This tank needs some serious work. It’s far too bouncy for a 6.3 tank. The suspension is incredibly broken and needs to be addressed. If you move one inch, the tank doesn’t stablize enough for a shot for at least 5 seconds.
Even if I was able to look past the broken suspension, the fact that it has 30mm of turret armor for a medium tank is absolutely inexcusable for it’s BR.
I have about 400 spaded tanks across all nations and this one is probably the worst-in-class. Fix the suspension and lower it to 5.7.
I think it’s good, bulling Tiger 2s with it is really fun, also that medium tank label is a lie it’s really a super fast tank destroyer like the AML-90.
Not to mention the APDS will shatter always, only usable round is the AP.
I’m hoping the BR will be lowered with the upcoming BR update.
Britain tanks are a pain to use…
APDS and solid shot are lackluster in War Thunder because of unrealistically fast crew replacement times. Making a center-mass shot in an effort to kill all the crew is iffy in most situations so trying to kill all the crew before an enemy can shoot at you once is a big design problem.
In real world, landing a lethal shot through the turret and killing the gunner would have taken at least 1 minute to replace them. In War Thunder, crew skills get that time down to 15 seconds or less.
You are playing the Charioteer wrong, whilst it was historically a medium tank, it should be played as a light tank / tank destroyer. If you are in situations where you need to rely on your armour then you are doing something wrong.
You also need to be aiming at weak spots, at 6.3 the gun is incredibly powerful, but if you are not aiming for crew or ammo then again, you are doing it wrong.
It is rapid, has a decent reload & has smoke grenades, shoot and scoot is it’s bread and butter.
Unfortunately a lot of WT maps don’t lend themselves to this play style.
To be an effective tank destroyer, you need to be able to have gun depression above 10 degrees and be able to backup fast … neither of which this tank can do. Light tanks get spotting, this tank does not.
Let’s summarize it’s key metrics: Turret armor: 30mm Barrel stabilization time: 4.5 seconds (when you move and then stop) Turret rotation: 14 degrees per second (slower than most non-heavy tanks) Reverse speed: 1 mph … this alone has such a dramatic impact on the tank’s effectiveness in ANY situation. Barrel depression: 5 degrees Crew: 3 … most shots are going to kill your whole crew and even if one survives, the tank is combat ineffective due to reload speed and other debuffs from only having a single crew member. Ammo types: solid shot, APDS (both virtually useless at rank 4+ because you’re almost never going to get a second shot) Reload speed with max crew: 8 seconds (30% slower than other tanks in its class) Visibility: 89% (this is how likely you are to be spotted by enemy tanks crew)
It is all-around bad at any situation, which is why it’s BR is way too high.
8 seconds is the reload with stock crew. The actual fastest reload is 6.25 seconds, and most medium tanks at this BR (6.0+) have a 7.5 second reload.
You say key metrics but then a very basic key metric of simple forwards mobility is ignored. Likely because it’s an aspect where the Charioteer does perform really well (since 20 horsepower/ton).
Edit: Also the reverse speed is almost exactly 2 mph. Still bad but literally double what you stated.
At 6.3 you can pretty much use the APCBC exclusively. Just take some APDS for uptiers.
There’s also potential for more Charioteers too:
Charioteer (Royal Artillery): Additional 4th crew member who technically is an external observer. So, he rides in the tank and hops out to spot targets when they get to a position. In-game this could be reflected by giving it scouting. You can also label it as a tank destroyer for a slightly cheaper spawn cost.
Charioteer (Jordan/Lebanon, I’ve seen both mentioned): Comes with a roof mounted .50 cal.
Charioteer (105): Charioteer with a 105 L7 intended for export.
