What Role Should Heavy Tanks Serve?

Well said Derbyhat.

Heavies imo are ment to be a new tier of tank power, not just premium'er mediums

Heavy Tanks, which I would include to be Tigers, King Tigers, KVs, IS-2s, and Churchills, should be units with poor mobility that can serve primarily defensive roles overwatching chokepoints or critical resources. They also should be able to serve (with support) as a spearhead unit.

Other Heavy Units, such as the ISU, Elefant, Jagdtiger, and Sturmtiger, I would categorize similarly. Although for these casemate units I would say they are primarly defensive overwatch type units, as the lack of a turret makes offensive pushes a little more challenging. Still possible though.

They should be able to withstand standard, non-specialized weapons from the front in a consistent fashion. Standard frontal fire from an unvetted medium tank of any faction should not reliably penetrate any heavy tank except when at close range. Anything like a Jackson, Panther, Firefly, or SU-85 should be somewhat reliable in penetrating heavies at max range, but should always penetrate from medium range. The Jackson and SU-85, given the limitations of the faction and unit respectively, should probably be able to be consistent at max range versus the Axis heavies. I think all heavy tanks should have a decent shot at clearing/destroying an (meaning ONE) anti-tank gun from the front without taking a critical amount of damage. Unless, of course, it a USF ATG using its AP rounds.

Heavies should be vulnerable to artillery fire and any rear armor shot. Even light tanks should penetrate their rear armor at close range. I would even go so far as to say heavies should take bonus damage on rear armor hits, even if it is just the heavy casemate units.

The Pershing, incidentally, I would not consider a heavy tank because one of its key features is its mobility. Although I should say I personally don't think the Pershing should be limited to 1 nor do I think it should lack a vehicle crew, but that's a different topic and rife with its own caveats.

Furthermore, as an afterthought, though the Churchill and KV series do not have powerful anti-tank weapons they are less generally suited to serve in a spearhead role, except the performance against infantry may be appropriate depending on the Axis army makeup. Especially given OKW's puppchen is easy to clear with either tank.

Heavy tank as the name implies, means it can take a heavier punishment.

Necro: -

Still no defined role.

Balance team focuses on the minutia, with no grand picture in their head. Every patch addresses symptoms created by the last patch without ever addressing the actual disease.