KV-1 (L-11) - the Soviet fortress

The KV-1 — the Soviet’s favourite fortress. With great armour that’s able to tank hits from most foes, and a reliable cannon, when played correctly, it can decimate entire teams or just be really annoying in general. So, how is it played?

Pros	Cons
Good armour	Slow speed
Reliable gun	Large profile
	Low penetration on the gun

Armament

The KV-1 (L-11) is armed with a 76.2mm L-11 gun (hence the name). You get access to four shells:

Shell	Penetration at 100m on a flat surface (mm)	General usage
BR-350A (MD-5 fuse)	76	This is the general go-to shell that you should use, able to penetrate most opponents found.
OF-350M	11	HE shell, useful for light vehicles and open-tops. Always take a few of these.
Sh-354T	34	Shrapnel shell. Terrible post-pen damage, and terrible penetration. Don’t use it.
BR-350SP	88	Despite having more penetration, it has no explosive filler, with bad post-pen damage. Don’t use it.

For turret rotation speed, it is 8.4°/s horizontally and 2.8°/s vertically — which is just slow. The elevation and depression angles are, as usual for Soviet vehicles, almost non-existent (-7°/+25°). This isn’t great especially as you will face many light tanks.

While compared to other tank guns that will be faced, like the one on the Pz.IV F2, this gun lacks many qualities like penetration and velocity. However, these shells are still good enough to destroy enemies without a struggle.

Mobility

The trend is followed of Soviet heavies in which you are slow and heavy. Your forwards speed is 36km/h, backwards it is 7km/h. On top of that, your engine power is 600hp, giving you a hp/t ratio of 13. You can drive up surprisingly steep slopes, especially surprising due to the weight for such a heavy tank (48t).

Compared to a T-34, you are slower, accelerate slower, don’t turn as fast, and in general feel sluggish. If you advance too far, you’ll get swarmed by multiple light tanks and mediums, which can easily outmanoeuvre, cripple and kill you. This is your one severely limiting feature, which prevents you from doing anything even remotely quickly. It also means that you are a CAS magnet.

As a summary, the word that comes to mind is lacking, not having the horsepower or the acceleration to get anywhere in a timely manner. You will arrive at the battlefield after almost all friendlies and enemies, unless the entire enemy team is a T28.

While this is underwhelming, the armour holds up much better.

Armour

This is what this vehicle is most famous for. The armour, capable of tanking hits and making you a bullet magnet. There are only a couple of enemies able to get through the armour, mainly the Pz.IV F2. When it comes to armour thickness, the hull is 75mm on the side, 75mm on the hull and 70mm at the back. The turret is 75mm all the way round.

The armour is very effective at tanking traditional AP rounds, and HE rounds as well. High velocity APHE or chemical munitions like HEAT are what the armour struggles against, however even then the armour is rather trolly and it can be hard to find the weakspots without hitting a dodgy armour plate. The hull armour is even harder to penetrate when angled, so angle your tank. The main weak spots are the drivers hatch, which surprisingly doesn’t have much protection as compared to other parts, and the lower front plate. As the side is the same thickness as the front, and the rear is a similar thickness, you are resistant to lots of shells from all directions, again apart from specific enemies like the Pz.IV F2.

Overall, with the exception of specific enemies, the armour is almost impenetrable all the way around.

Playstyle

There is only really one playstyle for this tank.

You should try to let your teammates go first, as otherwise you will get surrounded very quickly. Allow them to establish the little skirmishes you always see, and head to one with a couple of friendlies vs enemies. You should use yourself as a shield, allowing friendlies to use you as cover, and try to block as many shots as possible because chances are that you will not be killed, especially when angled.

While your cannon can penetrate most foes, if you ever struggle against an enemy, just shoot his barrel. This is especially useful when you are trying to shield teammates, as it gives them an opportunity to shoot. Make sure to watch out for CAS, as you will invariably attract planes, and while your armour can save you, don’t rely on it.

Overall, so long as you support you teammates and they support you, you will be a very effective and dangerous bullet magnet.