Armored Cars and Halftracks in WoT – Part 1: Appearance

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Hello everyone,

recently, Storm admitted that Wargaming is considering wheeled vehicles and halftracks  for World of Tanks. He however did mention that a significant obstacle in their implementation is the fear that these vehicles would not be very popular. Let’s have a look at what the popularity of this type of vehicles might be influenced by.

There are two large influences on the popularity of the vehicle: looks and gameplay. This part will focus on the looks, to, you know, lure you towards the idea, because I genuinely think that some of the armored cars and halftracks are really, really good looking.

Appearance sells.

That is not to be contested, it is logical enough. You wouldn’t eat food that looks like shit no matter how good it tastes (well, at least most people wouldn’t) for example. World of Tanks vehicles are actually no different. Some tanks look so ugly/ridiculous they are almost “cult” vehicles (AMX40), others are just really, really bland. What I am trying to say, in order to lure people to play the entirely new class of vehicles, they have to be at least attractive.

Most people imagine armored cars like this:

Ba-20_armored_car

And you would be right. This is the Soviet BA-20 armored car and we’ll get to that one later. But that’s of course not all there is. Armored cars and halftracks can be sexy! Check this bad boy right here:

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This is the T-13 Hornet B proposal, fitted with a 75mm gun. An American 8-wheel armored car, powered by a 265hp engine (for 7,5 tons, not bad). I don’t know about you, but I think this looks sexy as hell. A prototype was actually made (without the 75mm gun) and it could go as fast as 90 km/h.

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Terrain passability? No problem! You can read about the Hornet here, if you are interested.

I personally am partial towards 8-wheeler armored cars and gun trucks. But six-wheelers can be very interesting as well. This is the T17 Deerhound, another American armored car, a 6-wheel version of the original T17. Equipped with a 37mm gun, this is easily a tier 3-4 vehicle.

T17-Deerhound-armored-car-2

And the eight-wheeled Boardhound monster of course, this time with a 57mm gun, that could go as fast as 80 km/h.

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There are actually many really good looking armored cars and halftracks from various nations. Thanks to Listy, Madestcat, CaptianNemo, Vollketten and Karika for helping me out with some of the nice designs. The Germans, Americans and the British used the armored cars and halftracks extensively in the war (we’ll talk about that a bit later), mostly for recon and to support infantry. The Germans of course had their Sdkfz 234 series of armored cars with various armament versions, including the 75mm PaK 40.

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This family of vehicles includes also the famous “Puma” armored car. The American armored cars were mostly 4- or 6-wheelers and I showed some of them above. One thing worth noting is the T55E1 Gun Motor Carriage, an attempt to mate a 3inch (76mm) gun (the same thing that the Wolverine uses) with an 8-wheel suspension. 76mm gun going 80 km/h? Yes, please.

The British of course cannot stay far behind. One of the most famous and best looking British armored cars was the Alvis Saladin. With up to 32mm of armor, maximum speed of 76 km/h and a 76mm gun capable of firing HESH ammunition, it would make a very nasty and mean scout.

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Here, a British AEC Mk.III with a 6pdr

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Or perhaps something Hungarian? Csaba armored car is well-known and relatively boring. But – this is a proposed Hunor armored car from 1940.

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I think it looks kinda cool. The Italians used the armored cars extensively as well. There were multiple versions of various guntrucks with guns up to 90mm for example.

And of course, then there are the halftrack vehicles. The biggest users of those were the Germans and Americans (with Russians recieving halftracks as lend-lease). There are some pretty interesting versions as well, for example the German Sdkfz 251 with a 75mm PaK 40:

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Another halftrack (7,5 cm PaK 44 auf 3t Zgkw) was for example equipped with the 75mm L/70 AT gun.

7_5cm_PaK44_L70_auf_Sd_Kfz

There were halftracks equipped with 88mm guns as well, up to the 88mm L/71. This is the 8,8 cm FlaK 37 (Sf) auf Fgst. s.Zugkraftwagen 18t (Sd.Kfz. 9):

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And here’s a drawing of the Italian 90mm halftrack project:

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Generally speaking, while the later armored cars could serve as scouts, while halftracks would likely end up as tank destroyers (or, alternatively, SPG’s). Regarding halftracks specifically, we’ve put together a table of available models we could come up with. It’s not sorted out, it’s just halftracks armed with various stuff (disregard the recoilless guns in the tree).

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So, what do you think? Sounds interesting? I hope it does. In the next part, I’ll talk about game mechanics and how these vehicles could be implemented in the game.

87 thoughts on “Armored Cars and Halftracks in WoT – Part 1: Appearance”

  2. Don’t forget the Panhards!
    EBR 10/ 11
    AMX 10C?
    The french could make an entire branch out of these :P.
    A tier 10 wheeled would be awesome

  3. Funny this occurs, it was only recently I began to start indexing British Armoured Cars in the thread where we collate every find we make of Blighty’s developments. In the armoured car department there is absolutely loads of choice for the UK at least.

    http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/244926-british-tank-index-of-potential-vehicles/

    Scroll down till you find them. There’s all sorts of 2-pdrs, Boys AT Rifles, 6-pdrs, 75mm QFs and even 75mm and 30mm RARDENs in there too. This was only the commonly known ones too. With Listy’s aid pointing out a website to me I’m about to start delving into the lesser knowns too for updating this.

    • So do I. If they will be ridiculously fast I’m in… I don’t think I’m the only one out there who drives scout tanks solely for the fun of driving them at high speeds.

  6. Could be some interesting vehicles. Big change from their “no wheels” policy. Still a lot of fully tracked vehicles to be added so I imagine it will be a while before we see any.

    • Vote 2, those would be awesome in game. Somewhere around teir 6-7. Like an halftrack fv304 fireing rockets, damn i want that.

  9. I used to run the SdKfz 232 Rad 8 in WWIIOnline, excellent for attacking the Antwerp Airfield and spawn camping the allied aircraft.

  10. Why did WG assume that there would be little interest in halftracks and wheeled vehicules? That is one of the things that where missing in the game for me from the very beginning. I would certainly be interested if they where viable game vise. I assume they would have more speed then the tracked vehicules which i always like.

    Silentstalker, did not Chechoalovakia specialize in wheeled military vehicules? Any viable for WoT?

  11. Scooting around in wheeled scouts would be great. Alot of them look quite awesome.

  14. Wouldn’t all these things basically be a 1 shot on almost every tier?

    I am no expert whatsoever, but I think that there are shells in this game which weigh enough to make some of these things roll on the roof by kinetic force alone…

    • Historically most small tanks would be a one shot anyway. The ELC AMX would certainly not stand up to a shot from the 105mm gun on the T29. But in game it can take a hit from such a weapon.

  16. I imagine these wouldn’t be very maneuverable at high speeds, can they turn around in place?

  17. It would be an awesome addition.
    As many people already said before,WT can only bring good things to us,the players,even if you don’t play it.Since it’s release it looks like WG is taking serious steps in keeping up with the “competition”.
    Sadly it looks like Russia doesn’t have that many designs,or am I wrong? (hopefully I am)

    • Goof point.Light tanks might become normal tanks with normal MM (as they are becoming right now) and Armored cars could become the new high MM scouts.

      Or they could improve the FirePower of the lights to differentiate them more from the Armored Cars.

    • How about armored cars only play a role in specific battle modes? Like in those where a light is a burden (assault, i’m looking at you). Or create a mode just for them.

      • They would not be better than light tanks because of soft stats guns would be like on light tanks at least for french but armored cars would have less hit points they would be like njnjas of WoT fast deadly but fragile I think that everyone who loved his T-50-2 will give armored cars a chance (would be fun chasing bat chat that is reloading) If they add them into the game I am sure light tanks would get some kind of buff (firepower or camo or soft stats or HP etc)

  19. Awww… no love for the American M3 GMC halftrack with 75mm main gun, America’s first “tank destroyer”?

  21. Sounds very silly to me, and I fail to see what these things would bring to the game. Or even how they could blend into it. For instance, tell me what happens when I de-track — i.e., blow a wheel off these things? Magic autoglue back on? Puhleeze.

    • Because a magic rubberband…sorry, track fixing itself after being broken is so much more realistic?

      Besides, the in-game detrack is a stand-in for a wide variety of suspension-related problems, including a damaged wheel, damaged elastic elements, thrown tracks, damaged tracks. Likewise, with a wheel it could just be represented by a punctured tyre, or damaged springs instead of, you know, the whole wheel missing…

      • I didn’t mean to imply that the existing de-tracking and track-repairing mechanism in WoT was in any way realistic — it most certainly isn’t. The point, instead, is that there *is* such a mechanism in WoT, that it is (more or less) accepted and that it works out somehow, and that it is not extensible to these different kind of vehicles without adaptation/expansion of the concept; which is to say that these vehicles come with an additional conceptual and practical overhead and hence costs, and that I struggle to see what would justify these costs.

  22. They could remove the “light tank” class and replace it with “light vehicles”, where light tanks would be the heaviest/slowest in the lot.

  23. Yep those fast amored cars would be really nice scouts with such speed (and sometimes even with nice guns) but they would make current light tanks/scouts total useless… :/ Even the heavier ones would go faster (or similarly fast) than many scouts. So what could be their drawbacks? (for balance reasons)

    • Very thin armor. Terrain passability (they are wheeled of course and those tend to get stuck more often than tracked vehicles), ammo load, etc,

  24. The German Halftrack almost have all tier (up to tier 8). I think the remaining 2 tier will be a bit modern (1960s/Proposal).

    • WG hates adding in French vehicles so we’ll probably never get it. One can dream though.

      • They don’t hate adding french vehicles. The french just aren’t the most demanded tree is all.

        • not sure you are using saarcasm or not but
          second line of french heavys is being demanded for ages :P

        • But other nations that haven’t been played as much have still continually gotten upgrades to content, such as the Chinese, or British. The French are currently the fourth most popular tech tree despite having inferior numbers of tanks to nations like the British, and by the number of tanks they have the player level is near competitive with other nations. Its hard to build a super vigorous player base when all you have is a vehicle level in the 30 missing even famous historical vehicles like the S35.

          • I’ve been waiting for the second heavy line for ages, so much potential I can see.

  26. looks awesome indeed. definitely would play it if there werent complete garbage, that is.

  27. This all sounds good but do you remember they didn’t give the hellcat it’s original top speed because of FPS issues.
    So they might not give these their original top speed making them pointless.

    • nah, it was limited cuz when it was implemented, they were still using the first version of the physics, not the one we have today, and that version had limited top speed for tanks. If you want proof, look at some newer tanks that were implemented after the new physics were added, like the Pz 1C, they have a higher top speed than the Hellcat.

  28. I’d love armored cars and halftracks! As long as they aren’t treated like light tanks and overtiered, they’d be amazing fun! Great speed, decent guns, and admittedly no armour, but imagine the fun zipping around the battlefields in those things!

    • The French had some ~1940 proposals that were on the verge of going into production that had 60mm frontal armor, so not all of them have poor protection.

      WG can’t even add in the S35 or AMX-30 for the French though, so we’ll probably never see it.

      • T7 Combat Car forget about that one? we already have a half track already xD

      • T7 Combat Car forget about that one? we already have a half track already WG you so silly.

    • They all look pretty cool am interested in hearing more about the French wheel based vehicles.

    • The Wolfhound does indeed look kickass. Looks to have two gun options and a turret upgrade.

      But the armor is thin enough that a HMG can take it out.

  30. SS, you should make a poll about halftracks and wheeled vehicles (if players would like to see them in WOT or not)

    BTW, halftracks has the same controls as regular trucks? (so, no turning in place)

  31. “recently, Storm admitted that Wargaming is considering wheeled vehicles and halftracks for World of Tanks. ”

    haha, more proof that everything they ever say is worthless.

  33. Wow nice article ss but what do you think personaly about the implementation of armored cars and halftracks will it be good for the gameplay en speculations about eta?

  35. I don’t see why WG would think these aren’t interesting. They sure as hell seem more interesting then Historical Battles (in there current state). How about Tier “A” battles with all armored vehicles? Or 20v20 battles with 5 armored vehicles each team.

    Armored vehicles aren’t aloud to cap, they can’t spot, but they can snipe at medium range and do smaller amounts of damage. (Lets say they shoot HE instead of AP or APCR). while getting extra creds. (basically premium tank credit earners)

    They would have a good camo rating and not much armor.

  36. i love the idea of armoured cars and would love to see them in game because so called strike and retreat tactics in armoured cars could be a lot of fun an could be very effective.

    strike and retreat as in rush in to an area carrying a lot of speed with decent firepower would mean that people could rush in to a cluster of enemy tanks such as big slow heavies put a few shots in to them and rush out again. then as the enemy tanks turn to try and deal with the armoured car your team mates could get shots on their sides and rears.

    i love using these tactics in light tanks for example because you get to deal damage and while your doing that you can also help your team if they take advantage of your distraction.

    there is one mechanic that im to sure about though how would tracking an armoured car work?

    other than that i see have no problem seeing armoured cars in game it would be great to see the french being strong in this area because form memory they had some epic armoured cars with huge gun for their time.

    when it comes to the icon of the armoured cars it could be a circle this symbolizes that they have wheels and then if half tracks were a seperate class they could a triangle with a vertical line down the middle to symbolize that they are like tank destroyers but they are half cars although that may not work in all cases and it may be better to have them both be the same symbol.

    although im not sure if this would work but they could change the meaning of the light tank diamond to mean scout and then include armoured cars in there but in this case im pretty certain that halftrcks would need to be a seperate class.

    i misread an article ages ago which i thought said armoured cars could become part of world of tanks soon so i brainstormed ideas when i heard that i then read it again and was disappointed that they werent coming soon so these ideas have been in my head for ages.

    • T7 Combat Car forget about that one? we already have a half track already xD

  38. I would TOTALLY play Armored Cars and Halftracks if they were in the game. Germany would finally have some awesome scouts, don’t get me wrong they have some decent scouts in the game right now but they usually used Armored Cars or Halftracks for scouting in WWII in reality more than light tanks.

  39. Just at a glance seems like many of the armored cars are lightly armored and rely on stealth and speed. IMHO makes light tank, especially fast ones, more important as Wheeled Scout interceptors a number of the light tanks have better armor (Yes it depends on vehicle and tier).

  40. well i prefer halftrack for scouting and stuff but hey,, tier 8 and we got that damn borsig hiding,, nowhere to be found,, and tier 7 we got sucker emil,, hull down and can’t be hit since it show nothing than it’s gun,, we still got SU-14-1,, the unicorn,, and any other SPG from tier 6,, it will be rough for halftrack user when he got spotted especially by a tank with atleast 130mm caliber gun