Panzer IV Schmalturm

Panzer IV S. is a tier 6 version of the Panzer IV. It has a great gun with a high level of accuracy and DPM. Its mobility is decent but not great, and it has a decently armoured “Schmalturm” turret, similar to a Panther.

Click the table of contents below to access the section you want:

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. Camo cost:

Armour

(The Panzer IV S in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider Right -> to view 130mm AP
Drag slider <- Left to view 180m APCR

Armour on flat ground:
Frontal hull armour 80-90mm
Turret face 135mm
Angled turret cheeks 260-290mm auto-ricochet
Cupola 90-155mm

When turned, the angled front plate becomes an auto-ricochet to 96mm guns or smaller.

Note that the image on the right -> shows the tank angled very slightly, with the turret turned away slightly. 
This is to show that the armour of the turret cheeks still works if angled slightly, but it can’t be turned far, or it becomes penetrable.
Also, if shooting the red hull sides, the shot will penetrate (with a 75mm gun’s 130mm AP penetration).

Side armour:
The hull sides are extremely weak, only 32mm, so angling/sidescraping is not a valid gameplay tactic. 

The sides are fully covered by 5mm of spaced armour, which is actually extremely useful. Without this spaced armour, the sides of this tank could be HE’d by essentially every enemy you face.

(The tank’s rear is the most viable HE spot, being only 21mm thick. The turret sides are 70-80mm thick, so only HE-able to really big guns like the KV-2.)

Armour vs tier 5 tanks:
Against tier 5 tanks you won’t bounce anything on the hull (except from very low penetration tanks like the Leopard).

The turret is very strong, and will easily bounce all standard ammo from tier 5 tanks.

On flat ground, many tanks will be able to penetrate the turret face using premium ammo, but when using full gun depression, most tier 5s will struggle to penetrate.

Armour vs tier 6 tanks:
Against tier 6 tanks, the hull won’t bounce anything. Even the lowest penetration tanks will be able to penetrate.

The turret will be able to bounce all enemies if they hit the angled turret cheeks or the gun mantlet.

The turret face is penetrable to most enemies’ standard ammo, as its flat armour. You will be able to bounce slower penetration enemies (such as T-34-85 variant tanks or Sherman variant tanks).

The turret face is penetrable to all premium ammo in tier 6, even when using full gun depression.

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
When faced with tier 7 enemies, this tank loses all armour.

The hull is extremely weak, everything will penetrate it. The turret face is penetrable to every enemy tank’s standard ammo, even when using all 10 degrees of gun depression.

The only areas that will get bounces are the angled turret cheeks and the gun mantlet.

Gun

The Panzer IV S. mounts a 7,5cm (75mm) gun

-Damage per shot is 160 on AP, 135 on APCR, and 200 on HE
-Reload time is 4.4s, giving it 2193 DPM
-Penetration is 150mm on AP, 194mm on APCR, and 20mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 2.6s/2.9s
–Base aim time is 1.9s, but it can get down to 1.55s.
-Dispersion is 0.299/0.269
–Gun handling is 0.13/0.13/0.08, or 0.11/0.11/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees

This gun is overall amazing, it has great DPM and shoots very quickly, even for a tier 6 tank. Its accuracy, aim time, and handling are all great, meaning its very easy to just snap in shots without needing to aim much. Penetration is high and gun depression makes it very flexible in battle.

Mobility

-Top speed is 44km/h, reverse is -18km/h
-Traverse speed is 46.2 deg/s on hard terrain, and 41.6 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.7 hp/t, it has a decent 506 horsepower engine for its 30 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 18.6 hp/t on hard terrain, and 16.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 0.9/1/1.8
-Turret turn rate is 29.2 degrees/s.

Turret turn rate isn’t often mentioned, as its usually not the most relevant stat. However, on a fairly mobile medium, you have to watch out for this slow turret turn rate, since it can be easy to try and shoot on the move, but your turret isn’t quick enough to keep up. 29 degrees per second is fairly average heavy tank turret turn rate, its poor for a medium tank.

Overall this is decent mobility. The Panzer IV S. isn’t a quick tank, but its mobile enough. The top speed is decent, along with the reverse speed. Acceleration is also just decent, its not slow yet also not fast, and traverse is similarly just decent.
This tank is fairly average in terms of mobility, since its essentially just a Panzer IV but with a much heavier and better armoured turret on it.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Panzer IV S. has no special provisions/consumables.

Gun Rammer:
DPM is one of the main strengths of this tank, using gun rammer is essential to take advantage of this. Calibrated shells isn’t needed, as the penetration of the Panzer IV S. is already very good, and its amazing accuracy means that its easily able to aim in on weak areas.

Gun rammer will increase the DPM from 2031 up to 2193, and reload time from 4.7s down to 4.4s.

Improved Assembly:
While enhanced armour can have its uses on this tank, it only benefits the turret armour. Even when using it, the turret will still be weak to all higher tier enemies, and many same tier enemies.

Part of what makes the Schmalturm’s turret strong is its mantlet and the well angled turret cheeks, which don’t benefit from enhanced armour. This won’t benefit the hull at all either, so enhanced armour isn’t really that useful in most situations in this tank.

Its generally more useful to use improved assembly, since it would benefit the tank even when it takes damage through the weak hull. Improved assembly would increase this tank’s decent 950 base HP up to 1007 HP.

(This increase is actually quite significant, since the hull front is 80-90mm, tanks like SU-152 and Smasher can HE it if not angled. These tanks have 960 HE alpha, and improved assembly would let you survive a penetrating HE shot most of the time.)

Vertical Stabilizer:
The dispersion of the Panzer IV S. is already extremely good, especially for tier 6. 0.299 can very easily hit weakpoints without much aiming, so there really is no need to improve it with refined gun.

Vertical stabilizer will help this tank to hit shots on the move and become accurate faster after it stops moving. This makes quite a notable difference, since the tank’s accuracy and aim time really aren’t lacking much, and the improved stabilization just makes the tank feel so accurate and consistent, even if its moving around in battle quite a lot.

Gameplay advice

The Panzer IV Schmalturm is a standard medium when its top tier against tier 5 and 6 enemies, but against higher tier enemies (tier 6-7 battle) it plays more of a support/sniper medium role.

Its turret armour works well against lower tier enemies, but is weak against higher tier enemies, this is really the defining difference in the gameplay against tier 5 or tier 7.

General gameplay:
When top tier, take this tank to the medium tank frontline and use a hulldown or gun depression position. Trade using DPM, since your reload time is quick but alpha is not high.

When bottom tier, still take this tank to the medium flank, but don’t take aggressive positions. Its better to hang back on the 2nd line, and prepare for ambush shots or supporting shots against enemies that get spotted.
Avoid being the frontline tank if there are tier 7 medium or lights playing against you, since these tanks have extremely high DPM, and higher HP than your tank. You can’t effectively fight them, so you have to rely on being with allies, or using a more passive position to engage them from a distance.

Though this tank can take a frontline position to scout enemy tanks, its armour is weak and HP is low for a medium, so if you start taking hits, you lose HP quickly. Be prepared that you may need to run away if you push up to cap a base or scout enemies.

Always move the tank while hulldown:
The turret face of the Panzer IV S. is essentially flat. If enemies aim to penetrate this, they have to “thread the needle” between your tank’s conical gun mantlet, and the well angled turret cheeks (neither of these areas are penetrable to enemies).

Due to this, moving the tank back and fourth while only exposing your turret is very effective. Enemies will have to try and hit a very narrow/small area which is surrounded by stronger armoured areas, all while this target is moving back and fourth.

This works well and doesn’t affect your aiming so much, due to the great accuracy and good handling of the Panzer IV S.

Go hulldown and use gun depression positions:
Hulldown and gun depression positions are where the Panzer IV S. will thrive. Its hull is boxy and extremely weak, so if this is exposed at all, your armour will be completely ineffective.

Going hulldown makes it easier to bounce shots on the turret, especially if you move back and fourth to throw the enemies’ aim off.

Using gun depression positions will increase the turret armour effectiveness slightly, you should still move back and fourth slightly to bounce shots, since enemies will still be able to hit the turret face if you sit still.

Angle the hull against HE:
In tier 6-7 you’ll often face some tanks with very high HE penetration, such as the KV-2, Vindicator UM, Smasher, or SU-152.

These tanks have a chance to full HE penetrate the frontal hull armour of the Panzer IV S.
Angling the armour will make it harder for HE to penetrate (and a penetrating HE shell would take out most of your HP, its better to just take an AP or HEAT shell).

Even showing the flat side armour to one of these enemies is better than showing the frontal armour. The sides are fully protected from HE due to the spaced armour, so angling really does help this tank against big HE rounds.

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Overall the Panzer IV S has a fairly standard MT playstyle at tier 6, it just has slight different stats to many of the similar tanks. If you’ve played a tier 6 medium before, you should know quite well how to play this one, as its quite similar to the Sherman tanks, Strv 74, or Chi-To.

Its gameplay is mainly gun focused, but it has some turret armour it can use in hulldown, and its mobility is decent enough to get around and support the flanks.

Overall

Armour – 5/10
Gun – 9.5/10
Mobility – 5/10
Speed – 4.5/10

Panzer IV S. is overall a good tank.

Armour is good on the turret, but the hull is very weak. HE protection is very good.
Gun is very good in every regard. Accurate, high DPM, good gun depression, high penetration, and great handling.
Mobility is decent, with a decent acceleration rate and traverse speed, and fairly average reverse speed.
Speed is alright but not high, at 44km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The Panzer IV S. is worth getting if you enjoy accurate and quick firing medium tanks. Its got a great gun which is very enjoyable to use, and nice turret armour and gun depression to complement it.

This tank isn’t renowned for its armour or mobility, however both of these aspects are also fairly decent.

Don’t get this tank if you strictly like fast or armoured tanks, as this is neither. It has decent mobility, and some armour, but its mostly about the gun.

The Panzer IV S. is worth 3,500 gold. Its a good tank that can quite easily perform well in battle if you play it right. Its not too hard for newer players to play, due to its amazing gun and decent armour.

This tank is also a pretty good credit grinder in tier 6, since its good accuracy and penetration allow it to easily farm up damage without needing much premium ammo. Its credit coefficient is 145%, a fairly standard amount in this tier.

Most recently sold for:

Main reward in Luxury Lounge event – August 2023

Camo cost:

Somewhat confusingly, the legendary camouflage changes the name of the tank completely, from “Panzer IV S.” to “Pz. Kpfw. IV (-o-)”. 
Pz. Kpfw. IV stands for Panzerkampfwagen IV, often shortened to just “Panzer IV”, so if you see these in game with the different names, they are the same tank.

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