AMX 50 Foch 155

The Foch 155 is the top tier French tank destroyer. It has a choice of 2 guns, and features a very high level of mobility, with great frontal armour, but multiple weakpoints. Both of its guns have high penetration but mediocre alpha for a 155mm caliber.

Armour

(The Foch 155 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)
Image slider may take a few seconds to load

Drag slider right -> to view 257mm AP
Drag slider <- Left to view 330mm HEAT

Flat ground:
Upper plate 300-315mm
Lower plate 250mm
Left cupola 270-305mm (weakest point 180mm)
Right rangefinder mostly 200mm

This penetration level represents a tier 9-10 heavy tank level, or a medium using calibrated shells.

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

This penetration represents what a medium tank or lower penetration tier 9 heavy would see.

Armour caveats:
-Even though the lower plate seems to have high thickness, this is only due to very good angling. The lower plate is a fairly thin 120mm plate, so normalization has quite a large effect on its armour effectiveness.

-Notice how the right image shows the tank able to bounce AP rounds, but HEAT can penetrate. This is because HEAT only ricochets at an 85 degree angle, unlike AP and APCR, which ricochet a 70 degrees; and the Foch’s side armour is a weak 75mm thick.

-In the right image, the Foch 155 is turned further than the maximum limit of its gun arc. For armour angling to be effective in this tank, it has to be angled to a point where your gun is unable to be tracked onto the enemy.

-Despite this armour looking great, in practice its not difficult for enemies to hit that large rangefinder on the top right of the tank, making it hard to notice the good upper plate armour. The gun mantlet will also sometimes catch some shots, though its not as common.

Armour vs all tier 9-10 tanks:
Lower plate:
Against very low penetration tanks (tier 9 mediums & lights), the lower plate of the Foch will be quite easy to angle and get bounces off. Most other tanks in tier 9-10 won’t struggle to penetrate it.

Weakpoints:
The left cupola is difficult for most tanks to penetrate, it only has a small weak area at the very center. The rangefinder on the right is a smaller weakpoint than it looks, most of it being spaced armour (hence its highlighted as red). This is weak and any enemy can penetrate it.

Upper plate:
This area is very strong, especially with enhanced armour. It can easily bounce the standard ammo of any tank (with the exception of some high penetration TDs), and will even bounce premium ammo from most tier 9-10 mediums.
To penetrate the upper plate reliably, enemies will need 315mm+ of HEAT penetration (325mm+ if the Foch uses enhanced armour).

Note that if the Foch is moving or angling, it will be even more challenging to penetrate.

Guns

The Foch 155 has a choice of 2 guns, one is a 155mm cyclic gun, the other is a 155mm autoloader. Both are discussed below,
(Stats are shown as though neither vents nor calibrated shells are equipped.)

Cyclic gun:
-Alpha damage is 600 on AP, 560 on HEAT, and 800 on HE
-Reload time is 11.8s, giving it 3059 DPM
-Penetration is 285mm on AP, 370mm on HEAT, and 90mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 3.5/3.7
–Base aim time is 2.1s, but it can get down to 1.71s.
-Dispersion is 0.344/0.310
–Gun handling is 0.2/0.2/0.1, or 0.17/0.17/0.09 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees

Autoloader gun:
-Alpha damage is 500 on APCR, 480 on HEAT, and 620 on HE
-It has 2 shells in the magazine, with a 3.75s intra-clip reload, so in 3.75s it can burst out 1,000 damage.
-Reload time is 17.2s, giving it 2864 DPM
-Penetration is 280mm on APCR, 370mm on HEAT, and 90mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 3.8/4.1
–Base aim time is 2.3s, but it can get down to 1.87s.
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.293
–Gun handling is 0.2/0.2/0.12, or 0.17/0.17/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees
-After-shot-bloom is 4.0

Both of these guns are decent guns. Which one is “better” for performance and gameplay is discussed in the gameplay advice section.

The single shot gun has decent DPM and reload time, though its alpha is lower than similar guns (such as 113G FT). Aim time is good, though gun handling & accuracy are unimpressive. Penetration is good, but gun depression is poor.

The autoloader gun shares mainly the same traits, but with slightly worse aim time & gun handling, but better accuracy. The burst damage of this gun is impressive, especially when coupled with the very high penetration. 3.75s intra-clip reload is good, and doesn’t feel slow. After-shot-bloom of 4.0 is actually pretty good, considering the alpha damage of this gun is 500.

Both of these guns are very inflexible, with poor gun depression of -5 degrees, and terrible gun arc, only going 6 degrees to the left and 6 degrees to the right.

Mobility

-Top speed is 50km/h, reverse is -13km/h
-Traverse speed is 38.7 deg/s on hard terrain, and 32.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 24.4 hp/t, it has an extremely strong 1404 horsepower engine for its 58 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 22.2 hp/t on hard terrain, and 18.8 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 1.1/1.3/2

Overall this is incredible mobility, especially when considering the armour that this tank carries. The Foch 155 is by far the quickest and most mobile tank destroyer in tier 10, having a great top speed, and an extremely strong engine. The traverse and reverse speeds aren’t impressive, but also aren’t terrible.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Foch 155 has no special provisions/consumables.

Improved Ventilation/Calibrated Shells:
The Foch 155 can function perfectly without either of these, there is no “wrong” equipment choice. The tank doesn’t gain a large amount from vents, but also doesn’t need calibrated shells as it has proper TD levels of penetration.

Improved ventilation will add a small amount of DPM, reload time, aim time, accuracy, hull traverse speed, and view range to your tank. This is a good option if you really just want to maximise your tank’s performance.

Calibrated shells sacrifice the 5% crew skill, to gain a huge amount of penetration on premium rounds, but also a nice benefit on HE and APCR. This is a good option if you don’t mind losing some crew performance and just want to penetrate enemies easier (or utilize that 1240 HE magazine).

Camouflage Net/Improved Optics:
Generally camo net is a better choice for a tank destroyer, as its view range is just too short to be able to out-spot most enemies (LT, MT, and other TDs).

However, due to how aggressively the Foch 155 can play, improved optics is a fairly valid choice on this tank, as the Foch 155 is often on the frontlines.

Camo net will be more useful if you want to stay hidden while relocating, as this is a big tank that’s very easy to hit.

Enhanced Armour:
Either equipment piece is a good choice on this tank, however enhanced armour does make a notable difference due to the armour shape and thickness on the Foch 155.

Enhanced armour gives significantly improved armour, mainly to the upper plate:
Upper plate from 292-312mm up to 304-325mm.
Lower plate from 255mm to 266mm.

This increased thickness is especially useful against medium tank, with generally have 290-300mm of HEAT penetration.

Foch 155 already has quite decent base HP of 1850, so it can take a few hits even without improved assembly.

Improved control:
Due to the Foch 155 having such an insanely strong engine with high acceleration rate, but fairly unimpressive traverse speed, its the perfect tank to use improved control on.

It doesn’t need the extra engine power, as its already a quick tank, and has no problem reaching top speed. However, as the Foch 155 lacks a turret, traverse speed is far more important than acceleration rate.

Improved control would lower the effective acceleration rate by about 1.2hp/t, but it would increase the hull traverse speed by 1 deg/s on both medium and hard terrains.

With improved control, the new mobility would be:
20.9 hp/t acceleration on hard terrain, 17.7 hp/t acceleration on medium terrain.
40 deg/s traverse speed on hard terrain, 33.9 deg/s traverse speed on medium terrain.

Vertical Stabilizer:
The Foch 155 is not a sniper tank, and both of its guns already have quite good dispersion, so the tank really doesn’t benefit from refined gun.

Vertical stabilizer is very useful, as the Foch 155 plays very active frontline role. Its constantly moving, and has to constantly turn the hull due to the lack of a turret. Vertical stabilizer helps to improve the tank’s accuracy and aiming during and after movement, which is very beneficial to the Foch’s playstyle.

Vertical stabilizer also gives an added benefit to the autoloader gun, which is improving the after-shot dispersion. Since the autoloader gun has to fire 2 shots in quick succession, having this stat improved is vital to be able to be accurate with that 2nd shot in the magazine.

Gameplay advice

The Foch 155 is an aggressive, frontline support TD. It doesn’t and shouldn’t snipe, regardless of which gun you use.

Gun choice:
The gun you should use is up to you, try both guns and play using the one that you enjoy more.

For a unique gun choice, the autoloader gun is definitely much more unique than the stock cyclic gun. However the stock gun is a more conventional choice and its generally easier to use, since it has higher DPM, quicker reload, and better alpha damage; its sustained DPM and reload help it to be more effective in many situations.

Gameplay with cyclic gun:
The cyclic gun is the stock gun, meaning you will be forced to play it when unlocking this tank.

Utilize rate-of-fire:
An 11.8s reload (or 11.5s with vents) is a fairly quick reload for 600 alpha damage. You can often use this fairly quick reload to trade damage with enemies, and it works very well when played aggressively.

(Note that with a 75% crew, your reload time is less impressive, and you can’t utilize this RoF as much.)

Trade alpha damage:
If playing against tanks with faster reload speed, try to avoid them for as long as possible while you reload. A good player will try to put 2-3 shots into your tank when you shoot them, since they know your reload time is longer. Avoiding them for as long as possible by either reversing or getting into cover, and then pushing when you’re reloaded, will give you the best chance of trading effectively.

Other than this, the below gameplay advice can also be applied to this gun.

Gameplay with autoloader gun:
The gameplay of this gun is very different to any other TD in game. There are a few things to note about it:
1- Try to trade in bursts.
2- Keep allies with you to cover the long 17s reload
3- Don’t over-push.
4- Avoid “sniper” gameplay.
5- Conserve HP.

Trading in bursts:
Unlike with the cyclic gun, you shouldn’t just poke out, shoot, then retreat. Keep the aggression against your enemy during the intra-clip reload. If you hesitate during your 3.75s intra-clip reload, you give the enemy a chance to escape or to easily put a shot into your tank.

Sometimes you should pull back just slightly during that 3.75s reload, especially if you know the enemy has a shot ready. The Foch’s HP isn’t too impressive so every shot you take damages your chances of carrying the battle later on.

Stay with allies:
Don’t go alone or get isolated from your allies, always try to keep at least one tank with you who can support you.

The autoloader gun has low DPM and a long clip reload, making the Foch unable to defend itself against enemies well. Most tanks in tier 10 have more DPM, and those that don’t will have much higher HP, so you want to avoid being in a 1v1.

Also note that while the Foch’s upper plate is strong, when alone against one or multiple enemies, its very hard to get them to bounce off it. Often enemies can just flank to the sides and shoot the very weak side armour, or just hit the large rangefinder weakpoint.

Don’t over-push or be over-aggressive:
While you can play the Foch very aggressively with the single shot gun, its much harder to make that work with the autoloader. Again this is due to the autoloader’s long reload and poor DPM, which can’t sustain itself in a fast-paced situation.

The tank’s low HP, lack of a turret, weak side armour, and unimpressive hull traverse make it very vulnerable in situations where it can be overwhelmed by multiple enemies.

Avoid sniping:
With the autoloader gun you shouldn’t snipe. Its alpha damage is only 500, and since you’re at long range, you can’t guarantee that the enemy will still be in your line of fire after your 3.75s intra clip. Basically if you wanted to snipe, playing an Obj.268 would be a better option, or just using the single-shot gun which has better alpha.

The autoloader is built for close to mid range gameplay. Sniping can work sometimes, but the autoloader just isn’t ideal for that gameplay style.

Conserve HP:
In late game scenarios, the 1000 magazine damage potential can be very powerful. Since the Foch’s armour is only frontal (and with multiple weakpoints), and it has a huge side profile, it can be quite easy to lose your HP before the late game, and makes it much harder to win in those situations.

Playing a bit more careful with positioning, when to push and when to retreat (ie: when you expose the side to enemies and potentially get spotted), since that saved HP will really let the gun work and carry in longer games.

Avoid uneven terrain:
Try to keep to flat surfaces. Uneven terrain really makes the Foch 155 awkward to play, due to its poor gun depression and gun arc angles. Also try to keep to hard terrain, as the tank has significantly better traverse speed on hard terrain than on medium.

Angle and wiggle the tank:
This really helps the Foch to bounce shots, or just to survive longer. Often enemies will try to aim for the lower plate, or shoot premium ammo at your tank’s upper plate. If you angle and wiggle, the upper plate becomes an unreliable area, and enemies will have to aim more carefully at your tank’s already small lower plate.

Due to the large size of the rangefinder weakpoint, angling and wiggling doesn’t really help to make that area more troll. All you can do is hope the enemies miss, or you can try to make some unpredictable movement to get that to happen.

Don’t over-push:
Due to this tank being so fast in a straight line, having such a long hull, not having a turret, and having unimpressive traverse speed, it can be easy to accidentally drive past your target.

The tank is so quick in a straight line, that if you go around a corner, and have to turn to shoot at the enemy, the enemy has a chance to drive forward and sidehug your tank. This would cause you to lose a lot of HP, as the long hull and somewhat slow reverse speed cause it to be hard to shake off tanks on your side or rear.

When coming around a corner, slow down before getting to the corner. Don’t drive your whole tank around the corner, as it gives the enemy an open flanking opportunity while you turn.

Don’t rush shots:
Both of the Foch 155’s guns have good base aim time compared to other 150-155mm guns, however the tank has unimpressive gun handling, and due to its very high mobility, it causes the gun to really bloom out during movement.

Due to that high speed and gun handling, the Foch 155 is terrible at rushing shots or taking snap shots. You have to stop and let the gun aim in after moving. Both guns have decent dispersion and pretty good aim time, so once they do get aimed in you can hit fairly reliably.

The less impressive gun handling and dispersion mean that if you don’t stop to aim, and rather just snap a shot while moving, or just after stopping, you are very likely to miss. Take the time to aim, especially on the autoloader where one miss is 50% of your magazine damage.

Spam HEAT:
Again due to the high level of mobility, along with the need to aim well, sometimes its better to just switch to HEAT and deal slightly less damage, but save yourself some aiming and potentially some HP.

Switching from standard ammo to HEAT basically allows you to “aim less” since you can penetrate more. The Foch 155 has extremely impressive HEAT penetration and can penetrate essentially anything, but it also still has very impressive damage.

The autoloader only decreases in alpha by 20 per shot from standard APCR, and the cyclic gun only decreases in alpha by 40 per shot. Using HEAT barely decreases your alpha, and in some situations its better to save your self the time from aiming or risking a bounce.

Hide the side armour:
The hull sides are very flat, very long, and quite thin. They are only 75mm thick, so are easily HE-able to many higher caliber guns, and of course from HESH. Try to expose this area as little as possible, and only show enemies the front of your tank.

If you notice a tank with a big gun coming from the side, turn your frontal armour to them. Its better to take damage from AP then it is to be hit by a full penetration HE round.

Using cover and mobility:
Due to the Foch’s mobility (insanely quick forwards, slow backwards), in some situations, its just better to keep driving forward, than it is to stop and reverse.

In the right situations, you may be able to drive forward to evade enemies, such as moving to a closer building, or driving into a dip in the terrain. Stopping and reversing at a low speed may sometimes take longer, and gives the enemies more chance to aim at your tank’s weakpoints.

Note that this is very reliant on the battle situation. You shouldn’t push too far into the enemies’ lines, as you’ll just get surrounded and die. This is useful in situations where you know your team can support you, or you team has good control of the map.

This is just utilizing the strength of the tank’s mobility, to take cover in a way that’s different from most tanks, based on the weakness of the tank’s reverse speed.

The Foch 155 is an aggressive frontline tank destroyer. It uses its great armour and mobility to quickly get into combat and fight brawls on the frontline and in close range. It relies on allies to help cover its vulnerable sides and to support it in aggressive pushes. Without allied support, the tank is very easy to counter and overwhelm.

Tank gameplay

Gameplay with the autoloader gun:

Gameplay with the cyclic gun:

Overall

Armour – 5/10
Gun – Cyclic gun 5/10, autoloader gun 4.5/10
Mobility – 6/10
Speed – 10/10

Foch 155 is overall a decent tank.

Armour is strong on the upper plate, but with multiple frontal weakpoints. HESH/ HE protection is poor, side profile is very large and weak.
Guns are fairly average. The cyclic gun has great standard & premium penetration with good aim time, with decent dispersion & DPM for 600 alpha. The autoloader gun has the same premium penetration but worse standard penetration, slightly worse aim time, but better dispersion. It has poor DPM and a fairly long reload but good burst damage.
Both guns have average gun handling with very poor gun depression and gun arcs.
Mobility is good, the engine is very strong, acceleration very good, though traverse speed isn’t impressive. Reverse speed poor at 13km/h. Flexibility is poor due to tank size and gun angles.
Speed is great at, 50km/h (and this tank can actually reach it easily).

Is it worth grinding?

The Foch 155 isn’t really worth grinding. The unique part of this tank is its 2 shot autoloader gun with 500 alpha, however that’s just not a good gun. For the Foch 155 to perform well, it has to mount the stock 600 alpha gun, however once you do this, the tank isn’t so unique, and becomes basically a Ho-Ri, Obj.268, or 113G FT with a worse gun and armour profile.

This tank isn’t recommended for newer players, as to play it well, you need to be able to position well, know how to avoid enemies while on a fairly long reload (if using the autoloader), and how to properly play with an aggressive and active TD playstyle.
This tank should only really be grinded after getting the other similar TDs, Obj.268, Ho-Ri, or the 113G FT. Those are just more enjoyable and better tanks than the Foch 155, and can offer similar gameplay.

Camo cost:

“Destroyer” camo: 2D, costs 2,550 gold

“Corporal” attachment, adds 4 3D elements to the tank

Tech tree overview

To unlock the Foch 155, you’ll have to grind through the French TD tech tree. From tier 4-6, none of the tanks have very much armour or great mobility, but they have good guns. The tier 7-9 tanks more resemble the Foch 155, with good armour and quite good mobility.

All the stock grinds in this line are actually alright. the tier 4-7 tanks are very slow when stock, but all have amazing guns. Tiers 8 & 9 have very enjoyable stock grinds, as they each only have 2 modules that are “new” to research.

-Tiers 1-3 are slow tanks with decent armour, these are mediums and heavies so have turrets, and small caliber guns. These are fairly uninteresting tanks, and the grind past them is quite quick.

-Tier 4 is the Somua SAu 40, a rather painful tank. Its extremely slow, even when fully upgraded, it only has armour on the upper half of the tank, and this armour only works against tier 3-4 tanks. The gun is good in most regards (by tier 4 standards).

This tank is very painful when stock, the mobility is even worse, and the gun is inaccurate with poor handling. If you grind this tank, unlock the engine first, then get the gun, the tracks can be skipped.

-Tier 5 is the Somua S35 CA. This is a decent tank with high alpha, weak armour, decent mobility, but a very nice gun arc. The 225 alpha gun packs a real punch at tier 5, where most guns do 160 damage, its also very accurate, with great gun handling and good aim time. The tank is decently mobile, much more so than the SAu 40, and has a very flexible gun arc. Armour is paper thin and easily HE-able.

The stock grind is decent. The gun has less alpha but a quicker reload, and has better accuracy. The tank is very slow when stock, its recommended again to upgrade the engine first, as this adds a huge amount of mobility to this tank.

-Tier 6 is the ARL V39, a decent tank which gains more mobility and HE protection, but still lightly armoured. This tank has an amazing gun with great aim time and accuracy, great 310 alpha, good penetration, and high DPM. Its only downsides are poor handling and gun depression. The tank is decently mobile, with good top and traverse speeds, and a decent acceleration rate. Armour is weak, but will resist HE penetrations.

The stock version of this tank is very unenjoyable. Just like previous tanks, its extremely slow due to the stock engine. The gun is decent, with alright DPM and accuracy, its the same gun that’s unlocked from the Somua S35 CA.
Upgrade the engine first on this tank, it adds almost 10 deg/s traverse speed, and almost 4hp/t to acceleration. It gives a huge mobility boost to this tank.

-Tier 7 is AMX AC 46, this is where the tanks start being similar to the Foch 155. This tank has great frontal armour against same and lower tier enemies, but can’t bounce higher tier tanks easily (the weakpoints on the roof are weak to all enemies). Its quite mobile with great traverse speed and decent acceleration, and an amazing gun with high DPM, alpha, and accuracy. This is the only armoured tank with -10 gun depression in this line.

Just like previous tanks, this tank is extremely slow when stock. Its stock gun is the same stock gun as on the ARL V39, so it has very low penetration, but very quick reload and amazing DPM. The middle 90mm gun has much improved penetration and slightly better reload.
Its recommended to upgrade the engine first on this tank, since the gun is actually usable due to its DPM and reload, but the weak engine just stops the tank from moving and being active.

Upgrade the first engine, then the 90mm gun, then upgrade the next engine, and finally unlock the top 100mm gun.
These modules are all used on the next tank and shouldn’t be skipped, it makes grinding the next tank from stock so much easier.

-Tier 8 is the AMX AC 48. This tank is just an upgrade of the AC 46, keeping most of the same traits. It has great frontal armour which will work against most enemies, but its lower plate is weak, its cupolas and rangefinder are fully modelled (unlike on the Foch 155) and very weak, and its sides are very easy to HE. The mobility is amazing with high top speed and traverse speed, and the gun is great, having great accuracy and DPM.

The stock grind of this tank is pretty good by stock tank standards. The top engine was unlocked from the previous tank, and the middle gun (100mm) was also unlocked from the previous tank. The stock tank is still fairly mobile, but slightly slower due to stock tracks. It still has amazing DPM and great accuracy, but its alpha damage and penetration are lower.
Only the tracks and top 120mm gun need to be researched on this tank.

-Tier 9 is the AMX 50 Foch, its identical to the Foch 155 in every way except for its engine power and gun caliber. This tank has amazing frontal upper hull armour (same as the Foch 155, but in tier 9) with a small lower plate (slightly weaker than the Foch 155). The top weakpoints are strong (identical to the Foch 155), and the tank is very mobile, with great top speed and acceleration, and decent traverse. The gun is a 120mm autoloader with 2 shells, its DPM is low but can deal 800 damage in just 2.5s, and is very accurate with a quick magazine reload.

This tank essentially comes fully upgraded. Foch only has 1 gun, so you can use the top gun right from unlocking the tank. The stock engine is quite weak compared to the top engine, so this should be the first upgrade, unlock the tracks after this, as they help improve gun handling and mobility.

Tier 10 is the Foch 155, its nearly identical to the tier 9 Foch, just with a better lower plate armour, some spaced side armour, a stronger engine, and a bigger gun. This tank features by far the most aggressive playstyle, with the highest damaging gun compared to previous tanks. Other than this, its very similar to the tier 7-9 tanks of this line, and should feel quite familiar to play.

The stock grind of this tank is just fine, as the “stock” gun (cyclic gun) has amazing penetration, a fairly quick reload, and good accuracy, and is actually a better overall gun than the top gun.

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