SnapShot: The ASTRON Rex

There's an event going on right now in World of Tanks which is the "Return of the Waffentrager". It's one of these special game modes; 1 v 7. Bunch of "Harriers" (regularish tanks) against a super-boss tank with an elaborate backstory, of course.

Among the rewards you can get for playing is a new premium American MT called the ASTRON Rex.

The ASTRON Rex in World of Tanks

The ASTRON is fairly mobile, has a 5-shot autoloader, typically good US gun depression and decent frontal turret armor.

It also has the characteristic massive commander's cupola, and meh camo rating.

A Loot Box by any other name...

In the event you can earn these "Starters" which are "Special Keys". The starters unlock stuff, I guess, but they also serve effectively as loot boxes and they can contain all sorts of stuff from gold and credits, to premium tanks such as the ASTRON Rex.

One thing they did in this event, which is unusual, is that they've guaranteed the ASTRON. If you have 60 Engineers Starters the "vehicle gate" opens and you get the ASTRON. However...you CAN get the ASTRON at any time, just thru luck. And that's how I got mine...

I had 10 or 11 Engineers Starters and the 4th one I opened...produced an ASTRON. I was pretty jazzed, as you might expect, since it was sort of the only reward from the event I really wanted.

Oh, and also...

List of possible reward tanks in the Waffentrager event

You can also get one or more of these premium tanks from the starters. The only one I didn't already have was the Emil 1951...and guess what showed up in the 7th starter for me? Yep.

So, how is it?

Skill4LTU likes it. Orzanel does not. Dez thinks it's decent, but not amazing.


It's got a 5-shot autoloader that does 320 alpha, but the standard pen is only 190 which is pretty poor. It's got a 4 second intraclip reload, so not a tremendous burst and 190 pen means you might struggle to pen all 5 of the shots in the clip.

10 degrees of gun depression is excellent, especially with the smallish, well-armored, turret. (if you can avoid getting the cupola penetrated)

The stated accuracy is an awful .43, but like many American tanks it seems to have a soft stat that makes it a bit better than that. In my limited battles in it so far, the accuracy doesn't seem very good - even with my 4-skill M48 crew in it. I miss a lot more shots in it than I hit, so far, which is not good in a tank that really needs to hit weak spots to pen things.

The giant "tumor" on top of the turret is a huge weak spot. If you can cover that then you can make the armor work a bit. If enemies can hit that big cupola then you have no armor.

Is it a good crew trainer?

Nope. The ASTRON only has a 3-man crew, which makes it a poor crew trainer for your U.S. MTs. You have a Commander, Gunner, Driver, and your skills won't line up with your tech tree tanks.

Is it a tier 8 Char Futur?

Mmm...sort of? The mobility is better than average, especially the tank traverse. You can turn left/right almost like a light tank. With a turbo mounted it's perky, top speed in the high 50s, if not fast.

Camo rating will get into the high 20%, and if you have optics mounted you can get a bit more than 445 view range. But keep in mind with the crew layout you probably don't have Situational Awareness on your Commander if you're running a tech tree crew in this.

If you can pen your entire clip you've got 1600 clip potential so you MIGHT clip out most tier 8 tanks nicely...assuming you can pen the whole clip. You may end up shooting a lot of premium ammo though, if you want reliable pen.

Learn more about the ASTRON Rex

Have you gotten an ASTRON yet? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.

GLHF


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