Lert's ISU-130 review

Lert: ISU-130? What's that?   The ISU-130 was a premium reward tank that is unavailable in the gift shop, in-game store or through missions. The only way to get it is if WG gifts you one.     ISU-130 is an attempt to adapt the ISU chassis to use a development of a 130mm naval gun. It was modified and put through trials, but not accepted into service nor produced in numbers. The prototype still exists in the Kubinka tank museum:           So how did I get it?   Most forum-goers will be familiar with my collection of guides that I've been working at for years now, since around right after the game went live. About two years ago my guides compelled WG to give me the 'Community Contributor' tags and invite me to join in with Major Rampage's weekly friday night tank company battles, while they lasted. Other than that, the only benefit the CC tags gave me was the ability to add a second image to my sig.   About a week ago that changed though when WG decided to hand out several ISU-130's to various CC's, wiki editors, etc.   So, in short, it was a thank-you gift from WG for the guides I wrote.   Where do you get one?   You can't, unless WG decides to gift you one.   What's it like?   In short, it's a bigger, fatter, buffed SU-100Y.   Slightly longer, it's a standard ISU-152 chassis with a buffed, longer version of SU-100Y's gun, with more pen and more damage:     How does it compare to the ISU-152 it's based of?     In short, worse engine and radio, same viewrange, better traverse, worse gun.   It doesn't have the scare factor that the BL-10 has, and it being a rare tank everyone wants to destroy it. Its armor certainly doesn't bounce much of anything being only 90mm on the chassis and 60mm on the superstructure.   I know some internet sources say it has -1 degrees of gun depression, but those are old sources and it got buffed to -8 since then, which really isn't bad for a vehicle like this.   What matchmaking does it get?   It gets the same matchmaking as normal tier 8 tanks, so it sees tier 10 tanks.   When it's bottom tier vs tier 10's the gun is anemic, lacking pen - the highest penning shell is regular AP which goes through 215mm on average, for 490 damage per hit. The premium shell is AP, and just as with the SU-100Y it has less pen (187mm in this case) and more damage (570 in this case). That's because historically the premium shell was APHE, a mostly solid slug with a small exploding charge inside it.   Vs tier 8's and most tier 9's however it's still a meaty gun that delivers quite a lot of damage if it hits sides or weak spots. 490 average is nothing to sneeze at, and thinner skinned targets need to watch out for the 570 damage premium shells. However, the 0.4 accuracy hurts it at long range and sluggish traverse and soft armor hurt it at short range.   How's my performance in it?     I have a positive damage- as well as kill ratio in it, though not by much. This puts it at around par for a premium vehicle for my skill level and my aggressive, often suicidal playstyle. The gun being what it is certainly helps dispel any myths of this thing being OP, but the meaty alpha and decent reload of 9.91s (Vents, rammer, BiA) does help it make its mark.   For me, ISU-130 often ends up around the middle of the team after the match with between 1000 and 1300 damage done. Less common is me ending up at the bottom or the top of the list. Not that either hasn't happened, mind you.   So is it like a premium in all respects?   Yes. I currently have my Object 263 crew in it, and it earns me veritable truckloads of credits:           In fact, I suspect that it has a higher credit earning coefficient than a regular tier 8 premium like Lowe, T34, IS-6 or FCM 50t. All tanks that I have, but I feel that they don't earn me as many credits as ISU-130 does.   Any gameplay footage you can watch?   Yep. Have an ace mastery game:     4.7k damage, 1407 base XP, 132k credits income.   So what's my opinion of it?   As a vehicle, it's so-so. It has significant weaknesses as well as strong points. The damage output is satisfying, the reload is ok and the credit earning potential is through the roof. However, it's let down by its matchmaking and penetration, as well as accuracy and lack of armor. It lacks the scare factor of ISU-152 and carrying potential of other, better TD's - as far as TD's have carrying potential. As a combat vehicle it's neither great nor bad - it seems to be right where it needs to be as a premium vehicle: worse than a fully upgraded same-tier vehicle but better than a stock one.   As an attention-grabber though, not much beats it. Roughly 75% of the time there is at least one person going "What's an ISU-130?" or "Grats on the 130" or "Cool haven't seen one of those before".