New German tanks coming in 8.5

Had to add this while writing. This turned out be a really long post, mostly me airing my thoughts and excitement. All stats and details I mention here might very well change before these tanks hit the live server. So take everything with pinch of salt.

I have been waiting for the German meds for some time and now WG has officially published them on NA website, EU is lacking this news still...

http://worldoftanks.com/news/2184-85-preview-german-medium-tanks/

Edit:The news have spread to EU website. The descriptions are actually different than on NA website.

http://worldoftanks.eu/news/6724-german-tanks-update-85/

"Few" things I'd like to mention.

The ugly Aufklärungspanzer Panther. A "light" tank with Panther hull, Leopard turret and Konisch gun. No comment. I just... I mean... c'mon...

Indien Panzer, India Tank, what a original name. The stats, which might change, are interesting. First the gun. 212/259/45 pen, 240/240/350 dmg, 8-10 rof, 0,32-0,34 acc, 2,3-2,9 aim time. Looks like a awesome gun. Armour is 90/90/45 on both hull and turret. But the turret looks lot like Löwe's turret. This might mean the gun mantle is really strong and so turret will be hard to penetrate from the front. Hulls upper plate is extremely angled with a small viewport for a weakspot. Lowe plate seems, hard to say from pics, to be small by German standards. HP is 1300, which is 50 less than Panther 2, but still higher than most. So it looks to well armoured for a tier 8 med. Good gun, good hp, good armour. But there has to be a catch?

Of course. It's slower than Panther 2, which is not exactly a fast tank itself. Indien Panzer is 40 tons, P2 is 44-45tons. Indien Panzer has 640hp engine, P2 has 870hp engine. Interestingly Indien Pz has faster hull traverse (34) than P2 (26), but slower turret traverse (36 and 42).
I will be interested in playing this one, especially because I know what it leads to.

Leopard PT A and Leopard 1 I've been expecting you... These will have L7A3 which is basically the same Royal Ordnance L7 gun that Centurion 7/1 and FV4202 have, well it is the same gun. Let's look at the L7A3 gun on Leopard 1 and 10,5cm KwK 45 L/52 Ausf. on E-50M, which is known for being deadly accurate.

L7A3: 6,67 rof, 268/350/53 pen, 390/390/480 dmg, 0,3 acc, 1,9 aim time.
10,5: 6,25 rof, 270/350/60 pen, 390/390/510 dmg, 0,3 acc, 2,1 aim time.

So it fires faster and aims faster, and from what I understand it will be more accurate on the move. *drool* Oh sorry... I can't wait! Unlike the L7A1 on British tanks Leopards won't use HESH for premium ammo, instead they will use HEAT like the rest do. Now I don't like HESH, it's too unreliable and situational IMO and so I prefer HEAT. This is the perfect gun for me.

That's the gun covered, how about rest of the tank? Armour? Crap, 70/35/35 on hull, but it is very angled, and I heard rumours about spaced armour, but I'm skeptical about that. Space armour would make it actually good, but without that it wont mean much of anything. 52/60/60 on turret, but don't forget about the gun mantle, that looks good, so it might bounce quite few shots, but can't say anything before I get my hands on it.

Now this next bit might come as a shock, as it is very un-German. It's fast and has low(ish) profile. And I do mean fast. 65kph top speed, weights only 40 tons with 830hp engine. Giving it 20,75hp/ton ration which is 2nd best for t10 meds, only Bat.Chat has a better one (29,41), but is the batmobile. 54 hull traverse, only T62A has better one with 56 traverse. 36 turret traverse is 2nd worst, E-50M has 30, but it's still good.

And low (for a German) profile is worth to point out also, makes using terrain more easy. Although I don't know what gun depression will be like (I presume bad). If the gun mantle is good enough to bounce shots, taking potshots in hilly terrain will be a pleasure with a gun that you almost snipe while on the move. The cupolas are interesting also. From what I've seen on Leopard 1 they are, well for the lack of a better word, open. They don't have "side armour" just a plate on top and periscopes. Could this mean they will be treated as only viewports? Meaning hitting them in a wrong angle will result in only module damage. I doubt so, but it is interesting detail. One thing I know for sure, watch out for arty...

Fast, agile, somewhat low profile med with a killer gun? Yes please.

I'm not done talking yet. What will the German tech tree look a like after these tanks come? Note this will be pure speculation. I've heard many rumours and seen one screenshot of a German tech tree, taken by a supertester.

Link to the screenshot inside the spoiler

Spoiler:

This seems very likely. All Daimler-Benz (D) tanks are linked into the same tree. Med line will start with Indien-Pz. from VK3002DB, which along with other VKs have been renamed with extra dot added to the numbers, DB has been replaced with just D also. Tier 7 "light" Aufkl.Panther will come after VK2801 and will lead to Indien-Pz. There is a tier 8 light, which at the moment looks like a proper light tank actually, will come after Aufkl.Panther and lead to Leopard PT A. This is it how it goes in with Chinese lights and mediums and that's why I think this will be the way the tech tree will look like in 8.5.

I have 80k+ free exp and almost 400k convertible exp waiting for these tanks

(Mopping the drool from the floor..) (His own and Vallu's)

The reason Leopard 1's armor is so thin, is because it was made to be thin. The actual armor is only 20mm thick, it was a step from the old generation of tanks to the new generation. The light armor and armor configuration was made to be mainly equipped with ERA, that's why leopard 1 offered superb protection as well as good firepower. WG tweaked it quite a bit though...

EDIT: Not ERA, applique armor.

I beleive that Leo 1 had RHA and not ERA armor. Plz confirm Kawa. thx

Hmm.. Now I have to reconsider which way from Pz3/4 I should take. This new branch looks interesting

Leo 1 - RHA.
Leo 2 - ERA

New Tech Tree for those who haven't or have struggled to stick with the test server waiting list (90, 000 in front of me when I tried joining 20 minutes ago)



And yes I know its in Russian :/ but hey I was having too much fun with the Leo to take SS's

Will make a vid of the test server when I get in there when it's not 4.00 in the morining...

But I have to say these tanks especially Leo 1 have really un-German feel. Indien-Pz. has extremely sloped armour and good gun depression, how's that possible? Leo's are fast and lowish profile and Leo 1 has good gun depression with almost identical to E-50M. Really, really like all of them.

And Aufk. Panther (which I have started calling afk Panther, as I can't pronounce Aufklärungspanzer) is hideous with stock turret and gun.

This sounds like a medium range that I have finally got a chance of surviving more than a couple of minutes in!