8,8 cm Pak 43 Jagdtiger

Jagdtiger 8,8 is a tier 8 German premium assault tank destroyer. It has a choice of 2 guns, both have high DPM and quick reloads. The tank has good armour and good mobility, but it really slows down when going off road.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Overall
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:
9. Snowstorm Jagdtiger:
10. Historical info:

Armour

(The Jagdtiger 8,8 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

When facing head on:
Upper plate 230-240mm
Hull machine gun port 130-270mm
Lower plate 195-200mm
Superstructure cheeks 267mm

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
Tanks with 185mm or less penetration will struggle to penetrate the Jagdtiger 8,8’s lower plate on flat ground. If the Jagdtiger is angling even slightly, then you will need over 200mm of penetration to go through.

This means most MT and LT can’t even penetrate the lower plate with premium ammo if its angled; and for HT to penetrate, most will need to fire premium rounds. The only exceptions are German, USA, and French HT which have around 200mm standard penetration.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Against lower penetration tier 8 mediums (such as MT with under 200mm penetration) it will be the same situation, angle or wiggle slightly and they will need premium ammunition to go through.

Against tanks with higher penetration though, they will fairly easily penetrate the lower plate. Heavy tanks with calibrated shells (or high base penetration like the T34 and M6 EXP) will be able to penetrate the upper plate when its not angled. If you use enhanced armour or angle the tank then all tier 8 HT, MT, LT will still need premium ammo to go through the upper plate.

The superstructure is extremely strong, and the only tanks that will penetrate it are tank destroyers, or tanks with high APCR penetration. The standard 270mm HEAT and 265mm APCR won’t be able to penetrate this tank if its hull is hidden.

Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Tier 9 tanks will be able to easily penetrate the lower plate even if its angled.
The upper plate will still be strong against some tier 9 medium and light tanks, but you should expect most tier 9 tanks to be able to penetrate the upper plate, especially when un-angled. Angle it and theres a higher chance for their standard ammo to bounce off.

The superstructure remains very strong, no tier 9 tank other than TDs can penetrate it with standard ammo; however most will be able to go through the cheeks easily with premium ammo.

Gun

The Jagdtiger 8,8 can choose from 2 guns.

-One is an 8,8cm (88mm) with lower penetration, DPM, and alpha damage, but better accuracy. You can recognise this as it is shorter and has a small muzzle brake.
-The other is a 10,5cm (105mm) with higher penetration, DPM, and alpha, but slightly less accurate. You can recognize this gun as its one of the longest in tier 8 and has a large muzzle brake.

8,8 cm Pak 43 L/71 gun:
-Alpha damage is 220 on AP, 190 on APCR, and 270 on HE
-It has a 4.1s reload giving it 3199 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 203mm, APCR is 237mm, and HE is 44mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.1s/3.4s
–Base aim time is 2s, but it can get down to 1.63s.
-Dispersion is 0.281/0.253
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.18/0.08, or 0.15/0.15/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees

Overall this gun is alright. For a tier 8 tank destroyer its not at all impressive, low alpha very poor penetration, and though its DPM is good, its not that impressive for such low alpha. It is very accurate, but this gun just doesn’t really suite the playstyle of this tank destroyer.

10,5 cm Kw. K. L68
-Alpha damage is 350 on AP, 260 on APCR, and 420 on HE
-It has a 5.9s reload giving it 3563 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 235mm, APCR is 285mm, and HE is 60mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.8/4.1s
–Base aim time is 2.4s, but it can get down to 1.96s.
-Dispersion is 0.290/0.261
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.18/0.08, or 0.15/0.15/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees

This gun is great in most regards, it has very high DPM, great alpha damage, great accuracy, great gun handling, good penetration, and a decent enough aim time. Note that this gun has very poor APCR damage, its the only 350 alpha gun in the game with 260 alpha on APCR, all other such guns do 40 more damage on their APCR shells. This means that you should try to avoid shooting APCR, as it really cripples your DPM (lowered by 916 DPM from AP)

Both guns have the same -7 gun depression, which is decent and does allow you to use hulldown positions easily.
Both guns also have the same aiming arc left/right of +7/-7 degrees, which is very limited, but it is still workable, especially with the decent traverse speed of the tank.

Which is the better gun?
The 10,5 cm gun is by far the better gun, and the rest of the review will be based off of that gun’s gameplay.
It just suits the assault TD gameplay more, and it means that if you can only put one shot into the enemy, your damage is much more effective. The gun is also still very accurate and has much better penetration and DPM along with that alpha.

Mobility

-Top speed is 38km/h forwards, and -12km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 39.5 deg/s on hard terrain, and 28.2 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 11.6 hp/t, it has a fairly low 819hp engine for its 71 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 11.6 hp/t on hard terrain, and 8.3 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are very good at 1/1.4/1.6

Due to the large difference in its terrain resistances, you can really notice a huge loss in mobility when you leave hard terrain. When on medium terrain, the Jagdtiger 8,8 turns much more slowly, takes far longer to accelerate, and really  struggles to reach its top speed. On hard terrain its able to turn very quickly for such heavy armour, and has good acceleration, making it able to reach its top speed.
Overall the mobility is decent, even though its much lower on medium terrain, its still not bad for a turretless TD, especially one with decent armour.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Jagdtiger 8,8 has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
While the penetration of the Jagdtiger 8,8 is not the most impressive for a TD, its still very impressive for a HT; and that level of penetration is more than sufficient at dealing with any enemy you face.

Use a gun rammer, this is what gives the Jagdtiger 8,8 its insaneley good DPM. Gun rammer improves the reload down to 5.9s, with 350 alpha, which gives the tank 3563 DPM.

Enhanced Armour:
The Jagdtiger 8,8 has a very healthy 1400 base HP, its one of the highest for any TD in tier 8, and this tank should focus on improving its armour with enhanced armour instead.

Enhanced armour will improve:
-Upper plate’s weakest point from 230mm up to 239mm.
-Lower plate from 195mm up to 204mm.
-Superstructure from 268mm up to 279mm.

Enhanced armour just makes this tank able to bounce far more enemies, especially when it uses angling or going hulldown.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Jagdtiger 8,8 should use vertical stabilizer. It has already got an incredible base accuracy of 0.290 without refined gun, and that is perfectly adequate for sniping of needed. The Jagdtiger 8,8 plays a more active role in battle, and is constantly moving; thus it should use vertical stabilizer to make it more accurate after it moves. This equipment piece is mandatory on this tank for it to be able to perform well.

Gameplay advice

The Jagdtiger 8,8 is a support/assualt tank destroyer. It uses its decent mobility and good armour to play somewhat as a heavy tank with increased firepower.

Play as a heavy tank.
The Jagdtiger 8,8 is essentially just a Tiger II, but instead of a turret it has a much more powerful 105mm gun with insanely high DPM and great penetration. Play it aggressively, and play it like you would play a Tiger II. However be aware of your weaknesses, you don’t have a turret, and you are slow on medium terrain. Always be careful when making aggressive plays and be aware of your positioning in case someone flanks around you.

Angle the hull.
Angling to the side while you reload or just wiggling back and fourth will enable this tank to generate far more bounces than if its just sitting still. Its good traverse speed on hard terrain amplifies the tank’s ability to do this, and makes it very annoying for enemies to deal with. You may still get hit in the lower plate, but enemies will have to aim properly, and won’t be able to shoot the upper plate as it will be angled.

Go hulldown.
The strongest armour of the Jagdtiger 8,8 is the superstructure armour. With enhanced armour its nearly 280mm thick, other than tanks like Löwe, Tiger II, Keiler, T34, or M6 EXP, there are no medium, light, or heavy tanks that can penetrate the superstructure.
Always try to use terrain irregularities to hide the lower plate, if possible, also hide the upper plate, so that only the gun area is exposed.

Try to avoid using APCR.
The APCR damage of the Jagdtiger 8,8’s gun is extremely low. Its damage decreases by 90 per shot when you use APCR, and its DPM decreases by 916.
Dealing some damage is alway better than dealing no damage, so if there is an enemy you can’t penetrate, than use APCR; however, don’t shoot this ammo type unnecessarily, as it really cripples the DPM of this tank. 
Most tanks when using premium ammo deal 83-88% of their standard damage, the Jagdtiger 8,8 using the 10,5 cm gun only deals 74% of its standard damage.

Stay on hard terrain.
The mobility performance of this tank on hard and medium terrain is night and day. On medium terrain its a fairly sluggish tank that can’t easily reach its top speed, but on hard terrain its a fairly mobile tank considering its armour. (Hard terrain are paved/concrete areas and roads)
This has a huge affect on gameplay, especially considerign that because your tank has no turret, you need good hull traverse to use your gun, and hard terrain gives this tank 10.3 deg/s more traverse speed than medium terrain.

Other than mentioned above, the Jagdtiger 8,8 plays just like a turretless German heavy tank. It plays aggressively and uses its great gun to just out-damage its enemies and spearhead attacks. Just be aware of the armour weaknesses and the gun movement constraints.

Overall

Overall, the Jagdtiger 8,8 is an very strong tank. It can play as a heavy, it has the proper TD DPM and damage outputting capabilities, it has great mobility on hard terrain and decent on medium terrain, its hull armour is strong and it has decent gun depression. 
This tank does not really have any downsides, other than the fact it lacks a turret, its essentially a perfect pseudo-heavy type tank destroyer.

Is it worth getting?

The Jagdtiger 8,8 is 100% worth buying. Both heavy tank players and assault/support tank destroyer players will be able to appreciate the capabilities of this tank. Even if you haven’t played heavies or tank destroyers much before, the Jagdtiger 8,8 is a tank that’s quite easy to get the handle of and do well in.
Usually the tank is sold for a low gold price, and because its such a good tank its definitely worth considering.

The Jagdtiger 8,8 is worth 10,000 gold. Its a perfect mix of heavy tank, tank destroyer, and assault tank. It’s not hard to play, its quite enjoyable, and it’s a very strong vehicle.

Most recently sold for:

5,500 gold (Snowstorm Jagdtiger) – December 2021
5,500 gold (Full bundle) – November 2022
5,500 gold (Snowstorm Jagdtiger) – December 2022
5,000 gold (Tank only) – March 2023
5,500 gold (Full bundle) – August 2023
10,000 gold/£19.99 (Snowstorm Jagdtiger) – December 2022

Snowstorm Jagdtiger:

Historical info:

The Jagdtiger 8,8 was a real tank. Its official historical name was Panzerjäger Tiger mit 8,8 cm Pak 43/3 (Sf) Sd. Kfz. 185

This tank existed due to Germany having built too many Jagdtiger tanks, however not having enough 12,8 cm guns to mount on them. They instead put the Tiger II’s 8,8cm main armament on the tank so that the hulls would not be wasted.

The 10,5cm gun configuration is fake. Jagdtiger only mounted an 8,8cm and a 12,8cm.
However, the 10,5cm gun can be seen as a believable option, as Krupp put forward the idea to up-gun Tiger II tanks with this same 10,5cm gun. Had this project gone ahead, then there’s a chance it would be considered on the Jagdtiger as well. However, in actuality the gun is fake and was added by WG for balance purposes.

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