Are cannoned wheeled tanks worth it in AB meta?

Game Discussion Arcade Battle
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1

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if the early light tanks, such as the Centauro 105, Type 16 MCV, WMA301 are ever worth it in Arcade?

It seems that there is little reason to play the cannoned light tanks over the MBTs, and many other autocannon light tanks (if you want to fly the drones).

Many of these tanks are parked in 9.3 BR and straight up have slop shells for the guns that struggle to deal with T-72A and T-64A front on. The DM23 of Type 16 MCV in particular, struggles to deal with even the inner frame of the T-72A turret (the mantlet) that shells like Type 93.

Tanks like the

Type-83 (WMA301 short gun barrel) - 338mm (0deg), 195mm (60deg)
Type-83 (T-69II G long gun barrel) - 352mm (0deg), 203mm (60deg)
DM23 - 338mm (0deg), 195mm (60deg)
Type 93 - 405mm (0deg), 234mm (60deg)
DM33 - 421mm (0deg), 243mm (60deg)

Light tanks consistently have inferior firepower over their MBT counterparts. Sure, I know that they make up for it in speed and drones, but:

  1. MBTs, especially 2rd gen, are decently fast and boosted by AB horsepower buff.
  2. Drones are easily shot down.
  3. High tech stuff like laser rangefinders and thermals do not matter in AB.

I will pull out some Statshark data from June 2026, arcade, containing a pair of a MBT + light tank of same BR.

Notice: The pairs are either ALL PREMIUM or ALL TECH TREE only, factors like stock HEAT grind should be taken into consideration, and comparisons should be drawn against their peer only (premium vs tech tree makes for poor comparison).

Type 16 (FPS) - 1.03 KDR
Type 74 (G) - 1.43 KDR
Centauro I 105 - 0.95 KDR
Leopard 1A5 - 1.16 KDR
Khalid - 2.28
Rooikat 105 - 1.88

So much for “no armor best armor”…

The M1128 correctly have way lower BR in AB (9.7) compared to RB (10.3). Would other cannoned light tanks benefit from this approach? Let’s discuss a bit!

2

Factors like stock grind should never be taken into account. It would ridiculous to undertier a strong vehicle because you are stuck with HEAT for 5 matches.
And these tanks are not meant to attack and T72/64 from the front. They are fast ambush vehicles. And lfp shots to those tanks are still ez kills.
You are best to play them by taking large flanks and shooting side shots from far away, making use of their high mobility and large caliber cannons

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Who came up with this rediculas idea?

4

Maybe I am misunderstanding the purpose of this but sounds pretty redicoulos

5

Ah, @TIGER_TANK_1 here with our morning laugh. Thanks TIGER 🍻

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Whether it’s worth it or not is up to the player. Are you good at wheeled tanks? Then yes! Otherwise, maybe not.

7

These kinds of vehicles are mostly carried by their scouting ability which helps your team a lot in arcade.

But often the wheeled light tanks also have huge visibility stats which means that you are easily spotted in return. Also it makes it very hard to flank with them, which was what you were supposed to do.

Every vehicle with high visibility stat gets a considerably penalty on arcade battles, the opposite experience is with your typical soviet and chinese MBTs with very low visibility stats. Makes them more “sneaky”.

The only modern wheeled tanks I find worth using are the AMX-10RC and the Rooikat MTTD, both have lowish visibility stats and are good vehicles all around for their BR

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Yes they worth mainly because of the mobility, these will allow you to reach spots unable to do in realistic battles settings or in tracked vehicles or slower ones either. Many tanks struggle against T-72 or T-64, that’s because these two tanks has armor mainly on the upper frontal arc of the vehicle, which you should work around using weakspots. Saying that those tanks (wheeled) don’t worth in the arcade battles Meta is pretty bold affirmation but at the same time a tank being good or bad is subjective to the user, but overall, yes they’re worth because of the mobility, up to you to use the mobility in your favour and not rush directly in the enemy.