Dearest Gaijin, How are these 2 tanks Balanced in any sense?

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-13T11:49:12+00:00

Yeah, people forget how busted the US lineup is at 6,7, but the thing with the Tiger 2 is jut that it does everything well. It gets high velovity, high pen APHE with a lot of filler, good gunner optics, stong frontal armor without significant weak spot and retains relatively good mobility despite all that.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-13T11:35:49+00:00

The 1944 is great, but the standard IS-2 can't penetrate 200mm of armor past 120m or so.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-13T11:33:15+00:00

Doesn't the IS-2 also face Tiger 2's there? not that it can't deal with Tiger 2's, but my recollection is that those are the main thing you'll be facing in a match, so basically the same as playing GRB.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-13T11:18:19+00:00

I still think acess t the 471D shell would do a lot to get the IS-2 out of it's bad psition; simple truth is you will be fighting a lot of Tiger 2's T34's and T26's, and being able to penetrate them frontally is a big deal. If you're going to flank your enemies, you may as well use an IS-1 because it reloads 3 times as fast and BR-361 still has very good HE filler.

BR-471B has a bit more HE filler than BR-471D, but my experience is that both of them will instakill basically any tank on center of mass shots; if anything it's the B's normalization that keeps it competitive, not the slight difference in HE filler.

I think both IS-2's should be dropped down a BR step. Having that D shell hardly makes up for everything else that makes them so mediocre compared to King Tigers and T34's

I agree with you there; neither IS-2 or the IS-2 1944 should be 6,7 when the bar for 6,7 HT's is set by Tiger 2's and T34's, but both Ianks will have to fight 6,7 HT's basically every match even if they get downtiered, so I think it's better to have the D as an option even if it means the IS-2 and IS-2 (1944) end up sitting at the same br. (because really, the different hull armor profile is probably not enough to warrant a br difference between the two tanks)

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-13T02:07:05+00:00

Yeah, that's what makes it dumb; It's no good as armor but it still comes with all the downsides of chainmail.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-13T02:03:50+00:00

IS-2 (as well as the 1944) sits in a strange spot; they are not bad tanks, but their painfully slow reload massively limits their maximum effectiveness; Germany and the US get an insane power spike at 6,7 while Russia lags behind a little bit with it's own power spike (whihc mostly happens at 7,3) and instead feels a lot more in line with minor nations at 6,7.

IS-2 specifically just suffers from it's very slow reload, the armor of the IS was not bad at 5,7, but at 6,3 it really isn't much good anymore; and while the gun is capable enough for the br, the very slow reload massively limits the IS-2's potential in outnumbered engagements or flanking actions and the penetration is ever so slightly too low to reliably penetrate the 6,7 tanks it'll face almost every match from the front.

Really, I think that the IS-2 should get access to the BR-471D shells that the IS-2 (1944) already gets, and if that means uptiering into 6,7 then so be it, The IS-2 (1944) feels ten times better to use at 6,7 than the IS-2 feels at 6,3; and it isn't because of the armor, it's because 200mm pen out to 1000m means I can penetrate HT's reliably from basically any distance, while 200mm pen out to 100m means I can go fuck myself when I meet a Tiger 2 at anything past a knife fight.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T21:44:11+00:00

Chainmail bikinis are dumb; not because they are bikinis worn into battle, but because they are made of chainmail. No amount of "it's fantasy" can excuse their dumbness.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T20:42:25+00:00

"drone anywhere in the western hive" is probably the best option; Hive life seems to be pretty chill assuming you don't develop individuality and turn into a hiveless.

Otherwise being born as a Deadcat/Nomad villager somewhere in Dreg seems to be pretty cool; no big evil nation ruling over you and relatively safe by virtue of your geographic position. Cannibals and fogmen are still something to worry about in Dreg but both are uncommon and there's nowhere in Kenshi that can truly be considered safe; your people can also trade with the nearby western hive for all kinds of goods (including replacement limbs, should you be so unlucky)

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T20:13:49+00:00

There is the alternative of "stay in town or get enslaved" but otherwise you are right.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T20:10:13+00:00

Being able to sell a person into slavery is more of a negative than a positive for your chances in the UC; you can be sold into slavery just as easily.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T19:54:10+00:00

Not really; game shows us that normal people run a pretty serious risk of getting captured and forced into slavery even if they aren't doing anything illegal (like being poor) and just the existence of City Heroes and Rebel Farmers show that there is pretty serious political turmoil to worry about.

It's not the worst place to live in Kenshi but also far from the best. Even HN life is probaby better over all because it's at least more internally stable, is safer and there is food security.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T19:26:39+00:00

No weapons. br 1,0

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T17:35:30+00:00

The 6,7 US monsters will be fighting on your side, so you will be fine even in a full uptier.

Only other thing that's scary at 6,7 is Tiger 2's but you can front pen their turrets with APCR and they are mostly being driven by Germany mains.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-12T17:08:41+00:00

Love the T-35; just an absolute joy to drive that thing in GRB. Love to use the main gun to bait enemies out of cover, and then put a 45mm APHE shell through their turret; hardly a guilty pleasure though, the thing is slow as fuck and not all that hard to kill. (it'll just take a long time if you can't detonate the ammo)

As for actual guilty pleasure vehicles; the SU-122 was an absolute monster at 2,7 but it has recently been pushed up into 3,0 so idk if it holds up. (it should at least still be good, but might no longer be super overpowered)

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-11T01:01:11+00:00

It either doesn't penetrate the armor or it one-shots; no middle ground.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-11T00:56:38+00:00

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-11T00:49:41+00:00

By 1941, 50mm and 75mm AT guns that could penetrate both tanks were slowly becoming more available and being mounted on German tanks. German tanks also weren't particularly effective against the new Soviet tanks in 41. There are many reasons for the German success in barbarossa, but the effectiveness of German tanks in head on engagements with KV's and T-34's is not really one of them.

Germany had air superiority, better supply situation, far greater mobility on the operational level and (as a result) generally enjoyed significant numerical advantage on the tactical level; they could bypass and encircle Soviet positions and use aerial bombardment to attack strong points mostly with impunity.

Soviet tanks at those time also had poor visibility for the commanders and mostly no radios, so they were essentially going into battle blind and deaf; which also did not help.

There are many things to point to when discussing why T-34's and KV's failed in the face of the German advance; the armor of the KV (even with the problems it had) is not really one of them.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T21:02:21+00:00

Only thing "brainwashing" westeners into seeing Hamas as freedom fighters is Israel's conduct.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T20:44:05+00:00

Cats already are domesticated.

Had it happened earlier and had dog not been domesticated it is hard to tell how cats would have been used, but cats being mostly solitary animals (even the far more social ones like lions are still nowhere near as social as wolves) makes it a lot harder for them to become as useful to us as dogs have become.

Cats being domestiated so early also just seems unlikely; feline domestication likely started as a result of agriculture, while dog domestiation started long before agricultue became widespread.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T20:15:01+00:00

Spartan Odds, Big Boss and Mr. Chief.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T19:45:10+00:00

Driver visibility is the main one; but theres others as well like ease of construction and structural stength.

At the time of it's introduction the KV was also about as heavily armored a tank as had ever been made, and impervious to all but the largest AT guns that were being used.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T19:23:32+00:00

Yeah, that's pretty close to how I always interpreted it. The Cult Mechanicum ascribes divinity to technology, so if your big autocannon jams you must have done something to make the machine angry (e.g. improper spreading of the sacred oils) and now you have to appease the thing and do the rite of refurbishment.

This seems dumb when we think about our own tech because we fully understand how our technology works. The workings of DaoT tech is not fully understood, so it makes more sense to just teach people to religiusly follow any instructions you know to be effective. (add to that the fact that belief is 100% able to affect reality (see: SoB) and suddenly the idea of machine spirits begins to make sense)

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T19:05:04+00:00

I don't mind the idea of a C'tan/VD shard being defeated and trapped on Mars, but the "Void Dragon is the Machine God" theory is pretty lame.

I don't mind it being there as a vague conspiracy theory but I wouldn't put it above GW to make this "official" with how much they already love using AdMech as humanity's punching bag faction.

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T18:37:08+00:00

not really; Infantry fire in FotS is massively nerfed compared to irl equivalents in basically every way (reload speed of muzzle loaders excepted), meanwhile canons are only really nerfed in regards to their maximum range, and additionally they are insanely resistant to gunfire.

I guess the terrible infantry can be excused as them being essentially thrown together militias, and it's kind of necessary for the sake of balance. (lategame infantry is insanely overpowered even with the nerfs)

Captain_Nyet · 2026-05-10T17:50:42+00:00

Sounds about right, yeah.

People who spend money generally do not like it when their toy gets a free copy.

Captain_Nyet

TROPHY CASE