Mario, Spaik and Scorp Review Tanks

[Chairman Scorpion]

A discussion to give players information about certain tanks. This may contain personal bias. Swearing, etc, will be censored with spoiler tags.

Mario will tend to do more mid-tier tank reviews.
Scorpion will tend to do lower tier tank reviews.
Spaik will tend to do higher tier tank reviews.

Use CTRL+F to search for reviews.

May contain spelling and grammar errors.

Layout;

Tank Name

1: The Armour
-Text Here-
2: The Mobility
-Text Here-
3: The Gun
-Text Here-
4: Playstyle
-Text Here-
5: Conclusion
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We've reviewed the (high tier to low tier)...

Tier 10

Tier 9

• E-50 - German medium tank. (Mario)

Tier 8

• Caernarvon - British heavy tank. (Mario)
  
• AMX M4. mle. 49 (Liberte) - Frech premium heavy tank. (spaik)
  
• Object 252U (Defender) - Soviet premium heavy tank. (spaik)
  
• G.W Tiger (P) - German artillery. (spaik)

Tier 7

• SU-152 - Soviet tank destroyer. (spaik)
  
• S-51 - Soviet artillery. (spaik) (Scorpion)
  
• Tiger I - German heavy tank. (Mario)
  
• E-25 - Germam premium tank destroyer. (spaik)
  
• Tiger (P) - German heavy tank. (spaik)

Tier 6

• T-150 - Soviet heavy tank. (Mario)
  
• KV-2 - Soviet heavy tank. (Scorpion)
  
• VK 30.01 (P) - German medium tank. (spaik)

Tier 5

• Churchill I - British heavy tank. (spaik)
  
• Ikv 103 - Swedish tank destroyer. (spaik)

Tier 4

• Sturmpanzer II - German artillery. (Scorpion)

Tier 3

• Toldi III - German premium gift tank. (Scorpion)

Tier 2

• M2 Light - American premium light tank. (Scorpion)
  
• G. Pz. Mk. VI (e) - German artillery. (Scorpion)

Tier 1

[Der Reiskanzler]

The Caernarvon: I Can'tEven

Ok, so this is my review of the Caernarvon, also commonly referred to as the "Can'tEven", "The Caravan" or the "C*ntavon".
It's a tank you'll have to go through to get the Conqueror, and that should be your only reason to play it. It has almost no redeeming features, except for the gun, which shouldn't be a surprise as it is british.
1. The Armour
The armour of the Caernarvon can be best described as "mediocre at best".
it has a huge Lower Frontal Plate with basically 0 armour, an Upper Frontal Plate which can bounce some stuff when angled, but will not be able to withstand T9 and T 10 rounds, and a turret which is... situational. Its Armour only works on Ridgelines, where the upper part turns into an autobounce zone. On flat ground, it is mostly useless against skilled players, but can troll some noobs.
2. The Mobility
Imagine a Centurion Mk. I. Now take away 4kph of its top speed and even more of its acceleration. Yes. That's the Caernarvon.
3. The Gun
Ok, this is probably the only positive feature of the Caernarvon: its gun. It features awesome gunhandling, great accuracy and aimtime (you can reliably snapshot soviet/chinese cupolas!) and good penetration with AP rounds. The downsides are rather iffy alpha damage for its tier and class, lacking APCR pen and lacking dpm. Other than that, it's a classic british high-tier gun.
4. Playstyle
The Caernarvon has to be played as a supporter, and basically can't do anything else. You've got to snipe, abuse hill crests and take opportunity shots whenever possible. Use your Better-than-nothing mobility to flank around the enemy forces. All in all, the Caern is basically like a fatter Centurion Mk. I, as TheMightyJingles would describe it.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, the Caernarvon is a tank that you'll only play to grind to the Conqueror. Some may like it for its hulldown capabilities and its good gun, but for me, I can't make it work.

[Der Reiskanzler]

The T-150: Stalin's 1st boxtenk

The T-150 is a formidable and often overlooked little gem in the russian Armoured Heavy Tank line. It boasts good armour, surprisingly good mobility and a great gun for its tier.
1. The Armour
The T-150 has one of the best armour layouts for its tier. Because it has the same frontal armour as the side, you can angle your tank at 45° and gain an effective armour value of ~140mm, unlike the VK 36, who's angling capabilitier are severely hampered by the difference between front and side armour. The turret of the T-150 is also very heavily armoured, especially its gun mantlet, and with a little bit of wiggling it is almost invincible.
2. The Mobility
Despite its impressive armour, the T-150 is very nimble for a tank of its weight. It won't reach the same level as mobility as the KV-85 or the VK 36 do, but it's still enough to get to important chokepoints early and react to changes on the battlefield in adequate time. It's sometimes even enough to perform flanking maneouvers!
3. The Gun
The gun of the T-150 is probably its most redeeming feature. The combination of 300 alpha damage, 167mm of penetration and decent gunhandling stats make it one of the best guns for T6. Additionally, it can also fire a very capable APCR round and has good dpm for a T6 heavy. The potato-like behaviour of russian guns may be frustrating at times, but if Fortuna smiles upon you, you can have some amazing games.
4. Playstyle
The Playstyle of the T-150 resembles the typical russian In-Your-Face tank: charge to chokepoints, engage your enemy at as clsoe range as possible and avoid long-range engagements. The T-150 is also a formidable Hillcrest-abuser and sidescraper. Due to its pretty uniform armour layout, it is pretty resilient to flanking and is able to take on multiple tanks at once.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, the T-150 is one of THE tanks for russian heavy tank lovers. The stock grind might be a bit painful, but fully upgraded, the tank is an absolute pleasure to drive. It's absolutely worth keeping, especially for its good moneymaking capabilities.

[Chairman Scorpion]

The M2 Light: Because F*ck low tiers, am I right?

1: The Armour:


38mm at the front, on tier II. Jesus Christ on a bicycle. I mean, sure, TDs can pen it, but there is a thing called: "Sloping", you should try it out. Tanks with a low-tier machine gun literally stand NO chance against the armor. Tier for tier, this thing has better armor than the Maus, in my opinion.


2: The Mobility:

So, if you read what I said about the armor, you would think this tank is slower than any other Tier II. Right?


Wrong.


It consistantly goes over 50 km/h on flat surfaces. It can go faster than that when you got a 100% crew. Holy crap.


3: The Gun:


"Well, Scorpion, if this tank has insane mobility and armor, it must have a bad gun!"


lol


It has 2 amazing guns. One is a 20mm Hispano-Suiza that literally r*pes low armor tanks, has >1000 DPM, and 30 pen with normal ammo, and can have 41 with premium. One clip does >200 damage. The other is a 37mm high penetration gun, with decent accuracy and nice DPM. It can penetrate almost EVERYTHING (With the exception of the Pz. II J)


4: Playstyle:

Honestly, after everything I've said, this tank is one of the tanks that can YOLO without a care in a world. God forbid you meet an M2 actually playing seriously, because he will shred you to tiny little bits, then eat them. I normally just YOLO because it's so fun, but when I play seriously, I normally get 6 kills minimum.


5: Conclusion:


This is one of the most fun and broken tanks in the entire game. My suggested equipment is Coated Optics, Vents, and Gun Laying Drive, since those are the only good equipments you can mount because Low-Tier tanks cannot fit as many equipment as high-tier tanks. Pls nerf WG <3

[spaik]

The Churchill I: Carryhill I

The Churchill I (or as I like to refere to it as, the Carryhill I) is the tier 5 British heavy. This tank is often overlooked, and despite the bad speed it has good armour, and a better gun.
1: The Armour
Despite the majority of the frontal armour being flat, and mostly in one zone of the tank, the Churchill I is very bouncy- especially to new players. The frontal turret and side turret armour values are exactly the same, so I'd recommend angling the turret as if you were playing an E100. The tracks of this thing, when pentrated frontally, lead to the hull. This is a major weakspot and the easiest way to kill a Churchill I. The side armour is also bad, so you can't angle very well. Instead, angle about 20 degrees for optimal effectiveness.
2: The Mobility
The Churchill I pays for it's good armour by having bad mobility. It's slow to accelerate and has a bad speed limit that it usually wont reach. Expect to be doing 15-20km/h in this thing. The speed limit is a complete lie and usually wont be reached going downhill, either. The traverse speed is on the lower end of mediocre, but workable for rushing to angle.
3: The Gun
The main strongpoint of the Churchill I may be it's amazing gun. The 6 pounder is workable, but that's not the gun you'll want to use. The 75mm Vickers HV, despite only having -4 depression, is an amazing gun. The cromwell also uses this gun- but has far more bloom with it. The Churchill gets very good gun handling with the 75mm, enough to hit on the move semi-reliably at 200+ meters. The reload on the Churchill's 75mm is definately a second or two longer than the Cromwell's reload, but to me it's certainly worth the trade.
4: Playstyle
You play the Churchill I, like the rest of the line, by forcing enemies to fight you aswell as bullying lower tiers. See a t4? Just bully him, he usually wont pen you frontally. Permanentally tracking enemies is a key part in playing the Churchill I. First off, they can't run away because they're immobilized. Second, you can position yourself very strongly to not be penetrated whilst farming damage. This tank with the 75mm does not play well with terrain at all, so make sure to stay on as flat terrain as possible, preferably go to urban areas.
5: Conclusion
The Churchill I is a very potent tank in the right hands, and can utterly dominate poor players with it's combination of armour and firepower. Remember to permanently track enemies, and bully lower tiers. I know this is a very controversial tank inside of WoT, but this is just my opinion. I'd recommend Rammer/Vents/Spall Liner if I had to choose- but you shouldn't mount equipment on a T5 unless you really like it. You'll want to train repairs on everyone but sixth sense on the commander, especially for later in the line.

[Chairman Scorpion]

The G. Pz. Mk. VI (e) - The Biggest Derp on Tier II

The G. Pz. Mk. VI (e) (Or if you want to use the full name, the "Leichter Panzerkampfwagen Mk. IV 734(e)") is probably the derpiest tank on tier II. It is an unusual SPG, with a big, and I mean big 105mm Gun. (Edit by super64mario - The actual correct name of the SPG is "GeschützPanzer auf Leichter Panzer Mk. VI 734(e)")


1: The Armour:

It's an SPG. Do you really expect armor on this thing? It's a little box made out of tin foil with a gun sticking out. Don't rely on the armour. Ever. It also has 90 HP. So be careful.


2: The Mobility:

It's actually surprisingly mobile for an SPG. It has 50 km/h top speed, and a 13.97 Power / Weight ratio, which is surprising. Though, to be fair, the other artillery is also really quick, most of them being slightly quicker than the G. Pz. Mk. VI (e). Still nimble, though.


3: The Gun

Now, we are at the interesting part. The gun is literally the howitzer that the Pz. IV H at tier V has. It has 54 penetration and 410 damage with HE, and 101 penetration with HEAT with 350 damage. Basically, any kind of hit with this gun and the target is dead. It's insane.

However, it comes with big drawbacks. It has the worst reload time in Tier II. Around 30 seconds for a reload (without equipment). And it is the least accurate in Tier II by far, as well as having the worst aiming time.

The gun traverse is also poor. Which is very bad, as you do not want to be turning your hull every ten seconds to aim at someone with the least accurate gun at Tier II.


4: Playstyle

There are three playstyles I find usable in the G. Pz. Mk. VI (e). Let's count 'em down.

1: TD Mode

Ah yes, TD mode. It's probably the most fun way of using SPGs. You just get up close and derp someone, in the face, just like a TD. Thing about this tank is, you cannot go traditional SPG mode. Your armor is too low, your gun's soft stats are too bad, and you got really low HP. So how do we use it, then? My solution is to use TD mode only if you get in a city map, or a map with a part with corners and / or brawling spots. Himmelsdorf is a good example of a map for TD mode. What you do with the G. Pz. Mk. VI (e) is to try and find a nice corner or hiding place, where you wait for the enemy to come, and just derp them when you are pre-aimed with HE (Though HEAT works better). This ALWAYS results in a one shot kill, unless you hit the tracks and get unlucky, but you are always pre-aimed, and you just need to aim at the upper part of the tank, and you're good to go.

2: Traditional SPG Mode

To use this like a Traditional SPG, i.e. camping at the base and sniping, you must know a very important fact. Your gun is not only the worst regarding accuracy amongst the Tier II SPGs, but your gun has the worst accuracy of all Tier II tanks. So if you want to traditionally play as an SPG, make sure you aim at a brawling spot, where the enemies don't move a lot, and try to focus your aim. DO NOT TRY TO EVER SHOOT AT FAST TANKS. It's way too hard, and you'll just waste a shot, and 30 seconds of your life.

3: Up-Close SPG Mode

What I mean by this is to try and use this as a traditional SPG, but you have to find a spot closer to the front lines. While yes, the G. Pz. Mk. VI (e) has a gun which can fire across the entire map, remember, it has the worst accuracy. So finding a spot closer to the front-lines is benefitial in most cases, as it reduces the time needed for your shell to hit a target, and it's more accurate. However, you must find a really good spot, as Tier II and Tier III tanks tend to YOLO rush and scout you, and you are NOT surviving with 90 HP and paper-thin armour.


5: Conclusion

The G. Pz. Mk. VI (e) is a very interesting vehicle. Most people don't use it seriously, or for statpadding, but just for the sheer fun that the 105mm howitzer brings. It's basically like the S-51 of Tier II, insanely inaccurate, one of the worst soft stats for a gun ever, but when it hits, it decimates. It's very fragile, and very inaccurate, which is why this SPG is very special, and has a very unique playstyle.

Regarding equipment, I recommend a Gun Laying Drive, an Artillery Shell Rammer, and a Camo Net.

[Chairman Scorpion]

The KV-2 - Stalin's Favorite Derp.

The KV-2! Ah, I love this thing. I have the most battles on this tank, and every time I penetrate something with HE from that glorious 152mm M-10T, I feel so good. It's an amazing tank, specifically because of the gun.


1: The Armour

The Armour on the KV-2 is underwhelming. Yes, it's a heavy tank, but don't let that fool you. It has the worst armor among the Tier VI Soviet Heavy Tanks, and is flatter than a pancake. It has a lot of weakspots. However, it can bounce some ridiculous shots. Players who just encountered the KV-2 for the first time, sometimes shoot for the extremely angled Turret Cheeks. I can bounce T29s, O-Is, and KV-85s if people shoot the tiny turret cheeks. The armor is also effective against Tier IV tanks, because it has the same armour as a KV-1 (Although, a worse turret), and we all know how the KV-1's armour performs against low tier guns. However, skilled players will know not to shoot your turret cheeks, and exactly where the weakspots are.

If you get hit in your lower glacius, your engine will probably sustain damage, and you might be lit on fire.

If you get hit on the upper glacius, you have a chance of your Driver or Radio Operator dying, and maybe your fuel tanks if you get hit on the left or right of your upper glacius.

And if you get hit in the turret, you can face a dead Commander, Gunner, Loader, or damaged Ammo Rack.

Basically, it's fragile. Be aware.

Also, some people may use the stock turret instead of the upgraded turret, because they think they have more armor, because of the additional sloping. This is completely false, and can be disproven by simply going to tanks.gg. They also get worse turret traverse and view range, so please, don't be one of them.


2: The Mobility

The mobility of this tank is average, to say the least. It's certainly nimble if you have 100% crew + equipment fitted on, but it's the slowest of the Soviet Heavy Tanks. It only has 11.37 Power / Weight, whilst the T-150 has 12.95, and the KV-85 has 12.97.


3: The Gun

The KV-2 has a choice of 3 guns, the 122mm U-11, the 107mm ZiS-6, and the 152mm M-10T.

You start off with the 122mm U-11, the stock gun. It's a bad howitzer, basically. It's basically a slightly better version of the Pz. IV H's howitzer. The KV-2 cannot use this, it's penetration and damage is far too low (61mm of penetration and 450 damage with HE, 140mm of penetration and 370 damage with HEAT) I have no clue how you expect to use this gun on Tier VI, especially since the KV-2 tends to get into Tier VIII games a lot.

Next, you can either grind the 107mm ZiS-6 or the 152mm M-10T.

The 152mm M-10T is by far the better choice. Let's compare the two guns.

The 107mm ZiS-6 is the same gun the T-150 has. It's a competitve, high DPM gun. However, the T-150 can use this gun as it's quite obviously a brawling gun. The KV-2 is not a brawling tank. It's armour is too low to be considered a brawling tank. And by using this gun, you lose the shine and the speciality the KV-2 has by using the 152mm M-10T.

The 152mm M-10T is one of the best guns I have ever used in WoT. It has 86mm of penetration on Tier VI with HE, which is fairly bad, let's be honest, but it's average damage is 910. This means that even if you do not penetrate, you get 1/3 the average damage, so around 303 damage. This means you do not even need to aim, and you ruin somebody's day. Don't forget, you are using HE with this gun, so this means you destroy modules. A lot. If I do not penetrate, I almost always do some kind of module damage (excluding the tracks). And besides, you can penetrate tanks and do full damage if you just aim properly, focus on less-armored tanks and aim for weakspots sometimes. The amount of times I ammoracked or set someone on fire with the HE from this gun is astronomical. Yes, the 152mm has AP ammo, but it's rubbish. Most people just load nothing but HE, and it's because the fairly rubbish penetration AP has (110mm, 136mm with premium ammo) , alongside lower damage (700), also because if you do not penetrate, you do no damage. Which is heartbreaking. And you don't do damage with AP a lot in a KV-2, because of it's inaccuracy and rubbish penetration. I recommend using nothing but HE.


4: Playstyle

In my opinion, there are two ways of playing the KV-2.

1: Peek-a-Boo / Supporting brawling tanks

Basically, you just peek around a corner, derp someone in the face, and get back whilst you wait to reload. Fairly simple. This is most effective on Tier VI games, where people have lower armor and health, thus making one-shots more frequent, as well as bounces from the enemy. You can also go to a brawling spot and do the same thing by supporting the brawling tanks. You just derp someone in the face, and get back whilst your brawling tanks do the work. You are basically kind of like mobile artillery in this kind of position, to be honest, which is neato.

2: Sniping

Now, I don't normally snipe, but when I do, it's always when I get bottom-tier matchmaking, as my tank is too fragile to get shot at, and more experienced players come my way if I get too close. To fix this, I snipe sometimes (Not all the times, I still normally use peek-a-boo / brawling support tactics) from a dsitance. It's fairly effective once you get 100% crew, however, you are still very inaccurate, so I do not recommend this strategy, unless you feel afraid.

There are certain tanks you should focus on, here is a small list of them:

- The Cromwell (Includes the Cromwell B)

- The Rhm. Borsig

- Any tank that has a Panther Hull (Panther, Panther II, JagdPanther, JagdPanther II)

- AMX 50 100

- Chi-To, Chi-Ri and STA-1

- The O-I from the side, it has only 70mm on it's upper hull armor on the side.

- Any tank posing a threat to your team, derp him in the tracks / an important module.


5: Conclusion

The KV-2 is, in my opinion, the funniest, and most epic tank in World of Tanks. It's most certainly not the best tank, far from it, but whenever you penetrate with the HE from the 152mm, you just gotta burst out in tears and laughter.

My recommended equipment is: Gun Laying Drive, Tank Gun Rammer, and Vents

[spaik]

The SU-152: Rasha Incarnate

The SU-152 is, as the title describes, what Rasha would be if Rasha were a tank. The armour, though fairly bad, is incredibly troll. It has decent acceleration and top speed, but the turning is fairly slow. Remember the cannon from the KV-2? That's the most fun gun on this thing, but there's 2 guns which are very good.
1: The Armour
The SU-152 is made of tripple-folded tinfoil with a slight slope. With some added stalinium infused mustache as the mantle. The mantle for the 152mm cannon can be incredibly trolly, and reaches 260 and over effective armour in some areas, but can be as little as 70mm of effective armour. The 122mm's mantle is significantly less trolly but way more consistant, and is usually 70-160 mm effective. If you're top tier vs t6s, sidescraping can and will usually work- as you have 60mm of side armour (180mm cannon needed to 3x overmatch). However, the side of the SU-152 is angled in a way which will make sidescraping hard at times.
2: The Mobility
The SU-152's mobility is purely average. It's like a Russian drank too much vodka whilst he's angry and has a broken leg. Sure, he's not slow, but he'll never catch up to anything quick. The traverse speed is fairly bad, it'll take up to 5-10 seconds to turn to where you need to go, especially in soft terrain. It's also incredibly slow uphill. The speed is enough for ramming lower tier mediums which are lighter than you, being approximately 45,460 with the 152 cannon and 4,550 with the 122mm cannon.
3: The Firepower
As almost all amazing TDs, the best part of this tank is the choice of guns and their firepower. I'd personally recommend the 152mm using mostly HEAT but the 122mm is also very good, and has insane damage per minute. Let's compare them;
The 152mm cannon has 250 pen HEAT with 700 damage or HE with 86 pen and 910 damage. Please just ignore the AP, as it's an incredibly bad and unreliable shell choice in general. This cannon will have a 16.97 reload time with 100% crew. The 122mm has 175 pen and 390 damage, the same gun as the IS and IS-6. The 122mm will have 8.46 reload time with 100% crew. The APCR pen for the 122mm are barely an increase, being 217 pen, which doesn't stand up to the 152's 250 HEAT Pen. Both guns are very dependant on RNG to hit due to bad aiming stats and bad accuracy stats, so it's optimal to use them at very close range. The horizontal gun arch is also narrow.
4: Playstyle
Close Range;
The playstyle I use with the SU-152 is the "in-your-face f*ck you" one with the 152mm. 250 pen HEAT will pen anything at t5-9's (the mm brackets for the SU-152) weakspots with relative ease. Don't use the HE ammo unless you're top tier and confident you'll meet a lot of paper tanks (Eg. Cromwell) that you can pen for full damage. I, personally, take a 50/50 HE/HEAT split. Peek out, take a shot, and hide behind your mediums/heavies. The 122mm cannon is a beast at close range, especially top tier. The low pen of both the standard and premium ammo for a TD may cause problems with reguards to penetrating t8 and t9 heavies. Take a fair (about 1/3 of total capacity) amount of APCR, and 1-2 HE shells. Make sure to track tanks with the 122mm to force them to fight you, like the Churchill I. Reveal as little of your tank as you possibly can with both guns.
Sniping;
The SU-152 also has a decent camo rating, so it's decent with sniping. However, I, personally would never snipe with this tank unless in a tier 9 game. The 152 cannon is surprisingly accurate as range because... Well... Rasha, komrade. The 152's HEAT whilst sniping loses absolutely no penetration, unlike APCR and AP, so I recommend using HEAT at range. HE is also decent at range, but probably wont penetrate due to not being able to hit weakspots. Do not, under any circumstances use AP while sniping with the 152. The 122mm is a bad gun for sniping, despite paper stats it hits less at range than the 152 (see: Rasha) and has AP/APCR that has low pen, thus has bad pen at range reguardless of ammunition choice. The high-explosive ammuniton on the 122mm is useless and a joke for anything other than resetting the base capture counter. Don't expect to reliably pen heavy tanks t8 and over at range with the 122mm. Always move 15m behind a bush before firing with the SU-152 at range, as it has very bad camo upon firing. Also bushes. Get used to bush camping.
5: Conclusion
The SU-152 is a very good TD due to the gun and trolly armour. The speed is merely decent but my god, that gun is too much fun. The 152 with HEAT is, by far, enough to call this a tier 8 TD at t7. In my opinion, this is the most fun I've had in a tier 7 tank.
For close range equipment, you'll want;

• Gun Rammer
  
• Coated Optics
  
• Gun Laying Drive

For sniping equipment, you'll want;

• Gun Rammer
  
• Binocular Telescope
  
• Camouflage Net

[spaik]

The S-51: Stalin's Middle Finger

The S-51 is a huge f*ck you to anyone who gets hit by it. It boasts a 203mm gun with 102 HE pen and 1,850 HE damage. At t7, DA KOMRADE. T7 and Rasha tanks, I swear. The gun traverse is narrow, and it has a roughly one minute reload aswell as being totally RNG dependant. This thing has no armour... but because Rasha it bounces a f*cktonne. The speed is relatively good, but the traverse speed is effectively non-existant.
1: The Armour
Artillery... Armour... lol. No. This thing has no armour, and most things will overmatch the gunshield. The gun will appear to bounce a lot of shots due to being... Well... Spaced armour.
If the enemy is (mentally) retarded enough to autoaim, they may bounce on the side of the hull.
2: The Mobility
Despite the pathetic amount of armour, the S-51 isn't extremely quick. It does go a fair speed on a flat ground, though. On flat ground it will generally reach 20-30km/h. The traverse speed is equivelent to blindfolding a deaf cow and forcing it to race a F1 c- wait, what? The traverse speed is utterly pathetic and takes a very long time to do a 180 turn. This tank moves very slowly when climbing a hill, but is good for ramming lighter tanks downhill.
3: The Gun
This is where the S-51 shines, the gun is amazing for multiple uses and multiple reasons for said uses. The 203mm has 102 penetration on the high-explosive shells, along with 1,850 damage/shell (if it penetrates). The armour-piercing shell has 260 penetration and 1,450 damage. This gun has absolutely no accuracy, even fully aimed, hence you'll need rng to like you if you ever want to hit. The verticle arch is also pretty flat, and the horizontal arch is pathetic. You have barely any depression (-2). The splash radius is pretty high. The gun will often do 700+ damage to t8 heavies.
4: Playstyle
There are 2 valid playstyles to the S-51. One being far more inneffective than the other, but more fun. Let's look at them.

• The S-51 has the capability to play like any other artillery, to camp at base and do sh*t loads of damage with relative security. This playstyle is kinda boring, but extremely effective if you can get rng to hit any shot ever. Which is harder done than said. Keep in mind the S-51 has a fairly flat trajectory and needs to move the hull a lot, so bloom will be an issue. You'll also want to relocate depending on enemy positions, else you risk not being able to hit due to said arch. For this playstyle, you'll want;
  
• Gun Rammer
  
• Gun Laying Drive
  
• -This is an open slot, I can't think of anything- so I'll just say camo net.
  
  
• The S-51, however, is effectively a mobile gun... So let's use it like the SU-152 using HEAT ammunition. This playstyle is very inneffective usually, and is not advised for serious play. First, always use AP when playing like this. Now, what you want to do is fine a nice spot to preaim at, prefferably where you know an enemy will come. Also, try to make this spot less than 100m away from you to minimise the effects of random number generation. Try to make this spot on flat ground, and cities, if possible. When the enemy comes into view, ambush him. Fire. Etc. Basically, whack him in the face with a 203mm shell containing stalinium. This may oneshot the target if it pens. After firing, back into cover, preferably behind a brawling HT. Keep in mind that the S-51's 203mm AP does 1,450 average damage. It's very common to highroll and oneshot tier 8 heavies. Again, this is not for serious play. The S-51 has a very tempremental gun, you can and probably will miss these shots, but my god it's fun. For this style, you'll want;
  
• Gun Rammer
  
• Gun Laying Drive
  
• Optics/Binocular Telescope/Camo Net

5: Conclusion
The S-51 is a very derpy, fun tank that can be seriously effective at times. RNG will often screw this tank over, but occasionally makes snapshots hit (yeah, I've been there). The tank is decently quick on flat terrain but slows severely on upwards slopes, and has 2 depression. This tier 7 tank can penetrate tier 8 heavies and highroll to oneshot them.

[Chairman Scorpion]

The Sturmpanzer II - Ugh.

The best way to describe the Sturmpanzer II is just: "Ugh". It's pretty damn average. It isn't seen much, as players preffer the Wespe and Pz. Sfl. IV (b). It's got mediocre stats all-around, but it does have one specialty. It's premium ammo. Which we'll talk about a bit later.


1: The Armour:

The Armour is bad. Honestly, anyone who expects it to be good should just quit. It cannot bounce shots, it always gets penned, and it's got a bad HP Pool of 190.


2: The Mobility:

The mobility is average. It's got 11.36 Power / Weight, which is okay for SPGs, but will not get you out of trouble, and it's got an average 45 km/h top speed limit.


3: The Firepower:

The gun is... interesting, to say the least. It's very mediocre, but it's HEAT ammo is good.

The standard HE ammo can do the job, it's got 75mm of penetration, and 450 damage. Focus on lightly-armored tanks and everything is fine. If you do not pen, you still do around 150 damage, which is average, but you do module damage. You get into high tier games a lot, so try and focus the lightly armored tanks, as the reload time is quite painful, so you do not want to do 150 damage every 20 seconds.

Yes, I do realise there are two types of HE ammo, but I never load the HE ammo with 350 damage. The HE ammo with 450 damage is better, and the price isn't that big a difference (Only 80 credits). Go for the better HE ammo.

However, the HEAT ammo is very good. The HEAT ammo has 185 penetration, which is better than the D-25T, the top gun on the IS, which has 175mm of penetration. It also has 300 damage, which is a fair ammount, it's the same damage as a T-150. You have to aim carefully, but the gun is fairly accurate as long as you don't turn your hull. I always carry a handful of HEAT rounds (I carry 20 HE rounds and 10 HEAT rounds), since you don't get into tier IV games a lot in this thing.

There is a drawback. The gun can only fire across half the map. This can be viewed as a good, or a bad thing.

The bad thing is, of course, you have to get closer if you want to fire across a wider range of the map, but the good thing is, if you get to fire at people at the extreme end of your firing range, you hit their top armor almost all the time. I managed to penetrate Churchills and O-I Experimentals with HE if they are at the very edge of my firing range.


4: Playstyle:

The aiming time, gun traverse, and accuracy on the Sturmpanzer II is quite rubbish, so it is advised to shoot at a brawling spot, where enemy tanks don't move as much, and is normally filled with slow heavy tanks.

There are two ways of firing at the brawling tanks.

One way is to use HEAT cautiously, and do a lot of damage easily. Try to pick off the more dangerous tanks, like any other artillery, since you got the penetration to do so.

The other way is if you want to save credits, and want to use HE. My advise is to get to a spot just far enough from the brawling position that it is still in your firing range. If you do this, you can fire on the top armor of these heavily-armored tanks. The accuracy and shell velocity is still pretty bad, so this can result in some missed shots. You can get closer, but this strategy will make you do only 150 damage to the brawling tanks. So if you want to get closer to avoid misses, try to aim for the lightly-armored tanks.

The Sturmpanzer II is also very short, making it quite good for hiding in bushes or finding unique hiding spots, so use this to have a better chance of survival.

My recommended equipment is:

1: Enchanced Gun Laying Drive (To make the pretty bad aiming time better)

2: Medium-Caliber Artillery Shell Rammer (To make the atrocious reload time usable)

3: Camo Net (To increase your survivability and camo rating.)


5: Conclusion:

The Sturmpanzer II is a very average tank, that isn't used a lot, and isn't popular at all. But if the gun is used correctly, it can be a very effective tank, capable of being a giant-killer.

[spaik]

The G.W Tiger (P): In David Cameron We Trust

Also known as the "G.W Tiger (Pig)" or the "Sky Pig", the G.W Tiger P is the tier 8 German artillery piece. It uses a 21cm gun with 2000 average HE damage, which is the highest alpha of all tier 8 artillery. If this thing hits you, chances are you're going to lose at least 650 hit-points and have some (potentially severe) module damage. Oh right, (joke about David Cameron and pigs here).
1: The Armour
It can bounce some low tier stuff, but the frontal hull (despite being based on the Tiger (P) hull) only has 100mm of frontal armour, with some sloping. The side hull retains the 80 upper side armour and 60 lower side armour, so it's possible to bounce on that. The superstructure, even frontally, is a complete joke. 30mm of armour on it, It'll get overmatched by T8 and over mediums easily. The tracks are huge and can probably bait some shots. The gun mantle is effectively autopen for every tank ingame, being (according to tanks gg) 0mm thick. Do not rely on the armour ever.
2: The Mobility
The speed of this thing is, simply, pathetic. It'll usually go 18-23km/h, which is why I refere to it as the G.W Tiger (Pig) usually. It turns like a beheaded chicken moving in thick swamp mud. It genuinly takes about 5s or more to turn a full 180 degrees, let alone 360 degrees. What did you expect from a tank which traverses barely better than the Maus? The tank also only goes 8-12km/h uphill, which is almost as bad as the T95. This tank only reaches it's speed limit going downhill, and with speed it's a very good rammer, as it weighs 73,900.
3: The Gun
I'm not gonna lie, this gun is average other than the pure damage output of it. The accuracy is half rng dependant, and gets very bad above 400m. The HE shell has 105 penetration and 2000 damage. At tier 8. Oh, it gets better. The AP shell has 303 penetration and 1550 damage, which is enough to oneshot most tier 8 heavies aswell as severely cripple tier 9 heavies. However, this gun has a bad verticle arch and incredibly poor horizontal arch. You'll often need to turn your hull to hit a target because said target is just 1 meter outside of your arch. Since this gun has a fairly flat verticle arch, it nullifies the effect of the overall dispersion quite a lot. This makes the gun average in terms of accuracy. The aiming time, I'll admit, is utterly atrocious, which is why some people really hate the 21cm and would rather use the stock 17cm. On a side note, unless you really like the 17cm, I'd say to use the 21cm with a healthy amount of AP (at least 4). The Conqeurer, a tier 9 heavy, is often penned in the engine deck by this gun. This may oneshot the Conquerer if HE is used. The reload time isn't too long, being 40-50 seconds.
4: Playstyle
The playstyle of this tank is... Odd with reguards to relocating. It's literally too slow to relocate. Try running away from a Bulldog or AMX 13 90 at about 18km/h. I dare you. Due to this, you'll want to position yourself the furthest to the back of the map you can possible get with reguards to your cap location. Make sure to use bushes and move after every shot. I know this seems like a contradiction, but it's pretty good to avoid counterbattery which has been encouraged by personal/campaign missions. Also, you can not relocate to a better position for firing in most circumstances, so don't bother. This isn't a Lorraine 155 51. Alternatively, you could sleep with David Cameron. I hear he likes his (G.W) pigs...
5: Conclusion
The G.W Tiger P excells at being the highest alpha artillery at tier 8, and doesn't lose much effective accuracy for it. It trades speed for firepower, and some trollish armour. you'll also want, as equipment,

• Gun Rammer
  
• Gun Laying Drive
  
• Camo Net/Binocular Telescope

We also learned that David Cameron "likes" (G.W) pigs.

[Der Reiskanzler]

The Tiger I - Deutscher Kruppstahl

1. The Armour
The Armour of the Tiger I is... nothing special for its tier and class. its Armour layout can be kind of compared to the T29, with a easily penetrable hull and a good turret, although it is nowhere near the T29 in both aspects. The hull will be able to bounce most T5s if angled at around about a 35° angle, and maybe some T6s. Against most T7 tanks though, the armour is basically worthless. Due to the 80mm of side armour, sidescraping works rather well, but due to the turret placement and the shape of the hull very difficult to pull off without showing your front. Your best bet is to bait shots into your tracks and side before poking out and shooting the enemy. The turret is rather trollish due to the weird shape of the Gun mantlet and the turret "face" behind it. One game, you will bounce everything, even an E75 shooting at you whilst facehugging, whilst in the other a KV-1 goes through with every shot. Another thing to mention is its extreme hp pool for T7; it has 1500 hitpoints, which is outstanding - it even rivals some T8 Heavies! Due to that, you can use your hp pool as "armour" and use it to mop up tanks which are isolated from their allies.
2.The Mobility
In real life, most Tigers broke down or got stuck in mud and moved really sluggishly in general. This is not the case in WoT; Here, the Tiger I has received the engine of the Tiger II, which is of course a bit unhistorical, but gives the Tiger I a nice boost in mobility. It is not nearly as mobile as the IS or the AMX M4 1949, but it can easily outrun the T29, KV-3 or its brother, the Tiger Pig.
It's actually mobile enough to cope as a medium tank in T9 or T8 games.
3. The Gun
The gun is the key feature of this tank. It boasts the 8,8cm Kampfwagenkanone 43 L/71, the legendary gun of the Tiger II. It has amazing dpm (2,6k with a full loadout), awesome penetration for its tier (the only other tank to beat it is the AMX M4, and we all know how good that tank is) and classical german accuracy. The gun has a long aim time, however, this is offset by the good stabilization.
4. Playstyle
The Tiger I does NOT play like your normal heavy tank, and does NOT have the historical performance. This is due to it facing more advanced opponents than it historically did, but this is reasonable due to balancing. The Tiger I can be played either as a sniper or as a close supporter. I prefer the latter, as it offers you more opportunities to deal damage and support your allies, although you can decide for yourself how you want to play this tank. In either case, you should preserve your hp pool, as you can use it in the late game to rush the last survivors and tank their shots whilst machinegunning them with your fast-firing 88mm gun. In the early game, you should find a spot where you can snipe or where you can retreat to between shots. Use every opportunity possible to put a shot or two in. If you need to be the frontline brawler, you need to use every. single. shot. possible. You have the hp and dpm advantage, for every shot they put into you, you can put two into them. In the mid-game, you can already start trading hp and rush isolated enemies, and in the end-game, just rush targets and dpm them to death.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, the Tiger I is a tank which is not for everyone. It is rather difficult to play, and even more difficult to do well in - but boy, is it fun when it works. I recommend a gun rammer, vents, and your choice of a tool box, a Gun laying Drive or optics/Binos. Definitely one of the best T7 Heavy tanks, together with the T29 and IS.

[Chairman Scorpion]

The Toldi III - WarGaming lied to us.

Back in December, when the Toldi III was announced as the new gift tank, WarGaming NA's YouTube channel were discussing how all the gift tanks before were really atrocious, but that the Toldi III is special, and that we should try it out, and that it isn't bad. Since we all got the Toldi III now, I think we can agree that they lied to us. Let's hope it gets a buff like the T7 Car did.


1: The Armour:

The armour of the Toldi III is bad. From the front, it's got 20mm or 35mm of hull armor, and on the turret, it's got 25mm of armour, 45mm - 55mm of armour on the mantlet. The side armour and rear armour is atrocious, and we shouldn't even mention it. From the front, no tanks will have problem penetrating you, unless you are getting shot at by a very low penetration machine gun (Like the 20mm Hispano-Suiza from the M2 Light, which has 30mm of penetration with standard AP), in which case you might bounce sometimes. Angling the tank does not work well at all as the side hull armour only has 13mm of armour, which means a tank with a gun that has a caliber of 36mm or above, will ovematch it with ease. So do not try to sidescrape against:

- The American 37mm guns
- The Soviet 45mm 20K
- The Soviet ZiS-19 that the BT-7 uses
- Almost every TD gun
- Any howitzer

Try to go hull down with this tank if you can, as it will present the smallest target to the enemy, and it has the highest armour, although it is pretty useless. Don't go hull down by hill poking if you can, however, as the gun depression isn't really special, try to find some cover, like the rubble on Himmelsdorf, to cover your tank. Going hull down also helps with the overmatching problem, as the hull has 35/13/13, which means tanks with 36mm guns or better can easily overmatch your hull armour. However, the turret has 35/25/25, which means 75mm guns can overmatch the side, and 105mm guns can overmatch the front, which can result in some spectacular and rare bounces when playing low-tier.

Don't ever rely on your armour, especially since most of the time, this tank goes into Tier V games for some reason. Because you get into Tier V games, and you only have 230 HP, you will get one-shotted a lot. Even though the turret doesn't have a problem with overmatching, it's flatter than a pancake. Don't rely on it.


2: The Mobility

The mobility of this tank is average. It's got 16.85 Power / Weight, which is just average. The tank traverse is a bit better, it has 45 degrees / second, which is fairly nimble. But you are certainly not a speed demon, and you probably won't get out of tough situations very easily.


3: The Firepower

The gun is the thing WarGaming bragged about when they announced the Toldi III as the new gift tank. "It can penetrate an SU-85I with standard ammo from the front!", they said. Honestly, no one cares about that. Yes, it's got okay penetration, but there are Tier III tanks with better penetration than the Toldi III. Every other Tier III TD has way better penetration than the Toldi, The T-46, Somua S35, D2, T-70, Type 97 Chi-Ha, Type 91 Heavy, Type 2597 Chi-Ha, LT vz. 38 and Pz. II G all have better penetration than the Toldi III, and yet they have better matchmaking. The Toldi III almost always gets into Tier V games. It's bad enough that this tank performs poorly against Tier III tanks, but how is it going to compete against Tier V tanks?!

Now, the gun is bad. It has 64mm of penetration, yes, but it has one of the worst and most frustrating DPM stats in the game. It has only 40 average damage, and a 4 second reload. Which means you can only do 80 damage in 10 seconds. The T-34 can do 400 damage in 10 seconds, so how is the Toldi III going to kill anything? The Toldi III has such bad DPM, you just fire at something, don't penetrate, wait 4 seconds while they aim at you, shoot, don't penetrate, and get oneshotted. It's very atrocious.

If you plan on penetrating stuff, carry a lot of premium shells. They have 80mm of penetration, and can penetrate Tier V tanks a bit more easily. But remember, this has 80mm of penetration, and the M3 Lee has 92mm, and yet people moan about how bad the M3 Lee's penetration is, so 80mm is still really bad.

The gun handling is also bad. It's got 0.41 accuracy, and a 2.01s aiming time. So coupled with the bad penetration, and the bad accuracy, hitting weakspots on Tier V tanks is not very effective.


4: Playstyle

If you want to use the Toldi III, you must be very, very cautious, and never try to expose yourself, and always try to aim for weakspots (Even though the penetration is bad).

If you get into a Tier V game:

If you get into a Tier V game, which happens almost every time, try to use this tank with HE from time to time. You may think I am crazy, but the thing is, there are some Tier V tanks that you can perform better against with HE. If you encounter a Pz. Sfl. IVc, you can penetrate his gun casement with ease, as it's only 12mm, and you have 20mm of HE penetration. This will result in module damage to the Pz. Sfl. IVc, as well as a better DPM, as you now deal 60 damage instead of 40. While yes, the damage difference isn't much, the module damage you do is certainly worth it. Firing HE at the Pz. Sfl. IVc's casement can result in the Pz. Sfl IVc getting:

- An injured Commander (Radio Operator)
- An injured Gunner
- An injured Loader
- A damaged Ammo Rack
- A damaged Gun
- A damaged Radio

You can also fire HE at a T67, as a T67's hull has 12/12/12, meaning your 20mm of penetration can cause quite some module damage to the T67. If you are firing at the side, you can also try the turret, as it also has 12mm of armour.

Firing at the T67 from the side and penetrating with HE, results in a chance of damaging any module or injuring any crew member.

You can also use HE at certain SPGs, just watch your fire, as you should always aim at the casement, where the armour is the weakest part.

When firing HE at the low armored tanks I mentioned, never aim at the tracks, or the Pz. Sfl. IVc's hull.

There are also some other tanks you can use HE against, and I am going to list them:

- The Alecto
- Hetzer (Only from the rear, where he has 8mm of armour.)
- Marder 38T (Never shoot at the hull)
- SU-85B (Only from the side and rear)
- Ke-Ho (Only from the side and rear)
- The Type 91 Heavy (Only from the side and rear, never at the mantlets of the mini-turret at the back)
- Ke-Ni
- LT vz. 35 (Only on the sides or rear, and never on the turret)
- T-46 (Anywhere except the view port on the hull from the front, or the mantlet.)
- BT-7 / BT-7 Artillery (Only from the rear)
- SU-76M (Only from the side and rear)
- UE-57
- Pz. III A (Except for the little squares on the lower glacius at the front, the hatches from the side of the turret, and the mantlet)
- The Pz. IV A (Except for the front of the turret)
- The Marder II (Except for the hull, always shoot at the gun casement)
- The Cruiser IV (Only from the side and rear, and never at the turret)
- Valentine AT (Only at the casement)
- The Medium III (Except for the lower part of the hull from the side, as it has spaced armour there)
- The Cruiser II (Only from the rear at the hull)
- The M2 Medium (Only from the side and rear, however not at the turret or the little parts housing the machine guns)
- T56 GMC (Only from the rear)

VERY IMPORTANT INFO:

Whilst I did go very in-depth about using HE on this vehicle, it is not recommended to rely on it. In fact, I sometimes use AP against the tanks I mentioned. I simply mentioned HE, and which tanks to fire with HE and where, because the tank's gun is so dreadful, that I normally use HE when I can, to make the gun a bit better, as using AP is pretty horrendous. HE is very unreliable, people. If you hit anything but flat armour, it might not penetrate. Take the info I told about the HE with a grain of salt. You may use AP instead if you wish.

Now that we are done with the HE lesson, let's move on to AP. AP is basically the main ammo you are going to use. It's pretty bad. It only does 40 damage, and you got a 4 second reload time. However, it does have 64mm of penetration with standard ammo, and 80mm of penetration with premium ammo. It's good for a Tier III, however, the bad alpha damage, bad DPM, and the bad matchmaking, makes it still pretty bad. You will have trouble penetrating Tier V tanks.

To use the gun correctly, we must always use peek-a-boo tactics from a fair distance, to make yourself a small target, as well as aiming at tanks with bad armour, and if you are on a small / city map, you could go in the city, and just salvage some damage from enemy tanks that your team has encircled. For example, if you are on Himmelsdorf on the hill, and you are winning, and there is an enemy KV-1 that is getting circled by 2 T-34s on your team, you could jump in and just fire at his side or rear, and try not to get too close, as getting the KV-1's attention is the last thing you want to do.

If your team is losing, you probably won't be able to use the gun well, and you will die fairly quickly.

However, if you get on a Tier III or IV game:

You have a bit better manueverability against other tanks, as there are no fast Tier V medium tanks like the M4 Sherman, T-34 or Pz. IV H. You can get out tricky situations more easily, and Tier IV and III tanks have worse HP and far worse armour, making them easier to kill. Whilst your DPM works better, it still is not reliable, to kill a full HP M3 Lee, it will take you around 32 seconds to kill him, as he has 310 HP, and this is not counting low-rolls. So try to be a sniper, as you have substantially better penetration than if you get in a Tier V game. Avoid getting fired at, as your armour is rubbish. Aim at the tanks with low HP, to finish them off quickly, since you've got bad DPM. Remember, the less tanks the enemies have, the better.

My suggested equipment is:

- Vents (All-Around upgrade)
- Coated Optics (To make your really bad 270mm view range a lot better, making it usable against Tier V tanks)
- Camo Net (To hide better in flat, open maps)


5: Conclusion

The Toldi III is one of the worst gift tanks WG has ever given to us. It is so bad, that I use HE to salvage damage on paper-tanks. It's atrociously bad. But hey, at least it can pen an SU-85I from the front, right?

Edit(super64mario): Removed some formatting errors.
Edit 2 (super64mario): Fixed some terminology errors.

[Der Reiskanzler]

The E50 Standardpanzer - Tiger II on LSD, Crack and Heroin

1. The Armour
The Armour of the E50 is amazing for a medium tank. It is one of the most armoured mediums, together with the T-54, although both tanks focus their armour on different parts. The E50 has the Tiger II hull, but with many upgrades. Both plates are much more sloped and the LFP got 20mm of extra armour, giving it an effective value of 180mm unangled, whilst the UFP has ~250mm. When angled, the UFP becomes almost impenetrable to almost all guns in T9 and T10, and the LFP becomes strong enough to bounce almost all T7s tanks and most T8s. You shouldn't rely on it against T9 and T10 guns, though. The turret is a smaller version of the Tiger II turret, with a few elements of the Panther II's Schmalturm. The turret front is 185mm, which is very weak, but most covered by an invulnerable gunmantlet, and autobounce sides. If you see an E50 who hides his LFP, go for his turret. All in all, for a medium tank in T9, the E50 is very well armoured.
2. The Mobility
Despite its impressive armour, the E50 is actually pretty mobile. Not as mobile as a "classic" T9 medium, but certainly mobile enough to do the job. Its pw/wt ratio is roughly 15, which is about the same as the Panther I, but it has much worse ground resistances due to its weight. On flat ground, you will reach ~53-54 kph max, whilst the max speed whilst climbing hills is 20 kph. The 60 kph comes handy when you're going down a hill to ram somebody, which is a speciality of the E50. 65 tons coming at you with 60 kph? You don't want to get hit by that.
3. The Gun
The Gun of the E50 is absolutely lovely. Amazing gunhandling, accuracy and aimtime, coupled with decent pen, a nice 390 alpha blow and decent dpm - what more would you want?
This makes the E50 a very versatile vehicle, as it can snipe and brawl very effectively. One thing has to be noted, however: the gun depression over the front and rear of the vehicle is very bad; the full -8° potential is only reached over the sides. (which, of course, exposes it.)
4. Playstyle
The E50, as afore mentioned, is a very versatile tank. It can perform most roles, although it performs exceedingly well on flat ground and at middle ranges, where its armour layout can bounce some stuff and its gun is still accurate enough to hit even the tiniest of weakspots. It can also snipe over long distances very well and even brawl a bit. Its speciality, though, is its ramming capability: a full-speed ram can do boatloads of damage to most medium tanks the E50 faces, and even some lower tier heavy tanks, and can provide a nice emergency solution if the gun is still reloading, but the enemy has to be dispatched quickly. Because of your sub-par mobility, you need to mobilize as soon as possible and can't react as well to map changes as other T9 mediums. You also have pretty poor camo, so be wary of that when you cross open terrain. Also, to use your maximum gun depression, you need to expose your side armour, which is only 80mm thick, so be careful when you do this. The E50 is also a formidable sidescraper. All in all, the E50 is a good and versatile tank which requires a bit of thought to play, but isn't a magic russian insta-unicum machine.
5. Conclusion
The E50 is a tank which is relatively easy to get into, but hard to master, mostly because of its gundepression and the mobility. I recommend using a gun rammer, Vstab and optics, and if you have a very good crew, you can use vents instead of optics. Many people would call this tank OP, but IMO, it is not. It is certainly very good, but it still requires thought and skill to play. Lastly, the grind to the E50 is absolutely painful, so only get this tank if you think that it'd fit your playstyle.

[spaik]

The E 25: Scheming Weasel

The E 25 is a very, very camouflaged tank (mine has 50.5% camo rating, cutting 440vr down to 220vr) which easily moves at speeds to rival scouts. Despite the lack of turret, the E25 is very hard to circle due to the incredibly good traverse speed. The traverse speed is up there with the lights/scouts. The gun traverse arch is fair and it has decent depression for the size. The armour is non-existant, though, and the gun trades penetration for DPM. The DPM of the E25 is simply incredible, though it's not quite on the level of an SU-152 with the 122mm cannon or ISU-122S (we'll be getting to the ISU-122S soon, don't you worry). This beast is absolutely amazing to drive, especially due to the preferential matchmaking (-2/+1 matchmaking brackets). The E 25- or as I like to refere to it as, "godmode", really deserves that nickname. We'll be getting into why soon, but for now, I'll just say it can do 2-3k easily when top tier.
The Armour
The armour of the E25 is nothing special, but it can troll a f*cktonne of shots. I'll list the armour values for the front, rear, sides, etc;

• Frontally - Both the UFP and LFP are 50mm. The UFP reaches about 70mm of effective armour from E 25 hight, and the LFP reaches 80 from E 25 hight.
  
• Side - The sides are mostly flat (but this area is covered by tracks which will absorb many shots) but has some very sloped areas. With manual horizontal sloping, the angle of incident can become so high that it becomes an autobounce zone for under 90mm guns. The tracks are worth 25mm of spaced armour. You also have a 35mm "strongpoint" on the right side of the e25 towards the front.
  
• Rear - The rear is 30mm all around. The rear UFP is 33mm effective from E 25 hight and the rear LFP is 38mm effective from E 25 hight.
  
• Roof - The roof of the E 25 is merely 20mm thick, so it's very easy to pen with artillery HE. However, some of this roof goes onto the front and rear of the tank. If you, for some reason, cannot pen said E 25 - shoot it in the frontal/rear roof.
  
• Cupola - The cupola on the E 25 is a pretty obvious, glaring, weakspot. Right? Nope. The cupola is 30mm and sloped aswell as rounded, meaning it's possible to get 40mm effective armour with some autobounce angles.
  
• Mantle - Perhaps the only semi-reliable armour the E 25 has is the mantle. From the side it's effectively 50mm and flat. Frontally, it ranges from 80 to 160 effectively armour. This means that a T6 MT shell fired at an E 25 may hit the mantle and bounce. The mantle is also surrounded by a BS red zone which it about 110mm to 120mm of effective armour.
  
• Floor - Interestingly, the E 25's floor armour is 30mm thick, you may not want to fire at an E 25's floor when said E 25 is cresting a ridge.

As you can tell, the E 25 has surprisingly trolly armour that can bounce some shots when used right. That's not where it ends. Into the mobility segment!
2: Mobility
After that honestly excessive armour segment, we best get talkin' 'bout that E 25 mobility. I'll list off the E 25 mobility factors;

• 26.90 power/weight ratio. That's on the levels of light tanks.
  
• 1.15 hard terrain resistance. Not the best, but certainly decent.
  
• 1.25 medium terrain resistance. A 0.1 drop from hard is very good.
  
• 2.21 soft terrain terrain resistance. This is actually very good, if I remember right.
  (note by super64mario: this is actually OUTSTANDINGLY good.)

But why are the E 25's medium and soft terrain resistances so good? It's the track width, remember how I stated that the E 25 has 25mm of track spaced armour in the armour segment? That, that's why the E 25 has good resistances. The E 25's tracks are large, especially compared to the hull. Large tracks generally mean good terrain resistances in World of Tanks. Of course, in real life that wouldnt be all of what's factored into it, but this is WoT so it is. The E 25 also only weighs 26,025 so I wouldn't recommend ramming anything other than Scorpions and other stuff like that. The traverse speed on the E 25, being 44 degrees in a second, rivals the light tanks. Here's how it does vs. the tier 7 LTs;

• E 25 - 44 degrees per second.
  
• AMX 13 57 - 48 degrees per second.
  
• AMX 13 75 - 42 degrees per second.
  
• Aufl. Panth. - 36 degrees per second.
  
• LTTB - 48 degrees per second.
  
• M41 Walk. Bull. - 56 degrees per second.
  
• SP 1 C - 44 degrees per second.
  
• T71 - 56 degrees per second.
  
• Type 62 - 54 degrees per second.
  
• WZ 131 - 54 degrees per second.

As you can tell, the E 25 has better traverse than some LTs, but less than others. Compared to other T7 LTs, it's about below average. Remember, this is just a TD.
The Firepower
Now, this is where the E 25 gets really fun. The E 25 uses the StuG's 7,5cm/75mm cannon. However, the stats on the E 25 significantly better. I'll list it's stats, according to tanks gg, with no equipment and 100% crew;

• 2,815.71 DPM.
  
• 135 damage.
  
• 150 penetration (AP). 194 penetration (APCR).
  
• 925 shell velocity (AP). 1,156 shell velocity (APCR).
  
• 2.88 reload time.
  
• 20.86 rate of fire/RoF.
  
• 1.44 aim time.
  
• 0.29 dispersion.
  
• 100 damage vs. modules.
  
• 60 ammunition capacity.

If you can not interpret these, it means the E 25 does 135 damage per shell, but has bad penetration. To make up for this the E 25 gets amazing reload time (2.88 seconds) aswell as laser gun handling (1.44 aiming time/0.29 dispersion). This gun is simply amazing when it doesn't have to fire upon tier 7 and over heavies, which it'll struggle to penetrate. Now, onto the ammunition loadout;

• Take about 1/2 AP (30)
  
• Take about 1/2 APCR (30)
  
• Take about more AP than APCR if flanking - 40 AP/20 APCR
  
• Take more APCR than AP if you have too much money - 60 APCR/0 AP

This may feel like I'm advocating premium ammunition spam, but I'm certainly not. The pen of the E 25's pen is just too low to penetrate most on-tier heavies (M(ediocre)4 45 I'm looking at you). Please use APCR liberally.
Playstyle
There are, to me, 3 valid playstyles to the E 25;

• Sniper - My favourite.
  
• Medium/Brawling.
  
• Scouting - Gotta do it yourself sometimes.

All 3 of these are valid, though mostly dependant on the MM and map. If it's something open like Prokhrovka, consider scouting/sniping. If it's Himmelsdorf, the E 25 can trade vs bottom tiers well, city brawl. You get the point. Well, you should get the point. I'll list their playstyles with descriptions now;

• Sniping - This playstyle is probably the most OP balanced. Find whatever bush you want, and as long as you're at least 30% away from the max vr of 440 you'll generally be invisible if you move 15m behind bushes before firing. It's literally like a Romulan cloaking device but german and in a tank form. The sheer combination of DPM and camo often allows you to just camp and get 2k+ damage/game. Especially if your team plays defensively, thus in your favour. The AP will lose a lot of penetration over range, and you wont be able to hit weakspots to compensate for the bad pen. Instead, use premium ammo often. Recommended gear: Rammer, camo net, vents.
  
• Medium/Brawling - For this, you definately want to take more APCR than AP since you can't use your camo value well. Instead, you need to use your amazing mobility and DPM to permanently track targets aswell as position yourself to be as resiliant to enemies as possible. Always go with backup unless it's the cleanup phase, in which you can actually trade hp for kills. Or, during this phase, you can just spot for youself, which leads onto the next role an E 25 can play!.. Recommended gear: Rammer, vents, optics,
  
• Scouting - If your LTs are totally incompetent, you need to remember you have a decent base view range and an excellent camo rating. No, seriously, a small bush is like cheating with this beast. Go into famous scouting spots a LT would go to, and simply passive spot. Alternatively, due to the great speed and traverse (aswell as having good camo on the move- 30+% for me) you can active scout. Recommended gear - (Passive) Rammer, binocs, camo net. (Active) Rammer, improved optics, improved ventilation.

Conclusion
The E 25 is the 2nd most fun tier 7 TD, only second to the SU-152 using HEAT ammunition. Definately use premium ammo a lot, and also learn to use bushes well so you can cloak as if you're a Romulan. I definitely, 100%, recommend this if it ever goes back on-sale. I also definitely see why it was removed from the premium shop, because the E 25 is utterly broken and over-powered.

[spaik]

lkv 103: lkv 103 or Ikv103

I'm making this randomly because I had real trouble getting this tank to work, hopefully I can help someone else! I should also add that the T6 (lkv 65 II) is amazing and worth the bad grind!

1: The Armour

Don't bother, everything will pen you. Even HE will go through the "armour" with extreme ease. The armour values are, according to the game client:

• 18/7/12
  
• 18mm frontal armour.
  
• 7mm side armour.
  
• 12mm rear armour.

However, the horizontally angled side areas on the front are only 12mm thick, aswell as the lfp. There are 2 small 25mm zones besides the gun. There is also a small bit of the roof connecting to the superstructure that is visible frontally and is 5mm thick. Now, moving onto the side, the majority of the side is 6mm. The frontal half of the superstructure is 7mm from the sides, everywhere else is 6mm. Some of the horizontally sloped front is visible from the side, however it's a small strip. The tracks are 10mm of spaced armour, they also barely cover the hull. At the very rear there is a flat 12mm zone visible from the back, however this is tiny. On the rear there is 12mm on the lower half of the hull, which has some sloping but is mostly flat. The upper half of the hull is 6mm and angled at 45 degrees. The superstructure from the rear has 5mm sloped 60 degrees in the centre. On both sides of the superstructure there are 6mm zones that are also angled roughly 65 degrees. Don't even think about blocking a shot with this, it wont work.

2: The Mobility

The 60km/h thing is a complete lie, it moves 40km/h at best usually. I guess if you're going downhill and being pushed by a quick medium you could go 60km/h, but dont rely on it. The reverse limit is 20km/h, which it can reach fairly easily. The p/w (power to weight ratio) is 20.47.
The terrain resistances are purely mediocre:

• 0.96/1.05/2.01
  
• 0.96 hard
  
• 1.05 medium
  
• 2.01 soft

At 32 degrees per second the traverse speed is purely mediocre aswell. It's also worth noting that the stock engine gives a p/w of 17.54 with everything else fully upgraded even though it's only 25 less power than the top engine as the tank weighs 8.55t (8,550kg) with all the top modules.

3: The Gun

With everything so far being bad the gun should be good, right? Right? Nope, not close to good at all. Ontop of only having HEAT ammo the pen isn't overly special which means it wont pen a lot of t6 and above tanks when hit at odd angles. Here are the stats:

• 1,691.12 DPM, 1,879.02 with a gun rammer.
  
• 10.64 reload time, 9.58 with a gun rammer.
  
• 120 pen standard (HEAT), 140 pen premium (HEAT).
  
• 300 damage per shot reguardless of ammunition.
  
• 2.01s aim time.
  
• 0.40 dispersion.
  
• 0.22 moving bloom, 0.22 tank traverse bloom, 16 turret (gun) traverse bloom.
  
• 418 shell velocity.
  
• 220 standard shell cost (silver), 4,400 premium shell cost (silver).
  
• *40 degree firing arch (20 either side).
  
• 105mm caliber.
  
• 10 gun depression.

The DPM, damage and depression are good, everything else is either mediocre or bad. First, the ammunition. HEAT is absorbed by tracks and other spaced armour a lot, so it's unreliable to pen the sides of tanks at more than 100m. HEAT does not lose penetration over distance. HEAT has no normalisation which makes it terrible against sloped armour or an angled tank. This alone makes the tank unable to be used at range effectively. The aiming time in practice is very long due to the bloom, and even then it probably wont hit due to the 0.40 dispersion. 418 velocity makes the shell arc at range making the pen less effective. The 40 degree firing arch is mediocre. The 105mm howitzer can be seen on other T5s like the StuG III G, but without HEAT standard, which makes them way more flexible. The gun is unreliable at best and cannot be used well at range. Instead of sniping I found it more effective to poke ridges.

4: Playstyle

You can snipe in normal positions, but that's stupid and leads to 0 damage games because of the gun being bad at range. Instead, find a hill with some teammates and poke it a lot. Poking for 300 damage/shot is more effective than sniping. Here's why:

• 10 depresion makes it easy to hide most of your tank behind cover whilst shooting.
  
• The HEAT wont go in an arc so it'll be easier to penetrate enemy tanks.
  
• The dispersion and bloom matter very little at close ranges making it easier to hit.
  
• Easier to aim for flat spots on enemies.
  
• You can specifically aim away from the tracks.

5: Conclusion

This tank is overall very bad but can have good games poking ridges with support. It's pretty hard to play well because of the gun and armour. If you don't have support you will be rushed and killed. If you dont poke after the enemy has fired you'll likely lose half or more of your hitpoints.