| 500 m | 0.5 | 0.5 | 279 | 139 |
| 700 m | 0.5 | 0.62 | 266 | 112 |
Matchups (AP against the hull front, square-on, under 100 m)
- Its AP gets through the hull front of 30 of the other 34 vehicles. It is stopped by: M26 Pershing, Tiger II, IS-2, Churchill VII.
- 17 of the other 34 vehicles' AP get through its hull front. Safe from the front against: M4 Sherman, M3A1 Stuart, Panzer II Luchs, Panzer III Ausf. L, T-34/76, Cromwell, Churchill VII, KV-1, M32 TRV, M24 Chaffee, Sd.Kfz. 250/9, T-70M, T-60, SU-76M, M3 Lee, 75 mm GMC M3, Stuart V "Honey".
- Sides, rears and roofs are thinner on every vehicle; see each page's zone table.
Secondary weapons and equipment
- Roof machine gun: MG 34, the vehicle's own modelled gun on its turret, 13 rounds/s, 1 damage per round, overheats after 60 rounds. It elevates to 70° and can shoot down recon planes.
- Smoke: 1 salvo, each recharges in 60 s.
Mobility
- Running gear: tracks (pivot turns).
- Top speed 38 km/h on roads, 22 km/h off-road (58 %), reverse 10 km/h, acceleration 3.1 m/s².
- Turn rate 31°/s (19°/s at top speed). Mass 57,000 kg. Engine start 4.5 s.
Special ability (B)
Artillery: an eight-shell barrage on any point within 1,000 m, 8 s after red smoke marks it; the shells hit tank roofs and wreck buildings. Ready 90 s after the round goes live, once per round; another use costs 400 credits.
Where it appears
Players can take it on all seven WW2 maps, on either team. The AI fields it on:
- Kasserine Pass 1943, Red (Axis side): 1x in an 7-vehicle line-up (first at position 4).
- Prokhorovka 1943, Red (Axis side): 1x in an 8-vehicle line-up (first at position 4).
- Villers-Bocage 1944, Red (Axis side): 2x in an 7-vehicle line-up (first at position 1).
Where it ranks (1 = best of 35)
| Stat | Rank |
|---|---|
| Hit points | 3 |
| Effective HP | 5 |
| Hull front armour (lower multiplier = thicker) | 11 |
| Turret front armour | 4 |
| Road speed | 29 |
| Off-road speed | 17 |
| Shot damage (AP) | 6 |
| Damage per minute | 25 |
| Reload (shortest first) | 28 |
| Accuracy (smallest dispersion first) | 12 |
| Aim time (fastest first) | 17 |
| Turret / gun traverse speed | 10 |
| View range | 30 |
| AP penetration (lower threshold = goes through more) | 10 |
| Price (1 = most expensive) | 4 |
The real vehicle
| Variant | Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger Ausf. E (Sd.Kfz. 181), mid production (built Nov-Dec 1943), Normandy 1944 |
| Length with gun | 8.45 m |
| Hull length | 6.316 m |
| Width | 3.705 m |
| Height | 2.885 m |
Sources used for the model: Jentz & Doyle via panzerworld.com/pz-kpfw-tiger-ausf-e (8.450 / 3.705 over the track guards / 2.885 to the cupola); hull length 6.316 m: Tiger I Information Center (alanhamby.com/technical.shtml) and Wikipedia (Tiger I). Width over the tracks alone 3.547-3.56 m (tanks-encyclopedia, Wikipedia; tiger1.info hull section gives 3.552).
In-game model: 8.45 m long (gun included) × 3.71 m wide × 3.02 m high (antenna excluded), 10,072 triangles, built at true scale.
Images
Renders of the in-game model in a plain nation colour (the game paints its camouflage at runtime).
