Badger > Tortoise

Tried to post earlier, but reloaded page without copying text 🙁

The Badger and Tortoise are both unturreted TDs and thus suffer from being particularly team sensitive and vulnerable to be flanked. This fact is not exclusive to one tank or another; it is equally true in my experience for both tanks. Push too far up, you get surrounded. Push up, your team melts before you get there, you get surrounded. Sit in the back to be defensive and your team steam rolls, you are too slow to catch up and you have a bad game. Sit in the back and your team melts, you are in the perfect scenario for these tanks.

Anyways, given the Tortoise and Badger have the same weaknesses that cannot be easily overcome due to the nature of the tanks, I like the Badger more than the Tortoise for the following reasons.

1) Armour profile is much more usable. Given modern map design is adding a lot of small lines of rubble that extend into alleys, it is much more easy to manage a lower plate weak spot now than a big cupola, lending the Badger to have more flexibility and stronger armour. I have been able to bounce a wider variety of shells in my Badger than my Tortoise, giving it better survivability in my experience.

2) Mobility is literally 50% better. Being so much faster enables the Badger, again, to be more flexible and consistent than the Tortoise and allows you to be a little more creative with your equipment loadout. Besides that, you can much more easily relocate and react to a changing battlefield.

3) Higher alpha. The higher alpha allows the Badger to straight up trade with opponents much more easily than the Tortoise. This is a relevant ability because, if you can't sit in the open to shoot enemies, being able to limit your exposure while maintaining the full potential of your vehicle's DPM is a very nice feature to have. If I get rushed by an M48 Patton and he wants to poke me, I can poke him back, out trade him, and effectively win that engagement based on the trading power alone. 480 alpha is, basically, just more usable in my experience.

In closing, if asked 'would I recommend this line to a new player?', I would have to say no. They are fun to play in experienced hands, but to a newer player, they inadvertently encourage camping and being more passive due to their odd nature. Furthermore, these tanks are hard to use and, in a surprising amount of games you will play, will be too easily surrounded and killed, leading to those same newer players to become frustrated with them fast. If you are an experienced player, though, and you want to play something that's a bit of a challenge and honestly kind of rewarding for getting it right, get these tanks and enjoy the memes my friends!

Anyways, I would love to have a nice weekend conversation with you guys in the comments. I don't often get to chat about one of my favourite games, so thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing your opinions!

TL;DR: Badger has better armour, mobility, and trading potential than Tortoise, leading me to love the Badger and feel kind of disappointed with the Tortoise.