This week, especially. Lots of work to do and coming back home late and tired... don't even have the time to use the good 'ol computer when you gotta leave house at 5:30am and reach back home around 10pm.
There's a lot of important stuff that's been going down at the usual workplace, that's why there's been a drastic change in work times. People getting shifted left 'n right, but it's just another one of those 'tough weeks' that can happen anytime of the year...
... sometimes up to eight times a year.
But, I finally got a free day today, so I'm gonna use it well... starting off with a blog post to tell you guys that I'm not dead. Just got a little caught up at work, that's all.
And without further delays, here's the 113 video that I was supposed to upload five days ago. Enjoy.
Finally, the 113 in a real server... and not that mess they call 'Common Test'. Ugh... dem gold shells everywhere...
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| My most favored tank, 113... the huge "MBT" |
I've actually gotten this tank quite some time ago, around September of last year [2015]. Been practicing on how to use it ever since. It's a pretty great tank with a combination of a heavy tank and a medium tank. Rapid cannon combined with some armor and speed which allows it to catch up with some mediums. Although, the armor's the only trouble with this tank.
What I meant is that damn lower frontal plate. It's all kinds of bad if something hits it.
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| From 112... |
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| ...to WZ 111... |
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| ...and finally WZ 111 1-4. |
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| Then, it's just like that. Ever since. |
It's been pretty much the same, starting from 112, then to the WZ-111 and the 1-4 variant [the tier nine one] and now the 113. The 20mm jump from WZ-111 -14 to 113 for the lower frontal plate is just not enough for the tier 10 tank. I'm used to the upper frontal armor, the weak-ass ammo rack and engine fires that it constantly gets... but it feels kinda strange that they did not try to at least make the armor better. Certain other tanks have definitely been through the upgrade phase.
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| Someday... I'll be getting you soon. Owning the tank in my garage, not kill it is what I meant. |
Take the VK 45.02 B above for example. It used to be one of the worst tier 9 tanks 'cause of "historical accuracy" which makes the front hull of the tank pretty much a Chinese tank, but ended up getting a major buff, especially the lower frontal armor plate. Used to be easy kill whenever I met it... now it's a monster after the buff... especially the 200mm for BOTH upper and lower plates.
And it's pretty much a young Maus now, except in tier 9.
I was thinking that the 113 should have something like that, too. I know that it had a buff recently, but it just buffs the make the heavy medium towards the 'medium tank' characteristics... it's missing out on the 'heavy tank' part.
Why am I saying this? Well, there's not many heavy-medium hybrids out there. The only other one that I can find similarly to the 113 is the E50M. I could choose the T110E5, but that tank is a true heavy, y'know... slow speed, good armor. Only the gun is the 'medium tank' attribute.
The E50M is chosen because of it's speed, weight and armor. The gun and speed is definitely medium tank-like, but the armor and weight is the 'heavy tank' part of the tank. You can be surprised how many people take this medium tank lightly. Some might even downright ram the E50M without knowing whether it could be heavier then their own tanks.
One example is when a friend of mine decided to have some tier 10 mock duels in the Common Test Server. Best map to choose for duels are definitely the smaller ones, so he chose the Mittengard map.
Loads of fun using the tier 10s that we aim to get someday... anyway.
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| E50M |
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| Leopard 1 |
-VS-
Who will win?
There's one duel where I used the E50M and he used the other medium, the Leopard 1. He thought it will be the usual medium vs medium battles. Naturally, I knew that the E50M is a very speedy and rather heavy tank. And by chance, he chose the Mittengard map... y'know, where there are slopes to gain speed.
What I'm trying to say is that as soon as our tanks met in the middle, I rammed him. That crash course led to his tank's demise.
None of the rounds he shot at me went through the upper or lower plates, only the turret which is a flat area if not angled correctly.
He was shocked that his tank got smashed just by ramming mine. That is, until I told him that the E50M is not light. Just because a tank moves fast does not mean that it's light.
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| Fast moving bulldozer, with autoloader! |
This goes the same if you tried ramming an AMX 50B from the front... especially if your tank is lighter than the French Autoloader... and especially if he's in motion.
Don't forget that if the person uses the 'Controlled Impact' skill, it pretty much improves the damage caused and decreases the damage received.
Too bad I can't show replays of the E50/Leopard 1 duel or the AMX 50B that I had in action, where I squashed two tanks. Those were like nearly two years ago. I can't record if I can't even run the damn thing. It's outdated.
Back on track: the 113's frontal lower plate is sub-par. The 121 is pretty much a better option because of this. What's weird is that the WZ-111 has it's side armor to a total of 120mm!
It's only the small upper strip though. [the one without spaced armor] The one below is the same throughout tiers 8-10, with the exception of the 110 tank. And the lower side armor's value is 110mm with the spaced armor. The same 80mm from tiers 8-9, but 90mm in the 113... but still adds up with the spaced armor of 20mm to get 110mm.
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| Do you prefer the 121... |
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| ...or the 113? |
Quick comparison of 121 to 113. Upper Frontal? 120mm. Lower frontal? 80mm and 100mm respectively. Upper side? 80mm and 90mm. Lower side? still 80mm for 121 but 110mm for the 113.
The lower plate is just pretty bad, in my opinion. Yes, the 113 is "an alternative to the WZ 111 1-4", which means it's the opposite of that tank. Doesn't that mean it should be in tier 9? Y'know, branching out to two different Chinese tank types: big hitting guns with armor, and the fast, mobile hybrids.
Or maybe buff the armor values. As long as the lower plate isn't paper, it's fine. Enough to at least be useful to bounce shots with some angling there, because as of now... the only angle to bounce shots of the lower frontal plate is nearly 90 degrees or more away from a pointing gun. By that standards, you also have to hide your tank's sides. I'd say the armor values should go up to 110mm or more. Definitely not more than 130mm, though. Never seen one Chinese tank with that frontal plate value anywhere.
Remember the Type 59? it has 100mm of lower frontal armor. It's very OP, but it hasn't been nerfed. Instead, it got pulled away from shops and is now available through rewards.
100mm of lower frontal plating is very bouncy for a tier 8 medium. Not even the heavies in tier 8 have that kind of value, all this is excluding 110 tank. Now that's what I find weird.
Before the VKB tier 9 got the buff, it's a horrible tank to play through. It's practically untouched and everyone tried to skip it or just moved to the E75. I'm guessing the 113 and many other Chinese tanks are going through that too...
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| Thanks to Metal Saga, this is now in my "To Get" list. Too bad no triple Plasma Cannons, though. |
"The last thing I want to see is a tank with low penetration and lack of armor."
For tier 10, it's very off-putting... the lower gun caliber is already a turn-off for most, but I'm okay with a rapid gun. The penetration's is about Maus' levels, but at least that tank has great armor to back up it's greatly slow speed. Normally a fast shooting gun would have high penetration and low damage output, but this is another strange thing in the 113. The ammo capacity is not a problem as it's normal for Chinese tanks to have small ammo storage.
Well, the Chinese Heavy line is not that popular, so that is the only reason that why is doesn't receive any TLC from the devs. Hopefully, there's two heavy tank lines: fast rapid guns with unparalleled speed, and the slow but dangerous hard hitting guns.
After all, they made the WT E100... which is entirely fictional. As in, it doesn't exist even in a blueprint... totally made up by Wargaming. So I'm pretty sure that they can think of something to fill in 113's role or create a new line for it. If they can't, then the only way is buffing it up.
It makes me wonder what will actually happen if they made a new heavy tank line for it, though. The WZ 111 1-4 will finally have a true tier 10 successor that could use the same 130mm gun, just modified slightly like IS-4's gun which is also on the ST-I.
Only one way to find out, though. And that is to wait until Wargaming does something to the Chinese Tanks... if it ever gets anymore TLC though.
Wew... it turned into one long post. I guess I'll end it here for now, guys. Sure did a number on this post... I guess the next time I post about the Chinese heavy line, it'll be about some good news to it... I hope.
-Panzer Fist-
