T-34

• Historical information about the T-34 in World War II; and
  
• Information about the T-34 in the massively multi-player online combat simulation Aces High II.

Aces High II Vehicle
Editing this template
Type	Medium Tank
Crew	4
Aces High II Main Arenas
Earliest MA	Early War
Typical perk cost	0 (Late War)
ENY value	35 (Late War)
Available on carrier	no
how to edit

The T-34 in Aces High II

The T34/76 is a challenging tank to use in Aces High, but is very rewarding for those who take the time to learn how to make the most of it. It has some major disadvantages compared to the other tanks, but also some major advantages.

The primary major advantage of the T34/76 is its speed. It is a very fast-moving tank, and for rapidly advancing on a town or an enemy base, it can only be beaten by the M8, the M3, or the M16, and none of those vehicles pack anything like its armor or main gun.

The next major advantage is that it's reasonably heavily armored. It doesn't feel like it when going up against the Tiger or the Firefly, but one must keep in mind that the Tiger and Firefly gun are extraordinarily powerful, and even Tigers and Fireflies get killed fairly easily with those guns. The effectiveness of the T34/76 armor is most apparent when it goes up against the Panzer. At short ranges both the T34/76 and the Panzer can kill each other fairly easily. At intermediate to longer ranges, the T34 starts resisting the Panzer shells more effectively than the Panzer resists the T34 shells.

One major disadvantage is the main gunsight. It has a fairly narrow field of view, so that looking through the T34/76's gunsight reminds one of looking down a soda straw. This narrow field of vision can be made up for, however, by switching to the commander's station (like the pintle gun on tanks that have a pintle gun) and doing 95% of one's looking around from that location.

The turret on the T34/76 traverses more quickly than any other turret in the game. This is a really great feature, especially when it's close-in fighting inside a town, for instance, or when tanks pass each other and are trying to get their guns around to bear on their opponent. The rapid turret traversal on the T34/76 makes it possible for a single T34 to cover both ends of a runway at a small airbase, plus the fighter spawn hangar. If the gun is kept pointed at the fighter spawn hangar, and the tank engine is off, one can easily hear airplane engines starting up on either end of the runway, and the T34/76 turret can traverse fast enough to get a tank gun shot off before the plane can leave the ground.

The fast turret traversal also makes the T34/76 very good at turning to face strafing planes, such as the IL-2 and the B-25H. This feature, combined with the gun being able to be elevated at least as high as, if not higher than any tank in the game, makes the T34 one of the most defensible tanks against strafing aircraft. There is no pintle gun on the T34/76, but there is a coaxial machine gun, which can be used, along with the 76mm cannon, to shoot down the strafing planes.

Camping airfields in the T34/76 requires that the vehicle hangar be destroyed, and then the entire field de-acked. Since the hangar only stays down for 15 minutes, this means that the T34/76 has a hard time holding an airfield longer than 15 minutes. Even if the T34/76 goes into the hangar and fires at any vehicles that spawn, the T34/76's weak main gun will usually just disable the turret or engine of a Tiger or Sherman from behind, and the enemy can just keeping spawning vehicles over and over (and successfully landing disabled ones right where they spawn) until the T34 gun fails to kill the turret or engine, and once the Sherman or Tiger gets around to fire at the T34, it's all over.

The T34/76 is curiously very weak against the 37mm manned ack guns on a base. Usually fewer than 5-10 hits with the manned gun will blow up the T34/76. This means that a base camper's prime directive must be to kill the manned acks ASAP.

As mentioned, the T34/76's main gun is very weak in Aces High. It is essentially useless against the Tiger at any range from the front, and pretty much useless against the Sherman from the front as well, whether with HVAP or AP rounds, it doesn't matter. From the side, the T34/76's gun can kill Tigers somewhat frequently at short ranges (say, under 200-400 yards), but this isn't guaranteed, and the best bet the T34/76 can make is to shoot at the side of the Tiger's turret instead. Knock the Tiger's gun out, and then one can pound the hull with however many rounds it takes until it finally is destroyed.

The T34/76's gun is more effective on Shermans, with side hits often killing a Sherman out to 800-1000 yards. Beyond these ranges the probability of a kill goes down drastically, and at ranges longer than 1600 the T34 would be far better advised to fire HE rounds at the Sherman's tracks and try to disable it.

The best strategy for killing a Tiger or Sherman in a T34/76, if the T34 can get in behind the tanks, is a three-part approach. First, shoot the turret. Once the turret is disabled, then fire into the engine area until the engine is disabled. Then move up along side the tank and fire shots at 90 degrees directly into the hull of the tank. Yes, the T34/76's main gun is so weak that even at very close ranges from behind, most of one's kills against Tigers and Shermans will require at least three shots to achieve safely.

Unlike with Tigers and Shermans, the T34/76's gun is more effective with the Panzer IV. The Panzer can be killed by a shot through the engine block, which would only disable the engine of a Tiger or Sherman. The Panzers can also be killed by the T34's 76mm gun from the front, at ranges all the way out passed 1600 yards or longer. The best bet is to disable the Panzer's turret, if possible, but hull shots will often kill Panzers from the front too. From the side the Panzer is very vulnerable to the T34 gun, with good, solid side hits killing the Panzer most of the time all the way out to beyond 1200 yards or so.

The T34/76 carries up to three different kinds of ammunition for the 76mm gun, which are HE (high explosive), AP (armor piercing), or HVAP (high velocity armor piercing). Due to their design and composition, the HVAP rounds lose velocity rather quickly, and so beyond around 1200 yards or so they are actually less effective than plain old AP rounds. Closer in the HVAP rounds are more effective than normal AP rounds, plus they have a much flatter trajectory, and are therefore easier to hit with.

The T34/76 makes a very effective town killer. It can carry a maximum of 100 rounds of HE ammo, or some mix that includes some AP and HVAP rounds plus a generous load of HE. The T34/76 can survive town ack very well, so it is very good at going into a town and de-acking it, and then blowing up most of the buildings. The T34/76 can be tracked by the town ack, so it is advisable to kill the ack guns as efficiently as possible, to minimize the risk of one's tracks being disabled.

Overall, the T34/76 can be a frustrating choice in an all-out tank slugfest, because against the Tigers and Shermans it's only really effective if one can sneak around and surprise these tanks from the side or rear, from relatively close range. It's more or less fine against Panzers, but the Fireflies are perked so low in Aces High that the likelihood of a T34/76 encountering a Sherman, or a Tiger, is very high indeed. Against towns and bases, the T34/76 is a fine choice, carrying a generous amount of HE rounds.

Categories: Vehicles of WWII | Vehicles of Aces High II