Thundaxe wrote:
Late game on most maps, manpower is often the limiting resource for unit production. Heavy Tanks provide the most combat power and especially HP for their manpower cost, it's not even close. The only weakness they have are air (attack planes esp) and anti-tank/tank destroyer. Even then, because of their very large HP, they can still "steamroll" over enemy stacks.
When comparing the maximum levels of Heavy Tanks with Medium Tanks without any Doctrine bonuses:
Heavy Tanks have 24% more HP than Medium Tanks, but only cost 16% more manpower.
When comparing the sum of all resources, Heavy Tanks cost 22% more than Medium Tanks. But they also deal more damage in total. If we only look at the damage vs land armor classes and take an average, then the Heavy Tank does 9% more offensive damage than the Medium Tank, and 63% more defensive damage. 31% more in total. Anti Air values is also 25% better for the Heavy Tank.
The downside is of course the slow speed, but the argument made in this thread makes sense that in certain troop combinations (like when combined with alot of artillery) it does not matter that much.
I am always a bit sad when some unit is under represented so here I just wanted to make a point that they can be useful when used right.