I want to grind out the Chinese ground forces to pair with my air force. I have never really played ground battles (max B.R. I have achieved was 3.7). Is it easy for beginners?
As in buying the ZTZ-96A (P)?
THE BAD:
Well it’s not very good. They have only 2 spots with actual armor, the turret cheeks and the UFP. Everything else is paper mache. The LFP is a whole 50mm thick and the size of a mountain and will nearly always result in your tank getting 1 shot when shot there. The gun breech is huge and max thickness is ~300mm, meaning everybody you see can pen it and unlike the TURMS, it is VERY easy to hit. Usually when hit there your gun breech is destroyed and 1 crew member is killed. The top of the UFP is also garbage because it is bugged, it is thicker and at the same angle as the Abrams UFP but this spot on the ZTZ NEVER bounces any shots. Mobility is D tier, only slightly better than the TURMS. Reverse speed as super slow… The 2 passive protection systems do absolutely nothing. They were nerfed awhile ago so any ATGM it faces at it’s BR is immune to it… Gun aiming is bad, especially vertical drive speed, slow as balls. And lastly, the gun depression is abysmal, a whole -5 degrees…
THE GOOD:
Not much to go in here. The 125-I APFSDS is pretty good, spalling from it generally is good, although certain countries get to enjoy bias that makes their tanks not spall as much (Germany, Russia). There’s pretty much nothing you face you cannot penetrate frontally somewhere. The optics are meh but at least you get Gen 2 Gunner Thermals.
So yeah, pretty bad tank, don’t really recommend it unless you are okay getting 0-2 kills a match and really want to grind the tree at a faster-ish pace. But man does it really struggle. Map design in this game is pretty abysmal and it makes tanks like these even worse. NATO tanks will pop over a hill to shoot at you and duck right back behind it before your shot can hit them. You can’t do this because of the bad transmission and engine. Everybody knows your weakspots now so they will always be able to reliably pen you. Spalling in this tank is horrendous, the gun breech alone when penned in certain spots can generate spalling 3 times in wide angles… The best way to play the tank is as a long range sniper, it does well there because of the 125-I. But thanks to your poor gun depression even getting a spot where you can snipe without showing your whole tank is pretty hard.
ZTZ-96A (P) Is a very good, beginner friendly premium tank, event though it sit at 10.0. Its like TURMS72AV but a bit better, the best premium tank at 6 Tier, way better than XM-1, Swedish CV, or Leopard -(depends on Play style). Chinesse top Tier is really good although it lacks top Tier lineup. Would recommend this MBT.
Having an autoloader means you’re not punished for skipping ahead. Auto loaders will load the exact same whether your reloading skill is leveled or not AND whether your loader is wounded / killed.
It’s a very straight forward tank with a lolpen round meaning it can pen anything at its tier and a full 1.0+ BR above it
Its only negative is the mobility but Russian based tanks aren’t going to beat NATO speeds anyway.
Really fun BR range for China, really good tanks. Wish you could have the QN506 makes the BR more complete extremely large problem for several minor nation trees right now having no IFV in the tech tree but only as either an event vehicle or premium.
No.
anyone with weapon caliber higher than 20mm can 1shot you frontally
It may not be that bad but definitely not fun to play with
That’s the tier.
Everything can pen everything, what matters more is fire power / positioning / reload speed / access to thermals (at the tier the tank is placed at).
Gen 2 Thermals is quite good.
Its turret armor is enough to dodge some poorly placed shots and it has the ZTZ96A’s hull ERA meaning again, poorly placed shots will fail to penetrate.
Not that you can rely upon its armor at all but it’s still there and should be noted.
I absolutely adore its tech tree counterpart and besides slight differences in the turret cheek armor that doesn’t equate to any major changes in how the armor performs it is my highest earning and by less than 4 battles from the PTL02 my most played Chinese vehicle.
Even against its own round which is certainly above average for the BR it fails to penetrate these locations.
Another noted benefit (until the MBT-2000 is added) this tank will allow you to have the strongest possible Chinese 10.0 lineup.
With all the tanks being Rank 6 you can use it to full research the Rank VII tanks.
It is one of the view premium vehicles in the game I can fully recommend with no downsides besides “it’s a T-72 clone”. If you do not mind USSR playstyle then it is a very effective tank.
If you are looking for maximum mobility I do not recommend playing USSR based tanks which is what China’s premiums are. Their 11.7 tanks switch to more NATO characteristics minus gun depression but for the majority of the time you play them they are a USSR clone with “chinese” improvements.
I never say it’s not good. Actually I’ve just survived the siege of 4 Leopards in my 96A(P).
But you can never take too much expection on it, the reverse and huge frontal armor weakness greatly limited its performance. I would choose L2A4 or 90105 if possible.
Neither of those vehicles grind the Chinese tree, I presume that is the goal of purchasing a Chinese premium.
“I want to grind out the Chinese ground forces to pair with my air force.”
Yes and the best answer is STAY AWAY from that pitiful tree because it’s a nation that Gaijin hates and never gets anything really good, a nation Gaijin will give all positive issue reports a “not a bug” tag, a nation Gaijin does everything to prove that their weapons are poor imitation of their mighty Russian Federation.
China will grow larger.
IRL definitely, but hard in this game due to their prejudice
96Ais a pretty good tank, I guess it’s reasonably beginner friendly with high-res thermals, a gun that can pen just about anything you’ll point it at and armour that will occasionally block something
but I’m not sure the dive from 3.7 to 10.0 is a good idea
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