Japanese Tech Tree
Heavy Tanks
Tier 5
The O-I Experimental is currently a very strange tank, sporting a massive size and weight at Tier 5. Despite this, it’s surprisingly poorly armored while also being surprisingly mobile. Wargaming address this issue by reducing its mobility in exchange for improvements to its frontal armor, as well as removing its overpowered 100mm gun, leaving commanders with a choice between the 12cm howitzer or two 75mm variants, as is currently the case. This should keep it as one of the best Heavy Tanks for noobs - which is great news for the newcomers.
Tier 6
The “KV-2 improved” has also been knocked down a bit. As is currently stands in Update 9.19.1.1, the O-I’s rear armor is just as thick as its frontal armor, making many flanking attempts futile as its rear armor is enough to challenge even many Mediums an entire tier higher. In Update 9.20 this is being addressed, and its rear armor will be significantly reduced to 105mm-145mm in thickness, depending on where you aim, making the tank vulnerable from the rear to many Tier 5’s.
Tier 8
The O-Ho’s 10cm ‘AP’ gun will now be able to fire premium AP ammunition to deal with higher tier opponents.
Tier 9 and 10
The Type 4 and Type 5 Heavy currently share a very high calibre HE gun combined with thick frontal armor that prevents frontal penetration from even equal tier opponents, save from premium rounds and Tank Destroyers.
To address this issue, Wargaming have introduced frontal hatch weak spots in the vision ports of both tanks’ hulls, ranging from 220-240mm on the Type 4 Heavy and 240-260mm for the Type 5 Heavy. These weak spots are an interesting approach to balance the Japanese Heavy Tanks without simply reducing the entirety of their frontal hull armor.
As previously mentioned, The Type 4 and 5 are impenetrable frontally except for specific rounds hitting them (premium rounds and Tank Destroyers, namely), however, due to the extremely flat nature of the tanks’ designs, simply reducing the frontal armor as a whole could introduce a similar case to how they previously were pre-buff, which was very weak.
By introducing weak spots not too significant that they render the armor useless, but give lower penetration guns a chance at penetrating the front of the Super Heavies, you retain their armor value without making them entirely broken.
That being said, I don’t think it’s enough. The reasoning for introducing these weak spots was to restore balance for Tier 7 and 8 vehicles when facing the Type 4 and 5 Heavy respectively. A 220-240mm frontal weak spot does not give Tier 7s or even 8s a chance to penetrate the Type 4 Heavy frontally, nor does a 240-260mm weak spot give Tier 8s or 9s a chance to penetrate the Type 5 Heavy frontally.
In fact, most equal tier vehicles still won’t be able to penetrate these ‘weak’ spots unless they’re firing premium ammunition, or have especially high penetration, as is the case with many Tank Destroyers. Another aspect of these small weak spots that is problematic is their size; only tanks very close up to these Japanese behemoths will be able to reliably hit such weak spots due to the accuracy RNG applied to shots post-accuracy nerfs, which certainly won’t include lower tier tanks that would simply get steam rolled.
While I see the changes as a step in the right direction, I can see these tanks proving to be difficult to balance until the map meta is reworked and preferably the accuracy RNG is reduced. It should also be noted that both the Tier 9 and 10 are, allegedly, having their traverse speeds reduced slightly.
Well, that wraps the changes your tanks will receive in Update 9.20. It’s a long one, I know, but there’s so much exciting content being provided in a single patch - I really have to commend Wargaming for it, and do my best to bring the changes to everyone’s attention. Join me in the next (shorter) installation where we’ll be focusing on the rest of the update. Were there any vehicle changes to your favourite tanks that you love, or perhaps dislike?