Hello everyone,
in part 1, I wrote about the new Japanese medium tanks. Now I will write about the light tanks and the Soviet two medium tanks. Same rules apply as in part 1 – 100 percent crew, full equipment. As for my experience with light and medium tanks: I did play the Chaffee branch, worked okay for me – and currently I am running mostly the T-54 tank, which does not work too well, but not too bad either.
Tier 2 LT Type 95 Ha-Go
The first thing that comes to my mind when talking about this little tank is “compact” and solid. The tank itself is tiny (how the hell did three people fit in, I have no idea), but well armed. You basically have a choice of two guns: the 37mm (40 PEN, 45 DAM, 26,09 ROF, 0,44 ACC) or the 57mm (29 PEN, 75 DAM, 17,65 ROF and 0,5 ACC). I tried both and both require a different gamestyle. The 37mm is an all-rounder and I feel more comfortable with it. Its accuracy is poor, but it fires quickly and it shells fly reasonably fast too. It works, unless you are trying to shoot at 200m in full speed. The 57mm is basically a derpgun: it has an option to fire either 29 PEN and 75 DAM AP shots, or 28 PEN and 95 DAM HE. In my opinion the AP shells work better, because they are predictable. The very low penetration is of course a problem when encountering stuff above tier 2, but against tier 2 and 3 opponents, the 57mm shots can cause real devastation, IF they hit. The gun is extremely inaccurate, the shells fly via high arcs and they fly slow. Sniping is not an option (unless the target just stands there) and you won’t hit any moving targets at all, close combat works the best. The AP shells IMHO work better than the HE ones: HE ones get a LOT of “eaten” shells and shells that damage targets only partially because spaced armor/tracks get it etc.
But of course, in close combat you are very vulnerable. Ha-Go is slow – very slow. While its maximum speed is theoretically sufficient (40 km/h), weak engine (135hp) and probably poor terrain passability make it accelerate slowly and it’s not maneuverable either, BT-2 will run in circles around you. Ha-Go is definitely inferior to BT-2 overall, it is both outmaneuvered and outgunned. The armor is of course negligible (although the 35mm thick turret sometimes has some troll bounces), everything will cut through you like a butter, especially machineguns and low caliber autocannons are dangerous. My advice would be to stay in 2nd line and support your brawlers by precise 37mm fire, while advancing slowly.
SS Rating: 6/10
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