Hello everyone!

For past 2-3 days, Wot-news.com was running a review thread of the new artillery. I decided to translate some of it (well, not literally, I will add some comments) in hope it will bring the prospective arty players (who should should be summarily sacrificed to Khorne would like to try the British arties) some info to decide, what’s what.

Author (tester): Madspider

British arty review

As everyone knows by know, patch 8.7 will bring the British artillery. It’s a whole new branch, that looks basically like this:

Tier 2 – Loyd GC (150XP and 3900 creds)
Tier 3 – Sexton II (1350XP and 49000 creds)
Tier 4 – Birch Gun (5250XP and 152000 creds)
Tier 5 – Bishop (14750XP and 405000 creds, 19600XP when researched from Valentine)
Tier 6 – FV304 (31000XP and 930000 creds)
Tier 7 – Crusader SP (64750XP and 1440000 creds)
Tier 8 – FV207 (118200XP and 2730000 creds)
Tier 9 – FV3805 (202000XP and 3560000 creds)
Tier 10 – Conqueror GC (267000XP and 6100000 creds)

Loyd GC

A proposal to mount a 76.2-mm gun on the chassis of the Loyd Carrier artillery truck. Developed from 1940 through 1941. No prototypes were manufactured.

This vehicle is characterized by very thin armor, good speed (which it can however reach only when going downhill) and good traverse angles. The rest of the properties however are pretty sad and the gun is mediocre at best, not being really good in any respect.

Hull armor: 7/7/7
Hitpoints: 80
Hull turnrate: 22-24 deg/sec
Traverse: +30, -15 degrees
Viewrange: 320m
Radiorange: 250-375m
Maximum speed: 48 km/h
Gun: QF 13Pr Mk.III (42 pen, 165 dam, 6,67 ROF, 0,8ACC, 5s aimtime)
Shell range: 508m
Crew: 3

Armor model:

Sexton II

Modification of the Grizzly tank, mounting the British 25-pounder field howitzer. Mass production was launched at the Montreal Locomotive Works in Canada, with 2150 vehicles manufactured from 1943 through 1945.

A decent, but unremarkable arty piece. Her “brother”, Sexton I, is going to be a premium vehicle and is very similiar to this arty (the only difference is the engine, Sexton II has a 460hp one, while the premium Sexton I only has a 390hp one). This vehicle kinda resembles the US M7 and M37. It has a good gun and relatively good mobility, plus a really good armor as a bonus (during its testing, one player was able to acquire steel wall with it, when facing the Panzer IC)

Hull armor: 50/38/38
Hitpoints: 140
Hull turnrate: 18-20 deg/sec
Traverse: +25, -15 degrees
Viewrange: 330m
Radiorange: 400-550m
Maximum speed: 40,2 km/h
Gun:
QF 18pdr (42/65 pen, 260/170 dam, 5,45 ROF, 0,78ACC, 5,5s aimtime)
QF 25pdr (44/92/71 pen, 280/180/180 dam, 5 ROF, 0,76ACC, 5,5s aimtime)
Shell range: 1051m
Crew: 6

Armor model:

Birch Gun

The first SPG originally designed in Great Britain. Development started in 1923. The prototype was built on the basis of the Vickers Medium Mark II in 1925. A few prototypes were manufactured, and underwent trials starting in 1925. The project was canceled in 1928 due to lack of interest by the British government.

First and only British SPG with a turret – if that thing can be called a turret at all. It’s basically a cool cabriolet, that made its way to tier 4 od the British SPG branch. It uses the same guns as the previous Sexton, they just fire a bit faster and are a bit more accurate. The HE shells of the top gun are a problem however – while they are sufficient to destroy enemies of tier 2 to 4, they lack penetration to destroy tier 5-6 enemies (the tester fired 6 premium shells at KV-2 and has done 0 damage). The only way to play it is with the AP rounds, with all their joys, such as “that one bounced”, detracks and 0 damage crits. Even that is however better than constant useless dings of the HE shells.

Hull armor: 6/6/6 (yes, practically no armor, how terrible…)
Hitpoints: 190
Hull turnrate: 16-18 deg/sec
Traverse: 360 degrees
Viewrange: 340m
Radiorange: 400-550m
Maximum speed: 45 km/h
Gun:
QF 18pdr (42/65 pen, 260/170 dam, 6,82 ROF, 0,74ACC, 5s aimtime)
QF 25pdr (44/92/71 pen, 280/180/180 dam, 6,25 ROF, 0,72ACC, 5s aimtime)
Shell range: 1051m
Crew: 6

Armor model:

Bishop

Developed by Birmigham Carriage and Wagon in June 1941 on the basis of the Valentine II infantry support vehicle. From 1942 through 1943, a total of 149 SPGs were produced. In general the vehicle was unsuccessful. The vehicle was used for training purposes since 1943.

This arty is based on Valentine. It looks like a KV-2 and Valentine crossbreed in fact. The chassis belongs obviously to the Valentine tank – with a boxy construction on top of it. If you expect a turret however, you will be disappointed – the casemate construction is rigid and the gun itself has a horrible, horrible traverse arc, only 4 degrees! Furthermore, this vehicle has a horrible range of only 499m, which is worse than the tier 2 arty has. When you fight on this vehicle for the first time, you are in for a shock: it’s somewhat slow and huge (this arty sticks out, literally) and with no traverse, it an simply fire only forward. Frontal armor is not bad for a tier 5 arty (60mm), but it doesn’t save this vehicle. The top gun has only one type of ammunition (which kinda sucks in both penetration and damage). Really, not a good vehicle overall.

Hull armor: 60/50/60
Hitpoints: 350
Hull turnrate: 20-22 deg/sec
Traverse: +4/-4 degrees (!)
Viewrange: 300m
Radiorange: 400-550m
Maximum speed: 24 km/h
Gun:
QF 25pdr (44/92/71 pen, 280/180/180 dam, 6,82 ROF, 0,68ACC, 4,5s aimtime)
QF 4.5in How (57 pen, 450 dam, 4,65 ROF, 0,72ACC, 4,5s aimtime)
Shell range: 499m
Crew: 4

Armor model:

FV304

Prototype light SPG developed by Vickers. Development started in 1947. However, the prototype was not manufactured until 1953. The design of the SPG was already obsolete by this time, and the project was canceled.

This is basically not even an arty vehicle, it’s a scout in disguise, equipped with a howitzer and the guy who tested this vehicle had the feeling that it will get a lot of XP for scouting, instead of dealing damage. The vehicle indeed is “original”, but it’s practically impossible to play it as classic arty. It’s possible that the developers ran out of ideas and basically inserted a TD and a LT on tiers 5 and 6 and did set them up as arties, because neither of these vehicles plays as a regular arty.

Hull armor: 25/25/25
Hitpoints: 280 (! that’s less than the tier below)
Hull turnrate: 22-24 deg/sec
Traverse: +14/-17 degrees
Viewrange: 310m
Radiorange: 450-700m
Maximum speed: 72,4 km/h (!!!)
Gun:
QF 25pdr (44/92/71 pen, 280/180/180 dam, 6,98 ROF, 0,66ACC, 4,5s aimtime)
QF 4.5in How (57 pen, 450 dam, 5 ROF, 0,70ACC, 4,5s aimtime)
Shell range: 499m (!)
Crew: 5 (notice the annoying crewmember changes)

Armor model:

Crusader SP

A modification of the Crusader featuring a 140-mm howitzer. Soon after WWII a prototype was completed. However, the vehicle never entered mass production, nor saw service.

An interesting vehicle, based on the famous Crusader British tank. The real question is, how come it’s so slow? Only 14 km/h? Well, if you look at some of the screenshots, you will understand:

See that seat? That’s drivers seat and it’s facing backwards. The whole hull is backwards in fact, so this arty can go as fast as 45km/h when driving backwards! Therefore, it can (and has to) run away from scouts backwards, while shooting at them from the move (yes, that works, if you manage to hit and drive at the same time). But that’s where its advantages end. The top gun of this arty has one of the lowest damage and penetration characteristics on its tier, while rest of the vehicle’s stats remain mediocre. Interestingly enough, the golden HE shells have a huge splash (4,5m, compared to the 3,15m of the regular HE), but there is not much sense in buying it. Well, basically it’s a fast tank (when going backwards), with a huge gun.

Hull armor: 28/28/20
Hitpoints: 350
Hull turnrate: 30-32 deg/sec
Traverse: +19/-20 degrees
Viewrange: 370m
Radiorange: 275-550m
Maximum speed: 14 km/h (45 when going backwards)
Gun:
QF 4.5in How (57 pen, 450 dam, 5 ROF, 0,72ACC, 4,5s aimtime)
BL 5.5in How (70/75 pen, 900/900 dam, 2,14 ROF, 0,72ACC, 6,5s aimtime)
Shell range: 1326
Crew: 5

Armor model:

FV207

An SPG variant on the basis of the А45 Conqueror. It was planned to mount either a 105-mm, 140-mm, or 152-mm howitzer in a closed armored cabin. The vehicle existed only in blueprints.

Tier 8,9,10 vehicles are kinda similiar in their layout. First of them is the FV207 – it is also the slowest one. Just like on the previous case, the gun has quite a low penetration and when it comes to other parameters, it kinda resembles to top gun of Lorraine 155 51. The vehicle’s biggest advantage lies in great gun traverse (44 degrees altogether!). In general, this vehicle is pretty good and the tester had no specific complaints about it.

Hull armor: 50/50/50
Hitpoints: 430
Hull turnrate: 18-20 deg/sec
Traverse: +22/-22 degrees
Viewrange: 330m
Radiorange: 550-750m
Maximum speed: 29 km/h
Gun:
BL 5.5in How (70/75 pen, 900/900 dam, 2,4 ROF, 0,72ACC, 6,5s aimtime)
BL 6in How (90/258/90 pen, 1250/750/1250 dam, 1,82 ROF, 0,72ACC, 6,5s aimtime)
Shell range: 1405
Crew: 6

Armor model:

FV3805

A modification of the Centurion featuring a 140-mm howitzer. A total of 2 prototypes were built in 1956. The development of the FV3805 was discontinued in 1960. The vehicle never saw service.

This tier 9 arty is very, very well balanced. It is reasonably mobile, reasonably accurate and has good gun traverse angles. It’s a very good vehicle, that allows you to be on top of the battle damage in almost every battle. The tester’s impression was that it’s the best British arty, even better than the tier 10 one.

Hull armor: 50/50/50
Hitpoints: 450
Hull turnrate: 20-22 deg/sec
Traverse: +25/-25 degrees
Viewrange: 340m
Radiorange: 550-750m
Maximum speed: 40 km/h
Gun:
BL 5.5in How (70/75 pen, 900/900 dam, 2,5 ROF, 0,7ACC, 6s aimtime)
BL 6in How (90/258/90 pen, 1250/750/1250 dam, 1,94 ROF, 0,7ACC, 6s aimtime)
BL 7,2in How (92/97 pen, 1750/1750 dam, 1,46 ROF, 0,82ACC, 7s aimtime)
Shell range: 1354
Crew: 5

Armor model:

Conqueror GC

A proposal to mount a 234-mm howitzer on the chassis of the Conqueror. Existed only in blue prints.

Conqueror GC is not a very well profiled and ambiguous vehicle. On one hand it is quite inaccurate (when tested, the tester couldn’t hit a standing WZ-111 at 500m with fully aimed circle, all 3 shots missed), the gun is also the slowest reloading in the game. On the other hand, this vehicle has awesome armor (even better than the one of some tier 10 meds!), which makes it really problematic to deal with for light tanks, it’s also quite mobile and with such a long reload time, it allows you to drive around half of the game map before you reload. As a bonus, it’s probably the only top arty, which can install Improved ventilation equipment.
All in all, it’s not a bad vehicle. The shells have huge splash (11,1m), allowing you to “carpetbomb” more enemies at once and installing rammer and ventilation somewhat compensates the long reload time and horrible gun inaccuracy.

Hull armor: 152/50/76
Hitpoints: 530
Hull turnrate: 24 deg/sec
Traverse: +30/-30 degrees (!)
Viewrange: 350m
Radiorange: 750m
Maximum speed: 34,4 km/h
Gun:
BL 9,2in How (117/117 pen, 2200/2200 dam, 1,04 ROF, 1,1ACC, 8,5s aimtime)
Shell range: 1007
Crew: 6

Armor model:

Conclusion

British arty is not for everyone and only the most hardcore arty players will be able to survive the horrible tier 5 and 6 vehicles (or pass them entirely with free XP) to reach the trio of good hightier arties. Another annoying thing in this branch are the changes in crew numbers, forcing you to shuffle your crews around, not allowing them to train consistently and properly.

I am sure many people noticed the trend with new Wargaming branches that the lowtiers tend to be bearable, mid-high tiers tend to be pretty horrible with only hightiers catching up the pace. I guess this is an arguable matter, but to me, it seems intentional (you know, to not make, but at least push a bit the players to skip some vehicles with free XP). Still, if you survive this, you might get to a decent set of arties, but somehow… I don’t think many will.