Caernarvon AX

[ThomChen114 291]

(Source:  The Armored Patrol )

World of Tanks Supertest: Caernarvon AX – Tier VIII – Premium Heavy Tank

Tier: VIII HT, GB, premium
HP: 1400
Engine power: 950 HP
Weight: 65 t
Max. weight: 70 t
Power-to-weight ratio: 15.5 HP/t
Max. speed forwards/backwards: 36 / -12 km/h
Hull traverse speed: 28 °/s
Turret traverse speed: 36 °/s
Terrain resistance: 1.055 / 1.247 / 2.205
View range: 380 m
Signal range: 782.1 m

Hull armor: 130 / 50 / 38
Turret armor: 254 / 152 / 95

Gun: OQF 20-pdr Gun Type B Barrel

Damage: 230 / 230 / 280
Penetration: 226 / 258 / 42
Reload speed: 6.3 s
DPM: 2284
Accuracy: 0.32
Aim time: 2.3 s
Gun depression/elevation: -10 / +20

 

Well played WG. Remove the 20-pdr on the regular Caernarvon and replace with 32-pdr and "old" Centurion turret, but then "re-introduce" the pre 9.20.1 Caernarvon as a premium tank.

Other than that, this should've been something WG do more, introducing more tier VIII premium tanks for each tank branch, rather than spamming more Russian and German premiums. 

The spaced armor is an odd feature imo. I didn't realize the CAX turret was a HEAT magnet.

[rojo180 800]

[MagicalFlyingFox 1,022]

Just buy the Prius. 

[CarbonWard 3,529]

A pretty good tank.

Solid turret, -10 dep, great speed, one of the best dpm.

 

Too bad is going to be overshadowed by just how over the top bonkers the new Caern will be.

[hazzgar 730]

Is this the new CAX turret or old Cax turret?

[ThomChen114 291]

2 hours ago, hazzgar said:

Is this the new CAX turret or old Cax turret?

looks old, but with new spaced armor

[hazzgar 730]

6 minutes ago, ThomChen114 said:

looks old, but with new spaced armor

Meh. With new it would make sense. With old isn't this just the old Caern? What's the difference?

[ThomChen114 291]

3 hours ago, hazzgar said:

Meh. With new it would make sense. With old isn't this just the old Caern? What's the difference?

the difference is that this is the only way to experience the pre 9.20.1 Caern for newer players (who have spare cash to spend). Many probably didn't realize that the Caern used to have that Centurion turret before it was switched to the Action X turret, and now its back to the old, tougher Centurion turret.

[Madner Kami 405]

42 minutes ago, ThomChen114 said:

the difference is that this is the only way to experience the pre 9.20.1 Caern for newer players (who have spare cash to spend). Many probably didn't realize that the Caern used to have that Centurion turret before it was switched to the Action X turret, and now its back to the old, tougher Centurion turret.

It's actually not the "old, tougher Centurion turret", gladly. It's a new, tougher Centurion turret, plus it is really tougher this time, not just that "little bit tougher than the Cent I turret" which it used to be.

And this is not the "old Caern" either. The old Caern is slow and weakly armed, this new version is actually fairly mobile and got the DPM-upgrade the Caern always needed. Imo, this looks like a fairly promising prospect. It won't be a 252 or Patriot, but it should hold up nicely in it's role.

[ThomChen114 291]

7 hours ago, Madner Kami said:

It's actually not the "old, tougher Centurion turret", gladly. It's a new, tougher Centurion turret, plus it is really tougher this time, not just that "little bit tougher than the Cent I turret" which it used to be.

And this is not the "old Caern" either. The old Caern is slow and weakly armed, this new version is actually fairly mobile and got the DPM-upgrade the Caern always needed. Imo, this looks like a fairly promising prospect. It won't be a 252 or Patriot, but it should hold up nicely in it's role.

let's not forget one of the main goals of such a premium tank is that of a crew trainer for the respective branch, and also that it closely reflects the playstyle

sorry FV4201 (A45)

[lavawing 498]

4 hours ago, ThomChen114 said:

let's not forget one of the main goals of such a premium tank is that of a crew trainer for the respective branch, and also that it closely reflects the playstyle

sorry FV4201 (A45)

just give the A45 the 4.5 inch gun, the buffed Centurion turret and buff top speed to 34.3 and bump it to Tier 8. Historical and competitve.

[Ogopogo 55]

On 9/26/2017 at 4:06 AM, lavawing said:

just give the A45 the 4.5 inch gun, the buffed Centurion turret and buff top speed to 34.3 and bump it to Tier 8. Historical and competitve.

On thing which would help the A45 a great deal is if they gave it 10 degrees gun depression across the entire front instead of the 8 it currently has. IRL it was only 8 over the machine gun blister, while the rest was 10.

[Expendable_Lad 753]

Played 20 or so games in this thing today. 70% WR, but only 1800 dpg and 2700 WN8. Have these games where I've been putting the shells out, but sometimes these hits are doing sub-200 damage per shot. Problem is I get into trading situations with the big-alpha guys that are all over right now. Anyone shooting down onto the turret or front goes right through it. While sometimes the turret holds up in Tier X - T34 gold can go right through. That and I don't really use the depression enough and end up exposing more of my tank than I think I am. 

Even top-tier games I sometimes flub. Like i'll be top-tier with some 42%er t32, head to a city and get rushed by big guns w/o backup or unable to stand up to big pen premium rounds in the face. Didn't really want to go there, but felt I "should" or else the flank would get thrashed. 

@kolni In my status update you mentioned it has big carry potential. Can you help with an example of those situations? Sure, something I nail the angle on a perma-track and can go to town, but have not realized the full potential of the tank. Would love any tips. 
Running hardening with rammer and optics. May change the V-Stab in for Optics and run vents in the first spot to lean into the gun more. 

[kolni 69,670,872]

2 hours ago, Expendable_Lad said:

 

@kolni In my status update you mentioned it has big carry potential. Can you help with an example of those situations? Sure, something I nail the angle on a perma-track and can go to town, but have not realized the full potential of the tank. Would love any tips. 
Running hardening with rammer and optics. May change the V-Stab in for Optics and run vents in the first spot to lean into the gun more. 

Yeah if you want big games easily that setup works, personally ran it full gun equip and sought out the tier 8s (where you can fight them without tier 10s, if not then seek the easy damage until the map opens up) in tier 10 games and for the other MM I just never had any trouble finding damage since I’m very used to playing lower alpha guns

I played it as a mid-range farmer or a chokepoint with very heavy trackspam, next shot’s only 5-6 sec away so I would always go for that if I felt confident about not getting punished as a repkit is worth more than 230 damage against pretty much everything at T8 and up (T7 heavies too) and it seemed to work for me. It wound up roughly one tank getting perma’d per game and then I could just trade my way to a good game from there. 
 

Worth mentioning that I played it at my highest peak in gameplay quality and before T8 was swarmed by Progetto/Borrasques which are pretty hard to deal with so I don’t think my gameplay works very well now as trading against every third tier 8 you come across has too much burst and mobility to confidently win fights against

It’s carry prone because once you figure out how to keep the gun firing it whittles down an engagement pretty fast with small enough alpha for people to ignore you. I always found it to be sink or swim, it’s either a 2 full tank permatrack for 3,5k or more or having to chase your team for the entire game doing cleanup which it’s just really bad at

[Expendable_Lad 753]

22 hours ago, kolni said:

Yeah if you want big games easily that setup works, personally ran it full gun equip and sought out the tier 8s (where you can fight them without tier 10s, if not then seek the easy damage until the map opens up) in tier 10 games and for the other MM I just never had any trouble finding damage since I’m very used to playing lower alpha guns

I played it as a mid-range farmer or a chokepoint with very heavy trackspam, next shot’s only 5-6 sec away so I would always go for that if I felt confident about not getting punished as a repkit is worth more than 230 damage against pretty much everything at T8 and up (T7 heavies too) and it seemed to work for me. It wound up roughly one tank getting perma’d per game and then I could just trade my way to a good game from there. 
 

Worth mentioning that I played it at my highest peak in gameplay quality and before T8 was swarmed by Progetto/Borrasques which are pretty hard to deal with so I don’t think my gameplay works very well now as trading against every third tier 8 you come across has too much burst and mobility to confidently win fights against

It’s carry prone because once you figure out how to keep the gun firing it whittles down an engagement pretty fast with small enough alpha for people to ignore you. I always found it to be sink or swim, it’s either a 2 full tank permatrack for 3,5k or more or having to chase your team for the entire game doing cleanup which it’s just really bad at

Thanks man, really appreciate the thoughts. Forget about enemies thinking ther low-alpah doesn't matter, I often write off the alpha too! Plus sometimes that alpha doesn't take down a track in a single hit. Will try the full-dpm lean-in and report back. 
I feel your pain on going against some big-alpha bursters - it's so prone to betting ganked. Even the T-56s now coming in can poke and easily take two ~350 *normal heavy* hits - fewer if working a ridge line, and trade up in 3-4 seconds by putting out ~950. Means 48%ers can all of a sudden trade up without too much work.