Tank Review: STRV S1

The STRV S1 is a tier 8, Swedish, premium TD in World of Tanks. It's great.

The end.

The STRV S1 in World of Tanks

Oh, o.k, I'll go deeper.

The S1 features the hydronumatic suspension "Siege Mode" that all the Swede TDs over Tier 8 do. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it's a great feature once you've figured it out. Since this is a premium there's no equipment to research. I use binocs, rammer, and vents on mine but you can get steathier if you run a camo net instead of either the rammer or binocs. Reload is reasonably fast anyhow, so you won't suffer too much if you drop the rammer.
Want to know more about the tech tree Swede TDs? Tech Tree Showcase: The STRV 103B grind (wotguy.blogspot.com)

Gun and turret

Let's deal with the turret first...it doesn't have one. This is a casement TD.

The gun is outstanding. When you're in siege mode it's one of the most accurate guns in the game - you can put laser beams through windows. And...you can hit weak spots at very long range. 

It's got a very good 390 alpha, 288 pen on the standard rounds. I don't even bother to carry gold in it.

With my 3rd Swedish TD crew in it I get almost 2500 DPM without food. My #1 Swede TD crew has BIA and that boosts the DPM nicely.

Mobility

The mobility on the STRV is very good. Acceleration is fine, if not startling. Top speed is a serviceable 50 going forwards and 45 in reverse. I see a lot of people drive the STRV (and it's tech tree sibling the UDES 03) backwards. The only time to do that, in my opinion, is if you're being pursued. It's still faster going forwards, but since you can't rotate the gun backwards is the only way to get your gun pointed towards the pursuers.

Now is probably a good time to talk about siege mode.

Siege mode

Siege mode is a mechanic whereby you tap the "X" key and the tank suspension goes into a mode where you get a LOT more gun depression - the entire tank sort of  "elevates". 

Aging Jedi explains it better than I do in this review video:


When you're in siege mode a few things happen.

  1. Your accuracy gets a LOT better. Perhaps because the platform is more stable.
  2. Your gun depression and elevation gets a lot better because the entire suspension kind of "flexes". In fact, when you're not in siege mode you have no gun depression or elevation. The gun is basically fixed. This means that it's extremely difficult to shoot things when you're NOT in siege mode, unless you can get right up close in point blank range.
  3. Your mobility nearly vanishes. In siege mode you can't really drive forward or backwards - you just crawl.
To get into siege mode you press the X and it takes a second or two for you to transition into, or out of, siege mode. That's a REALLY long second or two when you get spotted and have to run...

One of the nice features of siege mode though...rotating the hull does NOT count as movement in siege mode. Which means if you're running camo net and/or binocs, they DON'T drop just because you swivel around to face a different target.

Survivability

The armor on this thing doesn't seem like much, just 30mm all the way around. But it's EXTREMELY angled, which means you actually do get a fair number of bounces. Especially things with less than 90mm guns (like the Comet, or the T29 with the stock gun).

The thing that REALLY makes it survivable, though, is the camo. Even with a mediocre crew on it, running a camo net, you'll get more than 60% camo when stationary (and about 30% on the move). When you fire that drops dramatically - though not as bad as the SkorpG. But still...it's a VERY stealthy bush wanker.

Crew skills

I always run tech tree crews in my premium tanks for the crew training. The STRV S1 has a 3-person crew (Commander, Driver, Radio Operator). The Radio Operator is also the Loader. The Commander and the Driver are also Gunners.

On sniper TDs I prioritize camo, then vision. For the driver I like to get off-road driving to improve the mobility. And, of course, once the commander has sixth sense and a second skill trained to 100% I tend to reset that second skill (and 
everybody else's first skill) and replace it with BIA.

Equipment

I play around with my STRV equipment from time to time. At the moment I'm running Rammer, Vents, Binocs...but I've also played it with the Turbo (instead of Vents), which seems unnecessary but does add some nice perkiness to the mobility.

Camo net is another viable option, though even without the Camo Net I still get 51% camo when stationary.

Skill has some more info about it in his Skill4LTE Index.

Frequently asked questions about the STRV S1

Q: Is it a good credit-maker?
A: It's an exceptionally good credit maker. How good? I once got blind, 1 shot, 20 seconds into a battle that we lost...and I still made 15K credit profit.

Q: Is it good for missions?
A: It's pretty good for missions. It will see Tier X but you can handle most Tier Xs as long as you keep your distance and snipe. It's got good DPM and an extremely good gun, so you can deal damage pretty reliably if you're good with sniping TDs.

Q: Is it a good Swede TD crew trainer?
A: For the Tier 8+ Swede TDs it's perfect. Below Tier 8 not as good because the STRV S1 only has a 3-person crew.

More info

GLHF!

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