Tiger II (H) Sla.16

Tiger II (H) Sla.16

Tiger II (H) Sla.16

Germany

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
7.0	6.7	6.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Heavy tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

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Description

The Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B (H) mit Simmering Sla.16 is a premium rank IV German heavy tank with a battle rating of 7.0 (AB) and 6.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.57 "Battle March". As a purchasable bundle vehicle, this variant comes with premium bonuses and the experimental installation of a diesel power engine, increasing its mobility vastly. But the vehicle functions near identically to the in-tree regular variant. It fits into the 6.7 line-up very well and can be utilised greatly in battle because of it's enhanced combat capabilities.

General info

Survivability and armour

Describe armour protection. Note the most well protected and key weak areas. Appreciate the layout of modules as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armour protection sufficient, is the placement of modules helpful for survival in combat?

If necessary use a visual template to indicate the most secure and weak zones of the armour.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	45	12	70	968	1,431	13.83	20.44
Realistic	42	12		663	750	9.47	10.71

The top speed on-road forwards is around 42-44 km/h, and the reverse speed is surprisingly good at -11 km/h (RB). These speeds combined with neutral steering mean the Tiger II (H) Sla.16 is quite agile despite its heavy tank status. The engine has a lot of horsepower and climbing hills is surprisingly easy with this variant of the famed King Tiger.

Armaments

Main armament

The main gun this Panzer beholds is the KwK/43 88mm long-barreled gun. This gun performs astoundingly well for this BR, offering high muzzle velocity with more than enough post-penetration damage. The muzzle velocity of this gun sits at around 1000m/s for APCBC and 1400m/s for the APCR round, and also has HEAT shells, making it an exceptional sniper and brawler alike. The APCBC stock shell gets a fair amount of explosive filler with a wide one-shot capability upon penetration. This shell exceeds in ammo-racking enemy tanks, so aim for ammo stowage on the enemy vehicle. The APCR should only really be used for engagements on enemies you cannot punch through with APCBC alone, since it offers significantly higher penetration at the expense of post-pen damage, making it a very situational round. The same can be applied to the HEAT shell for long-range, as penetration dropoff does not matter on angled armour layouts, but instead offers poorer penetration values.

Machine guns

This tank, unlike the standard version, receives an additional top mount MG34 7.62mm machine gun located atop the commander's cupola with a wide arc of fire, designed for anti-aircraft purposes. However, this extra gun proves inadequate at efficiently dealing damage to aircraft and so should be used more prominently as a spotting tool or a light armour remedy.

Usage in battles

Considering most of the players who use this vehicle will be using it in RB/SB, this section will cater to them. This vehicle can be used as a brawler and a sniper equally. With its potent gun and reliable armour layout, this tank can take a fair few shots before expiring. Try not to let your flanks become exposed if playing in urban maps. On open maps, you should stick to towns or hills and remain hull down to utilize your thick turret cheeks well. Aim for noticeable weak spots on enemies, ie. lower glacis shots or ammo rack shots will more often than not result in a reliable way to destroy them. The gun has a solid rate of fire, not too slow, so you can follow up with a return shot fairly quickly. You will adapt over time and learn where the weak spots of most opposing vehicles. At times, this tank will act more as a support tank when considering the typical opponents will more than likely have stabilizers and sufficient suspension dampening, putting you at a disadvantage if you can't train your gun onto the target first. American heavy tanks such as the T29, T34, T32 and M103 will sometimes give you trouble. The trick to dealing with these tough, heavily armoured foes is to aim for the lower glacis. When engaging these vehicles, if you are not confident in being able to penetrate on your first shot, try and shoot the gun barrel to prevent your foes from firing back at you.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Astounding frontal armour, the upper front plate is virtually impervious to anything but APDS and HEAT rounds
• Enemy shells that penetrate the lower plate will likely have all of its damage absorbed by the transmission
• Same small turret Tiger II H, but has 20 mm of track armour covering the entire exterior of the turret sides
• Turret front is a small target, and the gun mantlet is both large and utterly impenetrable
• With a high rate of fire, high penetration, high accuracy, and decent TNT filler, the 88 mm gun KwK/43 is extremely formidable
• Has a 22 round first stage ammo rack, giving this tank an exceptional rate of fire
• Armed with 12-round, semi-automatic smoke grenade launcher
• Thanks to its diesel engine, this tank has better acceleration and hill-climbing speed than the standard Tiger II H.
• Though a heavy tank, it is a very fast and highly manoeuvrable vehicle
• Unlike the other Tiger II's, the Tiger II (H) Sla.16 has a roof-mounted MG34

Cons:

• While being a small target, the turret front is weakly armoured
• Will have to face vehicles such as the IS-6 and T-54 during an up-tier, both of which can reliably withstand a shot to the turret or hull frontally
• Shells are lacking against the armour of American counterparts, APCR rarely helps in these encounters
• Frequently faces higher-ranked enemies which the Tiger II struggles against
• Arguably slower than most of its contemporary vehicles

History

The Sla.16 diesel engine developed by Simmering-Graz-Pauker from Vienna. With a power output of around 750 hp, it was considerably more powerful than Maybach engine used by the Tiger I, Tiger II, and Panther tanks that had 690 hp. The Sla.16 was also proposed as the power unit for the infamous super-heavy Maus tank. According to various of sources such as Military Engineer and Amazing Porsche and Volkswagen Story, the engines were tested with positive results. The recommendation was that these diesel engines were to be attached to the heavy tanks and tank destroyers currently in production for increased efficiency of the vehicles. A diesel engine was mounted onto a Tiger II as a prototype built by Nibelungen Werke and went through testings, though results have not been found from this test. Further proposals also wanted the engine to be mounted in the Panther and Jagdtiger vehicles for increased power, but the war's constraint on supplies and Nazi Germany's capitulation resulted in the cancellation of these programs.

Media

• Skins and camouflages for the Tiger II (H) Sla.16 from live.warthunder.com.
• RideR2's Realistic gunsight (TZF4a, TZF 5a/b/d/e/f/f2, TZF 9b/b1/c/d, TZF 12/a) for Pzkpfw II, Pzkpfw III, Pzkpfw IV, Pzkpfw V, Pzkpfw VI

See also

• Tiger II (H)
• Tiger II (P)

External links

• [Devblog] Tiger II Sla.16: the diesel-engined “King Tiger”

Germany heavy tanks
Tiger 1 (Henschel)	Tiger H1 · Tiger E · ␠Tiger
Tiger 1 (Porsche)	VK 45.01 (P) · Pz.Bef.Wg.VI P
Tiger 2	Tiger II (P) · Tiger II (H) · Tiger II (H) Sla.16 · Tiger II (10.5 cm Kw.K)
Super heavy tanks	Maus · E-100
Trophies
Great Britain	▀Pz.Kpfw. Churchill
USSR	▀KV-IB · ▀KW I C 756 (r) · ▀KW II 754 (r)