Japan currently only has two tech trees on the PC version of World of Tanks – MT and HT lines, despite the fact that Japan has been in the game for almost a decade now. This would make one think that there’s simply no Japanese tanks to add, but you’d be completely wrong. Japanese tech tree has surprisingly huge potential to grow from its mere two lines it has now. All this makes the fact that WG has refused any Japanese tank since 2015 even more confusing.
I want to clarify that some information may not be completely accurate. A lot of information regarding Japanese tanks can differ a lot depending on a source, and some things might be based on outdated/wrong information. While historical accuracy is low-priority for WoT nowadays, I'll gladly correct things if I make mistakes.
Down is my personal Japanese tech tree, which shows how much the tech tree could grow:
7 lines as opposed to 2, and the amount of (released) premium tanks was increased from 4 to…16! As such, the Japanese tech tree here is multiple times bigger than the one we have on PC. I didn’t add every single possible Japanese tank here (you could add infinite amounts of various low tier tanks), but the tech tree above shows how much the nation could grow, which is a shame because Japan is still very barebones for a nation that has been in the game for 9 years now.
As for the historical accuracy of new tech trees (for those who even care nowadays), only one tech tree is (mostly) completely fictional, and two have certain made-up elements but are at least based on real stuff.
And before you ask, yes, an arty line IS very well possible, which would inflate the amount of tech trees from 7 to 8. I left the arty line out for obvious reasons, however – WG will never add new arty lines, and I personally don’t even want more of them (especially Japanese, as weird as it sounds – I don’t want to play arties ever again, and Japanese arty line would force me to). That being said, a Japanese derp TD line ending on a Chi-Ha-based SPG with fully rotating 20 cm howitzer (yes, such monstrosity was a thing), with the likes of Ho-Ro and Ho-Chi at mid tiers could be possible if the arty line is left out. However, that tech tree would have its own major issues. Besides, a 3rd TD line is insanely unlikely (no nation currently has 3 TD lines), especially on a nation that doesn’t even have its first TD line yet.
Obviously, my tech tree isn’t perfect and some may disagree with my picks, and that’s totally fair. It’s more to show how big the Japanese tech tree could actually grow.
Next up, I’ll do a rundown of each tech tree and premiums. I may do more detailed articles for specific tech trees in the future – WoT PC’s rendition of Type 71 tech tree as well as tier 8 premium candidates for the Japanese heavies are on the plans.
Not much changed here. I originally intended to downtier STA-1, Type 61 and STB-1 and then add the Type 74 as a new tier 10 (which would be more or less identical to the current STB-1), but downtiering an entire tech tree would cause some issues for fairly little, and the higher tiers are in an alright spot, so I decided to avoid it.
The only change is the Chi-Ri getting replaced with a new vehicle – production model of the Chi-Ri, Chi-Ri III:
Chi-Ri Production model. Note the similarities to the Chi-To.
It looks very much like the Chi-To, but it was in fact a heavily modified Chi-Ri that would share most of its components with the Chi-To. The differences are very subtle, but this model retains wider tracks of the Chi-Ri and some other minor differences I can’t remember. Despite its name, it would very much play like the Chi-To at tier 7 and would thus be a much better fit for the STB-1 line. While the Chi-To, an almost identical vehicle, is mediocre even at tier 6, giving the Chi-Ri III a sufficiently powerful engine and much improved gun (7.5 cm with alpha inflated to 170-180 and pen to around 180/220) could make it a respectable tier 7. Like the higher tiers of the branch, it would have an exceptional DPM.
For simplicity's sake, I refer to this tank as the “Chi-Ri III”. The name is made up and I don’t even like it by myself, but it’s far more player-friendly to remember than “Chi-Ri production”. The fact it's called “Chi-Ri” is also confusing, though, so if this tank was ever added, I wouldn’t be surprised if WG called it “Chi-To Kai” or something.
As for the original Chi-Ri, its not gone – it’s merely moved on a new tech tree where it’d be a much better fit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/vud0sr/japanese_heavy_tank_branch_rework_proposal_20/
Do I need to say anything else?
In short, the tanks of the Type 5 Heavy line would get significant changes on their armor and guns in order to make the tech tree more competitive and better balanced.
There’s one thing not included in the original proposal, however. The O-I would no longer be researched from the Chi-Nu, but it would now branch off the new tier 5 heavy, Mitsu 104.
There could also be a tier 8-9 super-heavy premium for the tech tree, but I’m planning to make a separate article about it, because it’s a pretty interesting topic. There’s no truly historical candidates, but there are actually surprisingly interesting ideas that could be used for a tier 8 super-heavy premium tank.
Now we’re getting into actual new stuff. Basically, this would be a more fleshed out version of the TD line on the Blitz. The tier 7-10 vehicles are the same and I even gave them the same (albeit somewhat non-sense and unhistorical) names. This would make the tanks less confusing across two communities (PC and Blitz) and would generally make it very easy for WG to implement the tech tree. The tier 4 and 5, on the other hand, would be reused vehicles from the original, scrapped Japanese TD line from 2016. So the only truly new tank that would have to be done from complete scratch is the tier 6.
The tier 4, Ho-Ni I, would branch of the Chi-Ha.
The tank would be nothing special – just a generic TD. I did a little “magic” trick here and combined two vehicles in one, though – with the 10.5 cm howitzer option, the Ho-Ni could become Ho-Ni II! The tier 5 is similarly a generic TD, the Ho-Ni III, which is basically a Ho-Ni I with a closed superstructure.
The Ho-Ni I and Ho-Ni III were the tier 3 and 4 of the original scrapped Japanese TD line, respectively, but given that TD lines now start from tier 4 and the Ho-Nis are possibly the most iconic Japanese TDs, I think that uptiering them is the best choice here.
While the tier 4-5 are fairly standard, “starter” TDs, the tier 6 would be more interesting. Enter the Ji-Ro:
Blueprint of the Ji-Ro. This one is armed with 10 cm Cannon Type 92.
This was based on the Type 95 Heavy chassis. The real vehicle would be pretty slow and unwieldy, with paper thin armor – for balancing reasons, it could have its armor improved and mobility improved, so that it could travel comfortably around 30 km/h instead of fairly pathetic 20-22 km/h. All the TDs on Blitz had their armor massively inflated from the real values, anyway, so WG could do it here no problem.
Either way, the guns are the interesting part – the vehicle was planned to mount both Type 92 10 cm cannon and Type 96 15 cm Howitzer. These both are the same guns found on the O-I, another tier 6 vehicle. Depending how the armor would be balanced, WG could also give the top 10 cm from the O-Ni as a top gun option, but I think the Type 92 would be sufficient. Either way, it would be first tier 6 TD armed with a 15 cm howitzer, which could make up for an interesting meme vehicle, especially if the concealment and gun parameters would be a good step up from the KV-2 and O-I.
The tier 7-10 would be the TD line from the Blitz. Basically, on Blitz, they’re somewhat standard casemate TDs with exceptionally good guns – the tier 10 has the best effective penetration in the game, with its 380 mm premium AP shells being able to penetrate even a Kranvagn through its turret. The tier 10 can be described as 114 SP that trades its turret to gain somewhat more trollish armor, more mobility, DPM and of course, that fabled penetration.
While I personally think the tier 7-10 could be more interesting that what people give credit for, I understand if they’d be a bit “generic” or “boring”. They could be given a very simple flavor to mix things up. For example, the tier 7-10 could be given HESH shells as their premium rounds to differentiate them from the other TDs. Tier 10 could have 680 alpha AP with amazing penetration (320-330 mm), but instead of even higher penetration on its premium rounds, it could have HESH with 900 alpha and around 230-240 mm penetration. I think the traits from Blitz and good HESH shells could make the tech tree unique enough, though maybe WG could come up with a completely new mechanic for them. Either way, this tech tree would be easy to introduce, be mostly historical, long-requested and still somewhat unique while being rather simple.
As for the tier 8 premium of this branch, it would likely be another Ho-Ri that would share a similar playstyle.
There’s another TD line that could be added. This one would branch off the Ho-Ni I, and consists of glass-cannon TDs with wide gun arcs and unique weapons at higher tiers.
Tier 5 and 6 are familiar faces – the Na-To and Ka-To.
Both of these vehicles already appeared on the original, scrapped Japanese tech tree, with the Na-To even being modeled.
Both of them would be large, completely unarmored TDs with wide gun arcs, decent mobility and effective guns. They can be summarized in a very simple way – they’re essentially tier 5-6 versions of the SU-130PM, and would play practically identically.
Tier 7 of this tech tree would be the Chi-Ha 12 cm SPG, also known as Chi-Ha LG (long gun):
Sole prototype of Chi-Ha 12 cm LG being inspected by Americans. Was presumably scrapped afterwards.
It’s literally a 12 cm naval gun mounted on the Chi-Ha chassis. What else can I say. This vehicle appears on War Thunder, and it’s just as hilarious as you’d expect.
While it looks like it could traverse its gun fully, for the sake of consistency of this tech tree, the gun arc would be limited, though it would be very wide regardless (40-45 degrees each side). It would also have great alpha and good camo, though the survivability would be non-existent.
The tier 8-10 would be quite different, but fit the theme of glass-cannon TDs. These tiers would consist of Type 60 SPRG and its variants.
Tier 8 is the Type 60 SPRG itself. Tier 10, on other hand, is one of the prototypes, Type 60 SS-1 4. This machine has FOUR guns.
Type 60 SS-1 4 prototype. Note the 4 guns.
Tier 9 would be a fictional 3-gun variant called “Type 60 SS-1 3”, to fit in the branch in the middle of two vehicles. And finally, the first prototype of the SS-1 series, with two guns, would be a great tier 8 premium.
These vehicles would be very small and as such have excellent concealment, and multiple 105 mm guns firing HEAT shells. They would come with multi-barrel mechanics, which alongside their compactness and non-existent armor, would make them truly unique vehicles. While both of the tier 8s would have mechanics identical to the Russian DBs, the tier 9-10 would spice it up by having three and four gun salvos, respectively. Basically, the tier 10 would function as a 4 round autoreloader, but it could also choose to fire all 4 guns at once. You could even go crazy and add a mechanic where you can “double shot” or “triple shot”, depending how many guns you have unloaded. To balance a 4 shot salvo out and very small size out, these tanks would likely have poor DPM, not that great gun handling and extremely low HP pools (tier 10 would probably go as low as 1600). In short, these tanks would kinda play like twisted, slower versions of old ELC AMX with tons of firepower.
These vehicles are recoilless rifles, however. Historically, WG has had issues with these vehicles and has avoided adding them. While these tanks technically should be perfectly fine for the game, this (possible) rule of WG might mean they won’t come to the game. In that case, an alternative for the 2nd TD line would be fictional, Chi-Ha 12 cm-esque TDs, that are basically various naval guns mounted on existing chassis. The tier 10 would likely be a some sort of 15 cm naval gun strapped on the Chi-Ri hull.
The tech tree would have the same tanks as on Blitz and would also play similarly. I do have plans to make a separate article on introducing the Type 71 branch for PC, so I won’t go on too deeply with it here. I’ll merely go through a quick rundown on what this line is all about and the basic ideas of how I’d change them to fit on PC.
Blitz did not receive the Type 5 Heavy branch due to balance concerns (different meta, mechanics, weaker gold ammo and smaller maps would make balancing the super-heavies tricky to balance), but they needed a Japanese HT line from somewhere. As such, their solution was to create a completely fictional, more conventional heavy tank line. In short, on Blitz, these are fairly standard heavies with good mobility, strong armor and rather weak guns. Lower to mid tiers are very comparable to German heavies of the same tiers, with the Japanese trading firepower for armor. The higher tiers in return are more or less US and Soviet heavies combined together. If you’re interested in more detail how the branch plays on Blitz, you can look it up.
The PC’s version of this tech tree would consist of the same vehicles as on Blitz. The clear difference is the tier 8. On Blitz, it's called “Chi-Se”. However, here, the tier 8 is called “Ju-Se” instead. This is the simply the same vehicle renamed into something else, so the name “Chi-Se” can be used on actual medium tanks instead.
Other than that, while the Type 71 branch would play similarly to Blitz, there would be some significant differences. Tier 9-10 would almost certainly get hydropneumatic suspension akin to the STB-1, which would make them stand out from other heavies. The tech tree would also come with a tier 8 premium with similar playstyle, Type 57. I have some interesting ideas for this tech tree, so I’ll save that for a future article whenever I feel like doing it.
The LT line is a bit tricky. I unfortunately haven’t gotten as many ideas for this branch, nor have researched the candidates quite as well as the other branches. In WG’s eyes, the line is likely low priority compared to already low priority 2nd HT line and TD lines. There’s a good amount of lacking candidates on various tiers and there’s problems with higher tiers as well. That being said, the LT line would have some unique designs.
The tier 4-5 are nothing special. Tier 4 is simply the unused Ke-Ni Otsu premium uptiered into tier 4 tech tree light tank. Tier 5 is simply a Ke-Ho at tier 5. Ke-Ho is actually a very strong vehicle at tier 4 (truly a hidden gem), so an uptiered version with slightly buffed pen and greatly increased acceleration could work very well as tier 5 LT.
Tier 6-8 are based on the early steps of the STA programme, prior to the first actual design, the STA-1. Not much is known, but at some point, there was a 20 ton design with a 76 mm gun and a 25 ton design with a 90 mm gun.
Due to the lack of candidates, this project would be the tier 6, 7 and 8 vehicles of the branch. Tier 6 would be the 20 ton class with a 76 mm gun. The tier 8 is the 25 ton class with a 90 mm gun. The tier 7 is a bit of a problem, but some kind of anomaly that’s in between these two could work… I guess? Something like a 20 ton class hull with 25 ton class turret and a nerfed 90 mm gun.
Tier 9 is also somewhat tricky, though there's a possible candidate:
Type 75 LT, as reconstructed by Japanese WoT community. Credit goes to whoever person made this!
This vehicle comes from the WoT community’s fan-made Japanese tech tree. Basically, the design above is reconstructed from plans of a supposed Japanese 25 ton recon tank from the 1970s. I haven’t seen any sort of mentions of this thing anywhere else, so if it’s based on a real project, it’s something very obscure and hasn’t gotten outside of Japan.
The description on the fan-made tech tree says following (translated):
In developing the Type 75 self-propelled 155mm howitzer, the concept of making a 25-ton class vehicle into a family was being considered in Gimoto and the Ground Self-Defense Force. One of its family vehicles was the 25-ton class light tank (reconnaissance tank).
As such, it seems like it was based on an idea of using components of the Type 75 SPG into a 25-ton recon tank. It would’ve been a Japanese analogue to the RU-251.
Either way, even if the vehicle isn’t real (bear in mind that the design is a reconstruction, so it’s at least partially fictional), it would be a good fit for the Japanese LT branch. Given its similarity to the STB-1, it likely would also have a hydropneumatic suspension. The armament is most likely a 90 mm gun.
And finally, the tier 10, GSR 105:
The prototype of the GSR 105. Note the hydropneumatic suspension.
This was classified as TD in real life and was meant to replace the Type 60 SPRG, but it was never produced. Due to its fully rotating turret and small profile and great mobility, however, it’d fit better in-game as a LT. The vehicle is also from late 70’s/early 80’s, which could raise a question whether it’s “too new”; however, given we already have several tanks from late 70’s and the GSR 105 does not have composite armor etc., it should fit in just fine.
As you can see from the picture, the GSR 105 also had hydropneumatic suspension. This would be the trait of the Japanese LT line, at least at tier 9-10, possibly as far down as tier 6. Other than that, the Japanese LTs would be directly comparable to German and US light tanks, neither which are…particularly good. Gun based LTs usually don’t do too well, because they sacrifice scouting capability for still relatively mediocre firepower, and generally end up being bad MTs that are worse scouts than true scouting LTs.
There likely would be a tier 8 premium specifically for the Japanese LT line, but I didn’t come up with really any ideas, so it would most likely be some kind of fictional hybrid of the Type 75 LT and STA LTs. There is a tier 8 premium Japanese LT…but it's quite a strange, crazy vehicle.
That being said, while the Japanese LTs certainly have several problems, if done right, they could be very interesting. Hydropneumatic suspension could already give them something over other LTs, but their suspension could be given some sort of unique mechanic to spice things up even more. Maybe it’d be a full tech tree of LT versions of Kunze Panzers, who knows.
Lastly, we have a 2nd MT line, which is possibly the least likely tech tree out of all tech trees here. It has a fair share of problems and a 2nd MT line of very large, boxy mediums on a rather niche nation is, uhm…not very likely. That being said, I think it’d still be interesting enough to include here, as you could do some really cool stuff with it. The 2nd MT line is exactly is why Blitz's rendition of the Chi-Se was renamed to Ju-Se. This is another tech tree that’d definitely warrant its own article, but I’ll go through it here.
Either way, this line would be quite different to the STB-1 line. In nutshell, it’d be a line of Japanese weirdo E 50s, and (at higher tiers) in many ways would be closer to heavies than mediums. Here, the Chi-Ri is the tier 7 of this new line, and it’d be researched from the Chi-To as usual. Chi-Ri would be given some good buffs and a single-shot gun option (maybe the commonly rumored but unhistorical 8.8 cm gun or even a 10 cm gun). It would set the theme for the branch – big, fat mediums with two weird gun choices – a super small caliber autoloader with very fast intra-clip reload, and large caliber cyclical guns.
The tier 8 would be some sort of fictional but theoretically possible “super Chi-Ri”. Chi-Ri was planned with various suspension types, so giving the Chi-Ri a different suspension, improved guns, stronger engine and maybe a sloped armor could make up for an interesting tier 8. It’d be a hybrid between the Chi-Ri and Chi-Se. The single-shot gun option would be the same 10 cm from the O-Ho, which in return was the gun intended for the Ho-Ri (which was apparently possible to fit on the Chi-Ri turret), whereas the autoloader could be an autoloading version of this 7.5 cm gun, 7.5 cm Type Ge:
7.5 cm Type Ge. It strongly resembles the German Pak 41 7.5 cm gun AT gun.
Tier 9 and 10 would be based on the Chi-Se project. Now, you may ask – what the heck is the Chi-Se?
Chi-Se is an obscure MT project from very late WW2. Very little is known about it, but it was meant to have a 10.5 cm gun on a fully rotating turret and a new type of suspension. Commonly, this vehicle is reconstructed as Ho-Ri/Chi-Ri hybrid (which isn’t likely what the tank was meant to look like but it looks cool):
The Chi-Se medium/heavy tank in its most iconic reconstruction – Ho-Ri / Chi-Ri hybrid.
This particular design has a larger turret, but the similarities to the Chi-Ri turret can still be seen.
Blitz’s Chi-Se is based on an unique design, which helps us treat it as a different tank. The Blitz Chi-Se can thus be renamed to "Ju-Se", and the traditional Ho-Ri/Chi-Ri hybrid can be used as a tier 9 medium tank called “Chi-Se”.
How about the guns? Obviously, Chi-Se carried a 10.5 cm gun, and more powerful versions of it could fit on a tier 9-10 MT. 10.5 cm would be its stock gun. However, to make the tier 9-10 more unique and keep the theme consistent with the tier 7 and 8, the top guns would be something goofier. While likely impossible IRL, in-game the huge turret could be made to fit a 12.7 cm naval gun, which would give this thing 450-490 alpha and thus make it the hardest hitting MT in the game. The autoloading gun, in return, could be a some sort of twisted, fictional long-barrel (like L/100 or so) version of the Type Ge gun, and then with 4 shot autoloader and SUPER fast intra-clip reload. The burst itself would still be small for an autoloader – 150 alpha would give this thing a “mere” 600 alpha burst, but it’d be very unique. In addition, these vehicles would pack some heavy armor for MTs (the upper plate is 120 mm thick at 70 degrees); however, as result, these vehicles would be massive in size (the tier 9 with that huge turret would be almost comparable to the AMX M4 51) and thus be very heavy (at least as heavy as the E 50s). Their mobility and concealment would be rather lacking for their class.
Tier 10 would be called “Chi-Se Kai” and it’d be an even more twisted version of tier 9. It’d retain a 7.5 cm autoloading gun, but with even faster reload and a 5th shell. The cyclic-big gun could also be a 12.7 cm gun, though if you want to go truly wild, you could also fit a shorter barrel 14 cm naval gun (remember, the O-Ho on my Japanese HT rework proposal also had this 14 cm gun, which should fit if the 12.7 cm fits). So we’d have a weird, bigger E 50M that either has a rapid firing “needle” autoloader, or a big 540-600 alpha boomstick, which would obviously have poor DPM and accuracy to compensate.
That being said, while this tech tree could be made into something very unique with really bizarre guns (without gimmicks, too!), it’s still very, very unlikely to the point I never wanted to propose it (these ideas originate from 2017-2018 when I made the original HT rework and TD proposals). But it does show that you could make a very unique MT line out of Chi-Ri/Chi-Se designs.
I already briefly discussed about tier 8 premiums for each tech tree (except for the Chi-Se line, but if it actually happened, it’d likely have a fitting tier 8 premium). I’ll do a very quick rundown of remaining premium and reward vehicles, that are more unique “one-off” premiums, not really meant to be based on specific tech trees.
There could be even more Japanese tanks as premiums, but instead of filling the tech tree with 50 trillion low tier vehicles, I picked mostly iconic and unique vehicles.
Experimental 1, which is sometimes erroneously known as “Chi-I” (though this would probably be a better name in-game for simplicity’s sake). One of very first Japanese designs, this would likely be a tier 2 gift tank.
Type 5 Ho-Ru. This was the tier 2 of the original Japanese TD line, and could be effortlessly re-used as a tier 2-3 gift tank. A small, Ha-Go based TD with the gun of the Chi-Ha Kai.
3D model of the Mitsu 104. Credit for this 3D render goes to Tanks Encyclopedia.
Mitsu 104, a tier 4 heavy tank. Nothing to write home about, but could be an interesting low-tier premium tank, likely as a filler for Christmas boxes.
Type 95 12 cm SPG, also sometimes known as “Hi-Ro” or “Hi-Ro Sha”. A 12 cm French gun mounted on Type 95 Heavy chassis, this TD would have paper armor and poor mobility, making it incredibly unwieldy, but it would make up for it by having stupidly hard hitting gun for its tier. Could be a fun low tier meme premium. The Ho-Ro and Ho-Chi, though better fit as arties, could also fulfill their jobs as tier 5-6 premium derp TDs, respectively.
The Japanese Panther. Note the suspension and the gun.
HT No. V, or the Japanese Panther. With somewhat different suspension, 7.5 cm Type Ge gun and heavy tank classification, this one would actually be quite unique compared to the other Panther clones. Given the Type Ge is on a tier 8 Chi-Ri (albeit with an autoloader), this one would have great pen, which would make up for its negative traits for becoming a HT (loss of camo, being matched with opposing HTs, and likely worse mobility).
M24 JGSDF and M41 JGSDF would simply be a Japanese Chaffee and Bulldog, respectively. I made the latter a tier 7, which would give it some unique flavor over the other Bulldog clones.
M4A3E8 with T53 helicopter engine. You crazy bastards.
This absolute monstrosity of a vehicle – M4A3E8 / T53. It’s just a M4A3E8, why do we need another one and as a TIER 8 LIGHT TANK? Well, it’s much more fucked up than just a regular M4A3E8. You see, this thing has a T53 helicopter engine, with around 1100-1400 horsepower (I can’t remember exactly). This was actually fitted on an E8 Sherman (as seen on the picture above), but what it was for is somewhat unclear. Supposedly, the tests were halted because one of the crew members died during testing, which honestly wouldn’t surprise me given the sheer absurdity of this tank. The raised engine deck also means that it would likely have a restricted gun arc.
This tank could probably be artificially upgunned with a Bulldog’s gun to fit tier 8. To compensate for the huge profile and limited gun arc, it would likely get among the best gun performance of all LTs at tier 8. The 1100-1400 hp engine could make this thing one of the fastest LTs in its tier despite its sheer size. Depending on how the engine would be balanced in-game, as well as the total weight of this monstrosity (likely around as much as 38-40 tons), the specific power could be anything between 30 to 40 hp/ton. You could even give it CS-63’s turbo mechanic if you want to go truly insane with this tank. This tank would have ridiculous ramming capabilities versus other LTs that even the Aufklärungspanzer Panther wouldn't be able to match.
Either way, this tank would probably be tricky to balance as a LT, but the sheer ridiculousness of it could easily make it a very iconic vehicle if it was ever added. A 38-40 ton going 70-80 km/h would be able to pull off some absolutely ridiculous ramming memes.
And the last vehicle is none other than the Type 74 itself.
Type 74. Next to it is Type 74 105 mm SPH, Japanese SPG from 1970s.
Visually, it's almost identical to the STB-1. After all, it was the mass produced version of it. That being said, I think the Type 74 would fit in as a reward vehicle, should Japan get one for tier 10. You could differentiate it from the STB-1 by giving it a harder hitting and much more accurate gun, but worse survivability and DPM as result. In other words, it’d be like a STB-1/Leopard 1 hybrid. A rather simple way to make a decently unique vehicle.
And before you mention it, no, the Type 74 wouldn't be too modern. While built in 1975, the design is fundamentally an evolved form of a tank designed in late 60s (STB-1), and the first variants especially wouldn't actually be any better from WoT's perspective than the STB-1. Besides, there's already a plenty of tanks that were designed in late 70's, so the Type 74 wouldn't even be the most modern tank in the game.
As we all know by now, WG hasn’t added a single new Japanese tank since 2015. One could easily think that it’s because that there’s no more Japanese tanks to add…but you’ll know by now that’s not the case. It’s really unfortunate, because not only it's sad to see a nation being neglected this hard, but there would be so many really strange, goofy and unique tanks that Japan could have. Sure, Japanese tanks are something that’s hard to research…but it really shouldn’t be a big roadblock anymore. WG has already added two Japanese tech trees on Blitz that are not on PC, and plenty of information is already available. And with most of recent tech trees having fictional stuff, anyway, why would lack of information available be even a problem?
I originally didn’t want to write and post this article (mostly because I always felt like it’d be a waste of time…and it probably was, but it’s too late), but recently I was working on ideas for a Japanese tier 8 HT premium, and suddenly got motivated. There’s hoping that WG will do something about it and actually add something Japanese, be it multiple lines or just one new premium tank. I know it’ll happen. Some day…
Thank you for reading, I appreciate it!
~leggasiini
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