Strv K has entered World of Tanks as a culmination of mashups, between merging the musical talents of Sabaton and Tina Guo with the epic metal track "Steel Commanders", the fusing of the Centurion 7/1 turret and Kranvagn hull, and the union of credit-grinding ability of Premium Tier VIII vehicles with the bond-earning capacity of Tier X vehicles. In this article we find out what this Tier IX Premium Swedish Heavy Tank is all about and try to get to grips with what this means for the future of World of Tanks.
Premium Tier IX Vehicles
While many might be quick to suggest that Strv K is not the first premium Tier IX vehicle in World of Tanks, they are slightly misguided. Tier IX vehicles redeemable for Battle Pass Tokens such as Kunze Panzer or AE Phase 1 or the Concept 1b earned from Ranked Battles are not Premium Tanks but rather Reward Tanks. Like other Reward Tanks such as T95/FV4201 Cheiftain from Clan Campaigns, Stug IV from the first Personal Missions Campaign or even Well-Deserved Reward vehicles Super Chaffee, the other Tier IX Reward Tanks will grant additional Combat and Crew Experience but do not provide any bonus to credit yield.
Unlike their Reward Tank brethren, Tier IX Premium Vehicles not only provide increased credit yield, but also have the ability to earn bonds at a rate of 100 per week similarly to Tier X vehicles. Traditionally the ability to earn bonds at Tier X has been associated with an anticipation of credit losses playing at that tier, but the credit-earning ability of Tier IX Premium vehicles will now offset this.
Economically-speaking, this will make a Tier IX Premium vehicle a powerful addition to a players arsenal but what it will cost you to obtain remains unclear at this stage. While the opening cost of the Strv K in the "Sprit of War" marathon is around $125AUD, this should not be relied upon as representative of the future sticker price. Consider that Tier VIII vehicles in a marathon start out at the $100AUD mark, but their actual sale price wavers between $35-$65AUD. We can possibly look to World of Warships as a reference where Tier IX Premium Ships are valued at $105AUD while Tier VIII Premium Ships are valued at $45-$75AUD.
Does this spell the end of the Tier VIII Premium tank however? I personally don't think so, but this is predominantly a question of what you're after from your grind. During my testing of Strv K in conjunction with other vehicles such as Centurion 5/1 RAAC, I have found that the Tier VIII Premium vehicles seem to achieve ~50% better net credit yield for similar effect on the battlefield, however Tier IX Premium vehicles such as Strv K allows the player to actively grind for bonds without the anticipated penalty to credits. This ultimately makes the accrual of items from the bond shop that much more accessible.
Vehicle Performance
Strv K is comprised of reputationally successful components, specifically the Centurion 7/1 turret sitting atop a Kranvagn hull. The innards of these in-principle successful components however leave much to be desired. In a direct stat-for-stat comparison, it must be said that Strv K struggles against much of its competition from other Tier IX Heavy Tanks that focus on hull-down gameplay, leaving very few metrics where the tank demonstrates any outstanding performance.
While Centurion 7/1 is a very satisfying Tier IX Medium Tank, its turret does not translate well to a Heavy. Concealment is the best armour a tank can have, and that decent camouflage value retained as a Medium Tank is what enables Centurion 7/1 to work an intermediate hull-down position with reasonable efficiency. Plonking the same turret on a Heavy Tank hull results in a much more obvious target that can be reliably shot through the face with anything boasting more than 250mm of penetration. This ease of being spotted is somewhat offset by the pike-nose that comes with Kranvagn, meaning shots will auto-bounce from the upper-frontal plate which might have otherwise penetrated Centurion 7/1's more conventionally-sloped upper-frontal glacis
One of the characteristics enjoyed by Kranvagn drivers is the zippy 60/18 forward and reverse mobility respectively, however these desirable properties of the O.G. tank are again not realised in this mashup. While the 18kph reverse speed is highly desirable when working a ridgeline, 40kph forward speed will have Strv K bringing up to rear in the opening minutes of most battles in which it participates.
Being stuck in the rear by virtue of mobility is not necessarily a bad thing for this vehicle, since frontline gameplay is not exceptionally rewarding against Tier IX-X opponents. Playing from the front often means trying for cupola shots against enemies who'll just shoot you through the face, whereas a second-line position gives you greater opportunity to use the assets of the 105mm main armament handling without the liabilities of the armour and obviousness.
Firepower
The Strv K mounts one of the better guns among Tier IX Heavy Tanks, with its 105mm L/52 dealing 390HP alpha damage with 252mm penetration with its Standard AP, upgradeable to 310mm with APCR. High Explosive rounds deal a respectable 480HP alpha, but require some selectiveness in their application with just 53mm of penetration. Unfortunately most other hull-down Tier IX Heavy Tanks get their follow-up shots in much faster than Strv K, leaving it lacking in DPM compared to all of its peers bar the auto-reloading Progetto 66.
The laser-like gun handling of Centurion 7/1's 105mm Royal Ordnance L7A1 hasn't quite translated across to the Swedish Premium, however you still get a base dispersion of 0.33m/100m on fully-aimed shots. Among Tier IX Heavy Tanks, its static and moving gun-handling characteristics are only outclassed by Conqueror. It should also be noted that what Conqueror lacks in mobility is also made up for by the ability to be avoid being shot through the face by pretty much anything in the game.
The relative accuracy of Strv K's main armament facilitates play from a position of second-line support, where its Heavy Tank concealment characteristics and somewhat-pennable turret facing might otherwise place Strv K in a position of disadvantage.
Crew & Equipment Setup
Crew and Equipment builds generally focus on either enhancing the better vehicle characteristics or making up for the shortfalls in vehicle performance. In the case of Strv K, keeping the gun firing accurately from a position of support represents best use of limited skill and equipment slots.
Improved Ventilation is the most useful of equipment accepted by the "Survivability" slot, while remaining slots might comprise: - Vertical Stabiliser & Gun Rammer
- Vertical Stabiliser & Turbocharger - Gun Rammer & Turbocharger Neither of these are a "wrong answer" for Strv K, however tankers would do well to make used of the Field Modifications mechanic to ensure a Turbocharged build is available where a sprint to your favourite support position is necessary
Crew Training would do well to follow that of a Medium Tank rather than a Heavy Tank, since shunning frontline play will deprioritise Repairs in favour of buffs to concealment, view-range and gun handling wherever possible.
Gameplay
See Also
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