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 readers. First of all I would like to apologise for my absence over these last couple of months – real life decided someone needed a good kick up the butt and the boot just happened to land on my ass. Moving house, another family member being placed in hospital in critical condition as well as full-time study has put a lot of pressure on myself and my family these last few months.

Real life aside, Patch 8.5 of World of Tanks saw the launch of the new German medium line which includes the tier 8 Indien-Pz the tier 9 Leopard PT A and finishing off with the amazing tier 10 Leopard 1.

The Leopard 1 Isn’t she a beauty?

So why have I been looking forward to driving the Leopard 1 for so long? well the short answer would be that the tank was the first Modern era Main Battle Tank. The long answer will be an in-depth look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Leopard 1 during this article.

So how good is the Leopard 1?

I’m going to go through the three main areas of tank warfare and grade each area out of 10.

Firepower: 9/10

The Leopard 1 comes equipped with the German modified British L7A3 105mm, which has 268mm of penetration with 0.3 accuracy at 100m an aim time of 1.9 seconds 390 damage a hit with a rate of fire of 6.67 rounds a minute. This gives the Leopard 1 2601.3 DPM stock. Equip vents and a rammer and you are looking at 2992.3 DPM. Max out the Brothers in Arms perk on all of the crew and you have a total of 3121.56 DPM

The Leopard 1 is amazingly accurate at shooting on the move and even better at sniping at very long range and the aim time allows you to switch targets on the fly without having to worry too much about waiting for the gun to focus before firing.

Maneuverability: 9/10

The Leopard 1 is currently unmatched in maneuverability in World of Tanks – it has a top speed of 65kmph which it can reach in just seconds and it also has amazing off-road performance and terrain negotiation, meaning it retains the most of its speed when going bush. It has a traverse speed of 54 degrees a second while its turret has a traverse of 36 degrees a second. The high amount of traverse and speed allows you to flank and make sharp turns very quickly while maintaining your speed and allowing you to avoid incoming fire or move from one side of the map to the other if support is needed.

Survivability: 6/10

The Leopard 1 has no armour to speak of, to the point that a tier 3 tank could penetrate it. You only have 70mm of frontal hull armour, 35mm of side hull armour and 25mm of rear hull armour – the turret is just as bad with only 52mm of frontal turret armour and 60mm of side and rear turret armour.

With the low armour in mind, the one redeeming quality of survivability for the Leopard 1 is the fact that it can use its speed to survive.

Overall score and thoughts

The Leopard 1 gets a very solid score of 24/30

Train sixth sense as soon as possible so that  if you are spotted you can react and stay artillery safe as much as possible, because artillery can one-hit you if you are not careful.

If you are looking for a fast and mobile sniper platform with an amazing rate of fire with great accuracy, aim time, view range and DPM you are going to enjoy playing the Leopard 1.