T-34 Guide

T-34 Guide



Tovarishchi,

In an era where Tier 5 is dominated by 105 mm howitzer-armed M4 Shermans and PzKpfw IVs, the T-34 stands as one of the last bastions of fair play among the medium tanks. Of the three main medium tanks, the T-34 alone refuses to mount a derp gun with HEAT rounds, choosing instead to use regular guns; from the ineffectual 76 mm L-11, to the machine gun-like 57 mm ZiS-4, to the high alpha 76 mm S-54. A vote for the T-34 is a vote for fair play! Cлава T-34!



Tank Statistics
Battle Tiers: 5 to 7
Hit Points: 400 (450 with the T-34 mod. 1942 turret)
Credit Price: 356,700
Experience Cost: 11,500 XP
Crew: 4 (Commander/Gunner, Loader, Driver, Radio Operator)
View Range: 240 m (350 m with the T-34 mod. 1942 turret)
Weight: 27.9 tons (29.19 tons with my loadout)
Turret Traverse: 40°/s (49°/s with the T-34 mod. 1942 turret)

Armour
The T-34's well-sloped armour is good enough to bounce shots from Tier 3 and 4 guns regularly, and occasionally you will get a lucky bounce from Tier 5 guns. Just don't expect it to save you in a Tier 6 or 7 match. It also won't hurt to angle your tank by 45° to encourage even more bounces. One of the nice things about the T-34 is that its armour thickness is fairly uniform all round, so you do not have to worry quite so much about showing the sides to the enemy (although it is still not a very good idea).

Armour Layout with the T-34 mod. 1940 turret





Armour Layout with the T-34 mod. 1942 turret





Notable Weakspots: The commander's cupola, the turret vision ports on sides of the mod. 1940 turret, machine gun port on the hull front, driver's vision slits.

Module Layout


Note that the fuel tanks run along the sides of the hull, above the tracks, and there is an ammunition rack directly under the turret just above the tracks, as well as in the turret rear.

Armament
The gun selection is as follows (the numbers in brackets are for the T-34 mod. 1942 turret)

76 mm L-11
Damage: 110/110/156 HP (AP/HEAT/HE)
Penetration: 68/100/38 mm
Rate of Fire: 10 rounds/minute (12.24 rounds/minute)
Accuracy: 0.51 m (0.51 m)
Aim Time: 2.9 s (2.9 s)
Elevation: -6° to +17° (-6° to +17°)
Ammunition: 77 rounds

The stock gun, previously used on the A-20 Tier 4 light tank. It has terrible accuracy, terrible aim time, fairly slow rate of fire, and is lacking in penetration unless used to spam expensive HEAT ammunition.


T-34 with mod. 1940 turret and 76 mm L-11


T-34 with mod. 1942 turret and 76 mm L-11

76 mm F-34
Damage: 110/110/156 HP (AP/APCR/HE)
Penetration: 86/102/38 mm
Rate of Fire: 11.76 rounds/minute (15.79 rounds/minute)
Accuracy: 0.46 m (0.46 m)
Aim Time: 2.3 s (2.3 s)
Elevation: -6° to +17° (-6° to +17°)
Ammunition: 77 rounds

This is the gun that the vast majority of T-34s historically went into combat with. It is a significant improvement over the L-11 in every single way possible, but its penetration is still fairly lacking by Tier 5 standards. It is, at least, an acceptable gun to grind with until you can get the next guns, and it is quite cheap in terms of XP, so you should be able to mount it fairly quickly to start grinding some decent XP.


T-34 with mod. 1940 turret and 76 mm F-34


T-34 with mod. 1940 turret and 76 mm F-34

57 mm ZiS-4
Damage: 85/85/95 HP (AP/APCR/HE)
Penetration: 112/189/29 mm
Rate of Fire: 17.65 rounds/minute (26.09 rounds/minute)
Accuracy: 0.34 m (0.34 m)
Aim Time: 2.3 s (2.3 s)
Elevation: -8° to +20° (-8° to +20°)
Ammunition: 77 rounds

This, in my opinion, is the gun that fits the T-34 best in the game. It is the most accurate and has the highest penetration of all the T-34's guns, and its incredible rate-of-fire is more than enough to offset the fairly low alpha damage. The aim time is fairly long compared to other guns of its calibre, however, and the reload time is a lot shorter than the aim time, forcing you to wait and slowing down the effective rate-of-fire. An Enhanced Gun Laying Drive will be very helpful in keeping the aim time down. The ZiS-4 has the accuracy to snipe at fairly long distances, and its rate-of-fire makes it very deadly in close combat, where the aim time does not matter as much. The HE round is not very powerful compared to the 76 mm guns', although this is not a very serious drawback.


T-34 with mod. 1940 turret and 57 mm ZiS-4


T-34 with mod. 1942 turret and 57 mm ZiS-4

76 mm S-54
(Requires the T-34 mod. 1942 turret to be mounted)
Damage: 110/110/156 HP (AP/APCR/HE)
Penetration: 109/156/39 mm
Rate of Fire: 10.53 rounds/minute
Accuracy: 0.41 m
Aim Time: 2.9 s
Elevation: -8° to +26°
Ammunition: 70 rounds

Supposedly, this is the "best" gun on the T-34. However, it is inferior in nearly every respect to the ZiS-4. It has worse aim time, worse accuracy, worse rate-of-fire, and worse penetration. The only advantages it has are its superior alpha damage and better HE round. If you really don't like the ZiS-4's fairly low alpha damage, you may want to consider using this gun, but otherwise the ZiS-4 is the superior weapon, especially on a medium tank.


T-34 with mod. 1942 turret and 76 mm S-54

Ammunition Loadout
With the ZiS-4, I go for an ammunition loadout of 52 UBR-271N (AP) and 25 UBR-271K (APCR) rounds. The UBR-271K APCR round is not really necessary for me, and I don't find I use it very often. It costs quite a bit (2000 credits a round), and the damage is exactly the same as the regular AP round, so you have to fire a lot of rounds to do a significant amount of damage, which in turn determines the amount of credits you make. It's usually better to just flank the target and attack its sides and rear. It still doesn't hurt to carry a few, though, especially since the T-34 will easily be able to make enough credits to cover the rare occasions where you willk use it. It is possible to break even while using an all APCR loadout by taking advantage of the 50% specials on premium ammunition and using a premium account, but I would still consider it a waste of credits to carry more than 1/3rd APCR.

The UO-271N HE round is not really worth carrying in place of APCR if you can afford it. The difference in damage against soft targets is not very noticeable compared to regular AP or APCR ammunition, but if you can't afford the APCR ammunition, consider carrying about 5-10 HE rounds in case you desperately need to reset base captures.

Mobility
Engine Power: 480 hp (500 hp with V-2-34 engine)
Hull Traverse: 37°/s (40°/s with Mod. 1942 (5-speed gearbox) suspension)
Speed Limit: 56 km/h
Power/Weight Ratio: 17.2 hp/ton (17.13 hp/ton with my setup)
Suspension Weight Limit: 30 tons (31.3 tons with Mod. 1942 (5-speed gearbox) suspension)

The T-34 suffers a lot from track friction (a hidden soft stat), and with a 75% (or, God help you, 50%) crew, it will take a very long time to reach its top speed of 56 km/h, even longer with the stock 480 hp V-2 engine and Mod. 1940 (4-speed gearbox) suspension. Fortunately, you can research the improved 500 hp V-2-34 engine on the A-20, and if you have, you can mount it immediately for a nice boost in horsepower. Once the driver reaches 100%, the T-34 will display a dramatic increase in performance and agility, and with the Off-Road Driving skill, it becomes a very capable and agile tank for its size. The acceleration is a little bit sluggish, but the T-34 will usually be able to reach its top speed in a reasonable amount of time.

Review
The T-34 is not a forgiving tank. Stock, it is absolutely horrible. It will be sluggish and unmanouvrable, the gun will be hard pressed to penetrate even some Tier 4 tanks, and it will have one of the worst view ranges in the game (240 m). This is a fairly accurate representation of what the early T-34 was like, however. With a 100% crew, the V-2-34 engine, the mod. 1942 turret, and the 57 mm ZiS-4 gun, the T-34 will mature into a highly capable and versatile medium tank, much like it did in real life. One of the nice things about the tank is the stock suspension's load limit is very generous, and you can mount quite a lot of equipment and modules before having to upgrade the suspension. The second turret, in particular, provides a huge improvement in rate-of-fire and view range.

To do well in a T-34 requires you to have a good knowledge of what your possible opponents capabilities and weaknesses are, more so than with the other Tier 5 mediums since it doesn't have any real traits that it can abuse. While the M4 and PzKpfw IV can easily pop out of cover and smack a Tier 5, 6, or 7 heavy with a 390 alpha damage, 150 mm penetration HEAT round before retreating quickly back into cover, the T-34 has to stay out in the open to do its full damage. This is very dangerous, since the T-34's armour is not good enough to allow it to trade fire with heavier tanks. Hence, once has to be smart about it, and is probably the reason why people tend to perceive the T-34 as inferior to the other two "main" Tier 5 medium tanks and more difficult to play. An M4 or PzKpfw IV with the derp gun at long range? The T-34's gun is much more accurate at long range, and perhaps the best approach would be to keep your distance and harass the M4/PzKpfw IV using your superior speed. Can I track and then circle derp the enemy? Maybe you can if he's a KV-1, an AT2, or even a Tiger, but a Churchill I, VII, or Black Prince? His turret traverse is quite quick, and he could conceivably keep up with you even when tracked. BDR G1B? He'll never be able to keep up with you circling him with that slow turret traverse and hull traverse.



The T-34 is the quintessential medium tank. Your role on the battlefield will depend a lot on your team, and your enemy team's composition. If you're top tier in a Tier 5 match with not too many heavy tanks, you can bully the lower tiers using your sloped armour and superior firepower and act as a pseudo-heavy tank. If there are a lot of heavy tanks on your team, maybe you can be of best use supporting them against the enemy heavies. If there are a lot of medium tanks, you can wolf pack with them to help dominate the battlefield. If the enemy team has a lot of scouts, you can help your own light tanks intercept and destroy them. As a bottom or middle tier, the T-34 is a pure flanker, since the ZiS-4 can still penetrate the sides and rear of even the heaviest Tier 7 tanks that it may face, but not the front. If your team has no scouts, you can act as a pseudo-scout using your good camouflage rating and decent 350 m view range. Like most fast mediums, the T-34 is also very capable of shifting flanks, and reacting to changes in the battlefield.

Overall, if you can adapt very well to what the battle requires, you will do well in the T-34. It can perform nearly any role on the battlefield with sufficient competency, even though it does not truly excel at any one particular aspect. No matter what opponent it faces, the T-34 will always have some advantage over it that it can exploit.

Advantages
- Good overall mobility; high top speed and good agility.
- Excellent and versatile gun in the 57 mm ZiS-4.
- Well-sloped armour.
- Good view range with the mod. 1942 turret.
- Good camouflage values for a medium tank.
- Very fast turret traverse.

Disadvantages
- Thin armour thickness.
- Somewhat sluggish acceleration.
- Terrible view range with the mod. 1940 turret.
- Vulnerable fuel tanks on the hull sides.

Skills/Perks
My current crew skill set is:
Commander/Gunner: Sixth Sense, Snap Shot
Loader: Camouflage, Repairs
Driver: Smooth Ride, Off-Road Driving
Radio Operator: Situational Awareness, Camouflage

- Sixth Sense is invaluable on any tank.
- Snap Shot and Smooth Ride act like a mini Vertical Stabiliser to help reduce the aiming circle while on the move or rotating the turret.
- Camouflage allows me to remain undetected longer, helping the T-34 scout and flank better.
- Situational Awareness improves the already good view range.
- Off-Road Driving helps improve the T-34's mobility, and is better than Clutch Braking due to the T-34's already good hull traverse speed.
- Repairs gets damaged modules operational faster.

Other skills/perks I will probably get in the future:
- Deadeye synergises well with the T-34's ZiS-4's high rate-of-fire, increasing the chance of critically damaging modules.
- Brothers in Arms for all-round improvement.

Research Order
76 mm F-34 ---> 57 mm ZiS-4 ---> T-34 mod. 1942 turret ---> Mod. 1942 (5-speed gearbox) suspension ---> 9RM radio ---> 76 mm S-54 ---> T-34-85 ---> SU-85

The V-2-34 engine can be unlocked on the A-20, while the 57 mm ZiS-4 can be unlocked on the T-28 if you have played the Soviet heavy line up to that point.

Speed Grind: T-34 mod. 1942 turret ---> 76 mm S-54 ---> T-34-85 or SU-85

Equipment
My equipment loadout is:
- Improved Ventilation Class 2 - For increased overall performance.
- Enhanced Gun Laying Drive - Improves aim time, very useful with the 57 mm ZiS-4.
- Medium Calibre Tank Gun Rammer - Increases the 57 mm ZiS-4's rate of fire even further.

Other possible options:
- Coated Optics - Increases view range, can help with scouting.
- Toolbox - Repairs damaged modules faster
- Cyclone Air Filter - Only if you want to use the Removed Speed Governor consumable for increased performance.


Additional Comments
- The Chinese Type T-34 is for all intents and purposes identical to the T-34, with a better gun but no access to the 76 mm S-54. Big loss.
- You can transition to the Soviet tank destroyers via the SU-85.
- The only thing that transfers over to the T-34-85 is the 9RM radio.
- The T-34's tracks are good at eating shots, you can use them to bait the enemy into firing into them.
- Sidescraping in the T-34 can be surprisingly effective.
- The T-34 is one of the best non-premium credit makers in the game.
- Gun depression is alright (and better than the Type T-34's), but don't expect to be able to abuse it like the American tanks can.

Conclusion
The T-34 isn't easy for beginners (I should know, I was at 37% win rate at one point on it), but if you give it enough investment and persist, you'll find it is a very capable medium tank. I personally enjoy the challenge in trying to do well in the T-34, and I hope there will be others who enjoy polishing the T-34 into a great medium tank.



(Thanks to Ding760 for the prize! I modified a few things, and took out the replay section, since I'm not sure if 8.3 replays will work in 8.4)

I don't know about you guys...but back on SEA server I thought the T-34 was HORRIBLE! D: It seems balanced.... yet lacking in every single way....but thats probably me not knowing how to drive that tank....

Ding760 wrote:I don't know about you guys...but back on SEA server I thought the T-34 was HORRIBLE! D: It seems balanced.... yet lacking in every single way....but thats probably me not knowing how to drive that tank....

... look at my type 34 stats, they're the same tanks.
The 57mm has extremely high dpm, and the T-34 is very mobile. The accuracy allows you for medium range sniping. The 450hp makes you squishy, so don't fight directly. Engage at medium/long ranges and use your superior aimtime and accuracy to battle enemies, even if you're a soviet tank, you can go hull down, 8 degrees is high for a soviet tank. I've kicked IS-3s with type 34, and I'm quite sure T-34s can do it too.

[quote="Kawashiro"]

Ding760 wrote:... look at my type 34 stats, they're the same tanks.
The 57mm has extremely high dpm, and the T-34 is very mobile. The accuracy allows you for medium range sniping. The 450hp makes you squishy, so don't fight directly. Engage at medium/long ranges and use your superior aimtime and accuracy to battle enemies, even if you're a soviet tank, you can go hull down, 8 degrees is high for a soviet tank. I've kicked IS-3s with type 34, and I'm quite sure T-34s can do it too.

How can you kick IS-3s in t-34/type 34 with 112 penetration gun? Track and run around him and die after 1st hit? Or pray he will not bother to aim at you as you're penetrating his back?

lazydot wrote:

Ding760 wrote:... look at my type 34 stats, they're the same tanks.
The 57mm has extremely high dpm, and the T-34 is very mobile. The accuracy allows you for medium range sniping. The 450hp makes you squishy, so don't fight directly. Engage at medium/long ranges and use your superior aimtime and accuracy to battle enemies, even if you're a soviet tank, you can go hull down, 8 degrees is high for a soviet tank. I've kicked IS-3s with type 34, and I'm quite sure T-34s can do it too.

How can you kick IS-3s in t-34/type 34 with 112 penetration gun? Track and run around him and die after 1st hit? Or pray he will not bother to aim at you as you're penetrating his back?

Er....lazy I didn't write that

lol quote fail

Rear medium range attacking. You'd be surprised how fast the HP on those tanks drops once you manage to get into position, especially because they tend to ignore you as they see you as a minor threat compared to equally tiered heavies for example.

Kawashiro wrote:
... look at my type 34 stats, they're the same tanks.
The 57mm has extremely high dpm, and the T-34 is very mobile. The accuracy allows you for medium range sniping. The 450hp makes you squishy, so don't fight directly. Engage at medium/long ranges and use your superior aimtime and accuracy to battle enemies, even if you're a soviet tank, you can go hull down, 8 degrees is high for a soviet tank. I've kicked IS-3s with type 34, and I'm quite sure T-34s can do it too.

How are you facing IS-3s with the Type T-34? O_o

Ding760 wrote:I don't know about you guys...but back on SEA server I thought the T-34 was HORRIBLE! D: It seems balanced.... yet lacking in every single way....but thats probably me not knowing how to drive that tank....

Like I said up there, it takes a lot of effort to become good at the T-34. The stock Type T-34 is, imho, much better than the stock T-34, and it is more mobile too.