Harkonnen Reviews: Tiger 131 – German Premium Heavy Tank
4 min readTankfest 2017 brings a nice surprise to all tank fans: Tiger 131 is the latest Premium tank coming to World of Tanks, and offers German tank fans their first Tiger VI Premium Heavy. With this addition, the German nation is now in line with the Japanese and British with a Premium Heavy tank at Tier VI.
Description
The only Pz. Kpfw. VI Tiger in full working order. The vehicle was captured by the British 48th Royal Tank Regiment in Tunisia on April 21, 1943, and repaired later. It was shipped to the United Kingdom the same year. The British performed a full examination of the tank, and made it an exhibit item at Bovington Tank Museum in 1951.
Tiger 131
Suggested Equipment
Slot 1 | Improved Ventilation Class 3 |
Slot 2 | Large-Caliber Tank Gun Rammer |
Slot 3 | Coated Optics |
Crew Skills
Commander | Brothers in Arms + Sixth Sense + Recon |
Gunner | Brothers in Arms + Repairs + Snap Shot |
Driver | Brothers in Arms + Repairs + Smooth Ride |
Radio Operator | Brothers in Arms + Repairs + Situational Awareness |
Loader | Brothers in Arms + Repairs + Safe Stowage |
Statistics
Tier VI Heavy Tank | |
Hit Points | 950 |
Gun | 8,8 cm Kw.K. 36 L/56 |
Shell Type | AP / APCR / HE |
Shell Avg. Penetration | 145 / 194 / 44 |
Shell Avg. Damage | 220 / 220 / 270 |
Reload Time | 5.78s |
Rate of Fire | 10.38 |
Aiming Time | 2.11 |
Average Damage per Minute | 2,284 |
Accuracy | 0.35 |
Gun Depression/Elevation Angles | -8 / +15 |
Chassis / Turret Traverse Speed | 28.35 / 21.81 |
Top Speed / Reverse Speed | 40 / 12 |
Terrain Resistance | |
Hard | 1.151 |
Medium | 1.342 |
Soft | 2.781 |
Hull Armour | 100 / 80 / 80 |
Turret Armour | 100 / 80 / 80 |
Weigh/Load Limit | 57.62t / 61.00t |
Engine Power | 650 |
Specific Power | 11.28 |
Concealment of Stationary Vehicle | 7.64 % |
Concealment of Moving Vehicle | 4.39 % |
View Range | 450m |
Signal Range | 774m |
Crew | 5 |
Armour
Analysis and Opinion
How good can a stock Tiger I perform at Tier VI? This will be one of the main questions, and to be honest it’s easy to answer: Good! Tiger 131 is a good tank for it’s Tier, and finally we get to own this iconic tank on World of Tanks. But aside from that, I can’t say this is such a special tank to play.
Generally speaking, if you face Tier VI or lower, you will perform quite well with it, as long as you know how to play with the tank. Tiger I is by no means a front line pusher tank. Instead, you have to use your armour at medium distance and your accuracy at long distance.
Never forget you are playing with the 8,8 cm Kw.K. 36 L/56, your penetration is quite low compared to other tanks. With only 145 mm average penetration with an AP shell, the tank will struggle against heavily armoured vehicles like the O-I. But with an insane damage per minute this tank can be lethal if positioned correctly in the battlefield.
Players are advised to avoid main areas of confrontation, instead try to find a flanking position and use your DPM to support your team and annihilate the enemy team. If you are facing higher tier enemies, you will need to flank them or in some cases use APCR to be able to penetrate their armour. Unfortunately this tank faces Tier VIII and you will have to avoid them at all costs, instead of wasting your ammunition on them, try to find targets of the same Tier or one Tier above.
Mobility is decent but the Tiger 131 isn’t a fast tank, trying to win a forward position with it can, in most cases, prove to be fatal. Keep your distance, use your mobility to change flanks and at the same time support your team from a hull down position. With it’s decent armour and proper angling you will be able to side-scrape with relative effectiveness, especially when top-tier or facing tanks of the same tier.
Overall it’s a decent tank when facing tanks of the same tier, but when facing tanks of higher tier I did struggle to get a decent battle with it. If you already own a Japanese Heavy Tank No. VI you won’t see much difference between the two, in fact they are the exact same tank but with a different skin.
I can recommend the tank as a first Premium Tank for beginners, it’s easy to learn how to play, ammo and repairs are cheap and at Tier VI it’s relatively easy to make credits. But, if you already own good credit makers and you are looking for something new, this is definitely not the tank for you. A must for any collector or if you want a Zero-Skill BiA Crew, but it’s pretty much it. Last but not least, the tank will be available arround Tankfest and it will cost in the rage of $19.99/17.99€/15.99£ (prices are estimated on tank Gold value).
Average Random Game
The Good & Bad
Good
- Amazing damage per minute for a Tier VI;
- Good mobility;
- Decent protection against Tier VI or lower;
- Cheap repairs and ammunition;
- Good to train German Crews.
Bad
- Low penetration value for AP;
- High silhouette;
- Constant module damage, specially the ammo rack;
Should you buy it?
Reasons to Buy
- You’re a Tank Collector;
- You are looking for a German Premium to train your crew;
- Zero-Skill Brothers in Arms Crew it’s included with the tank;
- You like German Tanks;
- It’s a decent tank for beginners and to be their first Premium Tank.
Reasons to NOT Buy
- You’re a scrub lord and don’t want to support WG in anyway;
- You already have several good Premium money makers;
- You aren’t comfortable with Heavy Tanks;
- You don’t know how to play with a sniper Heavy Tank.
“You’re a scrub lord and don’t want to support WG in anyway”
…that
the Otto Carius version when it will be released ? i am more interested for that version..
No info yet!
It usually takes about 1-2 months for a supertest tank to come out.
It may come out this weekend – the actual tank is at Bovington where Tankfest takes place – this is just a guess though.
Wooooow, I just have to buy it because of the excellent view range .. 😉 Tiger 131 new scout tank at tier 6 😉
More like WG are scrublords and I wont support them till they properly fix their game :p
Note that values are for a tank equiped with a 100% crew, all the skills+perks I suggested and the equipment 😉
I am buying the Ultimate one (40 euros) because of that sweet PzKpfw. B2 740 (f). the 5500 gold and 30 days prem (30 euros) is something I needed anyway. I am such a cash cow 🙁
Oh come on. A real cash cow (like me) already has the B2 tank. You phony :P.
Unfortunately, the 100% BIA crew is useless to me. All my german tank crews are already past their third skill.
Well, I was searching for a heavy tank to crew trainer to E100 or Maus. Can it be 😉
reasons not to buy it: already own the exact same tank stat for stat in the form of the HT no VI
Reasons to buy one:
It’s German. Lol 🙂
Sees tier 6 very rarely so it being good for its tier is irrelevant. It has its moments in the higher tiers but plays mainly in tier 8 which becomes a bit old very quickly
i have to agree with joe hales – it almost seems to me as if the tiger 131 has preferential mm that places it in tier 8 games more often than not 😉
i also cannot see how anyone would call its dpm amazing. it is a smidgen better than on some tanks, but those tanks all have same or more alpha and much more pentration.
the armor is not worth mentioning, not even against tier 5 and guns is just abysmal with its bad pen and accuracy.
WG should give every tier 6 heavy tanks with this 8.8 cm gun access to ap rounds with at least 160 mm penetration, or buff its accuracy, so you can stay at distance, to make it balanced against same tier heavy tanks. this gun only really works on medium tanks the way it is right now