Anyone know any hard counters to King Tiger?

Howdy. I'm struggling a bit in dealing with King Tigers as Soviets. Does anyone know any hard counters or strategies against them? Ideally, I shouldn't be letting them get one in the first place, but it seems that even vet 3 AT guns bounce off them, and the KT is pretty good at taking out the AT guns.

Cheers

I'd guess lots of mines and an ISU or two- concrete rounds + mark target would put a lot of hurt on the KT.

Well as said above, I have first hand experience that 2x ISUs will push KT back for sure. Yesterday managed to lose myself in similar situation. It was patient game from my opponents and not so good game from me and my friend.

So few AT guns and ISU's did the job, I was focused on higher vet ISU so in the meanwhile also the AT guns got some shots through.

Howdy. I'm struggling a bit in dealing with King Tigers as Soviets. Does anyone know any hard counters or strategies against them? Ideally, I shouldn't be letting them get one in the first place, but it seems that even vet 3 AT guns bounce off them, and the KT is pretty good at taking out the AT guns.

Cheers

Well if you haven't noticed already the KT has very slow turrent and movement speed, just try and move rather than staying static with AT guns.
I havent really come up against it myself.. so maybe some other people might chip in

don't let him get it in the first place.


T-34/85s, su-85, IS-2 all do okay, but generally, you want to defeat OKW before that.

It is rather easy to flank or encircle a KT once overextended. Due to it's range it is not much of a threat when far away and when it comes close you just go all around it and throw everything at is. Parking a T34 behind it to prevent it from reversing can be very useful

Here's an example replay of soviets killing a King Tiger very quickly:

http://www.coh2.org/replay/19641/heavy-armor-clash-is2s-jagdpanzer-kt

It was very obvious that he was saving for the King, since he had no armor other than the Jagdpanzer for the rest of the game. Mine + double IS2 bumrush killed it in less than 30 seconds.

Yeah, they are nice units, but the turret traverse is so slow they are little better than an Assault Gun.

Treat it like you would an elephant

Good advice. Thanks y'all.

KT has tons of hp, low DPS, poor mobility and a terrible turret traverse speed.

Su85s or ISU152 are probably your best bet, as others have mentioned. Or kiting the turret with T34s, although this is harder with schrecks and/or Raketen around.

Engine damage from a mine = lolz on the KT, it can barely move.

Distract the turret with infantry - you can run around the tank faster that it can turn the cannon - while letting your vet3 AT guns hammer it.
If he orders it to attack, it cannot move.
If he orders it to move, it cannot do damage due to turned turret.

In 1v1 one IS-2 is actually enough, since it's able to circle strafe a KT faster than its turret can rotate. Of course any other tank could do the same, but they are more easily killed by schrek support. I suppose T34-85s would be equally effective.

The reason I'm explicitly stating this works in 1v1 is because in 2v2 you'd usually see tank support from the other player, whereas you won't see any other tanks in 1v1 because a KT is simply too expensive.

Su85 or ISU152 like most of this thread.

May i also say that if you get a mine or a conscript AT grenade on it, then it's practically immobile and free for your SU85 or ISU152 to shoot.

Yes isolated shots from pretty much every tank in the game have a decent chance of not penetrating a king tiger, but if you keep sustained fire on a king tiger you should penetrate it a little over 50% of the time.

If they can get a king tiger out, you should be able to get a couple medium tanks out. Assuming you have a couple T-34s or Shermans, send them in but surround him so he has to turn his turret to reaim also send your infantry in to soak in some fire.

I usually move one of my tanks behind the KT to block him so he can't reverse out. That usually seals its fate.

If it's a teamgame. B-4 will save the day. A hit will take atleast half of the HP of the KT, a tripple vetted B-4 will as you know have 50% more DMG, you won't oneshot it but if he has already lost som health the B-4 will take him out.

(Altough by the Grace of RNG my unvetted B-4 fireing on a OKW base-structure once did oneshot a KT. Was a good game. )


People don't like the B-4 because of its wide scatter and that arty used to be hard countered. Well OKW have no stuka bombs, nor recon. And the best OH doctrine for countering it is elephant, but nobody wants that anymore.

As for scatter and time to fire; dont fire at long ranges unless you know its a hit on something. Use precision strike for those times. Move the cannon around whilst reloading so you have it pointed when you can fire again. And as always, mines, barbwire and cover is important. If you go Counter-attack, the b4 is all you get to deal with late heavy armour.

But it can be a total beast in dealing with it.

Yeah I was about to say arty. Even just standard Soviet Howie will do good damage vs it and force it back from an area.

Only good counter OKW have to a howie, is a stuka, but at 100 fuel on top of a king tiger... and stuka would have to get close to your front lines to fire on the howie where you could probably take it out.

We handle yesterday 4 KT with 2 ISU and 3-4 easy eight sherman and lot of AT (4-5). Yes it was a long game. We don't kill all but they have to back.

I won a random 3v3 yesterday where OKW managed to get 3 KTs. My team experienced a stupidly epic lag in the beginning of the game so I didn't realize both of my teammates had dropped until close to mid game. I figured since I was at such a disadvantage, might as well answer their imminent spam with my own.

So I went Soviet Industry.

Spamming T34s work reasonably well vs King Tigers and the infamous OKW blob. If you can form a HORDE of 4-5 T34s (shouldn't be too hard with Industry), that battle group will take out anything OKW have. Drive up behind the King Tiger, block his retreat path, and it'll go down very quickly without you taking much casualties. Don't attack it head-on where its turret is pointing. Always flank. All your tanks should be able to get 2 salvos in before KT fires once (its turret rotation is very slow). I took out 3 King Tigers this way yesterday. Attack in hordes, kill stuff, make them retreat, then go back for repair (2-3 repair stations + vehicle repair will get your T34s back in shape in no time). Your tanks are disposable, theirs aren't; so if necessary, it's worth it to sacrifice a few of yours to take out one of theirs.

Always swarm and never send your initial tanks piecemeal. OKW can't field many tanks, so they rely on infantry (blob) to survive early / mid game. Replace any tanks you lost and aim for the KV8 to help handle the infantry blob.

I was matched against players in rank ~2000s so it may not work vs more competent players.

button + bombing run --> see here: http://www.coh2.org/replay/20148/wait-for-it.

For me, the best strategy is damaging its engine by any means.

Once done that, the KT it's just a piece of immobile trash that can be defeated with ATguns, SU85 or IS2/ISU152.

The best way to damage its engine is with mines or a succeful T34 ram.