World of Tanks: S35 CA Review

Hello people of the internet, TKH here. Today I thought I would do another review of a tank in the game World of Tanks. On the chopping block today is the S35 CA, a French tier 5 tank destroyer. I'll attach a image or two of the tank so that you all can see what it looks like.

So the S35, what is known in WoT as "the bathtub", because of just how much of a bath it looks like. It also has about as much armour as one too, with only 56mm at the front, and 35mm on the side and rear. With these levels of armour the S35 is very unlikely to bounce anything that it faces, as even tier 3's can penetrate it from at least the side or rear. With this in mind the S35 is best suited to staying away from places where it can take fire. This means it is used to either side at the back of the frontline behind the heavies and heavy TD's and take shots with lesser risk of having return fire taken, or pouncing on distracted enemies to possibly take shots at their flanks or rear if able to. 

The S35 also isn't particularly fast either, and turns at a very average pace (28 degrees per second) so the risk of being circle killed by a fast medium or light tank is quite high, especially if you get in a situation where you have no support. That is made worse by the fact that the acceleration of the tank leaves something to be desired. The S35 is also very vulnerable to artillery and High Explosive (HE) fire, as the open top of it makes these very effective at taking it out. Being a tier 5 TD, its hit point count is also rather low at 330, meaning that it can't take much sustained fire (not much different to the other TD's at tier 5). The lack of armour compounds this fact, along with the average at best speed and somewhat sluggish turning speed.

But there is one thing that the S35 has that is its main attraction, which is the gun. Probably having one of the best selection of guns out of all the tier 5 TD's (possibly in the game), this is what people play the tank for. The stock 17 pounder gun (used only on this tank) actually has the most penetration of all the available guns, with 171mm of it and an average damage of 150 per shot. If you are after damage per minute (DPM) with this tank then that's the gun you would pick. The second gun is a similar one to the BDR's gun (tier 5 French heavy tank), which is easily the worst of the gun choices. Then there's the 105mm AC mle. 1930 S, the top gun on this tank. With 165mm of penetration and 300 average damage, it's a beast of a gun that can tear through anything it will face. When you consider how the tank doesn't really have any other strengths other than this, it starts to make sense as to why the guns are so good. There are a few other smaller pros, the gun mantle can be surprisingly bouncing at times, it has a very good view range and the gun has a wide traverse area.

Would I recommend this tank you ask? Personally I would definitely say this tank is worth getting and keeping if possible, as it can be a lot of fun to play, while also being challenging with the cons that were pointed out earlier in the post. So that was today's blog post, I hope you found it both interesting and informative to read. See you all next time.