Stridsvagn K

Stridsvagn K is a Swedish tier 10 heavium. It has high DPM with great accuracy and quick reload, a high top speed with great acceleration and traverse, but it lacks armour for a heavy tank.

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

Armour

(The Strv K in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 257mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 330mm HEAT

When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 245mm-270mm
Lower plate 180mm
Turret face 125mm
Turret edges 230-250mm
Turret roof 300mm auto-ricochet
Gun mantlet 400-480mm

The turret is relatively easy to penetrate if you are at close range or have good accuracy. Otherwise it can be fairly easy to miss and have shots bounce off the gun mantlet, turret edges, or roof.

Armour vs both tier 9 & 10 tanks:
The armour of the Strv K behaves the same way against both tier 9 and tier 10 tanks.

Its turret face (around gun mantlet) is weak, everything can penetrate it. 
The mantlet is strong, nothing can penetrate it.
The roof is strong, only HEAT can penetrate it, and only on flat ground.
The hull is relatively strong, but you have to make sure its not angled, if it angles then one side will become weaker as this has a pike-nose hull.
The lower plate is very weak, all tanks can penetrate it.

Basically the armour profile of the Strv K is troll, you can’t rely on getting bounces in battle, but they will happen occasionally.

Gun

Stridsvagn K mounts a 105mm gun

-Alpha damage is 350 on AP, 300 on APCR, and 440 on HE
-It has a 6.3s reload giving it 3325 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 250mm, APCR is 310mm, and HE is 53mm.
–Estimated aim time is 2.7s/2.9s
–Base aim time is 1.71s, but it can get down to 1.39s.
-Dispersion is 0.317/0.285
–Gun handling is 0.18/0.18/0.08, or 0.15/0.15/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees

Overall this is an amazing gun for a heavy, it has high DPM, a very quick reload, extremely fast aim time, decent gun handling, and great gun depression. Its penetration is below average, but not terrible, and its alpha damage is low for a heavy tank.

Note that what makes the Strv K’s aim time so good is actually the base aim time, and not the gun handling. The handling is decent for a heavy tank, but is poor relative to its gun caliber and 350 alpha. The base aim time is what makes this tank’s gun really very consistent.

Strv K has quite poor penetration loss over distance for a tier 10 tank, it loses 10% penetration at 500m on both AP and APCR. 

Mobility

-Top speed is 47km/h forwards, and-16km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 41.5 deg/s on hard terrain, and 38.3 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 20 hp/t, it has a strong 824hp engine for its 42 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 16.7 hp/t on hard terrain, and 15.4 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are decent, having 1.2/1.3/1.9

Overall the Strv K is a very quick tank. Its among the 4 fastest heavy tanks in tier 10 in terms of acceleration, traverse, and top speed. It also gets a consumable to improve its speed even more, which can allow this tank to get to positions as fast as medium tanks.

Special mechanics

The Strv K has the combat stabilization mechanic.

This means that when moving at slow speeds (under 15km/h), the tank’s gun handling is improved to 0/0/0.08

This allows the tank to remain accurate when moving slowly, such as when turning in place, or using hulldown positions.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Stridsvagn K has Sandbag Armour for special provisions/comsumables.

Provisions:
Running 6% sandbag armour, 10% fuel, and 10% food will give this tank the best performance. 
Fuel is needed, as mobility is a really important strength of this tank, and you can’t afford to lose 10% of overall mobility.
Sandbag armour is just a free 138 HP, which you definitely should take, as this provision is far more useful than the alternatives.
Food is also essential as it just makes everything on the tank better, most importantly, the DPM, another of the main strengths of the Strv K.

Gun Rammer:
Gun rammer is needed as it utilizes the Strv K’s strength in DPM. While calibrated shells does work on this tank, it takes away from what this tank specializes in. Strv K really does not need calibrated shells to do well, its accuracy and aim time are good enough to snipe weakpoints, and the tank is quick enough to get around enemies. If you are constantly facing enemies you can’t penetrate, you may just be taking the tank to the wrong area of the map. Strv K also doesn’t benefit much from calibrated shells as it does not use HEAT, and its HE isn’t special.

Use the gun rammer and put the Strv K’s high DPM to good use. The gun rammer gives the tank a 6.1s reload with 350 alpha, giving it 3325 DPM (if using sandbag armour it has 3283 DPM).

Improved Assembly:
Don’t use enhanced armour, as it doesn’t benefit any area of the armour. The mantlet is too thick, the turret roof is an auto-ricochet, the upper plate is not reliable as its a pike nose, and the lower plate and turret face are far too weak to enhance.

Use improved assembly, as when its stacked with sandbag armour, it makes the Strv K the most healthy tier 10 heavium.
Improved assembly allows the HP to stack with sandbag armour. With 6% sandbag armour and improved assembly, Strv K tank has 2576 HP.

Vertical Stabilizer:
As the Strv K already has great accuracy and aim time, but only average gun handling, its best to use the vertical stabilizer to improve the handling.
The Strv K is also a very fast and active tank, much like a medium, so its constant movements mean that vertical stabilizer is by far more useful than refined gun.

Gameplay advice

Stridsvagn K has a unique playstyle in tier 10. Its most similar to the T95E6, as that tank is similarly lightly armoured, quick with good gun depression, and has a high DPM gun.
If you have played the T95E6 before, the Strv K is fairly similar in playstyle, bit it will feel different in terms of the way the gun performs. This can also be compared to the M60 for its similar gun and turret armour layout (with weakpoints around mantlet). Don’t think of the Strv K as being “only HT” or “only MT”, its a mix of both, it can play as both, and compared to each class it has some advantages but also some disadvantages.

Don’t hesitate to go with the mediums:
-Note that if you do this and you only have 1 other heavy (and they refuse to follow the team), you are essentially throwing away a tank (in most situations the lone tank dies and then your team gets flanked and loses).
-You have to determine which flank you should go to, who to support, and which enemies may go where, as every battle and every line-up is different.

-The situation that you would go on the medium tank is if you are the only heavy on your team, or there are enough other heavy tanks to sufficiently hold the HT flank (whether they do or not is something you can’t determine so early in battle, and you have to adapt to the situation when it changes).

Use gun depression and ridgelines.
Even though the Strv K retains the same turret face weakpoints on the left and right of the gun, when using gun depression the tank becomes a smaller target, and it hides the weak hull and lower plate.
While using gun depression, if enemies do not hit the turret face cheeks, they will bounce. This actually makes the Strv K fairly decent on  a ridgeline, as you can move back and fourth for enemies to bounce off.

The less accurate enemies are, or the further they are away from your tank, the harder it will be to hit the weakpoint, and the Strv K uses this, and rapid movements, to its advantage.

Move back and fourth when hulldown.
As said above this makes your turret stronger in hulldown, it will always be harder for enemies to hit a small moving target, then it will if that target is not moving at all.
You can afford to do this due to the great aim time and accuracy of the Strv K, you don’t have to take much time to aim, and you can just move to get bounces. Of course, once you have shot its always best to retreat fully into cover, only stay on the ridge if its absolutely necessary for you to do so.

Playing medium flank:
Think of this tank as a half medium, half heavy. Don’t think of it as only one class of tank, as it can play in both roles quite well.

On the medium flank, the Strv K has good armour (compared to MT), its got a great gun with good DPM and accuracy, and its got decent enough mobility and high HP. 
On this flank it can play kind of like a spearhead to push and progress the battle on the MT side of the map, using its better armour and durability to absorb hits and give allied medium tanks the initiative to push forward with you.

It can be played quite aggressively, but be careful of enemy TDs, or unspotted enemies. To make a push and win the flank, you have be quite sure that you outnumber the enemies with tanks, so make sure you know where on the map the enemies are.

Playing heavy flank:
On the heavy flank, the Strv has lighter armour, but an extremely accurate and high DPM gun, and it has far better mobility than most other tanks.
On this flank it needs to be more of a support tank, especially on flat terrain. Let allied HT with more armour take the hits and push first, your job would be to put in damage, or support them if an enemy flanks. You can also flank around enemy heavies if you are 100% sure they don’t have support from other tanks behind them or to the side, but this is a risky play, so you really have to be completely certain before trying something like this.

When there’s a chance to use gun depression, you can be more on the frontline, but you can’t sit still at all. If enemies are very close in distance they are more likely to be able to easily hit your weakpoints.

Generally on the heavy flank you can play somewhat aggressively when there’s gun depression to use, otherwise you have to be more careful. On the medium flank you can be really quite aggressive, as you have such high HP with pretty good armour, and still great DPM by MT standards.

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The Strv K has the playstyle of a true heavium, being able to fit perfectly into a role on both the medium side and the heavy side of the map. On either flank, it has some great advantages over other tanks. Against heavies, it has the speed, accuracy, and DPM; and against mediums, its got some troll armour and very high HP.

Overall

Overall the Strv K is a great tank suited to the heavium role. Its mobility is very impressive, it has high HP, and an extremely accurate and high DPM gun with great gun depression. The tank is proficient on either the MT or HT flank, but due to relatively low penetration and light armour, its quite challenging to get right.

Great players will do well in this tank, though it will still be challenging to play; and if you’re a less experienced player you should just avoid this tank as its playstyle is extremely unforgiving.

Is it worth getting?

The Strv K is worth getting only for players who know they will enjoy or do well in this tank. If you aren’t a player who is ok with a fairly lightly armoured heavy tank, then you should avoid getting the Strv K.
Great players will really be able to excel in this tank as they will know what positions to use it in, where to take it in battle, how to trade damage, etc.
The Strv K will be extremely hard for other players to use though as it has low alpha for a heavy, light armour, and not the highest penetration.

The Stridsvagn K is worth 16,000 gold, note this value is set for the general playerbase, as not every player will necessarily enjoy this tank, and its definitely not easy to play.

Skilled players and good heavium players will find the tank worth more around 19,000 gold, as its a great tank when played correctly. Its versatile for being able to work both as a medium and as a heavy, and that’s something which no other tank really offers in tier 10, at least not with the high HP, quick reload, great accuracy, and strong mantlet.

Most recently sold for:

Main reward of Blitzfair event – December 2022
Crates – July 2023

Historical Note:

Stridsvagn K was a real tank, however it was not designed with a specific purpose.
The “Strv K” was just a step in the development of the Kranvagn tank. The Kranvagn in the end was not needed due to Sweden purchasing Centurions for their army instead.

Development on Kranvagn the hull continued and there was a proposal to mount Centurion Mk.10 turrets on the KRV hull; however it was decided that if Sweden were to do that, they may as well just purchase whole Centurions. Some tests were carried out with the L7 105mm gun on the KRV, but there was never an actual Centurion turret mounted on a Kranvagn hull. This is the Strv K, an idea that came up in the design process of the Kranvagn, an ultimately unsuccessful idea.

The name Stridsvagn K literally means “Tank K”, more than likely its full meaning would be “Tank KRV” or “Tank Kranvagn”. As this version of the Kranvagn was never fully assembled or considered, it doesn’t seem to have an actual name, and its likely that “Stridsvagn K” was coined by WG for this tank. However this name choice is very reasonable, as the tank is a “K tank”, and theres no chance for players to really confuse the Kranvagn and the Strv K.

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