ok so let’s talk about the Ariete and Challenger 2 Black Night
The AMV has the best mobility of the 2… not by as much as you think-
A spaded Ariete AMV will reach its top speed of 65km in around 20 seconds on flat solid concrete
A spaded Black Night reaches its top speed of 59kmh in 24 seconds
A spaded 2E will reach its top speed of 72kmh in 26 seconds, but reaches the AMVs top speed of 65 in 21 seconds
The speed gap between these vehicles is tiny… the Ariete simply has better initial acceleration but falls off in comparison to other MBTs due to its low top speed.
Gun handling wise the AMV is the best no question, same with firepower wise as it utilizes DM53 as opposed to the woefully tragic L27A1.
aaaand that’s where the Ariete’s good news ends.
the tank has the single most exposed ammo rack in the game (the 22 round first stage being tucked just behind it)
There is NO ARMOR to protect it, (9.3 MBTs can go through this tanks upper front plate and 10.0s can go through it’s turret cheeks), and this tank has 2 spall liners. (1 behind each turret cheek) which don’t really help with crew survivability because the armor is so thin to begin with the shell barely loses power when going through it.
In contrast the Challenger 2s UFP and Turret Cheeks are resistant up to 11.3 (and some 11.7) darts, the LFP and Gun Mantlet are equally massive on both tanks (but that doesn’t matter on the Ariete because you can literally shoot it anywhere)
and while the Challenger 2 has a lot of charges in the hull, because of gaijins brilliant programing even after the changes. Charges still have a low detonation chance when hit, ammo is the main thing that detonates reliably and the CR2s ammo is at the back of the turret hiding behind actual turret armor and a spall liner. Speaking of a spall liner the CR2 also has a UFP spall liner which helps its survivability from hull shots at times.
FURTHERMORE the 2E just has better overall mobility than the AMV while the Black Night has iron fist which is still the best APS in the game.
The AMV is “better” in the case of firepower and mobility (not by much on that 2nd front) but those factors start to matter less and less if you can’t even survive being looked in your direction-
The reload buff for the Arietes was done as a weak stop gap measure to warrant uptiering them, because the alternative is gaijin admitting those tanks are where they shouldn’t be. But when 11.3 MBTs like the Type 90s and M1A1 compare favorably against the 12.0 AMV (let alone the 11.7 WAR and PSO) those tanks are easily the worst MBTs at their respective BRs.
All this being said, I still prefer Italy to Britain, but that’s purely to do with the 2A7HU and their IFVs. Were it not for those 2 things, Italy would be the worst nation in the game.
