Bisonte C45

Bisonte C45 is an Italian tier 8 heavy tank. It has a very odd gun, with a 2 shell auto-reloader, but one of these shells is a reserve shell. It has amazing DPM for 310 alpha, but other than this, it has very average mobility, standard heavy tank armour, and unimpressive gun handling.

1. Armour
2. Playing against a Bisonte C45
3. Gun
4. Mobility
5. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
6. Gameplay advice
7. Overall
8. Is it worth it?
9. Camo cost:

Armour

(The Bisonte C45 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider Right –> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <– Left to view 265mm APCR

Flat ground (when facing head-on):
Upper-upper plate 300-375mm
Lower part of upper plate 160-170mm
Lower plate 92-175mm
Lower-lower plate 145mm auto-ricochet

Turret cheeks 285mm
Turret weakpoints 255mm
Cupolas – No hitbox

In the review, the areas on the turret which aren’t covered by spaced plates will be referred to as the turret weakpoints.
The tank’s cupolas aren’t modelled with hitboxes, so these won’t take any damage if they get hit.

VS tier 7:
Against tier 7 enemies, the Bisonte has a very strong armour profile. The only weakpoints on the front of the tank will be the upper and lower plates, and even these will be quite troll for the lower penetration tanks to deal with.

The turret weakpoints are only weak against tanks with high penetration on premium ammo, and good enough accuracy to hit these weakpoints.
The turret face is very strong, most tier 7 tanks have no chance of penetrating this, and the side armour will also hold up quite well when its angled.

VS tier 8:
Tier 8 enemies will have an easier time dealing with the Bisonte, since most enemies will be able to penetrate the turret face on flat ground using premium APCR.

Note that HEAT won’t penetrate reliably, and enemies which use HEAT as premium ammo will be forced to hit the small weakpoints on the turret, or risk a non-penetration (this is explained more below).

The hull is very weak as both upper and lower plates will be easily penetrable, though the lower-lower plate and upper-upper plate will both easily bounce, if enemies somehow miss the middle section.

When using gun depression, the turret is much stronger, and you can be quite confident in bouncing enemy premium ammo. Only extremely high penetration APCR rounds will be able to go through, and HEAT basically has no chance at penetration (other than the 2 small weakpoints above the gun).

VS tier 9:
Tier 9 is essentially the same as tier 8, enemies can very easily penetrate the hull armour on flat ground, and most enemies can penetrate their standard or premium AP and APCR rounds against the turret.
Enemy tier 9 heavy tanks have much higher standard penetration than tier 8 heavies, so don’t expect as many bounces on the turret.

When using gun depression, the Bisonte’s armour will still hold up well. Most tier 9 tanks use HEAT as premium ammo, and HEAT is very unreliable against spaced armour, especially when this tank uses its gun depression.
Note that there will be some exceptions, such as the Object 752, which often will be running 374mm HEAT penetration, and tanks like the E 75, 50TP, or TNH Vz. 51 which use APCR as Premium ammo.

Playing against a Bisonte C45

Spaced armour:
The Bisonte is covered in spaced armour, having plates on the turret front and sides, and fully covering the hull sides and most of the upper plate.

The plates covering the turret are 20mm thick, the plates on the side armour and upper plate are 15mm thick.

Against AP and APCR shells:
While thin spaced armour hugging the base armour is generally bad (it causes very high shell normalization), it actually works fine on the Bisonte.
This is due to the spaced armour being just thick enough to stop most standard ammo shells from penetrating it.

Against HEAT shells:
Due to the distance from the spaced armour to the base armour being very little, high penetration HEAT rounds will be able to go through the turret face and the lower parts of the upper plate.

Note that HEAT loses a large amount of effective penetration against spaced armour, so even though the Bisonte’s turret armour is “only 248mm”, HEAT shells with 270mm penetration only have a roughly 50% chance of penetration.
(Through testing, 260mm HEAT cannot penetrate the turret spaced armour. 270mm can penetrate roughly 5/10 times. 265mm is somewhat in-between.)

Essentially, don’t fire HEAT at the Bisonte’s turret, unless its very high penetration. If its 265-270mm HEAT, expect to sometimes bounce, sometimes penetrate.

To understand the full mechanics of spaced armour, check this page.

Lower-lower plate:
This armour plate is 55mm in nominal thickness, and angled to the auto-ricochet point.

Note that this plate’s effective thickness is only 145mm, so all HEAT shells will be able to penetrate it (HEAT ignores the 70 degree auto-ricochet angle).

Sidescraping:
Look at the below image, 2 shots of 225mm AP penetration are fired at the tracks of the Bisonte in a sidescraping position.

The first shot hits the 10mm spaced armour which covers the side of the tank, this shot doesn’t penetrate.

The 2nd shot hits just below the spaced armour, and its able to penetrate.

Gun

The Bisonte C45 mounts a 105mm auto-reloader with the reserve shell mechanic.

Firepower:
-Ammo: AP/HEAT/HE.
-Penetration: 225/255/53mm.
-Alpha damage: 310/260/420
-Shell 1: 16.30s
-Shell 2: 4.8s (+2.00s)
-Reload time from empty: 21.1s

Best DPM:
-Shell 2 
-Reload: 4.80+2.00s = 6.80s
-DPM: 2736

Handling:
–Estimated aim time is 4.0/4.3s
–Base aim time is 2.33s, but it can get down to 1.79s.
-Dispersion is 0.344/0.292
–Gun handling is 0.23/0.23/0.15, or 0.2/0.2/0.13 with Vertical Stabilizer.

Usability:
-Shell velocities are 945/940/920 m/s.
-Gun depression is -8 degrees around the entire tank, except the rear where its -5.

Overall:
This gun has very very high DPM, combine that with the fact that you can burst out 2 shells of 310 alpha in only 2s in some situations, and its a very powerful trait to have on a gun.
However, other stats of this gun are very unimpressive, with unimpressive HEAT penetration, bad gun handling, mediocre aim time, and fairly average dispersion.

Overall its a good gun, as the great firepower balances out the poor handling, and you can deal out damage very quickly with this tank.

Mobility

-Top speed is 35km/h, reverse is -19km/h
-Traverse speed is 39.5 deg/s on hard terrain, and 30.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.4 hp/t, it has an decently strong 889 horsepower engine for its 62 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.4 hp/t on hard terrain, and 11.1 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 1/1.3/1.9

Overall this is very mediocre mobility for a heavy tank. None of the stats are bad, but none stand out enough to really make the mobility of this tank feel impressive.
The top speed is average, but reverse speed is very good. Traverse speed and acceleration on hard terrain are both very good, on medium terrain they are both average.
Ground resistances are good for a heavy tank, but the difference (1 to 1.3) causes a noticeable difference when going off-road in this tank.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Bisonte C45 has no special provisions/consumables.

Calibrated Shells:
Calibtrated shells are completely necessary on the Bisonte. This tank has good standard penetration, but its 255mm premium HEAT penetration isn’t adequate in tier 8, especially when this tank sacrifices so much on its gun for a “reserve” shell.

Calibrated shells can be used on this tank without much penalty to the DPM, as the Bisonte can’t use a gun rammer.

Calibrated shells will improve the penetration of all shells, taking AP from 225 up to 236mm, HEAT from 255 to 281mm, and HESH from 53 to 58mm.

Improved Assembly/Enhanced Armour:
Either equipment piece can work well on the Bisonte, both give a fairly significant benefit to the tank.

Enhanced armour would increase the effective turret armour by roughly 8mm, making it harder for APCR with 250-258mm penetration to go through. It would also strengthen the hull side armour from 75mm + 10mm, to 78mm + 10.4mm. This makes it more troll against lower penetration guns in tier 8, and most tier 7 enemies.
Enhanced armour doesn’t help the hull front much, but it definitely does make the turret more challenging to penetrate, especially when using gun depression.

Improved assembly is also a viable choice, and would increase this tank’s decent 1750 base HP, up to 1855 HP. This will allow the tank to take more hits in battle and survive longer when it armour gets penetrated.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Vertical stabilizer is essential on the Bisonte due to the tank having very poor gun handling. While the dispersion isn’t impressive, its also not bad for a 105mm gun, and its perfectly usable, therefore there’s no reason to use refined gun.

Use vertical stabilizer, since it will help the tank’s accuracy when its moving, and make it more accurate after the tank has stopped moving and is aiming in.
Due to the long estimated aim time, the Bisonte often won’t have time to get fully aimed in, so the vertical stabilizer is more useful to the tank’s plasytyle.

Gameplay advice

The Bisonte’s gameplay is nearly identical to tech tree 105mm heavy tanks, as it has many of the same features. Tanks like the Ju-To, Chi-Se, AMX M4 45, Tiger II, 45TP, T-32, TNH 105/1000, etc, all have very similar playstyles.

Keep in mind that you should always be playing the Bisonte as a cyclic gun heavy tank. It has an 8.1/8.2s reload, 310 alpha, and 2.3k DPM. The reserve shell is very rarely used, and generally the tank plays a lot more like the  tanks mentioned above.

General gameplay:
The Bisonte C45 just plays a very regular and generic heavy tank role. It has the characteristics of similar standard heavies such as the TNH 105/1000, Tiger II, Chi-Se, T32, etc.
The mobility is average, its fairly well armoured, and its got a 105mm gun with an 8.1s reload.

Play it similarly to these other standard heavy tanks, go to the HT side of the map, use hulldown and gun depression positions, and brawl with enemy heavies.
It doesn’t really have any special gameplay other than the occasions where it uses the reserve shell, which is explained below.

Don’t shoot the reserve shell:
In most situations, shooting the reserve shell will just cripple your tank and make it very hard to deal with enemies.

Its best to never shoot this shell, other than in the situations mentioned below. Only shoot that 2nd shell, it has an 8.1/8.2s reload, with quite average DPM and alpha. Shooting only this 2nd shell gives the Bisonte a competitive level DPM, roughly the same as a T54E2. This allows the tank to trade effectively with enemy tanks and actually utilize its DPM against tanks of the same tier.

When to use the reserve shell:
The most important thing to note with this reserve shell is that it reloads much faster than other tanks with this same gun type. 

The Bisonte’s reserve shell reload is about 16s, while all other tanks with a reserve shell have 21-22s reloads. This is a very significant difference gameplay wise, as unlike those other tank, the Bisonte’s reserve shell is actually usable in a few situations, since its reload is roughly 27% quicker than other reserve shell tanks.

Use it at the end of an engagement:
The end of an engagement is the end of a brawl or fight within a battle.

So for example, the enemy is down to 600 HP, and there are no other enemies in close proximity to your tank. You can use the reserve shell to clip out the enemy, and have enough time to fully reload before the next enemy shows up.

For this to be effectively used, you have to try keep track of where enemies are or where they were last spotted. Use the minimap and enemy tank lineup for this.

Use it for game-winning shots or kills:
If the battle is close, and your 2nd shell isn’t reloaded, you can use the reserve shell to clear enemies on low HP or to whittle down their HP.
Only do this if you know you won’t have another chance to shoot that enemy before your reload, such as if the enemy is just about to pull into cover or run away.

(Note that every situation is different, and in close battles, making a mistake could cost you the game. You have to judge yourself whether shooting the reserve shell will help you to win the battle, or could cost you with a loss.
It depends on many factors, such as if the enemy is a good player, are they in a fast tank, are they in an armoured tank, is it supremacy, who is winning on base capture points, do you have more HP than the enemy? Hence why this is just a rough guide, whether you use the shell is going to depend on your judgement of the specific situation your tank is in.)

Use it to save your tank:
If an enemy is down to around 600 HP, but they are about to kill your tank on their next reload, use the reserve shell.

Shooting the full clip does 620 damage, and it should kill the enemy, and keep your tank in the battle. You want to do this so that you can deal more damage and potentially win the game. You’re the only one who can actively influence the outcome of your battle, if you die then you leave it to your team.

(Even if you low roll and don’t kill the enemy, shooting the reserve shell is still the best play. It lets you get the most damage before your tank is destroyed, and contributes a little more to helping the team win.)

Use it at the end of the battle:
Like with other reserve shell tanks, shoot the reserve shell if the battle is ending and you don’t think you’ll be able to get in another shot before the battle is over.

The Bisonte C45 has decent side armour of 75mm, and 20mm tracks. The whole side is also covered by 10mm of spaced armour, which does help the tank as its quite distanced from the base hull side armour.

Be aware of the weak frontal plates, as the enemies will be able to shoot here when you reverse out to take a shot.
The track wheel is also penetrable when you reverse out, but the spaced armour above it does cause enemies to bounce.

Note that these 2 weakpoints are hidden when you pull forward into cover. The rest of the side armour isn’t penetrable when these areas are hidden by a building. Try to only reverse out when you’re reloaded, this way these weakpoints are exposed only for a very shot length of time.
(The turret cheeks are also penetrable to premium ammunition.)

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Other than the caveats mentioned above for the reserve shell, just play the Bisonte like a standard heavy tank with average mobility, armour, and gun, and you’ll do well in it.

Overall

Overall the Bisonte is a decent tank. It has decent armour with a very good turret when using gun depression. Its gun is very mediocre, but isn’t bad at all; and the mobility is also quite average, but not bad.

The only feature that really stands out on this tank is that reserve shell mechanic, but its not really an advantage to have in battle and isn’t a very unique or interesting feature, since you can’t actually use it most of the time.

Is it worth it?

The Bisonte C45 is not worth getting. While its gun mechanic is interesting and offers some flexibility in gameplay which cyclic guns cannot, its not enough to really make it stand out, especially since it trades many other aspects for this.

Its gameplay doesn’t really feel unique or special, as its essentially just a generic heavy tank with a 105mm gun. The reserve shell is very rarely used, and often a cyclic gun heavy tank with better accuracy and handling stats would perform better (such as T54E2, Löwe, Tiger II, etc).

Its not a very new player friendly tank due to its reserve shell mechanic. Newer players may struggle with knowing when to use this 2nd shell, and how to avoid enemies for the 22s after firing it.

The Bisonte C45 is worth 6,000 gold. This tank is alright, its just a very standard type of heavy tank, with very standard stats, it just has an odd gun mechanic added on. Its not a great tank but its also not bad.

Camo cost:

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