AMX-50 Surbaisse
Contents
Description
The AMX-50 Surbaissé is a Rank V French heavy tank
with a battle rating of 7.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.75 "La Résistance". On the battlefield, the vehicle is very easy to recognize due to its shape which simply cannot be mistaken for another French tank.
The AMX-50 Surbaisse differs from every heavy tank in its general playstyle, since it has rather thin armour which will not protect it against incoming enemy fire, you have to use its medium tank like mobility to perform deadly flank attacks which will often prove very deadly for the enemy team. Indeed, since you can keep up with most medium tanks and even outpace some, especially the British medium tanks, many enemies will find themselves completely caught off guard and at the mercy of your autoloading 120 mm gun which will allow you to kill one tank every 7.5 seconds. The tank is also a great long range sniper (1,500 meters and beyond) as it comes equipped with a rangefinder that will allow you to range very quickly distant targets and deliver deadly and accurate shots upon them, also at such distances your armour will start to be difficult to penetrate for most lower rank gun you'll encounter. Overall this tank, while being a heavy tank, is not meant to be played as such since it does not behave as such. You must use your mobility and your accurate fast firing armament to prove effective against the enemies you'll come across
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Cast homogeneous armour
- Rolled homogeneous armour (Hull sides, Hull rear, Hull roof)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 60 mm (30-85°) Front glacis 100 mm (8-57°) Joint plate 60 mm (21-74°) Bottom glacis |
30-60 mm (0-23°) Top 30 mm Bottom |
30 mm (0-50°) | 20 mm |
| Turret | - | 60 mm Turret 40-60 mm (0-12°) Turret base |
40 mm (0-30°) Turret bustle 20 mm (21-31°) Pivot ball 10 mm (69-76°) Turret underside |
20 mm |
| Armour | Sides | Roof | ||
| Cupola | 60 mm | 20 mm |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 30 mm thick.
- Wheels are interleaved to offer stacked protection values.
Mobility
| Mobility characteristic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Weight (tons) | Add-on Armour weight (tons) |
Max speed (km/h) |
| 57.8 | N/A | 55 (AB) |
| 51 (RB/SB) | ||
| Engine power (horsepower) | ||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded |
| Arcade | 1,097 | 1,351 |
| Realistic/Simulator | 752 | 850 |
| Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | ||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded |
| Arcade | 18.98 | __.__ |
| Realistic/Simulator | 13.01 | __.__ |
Armaments
Main armament
| 120 mm SA46 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance |
Stabilizer | ||
| 38 | -8°/+14° | ±180° | N/A | ||
| Turret rotation speed (°/s) | |||||
| Mode | Stock | Upgraded | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. |
| Arcade | 17.9 | 24.7 | 28.9 | 33.2 | 35.3 |
| Realistic | 17.9 | 22.1 | 25.7 | 28.4 | 30.0 |
| Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||
| Stock | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. | ||
| 50.0 | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ | ||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration in mm @ 90° | |||||
| 10m | 100m | 500m | 1000m | 1500m | 2000m | ||
| 100 mm Obus de rupture | AP | 303 | 302 | 286 | 267 | 251 | 235 |
| 100 mm Obus explosif | HE | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 39 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity in m/s |
Projectile Mass in kg |
Fuse delay
in m: |
Fuse sensitivity
in mm: |
Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent): |
Normalization At 30° from horizontal: |
Ricochet: | ||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||
| 120 mm Obus de rupture | AP | 1067 | 23 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
| 120 mm Obus explosif | HE | 762 | 23 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 4,650 | +0° | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | XX (X+) | (+) | (+) | (+) | (+) | (+) | no |
Machine guns
| 7.5 mm AAT-52 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coaxial mount | ||||||
| Capacity (Belt capacity) | Fire rate (shots/minute) |
Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance | |||
| 3,000 (200) | 900 | N/A | N/A | |||
Usage in the battles
Playing the AMX 50 Surbaisse requires 2 things :
- Good map knowledges
- Gunnery discipline
As mentioned previously, the AMX 50 Surbaisse is not a heavy, that probably is something you'll learn the hard way while playing your first matches in this tank. You have to play it like a medium tank and you always should try to look for a good flanking route that will eventually get you to a spot where you'll be able to decimate several tanks of the enemy team form the side of from behind. As a result this tank requires a lot of forethinking before deciding which way to go and this decision must be taken in accordance to the map but also in accordance to what nation you face. The tank can also be used as a very effective long range snipers especially in downtiers. The combination of fast firing 120 mm gun and rangefinder can prove very effective especially at range over 1,500 meters where your armour will start to matter especially against lower tiered opponent such as Tiger II's. To turn this vehicle into a deadly sniping machine, it is very much advised to bind rangefinding keys and sight adjustment that are intuitive to you. In this way you will be able to range targets and adjust the gun very accurately in such a way that, with practice and discipline will grant you the ability to deliver shots in a "Point aimed, Point hit" fashion.
Every enemy you can encounter which do not result from deliberate uptiers from the enemy can and will easily get through your armour. The tank's armour cannot withstand guns that are more powerful than the German 7.5 cm KwK 42 or the US 90 mm M3 gun
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Autoloading 120 mm gun
- Downtime between shots is minimal
- Large ammo count per magazine (19 shots)
- Same stock ammo as the M103
- Extremely fast turret rotation speed when upgraded, especially for a heavy tank (characteristic of oscillating turrets)
- Decently fast
Cons:
- Laughable armour for heavy tank standards at it's BR
- Gun elevation & depression angles are poor (also characteristic of oscillating turrets)
- Carrying 2 magazines leaves ammo everywhere in the tank
- Only 2 ammo choices, AP & HE
History
Media
An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.
Read also
Sources
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| France heavy tanks | |
|---|---|
| B1 | B1 bis · B1 ter |
| 2C | 2C · 2C bis |
| ARL-44 | ARL-44 (ACL-1) |
| AMX-50 | Somua SM · AMX-50 Surbaissé · AMX-50 Surblindé |
| USA | ▄M4A3E2 |
