User blog:Golurk 88/The Fast Heavy: ARL 44

Note: As with my last blog, this isn’t related to War Robots. It is a blog on a different game, World of Tanks Blitz.

Introduction
World of Tanks has many different classes of vehicles. From Light Tanks to Tank Destroyers, there is a huge amount of variety. And one of the most powerful classes in the game are heavy tanks. This class boasts many of the most feared war machines, such as the IS, Maus and Black Prince. All of these heavy vehicles share relatively slow speed, good protection and decent/good firepower. But since were Heavy Tanks ever fast? Many will disagree, but the ARL 44 might just change their minds.

Firepower
The ARL 44, like most heavies, has awesome firepower. But unlike the Russian IS and KV series, it has a relatively fast reload of around 7-8 seconds (the fastest reload is probably the Black Prince which has a 17pdr with a 4 second reload, and the slowest includes many Russian tanks that take around 20+ seconds). The 90mm DCA 45 is undoubtedly one of the best guns for Tier VI...in fact Wargaming has decided that it is so good that French heavies are equipped with it until and including Tier VIII (it is also present as an auto cannon in the AMX 12t line). Usually dealing more than 200 damage (hitpoints), the DCA 45 is a great all-round weapon.

There are, however, a few drawbacks. The first one is that the DCA 45’s barrel is very long, much longer than most guns. If the enemy players are clever, they will realise that you are a larger threat than normal ARL 44s and will target you first (a bit like German tankers when they spotted Sherman Fireflies in WW2). Another issue that could arise is aiming difficulty at close range.

The second one is the amount of research that you will have to do. The ARL 44’s default gun is the 90mm DCA 30, the same gun used on the BDR G1, AKA the Steel Potato. While the DCA 30 excels against Tier V tanks, it has slow rate of fire and usually bounces off Tier VI vehicles. The next gun available after this costs more than 15k of XP, and is called the 90mm F3. This has a higher rate of fire and deals decent damage, but is nothing special and is outclassed by other heavy guns of the same tier.

Once you have researched the DCA 45 though, you will have acquired a monster of a gun that doesn’t compromise in important areas and offers you a fast paced, high damage experience.