Blitzkrieg is a regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!

G’day gamers – firstly I would like to apologise for my lack of articles over the holiday period. Myself and my family have had a very trying time with which we nearly lost a family member.

Real life aside, another reason for no articles was because there has not been much in the way of news for World of Tanks until recently with the launch of the Chinese tank tree with patch 8.3. You can check out the Patch 8.3 Trailer, or the the 8.3 patch notes here!

So what will we be checking out in this week’s column? Well, let’s take a look at the new Chinese Tier X heavy tank and compare them to the Russians.

The Model 113

Development on the Model 113 started in 1963 the vehicle was conceived as an alternative to the WZ-111 and used parts and components of medium tanks -the project was cancelled however due to the development of main battle tanks.

Let’s compare the stats of the Model 113 to both the Russian IS-4 and the IS-7 heavy tanks using the three major categories firepower, armour and speed/mobility and see where the Model 113 stands.

Firepower

The Model 113 has the 122mm 60-122T Gun which can penetrate 257mm of armour with standard shells, dealing an average damage of 440 hit points with an accuracy of 0.36 at 100m at a rate of fire of 5.5 rounds per minute with an aiming time of 2.7 seconds. That means this gun has 2420 DPM compared to the IS-4’s 122mm M62-T2 gun which can penetrate 268mm of armour with standard shells dealing an average damage of 440 hit points with an accuracy of 0.38 at 100m at a rate of fire of 5 rounds per minute and an aiming time of 2.9 seconds. That means this gun has 2200 DPM

And now for the Is-7’s gun the 130mm S-70 which can penetrate 260mm of armour with standard shells dealing an average damage of 490  hit points with an accuracy of 0.4 at 100m at a rate of fire of 4.38 rounds per minute and an aiming time of 3.4 seconds. that means this gun has 2146.2 DPM

So that means the Chinese Model 113 has the highest DPM of the tree tanks, the best accuracy and the quickest aim time. It comes at the cost of the lowest penetration although the gold rounds’ penetration is 400mm which is on par with the IS-4’s and 100mm more than the IS-7’s.

This means that the Model 113 wins the firepower comparison.

Armour

The Model 113 has 120mm of frontal hull, 90mm side and 70mm rear armour while its turret has 240mm of frontal, 150mm side and 80 rear armour. It also comes with 2.300 hit points

The IS-4 has 140mm of frontal hull 160mm side and 100mm rear armour while its turret has 250mm of frontal 200mm side and 170 rear armour, plus 2.500 hit points

The IS-7 has 150mm of frontal hull, 150mm side and 100mm rear armour while its turret has 240mm of frontal, 185mm side and 94mm rear armour, with 2.150 hit points

So this means that the IS-4 is the clear winner in terms of Armour as well as having the highest hit points.

Speed and Mobility

The Model 113 has a 750hp engine pushing the 45ton tank at a max speed of 50km – it is also able to traverse at 36deg a second and traverse its turret at 26deg a second.

The IS-4 has a 750h.p engine pushing the 66.3ton tank at a max speed of 43km the IS-4 can traverse 26deg a second and traverse 22deg a second with its turret.

The IS-7 has a 1.050h.p engine pushing the 70.95ton tank at a max speed of 50km with a traverse speed of 28deg a second and a turret traverse speed of 25deg a second.

That means that the Model 113 weighs less than both the IS-4 and the IS-7 giving it better acceleration but the same top speed of 50km as the IS-7 the Model 113 also has the best traverse speeds of the three tanks meaning it can turn faster and track targets quicker with its turret.

That means the Model 113 wins the Speed and Mobility comparison.

Comparison winner

So what we can see from the statistics is that the Model 113 has a very accurate gun that has good damage per minute of 2420 with a max speed of 50km . That’s a very good traverse speed but it suffers from having less armour than the Russian heavys as well as less gun penetration with normal rounds.

Unfortunately I was unable to try this tank out on the test server to give you guys my personal opinion on how I feel about this new heavy tank and how well it does, but after comparing the stats to some of the other Tier X tanks in game I would have to say the Model 113 looks like it will be a destructive force on the battlefield when driven by a skilled tank commander.

I will leave you with an image of the next tank I am working on unlocking – the German Leopard 1:

So over to you: will you be working towards unlocking yourself the Model 113 Chinese Tier X Heavy Tank?

Blitzkrieg is a regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!

G’day gamers. Recently, Patch 8.2 hit the World of Tanks PTS and I was able to try out  the new Chinese Tier X heavy tank: the WZ-111 Model 5A

History of the WZ-111 Model 5A.

The WZ-111 Model 5A was a prototype of a heavy tank developed in the early 1960’s with the aim of modernising the armoured forces of the People’s Liberation Army. The vehicle was conceived as a response to the Soviet T-10 tank, which was an evolution of the IS-2 and the IS-3 tanks. During construction and testing of the prototype, many shortcomings were discovered and in 1964 development was discontinued.

Not bad for my third game in the WZ-111 model 5A

 Survivability, Speed and Armour

The WZ-111 Model 5A has 150mm sloped frontal hull armour, 80mm side hull armour and 60mm of rear hull armour. I found the upper frontal armour to be rather bouncy due to the V-shaped slope similar to that of the Soviet IS-3 and IS-7 tanks. Unfortunately the WZ-111 Model 5A does not copy the IS-7 and IS-3’s lower frontal plate and thus it is a weak spot on the WZ-111 Model 5A along with the side and rear armour being easily penetrated.

The turret armour however is not to be scoffed at with a very bouncy 230mm of curved frontal turret armour, 120mm of side and 60mm rear turret armour. I found myself often bouncing Tier IX and X shells from the front and sides of my turret.

The WZ-111 model 5A has a top speed of 50km/h powered by a 750hp V-2-54SC engine with a traverse speed of 36deg. One of the great things about the WZ-111 is that it has good terrain negotiation and is capable of maintaining around 90% of its top speed in off road situations.

The WZ-111 turret does have a low traverse speed of only 26deg a second, but a good tanker can make up for that by turning the tank the same direction, adding the tank’s traverse of 36deg a second, giving you overall a 62deg traverse speed if needed.

The biggest problem I have with this tank is the lack of gun depression. You simply cannot aim the gun down making it very hard if you are fighting from a high place to engage targets lower then yourself.

A look at both guns

The WZ-111 model 5A comes with the 122mm 60-122T gun which has an average penetration of 257mm, damage of 440 while having an accuracy of 0.36 at 100m and a rate of fire of 5.77 rounds per minute. This gives a total of 2538.8 damage per minute.

The WZ-111 model 5A can upgrade to the 130mm 59-130T gun which has an average penetration of 244mm damage of 490 while having an accuracy of 0.38 at 100m and a rate of fire of 5 rounds per minute which gives the 130mm 59-130T 2450 damage per minute.

Both of the guns have slightly lower penetration values than their Soviet counterparts but make up for it with a higher accuracy and a faster rate of fire.

Comparison between the Chinese and Soviet guns

WZ-111 Model 5A: 122mm 440dmg 5.77rpm 2538.8dpm 0.36acc 257pen

IS-4 122mm: 440dmg 5rpm 2200dpm 0.38acc 268pen

WZ-111 Model 5A: 130mm 490dmg 5rpm 2450dpm 0.38 244pen

IS-7 130mm: 490dmg 4.38rpm 2146.2dpm 0.4 260pen

Will this tank be used in Clan Wars?

The WZ-111 Model 5A has the same frontal armour as the IS-7 as well as the same top speed of 50kmph, but it does not have the same side or rear armour. In fact, it has much less side and rear armour than the IS-7 but that lower side and rear armour allow the WZ-111 to traverse a lot faster than the IS-7 can.

The guns are very similar to the Soviet ones but with less penetration, a better rate of fire and better accuracy. So I think that the WZ-111 may have a place in clan wars where a more accurate and manoeuvrable  IS-7 is required – its higher damage per minute is an added bonus.

Will I be working towards getting myself the WZ-111 Model 5A in Patch 8.2?

To be honest no, but not because the WZ-111 Model 5A is a bad tank – I am busy saving up for the new German Tier X medium Leopard 1. Maybe in the future once I have obtained a Leopard 1 I may start down the new Chinese tree, but I’m currently still working on my British medium line.

So over to you my fellow tank commanders: will you be working towards getting yourself a WZ-111 model 5A?