COH2: How do I destroy armored vehicles?

What is an armored vehicle?
Understanding armor is probably the single most important thing about Company of Heroes 2.

Vehicles fall into one of two different categories:

• Light armored vehicles (e.g. scout cars, halftracks)
• Heavy armor vehicles (tanks)

The key difference is that light vehicles can be damaged by small arms fire (like the regular guns from grenadiers, conscripts, engineers, pioneers, etc.) while tanks cannot.  Even if you sit an engineer at point blank behind an enemy Tiger for an hour, it will not do even a single point of damage to it.

Okay, so all heavy armor vehicles are the same, right?

Nope.  There are two different attributes that vehicles have:

• Armor thickness/deflection
• How much damage is reduced per hit.  Differs based on the "side" of the vehicle.  Frontal armor is the strongest, followed by side armor.  Rear armor on all vehicles is supectible to almost all AT weapons.
• Health
• How much damage the vehicle must take before being destroyed.

Deflection allows your tanks to get shot at and shrug off hits like they're nothing.

Health indicates how much damage your vehicle will take before dying, which is any damage that got past the deflection.

Generally, these two attributes correlate.  Vehicles with thick armor have a lot of health.

How do I kill armored vehicles?

Light armored vehicles can be killed with regular gunfire in a pinch.  Both heavy and light armor vehicles are susceptible to AT weapons.  Typically, light vehicles are destroyed in 2-3 AT weapon hits, while heavy vehicles can take anywhere from 4 to 20 shots to kill depending on the situation (it averages around 6 in general).

A T-70 Soviet Light Tank can shoot at the front armor of a German Tiger all day and never get around to killing it.  An IS-2 can get behind the Tiger and destroy it in only a few shots.  Armor facing makes a huge difference.

What Anti-Tank (AT) weapons should I be using?

This really depends on the "phase" of the game.  Early on you have limited AT options, but the enemy only has access to light vehicles.  You tend to rely on activated infantry abilities like Panzerfausts, AT grenades or mines. If their first vehicles are delayed, you might be able to go straight to AT guns.

In the "mid-game", you have to face your first real tanks: either light or medium.  Correspondingly, you also have access to your own tanks, plus AT guns.  AT guns are devastating in this phase because most vehicles either lack the armor or the mobility to face them, and surprise disables and resulting kills can happen to tanks.  Infantry AT upgrades (like Panzerschreks) are strong in this period because you likely have excess munitions and the infantry are more mobile than AT guns.

In the "late game", you face heavy tanks and special Commander ability tanks (such as Tigers).  You have access to your full arsenal and will most likely have phased out most infantry AT.  AT guns still do decent damage but aren't as useful as heavy tanks and typically lose in standup fights.  Killing tanks in the end game can be very difficult and often you are forced to settle for driving them back for repairs.

What is a list of all the possible AT weapons?

Categorized by the "phase" of the game you are likely to use them:

Early game

• Soviet
• Conscripts (RPG-43 AT Grenade)
• Engineers (lay mines)
• Guards Rifle Infantry (they come with PTRS anti-tank rifles)
• German
• Grenadiers (Fire Panzerfaust)
• Pioneers (Teller AT mines)
• MG42 HMG team (Fire Incendiary AP rounds.  Only useful against light vehicles, requires Veteran)
• Scout Car (2cm Autocannon upgrade, useful only against light vehicles)

Mid game

• Soviet
• T-70 Light Tank
• T-34/76 Medium Tank
• ZiS-3 AT Gun
• SU-76M Assault Gun
• KV-8 Flamethrower Tank
• German
• Panzergrenadiers (Dual Panzerschrek upgrade, also Bundled Model 24 grenade which can be used against light vehicles)
• Pak40 AT Gun
• Stug III Assault Gun
• Flakpanzer Ostwind (Excellent damage against light vehicles, minimal damage against tanks, though you can do okay if you can hit it in the rear)
• Panzer IV Medium Tank

Late game

• Soviet
• SU-85 Medium Tank Destroyer
• IS-2 Heavy Tank
• ISU-152 Assault Gun
• German
• Sturmpanzer IV Assault Gun
• Panther V Medium Tank
• Elefant Tank
• Tiger