Laffly 80AM, the French machine-gun car

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caid’s suggestion #79

I would like to suggest an interesting vehicle. the Laffly 80AM

The Laffly-vincennes 80AM later called AMD 80, was a French armored car based on the 50AM (later called AMD 50) with a new chassis and new turret. only the fuselage of the hull remained. produced in small quantities, it has 20 years of service due to its great performance and reliability, first as a metropolitan reconnaissance vehicle, until it was replaced in 1937 by the AMD 35.

the first assignment of the Laffly-Vincennes was with the 6th and 8th Regiment de cuirassiers from 1935 to 1937 when they were replaced by the Panhard AMD 178. 27 out of the 28 built were still in good condition, were sent to North Africa to serve with the 1st régiment étranger de cavalerie and the 4th régiment de chasseurs d’afrique. after the French surrender in 1940, the armored car, all still operational, was transferred to the 8th régiment de chasseurs d’afrique where it served as rear patrol and reconnaissance vehicles. after the end of the North African campaign in 1943, the Laffly-Vincennes who barely saw any action was sent back to the 4th régiment de chasseurs d’afrique where it served his duty until as late as 1955.

Firepower
the main armament of the vehicle is the 13.2mm Hotchkiss 1930. this heavy machine gun has a firepower comparable to the 12.7mm M2HB. this armament is capable of penetrating nearly 30mm of armor and has a high fire rate. at combat distance, it will be capable of penetrating at least 20mm of armor. of course, this is a weapon ill-suited for long-range engagement against armored targets. at close range, it can be surprisingly decent. the armored car carries 1690 rounds for the 13.2mm and an additional 2100 rounds for the 7.5mm which is installed in the rear face of the turret

Mobility
the mobility of this vehicle will be decent but not great. despite of having a good top speed the armored car, will feel slow to accelerate due to the weak engine and relatively heavy weight. this armored car weighs 7.5 tonnes for an 80 hp engine. the top speed of 80 km/h will only be achieved in the best condition. a speed of 40-50 km/h will be much more common and still, it will be decent for this vehicle.

Protection
the turret is fairly well protected. with 20mm of armor all around it will allow this part to be capable of getting direct hit at some distance without always letting the projectile penetrate. the chassis however is weakly protected with only 8mm all around. it will only be enough to protect against LMG fire. the side being very flat will be a real weak point. the crew of 4 men is decent and will allow some survivability but they are all bunched up together at the center of the vehicle.

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2 Likes
2

While I love armored cars, I don’t think the 13.2mm MG will suffice. And it lacks the elevation to become an effective SPAA. You’ll need to be very opportunistic and lucky with your engagements and are vehicles like the T-60 (with slightly better firepower) that already struggles to make a kill. It simply lacks in firepower to provide a good addition to the game, however there are plenty other 20mm and 37mm armored cars that could join France in WT.

3

the T-60 is a tracked vehicle with a mobility just above the average. while this is an armored car with decent mobility

the armoured car have a much faster speed and are more suited for flanking and close combat.

those features that the 13.2mm needs. i think with this, the 13.2 mm can fare better than the T-60

4

Then how about M2A2? Even if tracked, it has a great mobility overall, but you don’t see it in battles often. And like Laffy 80AM, it suffers from the same issues: poor to no penetration over 100 m range, poor gun handling (especially over 30km/h), poor turret traverse and gun elevation rates and you must kill all crew members 1 by 1 in order to finish a vehicle. And let’s not forget that the .50cal M2 has slightly better armor penetration.

The wheels are also a double-edge sword. While it will give this vehicle better perfomance on-road and on paved surfaces, it will also provide less traction and speed in soft terrain as well.

I’m not saying it won’t be able to kill anything, but it will definitely have a hard time to finish off tanks. At long ranges it will struggle to penetrate anything that it doesn’t have a 90 degrees weak armor plate perpendicular to your aim and at close ranges you either have to ambush people and hope they’ll pass near your location while you remain unnoticed or they’ll hear/see you closing in and most of the enemies will try to finish you off before approaching.

As I said, I like armored cars and I have played with a lot of them, even light tanks with small caliber cannons and I faced the same issues I have described above - especially with lower perforing rounds. Since France already struggles at low tier, I believe there are other armored cars that could perform way better and should be added instead and should be equipped with weapons ranging from 20mm autocannons to 37 and 47 mm cannons.

5

+1 as a Reserve.

6

i had plenty fun with the M2A2

but the M2A2 is tricky to play. mainly due to the twin turret configuration which make it rather limited.

this one do not have this issue