Grinding Chinese TDs: WZ-111G & WZ-111-1G

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In May of 2023 the Chinese TDs are Top of the Tree - that's the line that leads to the WZ-113G. Currently I'm grinding field mods on the Tier 8 and Tier 9s and have a few thoughts.


It's very unforgiving

I know that Skill has them rated as OK to good on beginner friendliness, but I don't think they really are. The guns hit very hard, when they hit. Like most Chinese guns in the game they're VERY derpy and a surprising number of fully aimed shots will dive into the dirt.

They also have slow shell velocity, especially on the Tier 9, and a limited gun traverse which makes it hard to hit moving targets at distance.

The armor is ok, but not reliable. The Tier 9 has 200mm on the front and it's relatively flat. You will get some bounces, but there are also a lot of tier 8 tanks in the game that can just shoot you in the face with AP and pen.

The gun depression is only 6 degrees, so it's not a hull down fighter.

The aforementioned gun traverse is only 12 degrees. Which means 2 things:

  1. It can be hard to angle AND keep your gun on target. You can do it a bit, but I found myself running up against that traverse limit a bunch. Then again, I guess it helps keep you from OVER angling too much.
  2. You have to traverse the hull a LOT when you're changing targets. That makes improved rotation mechanism almost a must - just to reduce the gun bloom when you're pivoting to change targets.
The mobility is bad. Power to weight is low, top speed is 35 (and you'll struggle to get to that), hull traverse is slow. This is a pretty big factor in how you play this tank because it means that:
  1. If you get in trouble, you almost certainly can't get out of trouble. And with a 13 second reload and meh armor, if you get caught out it's pretty much gg for you. You don't have the mobility to fall back, and with no turret turning to run just means giving the enemy free shots at your unarmored butt.
  2. You can't flex. When you pick a side of the map that's pretty much where you are. You don't have the mobility to relocate to other positions.
The camo is more like a heavy tank. Even if the gun were good for sniping, you can sort of forget hiding in the bush. This is no E 25. You'll struggle to get the camo to 25% and when you fire the huge gun the camo evaporates.

So what's good about them?

The alpha. When you hit and pen a shot you're going to take 560 (Tier 8) and 750 (Tier 9) off them. When you get into a good position and enemies are giving you those shots it's not hard to do 3-4K+ in damage.

The DPM on these is nice, when your team and platform let you get into position and RNG is cooperating.

How to play these tanks?

So...I'm still figuring out how to play these myself but here's what I've learned so far (and you can see why they're not beginner friendly).
  1. Don't go in front. You don't have the armor to brawl - especially against heavies or higher tiers. And if you overextend it just makes it easy for the enemies to get side shots on you. You also don't want to push forward to the point where the arc of enemies is too broad. You want to keep everything in front, ideally within your gun traverse arc. If you have to pivot the hull back and forth to deal with multiple enemies you're in trouble.
  2. Don't be in back. The gun is too derpy to be a sniper. So you don't want to plan to sit at 500m and try to snipe enemies - especially moving targets. It's safer to be in the back, but also frustrating because you won't be able to do a lot back there.
  3. Be in the 2nd row. You want to have a couple of good teammates in front of you and you want to play behind them, ideally somewhere that you have a bit of hard cover. If you can try and engage targets at 100-250m while your teammates do some work in front of you that's ideal.

    Of course, in pub matches getting a couple of good teammates in front of you can be problematic. 
  4. Check your 3 and 9. There's the old saying to "Check your 6" (Meaning: Look behind you) but in these Chinese TDs you want to make sure you're aware of if you're getting flanked or if you're in a position where people could get easy side shots on you.
  5. Anticipate. If your teammates in front start dying that might be your only chance to run. If you wait until they're all dead, you are too. And, realistically, running away rarely works in this tank. So you might just have to resign yourself to trying to get one more shot of damage before they kill you.

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GLHF!

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