Personal Experience: The Skoda T56 is one the most optimized support autoloader heavies as of January 2022 (WoT 1.15). Which surprises me, because the tradeoffs the Skoda T56 makes to get there are mostly solvable via equipment. Effectively once we get the second equipment loadout option, the Skoda T56 doesn't really have any major downsides from poor map rotation RNG.
For me, these were the most memorable aspects of this experience;
Mobility: The top speeds of the Skoda T56 are a little low, but otherwise it's blessed with decent hp/t and good terrain resistances. While a turbocharger won't make it a heavium, at least we can try to flex around the battlefield or move to a position to punish the enemies cross. I personally found the reverse speed of -19 km/h to be most comfortable for backing off after we empty our clip.
Gun handling: This can oscillate between derpy and unacceptable. The two instances where I found this to be unacceptable was higher tension situations where we have to rapidly change our focus from one engagement arc to another. The other was shooting at extended ranges – The weaker accuracy, pen and aim time makes engagements at distance unreliable. We have to play close enough to the enemy where our weak accuracy is a non-issue, but not so close they can immediately jump on us during our reload.
Built in positive trades: The defining characteristic of the Skoda T56 is the gross ability to positively trade with just about everything short of 750+ alpha guns. So long as were not boldly peeking like an idiot against half a dozen enemy guns, we can poke against most individual enemies with the confidence this will most likely be a positive trade.
The Skoda T56's setup of 2×460 in 3.5s and 248 pen paired with a good chassis makes it a capable combatant against enemies of any tier. Have confidence in yourself and hit those shots!
Main Build: I want to believe this build is sub-optimal compared to a gun build (Pink IAU | Purple Turbo | Purple VStab). But the extra HP from hardening gives us a deeper well of HP to trade from, if you're a weaker marker like me and not confident in our game sense to keep our tank alive and in the fight, hardening for the extra insurance is likely the better option. But if you're at the top of your game, pink IAU is stronger for higher DPGs – The marker absolutely must be able to bridge the weaker survivability and leverage the pink IAU into getting more effective shots out.
Optics Build: While it shouldn't be needed often, if we ever pull a map and team composition where we need optics – Our view range is pushed out to 487.
Prokhorovka: Our weak accuracy makes shooting on this map awkward, while we have good enough depression and an acceptable turret to play either the 9/0 hill or the middle ridge. We have better map options.
Airfield: Were too slow to make it to the cubbies to get safe from SPGs. I was not overly keen to be dunked on by SPGs at the heavy corner.
Premium: This is the majority of our ammunition, the 248 pen paired with poor accuracy can make it derpy at times. But at least the shell velocity is workable.
HE: I've only run out of ammunition once, it should be acceptable to carry a single clip for general utility.
Crew: The most important skills being repairs, sixth sense and BIA.
After those core skills are accounted for, pleasant luxuries are sound detection, and maybe intuition. Even though our exposure times should be low, we do take decent damage from SPGs, so any kind of forewarning is appreciated to dodge those hits. Intuition can also be useful to quickly switch out our clip in <6s for soft skinned targets like Grille and Skorpions.
- All-Terrain Suspension – I prefer the improved terrain resistances
- Parallax Adjustment – The slight increase to final accuracy is appreciated
- Periscope Electric Drive – Annoying stun debuffs, but the +3% view range is worth it
- Second equipment specialization – Mobility
Good luck and good hunting to everyone who picked up the Skoda T56 from the holiday 2021 boxes!
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/rzjqim/my_skoda_t56_three_mark_experience/
