Development of the Panther started as far back as 1938, ordered to replace the Panzer
III and IV designs.
Various designs from various companies were considered, until finally the MAN design was
decided upon in May 1942.
By September, the Design had reached the prototype stage and by December, full scale production
started.
By January 1943 however, due to the needs of the Eastern Front, Hitler agreed on the
development of a newly designed chassis with increased armour protection.
This project was designated as the Panther II, and development was to follow along the
Tiger II, with many components designed to be used in common to standardize production
and ease maintenance logistics.
The final design was to result in a Panther with better frontal and side armour protection,
the newly designed narrow Schmalturm with increased turret front armour protection and
capabilities to mount either the latest 75mm Kampfwagenkanone 42 L/100 or the King Tiger's
long 88mm KwK 43 L/71, albeit without the muzzle break.
The Schmalturm was slightly different from that of the Panther Ausführung G, with special
mountings for an infra-red device and telescopic rangefinder.
All of these modifications resulted in a considerably heavier vehicle.
To compensate for the weight, the Panther II was intended to be powered by the new Maybach
HL234 engine with a total of 900 bhp.
However, this engine wasn't due to be completed until August 1945.
In early 1944, production of two prototypes was commissioned to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg,
however only one chassis was completed by early 1945, without the intended Schmalturm
turret.
By May 1944, the realization came that the German industry was simply unable to start
production of the Panther II, and the project was abandoned in favor of further developing
the already existing Panther tanks.
It is possible that two Panther II prototype chassis were fitted with the Panther G's
turret and used in battles at the end of the war, but this can't be confirmed.
The Panther II we have in the game is the best case scenario of "what if", and was
in fact never finished the way it is represented.
At battle rating 6.7, it fills the Medium Tank role in the german tier IV lineup.
The main selling point of the Panther II is its famous long 88 millimeter gun.
There's a reason this cannon was considered the best of the war, this devastating weapon
can fire an APHE shell with up to 235mm of penetration and approximately 109g of TNT
filler at a muzzle velocity of exactly 1000 meters per second every 8.5 seconds with a
good crew.
This makes the gun extremely effective, but not perfect.
The high muzzle velocity does allow for effective long range combat, but until you've researched
both accuracy mods, your shots will never quite go where you aim them, which can be
fatal at this tier where most of your opposition has specific weakspots you have to hit.
The reload rate is definitely no slouch, for a gun of this power it is very good indeed.
However, and especially on a stock crew with an 11 second reload, you can't really deal
with multiple enemies effectively if they are aware of you.
That said, groups of unaware enemies are quickly dispatched.
Finally the explosive filler can be a bit lackluster.
Against compact tanks like the T-34 it is just about enough to result in a decent chance
of one shot kills, but against larger and more spaced out tanks like the T29 or even
enemy Panther IIs and King Tigers, the shell just doesn't quite produce enough fragmentation.
Now there are of course two other shell types on offer that you can research, but they don't
really bring any benefit over the stock APHE shell.
The first is HEAT, and frankly it's beyond useless with only 110mm of penetration.
A more interesting option is the APCR shell with up to 272mm of penetration at close range
and flat armour, but I can only see this having any kind of real advantage over the stock
APHE shell against a hull-down T29, everything else either has not enough armour to stop
the stock shell or is angled, which renders the APCR shell ineffective.
Now lets talk a bit about the Schmalturm and its Gun handling.
The turret itself, and especially when stock, has a noticeably slow traverse speed.
In fact it is so bad, I've often got killed in close range situations because I simply
couldn't turn the gun around fast enough.
With the upgrade this is somewhat amended, but you still need to make sure your gun is
facing the right way before rounding a corner if you are going to use this thing as a brawler.
The vertical guidance is… mediocre.
Due to the experimental night vision and rangefinding gizmos you can only elevate the gun between
negative 8 and positive 15 degrees.
Now this is by no means Soviet tank levels bad, but it still negates effective hill peeking.
Combine that with the flat frontal turret armour and the weak lower glacies, and you've
got yourself a tank that can't really crest a hill and fire effectively if the enemy's
got eyes on you.
Speaking of armour, the schmalturm is peculiar.
Compared to the earlier panthers, you lose that rounded gun mantlet that could occasionally
bounce poorly aimed shots, and instead have a flat surface that is very easy to penetrate
with any gun at this tier.
However, the flat area is quite small and hard to hit as long as you stay on the move.
The sides are angled enough that any shot coming directly from the front will most likely
bounce, unless they hit the rangefinding ears.
Combined with the good engine power, you can use this to your advantage and dance around
a corner, making the enemy waste his shot and giving you enough time to settle and aim
your shot whilst they reload.
Just try not to angle your turret, chances are you end up giving them enough angle to
penetrate the side.
The hull is decently armoured, definitely much more so than the T-34s you'll face
at this tier.
That said, It's still not quite king tiger level.
The front upper glacies is decently angled and offers between 150 and 170mm of effective
armour.
This should be enough to at least stop the soviet 85mm gun, but anything of a higher
caliber or equipped with APDS of HEATFS shells generally cuts right through.
One thing you can do is massively angle the front around a corner, chances are the enemy
will bounce.
Just don't drive forwards too much, or you'll expose the drive wheel and weak 60mm of side
armour.
Speaking of side armour, the Panther II does have 5mm seitenschürzen which can save you
from heat and HE shells, but they are of limited use.
Another strong point of the Panther II is the mobility, at least compared to pretty
much everything else Germany has at this tier.
The 60 Km/h top speed allows you to get across the map very quickly, and the 15 Km/h reverse
speed is a welcome change from the earlier Panthers infamously horrible escape plan.
Now I do have to make a distinction here between arcade and realistic mode.
In arcade even the stock tank has no problems moving around, and the high speed allows you
to quickly set up in an ambush position and wait for the enemy to drive by.
They don't really expect anyone to be intercepting them on their way to the cap.
In realistic mode it's a bit different.
Without the engine upgrades you'll struggle to get past 30km/h in most situations, and
as such can't really effectively scout.
So, what's the upgrade path?
Well, it depends a bit on what you want to use this tank as.
The Panther II does have the benefit of being able to fill various roles effectively.
Now I personally started out with this tank in Arcade mode, since I just found it a bit
too sluggish in Realistic.
Stock, the tank is better suited as a squad support tank rather than a brawler.
Not due to the mobility, but rather due to the overall slow gun handling and the bounciness
of the stock suspension.
The hull traverse can also be an issue depending on the terrain.
On flat surfaces the neutral steering does turn this thing around very quickly, but if
you're up on even a shallow incline you suddenly turn like a battleship.
As such, stick close to your friendly King Tigers, shoot what they shoot and if you have
the option, flank around whilst they hold the line.
Especially on larger maps with multiple flanking points like El Alamein's dunes, I've found
the Panther to be extremely effective at this role.
If you want to continue in the squad support role, try to get the protection and firepower
mods as soon as possible.
Now if you want to turn this thing into a brawler, you're going to need a different
set of mods.
By nature, the Panther II's gun, as well as the front and side armour make it a born
sidescraper.
If you can find a piece of tall cover like a house or a large rock to hide behind and
work the sides to limit incoming firing angles and shoot enemy tanks one by one, you can
get extremely good games in this thing.
If I recall correctly, my record was 12 kills in arcade and 7 kills in realistic on a single
life.
The thing is, in order to pull this off you need to minimize the time you spend sitting
still and exposing the turret front, so you need to reduce the time it takes your gun
to stabilize.
For this, three mods are crucial: suspension, brakes and elevation mechanism.
If you're going to be playing arcade only, you don't really need the engine mods.
The tank already is extremely mobile by itself.
If you're playing realistic however, I would get the engine mods sometime before the ammo,
artillery and rangefinder.
Ah yes, speaking of the rangefinder, once you have that you can use this thing as a
long range sniper thanks to it's excellent gun, but you will be wasting the potential
of this tank if you choose to sit at the back of the map.
If you want to help your team and win the most games, do stick near to the frontline.
Now, the Panther II's mobility might encourage you to either play this thing like a hellcat
or to rush the caps.
But I've found neither to be the most effective.
Whilst the tank is mobile, the mediocre gun depression and huge size of the tank make
it pretty hard to stay unseen if you're going around the outskirts of the map.
And whilst you have the mobility to reach caps fast, it doesn't really do well in
open face to face combat against enemy tanks due to its armour.
Instead, I've found this thing to be extremely effective at setting up ambush positions,
rush forward to cover overlooking chokepoints, setting up crossfire positions overlooking
spots where the enemy is likely to be facing your friendly heavy tanks, and so on.
A single Panther II can turn the battle around by finding the one flank that allows it to
shoot at the wall of enemies bouncing off of your friendly King tigers armour, which
in turn allows them to move forwards.
Often times my games have ended in our entire team pushing the enemy back into their spawn.
Finally, the last playstyle I've found this thing to be effective at is the lone insurgent
type.
As I've said before, flanking around the entire outskirts of the map isn't the best
thing to do.
Instead you have to find the one sneaky route on the map no one expects you to be at, preferably
with cover from multiple firing angles.
To give a couple examples, on Berlin I like to take it into the pond and peek over a muddy
hill midway through, where I am completely in cover from the northern spawn and can shoot
the tanks advancing to the Reichstag right in the sides.
On El Alamein, I tend to flank around the city through the desert, coming up behind
the enemy whilst they're occupied holding off against my team advancing to the cap.
On Poland I use the northern houses to sidescrape and take out tanks one by one.
Essentially, you have to learn how to effectively use cover, when and where to peek and what
targets to prioritize.
If you find yourself face to face in the open against more than one enemy, you're generally
dead.
But, if you can be sneaky and use cover to shield yourself from everything but the specific
enemy you want to assassinate, you're going to win games for your team.
So, what are my final opinions on the Panther II?
In the right hands, this thing might just be the best medium tank at this tier.
The Long 88 can work wonders, and with the mobility you can give the enemy quite a nasty
surprise, especially since they're not used to germans being this fast up to this point.
That said, you need to have patience and learn the quirks of this tank, or you find yourself
dead very quickly.
In all cases, try to be an asset to your team.
A solo Panther is a dead one.
Alright, that's the Panther II!
I've had quite the blast with this thing, it really can be an excellent machine.
In any case, If you've made it up to this point you pretty much owe me a like, or else
I'm sending the Königstiger after you.
If you're new around here, do check out my other videos and if you like what you see,
subscribe to the channel.
Before we close off I want to make a little announcement, I realize I haven't really
streamed since last year, so I will be doing one soon.
Chances are this video will go up on Friday, so I'll be live either today or on Saturday.
In either case, follow me on twitch and on twitter so you don't miss the stream!
Alright, enough rambling, as always lads, my name has been MikeGoesBoom.
Thanks for watching!
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