If you're an experienced player then well, why are you here? I guess you can poke fun at me but if you do then please give valid constructive criticism and don't just trash talk me. If you're a new player, particularly someone who starts with Germany and you're struggling with the Tiger 1 then please continue reading.

This guide is written with realistic battles in mind since it's the mode I play the most but a lot carries over to arcade and simulator. It'll also only mention the Tiger H1 and Tiger E since I don't own any of the Porsche tigers and feel like I can't give them a fair guide, but from what I can tell they play more similarly to Panthers than Tigers and it's generally a bad idea to angle in them.

Seeing inexperienced Tiger players is practically guaranteed whenever you play 4.7 to 7.0, especially with the new double Tiger premium pack. If you don't want to read a 5 minute long guide then the best piece of advice I can offer is:

First off. YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE. While a Tiger 1 played correctly can be incredibly strong, it'll never be invincible. Planes, flankers and large guns will always pose a significant threat. Even tanks that can't pen you will be able to disable your gun and tracks. Always pick your engagements carefully and don't try to John Wick an entire team by yourself, overconfidence will almost always get you killed eventually.

The 88mm KwK36 is one of the most lethal cannons at this BR range. It has great penetration, explosive filler and velocity. The gun primarily fires PzGr 39 and Pzgr, the regular Pzgr has slightly less penetration but more filler and slightly more velocity. There's not a huge difference on paper but in practice the regular Pzgr one shots a lot more since it has just enough filler to overpressure the enemy tank. It also has HEAT and HE but neither rounds are potent enough to kill other tanks but I still recommend bringing a HE round or two for trucks and open tops. I personally bring 28 rounds since that leaves all the large ammo racks in your sides empty, unfortunately you'll always have the small rack in the front left of the hull since it's the second to last ammo rack to be emptied. You'll rarely need more than 28 rounds anyways unless it's a large map like sands of Sinai.

The Tiger 1 has some notable weakspots, on the H1 variant you have your massive flat 80mm thick cupola and most APHE rounds will disable your turret crew. This weakspot is mostly eliminated on the E variant since it has a smaller and dome shaped cupola but some guns can still punch through. If you're in the H1 try to always be mindful of your cupola, a lot of cover isn't as safe as you'd think.

The roof armor is only 25mm thick which lets many guns above .50 cals penetrate, however the turret roof on the E variant is 40mm thick which makes it resistant to most autocannons found on enemy planes. Most pilots aren't going to bother harassing you with their guns

Both variants have smoke grenade launchers, these can be an extremely powerful tool however I see many players use them poorly. First off ALWAYS be aware of your teammates, you might be able to selfishly prolong your own life but it's often better to give your teammates a chance to kill whoever is causing you issues. Don't pop smokes in a panic when you can still return fire, if you get shot at and you have no idea where then try your best to find the enemy and shoot back. People have object permanence and will predict where you are after you pop smokes, so for example if your turret gets hit and you're breached in the open don't just pop smokes and reverse, instead you should pop smoke and reverse and then adjust your course slightly so the enemy will be more likely to miss you if they shoot into the smoke again.


The hull isn't actually that thick at only 100mm frontally, 80mm on the upper side and 60mm on the lower side but in the next section we'll be looking at how to turn that into an advantage.

The Tiger 1 is probably the tank that's most well known for angling yet so many newer players fail to utilize it. Angling the armor not only increases the effective thickness due to maths but also makes rounds less effective, generally speaking capped rounds have better performance against sloped armor (That's the the first C in APC/APCBC rounds). I'm sure there's some mathematically perfect angle while playing the Tiger but in practice I don't think you can get it down to the exact arcminute, about 35 degrees towards the enemy is good, you can get away with about 40 degrees if your lower hull is in cover.

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Here's an unangled Tiger H1 being shot by M62 from an American 76mm gun at 500mm, a pretty common gun to face at this BR. A pretty easy kill, even for weaker guns since it's only 100mm thick.

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Now here's the same round being fired at a Tiger H1 angled at about 35 degrees, this "only" increases the armor to about 120mm-150mm depending on where you look but since rounds lose significant amounts of penetration when it's not a flat surface it's a pretty major increase in protection.

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Angling is great but it's easy to overangle, the lower hull is only 60mm thick compared to the upper hull being 80mm thick. Here's the same round as before shooting at a Tiger angled at 45 degrees, capable of punching through the lower side! The tracks do absorb rounds sometimes and if the enemy shoots the very front of the hull they'll usually only get the transmission and driver+machine gunner. If your lower hull is in cover then overangling isn't as big of a concern.

It may be tempting to use the Tiger in CQC but the gun handling isn't the best and you're not that mobile, you're a heavy tank after all! It's much easier to get disabled and outflanked when in CQC. Shermans, some of your most common enemies, have short stop stabilizers which let's them shoot accurately at lower speeds and can get a shot off on you before you're able to react. Sometimes you're just forced to play CQC but be aware of your surroundings and take your time, if you're in a standoff with an enemy tank you can just wait until your team flanks the enemy or until some idiot rushes into the enemy and you can take advantage of the enemy reload. The E variant is better than the H1 variant in CQC however since the cupola isn't as much of a weakspot anymore, H1 cupola is trivially easy to hit in CQC and it often pokes out when you're behind the kind of cover you'd usually find in a CQC situation.

If you have a choice it's usually best to play at range since the gun is potent enough and easy enough to use to still be extremely effective at essentially any range. Just don't camp on the edge of the map, the cap is the objective!

If you're engaging multiple enemies (Bad idea, no matter the tank) then try to angle towards the tank that's most likely to kill you. For example the tank with the biggest gun, the tank closest to reloading, etc. In most outnumbered fights you have to compromise and show one of the enemies an unangled part of your hull.

The Tiger 1 has an excellent gun so even in a full uptier it can deal with most threats pretty easily, however there's some particularly tough nuts to crack. I've listed some of the most common ones from the big three below but it's by no means an exhaustive list and I recommend spending some time in the hangar messing around with the armor analysis of the vehicles you find particularly annoying to kill, just don't put it at 0m at a perfectly flat angle because that practically never happens in an actual match (I use 500m and a 5 degree angle whenever I'm testing). I'm including other German tanks because mixed battles exist.

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Both the 75mm and 76mm versions struggle to kill the Tiger 1 (When the Tiger is in capable hands, that is). The machine gun port is the most reliable weakspot but just below the mantlet and the cupola can work. Jumbo players love to wiggle their hulls to make it harder to hit the machine gun port but the lower side of the jumbo is only 38mm thick so if they wiggle about more than 25 degrees towards you then you can usually get through the lower side.

There's a few Pershing variants in game but for the 88mm they all pretty much have the same weakspots. Notably around the mantlet, such as the roof and cheeks (Not the mantlet itself!) and also the machine gun port.

An insane amount of armor. Luckily both the T28 and T95 have two huge cupolas that are easy to penetrate. The T95 has so much side armor that the only good spot to shoot them side on are the aforementioned cupolas or the little flat areas near the cupolas and gunner viewport. The T28 however lacks the side armor so it can be shot center mass without issue. Both tanks are incredibly slow so by the time you see them in combat you'll probably be on your second spawn.

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Probably the most dangerous enemy you'll face since it's a relatively rare event vehicle and most people who play it are experienced and realize how overpowered it is and nothing in this game is stronger than an opponent who knows how to play the game. It's my guilty pleasure The only weakspot that will kill is the lower mantlet and hoping the round bounces down into the hull, the cupola usually only gets the commander from my experience playing as and against the KV-220.

These things have huge guns with a 20.8s reload at max level so don't be afraid to push them if they shoot, just be aware so that they don't have teammates. The turret cheeks and cupola are easy weakspots yet for some reason I see a ton of people shoot the front plate of the IS-2, it can work against the early IS-2 but the driver port can act funky sometimes and if it's the 1944 variant then even the long 88mm can't get through.

The most armored thing you'll come across (No I'm not counting the doom turtles they have huge weakspots). It's a tank destroyer mounted on a T-10 hull, frontally you can't pen it anywhere but getting lucky with the small cupola. If you see one from the side then don't shoot the hull, 3/4 crew are in the superstructure and the sideskirts+tracks hide the fact that the hull slopes inwards in sort of a Y shape. The gun is massive so it's pretty easy to hit the barrel. It's 7.0 so you'll only see it rarely in the Tiger E.

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At close ranges (Approximately <500M) the 88mm can penetrate the Tiger 1 hull no matter how you angle but at long range the gun still packs enough of a punch to go through both cupolas. The coaxial machine gun and gunner sight also work but I personally find the cupola to be a much easier shot.

The Porsche variant with the curved cheeks is easy to kill, the center of the cheeks is only 80mm thick. The Henschel variant however has 185mm of flat cheek armor and you're better off shooting the cupola, the machine gun port can work but volumetric is funky with the king tiger MG.

You don't really have any good options against these two. The Jagdtiger has the machine gun port and the lower mantlet but they're both hard to hit due to volumetric shenanigans. The Ferdinand doesn't have any weakspots against the 88mm frontally but unlike the Jagdtiger it has a muzzle brake which makes it easier to disable the barrel than on the Jagdtiger. Luckily you'll see these two pretty rarely on the enemy team.

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Close air support is just a fact of life and complaining about it does nothing. Playing smart will reduce the effectiveness of enemy aircraft. Spacing is incredibly important, most CAS pilots tend to target groups of tanks so just staying moderately far away from any teammates when possible will make you a low priority target.

Cover, both hard and soft, reduces the effectiveness of enemy planes significantly. When possible drive near buildings or through forests, the last place you want to be is in the open, this of course also helps hide you against enemy ground vehicles. Being next to a building means enemy aircraft have to approach you from certain angles if they even see you in the first place.

You may be tempted to machine gun enemy planes but the H1 variant only has a coaxial machine gun which makes it too slow for target acquisition and makes your turret vulnerable to ground vehicles. The E variant has a roof mounted machine gun but it's only a single 7.92mm which makes it pretty pathetic against air targets unless you hit the pilot. Shooting at enemy planes will only give away your position.

If you enjoyed the guide then please like it and give me free steam points, if you disliked it then please tell me why and give me free steam points in the form of jester awards. Please read my other guides that I'll now shamelessly advertise below.



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2024.12.17

• Released