[Mobhack]

I find the long-barreled Mk4's glass jaw to be one of the real annoyances of playing as German - and if it is hull down or dug in then the effect is worse since hits will be more likely on the weak 5cm turret face!

They could not increase the 5cm turret front armour with the long gun on it - the turret was at max capacity. There is a P4 with decent frrontal turret armour, but a short 75 which can deal with shermans and T34s with HEAT ammo, however its a bit "iffy" relying on WW2 tech HEAT.

So I tend to prefer the long-75 stugs, but those get annoying when immobilised pointing in an inconvenient direction. The stug with short 75 is OK-ish in North Africa if it has a decent supply of HEAT - useful until the early MK4 specials show up as a unit that can support the P3s charge to APCR range with longer ranged shots.

But in a German LC, I often have absolutely no P4 or P2 in the core till the P4 'specials' show. Its all stugs and P3s for me, may have some P2 that came as part of a company buy in Poland, upgraded to a real tank for France onwards.