Kerensky wrote:Out of curiosity, how would you say the T34/43 compare to... say the PZ IVH? My understanding is they are relatively equal, in terms of armament and armor, but the IVH probably has a slight advantage, especially in gun power.
This seems to confirm my impression:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/s ... hp?t=54764
Currently the IVH outclasses the T34/43 in every category except speed.
And the answer to gun power is this:
The Pz IV H and IV J's KwK weapon had considerably more penetrating power than the T-34 43's gun and was actually very closely matched against the soviets 85mm.
Regarding HA:
Russian 76.2mm gun was somewhat comparable with Sherman's 75mm and outclassed by German 75mm on Panzer IV.
Because T-34/43 proved to be inferior and possible to be destroyed at all distances, the Russians decided to develop its successor, which resulted in T-34/85.
Russian 85mm could be compared to 75mm on Mark IV. It was outclassed by long 76mm on Sherman (this was a surprise to Russians who tested it on training grounds - I cannot find the link atm, as battlefield.ru is not working for me) and outclassed by German 75mm that Panther had.
It is not a very big surprise for me, 85mm was used as a AA gun earlier

.
However, regarding SA it may have been a bit better.
Armor:
Here is the box of Pandora. Fans of T-34 surely know the numbers (millimeters) and the famous slopes, but those fans overlook few important aspects:
- how to handicap the tank? lets make a hole in the armor so the front plate will be the weaker and the driver will protect everything with his body

;
- T-34 was cramped because of the slopes; this was especially visible in earlier versions - and it has been reflected in the report from Aberdeen;
- due to bad refining process, armor was "too hard" which in result caused metal fragments flying inside, even though the armor itself was not penetrated; same thing appeared later on German side in Tiger II;
- through the war the hull (and its armor) stayed pretty the same, only the turret was improved;
Now some rants about the German side:
- even Panzer I was used during initial fights with the Soviets (Barbarossa);
- main German tanks were Panzer III and Panzer IV for a pretty long time; the most
numerous German tank at Kursk was not Tiger and not Panther, but Panzer III;
- the most numerous German armored vehicles to be produced were not the tanks, but different kinds of self-propelled guns (e.g. Panzer III strikes again, now changed into StuG III

);
- armor in German tanks was of very high quality; this translated directly into higher resistance and less casualties - especially when the armor had been penetrated; however - at the end of the war it went worse;
- additional armor screens helped, too;
Mobility:
- I totally have no idea why T-34 has movement speed of 6; I know that it is the way that was created in the PG, and the PzC took the stats from it;
it looks like SSI was thinking that Christie-type suspension automatically means "great terrain mobility"; it can be also noted that tanks like Panzer IID (also Christie), Panther (somewhat similar to Christie at a first glance) also have speed of 6; in my opinion it is wrong, since Christie proved to have a lot of problems and poor offroad performance; after WWII Christie went into oblivion and nowadays the most advanced tanks usually have the torsion-bar suspension, like the one on Panzer III;
- before the war Soviets evaluated Panzer III and it proved to be faster than T-34 and almost as fast as BT tanks;
- wide tracks - T-34 was superior in this case ("weight : area of tracks" ratio was pretty good); but on the other side an early T-34 experienced serious teething problems which resulted in heavy losses due to technical breakdowns; with the time, T-34 got heavier and the German counterparts got wide tracks as well;
Conclusions:
Firepower: Panzer III<T-34<=Sherman<Panzer IV=T-34/85<=Sherman (76) ("<=" means "the same or slightly better")
The current ground defense ratings of 11 for the Russian tank vs 14 for the German is way off in my opinion.
Yep, regarding armor I think T-34, T-34/85 and Panzer IV should be pretty close to each other.
Armor: Pancer III<Sherman<T-34<=Panzer IV=T-34/85 (basic variant of Sherman, as Jumbo and other ones would do quite a mess there

)
So maybe something like 12-13 for T-34 and 14 for T-34/85 and Panzer IV?
Mobility: Panzer IV<=T-34<Sherman<=Panzer III (all countries except USSR resigned from using Christie-type suspension; USSR planned to do it, but in the end non-interrupted production was far more important)
It would be good to give better mobility for lighter tanks and reduce the speed of heavy ones. The choice is simple: either you kill everyone but not get to you objectives, or get to them, but casualties will be higher.
Sadly,
www.battlefield.ru is not working correctly today, otherwise I would add some interesting links

.