A Review of the British Wheeled Mediums

The release of update 1.22 saw the addition of British wheeled vehicles as a new Medium line in the tech tree. Undoubtedly you've seen these vehicles and thought "These are neat, I wonder if they're worth grinding?" They're not worth grinding at all. Let's talk about it.

Let's go over the good parts first, then the bad.

These vehicles do have a few positives, like mobility and gun handling. They go 60 forwards and 30 backwards, starting from tier 5 and ending at tier 8. From 9-10 their speed is increased to 65/32. The backwards mobility affords them the ability to take shots and quickly retreat into safety.

Edit: I'd forgotten about this, but a commenter reminded me. Because these vehicles have wheels, they can't be immobilized when their wheel is destroyed. Instead, their mobility is greatly reduced to about 10 km/h

On paper the gun handling doesn't seem like much, but in reality, these vehicles have the best on-the-move gun handling, tier-for-tier, in the game. With skills like Snap Shot, Smooth Ride, and equipment like Vents, stabilizers, and improved rotation mechanism (though i'd recommend rammer over IRM) coupled with their high forwards and backwards mobility, these vehicles are king at peek-a-boom auto-aim snap shots. Your reticle will barely move, especially at higher tiers.

Unfortunately, that's all of the "good".

Now onto the bad.

While all of these vehicles have respectable forwards and backwards mobility, they are absolutely kneecapped into being almost unable to turn. For these vehicles, their traverse speed stat is irrelevant. They have a stat called "Maximum Wheel Turning Angle" Which locks them into turning at 4 degrees per second, only increasing to 5 at tier 9, and 6 at tier 10. Tier 5-8 turns about as well as a Maus does. This makes them extremely frustrating to use because you simply can't turn. Tier 9 is a noticable (but small) improvement, while the tier 10 is noticably better and has entered the realm of usability. Unfortunately, this stat cannot be increased by any means.

Next to the abysmal turn radius, the guns are pretty frustrating themselves. Tier 5-7 are simply light tank guns on a platform that can basically only go forwards and back. You have little mobility to work with. Not only that, these guns have terrible (Read: average British) shell velocity so fighting at range feels like you're using a potato launcher until you're tier 9. The low velocity coupled with the pitifully low alpha makes these vehicles feel terrible to play especially in today's matchmaking unless you're bullying lower tiers.

Lastly, I'll review each tank in the line. Keep in mind the mobility doesn't change much for each tank.

Tier 5 AEC: Very unassuming tank. In my opinion it was not good or interesting enough to keep, however you'll find that when fighting similar / lower tiers, the 90 alpha 2.8 sec reload 6-pdr gun will tear enemies apart. With brothers in arms and even stock gun rammer and vents, it's down to 2.36 sec reload. 2.27 with food. Nasty stuff. It's a low-key seal clubber in my opinion.

Tier 6 Staghound: I hated this vehicle. Huge, bulky, and has a potato launcher with 815 m/s shell velocity. You may say "Well, just get closer, duh!" Remember these vehicles can't turn. You can't maneuver.

Tier 7 FSV: I didn't hate this vehicle as much, but it was still frustrating. It's small, has -5 gun depression and has static / stiff suspension, which means that any tiny little thing can throw off your aim. It has a decent pen pop gun like all the others, and 930 shell velocity so definitely not as much of a potato gun. On paper the pop guns are fine, but when you're constantly facing power creep premium tanks that you have no hope of penning, and when you do, it's 150 out of their 1500+ health pool… Yeah not so much fun. Again, remember, you're paper with terrible mobility.

Tier 8 Saladin: This one wasn't terrible. You finally get away from the anemic pop guns and start getting a normal, appropriate medium tank gun. The 90mm on the Saladin is most closely comparable to the 9cm on the Indien-Panzer. Second most comparable would be the Pershing. I didn't mind this tank so much, but the entire time I was wishing I was playing an actual medium tank.

Tier 8 Premium GSOR 1010: This one is actually enjoyable. It has angled armor, so it can bounce the occasional troll shot. Still has poor turning at 4 deg/s, but it has 11.94 sec reload, 360 alpha, 218 pen, 1.92 aim time and .32 dispersion. Effectively, this medium has a heavy tank gun with laser accuracy compared to tanks that have a gun like this. (Heavies, and tier 8 swedish medium, udes 14 5.) If you can deal with the poor turning radius, this one is a fun peek-a-boom vehicle. 360 alpha on a tier 8 medium is nothing to sneeze at and definitely gives enemies a shock.

Tier 9 GSOR 1006/7: This one is a natural continuation of the GSOR 1010. 1080 shell velocity, Higher top forward / reverse speed, and higher turn radius of 5 makes this tank more comfortable to play. However, the issue is there's no reason to suffer this tank's drawbacks when the Leopard PTA exists. The only thing this tank has over the leopard is on-the-move gun handling.

Tier 10 Concept 5: The best out of the line. It can turn (comparatively) decently, and has the best overall gun handling in the game. Good accuracy, decent pen, 1230 velocity, good alpha, fast turret rotation, it's a veritable moving laser. This tank excels at mobile auto-aim snap shots. Unfortunately, aside from that one gimmick, there's simply no reason to play this tank when the Leopard 1 is in the game. Aside from moving gun handling, the Leopard 1 does everything the Concept does but better.

In conclusion: Avoid this line. Tier 10 is the best in the line, but only because it feels like it is what the entire line should've been to begin with. Peek-a-boom snap-shotters with good alpha with the ability to get in and out of a situation quickly. Instead, half the line consists of crippled paper-thin tanks with decent penetration and anemic alpha. There's simply no reason to play these tanks. Not at low tiers, not at high tiers. Maybe tier 5 if you want to seal club with your DPM.

This line doesn't need to exist in it's current form. I like the tier 8 premium and the tier 10 well enough, but that's about it. I would recommend staying away from this line. Don't waste your time, xp, or money. You will be sorely disappointed.