AMX 30 1er

AMX 30 1er or AMX 30 Prot. is a tier 9 version of the AMX 30B. It has good mobility, a decent gun, and decent armour for its speed. It lacks penetration, DPM, and accuracy.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Overall
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:
9. Camo cost:

Armour

(The AMX 30 1er in the images is using Improved Assembly)
The image slider may take a few seconds to load.

Drag slider right ->to view 245mm AP
Drag slider left <- to view 300mm HEAT

Armour when on flat ground:
-Upper plate 140mm auto-ricochet
-Mid and lower plates 70-100mm
-Turret 175-240mm+
-Hatch 40mm
-Gun mantlet 405mm

Note that the upper plate is a 40mm plate, angled at an auto-ricochet, meaning it can bounce AP and APCR from any 120mm gun or smaller. Guns that are bigger than 120mm can overmatch it easily. This is just like on the AMX 30B.

Similarly, HEAT ammo will easily go through the upper plate of this tank, as its angled at 73 degrees, but HEAT can go through 85 degrees of angled armour.

Armour vs tier 8:
Tier 8 tanks may struggle more against the turret cheeks of this tank, as most heavies have around 220mm of penetration, and most mediums are sitting around 200mm.

As shown below, the armour is pretty decent against lower levels of penetration.

The hull is still very weak, even against these lower penetration tanks.

Armour vs tier 9-10:
Most tanks in tiers 9-10 can easily penetrate the turret cheeks of this tank, however there are small areas on the edges which may receive bounces. Keeping the tank moving while only exposing the turret can make it hard to aim for the cheeks though, just like on the AMX 30B.

The hull is very weak and easy to penetrate to any enemy if hitting the middle or lower areas of the front. The upper plate is an auto-ricochet, but only to 120mm guns or smaller.

Armour caveats:
-Tiers 8, 9, and 10 all contain very many 122mm+ guns, and most tanks in tiers 9 and 10 tanks do fire HEAT, so you really can’t rely on the upper plate armour hardly at all. Just don’t be surprised if you bounce an enemy shell on it.

-The side “boxes” of the AMX 30 1er are spaced armour, it won’t help bounce any AP, but it does stop easy HE shots from enemy tanks.

Gun

The AMX 30 1er mounts a 100mm gun

-Alpha damage is 310 on AP, 260 on APCR, and 350 on HE
-Reload is 6.7s, giving it 2796 DPM
-Penetration is 232mm on AP, 263mm on APCR, and 50mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 3.3/3.6s
–Base aim time is 2s, but it can get down to 1.71s.
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.293
–Gun handling is 0.12/0.12/0.06, or 0.1/0.1/0.05 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is a very good -10

The AMX 30 1er’s gun is not great, in fact its quite bad for a tier 9 medium tank.
Compared to other tier 9 mediums, its both the lowest DPM (for a cyclic gun), and the lowest penetration tier 9 medium. Faced against an E75, you can’t penetrate its lower plate even with APCR, imagine what happens when faced against tier 10 enemies.
While the aim time is decent, the gun handling isn’t the best among tier 9 mediums, and its accuracy is poor for its alpha damage.

While this may make the AMX 30 1er’s gun sound unusable, its really not. Its just that other tier 9 medium tanks have such good guns, and the AMX 30 1er’s is just worse in its stats.

It seriously struggles to penetrate enemies though, and don’t take this as an understatement; do not even consider buying this tank if you can’t stand low penetration tanks.
You would be surprised by how many tier 10 tanks that tank just has no chance of penetrating, even more so if they hide their lower plates.

Mobility

-Top speed is 60km/h, reverse speed is -23km/h.
-Traverse speed is also good, 73.4 deg/s on hard terrain, and 60 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 24.7 hp/t, it has a strong 817hp engine for its 33 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 27.4 hp/t on hard terrain, and 22.5 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are good, with 0.9/1.1/1.5

The mobility of the AMX 30 1er is not that impressive if you have played a French medium tank before, however its good when compared to tier 9 mediums in general.
Only the Leopard PTA has better mobility, and that has far less turret and hull armour. For its armour this tank definitely has quite good mobility.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

AMX 30 1er has no special provisions/consumables.

Calibrated Shells:
Though the AMX 30 1er has the lowest DPM for a single shot gun, it also has the lowest penetration in its tier.
You could argue that it needs the DPM, but what will happen if you can’t penetrate an enemy with even your highest penetration round? It doesn’t matter how fast you reload, you won’t be doing any damage.
Using calibrated shells would decrease your DPM from 2796 down to 2600, and your reload would go up from 6.7 to 7.2. However it would give your tank a much better 244mm AP penetration, 276mm APCR penetration, and 55mm on HE.

The 276mm APCR penetration is very important, as it will allow your tank to penetrate the lower plate of almost all tier 9-10 tanks, and the upper plates and turrets of some lighter armoured enemies.

Gun rammer can work well, especially if you mainly go to the MT flank and just fight against mediums. The increased penetration is mainly useful for dealing with heavies and armoured TDs.

Improved Assembly/Enhanced Armour:
Enhanced armour generally wouldn’t be considered on a tank like this, however due to the AMX having such a rounded turret, and it having a 40mm auto-ricochet upper plate, it can be used on this tank.
Using enhanced armour would make the turret harder to penetrate to tier 8 tanks, and low penetration tier 9s, though it would still have weakpoints on the cheeks. It would also stop all 122mm guns from overmatching the upper plate of the AMX, meaning that any 122mm gun that shoots the upper plate will bounce off.

As the AMX 30 1er isn’t a tank that’s designed to be bouncing shots all the time, you might want to use improved assembly instead. Improved assembly would increase the AMX’s HP from 1650 to 1749. 

Refined Gun:
Between gun handling and dispersion (accuracy), gun handling is the better of the two statistics on this tank, so its better to improve the rather mediocre accuracy by using refined gun.

While the gun handling is worse than competitors, it is by no means bad, and still feels very comfortable even when not using vertical stabilizer. What is quite poor on this gun is its dispersion, 0.326 for a 310 alpha gun is not very good, use refined gun and bring this down to 0.293. This gives the tank great accuracy, while still keeping its good handling.

Gameplay advice

The AMX 30 1er, just like the AMX 30B, is a unique combination of features. It has some armour, but its not the most impressive, it has good mobility, and it has a decent enough gun.

Its a  unique tank, and thus has a unique playstyle. Just like the tier X AMX 30B, it takes some of the gameplay of a fast tank like the Leopard PTA, and some of the gameplay of a hulldown tank such as the Centurion 7/1.

In this sense it plays similarly to the AMX 30B, where it can go to the frontline, but needs allied support so it doesn’t get overwhelmed from getting out-DPM’ed or having to face multiple enemies.
Never sit still in front of enemies when going hulldown, you still have weakpoints on the turret cheeks, and your hatch still sticks out on the left side of the turret. Moving back and fourth makes it easier for enemies to miss their shot and hit the gun mantlet or tank’s roof.
Always be looking for flanking opportunities where you can support allies from across the map or behind the enemies. 

Overall

Overall the AMX 30 1er is an ok tank, rather than focusing on 1 or 2 statistical areas, its focused all-round.
Its got great mobility, its armour is good considering that mobility, and while its gun is not the best, its still alright in tier 9.

Compared to AMX 30B
Generally the playerbase and community of WoT Blitz consider the AMX 30 1er to be “the best tier 9 medium” or “one of the best tier 9 tanks”. You have probably heard it compared to the AMX 30B and players saying how much better the armour is, or how much better the gun is, or just in general how its a better tank than the 30B and how it should be at tier 10 instead of it.

If you have played the AMX 30B and you like what the tank offers (mobility, armour, accuracy), you may be seriously disappointed by this tank. Its hyped up to be amazing and much better than the tier 10 AMX 30, but its just not.

-The armour of the AMX 30 1er is better for its tier, and this is the part that some 30B players may like. It lacks an enormous hatch on the top of the turret, and overall its cheeks are a bit stronger (but not by much). It retains the same strong gun mantlet and auto-ricochet upper plate. It also gets some spaced armour on the side to stop HE.
While the armour of the AMX 30 1er is undoubtedly better, its not by that much. Its cheeks are still easily penetrated by enemies, its upper plate lacks the 55mm plate that can be angled to the side (see here), and the biggest difference that players seem to adore is the lack of a huge hatch (which is indeed a nice change many 30B players would probably want).

-The gun of the AMX 30B is often complained about, mainly on the fact of its DPM being low.
The AMX 30 1er faces the exact same issue in tier 9, as its also the lowest DPM single-shot medium tank. Thing is, the AMX 30 1er has both below average alpha damage and a slow reload (unlike the 30B which has average alpha damage for its tier).
Unlike the tier 10 AMX 30B which has great gun handling and decent penetration as a tier 10 medium; the AMX 30 1er has terrible penetration and poor gun accuracy stats as a tier 9 medium.

-The AMX 30 1er, compared to the 30B, has atrocious mobility. If you have played the AMX 30B, you will know its almost as fast as a Leopard 1 and the light tanks of tier 10. It has the same kind of acceleration and traverse, with a still solid 62km speed.
The AMX 30 1er is nowhere near as fast, in fact it can struggle to get to its 60km top speed if not on flat/straight ground as it takes a long time to accelerate. If the AMX 30B feels like a light tank, the AMX 30 1er feels like a slightly fast medium in comparison.

This is not to say the tank is bad, but for AMX 30B players who have not played this tank but have heard the praise the community seems to heap on the AMX 30 1er, its not all its cracked up to be.

Is it worth getting?

The AMX 30 1er is a unique tank in tier 9, it combines mobility with some armour and an ok gun. The most similar tank would be the Leopard PTA, but that definitely doesn’t have the gun depression or armour that the AMX has.

While its not the “super good best tank in tier 9” that everyone says it is, its definitely a combination of statistics that works well, and it is certainly the better tier 9 premium medium out of the 2 we have in game.

The tank is worth it if this sounds like a tank you would enjoy, with some armour (but with defined weakpoints), pretty good speed and acceleration, and a decent enough gun.
However if you have already got the AMX 30B, buying this tank won’t do much for you, the 2 tanks play in almost the same way, and it lacking a hatch on the roof probably won’t make up for the lost mobility and gun consistency that the 30B has over this.

The AMX 30 1er has been out for long time, and its worth around 8,500 gold. Paying more than this is too expensive. Its often sold for 10,000 on its own but can be obtained cheaper in multi-tank bundles, Black Friday events, and Blitzfair auctions.

Most recently sold for:

10,000 gold (Tank only) – September 2022
Blitzfair Auction – December 2022
10,000 (Tank only) gold – May 2023
12,500 (Full bundle), 10,000 (Tank only) gold – August 2023

Camo cost:

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