This is just simply not the case. Unless you’re facing infantry which have absolutely no cover, autocannon will always be inferior to a standard HE shell on the basis of burst damage. At best, autocannon has a 150ms TTK (excluding bullet travel time), but requires at least one shot to directly impact the infantry player. If you do not manage to land any direct impact hits, which is easy to do given a base spread of .2, then your TTK jumps to 600ms (again excluding bullet travel time). This is 600ms provided you miss none of your shots. This is 600ms that the enemy infantry can seek cover or break LoS, ensuring you cannot confirm the kill. Alternatively, the 37mm cannon on the 38t provides an instant direct impact OHKO for a TTK of zero, or an instant max 80 splash damage that can be easily followed up with 1-2 rounds from the coax gun for a TTK of about 300ms (excluding bullet travel time). In both of these scenarios, autocannon is worse against infantry. Especially infantry you cannot splash briefly or smart infantry that do not expose themselves for an entire 600ms. These are the infantry that may then hit you with one AT launcher of their choice, deal ~25 damage, and usually damage a part due to light tank frailty, drawing you close to (if not immediately to) your demise. Add in the fact that autocannon has no effect on opposing armor, plus has spread and overheat, and you’ve got a horrendously bad spec choice overall. The 38t is best left to flanking enemy armor pieces with 37mm AP rounds, specifically on maps like Panzerstorm that allow the 38t to maneuver around enemies and avoid direct engagements. Leave the infantry farming to armor that can easily mop up solider with generous OHKO cannon splash while also being able to take more than 3 hits.
Every tank in the game (so far) is weaker version of a Tiger I, save Churchills and the Sturmtiger - that wasn’t the point of the write-up. The Panzer IV is a tank that can do everything well, just not the best at certain things. However, it is more than capable of holding its own in armor engagements as the default 75mm stubby cannon HE rounds do only 30 points less of impact damage compared to the Tiger I’s 88mm HE rounds, while maintaining the same splash damage and a higher rate of fire. Very good at dealing with infantry thanks to the generous splash on its 75mm cannon, good mobility, turret traversal, and durable armor, it is the most versatile tank in the game, tied only with the Valentine Mk VII.
I assume you meant “If you play with a gunner, it’s better [than] using a Tiger.”
Every tank is better with a gunner, the StuG IV just has a better gunner FoV. Is this, a better top speed, and a slightly lower profile worth trading turret traversal, a coaxial gun, shallow turret angles, and more armor? No, probably not. Like stated in the write-up, you shouldn’t use the StuG if you don’t have a coordinated gunner with you. But if you’re playing with a gunner, you may as well use another tank and be much more effective overall.
King of all tanks, yes that I can agree on. Lacking splash damage on infantry? No, not at all… The Tiger I’s 88mm cannon firing the default HE rounds has a 5m splash, with a 2m inner blast radius of 112 damage. This is the best tank around for spiting one infantry in particular, better than than the 75mm stubbies of the Panzer IV and StuG IV which have smaller inner blast radii. Its downside is it’s slower RoF, making the Panzer IV the better infantry killer overall.
Concerning HEAT rounds, while they do provide slightly more damage overall on vehicle targets thanks to their extra blast damage over APCR rounds, these rounds also travel at about 65% the speed of APCR rounds. This then requires you to close the distance with a target to more consistently land shots, but in doing so you give up the Tiger I’s greatest asset of easy, potent ranged damage. While this may seem acceptable, in doing so you’re more likely to encounter more targets like infantry at close range, who are now able to more easily damage you. And because taking HEAT rounds as prevented the selection of the Increased Ammo Capacity spec, you now have to deal with wasting your anemic primary HE round ammo pool on these targets, limiting your time to engage targets before having to resupply, provided you are able to escape with the Tiger I’s poor mobility before being overwhelmed. APCR is far superior overall, allowing the Tiger I to fulfill its primary roles - ranged support and anti-armor.
I’m really not sure what you mean by this, as the in-game description is quite clear regarding the Pineapple Wrench’s effects, granting 150% health regain for 125% repair duration. Longer repair, more health regained. It has no effect on the amount of health regained from resupply points for aircraft, as one fly-through will remove the perma damage taken and allow a pilot to potentially repair all of their plane’s health back. There is no need to linger at the resupply point like armor.
Like the 38t, the Staghound is now better left to flanking targets, not attempting to farm infantry directly - especially with the advent of AT rifles. Also as stated previously, autocannon is still trash. Additionally, the Staghound’s 37mm is more than capable of OHKOing planes, as long as AP rounds are not used, as they lack the blast damage needed to completely kill the aircraft, and in all honestly, the Staghound with the LJ adapter firing HE rounds is un-ironically perhaps the best anti-air vehicle in the game right now, sporting the highest velocity while maintaining the potential to kill from full health. The Valentine Mk VII, CGC, and StuG IV firing AP rounds come close, but the prior is about 50m/s slower, and the latter two have restricted aiming abilities.
The Valentine MK VII with the 6 pound gun has a 3m splash, with a 1.3m inner blast radius of 112 damage. Combined with a velocity of 550m/s (faster than the Tiger I’s default 88mm HE rounds) and a competitive rate of fire, it is more than capable of deleting many infantry at various ranges in a single shot, using only splash. Throw in Mine Clearing Line Charges, an increase to RoF, an increased ammo pool, and you’ve got one of the most destructive anti-infantry tanks in the game. It is very good versus infantry - no autocannon needed.
It has already been established above that if infantry have any cover or a way to break LoS, cannons with long TTKs and spread are poor anti-infantry devices. All AA cannons are culprits of this. On maps like Devastation or Rotterdam like you suggest, you will be peeked to death by AT launchers with no way to retaliate due to poor TTK and splash, so AA tanks are especially bad here against mildly competent infantry. Use burst damage, use the medium tanks, stop propagating the “AA is OP versus infy” meme that was killed off in nerfs several patches ago. Better than a Staghound is a low bar.
Tiger is clearly the winner if you’re going for anti-armor and desire to be overwhelmed by a few infantry when positioning isn’t perfect. For actual team support, the Panzer IV exists (due to the reasons stated above) and does everything from well to amazingly.
That’s all that had to be said.
Unrelated, I updated guide after a few recent patch tweaks, though recommendations have not changed noticeably. Reflection on the Vehicle Meta is still relevant.