Hey Tankers!
Let's take a look under the hood of the new Tier IX German Medium Tank available for attainment through Battle Pass Rewards... A tank whose name somehow bypassed the World of Tanks profanity filter to the delight of uncouth Australians everywhere... Kunze Panzer
The Master of Flexible Play
Kunze Panzer carries a 105mm Main Armament, causing 390HP average alpha damage and 268mm penetration on its standard APCR rounds which whip through the air at 1,478m/s. These characteristics are on par with other highly-efficient Tier IX damage-dealers such as Centurion 7/1 and Leopard PTA. HEAT rounds increase penetration to 300mm at a cost of muzzle velocity, and while this isn't a significant penetration increase on the standard rounds bear in mind this penetration does not deteriorate with distance.
How useful this gun is depends entirely on your ability to master its flexible playstyle and ensure it's firing in the right configuration at the right time. Kunze Panzer is able to switch from being a slow and purposeful scout-sniper to a nimble but deadly flanker as the situation evolves on the battlefield.
Seizing the Initiative
On spawn, Kunze Panzer boasts above-average power-to-weight ratio and 65km/h forward speed, which makes it among the fastest Tier IX medium tanks and enables it to seize the initiative and establish an ideal forward-operating position.
The Slow and Purposeful Scout Sniper
Once in position, a dab of the X-key transforms the Kunze Panzer into the ultimate sniper, constricting its dispersion to a hair-splitting 0.29m/100m with a 1.73sec aim time. This is assisted in no small part by almost-best-in-show base viewrange and stationary camo values of 400m and 17.1% respectively. If that wasn't enough, its hydro-pneumatic suspension also gives the tank 15 degrees of gun depression allowing you to become an extremely deadly opponent in ridgeline foliage.
This concealment rating is better than the overwhelming majority of Tier IX Light and Medium tanks. Coupled with its viewrange, Kunze Panzer can operate as a scout or anti-scout with a reasonable degree of confidence provided it can establish its forward operating position early enough in the game.
Like the siege-mode of the high-tier Swedish Tank Destroyer branch however, these insane gun-handling characteristics come at a significant cost to mobility, reducing top speed and reverse speed to 30kph and 17kph respectively. Additionally, your base reload and DPM also suffers, leaving the Kunze Panzer with a bottom-5 base damage output of 1984HP/min as base reload speed deteriorates to 11.79seconds.
While firing from a concealed position, this slow reload may not be so noticeable particularly if firing runs a risk of revealing your position and you are in the habit of rolling the tank out of the line-of-sight of enemy. The reload time is just enough to allow you to "go dark" and resume a firing position with a shell ready in the tube. Having recently come off playtesting the Chinese Tier VIII Premium Medium 122 TM, this is a frighteningly familiar concept .
The Nimble but Deadly Flanker
Another dab of the X-key will restore Kunze Panzer's mobility, and enable the gun to fire much more quickly. An 8.92sec base reload time increases DPM to 2,624HP/min which is among the best-in-show for Tier IX medium tanks.
This combined DPM and mobility can be used to great effect at short-medium ranges, with the decent penetration of its standard APCR shells being very forgiving when it comes to going through side and rear armour in a flanking brawl.
But once again the tank comes with trade-offs. Just as entering siege mode trades its mobility for accuracy, coming out of it trades accuracy for firepower. Base dispersion and aim time balloon to 0.40m/100m and 2.61s respectively, putting the prospects of landing a medium-long range shot firmly in the hands of RNGsus.
Surviving the Enemy
Entering a tank brawl is an exercise that should not be taken lightly with Kunze Panzer. While it can confidently dish out the damage, its ability to receive it is very much in doubt. Kunze Panzer's hitpoint pool of 1,600HP is as shallow as it gets for Tier IX medium tanks. The only piece of armour worth noting is the upper frontal plate angled at 56deg, which can autobounce most shells at 120mm or below, particularly when using its excellent gun depression. A hit anywhere else is pretty much a guaranteed penetration from anything it faces, while 122mm+ rounds overmatch the 40mm thick upper-frontal plate with ease. The 30mm of side armour is also easily eaten through by 100mm guns typically encountered, so taking up sidescraping positions is highly inadvisable.
With most incoming fire guaranteed to penetrate on contact, players should be relying on Kunze Panzers concealment value to avoid detection and mobility to avoid firefights that it has no hope of winning.
Like many of the Tier IX Battle Pass rewards, Kunze Panzer's survivability is given a helping hand with a built-in Large Repair Kit, which doesn't cost you the usual 20K credits to deploy
Setup
For the purposes of playtesting I dropped my Schwarzpanzer 58 crew into Kunze Panzer, who already had BiA, 6th Sense and were substantially through improvements to concealment and viewrange.
I equipped Kunze Panzer with a Turbocharger to improve the odds of safely reaching an optimal firing position in the early game stage while slightly improving the sluggish maneverability while in siege mode. Noting that its turret traverse and hull traverse are below average, an Improved Rotation Mechanism is also not a silly choice to make the most of its Mobility slot.
As a flanking medium tank, Coated Optics were a must-have. While a Gun Rammer is a sensible choice to enhance that siege-mode DPM, I opted for a Commanders vision system in order to boost its credentials as an anti-scout.
Obtaining Kunze Panzer
The Kunze Panzer is a Battle Pass Reward Tank, and is only available by redeeming Battle Pass tokens. The cost of Battle Pass reward tanks are as follows: - Kunze Panzer - 18 Tokens
- K-91-PT - 12 Tokens - Char Futur 4 - 9 Tokens
- AE Phase I - 9 Tokens - Object 777 Version II - 9 Tokens
Battle Pass Tokens are among the many rewards available from progressing through Battle Pass Stages. There are 50 Battle Pass Stages per Battle Pass Chapter, and a total of 3 Battle Pass Chapters (so a total of 150 Battle Pass Stages for the Season). Each Battle Pass Stage is progressed through by collecting 50 Battle Pass Points. Battle Pass Points can be earned by: - Top-10-by-XP placements in Random Battles (Tier VI+ Only) - Top-10-by-XP placements in Ranked Battles - Top-10 placements in Steel Hunter (Or Top-5 in a platoon) - Completing Daily MIssions in Random Battles and Steel Hunter Battles The higher your placement, the more Battle Pass Points you earn. Additional Battle Pass points are available from playing the "Core Vehicles" of this Battle Pass Season, which are Object 705A, 121 and T110E3.
With the Basic Battle Pass that everybody gets by default, there are a maximum of 9 Battle Pass Tokens available by completing 145/150 Stages. Purchasing the Improved Battle Pass for 2,500G per Chapter (7,500G for the whole season) significantly improves the rewards available and doubles the yield of Battle Pass Tokens
Unfortunately this means that obtaining Kunze Panzer in this Season requires you to complete 140/150 Battle Pass Stages on an Improved Battle Pass. This will require an initial outlay of 2500G per Chapter x 3 Chapters = 7,500G. From there, if you don't feel like grinding the 7000 Battle Pass points required to complete the required 140 Stages, you can skip through the Stages at a cost of 250G each x 140 Stages = 35,000G. Therefore depending on your appetite for grinding, Kunze Panzer will cost you anywhere between 7,500G and 42,500G to obtain in this Season.
Edit: Note that the Tokens will expire on 19th of December 2021, which still gives you time to accumulate them with subsequent Seasons. There were 3 Battle Pass Seasons in 2020, so if the precedent continues then you should theoretically be able to collect enough Tokens between Season 4 and Season 5 on a Basic Battle Pass to collect Kunze Panzer.
Gameplay Review
For more information on the Battle Pass, please visit: https://worldoftanks.asia/en/content/guide/general/battle_pass/