Chimera Back On Sale!

Chimera Returns

By:

IrmaBecx

From today, you will once again be able to get a deal on what I consider to be one of my absolute favourite tanks in the game: the mighty Chimera.

This was my birthday present from Wargaming this year, and I can’t tell you how happy I’ve been with it. Not only is this a highly competitive premium, it also has a unique main armament, and a playstyle all its own. It’s also somewhat of an actual design, at least the numbers are in spec with the design study.

But what is a Chimera? And is it worth spending some gold on it?

The short answer to the latter question is yes; this tank is worthwhile. The 127 mm weapon is ruthlessly effective, and you have Medium like mobility with Heavy tank armour. The Chimera was supposed to be a counter to the IS-3. The fact the stats reflect this is what I mean by it being “in spec with the design study”; the Chimera compares very well to the IS-3.

Which is a bit strange for a Medium tank.

The result is a curious Heavy/Medium/TD hybrid that combines gameplay elements from all three of those classes. I’s mobile enough to go where you want and stay active, it’s well armoured enough to hold a position, and it has the firepower to take on your biggest opponents and devastate weaker ones.

There are a few tradeoffs. Your turret face is 200 mm, but it’s completely flat, and it’s a big target. You have a long reload to deal with. And although highly mobile, you’re not really any faster than regular Mediums.

But learning to drive the Chimera isn’t very difficult. You keep back a little to deal with the reload, use the mobility to relocate, learn to angle up the armour effectively, and with those simple things in place, you can start expanding on the playstyle.

This is where the Chimera comes alive for me. At first I drove it because it was new and exciting, but after a while I realised it didn’t get any less exciting as the novelty wore off.

I have to say it’s hard to call the Chimera pretty, but it still manages to look good to me; its very queerness somehow turning into a form of beauty. It’s a big tank, very wide and low to the ground, with a tall turret on top that looks like a box.

The QF 5 inch gun sticking out of it is originally a naval gun, just like the Box Tenk and the Yolo Wagon have. It doesn’t quite have the penetration of a BL9, but it’s not far off, and it does more damage. Chimera premium APCR rounds do the same damage a regular 122 mm does, so you will trade very effectively against almost all Heavy tanks you face.

As is sometimes the case with these obscure weapons, the HE round is a little less powerful than you would expect, but you should still roll comfortably over 500 damage on a clean hit.

Looking at the armour, the numbers do look a little better on paper. You will present around 200 mm frontal armour straight on, but that’s due to the extreme angling of the upper plates, not their nominal thickness. The sides are around 80 mm give or take, which works for sidescraping and angling up, and the huge, wide tracks with sideskirts will also eat a lot of shots; at 20 degrees you are presenting over 400 mm effective, spaced armour in places.

Ten degrees of gun depression will also help make the armour a little more effective. Although it is a little offbeat, the Chimera certainly isn’t awkward.

So yeah; it looks strange, but it’s not really all that quirky. It’s just a big, well armoured Medium tank with a big gun and a thousand horsepower engine. It reacts well to fairly simple tactics, and once you get into the reload rhythm you can put out some serious damage.

There are a lot of things to like about the Chimera; not least its ruthless efficiency, but there is more to this tank than simply being strong. It has a curious hybrid of playstyles that isn’t hard to learn, but that also doesn’t seem to get old once you have learned it.

Are you tired of being bullied in your Medium? Here is one that’s purpose built to bully IS-spam Heavy tanks. Is your Heavy tank feeling too slow? This one does 50 with Medium tank specific power.

I drive a few games in mine, and I have a great time as usual. Working the cover and trading shots with tier IX Heavys and TDs, landing a few very satisfying hits. The higher alpha is so comfortable to work with, and you have all the mobility you want to go where you need to.

There are of course other big gun Mediums out there, but there isn’t one quite like the Chimera. The closest you are going to get is the T-34-3, and in comparison the Chimera is less straightforward, but it’s also more powerful.

And yes; it makes credits. You get a very nice 175% credit coefficient, but the best part is that with the high alpha strike, it’s also easy to build your damage.

I get about a 13 second reload, which is comparable to most Heavy tanks. That means you don’t want to fight multiple opponents at the same time up close. But in doing Heavy tank jobs, your mobility will be superior to an actual Heavy tank, and your armour will be about as good. Your gun handling will also be better than a standard Heavy; all of this allowing you to make better trades.

Other than the slow turret traverse, the Chimera moves recognisably like a Medium, and it can do Medium jobs as well. Just make sure they don’t get too close; a quick tank getting at your big, flat sides will chew you up fairly quickly. Make them trade damage for distance.

127 mm is a big gun, and as such, the aimtime and accuracy is surprisingly good. But it’s not as good as a top end Medium tank, so don’t get yourself in a peekaboom sniping match with one of those. If you let the gun settle a little, the shots will go where you want them.

That is actually the best approach to the Chimera. Comparing it to a Heavy tank makes the strong points come into focus.

Where does this all leave us? Should you get a Chimera?

Most definitely. If you are sick of grinding credits or ratings in your IS-6, Löwe, or SuperPershing, then the Chimera is just the ticket. If you have a craving for something a little out of the ordinary, then likewise have a good look at this tank. If you think it looks cool and you heard it was pretty strong, then you won’t be disappointed.

With the caveat I didn’t actually pay for it, I do love my Chimera because it’s so accessible, so comfortable, so effective, and so much fun to drive. It has quickly become one of my most treasured premium tanks, and one of my favourite vehicles in the game. It’s just so far removed from what I usually drive, while still reminiscent in many ways.

Is the Chimera perhaps a little too powerful?

Maybe. But all within reason I would say; this tank is not gamebreakingly drive-straight-through-the-enemy-team overpowered. It’s really strong, sure; that is due to the high alpha, the top end speed, and the overall balance between armour, mobility, and firepower; the Chimers lacks for nothing in any department.

Let me put it this way: If you know how to drive, the Chimera will very likely have a positive impact on your overall statistics.

Likeable, accessible, and well put together without any significant downsides. If you like offbeat tanks, British concept vehicles, or just plain big gun fun, then IrmaBecx says you probably need the Chimera in your life.

That would have been the end of it, but I am under NDA now, so I’m actually writing this well in advance. Not only does that allow me to get the review out there directly, but it also gives me time to reflect on what I’ve written and make alterations.

I’ve continued to drive the Chimera; I’m not joking when I say it’s one of my favourite tanks, and I think it’s a wonderful drive. There’s no question it’s competitive; you can just look at the numbers. And the more I drive it, the more I get into the playstyle; everything I wrote still feels true.

There is a little bit of New Tank Syndrom in the mix; my Chimera is still fairly new, and I’ve gone heads over heels for premium tanks this way before. But most of the times that has happened, I’ve ended up with a long time favourite that I keep coming back to periodically. This is that kind of tank.

The bundle dropped just now, and it’s 10.000 gold all inclusive; avatar, boosters, nine equipment slots, plus the “Phantom” legendary camo. For a tank like this, I think that’s a good deal.

If you’ve been thinking about it, maybe now is the time. If you haven’t been thinking about it, then maybe you should. Either way, the Chimera most definitely has the School of Tank Philosophy seal of approval, in spades.

Thoughts On The Progetto 46

The Progetto Proposition

By:

IrmaBecx

So last time I compared the P.44 Pantera and the Progetto 46, I felt I did a bit of a rush job. And now that the Progetto is on sale at a very competitive price, it’s the perfect opportunity for a revisit.

My problem was this: I noted that the two tanks had different styles of play, but was I really driving them differently? I kind of had the feeling I had concluded the Progetto was better simply because the numbers suggested it.

So that means not giving the P.44 a fair shake. Because if you drive both tanks the exact same, you are doing one of them a disservice. For that reason you can’t talk about the Progetto without mentioning the Pantera.

I should say I got my Progetto for free, it was a holiday gift from Wargaming. That’s important to note when I then go on to say this is one of my favourite tanks and one of the most worthwhile premiums in the game.

You should also note the tech tree comparison is important, and it’s not as simple as one tank being outright better then the other. It’s more like them having different strong points.

Like, the Pantera is faster is a straight line, but the Progetto turns much faster. It has a higher alpha on a shorter interclip reload too, but then the Pantera has a faster rate of fire. The P.44 also has a massive engine and so much better specific power, but the Progetto is more agile, and lower to the ground.

You can go back and forth like his, but in the end you will end up at the conclusion that comparing the two is a lot like comparing the Ru 251 and the M41 Black Dog: they are same-same-but-different. Different enough to be worthwhile, but similar enough that if you drive one, you can quickly adapt to the other.

One main difference is armour. I very seldom get bounces off my Progetto 46, but that does happen in the Pantera. That doesn’t mean the P.44 is well armoured, but many of the plates are thick enough not to get overmatched, and the boxy shape is easy to angle.

In return, the Progetto is a smaller target and has one more degree of gun depression for working ridgelines. You see how there are these tradeoffs back and forth all the time?

The other is the Progetto has that 240 alpha AP round and reloads half a second faster from the clip. That’s going to make it a slightly more efficient “clipper”, but with the shorter shell reload, the Pantera puts out single rounds more efficiently.

And that’s pretty much it.

Both these tanks are auto reloader Mediums, that is the important thing about them. Because you can’t really nerf away the versatility of an auto reloader no matter what you do to it, and the P.44 is one of the three best performing tier VIII Mediums in the game last I checked.

Even though they do things slightly differently, they fill the same supporting, flanking, harassing, and isolating role on the battlefield, and the great thing is you don’t have to pay to get some of that. The P.44 is freely available in the tech tree, and offers the same level of power and versatility as the premium Progetto.

You can look at the numbers and see the Progetto performs significantly better, but it is the darling of many competent players as the playstyle appeals to the experienced driver. I think it’s fair to say the numbers are slightly skewed.

There is some confusion about the actual DPM numbers on these two tanks, made more complicated by the fact there are three different DPM numbers for each tank. According to my calculations, the biggest difference is when firing single rounds. The Pantera has around 250 more DPM doing that. Firing two rounds the difference drops to under 200, and when emptying the entire clip the difference is less than 50, still in the Panteras favour.

So the Pantera has more DPM, in theory. In reality, if you land the same amount of standard shells with both tanks, the Progetto will do more damage. It has a higher effective DPM when trading shot for shot.

But in the end, these tanks are about equally strong. One may fit you a little better and therefore also perform a little better, but I no longer believe the P.44 Pantera is the better tank.

The fact you can get much the same ride in the tech tree shouldn’t hold you off; indeed a Pantera driver is the perfect customer for the Progetto. Not simply because they will know how to drive it already, but because they will be able to appreciate the subtle differences between the two tanks.

Either will act as a proxy for the other, and if you are curious about autoloader Medium gameplay, at todays price, you could reasonably pick up the cheap bundle to see what it’s all about before you start dropping resources on the grind.

You should be aware however, that the Progetto is a tricky drive. The auto reloader makes it very versatile, and situationally very powerful, but this is a 90 mm Medium with no armour in a world full on Smashers and missiles and IS-spam.

Ask yourself: will you be able to play a tank that cannot bounce return shells?

If it’s an auto reloader you want, then the Progetto is all about the auto reloader mechanic and virtually nothing else. Without it, it would just be a 90 mm Medium; a slower AMX CDC.

So is it worth it? Yes, it’s worth it, especially at todays prices. I think the Progetto 46 is one of the best premiums in the game, but yeah, mine was basically a bribe from Wargaming.

If you love your Pantera but think it’s too expensive to run, the Progetto will fix that. If you are looking for something slightly different with a similar playstyle, then that’s exactly what it is. And if you heard about these fancy auto reloaders, you know about tier VIII gameplay, and you want to get in on the action, the Progetto will give you the full experience.

IrmaBecx says I really can’t recommend this tank enough for the initiated driver.

Struggles, And The Poetry Of BatChat

“I Hate This Game”

By:

IrmaBecx

So I’ve been struggling lately. That sometimes happens. And when it does, it really brings out the worst in me. I will berate people for being coward campers and all sorts of things, and I’m not happy with myself when I get like that.

But it is understandable, of course. Losing game after game no matter what you do is disheartening. It’s either a couple of hits, and your done, or you keep chasing after the enemies all game while your team falls apart around you, racking up an impressive amount of damage to no avail.

And certainly there are a lot of things to get irritated by. Smashers. Missiles. The aforementioned campers. Whoever has the most Heavy tanks winning by sheer amount of hitpoints. You start thinking about all the ways in which the game is wrong, and unfair, and out of balance.

However. Not only is that kind of thinking counter productive, it also reveals a kind of logical fallacy, if you will. When you complain about game balance, you are expecting someone else; namely Wargaming, to do something about it, and then everything will be fine. You will start winning again, and reclaim your rightful winrate and other statistics.

I think that’s a pipe dream.

What I see happening is myself not progressing as fast as I did a few years ago, starting to plateau, getting comfortable and sloppy, and so except for new tanks, I’m not really learning a lot of new stuff. What I am learning, is that experience allows you to predict the outcome of in game situations earlier and earlier.

In short, every time I lose, I saw it coming a mile away.

I’ve tried different strategies to deal with slumps like these, and in the end nothing works. You might as well allow yourself to be frustrated and disappointed in humanity for a little while, because sooner or later the same exact thing will happen.

I will have one of those really good games in a tank I really like, and by this vindication, all the pettiness and bad humour will melt away.

This time it was the BatChat. I’d been running a 25% winrate over the last couple of days, but persevered in the tank because it’s basically all I want to drive right now. I fell in love with the discordant rhythm of the autoloader, and the wealth of possibilities it engenders.

So I’m on Castilla. We all know it. There’s an E 50 M on my team, and a T54E1 against a BatChat and a Cent 7/1, so going A seems worth the risk.

I note the T54E1 isn’t coming; it’s still in base when I reach the top of the hill, but the Ausf. M seems on point, and I actually bump into it on the shelf overlooking the cap. Since the E 50 M has more armour, I back up and let it go first, repositioning to the houses on top of the hill.

My teammate has spotted an AMX 50 B, and I get a free shot as it rounds the corner. Second shot takes off the track, but that’s all I get, and the enemy BatChat is down there with it.

An IS-7 moves up through the B cap, and the reds are pushing to my right, so I reposition to look for shots. Moving around I spot the 7/1, also down by the far ridge, and I shoot it twice, but the 50 B appears behind it, and hits me for a low roll while taking one back. Time to pull back, the BatChat is down there too.

The IS-7 is capping B now, and my clip is almost reloaded, so I go for a track shot. It doesn’t do damage, but holds it in place for two quick shots, and I get a thousand assist damage as it goes down. Reloading again, and the 7/1 seems to be pushing towards A.

No shots at the BatChat, so I pull back again, and the 7/1 is now in A cap. I’m looking for the BatChat, and it spots me as I pull back, but the 7/1 is going past the cap now, and I need to help the E 50 M, but by the time I get there it has pushed the one shot Centurion out of the base, and I go down to try and clear it, seeing the 50 B is under attack.

The E 50 M, still on point pushes with me, it’s 4 on 4, and we have a Heavy tank attacking from the right, so it’s time to act. I bounce inexplicably on the BatChat, and the last shot goes wide, so I hold off a little while reloading. and capping A as the enemy have C. Don’t want to lose on cap points.

The E 50 M takes two hits from the 50 B but is still alive, the BatChat is running, and the second the base is capped I rush to help, but there’s no need. It’s 3 on 3 as I turn right towards B cap looking for the BatChat. What I find however is a Waffenträger looking the other way, and I land two good HE shots but the third one hits the gun before it can get into cover. B cap is going, so I know the BatChat is there.

I pull back to reset camo, and then decide to go for it. Two low health enemies, help on the way, and they just capped B. The third enemy gets spotted to my left as I approach the cap, it’s a fairly low health E 100. In the cap I find the Waffle, and it’s a quick takedown; high roll hit, ram it to take the track off, and finish off with the second round as the BatChat comes rolling out from behind the houses.

I bounce the first round, tap it as I go past, and get on the reload late trying to make sure my last shot connects. I have 1500 hitpoints, so there is every reason to feel mildly confident. I eat the second round, but I have my speed boost going juking around, and there never is a third one. The E 50 M takes it out just as my clip reloads.

Quickly cap C, and I tell the E 50 M, which is on a sliver of health, to hold position as I go look to either spot the E 100 or cap C also.Two minutes left of the game.

The E 100 is in the water just beyond the ridge to my left, and I figure I can beat its traverse and either clip it out or make it a one shot. With 1100 hitpoints, I can maybe eat one shot, but the E 100 misses me as I drive past putting a clean shot through the lower plate, one through the side, and I switch to HEAT for the kill shot, placing it perfectly through the turret ring and popping of the turret.

The E 50 M is right behind me, and would have taken it down if I hadn’t.

4644 damage with a thousand assist, three kills, two base caps one of which was red, and 1560 XP. It’s a Mastery:

So is the argument I am trying to make here that one single game like this makes all the struggle I’ve been having over the last few days pale into insignificance by comparison?

Yes. That’s what I’m saying. This one game made it all feel worth it again.

And I think it’s important to sometimes count your blessings, especially when you have been playing for as long as I have, and it can sometimes just feel like the same old grind.

You may not have aced your BatChat recently. You may not even have a BatChat. But there are still a lot of things you could be proud of, and all you have to do is think a little about what constitutes a good game, or a good performance for you. This is I think the constructive way to use statistics; you monitor what they tell you about your performance.

It’s easy to get stuck in a trap here. Because the thing about performance is that it’s not unlimited, but it can, at least in theory, always get better. There is always room for improvement. So what you want to look for isn’t that the numbers tell you you could do better, but when they tell you you are doing good enough.

You see people with 100% winrate in some tanks. But they only played one or a couple of games, so that number doesn’t really tell you anything meaningful. It’s just a novelty number.

If you are just starting out, you could focus on some other statistic than the obvious ones of winrate or damage output. Like maybe survival rating. Spotted enemies. Hit percentage. Perhaps hitting all your shots in a game could be your goal? These small stats do in fact impact performance in various ways; the longer you survive, the more effective you can be, The more enemies you spot, the more assisted damage you will get, and the more shots you hit, the more damage you will do.

No one else can tell you what a good game is.

Let me give you an example. My friend Xeno sent me a BatChat replay the other day. Winter Malinowka, and the whole team goes towards the mill. Xeno is staying close to the action, pumping out damage and supporting, but the team melts around him, and suddenly he is alone against five red tanks. He manages to claw it back to a one versus one, but then low rolls the kill shot on the last enemy just as the timer reaches zero, and the game is lost on cap points. With over five thousand damage and close to 1500 XP, that’s still a Mastery.

So is that a good game or a bad game? It certainly didn’t improve his winrate. But should that one fact be allowed to overshadow the otherwise amazing performance? Watching it, it’s easy to see how a few unlucky bounces would have made all the difference, but that is again focusing on that things could always have been a little better. I don’t think anyone walking away from a defeat with a golden Mastery badge really feels like a loser, it’s a clear indication you did almost everything right.

Strangely, I know a few people who, when they feel tired of the game and generally uninspired, will still drive the BatChat. These people have in common that they have played well over 50.000 games at this point, and I am thinking I may be on my way to turning in to one of those people myself.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence it’s the BatChat they drive. My “I hate this game” tank was always the Krautpanzer 70; that’s the one I drove when I wasn’t really feeling it. And you might think the Kpz and the BatChat are about as far from each other as you can get, but they are in fact really, really similar in one important aspect: there is nothing else quite like them out there.

The reason I held off getting a BatChat for so long was because of the Light tank/Autoloader combo. I felt like I really had to be in the mood if I was going to learn to drive something like that. But it’s really not all that complicated. BatChat gameplay theory is easy to understand; it’s just hard to implement.

What I didn’t realise was how BatChat gameplay sort of feeds on itself; it becomes more and more engaging and fascinating the longer you do it, and it sort of pulls you in, because you have these seemingly endless possibilities to work with. It’s not as simple as it being interesting and engaging because it’s difficult. It’s interesting and engaging because of its complexity.

I believe no one will ever truly master the BatChat, and that’s what keeps people coming back. That is why they still drive it when everything else seems bleak and tragic.

In that sense, the BatChat is perhaps the most poetic tank in the game. It’s like driving a verse; a playful use of language to entertain, to move the soul, and perhaps to elucidate. It certainly looks the part, especially in the very aptly named “Musketeer” camo. This is the one tank is the game I don’t mind at all being blue. My Foch “Destroyer” and 50 B “Veteran” are both earthy brown and green.

But the BatChat is a Musketeer. Of course it’s blue; with big, bold stripes across the chest, because they often won’t even see you, and when they do, it’s because you chose to reveal yourself and you want to look your best.

The BatChat being a cure for feeling down is perhaps not so strange after all. Even if all you enjoy about it is the challenge.

So this is my new “I hate this game” tank. Or maybe I should call it my “count your blessings” tank? That does seem a little more constructive.

I don’t really hate the game, I’m just in a bad streak, and it feels like everything is against me.

But in the end, it all comes down to the tanks. Which ones you choose to grind, which ones you choose to drive, and which ones you keep coming back to time and again because you just can’t leave them alone.

I have other blessings too, but my collection of tanks is one of the things that makes me most proud. With time statistics become less important, but my garage, stocked with tanks I collected over the years is a very concrete manifestation of my accomplishments. There are maybe three more tier X tanks I might consider getting, everything else I want is still yet to be introduced.

Even with the Smasher infestation, I can still sit back and enjoy spending some time in the garage, looking through all my favourite machines, remembering when I got them, what we’ve been through together, and what they mean to me.

I still think the tank that defines me as a tank driver is the Object 140. But I want it to be the BatChat.

Either way, that is something no statistic can ever show.

Smasher Lockbox Key Giveaway!

Free Smasher?

By:

IrmaBecx

So with the “Heat and Steel” event just having started, I have a bit of a surprise. Wargaming have been kind enough to give me fifteen Lockbox Keys to give away.

The lockboxes have a 96% chance you won’t get a Smasher, which is still too little as far as I am concerned, and instead you’ll get certificates for the Gravedigger, Tankenstein, or Scavenger, some gold, a few high end boosters, or some other useful stuff.

Buying a lockbox key from the store will cost you 750 gold, or you can grind it out in the event for 4900 Cases. But getting it for free is of course better. You can earn lockboxes during the event simply by playing the game.

Although I’m not a fan of the actual tank myself, I am of course happy to be able to give you at least a 4% opportunity to get it for free if you have been wanting one.

All you have to do is leave a comment below; nothing special, just say “Hy”, tell me what your favourite tank is, or how you are doing in the event so far, and as usual:

Don’t forget to include your in-game name and what server you play on!

The first fifteen comments will get a free lockbox key, as soon as I have fifteen I’ll send the list on to Wargaming. Do please leave your comment as soon as possible, so you can all have your lockbox keys ready when the lockboxes start dropping.

Be advised I don’t allow anonymous comments, so you will need a valid email address, or be logged in with WordPress, Google, et.c.

Best of luck in the event, everyone!

/IrmaBecx

EDIT: I have gotten fifteen comments now, and have sent the list to Wargaming. Keys will be credited to your account in the next day or two! 🙂

WZ-135G FT Blaze For Free?

Brown Bomber Returns!

By:

IrmaBecx

So if you weren’t around last time, tomorrow you’ll have a new chance to grind out the WZ Blaze, or “Brown Bomber” in the upcoming event.

I’m sure it will be pretty hard to actually get a free tank, and I can say right away I don’t think dropping a whole lot of resources on the Blaze is worth it.

But should you happen to find yourself the owner of a brand new Brown Bomber, or you think it looks cool for some reason, then here is a short breakdown of what you can expect.

The WZ-135 Blaze arrived in early 2017 alongside the WZ-112, you could grind them out in an event, and I was not very interested in either. The Glacial because it was a Heavy, it was blue and had dragons on it, and the Blaze because it was brown, fairly useless, and likewise had dragons on it.

I’m not a huge fan of dragons on my tanks.

But I do like the 112. If it had a different camo on it I would totally drive it. The thing is, I realised after quite extensive test driving I actually liked the Blaze as well, which struck me as strange because there really isn’t a whole lot to like about it.

It’s a fairly awkward drive, first of all. Not really all that slow, but doesn’t turn well, it only turns the turret 40 degrees to either side, and you can only point it up ten degrees. That means setting up your shots will be difficult, and your DPM isn’t great to begin with. The ubiquitous 122 mm D-25 only has 175 mm of penetration which will struggle against tier VIII opponents, and as you have APCR for premium, the calibrated shells won’t help a lot. There are a few pieces of 60-75 mm armour, but you’ll still only get troll bounces.

So what’s the upside? Uhm… well, 8 degrees of gun depression is pretty good. The aimtime is good; better than the tech tree T-34-2G FT, even. Specific power is good since it only weighs 24 tons, and it does 20 km/h backwards, which I believe is best in tier.

That’s not a whole lot of upside.

So this is not one of those “assault TDs” you hear about. You will need to stay back so you have time to set up your shots and then pull back, and if someone pushes you, there’s not a lot you can do, especially if they are faster or have any kind of armour.

So yeah, it’s fairly useless. But it does have a 122 mm at tier VII, and that can be both fun and effective. Your 65 mm penetration HE rounds can make a difference against some targets, but you only have 24 rounds capacity.

Usually when I try out a new tank for a review, I don’t drive very many games; just enough to get a feel and get into some high tier games so I know how it performs. But the WZ Blaze I ended up putting over a hundred games on; way more than I needed for a review, and that tells you something. It tells you I had fun driving it.

It’s a special kind of fun, sure. I called it a “rare bird”, and an “oddball vehicle” good for “a bit of comic relief tanking” back in 2017.

When you first drive it, you’re going to think it’s awful; it’s unwieldy, your shots won’t hit, and you will take all kinds of damage. Neither camo rating nor viewrange are very good, and you’ll be asking yourself where is the appeal, exactly?

Well, outside of having 400 alpha there isn’t a lot of it. I think for me the appeal simply came from driving a vehicle that so obviously struggles in a lot of situations and still managing to make it work once in a while. I actually ended up with a 57% winrate over 100 games.

The game has changed a lot over the last three and a half years however; there were no Smashers back then, not as many fast tanks, not as much IS-spam, and not as many high alpha guns around. The climate is a lot harsher for a vehicle like this nowadays.

But kitting the Blaze out and driving a few games today, it’s still fun. Awkward, but fun. I try to stay close to the action and support my team, and it does sometimes work out. While not an assault vehicle, it does do 50 km/h in a straight line, so it can be relatively dynamic as long as you’re not on your own, and you have some cover to hide behind.

Do enjoy some mediocre gameplay, fresh from the press account:

So how do you drive the Brown Bomber?

Camping a little at the start is a good plan. You don’t want to be spotted first, and you want to hold on to your hitpoints. But you can push forward and take a position, as long as you have some company.

What kills the mobility is really getting the Blaze turned around. It does pick up speed fairly quickly, but it doesn’t like to turn, and with the awkward gun arc, this will be noticeable. You can see in the last game I miss getting a shot at the Pantera because I drive too far forward, almost falling off the ledge, and I can’t get the gun elevation to aim at it.

Do make sure you don’t outsmart yourself with the limited gun arc.

One thing that works well is sidescrape peekabooming. Not because the Blaze can actually sidescrape, but because if you back out to get the shot, you will be driving forward into cover again, which is faster. To be fair, with 40 mm of side armour you can sidescrape against lower caliber shells, but your turret armour won’t hold up.

The 400 alpha will let you trade effectively against low caliber tanks, especially if you have the hitpoints to take a hit or two, and it will make you pretty dangerous towards the endgame. But this is without a doubt a support vehicle, and there is only so much you can do on your own.

You want to hold back, but not too far back, because the shell speed isn’t great. If you have driven other D-25 armed tanks, this will be no surprise. As you don’t have a lot of armour, you will need to stay at some kind of middle distance.

And once you get the hang of how the thing manoeuvres, you can try some cheeky flanking; this is where the Blaze starts becoming fun to drive for real.

But yeah; it’s going to be a struggle. If you are looking for a competitive credit grinder, then this ain’t it.

By the time you read this, the event details will have dropped, and you can read all about it in the in game news.

Basically, you have 100 games to collect event currency, and you’ll need 8.900 of them to get the Blaze. That means you need to average just under 900 base XP over 100 games to get it. Note that says base XP, meaning without premium or multipliers.

My recommendation would be if you have the slightest interest in offbeat vehicles you may not end up getting a whole lot of mileage out of, then line up your highest XP tanks and make a half hearted attempt at it, but be advised I don’t think dropping a whole lot of resources on it is worthwhile.

If you get it for free, then fine. If you don’t, that’s also fine. You will at least pick up some other freebies. I hear you can get a Smasher crate with a 4% drop chance.

Personally, it’s still a “no” for me. As much as I like driving the Blaze, I still think it looks terrible, and I’m not looking to add it to my collection. I’m just here for the free resources.

But I maintain the Brown Bomber is an enjoyable drive, I always liked it in spite of the looks, and for a bit of carefree I-play-for-fun tanking, the Blaze is definitely worthwhile despite all its failings. It’s fairly useless. That means not completely useless. And it is fun.

Best of luck in the event!

PTA – Blast From The Past

Thoughts On The Leopard PTA

By:

IrmaBecx

So if you were going to say which is the best tier IX Medium tank in the game, there would be a case to be made for the Leopard PTA, except of course it doesn’t have any armour at all.

That last part is not entirely true, but we’ll get to that.

65 km/h, over 20 hp/ton, and you get a full power L7A1 with almost 3000 DPM and top end penetration values. Once you get it fully upgraded, this thing has some power.

Yo do actually get three pieces of useable armour. The front plate is 70 mm, that will autobounce any gun in the game. The turret sides are 60 mm, so that will autobounce any gun in the game that isn’t a 183. And the upper side armour is 35 mm, meaning you can actually bounce a 105 mm Medium tank gun.

But of course these are exceptions. The PTA comes up against the biggest guns in the game, and it is a preferred target.

It’s easy to say “take advantage of the mobility”, but how does that translate into concrete gameplay advice?

The thing you need to understand is that you can not hold a position. This is because you will be straight up damage trading; you have to expect every return shot you take to penetrate and do damage.

This insight should pretty much form the basis of your playstyle; the way you position, the engagements you choose, and how you expose yourself. The rest is basic Medium tank gameplay.

You don’t want to drive at your enemy, you want to always position yourself at the side. If you get caught early in a position where your only choice is to trade shot for shot, then don’t take that engagement. Reset your camo and drive away; it may even be worth taking a shot to get out of there.

Hitpoint preservation is crucial. You will sometimes need to use your hitpoints in stead of armour, and so you want to hold on to them as long as possible. If you have done a good job with that, you can then just drive out in front of people and DPM them down towards the endgame, oblivious to taking a hit or two.

Six degrees of gun depression is three less than the actual Leopard 1, and it does make a difference. Setting up shots is slightly more difficult, but then you don’t set up your shots like you would on a tank with armour.

There are three types of engagements. Ambush shots from a position where you aren’t spotted and are pre aimed so you can pull back immediately. Shots where you just drive out in the open, because you know your opponent just fired or is looking somewhere else. And straight up damage trading shots where you expect to lose hitpoints.

The last form of engagement may seem obvious and intuitive, but it does bear thinking about. If you know you are going to get hit anyway, you can concentrate on getting the damage out instead of trying to angle, juke, and wiggle.

Situational awareness is key, and you will actually improve yours in a vehicle like the PTA, because you will be spending a lot of time in cover just waiting, so there are all the opportunities you could want to look at the mini map. You want to keep track of who has shots on you, and where there are in their reload cycle.

So yeah, if you’ve driven a Light tank, then that will be useful experience for the PTA. You have to learn to run away from bad engagements and use the wide open spaces to relocate and get damage.

You easily have the gun handling to work at range. The L7A1 has 255 mm of penetration, that’s as high as it goes for Mediums. With calibrated shells you will have 268 mm, that’s the highest any tier X Medium used to have before the blanket nerf. You have under 0.3 accuracy with a few upgrades, a 7-8 second reload, and HEAT shells that won’t lose penetration over distance. Shell speed on the APCR is not far off the highest in the game.

You will need to adapt a supporting playstyle. But that is just the beginning, once you have that down pretty well, you can start expanding on that plasytyle a little. The more confident you get, the more you can start making more aggressive plays when you get the opportunity.

Not that does not say “play more aggressively”, it says “making more aggressive plays”, which is something different. It means you can sometimes use your powerful abilities in a more aggressive manner, against isolated targets or low health stragglers, and especially towards the endgame.

Here’s where people start thinking the Leopard PTA is actually one of the best, if not the best Medium tank in the game., All you have to do is not get hit, and it’s pretty much top of the line.

But there is aways that caveat. This is a tin can on tracks with a Royal Ordnance 105 mm, that’s all it is. And all the power it does have, comes at the cost of armour plating.

Driving a Leopard PTA, then, is more of an art that a science; to a certain degree it cannot be taught; it has to be learned from actual experience.

I have tried to give a few pointers, and what you should consider. Setting up your tank for combat should reflect these considerations.

First of all, your armour will only ever get autobounces, so run the extra hitpoints. Whether you run a speed boost or adrenaline or both, go for the high end consumables to get longer duration. I tend to prefer engine power to traverse, but both are valid upgrades.

I also run the calibrated shells just because the penetration is already so high. You do have the DPM to spare, and the maxed out penetration means you will need to spend less time aiming. I then run GLD and Vstab, because the gun handling is also good already, and it has the same effect of making your shots more efficient.

The camo rating isn’t bad at all, and you might consider a camo net. Personally, I prefer to spot for myself, and so I max out the already excellent viewrange.

58 round capacity means ammo selection isn’t crucial. With my build I don’t tend to use a lot of premium rounds, so my loadout is 41-9-7. You could of course bring a few more HEAT shells. I then run double food and super fuel, plus double repair kits and a speed boost.

In terms of balance, tanks like the PTA are among the most lopsided you can find. But they do all function is a similar way, and if you have driven one fast tank with no armour and good firepower you can likely drive another. “Don’t get hit” and “hold on to your hitpoints” isn’t exactly rocket science.

The only problem is you don’t have very wide margins of error. In a tier X game especially, mistakes will be punished very harshly, and this is why the PTA is so difficult to drive.

I drive a couple of games and try to follow my own advice. It doesn’t necessarily go all that well.

But you need to remember you are doing something difficult; the reason we drive tanks like the PTA is the heightened sense of risk, and therefore hopefully also of reward when we manage to get away with it.

The more you learn how to keep your head down and not get hit, the more confidence you will feel, and when you then drive something that has actual armour, you will find you do much better. In essence, driving a PTA is like removing the first of the three categories of armour, mobility, and firepower, and making do with just the other two. It’s a challenge, and we do it to challenge ourselves to be better drivers.

That can sometimes feel like a tall order, and it is a tall order coming up against the biggest HE shells in the game. The thing to do is just to lower your expectations a little, and to think of your failings as learning experiences:

Why did we lose this one? What could I have done better? Was there any way I could have avoided taking all that damage? Could I have positioned myself differently and had a greater influence on the outcome?

The bottom line is you have to stick with it. It’s easy to understand what doesn’t work, like holding positions, or going frontline early on. What does work can often be more elusive, and it isn’t easy trying to break your gameplay habits.

But that is also the “point” of the Leopard PTA if you will; when you start to relish the fact the PTA works differently than other Medium tanks, and you start to get the hang of it, you are well on your way to being a Leopard driver.

Best of luck.