Dealing with King Tiger as SU

I've lost 3 games in a row to a King Tiger and I'm at a loss as to how to deal with it. IS-2 gets blown out of the water and I just cannot kill it with anything. A King Tiger and a panther can obliterate anything I can throw at it, and combined with Faschimjagers everything I do late game just seems to be shredded.

Every game as SU I either win in the mid game or lose, pretty much without fail unless my opponent misplays. Late game Axis armour and infantry is just so superior to the SU late game. Am I missing something? Is anyone who plays with SU able to give me some late game pointers because I'm just getting absolutely wrecked everytime the top end German armour comes out.

This isn't me complaining that anything is OP because I don't think the KT is OP, I'm, just having real issues dealing with it at the minute.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated and apologies if this isn't the correct place for this post. Thanks!

Thread moved to the State Office -> Red Army Strategies. Hopefully, you will receive some help, borobadger!

Welcome borobadger.

First I want to give you a welcome at .org.
Second I want to thank you for chosing our site as source of a help. I´m almost sure you will find here many good and friendly community members who will help you with any problems you encounter. Do beware though, in balance section many trolls live, and meeting them too early may discourage. We are trying to keep them down a bit, but you know, it´s the Internet after all. On the other hand, in the state office only friendly creatures live, like strategists, that keen to help you.


No let´s get to the topic. A replay from you, encountering this problem would greatly help us. We can give you better feedback then, because instaed of theorycrafting we can see WHAT are your main problems so we can point at them far more easily.

First good step is to never let OKW to obtain kingtiger. Early game pressure and mid game vehicles like t70 or t34/76 are the way to go. If you fail though, there are still way how to keep KT at bay.

Often when I feel I´m loosing and kt will come, I spam SU76. 3-4 Su76 with some kind of screening support should keep kigtiger at bay, becuase they can outrange him. They don´t have best penetration in the world, so beware.

Two su85 is even better, they are literaly su76 with better penetration and ability that will allow them to spot enemy tanks from afar. Do note they move slower when they are using this ability.

Also some commaders offer mark target ability - this ability will mark target making him take 33% increased damage - great way to help your sources to take down kt.

Also commader with IS2 may help. IS2 backed up with 2 ZIS AT guns should keep kingtiger at bay and fight him off at equal terms.


Do not forget to place mines, so he get punished by destroyed engine if he drives too far.


There is no real "conter" to kt as soviet. You either keep him at bay with su85s or su76 or AT guns while you push on the flanks, after all kt cannot be everywhere at once. Or you may try to amass t34/76 or t34/85 or lend lease shermans and then make big flank, trying to kill KT. This is rather risky tho, if you fail or hit his mine, KT will kill your tanks and have free reign.


Also ISU152 keeping infantry at bay with HE rounds and AT guns keeping kt at bay can work.


Hope this helps you

Su-85 > KT Due to the KT being so slow you can continuously kite the KT with your SU-85 and shoot at him while he cannot shoot back. The extended sight of the SU-85 also allows it to engage it solo unsupported, but of course supported is always better than not. The limited vision leaves you susceptible to flanks so be wary of them. SU-85 is also good to deal with panthers as they outrange them but once again be wary of flanks and the panthers high speed. As long as you have some form of snare nearby you will shut down flanks and it will be very difficult to aggressivly push into your tank destroyer(s).

I'll upload the replay of a match I just lost to the KT in a sec. I blew up 3 of his squads with a demo charge at the start of the game and still managed to lose which is pretty incredible, so a bit of a advice on how to close games out when I am ahead would help as this would probably mean a lot less KTs to deal with.

I'll upload the replay of a match I just lost to the KT in a sec. I blew up 3 of his squads with a demo charge at the start of the game and still managed to lose which is pretty incredible, so a bit of a advice on how to close games out when I am ahead would help as this would probably mean a lot less KTs to deal with.

Please create a new thread with that replay in state office - replay review then, so more strategists can track it down much more easily

I didn't save the reply, only have it as last played game is there anyway I can upload it without having saved it?

go to documents/my games/company of heroes 2/playback and upload temp.rec, that's your last played game

I tried that but I think because I closed the game the temp file was deleted

Temp file should still be there. Follow the path DanielD gave you. Coh2 was not open when I took this screenshot, so closing the game doesn't affect the file.

Got it thanks, I've uploaded it here https://www.coh2.org/topic/60713/sov-v-okw-king-tiger-help

let's assume you and your opponent is on the same skill level. In this case you and your opponent will have similar map control and fuel income. Because if your opponent is superior than you, Panzer and Panther can also crush your defense.
I personally like Guand Motor Doctrine with T-34/85 and Mark
Target. there were few time I beat a KT with just 2 T-34/85, that's when opponent is over confident about KT and move it unsupported. but a lot of time KT is supported by raketenwerfers or a P4. I will group my 2-3 T-34/85 and attack from a flank. the key is to PLAN the attack, the route and other infantry coordination. there are times my tank get stuck and it's completely failure. usually people will face their raketenwerfers to the front. so when you first surprise them from the flank and mart target the KT, they will panic and forget to turn the raketenwerfers but to focus reversing the KT. if you have a good route and circle and KT, sometime the KT turret can not catch up with your t-34/85 speed. With good RNG, KT will die very quickly and you will have maybe 1 or 2 T-34/85 left. at the same time if I see where opponents' raketenwerfers are, I will move up my infantry to focus on raketenwerfers.
the result is very situational, sometimes my 120mm motor one shoot the raketenwerfers and I get out with all my T-35/85 survived. sometimes even if I destroy KT, the guy have mg34 to suppress my approaching Infantry and raketenwerfers destroy my t-34/85 which has been Fausted by VolksGrenadier. there was one time when i circle the KT and crush a full squad of Sturmpioneer at the same time.
but no matter the result, it will be a fun game.
I tried Su85s with some Zis gun, but had fewer success because when my opponent notice my strategy, it become something like a head to head trench fight. they will use cloaked raketenwerfers and superior German infantry to destroy my Su85s. the infantry faust my tank and deal with my infantry, raketenwerfers shoot down my SU85, and after they kill a tank, they retreat. And sometimes a flanking P4 or puma will completely decimate my force. Other Soviet player might be better at this strategy, so they might offer better advice.

As long as the KT hasn't reached Vet 3 yet, one of it's key weaknesses is it's turret turning speed. If you can use infantry or a sacrificial tank like a T34 to get the KT to turn it's turret completely to one side, you can launch an attack with TD's from the opposite side.

The unaware KT driver will either have to wait for the turret to turn all the way around, or he will start to turn his vehicle to get his gun onto the new threats. This will typically expose his back or flank to your lines. In team games, allies can then attack his back or flank or in solo games you can have AT guns on your front lines start hitting the back and sides.

Whenever I lose a KT it's due to two reasons: I advanced too far with it into enemy territory and got attacked from multiple angles or I was swarmed on all sides by a mass of armor.

The KT is very powerful but it's turret speed is really it's biggest weakness. It can only swing that big gun around so fast.

Not sure if it's too late but getting a KT means he's already sacrificing everything else or he's already leading hard and just closing the game. You should not let OKW get KT in the first place and try to force him to throw fuel to get mediums. If he insists on getting the KT you will have maximum armor superiority provided you don't get snared and raketened to death.

It's the vet 5 infantry as well, I just find it very difficult to beat an OKW player if we are both at full pop cap. I've gotten better since making this post though so I have managed to ensure my games against OKW end a lot earlier

Yeah, the longer a game drags on vs. OKW the harder and harder it is to win as SOV I've found - one tool that many people forget about is Ram; sometimes it's worth it to build a single 76 to have on standby Ram duty and as soon as you get the KT in the sights of most of your AT pop Ram and try to take him out before he can recover.

When facing a strong unit like a KT, don't always necessarily think about trying to counter it directly, as this can just be playing into the enemy's hands.


As with any war or strategy game, the best thing you can do is hit the enemy where they are weak and where it will cause them trouble. After all Hitler didn't wonder how to counter the OP Maginot Line, he just went around it through Belgium.

So for a KT, it may be better to concentrate on either wiping his supporting inf (maybe katushkas), while holding the KT at bay, or even better destroying his HQ trucks.

Easiest and risk free way to rape OKW trucks is combined howitzer and IL-2 bombing run, this stop him repairing and gets it killed fast, if you keep nailing trucks like that it really helps weaken them, not to mention you can be destorying those trucks way before KT arrives, forcing him to waste more fuel replacing them.

The weaker you make the rest of his forces, the less effective the KT will become and easier to out manouver it.

I just kill it once (i have 80hs playing) y use Mark Vehicle plus hig speed sturmovik bombs (4 bombs 50kg each) they fear to come whit is tiger because y have 6 AT Cannon whit cammo ambush

If you flank a KT with a ptrs penal troop, you can actually 1v1 it.

I just kill it once (i have 80hs playing) y use Mark Vehicle plus hig speed sturmovik bombs (4 bombs 50kg each) they fear to come whit is tiger because y have 6 AT Cannon whit cammo ambush

You just revived a six month thread. Talk about some proper post necromancy

If you flank a KT with a ptrs penal troop, you can actually 1v1 it.

I would veeery much like to see a replay or video of this!