Zeven's T-54 First Prototype Review

HBFT: Matchmaking As with all premium tanks, relative "value" must be gauged through the prism of matchmaking.  Some premium tanks get preferred matchmaking, limiting the number of higher tiers you will face and making you more effective against any tank you might come up against.  Some premium tanks with regular matchmaking have strengths that make up for them having to face higher tier enemies.  The T-54 first prototype has regular matchmaking (top tier enemies will be between 8 and 10) and we will discuss the individual qualities of the tank in regards to this matchmaking.   Gun - Average for class/tier The 100mm gun on the T-54 first prototype has characteristics between the top two 100mm guns on the T-44.  It has an accuracy of 0.38 with a 2.6 second aim time and uses 175 penetration base AP shells and 235 penetration APCR shells.  The dispersion on movement and turret rotation is pretty poor (similar to the T-44), having an effect on even close-mid range shots (~ 100-200 meters).  The base AP shells are effective enough against most tier 8's, but you will have to use APCR for some of the tougher 9's and 10's if you want to penetrate them frontally.   Armor - Great for class/tier The frontal armor of the T-54 first prototype is fantastic for the class/tier and is heavy-level armor.  The upper glacius is 120mm sloped at 60 degrees, giving you 240mm effective armor.  The lower glacius is sloped at 45 degrees, giving you 170mm effective armor.  The turret is well armored and the cupola is small and difficult to snipe.  The closer you get to your enemies (or at a lower elevation than them), the more you reduce your more vulnerable lower glacius.  You can bully a lot of tier 8's and even some tier 9's with this armor.  It begins to suffer against tier 10 guns that can reliably penetrate through the upper glacius though.   Mobility - Below average for class/tier This is where you pay for lugging around all that extra armor.  The T-54 first prototype has a top speed of 44 km/h with a power:weight ratio of 14.8 hp/t (compare this to 51 km/h and 20.2 hp/t for the T-44).  While it can reliably hit the top speed traveling on flat ground (thus, is moving relatively quickly), it takes some time to accelerate and turning on soft ground or climbing hills is sluggish.  This reduced mobility becomes more of a problem against more armored tanks that you want to flank.   Equipment and consumables For equipment, I ended up using optics, a gun rammer and a vertical stabilizer (to help with the poor dispersion characteristics).  For consumables, I used an automatic fire extinguisher, small repair kit and a small first aid kit.   Overall I ended up liking the T-54 first prototype quite a bit.  As noted above, the biggest limitation is the regular matchmaking where the tank can struggle against higher tiers with more armor and better guns.  However, it compares favorably against the other tier 8 premiums with regular matchmaking (Panther 88, Lowe, STA-2, etc.).  In this respect, it probably ranks second behind the fragile AMX CDC. If you are looking for a Russian medium crew trainer, it can fill the role well (I was able to average ~1100 premium experience per game over ~80 mostly solo random battles, YMMV). You can bully in tier 8 games, but may struggle a bit in tier 9 and 10 games.  However, if you look to utilize the strengths of the tank when you can, you will reap the benefits.  In tier-limited games (company battles, team battles, strongholds, etc.), it might have limited utility depending on your composition and deployment.