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VK 16.02 Leopard Guide
2 posters
SGTA :: Archives :: German Tanks
Page 1 of 1
VK 16.02 Leopard Guide
Ding760 Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:31 am
VK 16.02 Leopard
-Tier V German Light Tank-
Stock Leopard:
Fully upgraded Leopard with my configuration (really, you won't be noticing a huge difference):
WoT Wiki page: http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/VK_1602_Leopard
Notes are marked as [#]. Scroll to the bottom of the guide to read them.
General Information:
Attributes:
The VK 16.02 has a bit more bulk than the typical light tank, but it still outruns the vast majority of the tanks it meets at the cost of having a less powerful overall gun, though it has quite the sting in the right situation.
Review:
A scout with a great emphasis on sudden high-damage strikes when MM allows it.
Set-up Tips:
Most accuracy-oriented enhancements are of little use as you are preferably using the autocannon at point blank range. Camouflage and view range are the most important features to boost.
Modules:
Notes:
Originally written by Platypusbill
-Tier V German Light Tank-
Stock Leopard:
- Spoiler:
Fully upgraded Leopard with my configuration (really, you won't be noticing a huge difference):
- Spoiler:
WoT Wiki page: http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/VK_1602_Leopard
Notes are marked as [#]. Scroll to the bottom of the guide to read them.
General Information:
- Spoiler:
XP Cost:
-Researched through the PzKpfw II Luchs for 13 500 XP
Credit Cost:
-2 430 000 total
-327 170 for the hull
-27 830 for the stock modules
Crew (4 total):
Turret:
-Commander (Also acts as a gunner)
-Loader
Hull:
-Driver
-Radio Operator
Attributes:
- Spoiler:
Basic Stats:
-HP: 450
-Weight (tons): 21.1 (stock) - 21.32 (presumed top modules, no equipment)
-Hull Armour (mm): 50/30/20
-Top Speed (km/h): 60
-Camouflage: Great, no loss of camo while moving[1]
Mobility:
The Leopard has a good top speed, and even though many mediums can keep up with it on flat, is power-to-weight ratio in the mid-20s allows it to traverse and zip across slopes with speed that only other scouts and maybe the Bat Chat and Leopard I medium tanks can parallell. It can also pivot turn, which is a nice plus.
Not the zippiest LT around, but far from slow.
Armour:
Definitely not the primary reason to get this tank, it's a scout after all. But despite this, the upper front plate is around 70mm effective and can thus bounce a lot of shells from tier IV and below scouts, especially if it's hit at an angle. The sides are also either sloped or mostly covered by the tracks, so low tier pew pew guns will not penetrate there unless the shot is decently lined up.
Firepower:
The top gun of the VK 16.02 is a 3cm autocannon. It feels rather impotent outside of ambush/flanking situations against most targets and goes through a lengthy reload between clips, but the 12 shots (assuming they all penetrate) quickly stack up damage to the equivalent of a heavy tank's punch.
The VK 16.02 has a bit more bulk than the typical light tank, but it still outruns the vast majority of the tanks it meets at the cost of having a less powerful overall gun, though it has quite the sting in the right situation.
Review:
- Spoiler:
Description/Tactics:
While the Leopard is nominally just a scout, its role is highly dependent on the MM it gets. I haven't run any experiments, but I'd say the majority of the matches are in battle tiers 5 and 6, where the gun is a significant threat to the majority of enemy tanks. When it gets dragged into battle tiers 7 to 9, spotting and harassing are usually the name of the game.
The usual scout tips apply: abuse your speed and on-the-move camouflage to get to early spotting positions with a suitable bush to hide in, preferably with a clear view towards high-traffic areas- unless a stealthy approach isn't viable, in which case you sweep across an an area close to hard cover, such as the top of a ridgeline. Run away when you are detected or if you think someone will spot you soon. The bush scouting approach is common on f.e. Malinovka, Sand River has little foliage but allows you to spot from the top of hills and dunes. The early rush gives your team information on the tank distribution of the enemy, and if they aren't careful enough, lots of easy targets. Move to another location when you feel that there is little to achieve from where you are at that moment.
Scan enemy tanks with your pointer, the rangefinder lets you judge if a position is too risky/exposed- the Leopard shaves off roughly a third of the enemy's view range with fully trained camo crew. Use the minimap and tank roster (you can count how many tanks are spotted and compare it to how many are alive) to look for gaps in the lines in case you want to get behind the enemy force or kill the artillery.
Avoid getting hit unless you know you can confidently mitigate the damage, especially early on- you might need the HP in the later phases of a match.
The 3cm autocannon gives the Leo a rather peculiar playstyle- it fires multiple 3-shell bursts much like autoloader tanks fire multiple shells in quick succession- but with the very short timespan it takes to chew through a clip, you can almost think of it as a single-shot weapon.
Just taking potshots at enemies can produce a few damaging hits, but the range is limited to 360 meters, the burst fire is rather awkward when leading a moving target, the shells have low penetration, the gun is very inaccurate, and you cannot capitalise on the autocannon's main strength, i.e. high spike damage- so you should generally attempt to get close to the target, aim at surfaces facing straight at you, and immediately dump the whole magazine. When planning strikes like this, you should ensure that you either have an escape route or can avoid fire long enough to reload and finish off the enemy. Dashing at the target and circling to its side or rear is the standard approach, but you can also peek out from behind cover and quickly retreat after unloading if the enemy isn't paying attention- but to do this on slopes, you need to go sideways. There is plenty of room for the breech inside the turret, but the hull of the tank gets in the way of the barrel/mantlet when the gun is facing forwards.
Getting behind the target is especially good because this enables you to target the engine (unless it's one of those rare front-mounted designs, obviously), which results in a high chance to cripple the enemy's mobility or set the tank on fire- assuming all 12 rounds penetrate, an average of ~5.5 hit the engine.
As the Leopard is rather heavy by the standards of similarly tiered light tanks and has more armour than most of them, don't be afraid to ram other scouts and low-tier SPGs.
On top of the usual spotting role, the Leopard excels as a mobile hit-and-run vehicle. It's mostly ineffective for direct engagements, but the ability to pick off targets with low exposure is very valuable, and it has a very high fun factor.
Advantages:
-Camo on par with many of the low-profile Russian tanks with no increase in visibility while moving
-Great mobility (it's a light tank after all)
-Good view range
-Nearly instantaneous 360 damage
Disadvantages:
-Autocannon is often severely lacking for direct confrontations and sniping
-Bad gun depression unless pointing the barrel over the side
-Usually dies to one or two hits when near the bottom of the roster
Comparison to its peers:
The VK 16.02 is rather hard to compare against others because there is only one tier V light tank with the same matchmaking:
-The Crusader has normal tier V MM
-The M24 Chaffee and T-50-2 have the team balancing weight of tier VI tanks, and end up in battle tier 7 at minimum (which means that tier VIIs are almost guaranteed), and can potentially run into the most powerful tanks and arty in the game.
But for the purpose of battle tier 5-7 matchups, it can be compared to mediums.
ELC AMX
The ELC is more mobile in every way, has an extremely low profile with better camo, and its gun is on par with tier VIII mediums is raw firepower, though it has restricted traverse and is very slow to aim and fire. Its armour is also utterly useless except for low-caliber guns that fail to overmatch the sloped midsection and ricochet. The French light does face issues with transmitting info to distant allies unless they have good radios, because the one on the ELC is pitiful.
Tier V mediums
The Leopard holds the advantage in mobility, view range (except for the M7, which has more than the Leopard), and camouflage, especially on the move. It can also outdamage the mediums easily in the short term (besides the ludicrously overpowered HEAT howitzers of the Sherman and Pz IV) at the cost of having greater difficulty in actually dealing that damage and being forced to reload for a long time between clips.
A scout with a great emphasis on sudden high-damage strikes when MM allows it.
Set-up Tips:
- Spoiler:
Suggested Crew Secondaries:
-Sixth Sense is practically essential on a scout. No exceptions.
-Camouflage makes you much harder to detedct, allowing you more freedom of movement, and it makes the tank practically invisible in a dense bush once it reaches a high level.
-Recon and Situational Awareness extend your view range so you have an easier time spotting enemies.
-Repair allows you to get moving faster in case your tracks get blown off by a shell or a fall when crossing terrain. 128mm+ guns will generally oneshot you, however.
-Dead Eye leads to more critical hits, which meshes well with the Leopard's rapid fire autocannon.
-Designated Target allows you to keep targets within a narrow arc from your gun (+/- 15 degrees) visible for slightly longer after they get past your view range.
I recommend this order. Note that as perks (*) aren't functional until they reach 100%, it may be worth starting off with a skill and retraining once you have enough XP to instantly activate it.
Commader/Gunner: Sixth Sense* --- Camo --- Recon/Dead Eye/Designated Target --- Other
Loader: Camo --- Repair --- Safe Stowage --- Other
Driver: Camo --- Repair/Clutch Braking --- Other
Radio Operator: Camo/Situational Awareness --- Repair --- Other
Suggested Equipment:
-The Binocular Telescope increase view range by 25% after being stationary for at least 3 seconds, this is useful for passive scouting
-The Coated Optics increases view range by 10% as long as the Binocs aren't active, allows you to make spotting runs when standing still is not an option a lot easier. Especially useful when hunting camouflaged arty or TDs.
-The Improved Ventilation Mk I enhances all crew stats and is also the chepaest Equipment in the game.
-The Camouflage Net is useful when you want to hide in plain sight, i.e. perform passive scouting in the open. Also useful when your camo skill is not very high and you can be detected past proxy spotting range when in a bush, and it can be demounted for free.
Most accuracy-oriented enhancements are of little use as you are preferably using the autocannon at point blank range. Camouflage and view range are the most important features to boost.
Modules:
- Spoiler:
Key:
[S] Stock module
[*]All paths leading up to this tank allow you to pre-research this upgrade (this means you should have the module in question unless you speedgrinded/skipped the previous tank, so I've left out the other annotations if it applies)
[*]
[**] Some paths leading up to this tank allow you to pre-research this upgrade
[***] Other lines allow you to pre-research this upgrade
All crew-dependent stats assume 100% relevant crew member, but disregard the skill bonus from the commander.
Turrets:
Leopardturm [S]:
Turret Armour: 50/30/30
Traverse Speed (degrees per second): 40
View Range (m): 380
Credit Cost: 9 380
Weight (kg): 2 000
Compatible Guns: 2cm Flak 38 L/112 - 5cm KwK 39 L/60 - 3cm M.K. 103
The Leopard only has one turret. Pretty standard for a scout- good view range and fast traverse, but poorly amoured. Almost anything will go through the flat front, though accidental hits to the mantlet and highly angled cheeks may result in bounces.
Guns:
2cm Flak 38 L/112 [S]:
Penetration (mm, AP/APCR): 39/51
Damage Per Shot (AP/APCR): 11/11
Average Rate of Fire (rounds per minute): 178.22
Average Damage Per Minute (AP and APCR): 1960
Clip Capacity: 10 (2 x 5 round bursts)
Burst RoF (rounds per minute): 450
Burst interval (seconds): 0.11
Time to empty clip (seconds): 1.1
Accuracy: 0.45
Aim Time: 1.4
Elevation/Depression: +20, -10 (less depression when facing frontally)
Credit Cost: 3 160
Weight (kg): 110
Just ignore this, it was available from tier II onwards and is completely useless now, as it will bounce off the side and rear of many same-tier medium tanks.
5cm KwK 39 L/60
[*]:
[*]
Penetration (mm, AP/APCR/HE): 67/130/25
Damage Per Shot (AP/APCR/HE): 70/70/95
Rate of Fire (rounds per minute): 28.57
Damage Per Minute (AP and APCR): 2000
Accuracy: 0.39
Aim Time: 1.7
Elevation/Depression: +20, -10 (less depression when facing frontally)
XP Cost: 17 000
Credit Cost: 9 970
Weight (kg): 700
Decent accuracy and damage/RoF comparable to the 6 Pdr guns of the M7 and Crusader, but with the terrible AP penetration, it is simply not usable for a tier V without excessive gold ammo spam (and even then, it's at best ”on par” with the aforementioned 57mm weapons because of heavy penetration loss at range).
3cm M.K. 103
[*]:
[*]
Penetration (mm, AP/APCR/HE): 95/110/15
Damage Per Shot (AP/APCR/HE): 30/30/40
Average Rate of Fire (rounds per minute): 39.53
Average Damage Per Minute (AP and APCR): 1 186
Clip Capacity: 12 (4 x 3 round bursts)
Burst RoF (rounds per minute): 420
Burst interval (seconds): 0.2
Time to empty clip (seconds): 1.74
Accuracy: 0.45
Aim Time: 1.4
Elevation/Depression: +20, -10 (less depression when facing frontally)
Credit Cost: 3 160
Weight (kg): 110
You should have this gun from the start. Believe it or not, it's actually easy to draw parallells to the KV-1S's gun. Both have similar reload times, and a full clip from the 3cm does nearly as much damage as a single shot from the 122mm- the obvious difference being that the 122 is much better for frontal attacks because of its penetration, but it cannot spread out the damage across multiple bursts like the autocannon. On a fast and agile platform, this gun is great for surprise attacks, and it has a roughly 50/50 chance of killing all tier V TDs except the AT-2, most tier IVs, and all arty in the Leopard's MM bracket with a single magazine.
Another thing to note is that due its pitiful caliber, it will still bounce off incredibly thin surfaces at very bad angles. Because of this, the ELC AMX is painful to deal with, as it has a very low profile and an extremely well sloped upper plate.
Also, don't bother with HE shells. They fail to reliably penetrate even some of the low tier SPGs, and 20mm+ armour is generally enough to completely eliminate the spalling damage of non-penetrating hits.
Tracks:
Leopardketten Ausf. A [S]:
Load Limit (t): 21.90
Traverse Speed (degrees per second): 33
Credit Cost: 4 230
Weight (kg): 7 200
Can mount everything you can possibly slap onto the tank.
Leopardketten Ausf. B
Load Limit (t): 25.6
Traverse Speed (degrees per second): 33
XP Cost: 5 100
Credit Cost: 12 470
Weight (kg): 7 200
Might seem like a useless upgrade since carry capacity is not a problem anyway and the traverse speed is the same, but the top tracks improve various hidden characteristics.
Engines:
Maybach 120 TR [S] --- Maybach 120 TR [***] --- Maybach HL 157 P [***]
Horsepower: 350 --- 440 --- 585
Type: Gasoline --- Gasoline --- Gasoline
Fire Chance (%): 20 --- 20 --- 20
XP Cost: <stock module> --- 1 500 --- 2 400
Credit Cost: 10 430 --- 19 900 --- 20 000
Weight (kg): 510 --- 510 --- 580
With the stock engine, your horspeower/ton ratio is more comparable to an average med than a scouting light, but the (mercifully short) grind to better engines offers huge increases in power. They can also be unlocked from other line, however.
Radios:
FuG 5 [S] --- FuG 7
[*]--- FuG Spr. A
[*]
Signal Range (m): 310 --- 415 --- 700
XP Cost: <stock module> --- 1 360 --- 4 500
Credit Cost: 630 --- 8 160 --- 27 000
Weight (kg): 50 --- 70 --- 250
The two first radios suck, but the top one (which, oddly, is currently unique to this line) has enough range for 99% of situations. However, since maximum communications distance is compounded from the two tanks trying to message each other, the best radio is not as essential as it seems.
Upgrade path:
I recommend the order engine -> tracks -> radio, as you need to improve your mobility as quickly as you can and radios generally take low priority (despite the loading screen tips). There are no turret upgrades and you should have all guns from the start.
The first engine upgrade can be retrieved from the medium line (Pz III A, Pz III, Pz III/IV, Pz IV), TD line (StuG III, JgPz IV), and the Hummel. Additionally, the Hummel and Pz III/IV can unlock the second engine upgrade.
Notes:
- Spoiler:
[1] 8.3 Camouflage tables http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/147120-083-tank-camouflage-tables/
Originally written by Platypusbill
Ding760- Posts : 1179
Reputation : 99
Join date : 2013-02-07
Location : The People's Republic of China!
Re: VK 16.02 Leopard Guide
RoninRage Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:39 am
Tier 5 Clan Wars approved guide and tank.
This little scout did a good job in intercepting enemy lights, spotting and hunting down arties and with a more capable user than me it might even rock more ;-)
Changes recommanded when used in tier 5 Clan Wars:
Use the tier 3 gun (5cm KwK 39 L/60) for reliable penetration(130) with Gold enough to pen a KV-1. The tier 5 (3 cm M.K. 103) one only has 110 penetration
CW Equipment:
Optics
Gunlayn drive
Improved ventilation
Reason: is more used as a "battle tank" in the CW campaign mode
Greetz
Ronin
This little scout did a good job in intercepting enemy lights, spotting and hunting down arties and with a more capable user than me it might even rock more ;-)
Changes recommanded when used in tier 5 Clan Wars:
Use the tier 3 gun (5cm KwK 39 L/60) for reliable penetration(130) with Gold enough to pen a KV-1. The tier 5 (3 cm M.K. 103) one only has 110 penetration
CW Equipment:
Optics
Gunlayn drive
Improved ventilation
Reason: is more used as a "battle tank" in the CW campaign mode
Greetz
Ronin
RoninRage- Guide
- Posts : 348
Reputation : 22
Join date : 2013-04-04
Age : 42
Location : Austria
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