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Tier 7 Light Tank Review, the LTTB
Quick Summary: A speedy, surprisingly well armoured light tank with an extremely dangerous little pop gun and good DPM
Cost: The LTTB will set you back 59,150 XP and 1,380,000 credits
Game Version and date written: 0.9.17.0.1, 3rd January 2017
PROs:
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Very durable for a light tank at 950 hitpoints and 90mm of sloped frontal hull armour
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Has a fantastic 85mm main armament with 180 damage and 170 pen on standard and 216 with premium
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Premium shells are APCR which gives you very speedy shells
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A fantastic power to weight of 31.21 and very good ground resistances allow this little tank to shift
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Rather nice track traverse of 48 degrees/second
CONs
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3 degrees of gun depression give you troubles on ridgelines
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Camouflage is ever so slightly mediocre for a light tank at 7.70/7.70/1.83
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Unable to mount vertical stabilizers which can cause some grief while shooting on the move
Firepower
Main Armament: 85mm D-10-85 with 4.89 second reload, 180 alpha damage and 170mm of AP penetration
If you remove the fantastic chassis of the LTTB and only keep its gun, many players will be surprised as to how effective an antitank weapon it is. The gun has an excellent rate of fire as well as OK penetration for the tier and excellent gun handling. If you combine this with excellent shell velocity the 85mm D-10-85 which the LTTB uses will make many T-43 players drooling in their seats. Getting on to this, the T-43 is a tank which I will compare the LTTB to heavily as it's a same tier medium, but maybe not for long.
The LTTB's D-10-85 is very similar to the D5T-85 which the T-43 uses. The LTTB's longer barrelled weapon, however, surpasses the T-43s 85mm in most ways. From an almost 200 damage DPM increase to 16mm of extra standard round penetration, the LTTBs gun is very good compared to this. Because of this, many T-34-85 and T-43 players will be extremely happy with this piece of weaponry and will be able to use it very effectively.
The LTTB's gun handling, however, is not so stellar compared to other similar tier 7 light tanks. The LTTB sits bang in the middle compared to the WZ-131's 2.21 seconds aim time and M41 Walker Bulldog's 1.82 seconds aim time. it also doesn't gain over dispersion values on the move, with 0.2 worse dispersion values while moving and traversing the turret as well as another 0.5 away from its closest competitor in gun dispersion after firing. If you twin this with the fact that the LTTB is unable to mount vertical stabilizers unlike the WZ-131 and M41 Walker Bulldog, the LTTB is by no means an on the move run and gun beast like many other soviet mediums and lights.
A not so passing mention must also be made to the LTTB's disgraceful gun depression of 3 degrees which is usually only reserved for Chinese medium tanks. This causes huge problems in finding suitable firing positions for the LTTB. Finally, the ammo count of the LTTB can make heavy carrying challenging. With 42 shells you have an AP potential of 7560 damage, so be careful with your blind shots!
Manoeuverability
Top Speed: 68km/h
Power to Weight Ratio: 31.21
Hull Traverse Speed: 48 degrees per second
One of the areas that the LTTB really shines in compared to other tier 7 light tanks is its manoeuverability, this vehicle speeds along at a whopping 67km/h and keeps at that speed to with an excellent power to weight ratio of 31.21. The LTTB can also turn too, with 48 degrees per second hull traverse speed, you won't be needing the clutch breaking perk on the driver any time soon, unlike in most cases, the clutch braking perk makes this vehicle harder to drive!
For manoeuverability, the LTTB is towards the top of the pack, only being surpassed at its tier by the M41 Walker Bulldog's 72km/h top speed. However, unlike the Bulldog, the LTTB has no problem maintaining this top speed, with a 31.21 power to weight ratio you won't be slowing down any time soon and you will often find yourself accelerating up low to medium gradients!
Durability
Hitpoints: 950hp
Armour: 90mm of angled front glacis plate and 90mm of turret armour
The LTTB is the second most durable conventional light tank in the game, with 90mm of angled front glacis plate you will happily bounce tier 6s and when angled correctly, even some tier 10 tank destroyers. This causes the LTTB to be at the top of the tier 7 pack in terms of armour and it also has the most hitpoints of any tier 7 light tank just to add the icing on the cake. That's all I need to say, the LTTB is best in class for durability. If you want a survivable light tank, here it is.
Because of this high durability, you can take out enemy scouts with ease, either with a ram, or a simple shooting match. You will out DPM them and also have much more health. You can also use this to your advantage when facing same tier mediums who will only have 100-200 HP more than yourself and comparable, if not worse armour.
View Range & Camouflage
Camouflage Values: 7.70/7.70/1.83
View Range: 390m
The LTTB is an OK light tank for those who want to sit in a bush. It doesn't have the best camouflage values, it doesn't have the worst. With a full camouflage crew, like you should have, you'll be pretty stealthy. However, the LTTB is an active scout at heart, and you should rely on your trollish armour and insanely good manoeuvrability. The view range on the LTTB is also rather mediocre for a tier 7 light tank, at 390 you are outclassed by most other tier 7 light tanks, however, there is a silver lining I will reveal later on in this review.
Compared to the WZ-131 and the M41 Walker Bulldog, your concealment is again pretty much in the middle. Better than the Bulldog but worse than the WZ-131's 8.22/8.22/1.81. This means that you should by no means expect to outspot these vehicles, but you can use other strategies to your advantage.
Overall Impressions
The LTTB is a very nice tier 7 light tank which fills a gap in light tank roles. It's very quirky with it's excellent armour for a light tank and many players will enjoy it. Despite this, the 3 degrees of gun depression really is a make or break for this tank. If you can handle the low gun depression and work around it, the LTTB will work for you, no matter what kind of tank you play but especially if you play light tanks a lot and play them proficiently. If however, you cannot handle the low gun depression, you will hate this tank, and I mean hate. It can have all the armour and manoeuvrability in the world but if a player who's used to high gun depression vehicles takes this out for a spin, he or she will struggle to find the right play style for it.
Would I Recommend?
The LTTB is my favourite tank in the game, so I will of course say that you should get this tank, and get it as soon as possible. Whether you free XP it or grind the hell out of the MT-25 you should get your hands on this beast of a light tank. However, before you go for this thing, you need to ask yourself if you can handle the 3 degrees of gun depression. If you can handle the low gun depression and are used to Chinese tanks with similar problems then go for it, you'll love the LTTB. However, if you can't, it might be worth trying out but I'd recommend free XPing past the LTTB if you can't take the low gun depression.
For Random Battles:
Yes, yes and yes. The LTTB is absolutely fantastic for the random queue and will never cease to impress with its quirky role in the light tank world and excellent mobility. Its only true weakness is that atrocious 3 degrees of gun depression, but if you can work round it you're fine.
For Competitive Tanking:
For those of you who like your team battles, the LTTB will be one of your two tier 7 vehicles if you wish to select it. However, in the general competitive meta, the LTTB is much less useful than vehicles such as the M41 Walker Bulldog and T29 Heavy Tank. Due to this, I'd give it a no for competitive tanking, but it does lead on to the T-54 ltwt. which is the ultimate competitive medium tank, even though it's a light tank.
For the Fun:
Again and I'm sorry, if you can handle the gun depression, the LTTB is a great tank. It's so damn fast with an excellent traverse speed. This means that you should easily be able to carousel heavies, and even some less flexible mediums. On top of this, you can easily duel with light tanks of your tier, and damaged light tanks of the tier above, don't forget tier 7 mediums. This means that the LTTB is a fantastic light tank for the lols and you can really enjoy yourself in this speed demon.
Outfitting your LTTB
Like most other tanks in the game, there really is one set outfit for the LTTB. This is due to the fact that the LTTB can't mount vertical stabilizers, making your equipment build much simpler, but maybe there still is a small bit of room for change. Being a light tank, the LTTB also greatly benefits from crew skills, especially Brothers in Arms, Situational Awareness, Sixth Sense and Camouflage.
Recommended Equipment
For your LTTB, equipment is simple.
- For your first piece of equipment you should definitely take a Gun Rammer. If you don't take a gun rammer in a tank which can take it then you're an absolute donkey. It's just such an important piece of equipment.
- For your second piece of equipment you should probably take vents. This is due to the fact that the LTTB cannot mount Vertical Stabilizers. Vents improves everything, even your sub-par view range, making it more competitive. An argument could be made for a spall liner as you have the armour, speed and weight to ram other light tanks but I don't think it's worth losing the DPM and View Range buff for it.
- Finally you should take Coated Optics. This increases your view range while stationary and moving. This is so important for the LTTB as you should always be moving, this phases out Binocular Telescopes but you still need a view range buff. This comes in the form of Optics.
Recommended Crew Skills
- Commander: BiA/Sixth Sense/Camouflage
- Gunner: BiA/Camouflage/Snap Shot
- Driver: BiA/Camouflage/Smooth Ride
- Loader: BiA/Safe Stowage/Camouflage
As per usual you should first train Camouflage on all crew members. Once this reaches 100% on your commander, drop out for Sixth Sense. Keep training a skill such as repairs until you have 2 100% skills. After this Drop out for BiA and then Camouflage, other than for the Commander and Loader where you replace camouflage with Sixth Sense and Safe Stowage.
Thank you very much to monty_iron for proof-reading my reviews and helping out with formatting.
Thank you for reading my very first review. Feedback is strongly encouraged and yes, this is basically a copy of what LittleWhiteMouse does for World of Warships.
I have put a poll in this so that you are able to vote to say if you like the review and if so, which tank you would like reviewed next.
Edited by Streef_, 03 January 2017 - 07:06 PM.
