Is the Panzer IV F2 made of explosive cardboard?

[Ball-Stabbing Emmanuel McCoy]

I like to play German ground forces, always having a fascination with WW2 German tanks. I saw the Panzer IV F2, one of my favourite historical tanks, and thought "Oooh, that looks fun." so I beelined it. After getting used to the other Panzer IV's (With the derp guns) I started doing pretty well with them. I got at least one kill every match so Imagine my excitement when I finally buy the Panzer IV F2, only to take it into the field and get one shotted.

The thing is so fragile you could wave to it 500 yards away and it'd explode. I never had this problem with the other derpy Pz. IVs. Every time I go into battle I roll up to the field, take some shots at enemies, miss because the F2's gun feels far more inaccurate than the others, get hit once, have all my crew get wounded and not be able to move at all, second shot goes into the ammo and my commander's left arm lands in Berlin. Might I add this is all from the FRONT of the tank. The armor does nothing to stop enemy fire. I've gone on death sprees with this thing. It's a cycle of:

>Join game.

>Go to front lines.

>Miss every shot.

>Have all systems be knocked out.

>Explode.

>Rinse and repeat.

I've only ever got one non - tier 1 kill in the pile of junk. Yes, I've died so many times I'm being put back with Tier 1 tanks and when I get enough kills, it's back to the slaughterhouse of Tier 2. I can't progress because I'm getting around 50 research points per match. Is this thing supposed to be made of cardboard?

[W - Tungstene]

1: be careful on how u drive the PZR 4 F2 because it is prone to get one shoted like any other tank with not alot for armor
2: PLEASE do not think the tank is carp , it is probably the way you are driving it and using it , try using it as a TD instead of a proper front line tank (liek the T34) , its gun is FANTASITC at hiting things at distance so us that to its advantage :D.

[Tankfriend]

Frontal armour on the F2 is only a measly 50mm unsloped, so it's not much of a surprise that you're getting wrecked frontally pretty easily by what you face. Having an ammo rack near the front doesn't help things, either.

Best things you can do about that is to stay at range (don't just charge into the front line), and hide as much of your tank as you can behind cover. Ideally, only peek over a hill with your turret (the good gun depression is a big help for fighting in hilly terrain), fire a shot, and roll back into cover. Even if you're fighting along the front line, afterall, make sure you look for routes where you can exploit that gun depression to stay in cover while also getting a line of fire on your enemy.

If you're ever forced to expose your hull, keep yourself angled towards the target at ~30-40° or so to get as much effective thickness and angle out of your frontal armour as possible and you might get a lucky bounce here or there.
Things will be just a bit better once you get the G, H or J with improved 80mm frontal hull armour, but the basic idea is the same as on the F2.

As for accuracy - once you've got the basics of spare parts and fire extinguisher upgrades covered, try to get the gun accuracy upgrade, which usually solves these problems. On top of that, also make sure you keep your crew training up to date.

[Ball-Stabbing Emmanuel McCoy]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tankfriend:

Frontal armour on the F2 is only a measly 50mm unsloped, so it's not much of a surprise that you're getting wrecked frontally pretty easily by what you face. Having an ammo rack near the front doesn't help things, either.

Best things you can do about that is to stay at range (don't just charge into the front line), and hide as much of your tank as you can behind cover. Ideally, only peek over a hill with your turret (the good gun depression is a big help for fighting in hilly terrain), fire a shot, and roll back into cover. Even if you're fighting along the front line, afterall, make sure you look for routes where you can exploit that gun depression to stay in cover while also getting a line of fire on your enemy.

If you're ever forced to expose your hull, keep yourself angled towards the target at ~30-40° or so to get as much effective thickness and angle out of your frontal armour as possible and you might get a lucky bounce here or there.
Things will be just a bit better once you get the G, H or J with improved 80mm frontal hull armour, but the basic idea is the same as on the F2.

As for accuracy - once you've got the basics of spare parts and fire extinguisher upgrades covered, try to get the gun accuracy upgrade, which usually solves these problems. On top of that, also make sure you keep your crew training up to date.

I have have the upgrades and all the aiming ones. I just went into a game to test your advice and kept my tank at an angle but I got the same result. I even stayed back and concealed myself halfway behind a building but all that happened was my driver got killed and then the ammo explodes on the second shot.

[Coelian]

Tip for playing Long barrel Panzer 4
DONT even duke it out with a sherman. they got 50-63mm of armor at a 56 degree slope. which means... they can survive a shell a tinsy beat more.and their guns are not hte best, but they are pain in the arse. if you shoot a KV-2 and your shell harmlessly bounces off, GTFO! i mean it! or enjoy a fridge that barreled into you at 630 m/s

[Supreme Corgi]

The Panzer IV with the short gun only saw some tanks that had a 45mm gun and maybe the 75mm like the lee to do any real damage.

[Case]

I would think someone with a fascination with the armor would know that the PzIV wasn't exactly the most well armored tank i nthe first place. Angle your armor, don't get into close range pissing matches if you can avoid it, learn where to aim to kill gunners if you don't think you can reliably kill the tank in one shot and don't forget to strip ammo out of your storage.

[PyroPaul]

Take this time and try and find a 'niche' point in the number of round you optimally need in a battle.

A lot of german tanks all suffer from poorly placed internal magazines which are prone to cooking off in the heat of combat. By shorting your magazine (because seriously - you're not going to go through +90 reloads with ANY tank) you'll suggnificantly reduce death via explosive magazine.

the Tiger H1 specifically can be made 3 fold more resilent to potental death by simply taking 23 rounds into combat rather then the full magazine of +60.

[Razgriz]

Once you reach the F2 most the other nations are starting to reach their specialties i've found. Its also my favorite tier 2 tank across any nation.

The biggest problem with the F2 is the fact that the armor is the equivelent to wet paper and you can get easily one shotted by the T-34's, KV-1's, M4A1's, M4A2's, M4A3 105's, M10's and M18s that I found to be common enemies while playing the F2, should they pen you of course. To try to prevent this do as others have said and drop your ammo count. I never once used half of a full load (45 shells) while playing it, and the reason for that comes down to the best thing about it, ITS GUN!. While using the F2 with a properly trained crew and upgrades to accuracy I could effectively pen every other tank I faced through the front at close to medium ranges in realistic battles and was able to pen some light and mediums through the front from spawn point to spawn point while in an arcade stint.
Also don't sit out in the open still as a rock, even at ranges. Constant movement can cause an enemy to miss giving you a perfect chance to get him back. And if near large cover back behind it while reloading.
If playing realistic you need to try a more tactical approach and use flank routes to ensure you get your enemies by surprise allowing you to get the first few shots off.
If playing arcade sit at range and let your Russian and American teammates duke it out at close range with their fancy sloped armor. Id say only move in when a cap point needs attention and no friendlies are around to defend.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Pop your nose out from cover, bang, back into cover. Dont just sit there like duck on the platter. This tank has amazing gun for its BR and can easily penetrate from km away.

[Schnittertm]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Rumpelcrutchskin:

Pop your nose out from cover, bang, back into cover. Dont just sit there like duck on the platter. This tank has amazing gun for its BR and can easily penetrate from km away.

One more thing to add to all that cover stuff. If the enemy knows you are in a certain cover, you might peek out one more time if you have their gunner disabled, if not, either use the other side of the cover or make your way out of there. They know you are in Pz. IV, they know they can easily penetrate you and they will, if they are not totally braindead, pre-aim at the point you'll pop up again to fire once more.

It's always easy to say, but hard to put into action, be unpredictable.

[GoreTiger]

When playing the Panzer IV lineup, You have to remember that the IV lineup was NOT meant to become the Main battle tank of the german military at it's creation. It was meant as a infantry-support tank, while the Panzer III was meant to be the MBT. But the Panzer III quickly became overwhelmed and it's frame wasn't as flexable as the Panzer IV's when it came to upgrades and retrofits. So the Panzer III quickly fell out of line and the Panzer IV was converted into a shabby MBT to fill the role. The F2 is basically an infantry-support tank with an MBT's cannon shoved on it.

[Scowlin]

F2 was my favourite tank for a long while, and I agree with everyone else, you are a glass cannon.

To summarise;

Play cautious; use the range of your gun to your advantage.
Angle your armour; 30/60 gives you a survivability boost.
Half load your ammo; you don't need a full load.

You have the best gun available at BR 3.7 (M10 gun is a close second) it's more than capable of penning anything you meet even at medium ranges.

[Tankfriend]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Herbivore The Carnivorous Goat:

I have have the upgrades and all the aiming ones. I just went into a game to test your advice and kept my tank at an angle but I got the same result. I even stayed back and concealed myself halfway behind a building but all that happened was my driver got killed and then the ammo explodes on the second shot.

As I said, angling your armour is no guarantee to protect you well, because the armour on the F2 is still very flimsy. It's only the best thing you can do when you can't do anything else, like hiding your entire hull behind solid cover. If you get killed by shots to the front into the driver, then chances are that you didn't have that kind of cover available, or you weren't careful enough with your positioning.