The Soukou-Tei No.4 (AB-4), the first production model of the Soukou-Tei series, was introduced in 1933 following the success of the AB-1 'Sakigake' and AB-2 'Kachidoki.' Upgrades included dual 7.7 mm machine guns replacing 6.5 mm ones, the 57 mm Type 97 tank gun replacing the 37 mm Type 11 infantry gun, and more efficient welding for lighter yet equally protective armor. A diesel engine further improved mobility, enabling higher speeds. Compared to its predecessor, the AB-4 boasts better performance, firepower, and mobility but still struggles with limitations in open-sea combat. The 7.7 mm machine guns are effective against lightly armored targets like patrol boats and aircraft but lack range, while the 57 mm gun offers strong damage potential hindered by accuracy and velocity issues, making it challenging to engage fast or distant enemies.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| High damage from the main gun | Very inaccurate main gun |
| Incredibly slow | |
| Fairly weak, despite the armour | |
| Can't hit anything in wavy waters |
Survivability and armour
The Soukou-Tei No.4 is likely the first truly armoured boat you'll be unlocking in the tech tree- although not by a huge margin. The superstructure is protected by 7 mm of RHA, while the hull is protected by 4 mm of RHA. At a few hundred metres this will make you immune from 7.7 mm machine gun fire, but everything else can still penetrate this boats armour. at range some heavy machine gun rounds may fail to penetrate as some of the armour will be angled, but in any case it's not something to rely on.
Mobility
The Soukou-Tei No.4 like the previous boat is very very slow, it can reach exactly the same speed as the Model 1927 (26km/h in RB modes and 35 km/h in AB modes), making it one of the slowest vessels around its battle rating. This can make playing it fairly tedious as it will take a fairly long time to advance to combat ranges on most maps. Its mobility and ability to turn is about as you'd expect, not standout but not terrible, it will lose a lot of speed when turning hard though so be aware of this if you're taking fire.
Primary armament
This boat is equipped with the 57 mm Type 97 tank gun, which is functionally very similar to that found on the I-Go Ko and Chi-Ha tanks, though it has some slight ballistic differences. For the Soukou-Tei though it's a fairly underwhelming weapon. It will significantly damage smaller boats when the shot lands but landing a shot is the hardest part. It comes with three different rounds:
- HE - Decent damage output over a fairly wide area
- HEAT - Decent damage output over a condensed area, slightly lower velocity
- APHE - Very little damage potential
Overall the stock HE round is the most consistent, it deals a fairly effective amount of damage and will black out compartments on smaller boats with a single hit. The HEAT contains a lot of explosive filler, but it doesn't spread damage over a wide area, and it's fairly ineffective when compared to the HE, it does have some viability against more armoured vessels though. The APHE is close to useless functionally, it only has slightly more penetration power than the HE and contains less than half the explosive filler, the HEAT will be a better option against armoured targets.
Secondary armament
The Soukou-Tei is also equipped with two twin 7.7 mm turrets. They have very little damage potential against enemy ships unless engaging at very close range. They come with three belts-
- Universal - A mix between armour piecing and incendiary tracer rounds
- AP - Majority armour piercing
- API - Majority incendiary tracer
Overall the incendiary tracer rounds do the most consistent damage overall to vessels and aircraft, the damage itself is fairly poor, but if you are in a situation where you find yourself needing to use these guns, the API belt is the way to go. Unlike the previous Soukou-Tei model the turrets on this variant have double the elevation, meaning than can be used more effectively against aircraft, a good burst will knock one out.
Usage in battles
This vessel's playstyle is very very similar to the previous model, the 1927- and in much the same vein, because of all the various drawbacks this vessel has, it's hard to pinpoint a truly effective way to play it, as it just does not excel in any capacity. A safe, and arguably effective way to play it is by using it as an escort for some of the larger ships on your team, this works in theory, but in practice a lot of the large support vessels around this battle rating are almost twice as fast as you, so you'll likely be left lagging behind the group.
In any case though aiming to stay close to friendlies is the best way to keep yourself afloat, you can't take much fire, so you'll need a buffer from your team to help you out, in a one on one engagement you'll likely lose, as you just don't have the accuracy to be able to quickly sink enemy boats at long or close range. You can however, aid some of the larger ships in sinking enemy boats, try to aim for the same targets as your team to contribute to knocking them out. The 57 mm is a fairly damaging weapon, so aim to take out the compartments of the enemy boats you come across, the fire rate isn't terrible, and if you have the range you can finish off an enemy boat in 3 or 4 good hits. Even though this boat is an upgrade firepower wise from the Model 1927, being more aggressive and fighting one on one is still a largely inconsistent tactic, and you should still aim to support your friendlies.
Because most if not all friendly vessels will outpace you, try to aim to reach some cover around some commonly traveled areas of the map first, and then team up with any large friendly ships that come close to you afterwards, this allows for you to stay relatively safe for as long as possible. Try not to stray too far from cover or friendlies, you can't reliably engage past 1,000 m anyway, and if an enemy starts engaging you at range and you're not in cover, there's nothing you can do as you're just too slow to retreat, and lack the consistent firepower to cause much damage. It's important to note here that this boat is largely more effective in AB mode as opposed to RB mode, as the main tedium of playing this boat is aiming the gun, and AB ranges automatically, it still won't excel, but you'll likely notice much better results when playing this mode.
