USSR

Armored fighting vehicles designed by or imported into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. USSR tanks will often fall into a role-set that each class will excel at, but at the expense of being notably less capable if called into other roles at any time. The USSR designed and fielded several of the most recognizable, and in some cases ubiquitous, tanks in the history of armored warfare.

0.9.18 Soviet Tank Tree

Soviet light tanks are typically the fastest tanks at their tiers. Like most Soviet tanks, they have a small frontal profile and sloped armor. While the recent map and class changes have shifted the game paradigm to a more brawl-focused ideal and reduced their relative power in general, they're still solid choices.

Soviet medium tanks are fast and maneuverable, and equipped with accurate guns with excellent dispersion values, unlike the other lines in the Russian tree (and get even better in high tier). Most are jacks of all trades and very versatile. Unfortunately, most suffer from poor gun depression, limiting their ability to go hull down and make use of their strong frontal turret. They also have excellent soft stats such as ground resistance and camo, allowing them to perform the roles of scouting, damage dealing, and flexing across the map adequately. There are two medium lines that split after the T-34 at Tier V, and a mini-branch that splits after the T-44. One line has forward or center mounted turrets with average guns but the better chassis allows them to be more flexible. The mainly rear mounted turret line has superior firepower, but at the cost of having less gun depression and inability to take advantage of many hull down positions. The Object 430 mini-branch features respectable armor and massive 122mm main guns, but only at the cost of gun handling and a bit of mobility.

Soviet heavy tanks have good guns, are fast, and have strong armor; their frontal armor thickness makes them quite difficult to penetrate from the front unless weakspots are targeted, and their sloping can lead to bounces even from high penetration guns. There are three lines plus a half-complete one (The only other faction with this many heavy lines being Germany): the KV line which offers thicker armour and standoff potential at the cost of mobility, and the IS-7 line which has armour more reliant on angles, but better agility and alpha damage for brawling; in addition to the high alpha damage of the IS tanks, the brand new Obj. 705 line offers the unique combination of sloped armor and rear-emplaced turret, yet the agility has much to be desired. They tend to lose out in gun handling, accuracy and DPM compared to other heavy tanks, but their prolific alpha make them excellent at peek-a-boom and side-scraping fights. Like with the German heavy tank lines, advancing deep into one line provides many modules, particularly gun modules, for the alternate heavy tank line. The unfinished T-10 branch currently consists of only one vehicle that sports many medium tank features, providing an unique gameplay experience.

Soviet tank destroyers generally have poor gun handling, but they have some of the best camouflage values in game. They're ideal for damage farming and sniping early game, and occasionally acting as makeshift assault guns later on. There are two Soviet TD lines. The more popular Object 268 line favors alpha damage, but traverses very slowly and has subpar viewrange. They also have very weak armor anywhere besides the gun mantlet, though it is strong enough to prevent penetrating hits from most non-artillery HE shells. The Object 268 V4 line which favors mobility and some of the toughest armor on tank destroyers. The armor is mostly reliable except for few weakspots, but the poor agility and accuracy can be difficult to adapt. Both require patience in their game-play, and like the light tanks, will struggle to work efficiently outside their designated playstyle, but continue to remain relevant.

Soviet self propelled guns are generally quite accurate at low tiers, but they won't deal much damage. However, they also generally fire their shells in a very high arc, making their flight time long, but able to hit tanks hiding behind rocks and small buildings. They also tend to have higher firing rates than their foreign counterparts. This changes at tier 5, where they become much more alpha-centered, while retaining the high arcs that only the British SPGs really beat. They also gain large hulls and extremely limiting gun arcs, with generally poor accuracy. However, the high accuracy returns with the tier X Object 261, as it is the most accurate self-propelled gun, with a whopping 0.63 dispersion. It's also the second fastest Tier X SPG, and has the fastest Shell Travel speed of all tier X Artillery.