VK 45.03

The VK 45.03 is a German tier 7 heavy tank. It has great DPM with an accurate and quick reloading gun, its mobility is quite good for a heavy tank, and it has both strong hull armour and strong turret armour.

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 VK 45.03 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)
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Drag slider Right –> to view 175mm AP
Drag slider <– Left to view 217mm APCR
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 175-185mm
Lower plate 175-180mm
Turret 225-240mm (weakest point 175mm)
Cupola 115-160mm

(Even though the upper and lower plates have the same effective thickness, the lower plate is weaker, since its thinner but more angled. Thinner plates with more angling are weaker to normalization than thicker plates with less angling, hence it shows up grey and not red.)

VS tier 6:
Against all tier 6 tanks the VK 45.03 has very strong armour. All tanks other than TDs (and the ARL 44) will need premium ammunition to penetrate the front of the VK 45.03. If you angle the tank, then even the TDs (and ARL 44) will struggle to penetrate the hull of the tank.

The turret is very strong and even most premium ammunition from tier 6 enemies will struggle.

VS tier 7:
In tier 7 the VK 45.03 has strong armour against most enemies. The only tanks (other than TDs) that can penetrate the upper plate are German and USA heavy tanks as they have 198-203mm penetration.

As shown above premium ammunition will easily go through the tank’s upper plate, though if it is angled then it will still bounce most medium and light tank premium ammo.

The turret remains impenetrable to most standard ammo, and premium rounds can only penetrate a few small areas on the cheeks.

VS tier 8:
When faced against higher tier opponents, the hull of the VK 45.03 is weak. The only tanks that will bounce off it are lower penetration MT or LT. All other tanks will easily penetrate the hull, even if its angled, even if its using gun depression.
You may get some bounces if you use both gun depression and angle the hull at the same time, however premium rounds from tier 8 tanks will easily go through even if standard rounds can’t.

The turret is still very strong, and many tier 8 tanks with under 215mm of penetration will still struggle to penetrate if not hitting the weakpoints.

Gun

The VK 45.03 has a 8,8 cm gun

-Alpha damage is 220 on AP, 190 on APCR, and 270 on HE
-It has a 5.3s reload, giving it 2488 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 203mm, APCR is 237mm, and HE is 44mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.6s/4.9s
–Base aim time is 2.7s, but can get down to 2.2s
-Dispersion is 0.308/0.277
–Gun handling is 0.2/0.2/0.12, or 0.17/0.17/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -8 degrees

This is overall a great gun for a heavy tank. Its very accurate with decent gun handling, high penetration, and great DPM with comfortable alpha damage. The only area that’s not great is the base aim time, though that’s more than compensated by the other great aspects of the gun.
The gun depression is also a great -8 degrees, which is better than all the similar tanks (Tiger I, Tiger (P), and Škoda T 45).

Mobility

-Top speed is 38km/h forwards, and -14km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 41.5 deg/s on hard terrain, and 32.6 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.4 hp/t, it has a strong 936 horsepower engine for its 65 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.1 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.3 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average, having 1.1/1.4/1.9

The VK 45.03 has quite good mobility, on both hard and medium terrain its quite agile for its armour and its weight, having good top speeds, traverse speeds, and quite a strong engine with good acceleration rate.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The VK 45.03 does not have any special provisions or consumables.

Gun Rammer:
Since the VK 45.03 is among the highest penetration heavy tanks in tier 7, and its a DPM-based heavy tank, it should be using gun rammer, calibrated shells is unnecessary. 

Gun rammer gives the tank 2488 DPM with a 5.3s reload for 220 alpha.

Gun Laying Drive:
The VK 45.03 has poor base aim time (base aim time is different from the in-game aim time stat) for its 220 alpha. The only piece of equipment that can improve it is the GLD, which is essential on this tank.

Though the tank is accurate and has fairly decent handling, sometimes you are forced to take time to aim, and the aim time is long, so its vital that you improve it.

Enhanced armour:
Enhanced armour would improve the upper plate from 180mm up to 187mm, and the lower plate form 175mm up to 182mm.
The turret’s weakest point would go from 175mm to 182mm, and the stronger points from 225mm up to 234mm in effective thickness.

The tank already has a good amount of base HP at 1500, so this doesn’t need improving.

Vertical Stabilizer:
The VK 45.03 already has amazing accuracy without needing refined gun (0.308), so there is really no reason to use it on this tank.

Vertical stabilizer will be far more beneficial, as the VK 45.03 has an active playstyle, and the tank is constantly moving and turning. The stabilizer will reduce how much the gun blooms out when you move, which makes the tank more accurate when it doesn’t have time to fully aim in.

Gameplay advice

The VK 45.03 is quite a standard heavy. Its like a halfway point between the Tiger I and Tiger (P), having less mobility yet more armour than Tiger 1, and better mobility yet less armour than the Tiger (P). As such, it plays similarly to those tanks.

The tank just basically plays the role of a fairly generic DPM-based heavy, it goes to the heavy side of the map, uses gun depression, does hulldown, angles armour, sidescrapes, and grinds out enemies with its gun. Of the two tier 7 German tech tree heavies it plays more similarly to the Tiger I than the Tiger (P), as its overall statistical combination and its playstyle are more reminiscent of the faster Tiger I than the slower Tiger (P).

Go hulldown
While the hull is not weak overall, its still weaker and larger than the turret. By hiding the hull, it makes penetrating the tank far harder for even tier 8 enemies. The weakpoints on the turret are very small targets, so if you move back and fourth then enemies will likely miss.

Sidescrape
The side armour of this tank is a very nice 80mm, and the tank has perfect turret placement for sidescraping out. Try to do this in any situation where you need to poke around a corner, as its better than just exposing the front plates to the enemies.

Angle the armour
If you cannot do either of the above and you are caught out, always angle the armour. There is no reason not to do so as the tank doesn’t have any additional weaknesses from angling, and it makes the hull front stronger, increasing the chances of a bounce.
Similarly, you could over-angle against lower penetration enemies and try to bait them into shooting the superheavy 40mm thick tracks of this tank, as such thick tracks can absorb quite a lot of shells.

Use DPM to trade
The VK 45.03 has great DPM considering its 220 alpha as well. It has even a 0.2s quicker reload then both the tech tree Tigers. Try to use this DPM when trading with enemy tanks.
If an enemy with higher alpha shoots you, you can confidently put in 2 shots while they reload. Trading like this ensures you always deal more damage to the enemy than they do to you.

Play confidently/aggressively when top tier
The VK 45.03 is an extremely powerful tank when facing same and lower tier opponents, and it can be played aggressively against them. Use the great mobility to surprise enemies, and use the great gun to out-damage pretty much anything you are faced against.
Also don’t be afraid to ram enemies, your tank weighs 65 tons, one of the heaviest in tier 7, and it moves pretty fast.

Overall

Overall the VK 45.03 is a very good and strong tank tank. It has overall a very reliable combination of statistics that just make it a great tank that’s consistent in its performance.

It has good hull armour for its tier with a very strong turret, a great gun with high penetration and DPM, and good mobility considering its weight and armour.

Is it worth getting?

The VK 45.03 is worth getting as its generally sold for quite cheap and is a very good tank. It has many great features that you would want on a heavy tank, good armour, good mobility, great hulldown capabilities, and a great gun. Any player can do well in this tank as its just got everything to make playing the tank easy;  and veteran players will also appreciate the tank as it is not limited in its capabilities.

The gameplay of this tank is very similar to the tech tree Tiger I, so if you want to see whether you will like this tank before buying it, you can play the Tiger I to get a feel for it.

The VK 45.03 is worth 6,000 gold. Its a great statistically, its easy to use, its quite fun to play. It has everything to make it a great tank worthy of buying.

Most recently sold for:

Main reward in “Pretzelmania” event – September 2023

Camo cost:

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