#130213
Save the Tigers!
Save the Tigers!
Dear Eastern Front community, I’d like to draw your attention to an increasingly rare species that even seems to be threatened by extinction:
The Tiger.
As of today, the number of people concerned with this highly significant topic has decreased drastically. And while this may be due to the people just not paying attention to anything anymore, a much more compelling reason can be found in the Tigers rather unspectacular overall performance.
On the Battlefields everywhere between Moscow and the French coast, the numbers of Tigers have been dwindling. A few years ago, we saw hundreds, even thousands of them roaming the battlegrounds at the western and eastern fronts, but as of today, there are only a handful of them left, and whether they’ll survive the next years is questionable at best.
In order to give them a chance to maintain a viable population for the next century, I want to draw your attention to the threats the Tiger has to face and to master, and hope to gain your support in my quest to increase the Tigers viability, so that it may become the deadly force it used to be and crush its opposition once again.
These things threaten the Tiger:
-Russian big game hunters like the dreadful IS-2 and IS-3 are hunting and terrorizing the Tigers, usually overpowering them with superior strength and speed or even through sheer numbers.
-Some American companies care little for the environment, and especially the John Pershing Upgun Inc. has proven to be a huge threat to the Tigers very existence.
-British AT-stations constantly disturb and harass the Tiger in its natural territory.
Don’t let this beautiful and majestic species be extinguished!
Give the Tigers a future!
By now, you have probably realized that I am not talking about the big cat native to India, China, Siberia and Southeast Asia.
Instead, their ironclad counterparts are the focus of this thread:
So let’s get to the actual problem now: The Wehrmacht Tiger in the Blitzkrieg doctrine is currently outshined by most other “super-tanks” in the game. Let’s see some comparisons:
Tiger vs. Pershing
This old battle has been going for years now, ever since CoH has been released. And as of now, the Pershing has the upper hand in several aspects:
-Availability: Unlocking the Pershing costs 8 CP. Unlocking the Tiger costs 9.
-Speed: The Pershing starts out faster than the Tiger, and if I remember correctly, its speed is increased once again when it reaches Vet 1. This is, as everyone should know from the whole IS-3 debate, a huge advantage, as it allows the Pershing to retreat from an unwinnable battle much easier, control a larger zone of the map and evade artillery attacks more frequently.
-Combat Power: A Tiger beats a Pershing of the same level of veterancy, until said Pershing gets the upgun, that is. It will increase the Pershing’s penetration chance against the Tiger to a flat 100%, regardless the distance or level of veterancy, allowing the Pershing to destroy any Tiger tank with ease. Against infantry, their performance is roughly equal, and whatever disadvantage the Pershing may suffer due to the upgun is easily neutralized by the huge damage bonus it gets on veterancy level 3.
-Doctrine: The Tiger is, more or less, the final unlock in the Blitzkrieg doctrine. Blitzkrieg assault isn’t quite worth its ammu and Manpower Blitz is only useful if you’re floating insane amounts of resources. The American armor company has got two “final unlocks”, which is an advantage in longer games.
Tiger vs. IS-2
Well, the IS-2 may not be stronger than the Tiger, but it’s not doctrine-dependent, costs less manpower and can be spammed. Also, according to a chart provided by GodlikeDennis in another thread, its shots actually deal more damage than those of a tiger and it has more health. There are still armor and veterancy levels to give the Tiger an edge, but the IS-2 is still a unit that easily circumvents the ton of restrictions the Tiger suffers from… So it may be a little strong in comparison.
Tiger vs. IS-3
Well, can these units even be compared to each other? One is a decent, though super slow and offensively lacking front line fighter, while the other one is the same, but stronger, faster, bulkier and slightly earlier available. Sure, the IS-3 can be destroyed permanently, but the impact it has on the battlefield is just so much larger than anything the tiger could possibly hope for that it’s almost ridiculous. Also, the IS-3’s Breakthrough Assault strategy has a lot fewer useless or close-to-useless parts then Blitzkrieg, as the Sturmovik alone has a higher impact than the entire right side of the Blitzkrieg tree.
Tiger vs. King Tiger
Okay, the KT, like the IS-3, comes slightly earlier than the Blitz Tiger, but can be permanently shut down if you’re not careful enough. While it IS on the field, however, it easily outshines the tiger by being an incredibly tough and really strong tank – easily stronger than anything the allies might throw at it. Its zone control is heavily limited by its slow movement, but, as opposed to the Blitz Tiger, this monster can easily hold a VP with comparably little support, or spearhead the final assault on the enemy’s base. The point here is that the KTs incredible strength allows it to do things no Blitz player could even think of achieving with his Tiger… Just as the IS-3 has incredible potential due to its speed. These two are, essentially, super-high-impact-units; they can change the game in the very moment of their appearance on the battlefield. The Blitz Tiger shares all their disadvantages until it dies, but it doesn’t really do anything to make up for them. The only advantage it has over them is its expendability, and we all know that this doesn’t go anywhere near making up for its almost complete lack of impact on the battlefield.
Tiger vs. Jagdpanther
Well, what is there to add? The JP shares the KTs and IS-3s place as a super-high-impact-unit, and is so much stronger than the Tiger that any comparison couldn’t even be taken seriously. Especially after getting a few levels of defensive vet, the JP becomes almost indestructible and super-fast while still dealing much more damage than the Blitz Tiger.
Tiger vs. Tiger Ace
Once again, we get the replaceable Tiger versus a one-time-call-in, which is a Tiger… with a turbo engine and a sniper shot ability, while the only actual disadvantage kicks in when the unit gets destroyed. This, however, probably won’t happen if you play it safe, as the Ace’s insane speed makes it hard to pin down and destroy.
So to sum it up, ALL the other super-tanks in the game are better than the Tiger in several ways. The only ones that aren’t definitively stronger than it are the Pershing and the IS-2, and these are either earlier or more frequently available and have way superior zone control, while each of the other ones is strong enough to turn the tide of a battle on their own. Sure, these are limited by their irreplaceability, but the greatest strength of a final unlock shouldn’t be useless before the unit is destroyed, which, sadly, is the case right now.
So, how to resolve these issues? There are several options for this, but the easiest and fairest one is probably to buff the Tiger’s damage output to increase its overall impact and especially its capability of fighting other tanks – it should easily and somewhat quickly beat a non-upgun Pershing or an IS-2, while also not helplessly awaiting its inevitable destruction when chased by an upgunned Pershing.
To achieve this, I recommend the following buffs:
- Decrease the refire delay of the Blitz Tigers main gun to 7 seconds (from 8, as far as I know)
- Slightly increase the penetration of the Blitz Tigers main gun against the IS-2 and the Pershing, maybe also against the IS-3.
These Buffs will give the Tiger much better matchups against its direct competitors, while also increasing its impact on the overall situation without making it overpowered in comparison to the super-high-impact-tanks. Numbers are, obviously, nothing finite and can be tweaked by the balance team, and the type of buff is only a suggestion, too. A slight speed increase or a buff to the main guns damage would probably help just as well. Anyway, something has to be done to keep the Tiger from falling into insignificance.
I hope you can see my point and agree on that the Tiger needs a buff to regain its status as a decisive and maybe even game-winning unit, and in this spirit, I’ll just say it once again:
Save the Tigers!
Dear Eastern Front community, I’d like to draw your attention to an increasingly rare species that even seems to be threatened by extinction:
The Tiger.
As of today, the number of people concerned with this highly significant topic has decreased drastically. And while this may be due to the people just not paying attention to anything anymore, a much more compelling reason can be found in the Tigers rather unspectacular overall performance.
On the Battlefields everywhere between Moscow and the French coast, the numbers of Tigers have been dwindling. A few years ago, we saw hundreds, even thousands of them roaming the battlegrounds at the western and eastern fronts, but as of today, there are only a handful of them left, and whether they’ll survive the next years is questionable at best.
In order to give them a chance to maintain a viable population for the next century, I want to draw your attention to the threats the Tiger has to face and to master, and hope to gain your support in my quest to increase the Tigers viability, so that it may become the deadly force it used to be and crush its opposition once again.
These things threaten the Tiger:
-Russian big game hunters like the dreadful IS-2 and IS-3 are hunting and terrorizing the Tigers, usually overpowering them with superior strength and speed or even through sheer numbers.
-Some American companies care little for the environment, and especially the John Pershing Upgun Inc. has proven to be a huge threat to the Tigers very existence.
-British AT-stations constantly disturb and harass the Tiger in its natural territory.
Don’t let this beautiful and majestic species be extinguished!
Give the Tigers a future!
By now, you have probably realized that I am not talking about the big cat native to India, China, Siberia and Southeast Asia.
Instead, their ironclad counterparts are the focus of this thread:
So let’s get to the actual problem now: The Wehrmacht Tiger in the Blitzkrieg doctrine is currently outshined by most other “super-tanks” in the game. Let’s see some comparisons:
Tiger vs. Pershing
This old battle has been going for years now, ever since CoH has been released. And as of now, the Pershing has the upper hand in several aspects:
-Availability: Unlocking the Pershing costs 8 CP. Unlocking the Tiger costs 9.
-Speed: The Pershing starts out faster than the Tiger, and if I remember correctly, its speed is increased once again when it reaches Vet 1. This is, as everyone should know from the whole IS-3 debate, a huge advantage, as it allows the Pershing to retreat from an unwinnable battle much easier, control a larger zone of the map and evade artillery attacks more frequently.
-Combat Power: A Tiger beats a Pershing of the same level of veterancy, until said Pershing gets the upgun, that is. It will increase the Pershing’s penetration chance against the Tiger to a flat 100%, regardless the distance or level of veterancy, allowing the Pershing to destroy any Tiger tank with ease. Against infantry, their performance is roughly equal, and whatever disadvantage the Pershing may suffer due to the upgun is easily neutralized by the huge damage bonus it gets on veterancy level 3.
-Doctrine: The Tiger is, more or less, the final unlock in the Blitzkrieg doctrine. Blitzkrieg assault isn’t quite worth its ammu and Manpower Blitz is only useful if you’re floating insane amounts of resources. The American armor company has got two “final unlocks”, which is an advantage in longer games.
Tiger vs. IS-2
Well, the IS-2 may not be stronger than the Tiger, but it’s not doctrine-dependent, costs less manpower and can be spammed. Also, according to a chart provided by GodlikeDennis in another thread, its shots actually deal more damage than those of a tiger and it has more health. There are still armor and veterancy levels to give the Tiger an edge, but the IS-2 is still a unit that easily circumvents the ton of restrictions the Tiger suffers from… So it may be a little strong in comparison.
Tiger vs. IS-3
Well, can these units even be compared to each other? One is a decent, though super slow and offensively lacking front line fighter, while the other one is the same, but stronger, faster, bulkier and slightly earlier available. Sure, the IS-3 can be destroyed permanently, but the impact it has on the battlefield is just so much larger than anything the tiger could possibly hope for that it’s almost ridiculous. Also, the IS-3’s Breakthrough Assault strategy has a lot fewer useless or close-to-useless parts then Blitzkrieg, as the Sturmovik alone has a higher impact than the entire right side of the Blitzkrieg tree.
Tiger vs. King Tiger
Okay, the KT, like the IS-3, comes slightly earlier than the Blitz Tiger, but can be permanently shut down if you’re not careful enough. While it IS on the field, however, it easily outshines the tiger by being an incredibly tough and really strong tank – easily stronger than anything the allies might throw at it. Its zone control is heavily limited by its slow movement, but, as opposed to the Blitz Tiger, this monster can easily hold a VP with comparably little support, or spearhead the final assault on the enemy’s base. The point here is that the KTs incredible strength allows it to do things no Blitz player could even think of achieving with his Tiger… Just as the IS-3 has incredible potential due to its speed. These two are, essentially, super-high-impact-units; they can change the game in the very moment of their appearance on the battlefield. The Blitz Tiger shares all their disadvantages until it dies, but it doesn’t really do anything to make up for them. The only advantage it has over them is its expendability, and we all know that this doesn’t go anywhere near making up for its almost complete lack of impact on the battlefield.
Tiger vs. Jagdpanther
Well, what is there to add? The JP shares the KTs and IS-3s place as a super-high-impact-unit, and is so much stronger than the Tiger that any comparison couldn’t even be taken seriously. Especially after getting a few levels of defensive vet, the JP becomes almost indestructible and super-fast while still dealing much more damage than the Blitz Tiger.
Tiger vs. Tiger Ace
Once again, we get the replaceable Tiger versus a one-time-call-in, which is a Tiger… with a turbo engine and a sniper shot ability, while the only actual disadvantage kicks in when the unit gets destroyed. This, however, probably won’t happen if you play it safe, as the Ace’s insane speed makes it hard to pin down and destroy.
So to sum it up, ALL the other super-tanks in the game are better than the Tiger in several ways. The only ones that aren’t definitively stronger than it are the Pershing and the IS-2, and these are either earlier or more frequently available and have way superior zone control, while each of the other ones is strong enough to turn the tide of a battle on their own. Sure, these are limited by their irreplaceability, but the greatest strength of a final unlock shouldn’t be useless before the unit is destroyed, which, sadly, is the case right now.
So, how to resolve these issues? There are several options for this, but the easiest and fairest one is probably to buff the Tiger’s damage output to increase its overall impact and especially its capability of fighting other tanks – it should easily and somewhat quickly beat a non-upgun Pershing or an IS-2, while also not helplessly awaiting its inevitable destruction when chased by an upgunned Pershing.
To achieve this, I recommend the following buffs:
- Decrease the refire delay of the Blitz Tigers main gun to 7 seconds (from 8, as far as I know)
- Slightly increase the penetration of the Blitz Tigers main gun against the IS-2 and the Pershing, maybe also against the IS-3.
These Buffs will give the Tiger much better matchups against its direct competitors, while also increasing its impact on the overall situation without making it overpowered in comparison to the super-high-impact-tanks. Numbers are, obviously, nothing finite and can be tweaked by the balance team, and the type of buff is only a suggestion, too. A slight speed increase or a buff to the main guns damage would probably help just as well. Anyway, something has to be done to keep the Tiger from falling into insignificance.
I hope you can see my point and agree on that the Tiger needs a buff to regain its status as a decisive and maybe even game-winning unit, and in this spirit, I’ll just say it once again:
Save the Tigers!
