What is this delightful tank? (Projet Louis)

Holiday Ops is here again and that means large boxes with special tanks. One of them is the Projet Louis, a Tier IX premium French light tank...or is it?

When I first got the Louis I kitted it out like I do most of my LTs, Optics, Exhaust, and (since it's Tier 8+) Commander's Vision System. But even running food and my 13 75 crew the camo is...not special. The Louis is fairly large for a LT and the best I can manage is about 44% camo.

And the spotting is not special. That same build gets me about 482 view range. Still, I liked the 8 shot autoloader and the tank initially felt to me a little like a Tier IX AMX 1357, one of my favorites!

Then one day I was in a game, playing the M48 Patton, and saw a guy in a Projet Louis....and he was up in the thick of it! He wasn't spotting, he was...brawling?

My first impression was that he was an idiot, misplaying his tank. But he had a 5 kill carry game. After the battle I messaged him.

"You're either the worst Projet Louis player I've ever seen...or the best one. Either way, you saved us there, gg!"

He laughed and we chatted a bit. He insisited that the Louis should be played more like a medium, as a damage dealer. I scoffed for a moment, but then started to think about it. Hmmm...maybe he's right. With these spotting stats you're fairly average, it's going to struggle to outspot some of the better scout tanks in the game. But the 8-shell gun was kinda nice.

Maybe this thing is more of a Bourrasque than a 13 57. Well, I finally unlocked level 3 of the field mods and my second build is a pure damage build - Vents, Aiming, V-Stabs. Camo and view range suffered a lot, but...we'll see.

Four lessons about the Projet Louis

Now that I have about 50 games in the Louis here are a few things I've learned.

It's surprisingly fragile

Even for a light tank. You have to play it VERY carefully. The camo is ok, but not great and it's a little bigger than you expect. About half the time my battles go like this: 

I'm not lit.

I'm not lit.

I'm not lit.

I'm dead.

My 6th sense activates.

Surprisingly often I get lit and instantly shot by 3 or 4 enemies. Can't even count the number of times that my 6th sense has activated over the flames of my dead tank.

The lesson I'm taking away is that I have to be more mobile. I can't trust in soft cover and I have to be extra aware of my hard cover. Don't dig in. Always be moving and ready to run.

It's hard to win in

Not sure if it's just me - at some point I'll check the stats on the tank over all - but my win rate in it is barely 40%. A very common game for me is that I do about 3K combined (roughly evenly split between damage and spotting) and we lose 8-15.

It makes really good credits

Even when I press 2 I still seem to finish the game with 70K-100K profits. Of course this is during Holiday Ops so I do have the benefit of the 50% credit bonus, but still. I mind losing a little less when I pocket 100K credit profit.

Despite the challenges, it's fun to play 

The gun is naughty, the mobility is good (but not great), and despite not being elite the view range and camo are ok. No armor, of course, so try not to get shot.

Here's what Skill thinks of the Projet Louis

GLHF!