A46 Different

Page last updated 02 December, 2024.

The A46 is a tier 7 British light tank. It features good mobility, top speed, & HP, with a HESH-firing gun & good gun depression. It has very weak armour, mediocre gun handling, and low penetration potential.

Armour

(The A46 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 150mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 45mm HE

Armour when flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 40mm
Lower plate 20mm

Turret face 35-50mm

Side armour:
Side armour is 20mm with no spaced armour. The tracks count as 20mm module armour.

Armour vs all tier 6-8 tanks:
The A46 is among the worst armoured tanks in tier 7, and nothing you face will struggle to penetrate the armour of the A46.

All AP, APCR, HEAT, HEP, & HESH shells will penetrate the tank 100% of the time, as the base armour of the A46 is too thin to deflect shells.

If you angle the hull slightly, some lower caliber HE (75mm-90mm guns) may be unable to penetrate the upper plate, but the lower plate will always be penetrable.

Gun

The A46 mounts a 77mm gun. It has 3 shell types including HESH

AP:
-Alpha damage is 160.
-Penetration is 150mm, or 162mm with calibrated shells.
-DPM is 2657, or 2525 with calibrated shells.
-Reload time is 3.6s, or 3.8s with calibrated shells.

HESH:
-Alpha damage is 180.
-Penetration is 132mm, or 143mm with calibrated shells.
-DPM is 2992, or 2842 with calibrated shells.
-Reload time is 3.6s, or 3.8s with calibrated shells.

HE:
-Alpha damage is 200.
-Penetration is 40mm, or 43mm with calibrated shells.
-DPM is 3324, or 3158 with calibrated shells.
-Reload time is 3.6s, or 3.8s with calibrated shells.

Other gun stats:
–Estimated aim time is 3.4/3.6s
–Base aim time is 2.15s, but it can get down to 1.66s.
-Dispersion is 0.317/0.269.
–Gun handling is 0.13/0.13/0.06, or 0.11/0.11/0.05 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees.

This gun isn’t great. Its very noticeable that the aim time is quite slow & gun handling isn’t great, you really have to stop and aim. Penetration potential is low, the maximum possible penetration is only 162mm, which is the same penetration as an SP1C or Kunze Panzer when they use gun rammer. DPM is also not impressive, as tier 7 mediums & lights with 160 damage almost all have a quicker reload.

A46 does have HESH which makes its DPM better, but its not significantly better than other tier 7 tanks. HESH penetration is good against most enemies you face, but will struggle against tier 8. Other than this, gun depression & dispersion are both good.

Mobility

-Top speed is 67km/h forwards, and -22km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 74.1 deg/s on hard terrain, and 57.0 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 33.7 hp/t, it has a good 502 horsepower engine for its ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 33.7 hp/t on hard terrain, and 25.9 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.3/1.5

Overall the A46 has good mobility, it feels like quite a fast tank. On hard terrain its easily able to accelerate to its top speed, and has great traverse. On medium terrain its noticeably slower at accelerating and traversing, however its still not bad. It has a very nice top speed, though reverse speed is nothing special.

Equipment loadout

Calibrated Shells:
Due to this tank being a HESH-focused tank, its worth using calibrated shells. The HESH means you trade having a premium shell, so you maximum possible penetration is much less than other tanks in the tier.

Calibrated shells increases penetration on AP from 150mm to 162mm, HESH from 132mm to 143mm, and HE from 40mm to 44mm.

Alternatively, if you just want to focus on having a fast reload with high DPM, gun rammer can work, but you need to flank around more enemies due to the lower penetration.

Improved Assembly:
The A46 is among the worst armoured tanks in tier 7, it gains nothing from enhanced armour so use improved assembly.

The A46 actually has very impressive HP for a light tank, with 1150 base. Using improved assembly will increase it to 1196 HP.

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
Both of these can work, you can either choose to try and balance out the fairly mediocre gun handling of the tank, or you can min-max the dispersion, which is already very good.

If you want to balance out the gun handling and have slightly better effective aim time, then use vertical stabilizer.

If you want to just have great snapshot capability and have even better accuracy than base, then use refined gun, it takes the accuracy from 0.317 down to 0.269.

Gameplay advice

The A46 is a support light tank. While it can play fairly similarly to other tier 7 light tanks, such as the M41D or Type 62, its main difference is how inconsistent its gun is compared to other tanks.

General gameplay:
The A46 is an opportunistic light tank. It works well taking advantage of distracted enemies, open flanks, and exposed sides/rears.

Like most light tanks its best to avoid getting in an all-in frontal fight, since you don’t have the armour to take hits. Despite A46 having good DPM & high HP for a light tank, both are negated by the fact enemies can easily HE penetrate almost anywhere in any situation.

Use the tank’s small size to get into bushes to spot, & use the high speed and good general mobility to get around enemies to shoot them in the sides or rear. This works particularly well for the A46 due to its low penetration.

Trade with DPM, your reload is fast which lets you put in multiple shots against enemies, However, avoid tanks with similar alpha damage, as most have a faster reload time than you.

Aiming:
The A46 is a fast tank, on top of this it has quite mediocre gun handling, with poor penetration, mediocre aim time, and a primary shell that can’t deal with spaced armour or tracks. All of this combine to make a gun that is quite awkward to use in the fast playstyle of a light tank.

If possible, try to stop and aim. This will give you time to get more accurate and actually hit shots on enemies, as well as carefully aim your HESH to avoid hitting non-penetrable areas.

Don’t stop to aim if the enemy you are aiming for is either: very well armoured, reloaded and aiming for you, or has high alpha. Such enemies aren’t worth trying to deal with, since you’ll either take massive damage in return, or just be unable to deal with their armour effectively. Its better to run away and try to find a better situation to deal with them in.

Aiming is important since you are fast, gun handling is mediocre, and your aim time is poor, speed, gun handling, and aim time all stack together to make the gun bloom out more. Combine this with HESH, which you need to aim well against smaller weakpoints due to how inconsistent it is, it makes it more difficult to be effective with the gun (unless you’re sitting still).

Avoid fights:
In many cases you’ll have to try avoid fighting enemies, since the A46’s gun just isn’t consistent. The gun works best against large & flat armour plates, as HESH can’t penetrate any modules or spaced armour, and shooting at small weakpoints isn’t ideal when the gun lacks penetration, aim time, and is a constantly moving light tank.

Only take on fights where you are guaranteed to win, for example, you can use AP and kill the enemy very easily, or they are a very HE-prone tank (such as a Rhm.-B. WT). Otherwise its best to just run away and regroup with allies.

Use all ammo types:
The A46’s ammo use is crucial to making the tank work in battle.

HESH should be the ammo you try to use as often as possible, since it deals the most damage while having still decent penetration. Avoid shooting it at tanks which have a lot of spaced armour or module armour.

AP should act like your premium ammo, as its damage is less than HESH but still competitive. This is also the ammo you should use when dealing with heavier armoured tanks, or tanks with spaced armour.

HE is still useful, despite only doing 20 more damage with much less penetration than HESH, its still a 40 increase over AP, and can quickly shred through paper tanks like the SU-130PM or the rears of enemy light tanks.

Stay on hard terrain:
Due to poor terrain resistances, the A46 really benefits from avoiding going off-road. The A46 is very mobile on hard terrain (roads, paths, concrete, paved areas), but slows down very noticeably when going on medium terrain. The tank still isn’t slow, but it is worse than most other light tanks, hence why it needs to stay on hard terrain as much as possible.

Overall the A46 is just an opportunistic damage dealer. It searches for those moments where it gets to go in and farm enemies from the sides or rear with its great DPM yet low penetration, and avoids head-on fights and damage as much as possible.

Overall

Armour – 1/10
Gun – 5/10
Mobility – 6/10
Speed – 7/10

A46 is overall a mediocre tank.

Armour is terrible, among the worst of its tier. HE protection is almost non-existent.
Gun has poor aim time, mediocre gun handling, very low penetration potential, and bad shell velocity. Accuracy is good, with good DPM & decent HESH ammo. Gun depression is -9 degrees.
Mobility is good, very fast on hard terrain with amazing traverse speed and acceleration. On medium terrain the acceleration & traverse are below-average, but still decent.
Speed is good, with 67km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The A46 is not worth getting.. Its a fairly weak tank which trades quite a lot of stats just to have a HESH shell that really doesn’t provide too much of an advantage, and high HP which is completely negated by HE-able armour.

While this tank can be quite fun to play due to being both fast with good gun depression & a quick reload, in terms of its actual capabilities in battle it is easily outdone.

The A46 is worth 2,500 gold. Its an okay tank, its just not worth getting over similar vehicles, and in many situations it can be quite weak and frustrating to play. However, this tank can also be quite fun to play just due to a quick reload combined with good speed.

Most recently sold for:

Holiday Ops 2025 alternate reward – December 2024

Camo cost:

A46 Different has a permanent appearance which can’t be adjusted.

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