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).
Survivability
- Hit points: 1360. Damage taken multiplier: 0.97 (effective HP 1402).
- Tracks: a hit on the running gear breaks a track 60 % of the time (the hit does no damage); the crew repairs it in 17 s.
| Zone | Real plate | Damage multiplier (lower = thicker) | Raw shell damage to destroy through this zone | AP of the other 34 vehicles that gets through |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull front | 100 mm at 10° (102 mm) | 0.59 | 1,485 | 17 |
| Hull side | 80 mm | 0.66 | 1,328 | 25 |
| Hull rear | 80 mm at 8° (81 mm) | 0.66 | 1,328 | 25 |
| Roof | 25 mm | 1.11 | 789 | 34 |
| Turret front | 110 mm | 0.57 | 1,537 | 17 |
| Turret side | 80 mm | 0.66 | 1,328 | 25 |
| Turret rear | 80 mm | 0.66 | 1,328 | 25 |
Real plate: the thickness of the real vehicle's armour there, and its slope from vertical with the line-of-sight thickness in brackets; each zone's multiplier is worked out from it (see how the numbers work). The last column counts square-on hits under 100 m.
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 lowest zone multiplier (the thickest armour) the shell still gets through: zones below it stop the shell (10 % damage for AP, 20 % for HE). See how the numbers work.
HE and the crew: every direct hit shakes the crew (slower reload and traverse, a wider aim circle) for about 1.9 s when the plate stops it and 3 s when it bursts through. It is big enough to knock crew members out of their seats even when the plate stops it.
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 31 of the other 34 vehicles. It is stopped by: 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".
- From the side, 25 of them get through its hull side; from behind, 25 get through its hull rear (every zone is in the table above).
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:
- 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 8-vehicle line-up (first at position 4).
Where it ranks (1 = best of 35)
| Stat | Rank |
|---|---|
| Hit points | 3 |
| Effective HP | 5 |
| Hull front armour (lower multiplier = thicker) | 9 |
| Turret front armour | 7 |
| 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).
