VK 45.02 B

## Basic information

The **VK 45.02 B** is a German tier 9 heavy tank.

Two designs of this vehicle (one with the forward-mounted turret and the other with the rear-mounted turret) were drawn up by Ferdinand Porsche. The tank never saw mass production.

It has a thicker frontal armor than its brother, the E-75. It carries the same gun ordinance, but the VK 45.02 B has a slightly better gun reload, accuracy, and handling (but worse gun depression) thanks to its turret stats. The transmission is located in the middle, which prevents engine damage from frontal hits, but there is a driver port (albeit small) on the front, and thinner sides. Thus, angling the tank is an absolute must in order to survive.

When first acquired, it comes with an insufficient gun, and will only begin to be a powerhouse when equipped with the L/68 105mm Gun, and will change the balance of battles once equipped with the powerful 128mm L/55 gun.

Due to the rear-mounted turret, this tank may seem harder to play and more unwieldy than the previous VK 45.02 Ausf. A. It's certainly slower than a fully upgraded E-75, mostly due an overwhelmed 875 hp engine, but give it time and get used to its unique play style and you could easily find yourself playing a part in tipping the battle in your team's favor.

As of update 0.9.2, this tank received a significant buff. Both upper and lower frontal plating were buffed to 200mm of thickness, giving an effective armor of over 300mm on both plates. The upper plating has a few weak spots, but they are tough to pin-point and still not too weak. The top of turret weak spot has also been buffed from a mere 40mm to 60mm, increasing effective armor greatly. After this update, this tank can no longer be considered in the shadow of the E-75, as an E-75 will now struggle immensely to penetrate your VK while you can punch holes into his under plating.

In a later patch, the weak spot got removed, and the lower plate got nerfed to 170mm, but the upper plate is still around 300mm effective, and through proper angling an all-round thickness of at least 240mm can be achieved. In addition, the side armor was buffed from 100mm to 120mm, making side scraping and angling more effective.

## Pros & Cons

##### Pros:

* Fantastic frontal armor, around 300mm with angle and well armored turret
* High hit point pool
* The lower plate is a strong point when standing on equal leveled ground, unlike the E-75
* Powerfull top gun, 105mm L/68 has very good soft stats
* Is a monster sidescraper with the rear mounted turret, decent side armor, and respectable alpha damage

##### Cons:

* Bad mobility overall
* Poor gun depression
* Top gun has limited accuracy for a German tank, long aiming time and slow reload.
* Takes critical hits often from shots that hit the side.

## Performance

The VK is a very heavily armored tank, even more so than the E-75, however this comes with some tradeoffs. The VK is a serious departure from the VK 45.02 A, which was more of a medium hunter. The VK 45.02 B, however, is very heavily armored, being able to bounce most tier 9 guns and even some tier 10 guns will have problems penetrating. The VK is a brawler, getting into medium or close distance is where this tank belongs. Avoid open areas as it is only the front armor that is strong. Furthermore, staying in open areas will allow light and medium tanks to circle it as the track traverse is rather poor. When driving VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. B you will be able to lead the assault if you plan it correctly. Try to keep all enemies in front of you as this will allow you to take shots for your allies. Don't be afraid to take forward positions, but always keep artillery in mind, as they can be the bane of this tank. The only real weak spot on the VK is the cupola, which is rather small, and hard to hit. Very precise shots can hit the gunners port too, but that would be quite a feat to achieve. The Ausf. B can make great use of side scraping techniques due to the rear mounted turret and decent alpha damage.

In some cases, the learning curve can become fairly expensive, and you may suffer heavy financial hits until you've grown (or groaned) accustomed to this heavy tank. Don't give up. The grind can be horrible, you can't mount the upgraded turret nor guns until the tracks have been researched. The stock turret is only somewhat strong on paper, and almost everything the VK meets will penetrate that turret; the roof is especially thin. Added to that the canon from its predecessor, which had poor penetration at tier 8, is utterly useless at against most tier 9 and close to all tier 10. If mastered, the Ausf B. can be a rewarding tank to play.

## Historical Information

Two prototypes of this vehicle (one with the forward-mounted turret and the other with the rear-mounted turret) were designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, but it never entered production. This tank, named the VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. B in the game, is based on the prototype with the rear-mounted turret. The forward-mounted turret is represented by the VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. A.

## Historical Accuracy Errata

The 8,8 cm Flak 41 L/74 (the Pz.Sfl. IVc's top gun) is missing. This gun was initially intended for the VK 45.02 before it was later switched to the KwK 43. The other gun configurations are fake.

* Hull armor is actually 80 mm thick on all sides. In WoTB, however, its armor thickness is a whopping 200/100/100.
* Stock turret is basically the same Porsche turret from the Tiger II. Its armor values are 220/150/150 instead of 100/80/80.
* Top turret is basically the same Henschel turret from the Tiger II. Its armor values are 252/160/160 instead of 185/80/80. The Henschel turret was never designed for this tank. Its configuration on the VK 45.02 is fake.