Yep. This was supposed to be up yesterday, but I had other things to take care of...
Anyways, today's post should come as no surprise as to what it is... and it's the Tier IX French Heavy Tank; the AMX M4 51.
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| That's the stock turret the picture has; the TCA turret. |
So finally we get to the actual good parts of this new mini-line, and away from that horrible mess known as the AMX 65 t. *shudders*
Ugh... that was surely hell for me...
As you can see from the picture above, it starts out with the previous tank's upgraded turret. Getting the Tier IX's upgraded turret [the TCB turret] is probably a good thing to do as it's massively improved over the other one.
Aaaannnd without anymore delays, it's time for some videos! For the first batch, it'll be using the 120mm gun. The upgraded turret was researched back then, and there isn't any replays with stock turret as you can't mount the 127mm gun with it.
Plus, this tank doesn't feel complete if it doesn't have it's TCB turret...
Not sure if rushing in was the best strategy here, but oh well!
The tank's 120mm is similar to the AMX 50 120 or AMX 50B's gun, but single-loaded. It's quite accurate, and with 257 penetration at Tier IX really helps out a lot. Using it was a breeze...
Obviously this tank has those god-awful cupolas at the top, which are immensely weak... there's two of them, by the way. Many players only notice the one with the "searchlights" on them. This means moving around is a must to avoid getting hit there, or you could use your gun to block one of the cupolas... I find it extremely useful at certain times.
All of the armor is at the front, so the sides and rear [both hull and turret] are absolutely thin. Getting hit with High Explosive there will really do a number on this tank.
Typical choke-point city map battle; things got pretty clumsy at the end there...
Even though it has armor of a typical heavy tank, it's still vulnerable to High Explosive... even more if it gets hit on its sides and rear. The 120mm fast rate of fire makes engaging enemies more comfortable as you can put out shots quickly...
...and accurately, I might add. Though not the most accurate gun, but at least it's not derp levels of accuracy... or the ARL 44's level of "stop and shoot" type of accuracy.
And now we move on to update 1.0 replays! Hence why the previous post was about the Encore engine tests.
An epic game, with up to 4K+ damage! They didn't stand a chance...
The reload time for the 120mm gun can be reduced to 10 seconds, just shy of entering 9 seconds if you've got the right equipment and skills. Feels like an AMX 50B's gun slapped onto the tank, just without the autoloader capabilities... and it's great!
The speed of this tank is not as horrendous as the AMX 65 t... in fact, it can shift really well... and can even get to it's top speed with little problems. Useful to know if you like ramming vehicles, like the E 50 M.
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| I have yet to get this tank... |
And now we switch over to the 127mm gun. Supposedly a naval gun, and it's the 'derp' or 'higher damage' alternative to the 120mm. Where the 120mm shines in high penetration, the 127mm has high alpha damage to back it up.
Time for some 127mm gun replays...
Another battle where we steamrolled the entire enemy team... it's rare to encounter such matches nowadays.
Now, the damage increase isn't massive... just 470 instead of the 120mm's 400. But still, it can roll up to 500+ damage... if it ever does, that is.
The reload time on this gun is surprisingly not that long, only a few seconds more compared to the other gun. It does has the worst Premium Rounds ever: Armor Piercing with a minimal increase in penetration.
Another surprising thing is that the HE rounds aren't that good... you would think a derp/high damage gun would have enormous HE shell damage, but it's not that much.
How many Himmelsdorf replays has it been? lol
And now one of it's biggest drawbacks shows itself: the piss-poor penetration. If I was using the 120mm gun, I would've been able to damage the last enemy tank in the lower plate. Instead, I have to resort to other methods of elimination...
And because it's a derp gun, it also has horrible shell velocity. Easy to dodge in long ranges, and you'll have to give quite some lead to distant moving targets.
The 127mm gun also has another plus up it's sleeve: it has a larger caliber value. That means you can overmatch more armor than the 120mm gun... it can overmatch 40mm armor whereas the 120mm cannot.
So that means if an enemy tank's turret/hull roof is about 40mm [or even their engine deck/side armor] then you can just shoot it, and it'll go through instead of bouncing off.
I feel like the premium rounds are semi-useless: only brought some as standby for armored targets with no other option of engaging the enemy... like let's say, a well-dug in tank destroyer.
But even then, it might not even be enough to go through their armor...
So there's two different play styles as from before; the fast-firing and high penetration gun for snipers, and the highly damaging and larger caliber gun for close-range brawlers.
A nice diversity in guns, but since this is Tier IX it's okay to use either guns. The Tier X tank on the other hand is a different story...
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| It won't be long till I get my hands on you... |
But that's a story for another day, as I'm still stuck in Tier IX at the moment. Was supposed to have about 40K+ experience, but it was used to get the 127mm gun.
And so now... to recap everything so far!
The Pros: Decent frontal armor, up to 180mm thick... which is about 200+ effective. The 120mm gun is a beast in all regards with great rate-of-fire, reload time and accuracy. Turret armor is also good, too. The 127mm gun can be a hard hitting weapon that can overmatch 40mm armor plates, which can be useful when dealing with certain tanks. It's reload time isn't that bad, either.
It's also a pretty mobile tank, for it's size. Useful for ramming lighter targets, much like the AMX 50B but with slightly lower speed. The turret also doesn't lose turning speed when mounting the 127mm gun, so it can be a nasty surprise to enemies.
The Cons? Well, It has horrible side and rear armor for both the hull and turret, so all the fighting has to be at the front... nowhere else. The massive cupolas are thinly armored, so constant movement is required to avoid damage there. The turret "ears" can be shot with HE ammo to deal some damage as well, much like the Emil II/Kranvagn tanks.
The 127mm's gun has atrocious accuracy, aim time and also penetration, which can limit the amount of things you can shoot at. The tank's massive size makes it an easy target for artillery, as anywhere except the front is weak.
And there's the infamous frontal hull "shoulders"... 150mm and any bit of angling can turn it into a weakness for others to shoot at.
Overall, it's a tank with equally great strengths and also equally great weaknesses. Although it seems to have more weakness than strengths at this moment. I won't talk about them here, but some of my old posts have covered it before... so I'm saving the bitching for another time.
And that's all for this tank! It's a joy to finally get to play a true French Heavy Tank. Has multiple drawbacks, but hey... at least it ain't an overpowered piece with barely any weaknesses.
The next post will most likely be of one of two things: The Fronline Mode or either the Tier X French Heavy Tank. Don't know when they'll be up, hopefully it doesn't take a millennia for them to be made... so see ya'll then!
-Panzer Fist-
