King Tiger

King Tiger
Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B
Army	Wehrmacht
Role	Heavy Tank
Unit Cost	500 500 16 16
Upkeep per Minute	-21.504 −21.504
Prereq.	Terror Doctrine: King Tiger
Produced By	None
Primary armament	88mm KwK 43 L/71
Secondary armament	2× 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34
Health	2000 2,000
Armor	Heavy
Max. Speed	3 m/s

"Oh god what the BLOODY HELL IS THAT THING?!" - British Commandos upon encountering a King Tiger.

The King Tiger or Tiger II (official real-life designation Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. B "Königstiger"), often shortened to just KT in game, is an Axis heavy vehicle featured in Company of Heroes with the introduction of the Opposing Fronts expansion.

In-game Description

This is a very powerful weapon and thus must be called in times of extreme need. You only have one chance to use this tank and you cannot produce it in the German HQs.

"A single, very powerful King Tiger is allocated to the battlefield but only once. Such a decisive weapon should not be squandered."

Game Info

Most Axis commanders of the Wehrmacht in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts choose the Terror Doctrine for one ultimate goal: to call in the ultimate weapon of terror. The Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. B, also known as the Königstiger - the German word for Bengal Tiger, but often semi-literally translated to King Tiger or Royal Tiger - is something out of a nightmare. This massive, over-sized beast is armed with the 88mm KwK 43 L/71 gun; a longer and more powerful version of the famous 88mm KwK 36 L/56 of the standard Tiger tank and sloped steel armor up to 180mm, twice the armour of most Allied tanks. The King Tiger's immense weight means it can easily crush infantry and tank traps alike. The 88mm KwK 43 L/71 is effective against tanks, with only the M26 Pershing having enough armor to rarely deflect its shells.

The weaker armor of the M4 Sherman, Cromwell Tank, M10 Tank Destroyer, and Sherman Firefly is highly vulnerable to the King Tiger's main gun. Its thick armor also make it capable of taking an incredible amount of punishment, making it one of the toughest tanks on the battlefield. It has good survivability, making it an excellent vehicle for penetrating the enemy's front lines. Its powerful gun is excellent at taking out heavy support vehicles and heavily fortified positions. It is also one of very few vehicles that are capable of surviving massive artillery strikes relatively unscathed. Infantry such as Grenadier Squads, Volksgrenadier Squads, and Pioneer Squads can keep up with it. Supporting the King Tiger with infantry and other Panzers is necessary for it to perform effectively on the battlefield.

When supporting a King Tiger, be mindful not to keep the supporting Panzer too far away. If used in conjunction with Terror Doctrine's V1 Flying Bomb, Zeal and Firestorm, a well-supported King Tiger can effectively breach the enemy front lines and strike fear into even the most persistent Allied commander. The King Tiger is capable crushing the enemies on the battlefield can shatter even the toughest of the opponent's morale. The King Tiger is a not only a superb propaganda war machine but also an effective heavy tank.

King Tiger moving into enemies territory

Weapons

88mm KwK 43 L/71

The King Tiger's main cannon is a more powerful version of the Tiger I's feared 88mm KwK 36 L/56 (which was a derivative of the famous 88mm FlaK 36 AA/AT gun). The 88mm KwK 43 L/71 was the most powerful German tank gun ever fitted in a rotating turret in World War II (excluding the 128mm PaK 44 mounted on the second prototype of Maus as well as Jagdtiger, the Tank Destroyer variant of the King Tiger). Every single hit deals up to 165 damage. The gun has a range of 45 meters and takes between 4.5 to 5.5 seconds to reload.

Compared to the gun of the Tiger I, the one used by the King Tiger is much more specialized for fighting vehicles. While it leaves large craters in the ground, its effective explosive radius is only slightly larger than a Panther's 75mm Kwk 42 L/70, and it is even less accurate against infantry.

7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34

The King Tiger's secondary weapon is the predecessor of the feared Maschinengewehr 42, the 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34. While the real weapon was one of the most effective machine guns of World War II, vehicle mounted machine guns in Company of Heroes are spectacularly ineffective, inflicting lackluster damage and having little suppression.

The pintle mounted machine gun on top of the turret is noticeably more effective than the coaxial and hull mounted machine guns, having longer range and being more accurate.

Tips

• Remember to support the King Tiger as it is vulnerable to many tools in the Allied arsenal, such as Sticky Bombs and being Buttoned.
• The King Tiger drains your manpower rate by 100MP/minute for 5 minutes.
• If a King Tiger is destroyed, the Panzer Elite's Bergetiger Repair and Recovery Vehicle can recover it. Its wreck is also considered a superheavy obstacle, meaning medium vehicles like the Panzer IV cannot crush it.
• King Tigers can often tempt an opponent into performing a major assault, in a gambit to eliminate the King Tiger before it can be used to inflict more significant damage. To this end, the King Tiger can be used to lure an opponent into making poor tactical decisions - such as luring attacking forces into a well-placed ambush.
• The King Tiger's turret is slow, meaning turning the whole tank to help track targets is often necessary.
• The King Tiger has immense amounts of HP HP, allowing it to absorb serious punishment, but also exemplifies the high maintenance nature of German heavy tanks of the late war. Having several Repair Bunkers can be vital to keeping the vehicle combat ready.

Weaknesses

Although the King Tiger is among the heaviest armored and armed tanks on the battlefield (Only the Jagdpanther has superior front armor and cannon), its size and weight make it one of the slowest tank on the battlefield. If it suffers even light engine damage, it will become nearly immobile. This means that protecting its flanks is a high priority. Once lost, it cannot be replaced, unless it is recovered by a Panzer Elite Bergetiger.

An unsupported King Tiger will take more damage from concentrated anti-tank fire than it does to its enemies.

Its slow speed can be an advantage to Allied commanders. You can have multiple M10 Tank Destroyers or M18 Hellcats flank it while M4 Shermans distract it. Additionally, like all tanks it can be killed easily by dropping it off a bridge that your Engineers have rigged with charges. Should the enemy refuse to take it across bridges, it'll have to pass through open ground where anti-tank guns and infantry can flank it.

A critically damaged King Tiger flanked and Immobilized by infrantry

Furthermore, the King Tiger's turret rotation speed is slow. You can take advantage of this by having one of your tanks literally run circles around it, drawing its fire. Eventually, if it does not make a mistake, the tank will move around the King Tiger faster than its turret can track, and therefore, return fire. It is possible for even the smallest tanks, such as a Tetrarch to destroy the King Tiger on their own in this way, however this will take a very long time, so it is not a tactic that should be relied upon, and should only be used as a last resort, primarily because it requires a great amount of micromanagement, greatly increasing the chances that you will lose any other battles that are occurring at the same time. This same tactic can also be used against the Panzer Elite's Jagdpanther, due to its lack of a rotating turret.

An American Armor Company Commander can also use his M26 Pershing and/or Sherman Calliopes to distract the King Tiger, while having Shermans, Hellcats, or even Anti Tank Guns flank it.

Also, the King Tiger is very loud. Allied commanders with a keen ear will be able to find it and home in on it, even through the Fog-Of-War. This puts it at risk from artillery, even if it is hidden. It is even louder if it is moving, so keep it in a safe spot when idling. If you really need to keep it secret, generate noise around it, like several other vehicles, artillery guns, etc. This will make this huge noise-maker on tracks harder to hear, but this is likely to draw artillery fire anyways.

Trivia

• The King Tiger in the game is what is misleadingly called the "Porsche" version out of a mistaken belief that Ferdinand Porsche designed the initial turret. However, the turret is the original - though difficult to manufacture and rather problematic - Krupp design. Only 50 of Krupp's turrets were fitted to Henschel's hulls - which means the King Tiger in-game would be one of the first 50 manufactured tanks. The "Porsche" Tiger is often considered to be the most feared, as the first 50 King Tigers caused considerable destruction once they were fielded. After the 50th Tiger, Henschel's own turret design was used, featuring less-sloped walls and a conventional flat-faced front than eliminated Krupp's shot-trap.
• It was not ideal for urban operations due to its size - which should be taken into consideration in-game.
• In Operation Market Garden campaign, the King Tiger has 2 abilities: Tank Shock (the same ability that Churchill Tanks possess), and a smoke grenade launcher. If this vehicle had these abilities in multiplayer, it would be much more effective on the offensive. Also, the MG gunner is a Panzer Grenadier of the Panzer Elite, not a Grenadier of the Wehrmacht. This is also the case in the British Campaign.

Quotes

“We will cleanse the Fatherland!”

“Ready for action!”

“Ha! They're scratching your paint job Helmut!”

Gallery