• Added contributors
  
• Fixed spelling errors
  
• Updated Tiger information
  
• Added [2.6]
  
• Updated [2.3] to [2.5]

Last update: 18:51 GMT, 17.03.09

So please, if at all possible, share this with your friends.

Let's create a new generation of excellent Tiger caommanders!

The posts will now be numbered in order as such:

[E] - Extra information
[#.# + U] - Has been recently updated
[#.# + N] - New subject / topic

Quick post navigation:

[0.#] - Quick / Basic summary.
[1.#] - Driving in combat
[2.#] - Combat information
[3.#] - Difference between different tigers (E and H1 as of now, II's might be coming soon)
[4.#] - Reference points, Heading and strike positions.

This segment is merely a shortened / more basic version of the entire guide for people who dont want to read

1) - Your vehicle was not designed with how an egnagement would show down in a city in mind. Please try to stick in the back of streets and angle your armor as much as possible, while still keeping the ability to shoot at your enemies.

2) - This might be obvious, and I talk about it a lot in this guide, but this is just an emphasis on it. Your Tiger I has better range and perfomance over long range than most enemy tanks. Do NOT forget that.

3) - There will be a picture of a near-perfect angle of how your armor should look like. The higher the angle - the more effective your armor is.

4) - Do never bring a full ammunition load - you will not use it all up anyhow, and it WILL reduce the chances of you getting ammo racked.

1) Always keep a distance of atleast 5m between you and the people you are driving near.
To some people this might seem like a no-brainer, but to those who don't think that way, here's why: Imagine you are driving around a corner or just leading a troop of tanks into battle, and you see a bunch of hostiles infront or to the side of you. You try to angle your frontal armor towards them or run away, but you can't. You are stuck on your teammates who didn't keep proper distance away from you.

2) If someone has a towing(rope) symbol above them and are under heavy fire, BRING THEM TO SAFETY
Now this is quite annoying, because people do not realise that you can use the rope at ANY TIME. This is just a general rule: If you are yourself, and / or you see others under heavy fire, repairing and with a tow rope symbol above them, bring them back to safety . It might be the diffrence between win and loss of the match (if the life of your teammate doesen't amtter to you, you monster...) for your team.

3) Do not spam MG's.
It's just annoying. Also, it can show your position on the minimap and break the tracks of your teammates... So don't use them if you don;t have to. ....Uhhhh yeah, Just don't.
Here we have a picture of a MG spam that was used for too long, that concealed an enemy tank:


4) Assist your teammates and do not rush in wasting your tank.
You own a powerful tank, the Tiger I. It has decent frontal armor, and an extremely powerful 88mm KwK36 cannon, use it well, cover your allies during assault and do not rush in if there are alot of hostiles. that was the downfall of Tigers in real life - massed AT weaponry .

5) DO NOT expose your side
Unlike Panzer IV's, III's and V's (Panthers too had side-skirts, just not as big...) you do not have side skirts, your sides are extremely vulnreable and hold your ammunition, this is much worse when you are holding maximum ammunition, as theres more ammunition than usual to be exploded. And this is uttermost important, as you're not a sherman or a Russian tank - Yours can actually explode.
A picture of a Tiger I trying to cover tiself next to a building (Unseen wreckages infront cover its side better than what currently can be seen)

1) Always keep a well-sized gap between yourself and your fellow tanker.
As said in the previous section, keep your distance.

2) Pay attention to your fellow Tiger.
Now, other tanks might be fast and agile to move back and warn you in the chat about the hostiles infront of you, but Tigers are slow and may not have enough time to back out of a dangerous combat situation. You have to stay a proper distance away from your fellow Tigers and always keep a awtch on them.

3)Cover each other.
You know why. The turrets turn slowly, cover your backs and share intel on the hostiles you see.

In this part of the guide, we will discuss the rules of engagement you should follow in combat.

1) Do not stay in city-like enviroments. The PanzerKampfWagen Vi "Tiger I's" were not designed with city combat in mind, thus their turrets are further back than Russian / American panzers, who have their turret in the front to help with engaging over corners.

2) Ttry to stay in an open area, but still nearby cover - your Panzer can do greater damage at range than most allied vehicles of the era can do to you.

3) Always keep scouting around, never let your guard down. Just because you are a big panzer, doesen't mean you're an immortal panzer.

4) When suffering damage from an unknown source, observe where the smoke off of the shell that hit you is in accordance to your tank. Once you can distinguish that side, try to angle yourself towards there, and if in a shootout from multiple directions, - fall back to a safer place, a bottleneck.

5) Always check the friendly aircraft in the air before shooting at an unmarked aircraft. Check for identification symbols, like the Russian red stars, German Balkenkreutz's, etc. and/or the shape of the aircrafft.

Now there are not that many shell types that you CAN use, them being:

• APCBC - Armor Piercing Capped Balistic Capped
  
• HEAT - High Explosive Anti Tank
  
• HE - High Explosive
  
• APCR - Armor Piercing Composite Rigid [Tiger I Ausf. E Exclusive]

Cause of shrapnel: Kinetic damage from the shell; Explosive charge inside of the shell.
Shrapnel effects: Highly effective against enemy armor.

• Standard issue ammunition, effective against anything it can penetrate.
  
• Best shell to sue against both, angled and flat armor.
  

Cause of shrapnel: Kinetic damage, causing spalding; Hull Charge that explodes towards the shells(former) nose.
Shrapnel effects: Highly damaging against enemy armor.

• Highly effective explosive charge makes this shell type a force to be reckoned with.
  
• Same penetration at any range; Lowest penetration values of any anti-tank shell type.

Cause of shrapnel: An instant-action fuse, exploding upon impact.
Shrapnel effects: (Realistically) extreme spalding from the explosive power, possibly ripping parts

• of hostile vehicle off; Lots of shrapnel from explosives in the shell.
  
• Effective against open topped vehicles with expsed infantry and practically nothing else.

APCR

Cause of shrapnel: Spalding from penetration; Kinetic damage.
Shrapnel effects: Shrapnel from spalding only.

• Practically useless against angled armor.
  
• Extreme penetration vallues allow for penetrating targets behind the original target in certain situations.
  
• Extremely high penetrative powers against flat armor.

Shells dropoffs on the Tiger I (H1 And E) :

HE..................................................................................APCBC


HEAT..............................................................................APCR

"So, why do your shells bounce off, even tho it says I should've penetrated xXTankMcTonkXx?"
If you want the answer to this question, you MUST first make sure you know the armor penetration values of the shell AT THAT ANGLE. Diffrent ammo types have diffrent ammo penetration values depending on the angle, example of the APCBC and APCR from Tiger I's:



To the Left-most collumn, you'll see how much armor the specified shell can penetrate at a 0Degree angle (completely flat angle of attack, when the armor doesen't get any boost for the angle and is at ts waekest point). For example: the side of an M4 Sherman is completely flat. Thus, the armor is at its weakest(being completely un-angled) and and your ammunition chosen has the best ballistics possible.

The Middle collumn of the ammo shows how much you'll be penetrating at 30degrees angle.

And, obviously, the third collumn will display the penetrational values, if the shell hits the armor at a 60degree angle.

As an example, here we have a T-34's frontal armor plate:

As you can see, it says that it is angled at 60degrees and has an effective value of armor of 69mm.(The value written down as "armor thickness" is merely the thickness of armor at 0degrees flat shot.).
Now that we know how much armor the hostile you'll be facing has, we can now check out our own ammuniton available.

When picking out the ammunition, we want to know how much it can penetrate when facing that particular angle, so in this case we have 60 degrees, so we are going to be looking at the third collumn of the shown APCBC PzGr.39 ammunition. As you can see, it will be able to penetrate the T-34 at almost any distance when facing the tank Head On.*


Here we have the PzGr 40 APCR ammunition for the KwK 36 88mm Gun, which has the best stats for penetrating Flat surfaces, but also is the worst when fighting angled armor, with only 51mm of penetration at 10m + 60 degree angle (which is what the example T-34 is angled at)

Side note - The game does not appear to count dynamic ANGLE effectiveness , instead, It counts dynamic ARMOR Effectiveness , which increases at the steeper and steeper angle you shoot the hostile at.

* - "I looked at the correct armor penetration values and shot, but the shell still bounced off! Why?" The answer isv ery simple. Still counts effective angle at which the shell hit. The values I've showed off today were at a practically Head-on fight. This is also why you must angle your tanks armor. It may not add extra angle, but it does add extra armor effectiveness.

This segment will cover Generalised American Armored fighting vehicles, and tips on taking them out

American light tanks vary in size, armor and purpose. The two main American light tank groups are paratroop tanks (M22, M56), which are small and light, and scout / rough terrain tanks (M3, M5 Stuarts),which are taller, heavier and better armored(however insignifficant it still may be). While diffrent in appearance, they are still easy to distinguish as light tanks. No particular aiming is needed for theese tanks, as their small size means that the crew has barely no moving space, and thus is easily dispatched by a single shot.
An exception to this is their LVT series of tanks, which is an amphibious and large tank with extremely well spaced crew. This tank can be hull broken by your 88.

American medium tanks are varied in models, but the most common one you will face will be the M4 Sherman. The mutleiple versions of the M4 Sherman may be difficult to distinguish, but the only significant Sherman is the M4A3E2 "Jumbo" (E for Experimental). which is a heavy / assault tank by definition. There is, however, a less common, but still prominent medium tank(s) - the M26 series.
Overall, all true medium tanks of the American nature are weak on frontal armor and are fairly big in size. Aiming down their center of mass will usually result in an easy kill.

The bare few American heavy tanks you will ever face are either modified medium tanks to have increased armor protection to a near ludicrous ammount, however, there are a few post-war proposals, with heavy mantle armor, but still lacking in hull armor. For the most part, however, learning their individual armor segments is a good idea, however the universal weakpoint is usually the MG port.
Heavy and cumbersome, theese tanks are simply overweight medium tanks, and the performance shows.

American tank destroyers are the child of trying to combine the benefits of light armor and medium anti-tank guns, but resulted in the mixture of maneuverability and armor of a light tank, the size and a gun of a medium tank.
The purpose-built tank destroyers are the most common ones, usually light on armor, fast, and with solid anti-tank guns mounted on rotating turrets, they can be easily mistaken for an M4 Sherman, but are luckily even easier to dispatch. Fast and first to the front lines. Well armed but poorly armored.
There are rumours of the Americans producing a heavy tank destroyer, in combined efforts with the British, to be used as a heavy assault tank, they say it will look like a Turtle of Doom. A rare sight, but the well-accepted weakpoint is the cupola. It seems to be a big weakpoint on the vehicle.

In USSR, your tank is about as valuable as that log over there. You're expected to lose it.

This section will cover Russian(USSR) Armored fighting vehicles )AFV's).
Russian tanks generally follow the same rule - more armor, more slope. Their guns are usually either more average caliber (76.2mm to 85mm) and underwhelming penetration with high HE filler and a decent reload, to high caliber (122mm+) with a great deal of penetration, HE filler, and a great big reload time in between shots.

Russian Light tanks are highly crew-dense, fast / cavalry tanks.
They are spaced densely enough to be taken out by practically any shot to the turret, as that's where most of the crew is usually located. Aiming or prioritising for specific points on theese tanks is usually not necesary.

Russian medium tanks are usually fairly compact tanks, with ammunition or fuel right infront of the thickest parts of the armor. Knowing the location of theese will allow you to take them out easily in a single, well-placed shot. However, if you do not know theese points, the two main medium tanks you will be facing are the T-34 and the T-44 medium tanks. The T-34's have fairly weak frontal armor, it only being 45mm @ 60 degrees. Aiming for their center of mass is encouraged. The T-44 on the other hand, has insanely thick glacis armor, and whos only real weakpoint frontall is the turret. Aiming for its cheeks right around the barrel is the only primary way of taking one out frontally.

Russian heavy tanks vary in their effective armor, maneuverability and guns depending on the tank series you will face, of which there are two: The IS and the KV series. Generally, the earlier heavy tanks have poorly angled and not too-thick of an armor plate to defend them. However, the late heavy tanks have extremely efficient, well angled and obnoxiously thick, heavy frontal armor. For such, aiming for their front armor, down the center of mass is usually a no-go zone and require knowledge of their weakpoints ( such as hte lower glacis / turret cheeks for the IS-2 '44). KV's are usually slow and(for their time, and in-game, battlerating) well-armored vehicles, while the IS-2 is a surprisingly maneuverable and well armored tank.


Russian tank destroyers are usually simply casemate versions of their regular mainline production tanks with a more powerful gun, whether this would be to lower the sillhoutte, lower the production price, or to simply provide a platform for a bigger gun than what is currently placeable inside of a turret.
The odd exception for the production tank destroyers is usually either a conversion tank destroyer, such as the ZiS-30, which is a gun-towing tractor with an AT gun it was SUPPOSED to tow atop, or a heavily modified hull to allow for an AT gun to be placed, such as the Su-76 series.
During WW2, there were three main chassis' repurposed for tank destroyer role:

• T-34, who's hull was used with a casemate to provide such tank destroyers as SU-85, or SU-122. The frontal armor is weaker than a regular T-34's armor, but trades for a bigger gun, or later on for such TD's as SU-122P or SU-100, with even bigger and better AT guns and more armor. Nothing a Tigers gun can't handle, however.
  
• KV, who's hull was used with a casemate to provide such tank destroyers as the SU-152. Repurposed field artillery howizer with a great ammount of HE filler and damage potential with their AP, that will cut through most armor on the battlefield. Their armor is the same as a regular KV tank, just a bigger plate.
  
• IS, who's hull was used with a casemate to provide for all tank destroyers beggining with the ISU-### prefix.Most armor, maneuverability and firepower out of any other tank destroyer series. Proceed with caution.

This section will cover tips on taking out British Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs)
Most British tanks are designed differently, not using the generic medium or heavy tank designations like other nations.

Cruiser Tanks:

Cruiser tanks are similar to medium tanks, but are faster and generally less armored.
In-game, they are represented by the first column.

Infantry Tanks

Infantry tanks are similar to heavy tanks, generally they are not supposed to fight tanks. Their guns are generally less powerful, but their armor is pretty good. Infantry tanks can fire on the move because of their speed relative to ground contact.
In-game, they are represented in the second column the Matilda I through Churchill VII, and on the third column the Valentine I through IX.

Tank Destroyers

British tank destroyers vary in their characteristics, they all have good guns, with very little armour. Late game British tank destroyer such as the FV4004 Conway and FV4005 Stage II have very powerful guns, but little defence.
In-game represented by the third column Tank line.

Assault Tanks

Assault tanks are tanks that have great armor, generally good guns, with varying speed depending on whether they are Assault Tanks or Heavy Assault Tanks. Britain only has a single heavy assault tank, the Heavy Assault, Tortoise (A39).

Light Tanks

There aren't many light tanks for Britain, all are tier 1. They are fast, lightly armored, and lightly armed.
In-game they are represented in the first and third column.

Medium Tanks

Medium tanks are generally average in all aspects. For Britain, they have the Sherman IC, II and VC. The IC and the VC have ROQF 17Pdr gun which can be quite devastating.

Heavy Tanks

Heavy tanks are heavily armed and armored. Britain has the A1E1 and the Caernarvon II.

Other Tips

• Most British tanks have poor reverse speed.
  
• Most British tanks only have AP shells, with poor explosive value.
  
• Most British vehicles can't turn on the spot, or are poor at moving in tight spaces.

On the rare occurance of you fighting Japan here are some advantages and disadvantages of the Japanese armored vehicles.

• Their guns! The Japanese guns have excessive amounts of HE filler in their shells.
  
• Most of their vehicles are small, low profile.
  
• They have American light tanks, normally Axis doesn't have access to many light vehicles.
  
• They get their own Tiger, aim front hull if it's not angled, or try mantlet.
  
• Good gun depression and elevation.

• Poor armour, most Japanese tanks have flat armour with angled cheeks, this makes it hard to enact effective angling.
  
• Maneuverability, they are generally slow and have issues turning at low speeds.
  
• Poor turret traverse speed.

'Most all of them.

This topic will discuss the proper tanking around city enviroments in detail, including proper techniques for turning around corners, keeping your vulnerable sides safe and such.

This topic has been partially talked over in previous topics, and thus we will only be adding extra information.

Here we will learn the proper techniques of angling when driving around corners.
Corners are a dangerous thing and you cannot drive the entire corner and then turn, you need to try and cover as much of your side armor as possible, while trying to expose as much of your frontal armor as possible (comparatively).

Below we can see a Tiger I E that is carefully driving around a corner. From this picture, you can see that they haven't exposed any side armor while keeping his frontal armor angled at a high angle.


Here's another angle. You can see how much the Tiger I E has driven past the building before stopping in order to evaluate the situation.

Note that you always want to leave sufficient room for easy maneuvers alongside the wall.


In this sub-topic, we will learn the proper techiques of using city debris, and whatever you can find, to your full advantages.

Here we see a Tiger I E hiding behind rubble in the city.

Note that the tank's rear is facing towards the friendly team, and its only way of getting shot is from the front.

Another angle of the above image shows the Tiger I E attempting to hide as much of its hull as possible. It has not attempted to angle its armor however.

So, What is a Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. E and whats difference between it and the Ausf. H1 model?

The Ausf. E was a late production model that entered production in 1944, having minor and major improvements on all sector, in some cases making the crews life harder, in some - much easier.

What you need to know about it:

• ZImmerit paste - paste used to protect a tank from magnetically attaching AT mines and grenades.
  
• Lower glasis now has spare track holsters
  
• Improved engine
  
• Improved mantlet
  
• Improved Panther style cupola
  
• 100m thick turret ring guard added
  
• Pintle mounted MG 34 added
  
• APCR ammunition

Note that in War Thunder the Ausf. H1 is actually an early Ausf. E model, with the Ausf. E model being from late 1944.

Calling out enemy vehicles to your friendly bombers/attackers.

Down below we will learn the proper ways of calling out hostile tanks in this following order:

• What is heading?
  
• What is a reference point?
  
• How can I tell the heading so the aircraft could understand?
  
• How do I describe the location of te enemy?
  
  All of theese questions will be answered in the following sub-topics ([4.1] - [4.#])
  

Aircraft:

• (HDG) On the top left, above your engine and heat indicators and below your ammunition counter.
  
• When in Guncam / Nosecam view, the heading indicator is at the top of the screen:
  
  
  
• When in bombsight view, it is also said at the top of the screen:
  

Ground vehicles:

• Gunsights (top):
  
  
  
• Binocular view (top):
  
  

Now, what you may gave noticed from those pictures, is that ground vehicles and aircraft display heading diffrently. Now, this is not a major issue, as the only difffrence is that planes dont show the in-between numbers, only the major ones(a.k.a. Tank would show 73 for example, and the plane would be at 7 and 1 third), so in order to find what coordinates the plane is flying at, just divide by 10. Or, alternatively, if you want to find out the tanks' coordinates, just multiply by 10.
This is only an issue to the aircraft pilots, as they have to manually try and estimate the heading given by the tank.

What is heading?
Heading is used to describe your planes heading (flight direction) and / or your tanks commanders / gunners' facing direction.
In combat, it is usually used to pinpoint hostile locations in conjunction with such things as reference points (see [4.2] for more help.) and distances to friendly aircraft, but can also be used for friendly tanks.

A reference point is used in conjunction with Headings (see [4.1] for more details) to describe a hostiles' location.
It is usally just a stand-out or easily-definable object in the combat area. Examples:

Map: Poland.
Reference point: Lakeside hill point.
--------------------------------------------------
Such a reference point would describe the well-known point ontop of the hill to the opposite side of the town.

When defining a reference point, you should try and keep it simple, and easily understandable (as noted above). It should always be a defining point of the location, from which you want the heading ([4.1]) to be used together to describe the strike point ([4.3]).

A strike point is a defined location for your friendly forces to acknowledge that there is an enemy there, and is to be used in conjunction with the before-mentioned Reference points ([4.2]), distance (most commonly in meters) and Headings ([4.1]) for maximum precision.

They are usually used to call out enemy cordinates to aircraft, for the maximum air support efficiency. It can also be used (if there are no friendly aircraft in the air) to call out enemy tank coordinates, however, while calling out the hostile tank location to friendly tanks, you should probably also tell your team what type of tank it is.

An example of a strike point for carpet bombing to a friendly bomber:

Map: Kursk
Reference point: Crashed IL-2, next to the cap point.
Heading: 175
Distance from the Reference point(crashed IL-2): approx. 50m
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An example of a strike position for a friendly tank.

Map: Mozdok
Reference left side (North-facing) cap point
Heading: 251 and flanking
Tank: Jumbo 76
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These two examples were of strike positions call outs for a friendly bomber and a friendly tank respectively.

The mighty Tiger isn't the only tank that deserves a rulebook, other tanks deserve them too!
Including a Panzer IV rulebook written by a fellow Panzer IV Ausf. F2 commander. Give it a read and share it with your fellow tankers, it may just save your life one day!

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=475087795&tscn=1436252836

Gentlemen,

We are on the verge of extinction.
The American forces are assaulting us with unreal force.
They have tanks that can do incredible damage, defying logic.

But they do not have the skills, the spirit that we do.
They do not have skills of efficient tank driving,
Efficient warfare tactics, nor tactics in general.
They do not have the spirit of our great tankers that roll out into battle every day.

Do not forget my fellow hunters, we are Panthers, we are Tigers, we are the hunters, they are the prey. They may not all know that, but they are all hunted. None of them shall be left to survive, only one side shall stay alive - THE HUNTERS.

Good Hunting kameraden. May your hunt be swift.

Make use of these rules, they WILL save you or your teammates, maybe the entire team. A well placed panzer can deal lots of damage.

Join the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion!
http://steamproxy.net/groups/503rdHeavy

Post your suggestions to furthermore make the rulebook better and more informative!
Discuss with fellow tankers the best tactics or just chat with people that may turn out to be your new friends!

Got a problem with your anti-virus claiming the game is a trojan? Got help here:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=282053502

Don't forget to share this rulebook wtih your friends and other fellow tankers, share the information!

Happy hunting, fellow commanders!

Feel free to join the War Thunder Community Discord, the largest English-speaking War Thunder Discord community: https://discord.gg/MNKyJnk

So while updating this guide I remembered that there's an app on Android that allows you to get free GE by completing surveys as simple as watching a 10 second trailer. Yes - that simple.
The app is sponsored by Gaijin themselves, so its completely safe. Its name is "free War Thunder Eagles". All you've gotta do is sign up with the same email you used to register onto War Thunder and voila! You're ready to go!

Also, you can support this guide by using the bonus code " ufvr8"

This app stores all the GE you earn on a single server, but it can be colelcted over multiple devices, so if you have more than just a phone or tablet, then you can collect the GE twice as fast!

The orders refresh every 2-3 days of inactivity, so keep an eye out!