There are many new things about the "Queen of the Night" Challenge. Not only do we see a brand new format to the traditional Tank Challenge, but a whole new class of vehicle to the Czechslovakian lineup. Could more Czech Tank Destroyers follow the Premium Tier VIII ShPTK-TVP 100? Time will tell...
TLDR Version:
Pros:
- Turret provides much greater flexibility and ease of engagement than a fixed-casemate - Best damage-per-minute (DPM) and penetration for tier in a turreted TD
- Accurate main armament with rapid aim-time and minimal dynamic dispersion
- Above-average forward and reverse speeds, easily met due to high power-to-weight ratio
- High rate of turret traverse and vehicle traverse
Cons:
- Low alpha damage, although compensated by relatively high rate of fire
- Low muzzle velocity, even with Standard AP shells
- Limited gun depression impacts ability to make use of terrain features for cover
- Base viewrange and concealment stats require buffing through Crews/Equipment
- Poorly armoured, but not so poorly that it gets eaten up by HE shells. Vulnerable to SPG fire
Contents:
Battle Pass as a Marathon Mechanism
Mission marathons are nothing new to World of Tanks, and are regularly utilised to welcome new Premium vehicles to the game. The general principle is that the vehicle starts out an inflated buyout price (sometimes double the typical Premium Shop price once it enters the regular sales cycle), however players can grind through a series of missions over the course of the event to obtain a discount on the cost of the vehicle proportional to their progress. Of late, each progression stage has been increasingly demanding, such that the final stage has required almost as much effort to grind out as the first four-to-five stages combined. Regardless of mission format, the principle is that the most dedicated of tankers can grind out a new Premium Tank at zero cost to the real-life wallets.
"Queen of the Night", featuring the Premium Tier VIII Czech Tank Destroyer ShPTK-TVP 100, departs from a tradition of progression against escalating difficulty, doing so by dropping in as a surprise fourth chapter to the existing Battle Pass Season VII. This format revision creates the following advantages: - Linear progression, with consistent effort input required by players from start to finish - Familiarity with the mechanics and economy of Battle Pass - Ability to use Gold via the Improved Pass to make up for shortfalls in challenge progression
- Vehicles of all Tiers can contribute to progress by completing regular Daily/Bonus Missions
There are, however, a couple of disadvantages that come with this format: - Players with limited Tier VI+ tanks may reach their BP Points cap and be unable to complete
- Tier IV-V vehicles no longer count towards progress, except via completing daily missions - A "Mission for Mastery" style of fast-track is no longer available
The format runs from the early hours of 12th May 2022 until the early hours of 23rd May 2022, but effectively we're talking about 11 full days of gameplay. The event requires the completion of 40 Stages of 50pts per stage, or 2,000 Battle Pass Points. Over the 11 days of the event, these Battle Pass Points need to be accrued at a minimum average rate of 182/day. For an average player completing all daily missions, they will be required to play around 25 battles per day in Tier VI+ vehicles throughout this event, however this excludes the effects of additional Battle Pass points obtained from reaching the points limit of their vehicles or the 50pts given for completing of 45 daily missions.
For the Battle Pass generally, your best bet for completion is to focus on your usual Daily Missions in Random Battles. There are 45 Battle Pass points per day available from your regular Daily Mission completions, plus another 25 if you complete your Bonus Daily Mission. Additionally, if you attempt these missions using Tier VI+ vehicles, you can also earn between 3-7 Battle Pass points if you place Top-10-by-EXP on your team. Obviously a higher EXP-placement on a winning team will be yielding the upper limit of this range. Note that each vehicle has a limited number of Battle Pass points that it can accrue across the season, however if you can hit the limit on the vehicle you'll get a nice bonus of 15-35 Battle Pass points depending on the vehicle Tier. Lower tier vehicles give a smaller bonus, but also have a lower cap on Battle Pass points that it can earn throughout the Season.
Unfortunately this may present some challenges for players who are yet to complete Chapters I-III, but were otherwise aiming to do so. In fact, they may need to make a call as to whether they abandon their final chapter progress in order to participate in Chapter VI. The chart above assumes that players were making an average rate of progress of 83pts/day to complete Chapters I-III within the duration of the event, but accellerated their average progress effective 7th May after the Chapter IV rules were published in the News Portal. Note that you can switch from an incomplete chapter to participate in Chapter IV.
For tankers electing to take on this take with their wallets rather than their time, read on to the "Is it Worth it?" section
The Business End...
When players pick up a tank destroyer, they're generally not looking for amazing ground resistance characteristics, rather they want to know what the gun can do. In this regard, ShPTK-TVP doesn't disappoint, spitting out nearly 2,900HP/min without further upgrades applied with its 100mm calibre BS-3. Fortunately it does not compromise on penetration, with shells performing as follows: - Standard AP - 250HP Alpha - 270mm Penetration - 897m/s velocity
- Premium HEAT - 250HP Alpha - 330mm Penetration - 795m/s velocity
- High Explosive - 420HP Alpha - 100mm Penetration - 900m/s velocity
These penetration stats reveal an ability for ShPTK-TVP to remain relevant against Tier X vehicles, with penetration stats better than most Tier X vehicles. The HE shells are also quite potent, hitting for 420HP alpha and penetrating for 100mm. This can make ShPTK-TVP the bane of lightly armoured vehicles, as its base DPM can stretch up to nearly 4,900HP/min.
As a downside these shell characteristics also reveal a comparatively low alpha damage for the 100mm BS-3 gun, so maintaining your damage per minute does require continuous fire and risk of exposure since the reload time is only 5.18 seconds as a base. Keeping distance between the vehicle and the enemy with positioning to take advantage of foliage mechanics will reduce the risk of exposure, however the relatively low muzzle velocity will significantly expand your margin of error when engaging enemy vehicles at distance. This can be a particular source of frustration against mobile targets.
Against a static target however, ShPTK-TVP has a decent first-hit probability thanks to low dispersion (0.29m/100m). Targets can be rapidly engaged and the gun laid to minimum shot spread thanks to a high rate of vehicle and turret traverse, coupled with a short aim time (1.25sec) and low dynamic bloom on movement, hull and turret traverse (0.14/0.14/0.08).
Position and Playstyle
Decent mobility (55km/h Forward / 20km/h Reverse) and acceleration allow ShPTK-TVP to get into a desirable early position quickly, although there are several factors to consider in what makes an optimal position. For starters, while the frontal armour will block most HE shells at tier, it cannot be relied upon to resist other ordinance. With only 6° of gun depression, there is only so much protection afforded by riding ridgelines, in fact attempting to engage enemies over ridgelines is often liable to result in an over-extension and large target profile if spotted. This just leaves the ShPTK-TVP to rely on the traditional vagaries of soft cover and distance.
Played from the rear, ShPTK-TVP can remain a persistent threat thanks to its precision and high penetration values however the relatively low muzzle velocity will make landing shots on moving targets a challenge. A redline deployment is safe, but can often yield disappointing individual results in the event of a runaway victory. Unlike other Sniper TD's though, you retain enough mobility plus the ability to rapidly lay gun on target so that playing catchup won't leave you eating your teammates' dust through the charred hulks of enemy casualties.
The wisdom of trading an increased threat proximity for reduced time-of-flight really depends on how well you've advanced your crew training and how you've equipped the vehicle. ShPTK-TVP's base viewrange of 370m is average for a Tier VIII Tank Destroyer, but sits at the bottom-end of what's achievable among the Lights and Mediums at-tier. Your stationary concealment rating of 16.07% is average for a Tier VIII tank destroyer, and a far cry from what's acheivable by the sneaky Swedish or heavy-hitters like SU-130PM or Rhm.-B WT. In combination, a closer deployment may mean that you may struggle to get that first-spot advantage. Even if you do, the heavy-hitters will always enjoy far greater reward for their risk of taking the shot. Remember the threat posed by this vehicle isn't a single shot, but rather maintaining an uninterrupted stream of fire and steel. To this end, the ability to engage continuously without being seen is key to deciding your setup position and in most cases the vision and concealment characteristics of ShPTK-TVP mean that it will be relying more heavily on its team-mates playing to their roles and spotting targets.
Equipment and Crew
With highly desirable base gunnery stats, ShPTK-TVP crew development should focus on enhancing concealment as a first port of call. The Commander will require alot of training to get the most out of this vehicle, as it will be solely responsible for improving your vision characteristics. Of course you will still need other staples such as Sixth Sense, and presumably you'll want to "complete the set" when it comes to Brothers in Arms and Camouflage as well. Consider recruiting a special event Commander in this case (e.g. Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzernegger) as they come with more skills out of the gate. Buyers of the Improved Pass will also pick up 400,000EXP worth of Training Guides in the course of this Chapter so you can be assured they won't go to waste getting the rest of the crew substantially up to speed.
Equipment builds will depend largely on personal preference, but the traditional loadout of Rammer/Camonet/Binoculars certainly won't hurt for starters. With a more developed crew, players might find they can switch to Rammer/Exhaust/Optics to position further forward or take up a flanking position without serious deleterious effect on survivability. Other than the Rammer, "Firepower" equipment is pretty redundant on this vehicle, as the aim time, dispersion and dynamic bloom characteristics are already top-notch. Agility builds using Turbocharger or Improved Rotation Mechanism could also be an interesting way to keep your gun in the fight, especially during a runaway battle, but you'll probably be resigned to a rearward deployment in the early game without enhancing shortfall characteristics with food or directives. As an open-topped vehicle, Improved Ventilation is not an option for ShPTK-TVP.
Is it Worth it?
Even if ShPTK-TVP 100 were complete garbage (which it's not), it has the unique (for now) characteristic of being the only Premium Czechslovakian Tank Destroyer in the game. This uniquely places the vehicle as a potential agent of Crew Training and Credit Recovery for any tech tree Czechslovakian Tank Destroyer which may come up in the future. Unfortunately with no other hints of Czech Tank Destroyers in development or under Supertest presently, the decision to purchase for Crew Training reasons is somewhat an act of blind faith that such a line will eventuate and that there is a direct crew compatibility even if it did.
Acquisition of the vehicle under the Battle Pass model with its purchaseable stages under an Improved Pass facilitates much greater value than the traditional Marathon Challenge, where rewards for incomplete stages were never realised. Tankers who want to get their tanks with their wallets rather than their time will need to fork out a maximum of 12,000G, broken up by: Chapter IV Improved Pass @ 2,000G + 40 Stages x 250G per Stage = 12,000G
Let's consider the gold value of these rewards:
- Premium Tier VIII Tank Destroyer incl 100% Crew, 3D Style & Garage = 9,635G"
- 10 Days Premium Time > 7 Days @ 1,250G + 3 days @ 650G = 1,900G
- 1,100,000 Credits > Exchanged at 1G per 400 Credits = 2,750G^
- 3x Class 1 Equipment > Valued at 600,000 Credits Each = 4,500G^
- 4x Training Guides (Books) > 4x 100K EXP = 1.6x 250K EXP Manuals = 8,000G~^ - 40x Universal Blueprints > Convertable to 10x Training Booklets = 4,000G@~
- 240 Bonds > Exchange at 1.025G per Bond = 246G*
- 20x Orderly Ammo Rack > Typically 6 Bonds each = 123G* - 12x +300% Free XP (1h) > Eq. Monetary Value $5.50AUD = 900G#
- 12x +50% Credits (1h) > Eq. Monetary Value $5.50AUD = 900G# - 12x +200% Crew XP (1h) > Typically 90G each (Garage Store) = 1,080G - 12x +100% Combat XP (1h) > Typically 110G each (Garage Store) = 1,320G
Total effective Gold Value = 35,375G
Notes on values:
" Based on average value of other Premium Tier VIII Tank Destroyers available for gold
^ Gold is converted to credits ingame at a rate of 1G / 400 Credits
~ Training Manuals yield 250,000 Crew XP and cost 2,000,000 Credits
* No direct exchange for Gold>Bonds but Chrysler K is 8,200G, Chrysler GF is 8,000 Bonds
# You can get a pack of 15 in the Premium Shop for $6.87AUD at the time of writing
@ Based on Blueprint Exchange = 200,000EXP in Books, or 0.8 Training Manuals
While I fully acknowledge that the Gold > Credit conversion is arguably terrible value for money, and disclose that I have never purchased credits from the Premium Shop to support an established account, the comparison gold value of the rewards is far in excess of the maximum that an Improved Pass purchaser needs to invest. This is a good buy regardless of the performance or unique properties of the ShPTK-TVP 100.
Gameplay
See Also
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