WZ-111 vs 112 – is it worth it?

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Hello everyone,

as you already probably know by now, the reward for the new year marathon (and let me tell you, it IS a marathon) is the WZ-111 Chinese heavy tank. It’s a very, very old vehicle (it was introduced as the first Chinese vehicle, actually it pre-dates FTR I think) and was Chinese server exclusive until know. And we all know what that means – Chinese are REALLY into pay to win.

So, let’s compare this tank to the “regular” tier 8 Chinese heavy and see what we get.

wz111

The first thing you need to know about this tank – it has limited matchmaking. So does the 112 so in this, they are on par. Let’s compare them a bit further then. Both are Chinese heavy tanks, both are armed with a 122mm gun. Both have the same viewrange and radiorange. WZ-111 has 1550 hitpoints (112 has only 1500).

Mobility

WZ-111 weighs 44,225 tons and is powered by a 520 hp engine (11,758 hp/t). 112 weighs 45,725 tons and is powered by a 580hp engine (12,684 hp/t). Both vehicles have the same hull traverse (26 deg/s), but WZ-111 has a bit better terrain resistance. I guess that in effect, the mobility of the vehicles is probably the same. The turret traverse is the same for both (26 deg/s). 112 is a bit slower (45 km/h versus 50 km/h of the WZ-111).

Armor

The armor of the WZ-111 is solid.

wz1112

The upper frontal plate is 120mm thick at 60 degress (248mm effective). The lower plate is however only 80mm thick at 44 degrees (113mm effective), so that’s a weakspot definitely. The tank however is quite low, so the LFP is not THAT exposed. The turret front (entire front) is 230mm thick with a 250mm mantlet. The sides are troll-ish with spaced armor. Cupolas are however only 150mm thick, also a weakspot, but then, it’s limited MM.

The 112 armor is roughly the same – also solid.

wz1113

The UFP here is also 120mm thick (70 degrees), LFP is 80mm thick at 45 degees (again, weakspot). Frontal turret and mantlet both are 240mm thick. And cupolas are 150mm. WZ-111 has a bit more spaced armor on the sides, but overall, both tanks are pretty comparable. In other words, if you want to know how WZ-111 will play, go to test server and try out the 112.

Firepower

Both vehicles are equipped with the same gun – D-25TA. WZ-111 has worse depression (-5 instead of -6), but better elevation (+23 instead of +17). Other parameters are identical, but WZ-111 fires a bit faster (4,8 RPM compared to 4,55 RPM of the 112).

WZ-111 statistics (brackets – 112 for comparison):

Tier 8 limited MM heavy tank, both
Price: 12250 gold nominal, both
Crew: 4 both (radioman is the commander)
Hitpoints: 1550 (1500)
Weight: 44,225 (45,725) tons

Maximum speed: 50/15 (45/15)
Engine horsepower: 520 (580)
Power-to-weight: 11,758 (12,684) hp/t
Traverse: 26 (26)
Turret traverse: 26 (26)
Terrain resistance: 1/1,1/2,2 (1,1/1,2/2,3)

Hull armor: 120/80/60 (120/80/60)
Turret armor: 230/120/60 (240/130/60)

Gun: 122mm D-25TA (same)
Penetration: 175/250/61 (same)
Damage: 390/390/530 (same)
ROF: 4,8 (4,55)
DPM: 1872 (1774,5)
Aimtime: 3,4 (same)
Accuracy: 0,46 (same)
Depression: -5/+23 (-6/+17)
Ammo carried: 45 (same)

View range: 380 (same)
Radio range: 600 (same)

Conclusion

Is it worth it? Well, that’s up to you – go to the test server and try the 112 out there, it won’t be much different. My own impression is (I actually had a look at it last year using a tester account) that the vehicle is sluggish (like the 112) and the armor doesn’t save really that much. The 250mm penetration shells can be nasty with limited MM, but they seem to be “eaten” a lot by pretty much everything. Additionally, limited depression is quite a problem, when going over hills, you will not only be exposing your LFP, but will also be unable to return fire and this is something I really dislike in tanks, no matter how good their armor is otherwise. Overall, I don’t like really slow tanks that much, so I will be definitely skipping this “marathon”. Regarding the Russian “skipping missions” – is it worth 70 bucks? No. 40? Maybe. One thing is for sure – it is going to be very exclusive, because I can’t see that many people grinding it.

56 thoughts on “WZ-111 vs 112 – is it worth it?”

    • Maybe easier to get Ace tanker on it but i dont think lt makes more money, prolly about the same amount like 112

    • Correct. This is the second time I’ve seen SS mention the 111 as the first Chinese tank. I got the Type 59 when it first came out. There was no Chinese line yet, and no WZ-111.

  6. Fair enough – giving players who don’t spend much on the game a chance to get something pretty damn equal to the 112 for free (ignore the cost of time) is not a bad thing.

    For the majority of us though its pretty much a question of “is the exclusivity worth the grind?”. I don’t like tanks with bad gun depression (T-34-3 being the one exception) and would never buy the 112 for this reason so won’t bother with this either.

  7. I beg to differ as far as armor goes. 112 is much better armored due to having simple plate, WZ-111 pseudo-pikenose is less effective due to its shape. On the other hand, inverted angles on side armor is more effective than on 112 which only has vetical plates behind spaced armor.

    TL;DR

    112 slightly better front armor
    111 slightly better side armor

    • The 111 has vastly superior side armour. It has IS3-style spaced armour over angled sides, except it’s better than the IS3 because the slopes under the spaced are a much steeper angle.

      I’ve been wanting this tank for a long while and had given up hope it’d be released as, in my eyes, it’s very much a superior tank over the 112. Not so much now, given the HEAT pen nerf for China.

      Still, because it’s a grind mission I probably won’t get it. Don’t have the time in the day to do them.

  8. Thanks WG for this. You just saved me 70 EUR and lots of spare time – not going to bother with this outrageous grindfest or wallet drain <3

    Still , I wish all the hardcores who want to take this "challenge" best of luck ;)

    PS
    I think you guys vastly overestimated, hom much players are willing to pay (money or time) for “exclusivity”.

  9. It’s a bit interesting that here at Chinese server, WZ-111 have much better reputation than 112.
    That spaced armor on the sides work slightly better (WZ-111′s exterior and interior plate of armor is angled alike “<\"shape; 112's alike "/|"shape) that makes acknowledged player rather not shoot at the sides, and WZ-111 doesn't have the bloody crap bottom fuel tank, which means you've got a rather high possibility of fire when getting shot in the LFP or the sides.

    • Oh, and the HEAT shell (Po-471) is 300mm pen here@Chinese server.That means — you only need to move the reticle onto the UFP of pretty much thing it meets, then POM and -390. That costs only 3600 credits (9 gold ).

  10. Pike nose.
    That make difference when you corner out with angling.
    Sort of like a conqueror or M103 with the 122.
    Yea they do have better frontal armour than the 122 but insufficient
    Beat the normalisation angle with an extreme angle can ask for some shots. As long as the track side not exposed

  11. WZ-111 can’t sidescrape and its pike nose isn’t stellar either – regular WZ-111 at tier 9 is identical armor wise and I can’t call its upper plate “tough” – tier 8 heavy tanks punch through reasonably easy. So its basically bit worse armored, sidescrape-unable, worse gun depression but with tad better RoF than 112.

    So it boils down to owning unique tank outside Chinese server.

    • I have no idea how weak the ammo rack on the 112 is, but on the WZ-111 chassis…
      Jesus it’s awful.

      Ammo rack detonations aren’t uncommon, even with wet ammo rack and safe stowage perk. Ammo rack damage is almost every battle in which you get shot more than twice.

      Honestly, it’s workable and excusable on the tier9, because the huge gun and 600bhp engine that turns it into a heavy medium make the tank superbly fun and powerful in the right hands.
      I just can’t see it happening on a tank with average mobility and a subpar gun.

      • Actually, during my time with WZ-111 ammorack was rarely a problem, fires were unheard of. 112/113 are much more flammable with fuel tanks on the front, but ammo damage was rather rare, or at least it wasn’t “significantly noticeable”

  12. Is it known whether it gets extra credits or not ? Considering it will be a new tank in EU etc I can see them removing the extra credits part, which would make imo the difference between worth playing or not ( who needs a chinese heavy crew trainer ..? )

  13. “The first thing you need to know about this tank – it has limited matchmaking.”

    No, WZ111 has normal tier 8 matchmaking, so tier 9 in 2 out of 3 battles and tier 10 in every third battle… If you get lucky.

        • Tank Inspector says it has limited MM, and it draws it’s info directly from the tank files.

        • Also if you would read above article you would acknowledge that it is basically same as 112 which in fact HAS limited mm.

          • but you alway says you have it on Asia server while here it says everywhere that it has normal…… why would they change it silently

            • “but you alway says you have it on Asia server”
              Chinese server operated by Kongzhong ≠ SEA(Asia) server operated by WG. SEA server never saw WZ-111 as I know.

              “while here it says everywhere that it has normal” ?

              Can you tell me in which server WZ-111 was released and running without limited matchmaking except supertest? If nowhere has, then why would they rather change it to meet tier 10 than following the example of Chinese server?

            • Anyway, I just couldn’t understand why is that everyone whins about a “Chinese server exclusive” vehicle (although about to be released to other servers) without listening to a Chinese player that had hundreds of games in it.

  14. Omg for some reason I love my Chinese tanks so they got me hooked on this one, I love that we can skip some nations (*looking at you French turds*), so this is actually very awesome for me. I NEED THAT TANK xD

  15. Hey SS, you might want to look over the Mobility section. I doubt these vehicles weigh 44,000 TONS and have 12,000 hp/t.

    • Or I’m being an idiot and forgot about the European usage of the comma as a decimal. Ooopsie.

  16. it’s 248mm effective if you look at the UFP from ground level.

    From brawling levels (using the height of a common T8 HT) the UFP is between 200 and 210mm effective.

    It cannot angle, at all (a 20degree angle drops the UFP to 190mm effective).

    It’s a worse 112.

    • 200-210 combined with a proper turret is not that bad for T8 pref MM. Judging from my SPershing experience you meet significant numbers of others T8 pref MM in these games which all have crap pens (until they start to shoot gold but its the same issue for all tanks) it’s also more or less T6-T7 proof. Only problem remaining is E75s IS3s and T8-9 TDs.
      Can’t talk about 112 because I never see any but by comparison SPershing armor doesn’t work because the whole top is garbage as well as the giant sides and even the central UFP is 160-170 eff.

      • It’s not bad, but 112′s UFP is actually impervious to tier 8 AP, plus it can angle. And if you “can angle”, it doesn’t mean “you have to angle”. It means that you don’t lose effectiveness when fighting multiple targets.

    • It’s much more effective than u guys thought.
      At least I never saw anyone shooting WZ’s UFP with those 225mm pen AP rounds (from BL-9, 10.5 L/68, 20-Pounder, etc ) except deep red rookies that don’t know tanks are NOT made of paper.

  17. How is the case with module HP on this tank? I have 112 and I love it but it suffers a lot having driver dead and fuel tanks burning from lower glacis, also yellow ammo rack from frontal side and red engine from rear side. This limits using HP to tank my enemies because even low alpha guns can cripple the 112.

  18. SS, you’re going at it the wrong way. Instead of comparing a premium vs standard, you should be comparing 111 to IS-6.

    About that, IS-6 is clearly superior, these two tanks aren’t balanced among themselves at all. Do I need to explain why I believe IS-6 is better, or you’re good enough to figure it out on your own ?

          • *Here HK player doing at the best in SEA

            Yet I don’t think IS-6 is superior to anyone who check tank inspector ;)
            Shhhh, that’s butthurting

        • Yeah I just noticed, for some reason I though he was comparing 112 to 110 since they’re both T8. Oh excuse me for mistaking 111 to 110. Such a huge difference.

          And I can piss on both of you in WoT so whatever.

  20. I’ll go for it, just because I like a challenge and I love Chinese tanks. If they have the $10 tokens on the NA server (assuming we get the mission at all), I might buy one or two if things get close to the wire, but I have tanks from every nation already, so we will see.

  21. Oh by the way
    The WZ-111 has a very nice Hard and Medium terrain resistance.
    Hard is on par with IS-3
    Medium is better than the IS-3

    &

    Both hard and medium terrain resistance is same as the Mark 7 Centurion
    Soft is worse than

    Check even deeper.
    It actually has the terrain resistance of a T-54
    Just the specific power a bit hurt.

    ?Does it run cheaper than a 112?

    *Tank Inspector* *Elite Stats*
    Well there we go.
    If this comes to the asian server, I will go for it.
    Look at that troll-ish angled spaced armour :D
    If we have to hit the actual side armour without passing the spaced armour
    we have to aim the upper tracks or the gap between the wheels and the tracks.
    Yeah… Tracks are spaced armour.

  22. - SS say ‘WZ-111 Chinese heavy tank. It’s a very, very old vehicle (it was introduced as the first Chinese vehicle’ – NO its NOT, Type59 was first
    -SS say ‘So, let’s compare this tank to the “regular” tier 8 Chinese heavy and see what we get. WZ-111 vs 112′ 112 is NOT regular.
    After that I stop reeding further that crappy post SS make, like tottaly amateur post this shit!

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