From OMGWiki
| Wehrmacht
| Sturmgeschütz IV Veterancy
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| Side skirts available for purchase & 10% reduction to received damage.
| 23
|  Level 1
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| 15% reduction to received penetration.
| 58
|  Level 2
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| 15% reduction to reload & 15% increase to penetration.
| 145
|  Level 3
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| Known Unit (Custom Name)
| 290
|  Level 4
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| Feared Unit (Custom Skin)
| 435
|  Level 5
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| Sturmgeschütz IV Visual Identification
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The Sturmgeschütz IV (Sd.Kfz. 167) (StuG IV), was a German assault gun of the Second World War. The Sturmgeschütz IV resulted from Krupp's effort to supply an assault gun. As Krupp did not build Panzerkampfwagen IIIs, they used the Panzerkampfwagen IV chassis in combination with a slightly modified Sturmgeschütz III superstructure. From December 1943 to May 1945, Krupp built 1,108 StuG IVs and converted an additional 31 from battle-damaged Panzer IV hulls.
The StuG IV became known as an effective tank killer, especially on the Eastern Front. The variant was constantly plagued by supply shortages due to other production lines and allied bombing runs. Losing favor with German industries due to development costs and much needed proven designs such as the Sturmgeschütz III, production was slowed and the remaining uncompleted hulls at the factory sites were scrapped by Allied forces in 1945.
History
The StuG IV, short for Sturmgeschütz (Assault Gun), was an armored fighting vehicle based off the Panzer IV chassis. Assault guns were made to provide armored support to the infantry, and were significantly cheaper and faster to build as they didn't have a complicated turret. Designed as a replacement for the StuG III G after the Panzer III chassis factory was bombed heavily, the StuG IV had the same performance in every respect. It's low silhouette and decent frontal amour gave it better protection than the Panzer IV, and it's 7.5cm StuK40 gun was essentially the same as the Panzer IV H's. The lack of internally-fired machine-guns made it vulnerable to infantry, and the machine-gun above the loader's hatch was dangerous to use. It fared poorly if engaged at close range due to missing a turret. The StuG IV, and its predecessor, accounted for many knocked out Allied tanks when deployed in ambush, and functioned best when working closely with infantry.
Tactics & Tips
- StuG IV is turret-less and can be easily flanked, always support it with your infantry.
- The StuG IV is a good early game tank; its price is quite low and it gives enemy Shermans or Cromwells a hard time. Until this tank has the MG 42 upgrade, it has weak defense against enemy infantry. Stay clear of Anti-Tank infantry, but side skirts help lower the damage from these.
- The StuG possesses good frontal armor compared to other units in the game. This means you have even more the reason to not get flanked along with its turret-less nature.
- The StuG can easily defeat enemy 75mm Sherman in a 1v1 slug fest, as long as the Sherman isn't circle-strafing it. Keep backing up to prevent it from happening.
- The StuG has very poor health when compared to the other tanks. Higher penetration weapons anti tank weapons chew it up. Be sure to never take on recoilless rifle airborne with the StuG. Two squads of these will bring it down in no time.
- The StuG, with it's low pop-cap cost and cost overall is easily spammed. If you have the pleasure of having several StuGs on the field at once - you can form StuG walls to dis-allow an enemy advance, or have one StuG following the other a bit further back and to the side for protection.
- Often frowned upon for "low anti-infantry effectiveness" - it's actually quite decent at it. It kill infantry men quite often. However the accuracy is greatly reduced on the move, and the high "fix-on-target" timer means the StuG sometimes just can't lock on the enemy infantry to shoot them.
See Also
Manpower
Ammunition
Fuel
Population
Blitzkrieg
75mm StuG
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
