Hi everyone!
We are Luke and Slide and you’re watching “Science of Victory”.
As promised, today we will talk about tank destroyers.
It’s no secret that TDs are pretty popular in Team Battles.
And they are for a few reasons!
The main one is the love most people have for big damage “per shot” weapons.
Though, there is more.
Let’s quickly review every tier 8 TD and talk about the pros and cons of every single one of them.
We’ll start with the TD that has most damage per minute.
I suspect you’ll be surprised: it’s the British AT-15!
Its fantastic rate of fire allows it to deal almost two thousand eight hundred points of damage in 60 seconds.
Accuracy, aim speed and penetration are good.
Also the frontal armor has made many opponents curse this British war machine.
Though all of the pros can’t compensate for its massive con – mobility.
The top speed of this TD is only 20 kilometers per hour.
As we told you this isn’t just bad for team battles, it’s a game breaker.
Just remember the KV-4 from the last episode…
The American T28 and T28 Prototype have the same problem.
Great frontal armor, but terrible speed.
18 kilometers per hour is the slowest of all the tier 8 TDs.
Pick such a vehicle for your line-up and an experienced opponent will surely take advantage of this.
I know some people will disagree, and therefore you’ll likely see these TDs in team battles.
So we’ll show you their weak spots; just in case.
When you shoot at a T28; aim for the hatches on the roof.
AT-15s soft spots are the mantlet center and also the hatches.
The Prototype can be penetrated through the cheeks and the machinegun.
We move on.
Next up is the French AC 48.
The first thing you see is a great top speed of 50 kilometers per hour!
Some mediums even can’t reach that!
A clear pro for this TD.
However the damage per shot is the same as the Americans, which is only a bit better than the IS-3.
So not enough to exchange it for a tank with a turret.
You can easily penetrate the 48’s hatch, range finder edges, and lower glacis.
If we look at the Soviet TDs they are pretty different, but equally useless for Team Battles.
The SU-101 is the most mobile TD of tier 8. Acceleration, top speed and turn speed are impressive.
The damage per minute, accuracy and the aim time of the gun are also pretty good.
But the elevation angles are just terrible.
This along with the small damage per shot makes this vehicle useless for team battles.
Most of the time you’ll be battling your own vehicle instead of the enemies.
Now the ISU 152.
Many select it because they love big guns; especially one’s as big as the BL-10.
At first glance the cannon seems to be great!
The average shell damage is 750.
This is very impressive.
The armor penetration is also good, but the remaining characteristics are not…
This TD has the WORST accuracy and aim time of all TDs.
And its decent speed can’t compensate for the low turn speed and weak armor.
Beating strong teams with this vehicle in your line-up will be hard.
Now we have four German TDs.
We’ll start with a premium one:
The JadgTiger 8.8
The cannon is pretty similar to the British AT-15: accurate, high rate of fire, low damage per shot but high DPM.
A pretty nice TD in general, but the mobility is worse than most tier 8 heavies, so it can’t really be an equal substitute for them.
By the way, to pen the JagdTiger?
Lower glacis and machinegun.
Now the Ferdinand and JagdPanther II.
Both TDs have the same weapon – the one of the tier 9 JagdTiger.
And that is the only thing they have in common.
However, we won’t review them, since there is no use taking them into a Team Battle.
The first one is too slow and the second one has paper-thin armour.
We leave the most interesting TD ‘til last: the Rheinmetal-Borsig Waffenträger
The word “Metal” is present in the name, but its armour is closer to foil.
We’ll talk about this later, but first we’ll review the other stats.
The main thing is the cannon.
Many people use the stock cannon and that’s understandable: It is more accurate and has a higher fire rate.
Plus the damage per minute is way higher than the top gun.
The question is: why should you pick a weakly armored TD that does only a little more damage per shot than the IS-3?
The correct answer is “you shouldn’t”.
The main feature of the Borsig is the great damage per shot.
So if you pick this TD for your team, make sure to use the top gun.
The other advantages of this German Machine are its good camouflage, turn speed and, of course, the fact it has a turret!
It’s almost impossible to carousel this TD.
As for the cons – the main one is the foil armor.
Experienced tankers know of it and often shoot the Borsig with HEs.
One good hit with HE can take away half of the TDs durability and damage several modules.
You must agree; that’s not very pleasant…
In addition; even tier 1 tanks can penetrate the Borsig’s armor with ease.
This may look fun, but not for the German TD driver!
You often have to choose between killing the tier 1 or shooting a tier 8
and bearing with the humiliation of being damaged by the Tier 1 for 20 more seconds…
To tell the truth; the Borsig is the best tier 8 TD for Team Battles.
Though this doesn’t mean that you have to pick a TD right away.
Consider the following: First - you reduce the total HP of the team.
All of TDs, except the British one, have less durability than the heavies.
So you basically start with a 300-500 HP handicap.
Second – your team has less mobility, meaning less tactical options.
The battles will last longer and will be less varied.
The chance for a tie will be higher and you’ll mostly have to play defensively.
That’s not the way I like it, but you’re making the decisions.
And finally; some words about artillery.
I will tell you this.
Currently, the arty are all useless in team battles.
Yes, even on the open maps.
Yes, even if you are very experienced.
Yes, absolutely useless.
If this changes, we will come back to the topic of Artillery’s.
That is all for today.
In our next episode we’ll tell you about all-purpose lineups, and come closer to giving you specific map tactics.
If you want to see more; remember to share and like this video, then subscribe to our brand new channel.
See you next episode!