VK 72.01 (K)

VK 72.01 (K) is one of the German top tier heavy tanks. It has strong frontal armour with high HP, a big 15cm gun with high alpha, and good DPM. It also features great mobility for a superheavy tank.

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Armour

(The VK72.01 (K) in the images is using Improved Assembly)

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

Flat ground:
Upper plate 380-400mm
Middle armoured bar 240mm
Lower plate 290-295mm
Lower-lower plate 645mm

Turret cheeks 240-380mm
Gun mantlet 475-580mm
Cupola 84mm (top part is 275mm auto-ricochet)

Side armour:
VK 72’s side armour is split into 4 parts: the flat upper side armour, flat lower side armour, the angled upper side armour, and the round turret ring bulge at the back.

-The flat upper side armour is 160mm, this is the entire area that’s above the track fenders, and in front of the turret.

-The flat lower side armour is 100mm, this is the entire area that’s below the track fenders, its the armour behind the tracks.

-The angled upper side armour is the triangular armour plate right in front of the turret ring bulge. This is 140mm thick. The turret ring bulge itself is 172mm thick. These 2 areas make angling quite hard in the VK, as they become weaker the more you angle the tank.

vs 257mm AP (top image), 330mm HEAT (bottom image)
Using -7 gun depression

Upper plate 480-510

Turret cheeks 250-415mm

Cupola is hidden

Armour vs 9 tanks:
Most tier 9 mediums will struggle to penetrate the well armoured lower plate, even with premium ammunition. A few mediums which have 295-300mm on HEAT will be able to penetrate, but only when not angled.
Heavy tanks will generally have no issue penetrating the lower plate, but will need to use premium ammunition to penetrate.

The middle armoured bar is easy for any enemy to penetrate, and the turret cheeks can also be penetrated by most enemies, if the shot is aimed well.

The upper plate is too strong for any enemy to penetrate, and the cupola isn’t an issue as the gun mantlet shields it.

Armour vs 10 tanks:
In tier 10, most enemies will be able to penetrate the lower plate with premium ammunition. Only a few tanks with low premium penetration (290mm HEAT) will struggle against it.

The turret cheeks are penetrable to nearly any enemy, though they are small weakpoints, so require good aiming.

The upper plate is still impenetrable to all enemies.

Actual armour performance:
The VK 72’s armour doesn’t seem too impressive, as it has weak turret cheeks and a weak middle bar. It also can’t angle in the most ideal way due to the weak rounded turret bulge at the rear of its hull.

On paper, its performance doesn’t seem too impressive, but in practice, the armour actually works well.

Note that the lower plate is where players generally default to if they can’t shoot an enemy, so many enemies you face will try to penetrate the lower plate, which is impenetrable to standard ammo.
Due to this, players will also try to shoot that narrow middle bar, which is actually quite hard to hit due to how small it is. This can cause many bounces on the upper and lower plates.

In battle, its quite uncommon for an enemy to just immediately shoot the turret cheeks, since on most heavy tanks, this is a well-armoured area. Even if enemies do try to shoot here, its a fairly small weakpoint on either side, which makes it quite easy to miss if not aimed well.

Gun

The VK 72.01 (K) mounts a 15cm (150mm) gun.

-Damage per shot is 600 on AP, 500 on HEAT, and 900 on HE
-Reload time is 13.5s, giving it 2672 DPM
-Penetration is 258mm on AP, 334mm on HEAT, and 85mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 4.1/4.4s
–Base aim time is 2.6s, but it can get down to 2.12s.
-Dispersion is 0.362/0.326
–Gun handling is 0.21/0.21/0.12, or 0.18/0.18/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees

This is overall an amazing gun. Compared to other heavy tanks with 600-640 alpha damage, the gun of the VK 72 has better accuracy and aim time, and significantly more DPM
The penetration of the gun is also very good, and the DPM and reload rate are decent but nothing amazing. Gun handling is just average for a gun of this type.

-7 gun depression is decent, but it can be a bit awkward to use since the VK’s turret is rear mounted, but it does get this -7 all around, unlike the VK 90.01 (P) or VK 45.02 (B).

The VK 72 can also use tungsten shells, which will boost the average damage on AP up to 690 (max roll 750).

Mobility

The VK 72’s top speeds are not affected by its equipment choice, and remain the same at 32km/h forwards, -15km/h in reverse.
The raw acceleration rate is also not affected. Shown as 11.5 hp/t, it has a mediocre 1404 horsepower engine for its 122 ton weight.

Mobility stats when using Improved Optics:
-Traverse speed is 27.7 deg/s on hard terrain, and 25.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-Actual acceleration rate is 10.4 hp/t on hard terrain, and 9.6 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average for tier 10, with 1.1/1.2/1.6

For a German superheavy, this is decent mobility. The top speed and reverse speed are both good, and slightly above average. The acceleration rate is also decent, due to having both a decent engine and good terrain resistances (unlike a 60TP).
The downside of this mobility are the traverse speeds, which are really quite slow.

Mobility stats when using Improved Suspension:
-Traverse speed is 34.6 deg/s on hard terrain, and 30.9 deg/s on medium terrain.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.1 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 0.85/0.95/1.3

Overall this is very good mobility, especially considering the armour and gun this tank carries. This level of mobility has good traverse speed, with good acceleration, and extremely good terrain resistances for a heavy tank.
This level of mobility feels more similar to regular heavy tanks, rather than a 122 ton superheavy.

Provision & consumable loadout

VK 72.01 (K) has sandbag armour, tungsten shells, and improved gunpowder for special consumables/provisions.

Consumables:
Multi-purpose restoration pack – This is needed for any type of repair on the tank, including for modules, crew, or in case of fires.

Adrenaline – This is important to temporarily improve the long reload of the VK 72 in intense situations where it may be needed, such as brawls or pushes.

Tungsten Shells – Tungsten shells are essential on this tank. This consumable increases damage per shot by 15% (up to the maximum roll), which means the average damage on AP goes up to 690. This is really helpful for causing more damage in battle, but also can help to clutch victories against low HP enemies.

Provisions:
10% food – This important for improving the gun and mobility of the tank. It helps make the reload faster, improves traverse speed, and reduces accuracy and aim time significantly. This is essential on any tank.

10% fuel – This essentially makes the tank 10% more mobile, and is mandatory on the VK, as its not a quick tank to begin with, and you can’t afford to just lose 10% of your tank’s general mobility.

6% Sandbag Armour – This will add 147 extra HP to your tank, and the alternative provisions you could mount are not nearly as useful as this. This extra HP is very important to the playstyle of the VK 72, and greatly extends its survivability in battle.
Without sandbag armour, the VK’s HP would only be 2450/2597, a big difference to the 2597/2744 it has with sandbag armour.

Equipment loadout

Gun Rammer:
Calibrated shells are not needed on this tank. Its penetration on all shells types are already very good, and the combination of good DPM with such high alpha as 600 is one of the major traits of the VK 72.

Gun rammer is a better choice due to the VK’s relatively long reload (not for a tank with 600 alpha, but compared to the whole tier).
Its important to have a quicker reload to be able to put out shots faster and trade with enemy tanks, as often the VK 72 is right on the frontline, where there’s a lot of pressure to reload quickly to react to the battle situation.

Gun rammer would improve the reload time from 14.5s to 13.5s, and the DPM from 2485 to 2672.

Improved Assembly:
Both equipment pieces (enhanced armour and improved assembly) give benefit to the tank, however the benefit of enhanced armour is much smaller, due to the awkward armour layout of the VK, and due to its high base HP.

Improved assembly essential as it can stack sandbag armour provision, and gives very good HP. This plays into the gameplay of the tank greatly, and allows the VK to really influence the outcome of a battle, due to its great ability to trade alpha damage.

If using enhanced armour (with sandbag armour), the VK 72 would have 2597 HP.
If using improved assembly (with sandbag armour), the VK 72 can achieve 2744 HP.

Correct angle for poking corners
Drag slider right -> to view Improved Assembly
Drag slider <- left to view Enhanced Armour

Over-angling the front
Drag slider right -> to view Improved Assembly
Drag slider <- left to view Enhanced Armour

Vertical Stabilizer:
This equipment piece is more useful than refined gun on most heavy tanks, as heavy tanks generally are on the frontlines, and constantly moving/turning, they often don’t get the time to stop and fully aim in (which is where refined gun is useful).

Due to this, vertical stabilizer is a better equipment choice, as it helps to keep your tank more accurate while moving, and helps it to aim in sooner after it stops moving. This is needed on the VK 72, especially with its unimpressive gun handling, and its long reload/high alpha.

Consumable Delivery System:
HEC is not as useful to the VK in most situations.

-The tank has a 13.6s reload, so even if using HEC to extend the duration of adrenaline (from 15s to 19.5s) or tungsten shells (from 20 to 26s); you can still only put out 2 shots in regular situations.
-It does allow you to put out 1 more shot when you activate adrenaline, however you have essentially no leeway (as in, you must shoot on-reload for 3 shots in a row, or tungstens hells will run out before the 3rd shot).

-CDS is far more beneficial to the tank, as you are still able to put out 2 shots comfortably within the duration of activating adrenaline or tungsten shells. CDS also shortens the cooldown time of all (including repair kits) consumables, allowing you to use them much more frequently during a battle.

Gameplay advice

The VK 72 has a standard German superheavy playstyle, its a heavily armoured damage soaker with high single-shot impact.

General gameplay:
Take this tank to the heavy tank side of the map. Its gun is more suited to fighting heavies (due to its longer reload and mediocre accuracy), and its mobility is inadequate for fighting against mediums.

The VK 72 is perfectly suited to a brawl with other heavy tanks, due to its strong frontal armour, high HP, and its high alpha. Its good in city environments where it can use the sharp corners of buildings to angle properly (shown with images below) and easily bounce enemies while putting out big damage.

Try to avoid angling if there’s no cover. If you’re out in the open, angling the armour too far only exposes the weak turret ring bulge at the back of the hull.

You can try to angle slightly if against an enemy with 300mm HEAT penetration (such as mediums), as these tanks will struggle to penetrate the lower plate if its slightly angled. Just be aware that if you angle too much, the rear of the hull becomes weak.

Trade alpha damage, not DPM:
When fighting with enemy tanks, trade using alpha damage. If an enemy has lower damage per shot, then they reload faster, generally these enemies will know this, and will try and pressure you so that they can shoot you twice, while you only shoot them once.

Try to avoid enemies until you’re reload, this way you force them to trade with alpha damage, and not with DPM. VK 72 is perfect for this, as it has both very good HP and alpha damage.

Tungsten shells also help with damage trading, as this consumable increases the alpha damage of AP from 600 up to 690.

Gun depression:
The VK 72 can use some gun depression positions, as -7 degrees is decent. However generally its best to avoid such positions due to the rear mounted turret of the VK.

This rear mount causes various problems for the tank, since it means that when you drive up to a ridge, your hull goes before your turret.
This exposes it as a target to enemies, even before your turret/gun can see them.

Also, if you need to turn the turret to look at an enemy to the side, your gun will be further back on the ridge, again the hull is exposed before your turret.

This doesn’t mean the VK 72 cannot use gun depression positions, its just harder to do, when compared to a tank with a more conventional front/middle turret placement.

Don’t sidescrape:
The VK 72 cannot sidescrape well at all, and this should never be used as an armour angling tactic in battle.

Look at the images below, the image on the right shows the VK 72 attempting to sidescrape.

The problem with sidescraping is that when you reverse out to shoot, enemies can see the weak turret ring bulge on the side of your tank. Since its round, it can be penetrated at nearly any angle.

Drag slider Right –> to view 255mm AP
Drag slider <– Left to view 330mm HEAT

Correct angling:
The correct way to angle is similar to the way the T28 HTC angles. You have to expose the strong frontal armour of the tank around the corner at an angle, then drive forward a bit so that your gun can hit the enemy. This is shown in the above left image.

Be careful not to drive too far forward, as then the turret ring bulge will become exposed.

Use consumables:
Especially with tungsten shells, don’t save it until a certain battle situation where you think you’ll need it (such as a brawl or a push).

Activate the consumable at any point where you think you’ll be able to put out 2 shots of damage, since unlike with adrenaline, tungsten shells doesn’t require you to shoot on-reload to gain benefit from the consumable. As long as your shot penetrates the enemy, the consumable is giving your tank an advantage.

Utilize your ammo:
VK 72 has a great choice of ammo to use, and you should take full advantage of this to be effective in battle.

The AP shell is the best shell for general gameplay. It deals the most damage for its penetration level, and has a decent 757m/s shell velocity. It also has the benefit of being able to overmatch 49mm plates or smaller.

The HEAT shell has very good penetration, but less damage per shot than AP. It also has low velocity of only 606m/s, so you have to give lead if using this shell at mid or long ranges. This shell is best used against enemies that AP can’t penetrate.

HE is very multi-purpose on this tank, as it has high alpha and high penetration. You can use it either to deal big damage to very lightly armoured enemies (or even the sides of some weak medium/heavy tanks), or to deal splash damage against very heavily armoured tanks. If you don’t have time to aim and just have to snap a shell at a well armoured tank, HE is useful.

VK 72’s HE has impressive 900 alpha with 85mm penetration.

If you activate tungsten shells, the average damage roll will increase to 1035.

The overall playstyle of the VK 72 is fairly straightforward, just drive to the HT flank, show your frontal armour, and use your high alpha gun to stack up damage.

Overall

Armour – 7.5/10
Gun – 6.5/10
Mobility – 4/10
Speed – 3.5/10

VK 72.01 (K) is overall a great tank.

Armour is strong frontally, but due to weakpoints its hard to sidescrape, and turret layout is awkward. Durability is very high thanks to high HP.
Gun is good, high penetration & alpha damage, with pretty good accuracy for 640 alpha. If compared to all tier 10 heavy tanks its accuracy, aim time, and gun handling are fairly mediocre.
Mobility is decent for a superheavy, with an ok acceleration rate, but slow traverse speed. Reverse speed is average.
Speed is decent for its tank type, but overall its fairly slow with 32km/h.

Overall the VK 72.01 (K) is a combination of stats that works well. Its solid front-only armour, combined with high HP, and big alpha damage, make it a great tank for trading and damage soaking. Its a fairly unique playstyle in tier 10, quite different from the VK 90 or E 100.

Is it worth grinding?

The VK 72.01 (K) is worth grinding for if you want an interesting and different tank. This tank offers different but still familiar gameplay compared to tanks like the E 100 or VK 90.01 (P).

Don’t grind this as an early line if you are a newer player. Due to the lacking mobility, gun depression, and front-only armour of the tanks in this tech tree, their gameplay is harder to get the hang of than a similar line such as the E 100 tech tree.
Especially at tier 10, the VK 72 has arguably the most challenging gameplay of this tech tree, due to its rear turret, armour layout, and longer reload.

This line is better for more experienced players, who will know how to use such large/tall tanks with their poor gun depression, and how to take advantage of their strengths in battle. The VK 72.01 (K) is a very strong tank in tier 10 due to what it offers in stats, so its worth getting.

The VK 72.01 (K) is currently a tournament meta tank.
The tank offers the perfect combination to make it a strong tank for trading damage, and for soaking up damage, which are both useful to have in a tournament team.

On some maps this tank won’t work as well as other heavies, due to its lacking mobility and speed, but generally this tank has a well-deserved place on a tournament team.

-Its strong frontal armour forces enemies to use premium ammo, or just risk bouncing if they miss the weaker mid bar. Using premium ammo reduces damage, allowing HP to last longer.
-High alpha damage with better accuracy than the 60 TP, E 100, & Maus mean its great for damage trading and delivering an impactful shot (tungsten shells reinforces this).
-High HP let the tank survive long on the battlefield and give a big boost to the team’s HP.

(Note that this could all change in October, when WG will release the update 10.3 tier 10 balance changes.)

Camo cost:

“Rotkopf” camo: 2D, costs 2,550 gold

Tech tree overview

To get to the VK 72.01 (K), you’ll have to grind through the tier 1-5 Panzers, then onto the VK 30.01 (P) at tier 6, and switching to the VK 45.02 (A) at tier 8.

Some tanks in this like have ok stock grinds, others have terrible stock grinds. From tier 7 onwards, the tanks start sharing the same trait of having great frontal armour but not great gun depression.

-Tiers 1-5 are all fairly similar tanks, all have light armour, decent to good mobility, and good guns with good gun depression and damage.

The Panzer III at tier 3 has a better stock gun and turret than the top gun and turret. The stock gun has a much quicker reload for roughly the same DPM, and the stock turret gives the tank -10 gun depression. The top turret only gives -6.

The Panzer IV G is very similar to the previous tank, Panzer IV D, but it has more reliable frontal armour against same tier tanks.

-Tier 6 is the VK 30.01 (P), a medium with good turret armour but weak hull armour, an 8,8cm gun with good alpha and gun depression, and a high top speed.

The stock version of this tank has a painful grind, mainly due to a weak stock gun, and also needing to research 2 engines. The stock turret has weak armour, and the gun has low DPM & penetration. The stock engine is extremely weak for the weight of the tank. The one good thing about this tank’s stock grind is that you can mount the top gun on the stock turret.

Its best to first research the first engine, then get the 8,8cm gun. This is the best gun on the tank, and you should continue using it, even after unlocking the top 7,5cm gun. After this get the top engine, then the top turret. Tracks are optional, but the 7,5cm is needed to progress to the Tiger (P).

-Tier 7 is the Tiger (P). Its one of the most well armoured tier 7 tanks frontally, but has a weakpoint on the turret and only -6 gun depression. It has high DPM and good accuracy, though lack speed and accelerates very slowly.

The stock version of this tank isn’t painfully slow if you didn’t unlock all engines from the VK 30.01 (P). The good thing is that if you did, then the Tiger (P) will already have the top engine unlocked.
If you have the top gun already unlocked (from researching the Tiger I), note that it only offers better penetration. It can be mounted on the stock turret, but has much worse DPM than the stock gun.
(Basically top gun with stock turret = low DPM, high penetration; stock gun with stock turret = high DPM, lower penetration.)
The stock tracks have very poor terrain resistances and give the tank much worse gun handling, so these shouldn’t be skipped.

Recommended upgrade path is to upgrade the tracks first, then get the top turret, and finally get the top gun. Assuming you already unlocked all engines from the VK 30.01 (P), and you don’t yet have the top gun.
(Keep this tank, as it also leads to the Maus line.)

-Tier 8 is the VK 45.02 (A), a very underrated tank that could be considered OP. This tank has amazing mobility, hull & turret armour, and a great gun, the only thing it really lacks is gun depression.

The stock version of this tank is perfectly usable, but the turret is weak and the alpha of the stock gun is low. There’s only 1 upgrade for each module, so the grind isn’t too painful. The top 105mm is the middle gun from the Tiger II, so it will already be unlocked if you have that gun on the Tiger II.
Just like on the Tiger (P), the tracks cause this tank to be extremely slow and have worse gun handling. The recommended upgrade path is to get the tracks first, then the top gun, then the top turret, and get the engine last.
The stock gun is usable but weak in tier 8, and the stock turret has no armour. The engine should be left till last as the mobility is still decent without it, and the gun and turret armour are more important to upgrade.

-Tier 9 is the VK 45.02 (B), this is actually more similar to a tier 9 version of the VK 90.01 (P), rather than a tier 9 version of the VK 72. This tank has a very strong upper and lower plate, with good turret armour. Its sides are strong and flat so it can sidescrape very well.
Mobility is great (as this has access to the same equipment choice as the VK 72) but speed is quite limited, and the gun is quite average for a 460 alpha heavy tank.
This tank has -5.5 gun depression on the front, but can get -8 over the sides.

Just like with previous tanks, the top engine of this tank is already unlocked from the VK 45.02 (A), and the top 10,5cm gun is unlocked from the Tiger II, and the top 12,8cm gun is unlocked from the E75.
Its possible to unlock this tank and only need to research the tracks and top turret, since all other modules can be unlocked from other tanks.

If you haven’t researched to the E75 though, you’ll have to unlock the top 12,8cm gun. When stock, this tank has decent mobility, with good DPM and accuracy, but poor gun handling. The stock turret has good armour but has a fairly big weakpoint.

The recommended upgrade path is to get the top turret, then the 12,8cm gun, and get the tracks last.
The top 10,5cm gun is optional, as its only helpful with the stock grind of this tank. You may want to keep the VK 45.02 (A) and unlock this gun, since it will be useful in the E100 line grind.

-Tier 10 is the VK 72.01 (K), it has the biggest gun and strongest frontal armour compared to the rest of the line, but its also slower than most of the previous tanks, with the most awkward turret and armour layout.

Compared to the rest of the line, the VK 72 has the most similar playstyle to the VK 45.02 (B), but can’t sidescrape, and is a bit more flexible with frontal gun depression.

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