I have to say that if I were choosing a fighting vehicle from the era it would be the Pz V G with IR.

My first priority would be crew survivability, fallowed by killing power. The Tigers had better armor and stronger guns but we too slow to maneuver and had slower turret traverse.

The Shermans did the job because there were so many of them but they go a lot of men killed manning them. The reason the M-1 bears the name of Abrams is because as a Bn. Commander of a tank unit in WWII he made a promise to himself that if he had a say in it he would not send crews into battle in such death traps…I guess he kept his promises.