Tanker Time - The Mighty Panther

Howdy folks! Marc here with the first of many (hopefully!) posts about my days spent playing World of Tanks. This first post, if you couldn't guess already, is going to be about the German Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank - or Panther, for simples ;)

Look at this sexy piece of machinery! Its glorious.

Okay, we will start off with a little history concerning the Panther. It was designed in 1942 to replace the Nazi's Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, and started production in 1943. It was designed to compromise on some of the fearsome Tiger tanks drawbacks (we will cover the Tiger next week!) and allow Fritz to field strong medium companies. In comparison to the Tiger, it had a gun with higher penetration and muzzle velocity, front armor that, while slightly thinner than the Tigers, was sloped offering a much better nominal thickness offering near invulnerability to the tanks it commonly faced - namely the Americans M4 Sherman medium tank and M18 Hellcat tank destroyer. While it was far cheaper to manufacture than the Tiger (and only slightly more expensive than the Panzer IV) it came at a time when German tank crews were on the decline, and German air superiority was a thing of the past - supply lines were hit and many Panthers were left for scrap. Sad times!

A burnt out Panther Ausf. G from the Battle of the Bulge.

Next up - where does the Panther stack up in World of Tanks? Well, to start with, its a Tier 7 medium tank, this is a tier higher than the latest Sherman variants it saw, and a tier higher than the Hellcat too - however, don't despair - its statistics more than make up for it. With 85mm of frontal armor sloped at a very nice angle, it is capable of bouncing shells from a lot of Tier 6 guns, but most Tier 7s will go straight through. Side armor is an unremarkable 50mm and flat, so you want to hide that whenever possible. The Turret is fairly strong though, offering a very good 120mm on the front (covered by a very large mantlet - that's an extra 20mm of spaced armor!) means this tank is very potent in a hull down position if it isn't feasible to snipe from 300 meters.  Moving on, its main strength is its weight. Now, you might think that's strange considering I just told you to snipe, but hear me out. This tank weighs a LOT for a medium - in some cases more than same Tier heavies. Weighing in at around 45 tons and able to mount a 700bhp engine makes the Panther very strong as a ramming vehicle. It has a great top speed, but is very sluggish to accelerate due to its weight, so bear that in mind. Finally, the gun it is able to mount has excellent stats for its tier (if you disregard its low alpha damage) - 198 average penetration with 150 average damage, coupled with an excellent accuracy rating, aim time and rate of fire make this thing a DPM MACHINE. Like, seriously dude this thing can penetrate pretty much any Tier 8 tank from the front (weak point aiming is a breeze with the accuracy) and the few Tier 9s it meets are swiss cheese from the side.

A fully upgraded Panther tank in the garage

The Panther is an incredibly fun tank to drive, and will likely teach you a lot about various high level game mechanics (the use of hull down, and camo and spot range abuse). Once you get the hang of placing yourself at key locations, you will want to drive no other tank, believe me. However, it does have a variety of teething troubles from stock - first of all you will want to train your Commander in the Sixth Sense skill, your Driver in Preventative Measures, and your Loader in Safe Stowage. Why? Because you need to know when you are spotted, your tank has a rather German trait of having a front mounted transmission - shots to your lower front plate will frequently set your tank ablaze, much to your dismay, and a large amount of shots will hit your Ammo Rack - like seriously, the whole tank is basically ammunition. Not good! After you train those skills, we can talk equipment. You always want a Gun Rammer on your medium tanks (where possible!) for a start. A camo net can be useful early on (until you get second skills trained - take the Camouflage skill here!) and for budget tanking a Ventilation system will improve your tank greatly. You can also switch this out with Binocular Telescope or an Enhanced Gun Laying Drive depending on play style and if you have the credits to mount them.


Well, thats it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading - if you have any questions, or feedback, be sure to drop a comment below! :3. Look forward to more awesomeness next week with what is probably my favorite tank, the Stronk German Tiger! As always, have fun, and remember to aim for weak spots!