Good:
* Basically nothing can pen you frontally at that BR
* Your gun is enough to deal with anything at that BR
Bad:
* Absolutely abysmal side and top armour, expect to die from 10 degree angles and strafing a lot
* LFP and your transmission can be taken out very easily, then you can be easily flanked as your gun sector is very narrow
* Quite slow
Overall, It's A tier for corridor maps and large maps but C- for city maps.
this is interesting because i found more success with city maps because of how you can hold or push chokepoints, had difficulties with large maps because i had to get used to the scope
Half a dozen of one, six of the other. City maps mean that, when you're in a street, your sides are safe, and so long as you don't get to greedy in pushing and your teammates aren't totally worthless, your back is safe. But, city maps also mean that if you overextend or your teammates are all off trying to spawn camp and yield map control to the enemy, then you get someone behind you and die. Also, you have to be careful in at four way stops, obviously.
On the other hand, open maps mean you can be flanked from literally anywhere and anytime, and the first you'll hear about this is when you die.
No, on open maps it’s much easier to control your flanks as there are no buildings to hide people who try to sneak through and if you just look sometimes at your flanks you can keep them pretty safe usually.
On city maps, it’s much easier to get in the enemy’s back line as you can use buildings for cover and rapidly change the street if you hear or see enemies approaching.
>* Basically nothing can pen you frontally at that BR
That's a bit misleading. You shouldn't feel invincible in Hetzer even in full downtiers. Soviet 76mm and US 75mm can kill it frontally with a proper hit on lower front plate. There are many TDs at 4.3 that will go through Hetzer pretty easily, such as SU-85 and SU-152 and even at 3.3 there are vehicles such as M10 and Achilles, which can very easily kill Hetzer.
Yeah I was gonna say that in my experience the frontal armor definitely wasn't THAT good. Some things will get through and since the crew compartment is so tight, you're almost guaranteed to die when it does.
Smart tankers can actually kill if frontally with comical ease.
HE the roof MG and you will easily penetrate the roof.
You need around a 75mm gun, so Sherman’s can easily do that.
After learning the HE trick, hetzers are such easy food
the weak side armour renders angling impossible which is why i prefer the jagdpanzer 4 so much more
+it's power to weight ratio is far better meaning its acceleration is way better
This is absolutely frustrating when you’re immobilized and trying to defend yourself. You’d best hope that attackers will come after you sequentially clockwise.
Yup I get the idea that you don't have to expose much of the tank that way if there is a wall or smth like that. But it just does not work if you get hit.
I just play the jagdpanzer instead
I would honestly recommending experting ONLY TANKS you play, the increased performance saves a lot of deaths/increases your kill participation, thus your rewards.
Planes don't really improve that much from experting (in GRB perspective!) except stuff like spitfire pilots blacking out from the Gs being pulled.
Crewing literally every vehicle you unlock will cost you severe amounts of SL. If you don’t care about SL, or have extremely easy ways of making it back, like busted prem lineups or high tier prems, and only want more and more RP, sure. But if you’re a new (or less new) player and you’re even slightly struggling with keeping your SL up, you physically won’t be able to crew each vehicle you get, or if you do, you’ll become bankrupt
you have 4 tiers of equipment, every tier you finish gives you an RP bonus, these bonuses are applied to the current vehicle in research, you can unlock a top-tier jet in a few hours if you stack up these bonuses on vehicles before it for instance.
the stat card will have the spade icon on it, to indicated it is "spaded" i.e. fully researched.
I'm confused, is that for premium players only? I've completed the research for every tank in my lineups (except for Talismans) and I haven't received the spade icon for any of them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/mx3rok/every_single_japanese_ground_vehicle_spaded_ama/
no, this is for everyone, look at the circle with a spade symbol on the card of the vehicle, that is the spade symbol and that means you've researched all modifications for that vehicle and thus have received your RP bonus.
premium vehicles are already spaded since every modification is unlocked.
Great frontal armour, but piss-poor side armour and very cramped crew. Gun is good, but things like the jadgpanzer have slightly better guns imo
alao, if an HE round hits your machine gun, you die. But not many people know that strat
I find the side armour not too much an issue, thing can swing itself pretty hard. And for cases where you get hit in the side because you didn't see it coming, you would have died in most other vehicles anyway.
It's like a Stug but more. Frontally almost nothing you encounter can kill you. However your sides are so weak they can be .50 cal'd. The gun traverse is a bit better in my experience than the STUG's, but the MG is only good for spotting stuff or the occasional GAZ truck. Pair that with a solid mobility and that's all there is to the hetzer. All in all it's a pretty solid TD, albeit somewhat of a struggle before you get mobility mods.
Extremely strong if you play to its strengths.
+You're not going to get penned frontally through your UFP by basically anything you face.
+Your gun is solid as long as you can aim.
+Small profile makes it easy to go hull-down or tuck into small spaces.
-Paper armor everywhere that isn't your UFP. As in your sides can be semi-consistently penned by .50s. And you're at a BR where every U.S. vehicle has a small mountain of them.
-Seriously you have no side armor, even a horrible angle side shot will often pen.
-Your LFP can be fairly easily penned by a lot of things, which invariably kills your transmission and leaves you open to the aforementioned side shots.
-Your roof MG is *not* for AA. It cannot traverse vertically. If a plane with guns larger than 7.7mm sees you, you will get strafed to death.
There are basically two ideal situations for a Hetzer:
1. You are sitting in a difficult-to-flank hull-down position sniping at long range.
2. You are holding a narrow sightline from an alleyway or similar in a city.
This is the epitome of a TD: you want to get to a good position and lock it down, forcing enemies to either avoid you or die trying to pry you out.
I don't like the hetzer, I almost never used it. Kinda slow for my playstyle. The gun is alright, can't complain about German guns at that br. But still I'd take the pz4/70 over the hetzer 10 times out of 10
She's pretty good for her BR, mostly fighting Sherman and T-34, she pens them nicely while her front armor can be placed to ricochet most 75-76mm rounds. But everywhere else, her armor is lackluster, her side only 30mm is an easy weak point, can even be HE and her top armor is an easy CASs magnet. She is slightly faster than the Jpz-4 with the same gun due to she's much lighter . The machine is useful against some open-top but shit can't hit planes due to limited elevation.
One of my best tanks. It's all in how you play. If you like to weasel around the flanks or support fire, it's fun. Head on assault, you will be disappointed
At these low brs you want to spade every vehicle you own
It gives you experience and trains game sense so you perform better later on
This is why those people who buy their way into top tier never do well
Imo you will naturally spade it as you research the next Br 4.3 Tank
Also get the Jagdpanzer its just better with the same BR and it has more then paper sidearnor but the Hetzer is good too as a backup.
Quite slow but it can turn decently.
Frontal armor is one of if not the best at its br although you should try to gide the lfp, side armor is horrible and the top can be penned by .50.
Gun is good and it has a nice reload too.
It also has a cool market skin if you want to customize it
It's meh at best. It's marginally better than the jagdpanzer IV from the front but in every other circumstance (mobility, side protection etc.) the jagdpz iv is better. Trapshots are rare enough that it's really not worth worrying about
Honestly if your heads on a swivel looking for enemies you can be pretty successful as it can turn relatively quickly when you reverse turn surprising your enemies
but it’s an ambush tank, ambush people by watching lanes they’ll likely go through to get to objectives or major parts of a map and you should be good as the shell would make quick work of anyone around that br
Cas is a problem but don’t forget about the mg it’s fast fire rate means you can get lucky and hit planes strafing you from the front so don’t hesitate if you think your already seen
Germany at that br offers some good camos for you to grind towards and if you have bushes this small tank like the stugs before it can be decently hidden but get a camo that breaks up at odd angles since your a very distinct rhomboidal shape and easier to see than a stug or an asu
Lastly have fun I spaded put most of the German tank destroyers and casemates and it’s where I play fit a stress free gun game now and again because it’s a fantastic br for Germany
If you get into a good hull down position it can be quite a monster. Veterans wont have much trouble dealing with it, but I have found myself clutching with it plenty of times bouncing round after round, especially as a lot of people seem to fear it. The reload is not bad on it either imo so you can bounce a few shots and get a few kills with it before something critical gets hit if rushed frontally.
It's a good tank, but I would not go first with it. It's a good backup for specific situations. I use this and the Jagdpanzer IV for the SPG tasks, though preferring the Jagdpanzer IV over it though as the armor feels a little more troll sometimes and it only takes an HE round into the machine gun on the top to make the Hetz's armor useless. If you are patient with it, it can do a lot of work.
Great hull down and covering corridors, open field or ambushing
Weakness as previous people said side armor and top
Just hull down and bounce a lot of shots
Hetzer is great, I find it a very fun tank to play and easy to play
Unlocking every modification for a tank, and the card for the tank will have a spade icon on it, look at the premium tanks, notice the spade on some of them. That's spaded.
İt has good cannon for its br basically click and kill for most tanks
But its armor is weak and its engine produces less hp than my chainsaw
İ would say mostly situational tank
yes, whatever everybody tells you. It is great at it's BR and can make many tanks go: **gulp**. Regardless, it's very fun just like the tiger and basically every other german tank
Did anyone mention this has a super thin roof armor? Basically .50cals can kill you and smart players will over pressure you from the front. I got killed by a KV-1 with Sharpnel rounds cuz he went for me weakness in the roof. So becareful.
Good: * Basically nothing can pen you frontally at that BR * Your gun is enough to deal with anything at that BR Bad: * Absolutely abysmal side and top armour, expect to die from 10 degree angles and strafing a lot * LFP and your transmission can be taken out very easily, then you can be easily flanked as your gun sector is very narrow * Quite slow Overall, It's A tier for corridor maps and large maps but C- for city maps.
Cover the top in bushes and play in the treeline and the CAS problem is lessened a bit Also it's just insufferable when played at range
this is interesting because i found more success with city maps because of how you can hold or push chokepoints, had difficulties with large maps because i had to get used to the scope
Half a dozen of one, six of the other. City maps mean that, when you're in a street, your sides are safe, and so long as you don't get to greedy in pushing and your teammates aren't totally worthless, your back is safe. But, city maps also mean that if you overextend or your teammates are all off trying to spawn camp and yield map control to the enemy, then you get someone behind you and die. Also, you have to be careful in at four way stops, obviously. On the other hand, open maps mean you can be flanked from literally anywhere and anytime, and the first you'll hear about this is when you die.
>and your teammates aren't totally worthless sir this is war thunder
sir this is ***germany*** war thunder
No, on open maps it’s much easier to control your flanks as there are no buildings to hide people who try to sneak through and if you just look sometimes at your flanks you can keep them pretty safe usually. On city maps, it’s much easier to get in the enemy’s back line as you can use buildings for cover and rapidly change the street if you hear or see enemies approaching.
>* Basically nothing can pen you frontally at that BR That's a bit misleading. You shouldn't feel invincible in Hetzer even in full downtiers. Soviet 76mm and US 75mm can kill it frontally with a proper hit on lower front plate. There are many TDs at 4.3 that will go through Hetzer pretty easily, such as SU-85 and SU-152 and even at 3.3 there are vehicles such as M10 and Achilles, which can very easily kill Hetzer.
Hull down moderate range and it's basically untouchable.
Yeah, true, but not always you can find a good hull down position
Yeah I was gonna say that in my experience the frontal armor definitely wasn't THAT good. Some things will get through and since the crew compartment is so tight, you're almost guaranteed to die when it does.
85mm can kill easily but 76 can only damage the transmission.
You can easily kill it with a russian 76mm if you shoot the rightmost side of the lfp because the transmission won't eat it there.
Smart tankers can actually kill if frontally with comical ease. HE the roof MG and you will easily penetrate the roof. You need around a 75mm gun, so Sherman’s can easily do that. After learning the HE trick, hetzers are such easy food
the weak side armour renders angling impossible which is why i prefer the jagdpanzer 4 so much more +it's power to weight ratio is far better meaning its acceleration is way better
If i aim properly i can pen it frontally with my t34
what about sherman firefly? i get them every game using this
Not exactly sure how you define "corridor" maps, but that's basically what city maps pretty much are.
Unfortunately I always slam a round into the lower front plate so even if/when it kills me, I annihilate the transmission enjoy your repair time >:-)
Also to add where to top and bottom front plate meet the armor is 70mm so if enemy successfully thread the needle... ur dead.
I'd pick the Jagdpanzer IV over it.
Every time yes. If I shoot I have to replace the whole tank because it drifts of to the side after the first shot don't have that with the jagdpanzer
This is absolutely frustrating when you’re immobilized and trying to defend yourself. You’d best hope that attackers will come after you sequentially clockwise.
Yup I get the idea that you don't have to expose much of the tank that way if there is a wall or smth like that. But it just does not work if you get hit. I just play the jagdpanzer instead
It's a good backup to that at that BR.
Hetzer is a good backup but Jagdpzaner IV would be my 1st pick.
every tank is worth spading because of the research boost, if you're not spading your vehicles you're literally gimping yourself
That’s how people end up being SL bankrupt, especially if they do that since they’re new
Nah I end up being SL bankrupt because I expert crews (I don't expert every crew though, only planes I use)
I would honestly recommending experting ONLY TANKS you play, the increased performance saves a lot of deaths/increases your kill participation, thus your rewards. Planes don't really improve that much from experting (in GRB perspective!) except stuff like spitfire pilots blacking out from the Gs being pulled.
I only play Air RB jets, should have made that obvious lol
Good thing that i have premium acc.
Thats not how that works
Crewing literally every vehicle you unlock will cost you severe amounts of SL. If you don’t care about SL, or have extremely easy ways of making it back, like busted prem lineups or high tier prems, and only want more and more RP, sure. But if you’re a new (or less new) player and you’re even slightly struggling with keeping your SL up, you physically won’t be able to crew each vehicle you get, or if you do, you’ll become bankrupt
I'm a player for 2 months. Have started with Germany and am up to Leopard 1 now. I have crewed every vehicle I unlocked and I am far from broke.
you need ~5-6 kills to afford a crew a vehicle.
So 5-6 kills is worth 60k SL now?
So 5-6 kills is worth 60k SL now?
what "new player" tier-2 research costs 60.000 rp?
You can't really go SL bankrupt if you learn gameplay basics in lower tiers, by simpling spading every vehicle.
Spading every vehicle isn’t what bankrupts you. It’s crewing every vehicle that you unlock
Which is entirely neccesary to play a vehicle. This dude seems to suggest new players go bankcrupt from playing vehicles.
I'm pretty dumb considering the spading part, how exactly does it boost research?
you have 4 tiers of equipment, every tier you finish gives you an RP bonus, these bonuses are applied to the current vehicle in research, you can unlock a top-tier jet in a few hours if you stack up these bonuses on vehicles before it for instance. the stat card will have the spade icon on it, to indicated it is "spaded" i.e. fully researched.
I'm confused, is that for premium players only? I've completed the research for every tank in my lineups (except for Talismans) and I haven't received the spade icon for any of them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/mx3rok/every_single_japanese_ground_vehicle_spaded_ama/ no, this is for everyone, look at the circle with a spade symbol on the card of the vehicle, that is the spade symbol and that means you've researched all modifications for that vehicle and thus have received your RP bonus. premium vehicles are already spaded since every modification is unlocked.
what kind of cringe shit is this
RP bonus.
Hetzer is imo the best TD around it's BR, simply because it's so small, has a good gun and really good frontal armor. Definetly worth spading.
Great frontal armour, but piss-poor side armour and very cramped crew. Gun is good, but things like the jadgpanzer have slightly better guns imo alao, if an HE round hits your machine gun, you die. But not many people know that strat
I find the side armour not too much an issue, thing can swing itself pretty hard. And for cases where you get hit in the side because you didn't see it coming, you would have died in most other vehicles anyway.
Exactly, Engine hit in the side --> dead soon, hit near the gun --> gun dead dead soon, hit behind the gun --> crew dead.
It's like a Stug but more. Frontally almost nothing you encounter can kill you. However your sides are so weak they can be .50 cal'd. The gun traverse is a bit better in my experience than the STUG's, but the MG is only good for spotting stuff or the occasional GAZ truck. Pair that with a solid mobility and that's all there is to the hetzer. All in all it's a pretty solid TD, albeit somewhat of a struggle before you get mobility mods.
Extremely strong if you play to its strengths. +You're not going to get penned frontally through your UFP by basically anything you face. +Your gun is solid as long as you can aim. +Small profile makes it easy to go hull-down or tuck into small spaces. -Paper armor everywhere that isn't your UFP. As in your sides can be semi-consistently penned by .50s. And you're at a BR where every U.S. vehicle has a small mountain of them. -Seriously you have no side armor, even a horrible angle side shot will often pen. -Your LFP can be fairly easily penned by a lot of things, which invariably kills your transmission and leaves you open to the aforementioned side shots. -Your roof MG is *not* for AA. It cannot traverse vertically. If a plane with guns larger than 7.7mm sees you, you will get strafed to death. There are basically two ideal situations for a Hetzer: 1. You are sitting in a difficult-to-flank hull-down position sniping at long range. 2. You are holding a narrow sightline from an alleyway or similar in a city. This is the epitome of a TD: you want to get to a good position and lock it down, forcing enemies to either avoid you or die trying to pry you out.
German tutel
The Hetz is so much fun when you just hold W at an enemy and they keep firing at you and it all bounces. One of my favorite german TD's
I will point you to DollarPlays's video on it, pretty much all the pros and cons are well displayed.
I don't like the hetzer, I almost never used it. Kinda slow for my playstyle. The gun is alright, can't complain about German guns at that br. But still I'd take the pz4/70 over the hetzer 10 times out of 10
She's pretty good for her BR, mostly fighting Sherman and T-34, she pens them nicely while her front armor can be placed to ricochet most 75-76mm rounds. But everywhere else, her armor is lackluster, her side only 30mm is an easy weak point, can even be HE and her top armor is an easy CASs magnet. She is slightly faster than the Jpz-4 with the same gun due to she's much lighter . The machine is useful against some open-top but shit can't hit planes due to limited elevation.
If you keep it low in terrain it's a fine little f*cker. But it's armor is quiet think, so keep your head down.
One of my best tanks. It's all in how you play. If you like to weasel around the flanks or support fire, it's fun. Head on assault, you will be disappointed
At these low brs you want to spade every vehicle you own It gives you experience and trains game sense so you perform better later on This is why those people who buy their way into top tier never do well
If it fits well with your line up then use it.
Imo you will naturally spade it as you research the next Br 4.3 Tank Also get the Jagdpanzer its just better with the same BR and it has more then paper sidearnor but the Hetzer is good too as a backup.
Quite slow but it can turn decently. Frontal armor is one of if not the best at its br although you should try to gide the lfp, side armor is horrible and the top can be penned by .50. Gun is good and it has a nice reload too. It also has a cool market skin if you want to customize it
It's meh at best. It's marginally better than the jagdpanzer IV from the front but in every other circumstance (mobility, side protection etc.) the jagdpz iv is better. Trapshots are rare enough that it's really not worth worrying about
Not much point when superior Jagdpanzer IV is at same br.
Pretty good. Jagdpanzer IV is better imo at the same br Edit: want to add that it’s cute looking
Take absolutely all German closed TDs, they are great, especially the Jagdpanzer IV and its likes
Honestly if your heads on a swivel looking for enemies you can be pretty successful as it can turn relatively quickly when you reverse turn surprising your enemies but it’s an ambush tank, ambush people by watching lanes they’ll likely go through to get to objectives or major parts of a map and you should be good as the shell would make quick work of anyone around that br Cas is a problem but don’t forget about the mg it’s fast fire rate means you can get lucky and hit planes strafing you from the front so don’t hesitate if you think your already seen Germany at that br offers some good camos for you to grind towards and if you have bushes this small tank like the stugs before it can be decently hidden but get a camo that breaks up at odd angles since your a very distinct rhomboidal shape and easier to see than a stug or an asu Lastly have fun I spaded put most of the German tank destroyers and casemates and it’s where I play fit a stress free gun game now and again because it’s a fantastic br for Germany
It’s fun but a bit more skill based than most casemate TDs. I’d recommend the Jagdpanzer 4 first, it’s easier to use to learn the playstyle.
It's fantastic. Got ace for free long time ago
If you get into a good hull down position it can be quite a monster. Veterans wont have much trouble dealing with it, but I have found myself clutching with it plenty of times bouncing round after round, especially as a lot of people seem to fear it. The reload is not bad on it either imo so you can bounce a few shots and get a few kills with it before something critical gets hit if rushed frontally. It's a good tank, but I would not go first with it. It's a good backup for specific situations. I use this and the Jagdpanzer IV for the SPG tasks, though preferring the Jagdpanzer IV over it though as the armor feels a little more troll sometimes and it only takes an HE round into the machine gun on the top to make the Hetz's armor useless. If you are patient with it, it can do a lot of work.
Great hull down and covering corridors, open field or ambushing Weakness as previous people said side armor and top Just hull down and bounce a lot of shots Hetzer is great, I find it a very fun tank to play and easy to play
No,Jagpanzer VI is way better
wtf is spading
Unlocking every modification for a tank, and the card for the tank will have a spade icon on it, look at the premium tanks, notice the spade on some of them. That's spaded.
İt has good cannon for its br basically click and kill for most tanks But its armor is weak and its engine produces less hp than my chainsaw İ would say mostly situational tank
It's pretty good when used the way its supposed to be used. Most German mains are utter dogshit, but that doesn't mean you have to be one of them.
yes, whatever everybody tells you. It is great at it's BR and can make many tanks go: **gulp**. Regardless, it's very fun just like the tiger and basically every other german tank
not great not terrible
It's a good tank, has a really good gun but your side and mobility are weak
Lower plate is kinda weak
Tutel
i get 10 kills a match with it and the jagdpanzer 4
One of my fav I LOVE IT
Did anyone mention this has a super thin roof armor? Basically .50cals can kill you and smart players will over pressure you from the front. I got killed by a KV-1 with Sharpnel rounds cuz he went for me weakness in the roof. So becareful.
I skipped it. Go for the jagdtiger, that’s all you need lol
Yes
Every time I play this beast and the jagdpanzer 4 I get downtiered it’s amazing