The Lansen C is a powerhouse of a Tier 8 medium that doesn't get the same kind of recognition as some of the other top dogs of Tier 8 do, and is often underappreciated for what it is. In this guide, we'll go beyond just a basic review of the tank, but instead take things a step further and analyze the gameplay of the tank to figure out exactly what makes it tick. This Swedish beauty is no meatball, but the enemy team sure will look like a tasty snack to you.

Contents:

• Overview (Pros & Cons)
• Loadout & Equipment
• Open Maps
• City maps
• Good matchmaking
• Bottom Tier
• Arty
• Opportunities to look for
• Situations to avoid
• Is the tank worth it?
• Final rating

General Overview:

Pros:

★ Very high DPM for Tier 8 (2,176 base)

★ High alpha damage (320)

★ Crazy good acceleration (28.39 hp/ton)

★ Solid gun depression (10 degrees)

★ Small size of the tank not only makes it hard to hit, but also gives it some of the best camo values for Tier 8 mediums

★ Tiny forehead makes using ridgelines an absolute dream (forehead is the area above the gun that the enemy can shoot at if you're peeking a ridge)

Cons:

Θ Gun can be somewhat unreliable, especially without a good crew / equipment (.36 accuracy, .17/.17/.13 gun handling values)

Θ No armor beyond some funky angles on the turret

Θ Traverse speeds are low, so circle-strafing tanks may be more difficult than you'd expect

Θ Low pen on both AP and APCR shells means you have to carefully aim your shots (208mm AP, 242mm APCR)

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Overview:

Gun reliability: 3/5 The Lansen's gun isn't terrible, but definitely can miss some weird shots at times too. You definitely want a good crew and equipment to get the most out of the tank.

Frontal armor: 2/5 The frontal armor has a few angles that can occasionally bounce, and most HE shells won't penetrate you frontally… But otherwise you're still swiss cheese.

Overall armor: 1/5 While the front is somewhat HE resistant, the rest of the tank will be overmatched by standard shells and will easily get penned by HE.

Survivability: 3/5 Despite the poor armor, the excellent mobility of the Lansen and small size of the tank allows you to stay alive reasonably well throughout the battle.

Flexibility: 5/5 The Lansen is extremely flexible, with great mobility, camo, decent view range, great gun depression and a punchy gun. It can go anywhere it wants to in the battle.

Mobility: 4/5 The top speed is only an average 50 km/h, but the mobility is still really solid and will get you around the maps quickly.

Agility: 4/5 Despite the poor traverse speeds, the raw acceleration you have allows you to quickly maneuver around, especially if you learn how to use the handbrake maneuvers.

Fear factor: 3/5 The Lansen's 320 alpha and 2,200 DPM aren't so scary that people won't mess with you, but don't expect people to mindlessly rush you either.

Short-term impact: 3/5 The Lansen won't make or break a flank by just showing up. It can definitely contribute to a fight, but short engagements are not where it shines.

Long-term influence: 5/5 Long-term gameplay is where the Lansen comes to a life of its own. You can be extremely influential on the outcome of a flank, whether you push or hold.

Carry potential: 5/5 The Lansen is by far one of the best Tier 8 tanks for winning battles through your sheer performance + teamwork. It's the perfect combo to fight to the very end.

Profitability: 3/5 Unfortunately, the Lansen will need quite a bit of APCR to really make the gun work. It's still a Tier 8 Premium, so you'll still make some credits though.

Loadout & Equipment:

Consumables: Large Med Kit, Large Repairs, Food. There is no real alternative loadout for the Lansen, and it will need the large kits due to the small size of the tank resulting in multiple modules or crew getting knocked out in one hit.

Equipment: Gun Rammer and VStabs are an absolute must-have. The third slot however, gives you a metric crap-ton of options. Vents can help improve multiple areas that the Lansen needs help in. Improved Rotation Mechanism will significantly improve the agility of the tank, and allow you to circle-strafe tanks so much more effectively. The Improved Aiming Unit will significantly improve the gun's reliability and will truly make it a beautiful gun to play with. Turbocharger will help bump up both the agility, as well as the mediocre top speed, allowing you to play the light tank role moreso. And lastly, Coated Optics will allow you to spot for yourself.

Personally, I 100% marked the Lansen C using Gun Rammer, VStabs and Improved Rotation Mechanism. After trying all the other different options, I would say the Improved Rotation Mechanism and the Improved Aiming Unit are your best 2 options. Which one you choose comes down to whether you want to play super aggressively (IRM) or a bit more passively (IAU). 3rd place would be Vents which consistently gave "okay" results, and Turbo / Optics don't do enough to address the tank's drawbacks.

Crew Skills: The Lansen C should be setup in the same way that you would a Bourrasque, Progetto 46, or any proper light tank at Tier 8. While you do want to train Repairs and Firefighting at some point, they are not priorities. Camo first, then BIA, then gun handling + view range skills. Repairs should be 4th set, and Firefighting 5th set.

Playstyle & Gameplay Guide:

General Gameplay: 

Your default style of gameplay should be aggressive early positioning, followed by more passive support waiting for a good opportunity. Use your mobility to get into key positions early on, and both spot and shoot enemy tanks trundling into position. Once the enemy begins to approach, fall back closer to your allies and just support them as you can. This can be done on both the medium flanks, as well as heavy flanks. Continue to support your allies until you find an opportunity to push aggressively against someone. Use your DPM to perma-track an opponent and devour them alive. Then use your mobility to escape before their allies can shift flanks to react to it. Continue to pick off tanks opportunistically as the battle progresses, and make sure to use your camo & mobility to continue spotting for yourself and your team. Just remember, your priority should be dealing damage, your spotting should present you with opportunities to do more damage, but shouldn't replace your damage entirely.

Open Maps: On open maps, the Lansen's mobility & camo will allow you to run around and adapt beautifully to how the battle develops. Find whichever ridgelines you can, and poke for shots & spots using them. If your team is losing, fall back to a decent bush where you can spot for yourself while also taking shots from those bushes. If your team is winning, use your mobility and DPM to push with your team and pick apart the tanks that they're pushing into.

City Maps: Despite not having armor, the Lansen's phenomenal acceleration will allow you to poke for shots against tanks when they're distracted with another ally, and quickly pull back into cover. Stay behind your heavies, and as soon as the enemy shoots or turns their turrets, quickly snap a shell against them and pull back. If you think there's an opportunity to isolate a target, ask your team to cover you and push against the isolated opponent. Carefully aim your shots to make sure you're tracking them while also doing damage. Once someone is perma-tracked by you, they have no way of escaping so long as they don't have support from their team. Your tank will be too quick for their turret to catch up to, and your DPM will take them out of the battle quickly enough where their allies won't be able to save them in time. It is not worth trying to snipe from the back, since you'd put your mobility to waste.

Good matchups:​ Don't be fooled by a good matchup and think you can go ham. You don't have any armor, and you still have vulnerable modules. Tier 6 tanks can have wild levels of DPM, and if you're not careful, even a Tier 6 tank can mess you up. However, if you pace yourself well, and treat every tank as a potential opportunity that you can carefully take advantage of, then you can absolutely demolish entire enemy teams by yourself. Conserve your hitpoints, and avoid taking unnecessary damage. If somebody is going bananas against you, pull back towards cover. Your hitpoints can keep you going through an entire top tier matchup, but you need to have those hitpoints available for when you're actually going to make a push.

Bottom Tier: When you're bottom Tier, follow the city map playstyle even if you're on an open map. Support your allies, and poke for shots only when the enemy is distracted. Use your mobility to be an annoying pest, constantly snapping shells in and pulling back into cover before an enemy tank can react. Let your top Tier tanks spot for your team whenever possible, but that doesn't mean you should be sitting back and sniping. You still want to be somewhat aggressive, just providing second-line support off of your ally's plays.

Arty: The Lansen doesn't take arty shells well, and while your acceleration is great, your traverse speeds are more questionable. Use handbrake maneuvers to evade arty whenever possible, and use the acceleration to your advantage. You can slow down during a turn and then quickly take off using that acceleration. With frequently changing speeds, arty will find it to be a struggle to actually hit you. Just be aware that if they do manage to get a shot into you, your tank won't be having such a good time all of a sudden.

Opportunities to look for:

• Get early spots with aggressive positioning, and catch shots into unsuspecting opponents
• Whenever you can use a ridgeline to poke from to get shots, do so! Your small forehead and small overall tank size will allow you to beautifully use ridgelines.
• If you can find a tank isolated, especially in a city environment, look for a chance to push against it and perma-track it. Make sure you make your shots count, but if you can manage to keep them locked down, you will shred them apart before your allies can help them

Situations to avoid:

• Avoid making any kind of pushes through an open field unless you have healthy allied support. The Lansen doesn't have the top speed, nor agility, to evade enemy fire. While in many ways the tank will play like a light tank or even Bourrasque, you simply don't have the agility to actually make those kinds of scouting runs.
• Do your best to avoid making yourself an arty snack. While you'll be a hard target to hit, a successful arty hit can be absolutely devastating with your paper thin armor.
• Don't spend too long waiting for shots. Use your mobility to relocate whenever the battle has slowed down, and react to the battle accordingly!

Is the Tank Worth It?

The Lansen isn't super expensive, and will only cost you around $30 USD. What you are getting is a tank with extremely good carry potential, and a very unique & fun playstyle. It truly is one of the top dogs at Tier 8, at least as far as winning battles goes…

However, you have to remember that to make the Lansen as competitive as possible, you will want healthy amounts of APCR and Premium consumables. This will significantly eat into your profits, and the Lansen is absolutely not the tank designed for grinding credits.

If your sole objective is profitability, then get a Progetto or Bourrasque and you'll have a somewhat similar playstyle while making so many more credits. But, if you want a unique gameplay experience, with competitiveness that is on the same level as the Progetto or Bourrasque, then the Lansen is a must-have.

Final Rating:

9/10 [Amazing]

While for me personally the Lansen would be a 10/10, there are two key issues with the tank that prevent me from actually giving it a perfect score. The most obvious is the profitability, which has to be a contributing factor to any Premium tank purchase. The Lansen simply doesn't make the kinds of credits that other top Tier 8 premiums can. The second factor is the gun reliability. Don't get me wrong, the Lansen's gun can be great… If you use food, BIA and an Improved Aiming Unit. However, if your crew isn't super skilled, you're not willing to use food, or you don't have any Bounty equipment to use, then the gun definitely will have its derpy moments. Sometimes those derpy moments can happen during key parts of the battle. As a whole however, the Lansen has so much impact on the battle, that even if the gun misses some key shots, you'll have already done so much to contribute to the battle that you have to remember you wouldn't have even gotten into that carry situation to begin with if you were playing another tank.

The Lansen's raw carry potential, especially in the hands of a good player, will allow you to feel like you truly have a significant impact on your battles, and the number of close games you'll experience with the Lansen will be far greater than with a lot of other tanks. The Lansen has that perfect pacing of gameplay, where it won't destroy a flank in an instant, but it will consistently contribute to the battle throughout the entire experience. If your team is losing a flank, the Lansen can fight to hold it. If your team is winning, it can push effectively but it has to pace its push well.

Overall, it's a truly amazing tank, one that great players will love for its carry potential, and that average players will enjoy for its unique gameplay style and great flexibility. It is not a tank for below average players however, as it does require a decent amount of game knowledge to really make work.

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