Personal Experience: My run with the Bourrasque was pure enjoyment, next to the Leopard PT A and Skoda T50 its up there as a top three fun experience for me. The Bourrasque features hard to tame but effective burst damage of 720 in as little as 2s, incredibly good mobility and jaw droppingly good combination of view range and concealment. The Bourrasque for now is the ultimate expression of a maneuver medium at tier 8.
These are the two most memorable aspects of this adventure for me;
Gun: Even with accuracy fully buffed, it can fail us unexpectedly at reasonable ranges of 200 – 300 meters. We can mitigate this by taking the time to fully aim and not pushing ourselves into situations where time constraints force us to snap shot. While it's a great aspiration to hit and pen every shot, the reality is our accuracy and weaker pen of 240 won't always be able to deliver for us. But, when it does constantly connect for 2/2 shots from a clip, the Bourrasque is a pleasure.
Small HP Pool: While the Bourrasque as a machine can be pushed to do some incredible things, but the HP pool is relatively tiny. With three decent 390 alpha rolls were either dead or combat ineffective without the HP to make trades in the late-game. Folks should take care not to carelessly invest their HP frivolously.
With the Bourrasque there is a fine line between being bold or being arrogant and stupid. With a 20s clip reload and 1,250 HP pool we can't DPM our way out of a bad situation and we can only afford so many lapses in judgment before were blasted out of the fight. The biggest danger to markers isn't really the enemy, its our own victory disease from driving such a good system.
Main Build Justification: One of the strongest setups for DPG with the Bourrasque. Vents improve overall stats, improved aiming + polished lens directive greatly improves final accuracy and vertical stabilizer keeps dispersion debuffs under control while bounding from position to position at high speeds.
Secondary Build Justification: A surprisingly useful optics setup because of how incredible the camo values are for the Bourrasque. The Bourrasque within tier 8 is the ultimate example of being able to pivot seamlessly from a strong DPG setup to an almost as strong spotting setup with field modifications.
The equipment setup – Optics for greatly improved view range, CVS works better on autoloaders because we can't mount gun rammers freeing up a slot for something else and and vertical stabilizer to maintain a minimum viable combat potential.
This setup is NOT a replacement for the main build, only to scoop up wins and assist damage on maps like Fisherman's bay that are notorious for their static nature or for maps like Prokhorovka with plentiful and dense foliage.
Ensk: The only area where the Bourrasque can reasonably operate is on the far side of the rail line. Which takes us away from the main fight so that unless were able to overwhelm the enemy quickly and move back to the main contest. We'll be picking up scraps. Skipped as there's more productive maps for damage in the map pool.
Airfield: The Bourrasque can fight effectively on Airfield, possessing good mobility and camo to flex back and forth along the side of the map we spawn on. We can move to the cubbies and fight from there for the game, but too long exposure can result in deadly hits from TDs and SPGs. Not the worst map for the Bourrasque, but not the best either.
Standard: Viable as a credit maker at close ranges. While the shell velocity of 1,000 m/s is acceptable, the 190 pen will frequently leave a lot of damage on the table with bounces due to long aim time.
Premium: Our workhorse round, but it oscillates between okay and trash. While the shell velocity at 1,250 m/s is good, the 240 pen is generally insufficient with how weak our aim time and wonky accuracy. Only made workable by efficient use of our good concealment and mobility to get the drop on the enemy. Were highly efficient at punching through mediums and lights, but will generally fall short against heavy tanks.
HE: Theoretically highly useful, especially with 53 pen against light tanks or thin skinned TDs. I would only consider bringing one clip at most. I have been through about half a dozen games where I almost scrape the bottom of my ammunition racks and would have lamented bringing a clip of HE rounds. It can be useful as an alternative loadout to bring one clip for Prokhorovka to knock down the double bushes outside the map at G1.
Crew: The Bourrasque needs remarkably few crew skills to achieve most of it's top performance. With just three crew skills we get the essentials; Sixth sense, concealment and repairs. While a more elite crew is obviously better, the strength of the basic platform can compensate for an underdeveloped crew.
- Module Durability Increase – We don't entirely need the better turret traverse speed. So we skip light-alloy mounting points in favor of a less harsh damaged ammo rack debuff.
- Improved Sight – Incredibly easy pick, final accuracy is worth it.
- Anti-Reflective Headlights Coating – The Bourrasque has plenty of reverse speed, still clocks a comfortable 21 km/h reverse. Camo increase is worth it.
- Second Equipment Slot Specialization – Scouting, necessary to get the full benefits from Commander Vision system.
Final Form Main Configuration: We end up with the highest accuracy possible and the second highest possible DPM. We leave our aim time alone (3.03s) which can be pretty devastating for poorly aimed shots or spur of the moment snaps. Otherwise our control over our burst damage is intimidating.
Our view range is viable at 456, when combined with our overpowered camouflage our damage setup has viable potential for basic spotting.
Final Form Secondary Configuration: We trade off most of our direct damage potential to pick up 509 view range and commander's vision system (-20% concealment of enemy vehicles behind foliage and -12.5% concealment to moving enemy vehicles). With our ridiculous concealment values of 43.09% stationary and 33.8% moving and smaller profile were competitive with most light tanks and only soundly beaten by the ELC EVEN 90.
Accuracy becomes a larger issue, requiring good aim and a bit of RNG. While we've got a strong optics setup, we still have a great gun that can be pressed into action as well.
We can't act with impunity when scouting and brazenly driving through enemy fire like an EBR 105. Were still one of the better tanks equipped to fulfill that role when necessary. Be brave, but don't be stupid.
Standard Gameplan:
is Yaya's standardized medium map positions. I don't use all of them, but it's a solid baseline for markers to generate ideas from.
Here are a few setups where my early-game positioning is significantly different; Pearl River and Paris.
Pearl River North: With B8 we can comfortably beat our enemies for speed, set ourselves up on the middle ramp and clip into the enemy.
With G1 we might lose our race for speed against the fastest enemy light tanks, but most others will not have the speed to safely make the crossing at K4. From G1 we can comfortably fight from here for most of the game.
Pearl River South: The equivalent position to G1 with J2 is a little weaker. We'll need to knock over 2-3 trees to make it fully viable. It also has slightly weaker initial sight lines into the enemy main route of travel. But is still almost as strong as G1, we can comfortably fight from here for most of the game.
Our main focus with these deployments is to catch an enemy in the cross for 700 damage and taking the next 20s to process whether we need to flex out to avoid an overrun, flank into the middle or flex out to the other side if it looks like it will be a stalemate. The initial clip should be free with no return damage taken if possible and deciding on what's the next step.
Paris West: Racing off to the corner at K4, we can solidly beat all but the fastest enemy heavies during their cross and get a clip off. Afterwards we do NOT immediately re-poke the same location but play standard along the 1/2/3 or if an opportunity comes along to flank through the middle. After some time has passed and the initial movements are completed – Check if the trees at K7 have been knocked over, it's a pretty good indicator that operations along the topside of the bridge are dangerous or if they're not, we can re-poke occasionally if an opportunity is presented. Enemies can be tucked up against the lower side of the bridge so we can be proxy spotted. It is dangerous to re-poke the K4 corner so take every precautionary step not to be vaporized.
Our initial play is generally effective because of the enemy's misplaced confidence in being "safe" during their initial cross.
Paris East: The K7 can be strong but requires knocking over two trees to set up a good albeit incredibly obvious nest of bushes. Careless enemies operating along the bridge leading up to the road are vulnerable in the cross and shouldn't spot us until we fire.
While the main blob of enemy heavies and armored tank destroyers are inaccessible to us underneath the bridge were still close enough to capitalize on any opportunities created during a push to fish for some additional damage.
Alternative Gameplan:
These are three map layouts that I consider most promising for our secondary equipment configuration; Ghost Town encounter, Fisherman's Bay and Prokhorovka.
Ghost Town Encounter: Immediate and aggressive positioning at the bush on top of the mound at E0 or F0 should not only reveal less capable light tanks as they crash into each other along the 9 line. But enemies crossing unsafely or have poor camo will be revealed during their cross into the town as well. There is a decent chance any enemies moving to the equivalent position from the enemy side will be revealed as well.
Once the initial movement is over, were confronted with three options – Continued operation along the 9/0 line, flexing out safely to support the city or taking the long trek across the map to get to the far flank at 1/2.
Fisherman's Bay: I hate Fisherman's Bay – The static and glacial gameflow of the map along with the abundance of strong and well-concealed positions make this a pain to produce reliable results on.
We turn this around by making the life of 1-3 enemies who had the temerity to click the battle button and go to the middle absolutely miserable. By using good view range and CVS to crack the middle at E6 or F6 we rip open a viable flanking path into the heavy flank at 8/9. While the 1/2 is important, it's less vulnerable to a direct flanking play from the middle. Either way, making the position unviable for the enemy to play opens up a hinge of the map where our team has a few more options to win.
Prokhorovka North: From the North we have three potential options; E2, F0 and F9.
E2 and C1 are generally safer positions until more information is gained about the potential deployment of enemy light tanks or where the enemy strong side is. While we can operate along the 1/2 line as we have the setup for it. It can be risky to choose that option from the start of the game. We can generally let the game develop a little bit and not force ourselves through.
F0 is generally my preferred safe option if the enemy does not get anything onto the hill first.
F9 is an option I have played around with, but it requires high confidence the enemy cannot possibly have anything that can beat us onto the hill. Were entirely dependent on our team to do damage and we barely have any safe escape routes if we are spotted. The utmost care should be exercised if this opportunity presents itself.
Prokhorovka South: The initial position at F3 'iYouxin bush' we can crush the life out from any enemy light tank that attempts to cross into the E1 bush. Afterwards setting up defensively at G1 and if we have HE, knocking down the double bushes outside of the map makes the position incredibly difficult to deal with or if there's a lot of activity G1 can be useful as well.
World of Tanks is beautiful, but don't forget to love, live and pursue a life that has meaning to you. Whether that's literature, fitness, relationships or travel – Life is too fragile to have regrets, whatever ambitions you may be harbouring, I say go for it!
Good luck, and good hunting fellow markers.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/tnd3pm/my_bourrasque_three_mark_experience/
