Batignolles-Châtillon Bourrasque

Bourrasque is a French tier 8 premium medium tank. Its unique feature is the 2-shell autoloading gun, which can deal 640 damage in 2 seconds. The tank is fairly quick, but lacks armour.

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

Armour

(The Bourrasque in the images is using Improved Assembly)

vs 160mm AP
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 155mm auto-ricochet
Mid plate 65-80mm
Lower plate 115mm auto-ricochet
Turret 78-83mm
Gun mantlet 170mm

VS tier 7-9: 
Against any tank the Bourrasque faces, it does not have any armour. All AP, APCR, and HEAT will be able to very easily penetrate this tank. The gun mantlet is a bit troll though, so its best to try avoid hitting it.

It is able to stand up to most HE shells from the front, with only 150mm+ guns being able to reliably penetrate HE. However the sides are fairly weak against 127-130mm guns’ HE as the side armour on both the turret and hull is 50mm.

Camo Rating

Gun

The Bourrasque has a 105mm autoloader

-Alpha damage is 320 with 2 shells in the clip. Intra-clip reload is 2s, so in 2s it can deal 640 damage.
-Reload time is 18.1s, giving it 1907 DPM
-Penetration is 190mm on APCR, 240mm on premium APCR, and 53mm on HE
-Damage on APCR is 320, premium APCR is 280, and HE is 400.
–Estimated aim time is 3.5s/3.8s
–Base aim time is 2.5s, but it can get down to 2s.
-Dispersion is 0.337/0.303
–Gun handling is 0.1/0.1/0.08, or 0.09/0.09/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -6 degrees, not great, but the Bourrasque is the smallest and lowest profile tier 8 medium tank, so -6 is actually quite workable.

Overall the Bourrasque has quite a good gun. Its only real downsides are low penetration and -6 gun depression. The aim time feels significant, but its balanced out by quite good dispersion, and the it has best gun handling of any tier 8 medium tank. The intra-clip reload of the magazine is very quick, and the overall reload of the magazine is also relatively quick.

(Bourrasque has poor penetration loss over distance, 14.74% on standard APCR, so these shells lose 7mm of penetration every 100m travelled (up to 500m, where penetration levels off at 162mm).
Premium APCR has marginally less penetration loss at 11.67%, losing 7mm per 100m, levelling off at 212mm penetration at 500 meters.)

 

Mobility

-Top speed is 60km/h forwards and -23km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 65.2 deg/s on hard terrain, and 54.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 23.7 hp/t, it has an decent 471.5hp engine for its 19.9 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 23.7 hp/t on hard terrain, and 19.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are decent, having 1/1.2/1.5

Though the tank may look small and light, and its stats in-game may show it as being very quick, that 1.2 medium terrain resistance makes the Bourrasque less mobile than you might expect.
The tank is still very quick and nimble, but its not quite as much as stats in-game show. If you have played a Progetto 46, Lansen, or Škoda T27 before, this tank has about the same traverse and acceleration as those tanks.

The top speed of the Bourrasque is quite a nice bonus to the tank that the aforementioned vehicles don’t have access to.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Bourrasque does not have access to any special consumables or provisions.

Calibrated Shells:
Bourrasque has both low penetration and poor penetration loss over distance.
As it already has quite an accurate gun and a fairly quick clip reload, vents are not needed at all on the Bourrasque.
Using calibrated shells will decrease the DPM from 1907 to 1872, and reload from 18.1s to 18.5s; though this difference is not at all noticeable in battle.

With calibrated shells equipped, penetration increases from 190mm to 199mm on APCR, 240mm to 252mm on premium APCR, and 53mm to 58mm on HE. 

Coated Optics:
Though the Bourrasque has the best camo rating for a tier 8 MT, it is not recommended to use a camo net.
The Bourrasque still needs to have good view range to spot enemies, and its camo rating is already sufficient enough.
With coated optics and vents, the Bourrasque has 296.3m view range, when not using vents, it has 290.4m view range.

If you just want to have fun with the camo rating of the Bourrasque, running camo net gives it 68% camo when stationary, 54% when moving, and 13% when firing. Though, coated optics are definitely the more practical equipment choice for doing well in battle.

Improved Assembly:
The Bourrasque does not have any armour to enhance. Use improved assembly instead, it will improve this tank’s base HP of 1450 up to 1537.
Even though it has such small size, Bourrasque is one of the most healthy medium tanks in terms of HP.

Enhanced Gun Laying Drive:
The Bourrasque decent base aim time, but its still not great for a medium tank. Not improving it with the GLD just makes the tank quite frustrating to play, as it feels like it has to aim for forever. Aim time is the only accuracy-related gun stat on the Bourrasque that is below average, so using GLD is mandatory.

Supercharger isn’t needed, as it only affects your penetration at long distances, and you’re already using calibrated shells, which increase penetration.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Even though the gun handling of the Bourrasque is already the best among all MT in tier 8, the tank still needs vertical stabilizer. As its an autoloader with a very short intra clip, it needs to use vertical stabilizer to improve its after-shot-dispersion. By improving this the Bourrasque can shoot both shots of its clip fairly accurately, without having huge bloom on its 2nd shell.

Gameplay advice

Like any autoloader with a relatively mobile platform, the Bourrasque is an opportunistic flanker.
It takes advantage of isolated enemies to single them out and clip them with its 640 damage magazine; and its able to use its good camo rating and mobility to quickly change flanks to provide crossfires or shoot enemies from behind.

Start the battle passively. You can rush to the frontlines, get in a bush and spot, or you can stay with allies on the medium tank flank.
Its not a good idea to just use the speed of the tank to take the most forward and most contested positions and get into an all-out brawl. Often if there is another medium tank or even a light who contests the same position, they will just shred you apart. Every medium and light tank has more DPM than this (other than Astron Rex). However, if you have allied support, or you see that the enemy team won’t contest you, then you can make that play.
The Bourrasque thrives on taking flanks where there are very few or no enemies due to its quick, high damage burst, and its good mobility.

Aim each shot carefully. The Bourrasque has a noticeable aim time, and because it has to shoot out 2 shells very quickly, this aim time does not help it to be accurate. Sometimes its best to not just shoot as soon as your shells are reloaded, make sure you aim in each shot properly, otherwise it can be quite hard to stack up damage.
However, if you bounce or miss, the fairly quick 18-18.5s reload and high alpha mean that if you miss a shot, its not completely crippling.

Flank enemies. If you see that 6-7 enemy tanks are all going to one side, take advantage of it. Flank around behind the enemies, or to the side, and create a crossfire.
If there is an enemy on the side you flank to, play the tank cautiously. Try to keep your distance to that enemy, since if they rush you, there is not much you can do to defend yourself. If you have an ally to support you though, you can play more aggressively against the enemy tank.

Utilize your camo rating. While Bourrasque has no armour, its small size and high camo rating can keep it easily concealed, let this be your armour. Though the Bourrasque can’t bounce any shells, it can just sit still in a bush and remain invisible to most enemies (given that they are far enough away).
The Bourrasque can surprise you with how close enemies are able to get before they spot you.
However, don’t push your luck. Don’t just sit still in the bush, then shoot, and stay in the bush. After you shoot, you have to always assume you will be spotted, so pull back into cover.

---

Bourrasque is quite similar to a Lorraine 40 t with its playstyle. If you can play a Lorraine well, you will be able to to well in this tank, just be aware of vital gameplay differences, mainly in the camo rating, gun depression, and tank size. Of course, it also has a very different type of autoloader.

Overall

Overall, the Bourrasque is a very good tank, but only when played right and played to its strengths. Its definitely one of the harder tanks to play in tier 8, as it combines many aspects that would require higher skill level to do well (these being: poor gun depression, an autoloader, poor penetration, long aim time, weak armour).

Though when its played right and by a great player, the Bourrasque is one of the most powerful medium tanks in tier 8, and its able to really harass its enemies with its great camo, small size, and 640 alpha damage burst.

Is it worth getting?

Bourrasque is definitely worth it, but you must be a fairly good player for that to be the case. Great players will excel in this tank, due to its high skill ceiling and its ability to just output such high burst damage so quickly. Its an extremely unique tank, and other than the SP1C, there is nothing else like it in the game. The 640 alpha in 2 seconds is what makes it such a formidable tank to face.

For most other players though, the Bourrasque won’t be worth it. If the Bourrasque’s playstyle and tank type (light armour, autoloader, poor gun depression) are new to you and you haven’t played anything like it before, stay away from the Bourrasque.
(If the above applies to you, but the you want the Bourrasque anyway, its best to first try playing autoreloaders, as they are the best way to transition into playing an autoloader like the Bourrasque. The P44 Pantera is a great tank to do this in, or the Progetto 46 if you want a premium version.)

Bourrasque is worth 11,000 gold. Its a superb tank, it can do very well in battle when played right, and its also quite fun thanks to its quick 2 second, 2 shell burst. 

Most recently sold for:

New release crates – December 2021
15,000 gold (Full bundle), 12,500 gold (Tank only) – August 2022
Blitzfair Auction – December 2022
£15.59 Steam DLC – February 2023
12,500 gold (Tank only) – February 2023
10,000 gold (Tank only) – July 2023

Camo cost:

Historical note:

Bourrasque is a fully fake tank, and fully unrealistic.

It uses the hull of a tank called Batignolles-Châtillon 12 t, however, that hull design itself is only a blueprint version of the B-C 12 t, as it uses interleaved metal roadwheels. There was a B-C 12 t hull that was built, but it used 4 large regular roadwheels, rather than the interleaved suspension of the blueprint design. The armour of the Bourrasque in WoT Blitz is significantly increased compared to the B-C 12 t.

The turret is an enlarged and elongated ERC-90 Sagaie (Armoured car tank destroyer) turret. Its likely been enlarged and elongated to be “realistic”, as the Bourrasque mounts a 105mm gun, a much larger caliber gun than the 90mm gun of the ERC-90. It means the turret would need to account for a larger gun breech, more room for crew, larger ammuntion storage, and also the magazine/clip autoloading mechanism that the Bourrasque has.

The Bourrasque mounts the 105mm D. 1504 gun, this gun was mounted on the AMX 13 105 in real life. In game it has incorrect ammunition; penetration is incorrect but its likely for balance reasons.
The real D. 1504’s primary ammunition was HEAT, it could also shoot APFSDS, and HE. In the game, many tanks that have “APFSDS” are represented as the APCR shell type (such as on the 122TM), so at least one of the APCR shells on the Bourrasque is fake.

The weight of the Bourrasque was increased to 19.93 tons, which is at least somewhat realistic, as it accounts for the increased armour, larger gun, and larger turret compared to the real Batignolles-Châtillon 12 t, which weighed just 12 tons.

While WG has tried to make this version of the tank somewhat more realistic than its PC counterpart, its still quite hard to believe. The tank retains the same size to a B-C 12 t yet mounts a much stronger engine, has all round thicker armour, a much larger gun caliber with heavier and larger shells, a much larger and longer turret, and is somehow still able to retain a 20.6 hp/t rate and 19.93 ton weight, all while remaining the same size and somehow carrying 24 magazines of 2 x 105mm ammunition? Highly unbelievable design

Back to homepage