Polish Heavy Tanks!

Lewandowskiego Grind part 1

By:

IrmaBecx

So by this time tomorrow the new update will have dropped, and it’s time to start grinding. Not going to lie; I’ll probably drop quite a bit of free XP so I can be a tier X early adopter again, but I have to say I’m pretty curious about a few of the other tanks as well.

I don’t really grind anymore unless there’s something new added, and when that happens I’ll usually be sitting on a big cache of resources, and so it’s really just a simple “yes” or “no” question: do I want these tanks?

It would be pertinent of course, for me as a tank philosopher to grind out the latest thing, but in this case I would have done so either way. I’ve been hoping the 60TP would come to Blitz; I like that massive turret and TD caliber gun, and you have to agree it looks a little better than the boxy E100?

But there are two other tanks that I’m really curious about and it’s because I have some of my absolute favourite tanks in the game at those tiers.

It may surprise you to learn one is the tier VII IS-2. Yeah, the Chinese one. I skipped it doing the Chinese grind because it was so useless back then, but then they brought it in line with the other IS-spam, and so I kind of picked it up later so I’d have a tier VII Heavy tank. It grew on me like you wouldn’t believe; it’s just a great little tank, and you have those HEAT rounds that will punch through the upper plate of a Tiger 2.

There’s really no reason to drive any of the other IS spam tanks at tier VII unless you are grinding or you like the Berlin or Anime look.

The other is my dearly beloved WZ-111 1-4, the only 130 mm Heavy tank at tier iX. Until tomorrow, that is…

One of the defining characteristic of Polish tanks is they have big guns, and so the tier IX has a 130 mm where you would normally expect a 120 or 122 mm. Compared to the 111 1-4 it has better gun handling at the expense of DPM, but there’s more to it than that. Where the 1-4 is a fast, lightweight Heavy tank, the 50TP looks like it’s more of a hull down tank. The turret front looks like it’s stronger too, but it’s also a bigger target.

At tier VII, the top gun is a Bofors 105 mm, that’s not necessarily a “big gun”. It’s very similar to the one you get on the Leo Medium tank; in fact it’s identical except for two things: the Heavy tank gun penetrates deeper, and it’s more accurate. But the IS-2 is about as generic a Heavy tank as you can get, so I’m keeping an open mind.

Update hving arrived, I dropped some free XP to get the first three tanks, and I’m going to start at tier VII. That’s not empty Elitism; it’s just about hopeless to get in a game in the first tank in the new branch on the first day. My 40TP Habicha therefore has 75% crew and is missing tracks and the engine, but I figured it could grind it’s own crew and modules once things quiet down.

I will say it looks like a cool little tank. Prolly going to keep it around for clan night.

So now I’m driving a fully kitted 45TP Habicha with like 85% crew and a maxed out 53TP Markowskiego back to back. The Habicha as a nice drive; it has a nice modern armour profile that’s easy to angle, eight degrees of gun depression, and it’s pretty mobile for a slow tank. My impression so far is that it’s going to be all right but nothing special. It has an almost Chinese feel to it, it’s so straightforward and unpretentious.

I was going to save my gold and grind the crew on the tier VIII as well, but I caved in almost immediately and shelled out the gold. There is a certain family resemblance between these two tanks, or three I should say with the 40TP, but I already feel like tier VIII is where the line starts to come into it’s own.

This one I wasn’t super curious about; it looks like an IS-3 to me minus the pike nose. In reality, it’s more of an Object 252u in Polish clothing; you get that very satisfying 420 alpha strike, and the armour is formidable, the lower plate especially is a tough target to hit. 40 km/h means it’s bordering on what is sometimes called a “breakthrough Heavy”. It’s been a while since I campaigned my WZ-111, and it’s actually kind of cool to be back behind the wheel of a tier VIII Heavy, even if it does smell a little of IS-spam.

How’s it going? It’s hard to say – it’s still the first day, and the gameplay has been, well; let’s be nice and call it “erratic”. Seeing plenty of new tanks out there, also plenty of seal clubbers running their favourite damage farmers. But I feel like it’s going pretty well; these tanks aren’t at all hard to drive, and I think they’re going to end up being quite popular.

The plan is, if I can grind 100K XP at tier VIII, I’ll have enough to unlock the last two tanks directly. We’ll see how long that lasts…

But how is it really going? I am winning one game out of five, and that’s with a fully upgraded tank. It’s only 15 games yet, but it seems strange all the same. The Markowskiego is definitely powerful, there’s no reason why it should struggle this way other than the erratic gameplay I alluded to earlier.

I’ve also come up against a few 50TP Tyszkiewicza already, that one seems even more powerful. What comes to mind facing it isn’t so much Chinese tanks as Russian ones; I’ve gotten quite a few completely bullshXt bounces off the 50TP armour already.

It’s a bit of a chore, I’ll be honest. I’m not doing huge amounts of damage, but I’m still often the top performer. So after 20 games or so I packed it in and blew 250K free XP to get the tier IX instead. That means I still have a hundred thousand to grind, but I’m feeling like I’d rather do that in tier IX than in tier VIII. It can’t be any worse, right? And I’ll get to run a 130 mm.

The 50TP Tyszkiewicza looks a little strange. It has that driver’s compartment in the middle of the long, sloping front plate, and the turret actually sits behind the centreline, but I guess you’d still call it mid- and not a rear turreted tank. It’s really just the tracks sticking out at the front, but unlike on the previous tank, you have a fairly prominent lower plate weakspot. It’s also slower than the Markowskiego, but you have about the same reload; 12 seconds and change, so the DPM is a little better on the top gun. The stock gun is of course the top gun from the tier VIII, so you’ll be familiar with that right away if you don’t have mountains of free XP lying around.

Tier IX, then. This is the one I’ve been waiting for, but it’ll be a tall order to fill the boots of either of my two favourite tier IX Heavy tanks; the WZ-111 1-4 and the Krautpanzer 70. In all honesty I don’t think it will, I’m just hoping it’ll be a pleasant drive.

The first game out isn’t very encouraging. My gut feeling is to go towards C on Yamato Harbour, but our other two Heavys go A, so I figure I’ll support them. Learned that from a Wargaming video a little while ago. But of course the entire red team go C, so before we’ve capped A, we are one tank down, spread out all over the map, and my fellow Heavys are stuck uselessly trying to fight the red campers at their spawn. No tier IX tank can fight an entire team by itself, and it’s all over pretty quickly.

At this rate, it’ll take 200 more battles to get the 60TP.

Next game on Hellas is even worse. I fire six shots that all miss or bounce, The red team drive straight through our flank, and we end up losing by 6000 damage. The third game we win by dumb luck.

But ye, it’s the start of the night shift. Business as usual. Fourth game our 60TP goes it’s own way on Normandy, and I’m soon down to a glorious 25% winrate. That doesn’t last. Ten games in I am down to 20% wins, and it’s getting tiresome. Seeing a lot of tier X games, and there are at least three 60TP in every one of them. It’s tempting to call it a night and hope things will pick up in the morning.

A few things I feel like I learned, however. The armour does work if you use it properly, meaning hull down, juking, and proper angling. I’ve not seen the armour layout in Armour Inspector, but I have a feeling when you try to facehug people, they will be able to aim down at either your flattened out front plate or your driver’s hatch weakspot.

The gun can be really derpy. I’m having a little trouble putting out damage, but I think that’s down to circumstance rather than deficiencies. Like the previous tank, the 50TP feels powerful. I’m not trying to write the definitive word on Polish Heavy tanks here, just my initial impressions, and they have been… well, ambiguous. I don’t remember struggling like this in the Swedish Heavys, or the Yoh tanks, not to mention the ST-I when I grinded out the IS-4. Is the Tyszkiewicza really all that different?

But in spite of everything, so far I have to say I like these tanks. I still haven’t driven the tier VI, but I like the look of it. I enjoyed the tier VII and mean to drive it more. The tier VIII was a pleasant surprise, and the tier IX is a great drive in spite of my struggles with it.

Looking ahead, I know I’m going to like the 60TP as well because I drove it in testing. It’s been slightly adjusted since then, but it’s still the same general idea, and I like that idea. I’m not sure I’ll end up driving it all that much; I am a Medium driver at heart after all, and my favourite tier X Heavy is the WZ-111 5A. But I do drive my IS-4 a little, and the Lewandowskiego is nowhere near as generic.

So I have to say I think the “grind”, by which I mean throwing hoarded free XP and gold at the tanks, has been well worth it. The Polish Heavy line is solid, there’s no doubt about that.

What if you don’t have a great hoard of resources? Should you consider the Polish Heavy grind anyway?

Yes, definitely consider it. The tier VI may seem uninspiring, and the tier VII might not be that much of an upgrade, but they are classic Heavy tanks that do Heavy tank things, and when you get to tier VIII, you’ll start feeling the power of these tanks.

Sure, the 53TP has a definite touch of IS-spam, but as far as 122 MM tier VIII Heavys go, this is one of the better ones. You’ll have just about the same weapon the “King of IS-spam” 252u has; in fact it’s a little better. Aimtime is quicker, and you have two more degrees of gun depression, plus you don’t have to deal with a pike nose. Oh, and the 53TP is faster and more powerful, although it’s a bigger target. It is quite simply a tech tree tank that compares very favourably to the best IS-spam premium tank in the game.

At tiers IX and X you’ll get the big guns; 130 and 152 mm respectively (It’s actually 152.4 mm). This alone should make you take note. The only real comparison is the E100 and the VK 72.01(K), both with 640 alpha and better dispersion, but the 60TP is faster, more powerful, turns quicker, and has a thicker turret face. Also, compared to those big behemoths, the 60TP looks positively svelte.

If you absolutely must have those 40 extra damage, then the choice is clear. But if you just want a big gun on a Heavy tank, I think the Lewandowskiego is the most interesting proposition of the three, and remember it has tungsten shells that can bump up your alpha damage intermittently. I may get a VK 72 some day; I always kind of liked it, but I really like the 60TP, and I can’t wait to add one to my collection. Got the camo picked out and everything.

So was the Polish Heavy line worth waiting for? Is the hype for real?

In a word: yes. IrmBecx says get in on the action before people start murmuring about Polish bias being a thing.

I couldn’t leave it alone, so I drove a few more tier IX games on the night shift. I had the idea I might try some of those new fangled consumables, there’s been a lot of talk about the tungsten shells already. Since I drive myself into plenty of trouble already, maybe it’s not a bad idea giving the speed boost a rest.

And I don’t think it helped me win more, but I hit a few nice high rolls, and things did go a little better. At present, that’s not saying much; it’s still pretty chaotic out there. But it does sort of prove my feeling was right: the 50TP is a powerful tank, and if you press the button at the right time, those tungsten rounds are really satisfying.

Coming back to it the next day things don’t seem to be picking up a lot; the 50TP gets bullied by the 60TP, and you are almost certain to face one or two of them every game. The tier X is faster, has better armour, and more firepower. But that’s a good thing, no? After I finish the grind, maybe I will get to be the bully?

Trying not to get sour over all my losses, I decide to try the improved gear oil instead of double food like I usually run. That should give me 6 km/h faster top speed with 9% increase in engine power. I’m still running the red can fuel for an extra 10% engine speed and turret turn rate. It certainly wakes the tank up a little, but is it worth it in the long run? I’m always skeptical of improving on bad stats, and now I’m giving up all those little improvements just to go faster, and I just switched out the speed boost for tungsten rounds.

I’m not feeling like I’m getting a huge benefit out of the tungsten, so I go back to the turbo. This is the fastest the Tyszkiewicza will ever be. But the impression I get trying it out is actually that I sort of miss the tier VIII tank; it’s more well rounded, it has a more straightforward armour profile, and if I didn’t think it was such a strange and misleading expression, I’d say the tier 50TP is “stronger in it’s tier.”

More insights? Well, the tier IX is expensive to run if you keep having bad games. You can easily spend 25.000 credits on consumables and provisions alone, that’s before firing any premium rounds, which, admittedly, I don’t do a lot in my Tyszkiewicza. 25 games in I’m about a third of the way to the coveted 60TP, and the mission turnover is minutes away. That might give me some X3 or X5 certificates, so I should have less than 50 games left.

Doing a bit of due diligence, I log into my press account to drive the little 40TP Habicha. I felt kind of bad for it, because it’s certainly going to be overshadowed by the rest of the line and I think if people have the opportunity, they’ll just free XP past it like I did.

But at present there seems to be quite a few of them out there; I get three or four on each team. The lure of the Lewandowskiego is strong, it seems.

And it is a cool tank. It’s a little boxy; the tier VII already has a more angled armour layout and is easier to use. The 90 mm gun seems to work fine, and I had a couple of good games. Definitely going to finish grinding mine after I get my 60TP.

So this has been my first 24 hours with the Polish Heavy grind. With liberal use of free XP I am now perhaps 50 games away from finishing, and I don’t feel I have a lot more to say. The tanks are good, they really are. Some of them are going to go on to become favourites, unless of course they get nerfed into oblivion. Does anyone remember the WZ-110? It used to plow through enemy teams when it first came out, but now no one drives it anymore. After being nerfed it’s one of the worst performing, least driven Heavy tank in tier VIII.

There has been talk perhaps the new consumables are a little too powerful, so if you are aiming for those high damage max rolls as the be all and end all of your Polish tank grind, you might want to hold off a little. Otherwise just go for it; these tanks are solid.

I’ve not made friends with the tier IX 50TP quite yet, but by the time I had my IS-4, even the ST-I had wormed it’s way into my heart a bit, and I kept it around. I’m hoping I’ll get the hang of this one as well. If things go to plan, I’ll have part 2 of this paper dealing with the 60TP done in a day or two.

Stay safe out there.

Yoh Tank Rundown!

The Ugly Ducklings

By:

IrmaBecx

So they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and although I say I wouldn’t drive a tank I don’t think looks cool, that doesn’t mean I won’t drive a tank that isn’t conventionally beautiful. Indeed, I’m not even sure there is any kind of standard of beauty for armoured fighting vehicles.

But when it comes to the offerings of the H. L. Yoh company, I’m sure you’ll agree the feeling you get is people will either love or hate these tanks, and personally, I have to say I’m leaning towards the former.

The tier IX M-V-Yoh was the one I first became interested in with that super narrow turret. An “ugly duckling” if there ever was one, and looking at the tier X, I’m not sure I’d say it grew up to be a swan. But it did grow up to be a pretty successful tier X tank, wouldn’t you say?

Actually, writing this paper was suggested to me by one of my readers. I try not to write things just to be writing them, so I appreciate getting requests like that. And really, I should have written about these tanks long ago.

I think it’s time we took a closer look at these strange looking vehicles, don’t you?

The tier VII M-VII-Yoh is perhaps the strangest of the four, being the only tank in the game having the engine in the back of the turret. But other than that, it’s a fairly uninspiring tank, and it’s hard to see why you would choose it over the venerable T29. The Yoh is a little more powerful and has better gun handling, but only gets 7 degrees of gun depression where the T29 gets 10.

Not only is the turret much bigger on the Yoh, but it’s also not as well armoured. Hull down, the T29 is virtually impenetrable for a lot of opponents. You get a tier average 310 alpha, 105 mm weapon, and except for the variations mentioned above and about 100 less DPM, it’s the same as on the T29.

I will say I didn’t bother driving the tier VII myself, I threw free XP at it until it turned into the tier VIII M-III-Yoh, which is better armoured, has better gun handling and penetration values, and also gets a three shot autoloader. It’s a little easier to see why you would choose this tank over the much more pedestrian T32.

But of course the M-III-Yoh is not the only autoloader Heavy tank at tier VIII. There is the hard hitting Emil I which arguably has a better turret, and the AMX 50 100 which moves faster but has much worse armour; a lot of it gets overmatched by a 100 mm Medium tank gun. There is also the new Somua SM premium tank, which is basically an AMX 50 100 with armour plating.

Still, the M-III-You is about as popular out there as the Emil I is, although it doesn’t perform quite as well. This could perhaps be explained by two degrees less gun depression and the turret armour being a lot more patchy than the Emil.

Driving an autoloader can be a lot of fun. Dumping almost a thousand damage into unsuspecting opponents, or finishing off two or three low health targets in a row. But you also need to be able to deal with around 20 seconds of reload, and so these tanks will always be situational to some extent.

Learning to drive them means learning to manufacture favourable situations for yourself; playing to your strengths, with the help of your team, and the terrain around you. Personally, I’ve not ended up driving the tier VIII Yoh tank a lot since I grinded out the tier IX, but then that is often the case.

The same thing happened with the Emil I.

Tier IX is where things usually start to get interesting. Tier VIII tanks need to be reasonably strong to wade through all the IS spam, but tier IX tanks come up against the most powerful vehicles in the game, and I’m sure you’ve heard people say that some of them are “stronger in their tier”, or “stronger tier for tier” than their tier X counterparts.

Be that as it may, you could say there are two kinds of tier IX tanks: those that closely resemble their tier X siblings, and those that don’t. The M-V-Yoh falls into the former category; it has the same choice of weapons as the tier X, only not quite as powerful.

And really, there’s not a whole lot to make you want to run the 105 mm autoloader on the tier IX tank. Or is there? DPM is almost the exact same, and you have the same 900 clip potential only it takes over 5 seconds to realise it, but the smaller caliber also aims faster, penetrates deeper, and is more accurate. Theoretical DPM is meaningless if you can’t make the shots count.

But yeah, the 1.71 second “double tap” 120 mm is certainly fun when it works, and you would be forgiven for assuming the 105 is simply a “grind gun”; not a viable alternative. In actuality, it’s simply a question of preference and of playstyle.

Looking ahead to tier X, things get even more interesting. The difference in DPM is almost 500 damage in the 105’s favour, the clip reload isn’t much longer than a regular, non-autoloading Heavy tank gun, and again the gun handling is much better, especially the dispersion values. Personally, I’ve been switching back and forth between the 105 and the 120, and to this day I couldn’t tell you which one I prefer.

I’ve heard it said that the 105 is actually more popular in tournaments, but don’t quote me on that.

At tier IX, then, it’s a simple choice of how you want to put out the damage; three times three hundred, or a quick 450 double tap. At tier X, you have to make quite a significant tradeoff if you want to continue using the 450 alpha gun. Do note that 300 alpha is the lowest in tiers IX and X. Russian Mediums and French autoloader Light tanks have 310. That means you’re not exactly going to scare people off, and if you are trading shots with your enemies one for one, you are likely making bad trades.

In a hull down position, both the mark V and VI Yoh tanks show impressive turret armour, but the tier X turret is about twice as big as the tier IX, and it also has twice as many weakspots on top.

To round things off, the two top tier tanks have another trick up their sleeve. They have what is called “emergency tracks”, meaning you don’t have to blow a repair kit to move into cover if your track takes a hit. I haven’t actually paid a lot of attention to this, but in theory it’s a powerful advantage, and driving my Yoh tanks these last few days, I am sure those magic tracks have saved me from taking a few hits.

Speaking of driving. How to drive these curious looking tanks?

Despite the long clip reload and being fairly slow, I don’t think these tanks are all that hard to drive. You’re not going to zip around the battlefield like a Medium tank, and you need to manage your reloads, but the Yoh tanks can do most any Heavy tank job you throw at them. The armour profile doesn’t look all that impressive, and they don’t have SuperHeavy hitpoints. But they do have that typically american hull shape that can make it pretty hard to get a clean hit.

Rolling out in the tier IX Yoh with the three shot gun mounted, I have a bad streak of games, not managing to do more than maybe a thousand damage while the team crumbles around me. Switching up to the tier X with the same weapon things go much better, so at tier X at least, it’s kind of difficult for me to decide which gun I like better. I think in tier IX I like the two shot. But the extra DPM a tier higher, and the fact you have a third round, means the 105 mm is going to get you out of some situations the larger caliber gun will not.

Whichever one you choose to run, the Yoh tanks don’t suffer from my number one complaint about the US tech tree: they aren’t streamlined, predictable, and pedestrian. The more I drove something like the Pattons, or the E5, I realised they are so epitomise the concept of Jack-of-all-trades vehicle that absolutely nothing about them stand out, and the less interested I became in them.

There is nothing bland about the Yoh tanks, they are curious to look at, interesting to drive, and have a fascinating backstory, not to mention some unique features. There was no question in my mind about grinding them.

And really, the only thing you have to learn in order to drive them is to manage the autoloaders, there’s nothing complicated about driving a fairly well armoured hull down Heavy tank.

So is the hype real? Should you go out and get some Yoh tanks like everyone else?

Yes, I think you should. These are a cool bunch of tanks, they’re fairly easy to drive, and they are quite powerful. If you despair about the tier VII version, then rest assured things will improve as soon as you hit the next tier.

I don’t think the Yoh tanks have any problems or drawbacks that aren’t shared by similar vehicles. The Kranvagn line is good comparison; those tanks aren’t really that fast and mobile, and their armour is kind of situational, but they have powerful weapons and can bite back hard when pushed.

Actually, you might consider going for the Kranvagn instead of the M-VI-Yoh, or perhaps the T57 Heavy. The Kranvagn has an auto reloader and is a strong contender, but personally, I would much rather drive the M-VI-Yoh than the T57.

Autoloaders all share one common feature. They have great power at the expense of a longer reload, and as such their gameplay will always be a little lopsided, or situational if you will. As such they may not be for everyone. They are not automatically more powerful than a standard gun, but they have the potential to be. This is the essence of Yoh tank gameplay past tier VII.

Up to this point, things are pretty straightforward. It’s not very difficult to make sense of the Yoh tanks; what’s harder I think is to make up ones mind about them. It’s been over a week, and I still can’t say which gun I like better on the tier X.

And grinding them was a no brainer for me; I have just about all the tanks I want, so I’m always on the lookout for either cheap premiums or new tech tree branches. In the latter case it’s a simple decision of do I want to go for it or not. I felt the Yoh tanks would definitely add something to my collection, and I’d had fun driving the M-VI-Yoh in testing.

The thing is now that I have them, I don’t drive the Yoh tanks all that much. That’s OK; I don’t drive my Leopard 1 ll that much either, but my point is for me, the M-VI-Yoh is a tank I like having around but don’t get a lot of use out of. And grinding out a tier X tank takes a lot of time and resources, and merely being a nice one may not be enough of a reason to.

But the M-VI-Yoh is great drive, and it does have two perfectly viable weapons to choose, or to switch back and forth between which makes for a bit of variety. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment, the only reason to think twice is if you have trouble with autoloaders, because the higher tier tanks are all about the autoloader.

I will say I’m always up for a cool tier IX tank, and the M-V-Yoh has been everything I hoped it would be. If you’re not 100% certain about the tier X, then the tier IX tank will I think both answer that question for you and in itself be a worthwhile acquisition.

The bottom line is these tanks may look a little strange, but they are solid. I have zero problems endorsing these tanks for a wide audience, there is a lot to like bout them, and they have some powerful features. The top two especially I think are really well rounded vehicles.

IrmaBecx says two thumbs up; nothing bland about these Americans.

Titan T24 57 Quick Review

October Battle Pass Tank

By:

IrmaBecx

So I’m not going to lie; I’m not super excited about these once a month tier VI fantasy vehicles, and mostly that’s because they are just that: fantasy vehicles.

But I try not to be a spoilsport, and I don’t really mind them being in the game. Some of them I actually like, and when I’ve occasionally reviewed them, I try to give them a fair shake.

This one is called the Titan T24 57, and I think it deserves a mention. You’d think with a name like that it would have a 57 mm gun, but it doesn’t; the “57” part of the name refers to the turret. Inside it, you will find the three shot 75 mm autoloader off the AMX 12t.

Autoloaders seem to be all the rage these days, and that’s not surprising. They are both fun and effective, and you have to plan ahead a little, which in my book adds to the enjoyment.

What you get is a Chaffee hull with an oscillating turret and a 480 burst potential over five seconds with a little under 16 seconds clip reload. It’s the exact same weapon the 12t has, only you get two more degrees of gun depression and two less of elevation. It’s also a little more stable on the move.

Mobility wise it’s comparable to the Chaffee, and since this is a Light tank, it has no armour to speak of, although the plates are a little thicker than the two tanks it’s made up of. You might think that’s because it has a tier VII turret, but it’s actually better armoured than the AMX 13 57 as well, except for the front plate. And to top it off, you have a few patches of spaced armour that may help ameliorate a bit of HE damage, but they likely won’t defeat a HEAT shell.

Do note not a lot of tanks have HEAT shells at lower tiers.

But yeah, not a very complicated vehicle. An autoloader Light tank. You may think what you will about the look, and I’m not going to whine about it, but I do have to admit it’s a fun little tank.

Fun, but perhaps not super effective, at least at the moment. There is still more than a week left on the 50TP prototyp clan event, and a lot of people are platooning their most powerful tanks at lower tiers. I’ve hardly seen a game without an ARL 44 platoon today, and I’ve been struggling to survive out there.

A couple of things I noticed. The Titan isn’t quite as mobile as you expect it to be, and it’s funny how limited gun elevation can mess you up in some situations. Also the gun isn’t all that stable when firing on the move, and a 2.5 second interclip reload isn’t as fast as I though when facing low caliber guns that don’t have to deal with a 16 second clip reload.

But I don’t find a lot of faults with the Titan. It’s a fun drive, and if you’re into Light tanks and autoloaders, then maybe give it a look.

I will leave you with some gameplay so you can see it in action, but the reason I chose this battle in particular is of course our entire team, including yours truly being carried by a 45.78% player in a Porsche Tiger.

Amazingly well played by Jasmin_Kico_Zelentrovic from the Bure Baruta Balkan clan, which apparently means “Balkan powder keg”, ending up with a Top Gun-High Caliber-Radley’s-Steel Wall-Kolobanovs Mastery. Watch those reds go “BOOOM”!

Enjoy:

Did The IS-7 Get Buffed?

The Brute

By:

IrmaBecx

So you may know I’m not exactly a fan of the Bias-7, and that it’s a lot to do with my having had to face hordes of them in tier VIII Mediums back in the day. The IS-7 was the most powerful Heavy tank in the game, and everyone drove it.

But if that was the whole story, I’d have long since gotten over it by now. I’ve driven the old Bias monster since 2016 when I became a Community Contributor and got my press account, and I just never thought it was fun to drive. I thought it was a lot of other things. Powerful, easy to handle, even handsome in it’s own way, but never interesting. I found it much too easy to drive; you just point it at the enemy, drive straight ahead, and keep pressing the fire button.

I’ve thought about getting one anyway on a number of occasions, but it never happened, and I don’t think it ever will; especially not now that I’ve got the IS-4. The one reason might have been it becoming a bit of an underdog, but it seems like WG has now put a stop to that.

I say it seems, because I can’t really understand what’s been done, exactly. They say both the front turret armour and the side armour has been improved, the latter now being all but impenetrable at sidescraping angles. Apparently there was a weakspot there before?

People also love to complain about the performance of the IS-7 gun. My one problem with it is the tin can looking pepper-pot muzzle brake, which is a sure sign that it’s an old artillery piece they’ve repurposed. I do love a 130 mm gun, but compare the IS-7 S-70 to the S-70A the Object 263 carries, or the 59-130TA on the WZ-111 5A. Tll three are variants of the same 130 mm M-46 field gun, but you have to admit the other two look a lot better?

Aesthetics aside, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the old Bias monster. It’s hovering in the middle both in terms of number of drivers and average winrate. Are these armour buffs going to propel it back to stardom?

Let’s find out, shall we?

It’s not that long since I last drove the IS-7; I sometimes take it out for a few games when I’m on the press account. And I always come away with the same empty feeling. It’s just too easy. I have been driving more Heavy tanks these last couple of years, and I have come to understand there is more to it than just driving forwards. But I was never able to discern any particular subtleties in driving the Bias-7; it’s an overgrown Medium tank with thick armour and a big gun that doesn’t turn very well, and that’s exactly what it drives like.

I don’t see modifying the armour a little changing that.

Seven games, five wins and two losses. The old Bias machine is everything I remembered. It takes off and gathers speed quickly, meaning you can get into position early, or even run with the Mediums if you like. The turret turns slowly, I get mysterious bounces straight from the sides, and as usual I find no fault with the S-70. It even hits a few snap shots. Most of the damage I take is either through the lower plate or from the sides and rear.

So far, everything is as expected.

Does it feel more powerful than it used to? Do I feel more confident about the armour profile now? No. I can’t say it does, and I can’t say I do. Also, the IS-7 is just as bland as I’ve always found it, and the overwhelming feeling I am left with is I wish I was driving something else, like my 5A or my 113.

But that’s enough about my personal biases. If the new armour profile makes the IS-7 a little more comfortable to drive then I’m all for that, especially if it’s still true a lot of players choose it for their first tier X vehicle. Certainly a few more people drive it at the moment than the IS-4 which is more highly regarded, but not as many as drive the Kranvagn, and nowhere near as many as drive the E100 or the M-VI-Yoh.

I’m not sure that really tells us very much. Maybe if I drive it some more?

Three more games bring the score to eight wins, two losses. Here is a small sample of the gameplay experience:

I do miss a few fairly easy shots, especially in the second game. But this I think is how the Bias monster should be driven: put the pedal to the metal and go, but watch out for that long-ish reload and slow turret traverse; you can see me having to help it out a little by moving the hull when circling the Jägeru.

Did the new armour make a difference? I’m not sure. I might have taken a few more hits, like from the VK 45.02B on New Bay and then from the T57 Heavy in the second game, but in the end I don’t think it would have changed anything.

I did have a situation where I was alone against three tanks and survived a bit longer than I thought I would, but that’s really nothing new. Just the Russian Bias working as intended, same as before. The Bias-7 was always powerful. Even if it is a little more powerful now, that’s not going to significantly change the way it drives, or the way it performs. It’s still a big Soviet pike nose brute, same as it always was, and personally I can’t say I learned anything particularly new about it during this small excursion.

If you struggled with the IS-7 before, you’re still going to struggle; it hasn’t been made any different. If you liked it before, you’re still going to like it, and I daresay you won’t like it a lot more now than you did before. The IS-7 hasn’t turned into some wild beast that will tear any red team to pieces all on it’s own with one set of tracks tied behind it’s back.

But if rumors of stronger armour has made you drive your old Bias machine again, and you feel it’s been much improved, then that’s all good. I may not want one of my own, but it is a classic, and it deserves to be driven.

Best of luck with yours.