BZ-58

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Tank gameplay:
7. Overall
8. Is it worth keeping?
9. Camo cost:
10. Grind overview

Armour

(The BZ-58 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 178mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 223mm APCR

Armour on flat ground when not angled:
Upper plate 245-335mm auto-ricochet
Middle bar 160-175mm
Lower plate 155-160mm

Turret face 196mm
Turret cheeks 215-260mm

Side armour:
The hull sides are 50mm thick, however sidescraping in this tank can work against lower caliber and lower penetration enemies in tier 7. Tier 8 enemies are more likely to penetrate right through the tracks. This also means that some enemies can HE the side armour with a well aimed shot.

Armour vs tier 6-7 tanks:
Against tier 6 and 7 enemies, the BZ-58 has strong armour. The upper plate and turret are fully impenetrable to all standard ammo (except from TDs or high penetration USA & German heavies).

If enemies have around 200mm or more of premium penetration, then the turret face will be penetrable. The cupola, driver viewport, and lower plate are all weakpoints penetrable by all enemies.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Against tier 8 tanks, the BZ-58 still has strong armour. Most enemies can penetrate the turret face with standard ammo, with only low penetration medium & light tanks able to bounce off.

The upper plate is an auto-ricochet, so is impenetrable to anything that’s not high-penetration HEAT ammo.

The angled turret cheeks are stronger than the flat turret front, but most tier 8 enemies can still penetrate it easily if the turret is turned at all, or if they have good penetration on standard ammo.

Gameplay advice

The BZ-58 has quite generic heavy tank gameplay, due to its well-rounded stats of strong armour, good mobility, and a good gun.

Compared to other tanks, it plays quite similarly to a 45TP, or the IS/IS-2 using the 100mm gun.

General gameplay:
Take this tank to the heavy flank. While its quite mobile, its still not flexible enough to be playing as a heavium. However, in cases where your whole team goes to the MT flank (such as if there’s very few HT in the battle), then the BZ-58 doesn’t struggle to keep up.

Try to use hulldown and gun depression positions where possible. This tank’s main weakpoint is its large lower plate, and it has pretty decent gun depression with a low profile. 

Sidescraping does work in the BZ-58, however be careful what caliber of gun and level of penetration the enemies have. Larger calibers (such as 150mm) will gain more normalization when shooting your tracks, and higher penetration can just penetrate easier overall. Note that even if enemies can penetrate you, often times, sidescraping out is still better than just driving out sideways.

With the 280 alpha of this gun, try to trade with DPM against same tier heavies, and use alpha against mediums. Most heavy tanks in tier 7 which have similar alpha (310-400) have a worse reload than you, so against these enemies, you can try to put in 2 shots for every time they shoot.

Other enemies with quicker reloads (such as FV201, Black Prince, P43 Ter, etc.) will be able to reload quicker than you, and shoot you 2-3 times for every time you reload. Try to avoid a head-on engagement where you let them use this DPM, and instead avoid them for as long as possible until you are reloaded.

Angle the hull:
The lower plate of the BZ-58 is actually fairly strong against tier 6 enemies, or low penetration tier 7s. This means that there is a benefit to angling and wiggling the hull, since you can bait shots on the lower plate, and low penetration enemies may have to load premium ammo, or risk bounce off.

Higher penetration enemies (the majority of tier 7 and all of tier 8) won’t struggle at all against the BZ-58’s lower plate.

Go hulldown & use gun depression:
The BZ-58 has only 2 major weak areas on its armour profile, those being the lower plate, and the turret cheeks. The lower plate is penetrable to most enemies in tiers 7-8, and the turret cheeks are penetrable to most premium ammo in tiers 7-8.

Going hulldown will force enemies to either bounce, or use premium ammo on the turret, lowering their DPM. The upper plate is fully impenetrable, and the turret cheeks are small, so you can use small movements to try and throw off the enemy’s aim.
(Note that the turret armour is 196mm, and all tier 8 HT and even some MT have enough standard penetration to go through this.)

Using gun depression slightly increases the turret armour, but decreases your tank’s size profile. Moving back and fourth on a ridgeline while using gun depression is the most effective way to use this tank’s armour.

Sidescraping:
As said in the armour section, despite only having 50mm of side armour, sidescraping can work in the BZ-58.

Try to avoid showing the hull sides for long against enemies, since there are weakpoints (such as on the “wing” that comes out above the tracks). Also try to avoid showing the track wheels for long, since they are the weakest points when sidescraping.

Don’t sidescrape against high penetration or high caliber guns, since 50mm is quite weak, and works best against lower penetration and smaller calibers. Also note that tanks like the ISU-152 or Smasher, with a gun larger than 150mm, can triple-overmatch the side armour. Using enhanced armour does stop this from happening.

Facehugging:
You can facehug in this tank, due to its low profile hull, and its strong armour.

However, some tanks can negate your facehug. Enemies with penetration of around 200mm or more can penetrate the turret face easily.
Low profile enemies with good gun depression can shoot down onto the hull (however there are very few enemies like this, especially with how low profile the BZ-58’s hull is).

The best enemies to facehug are tier 6 tanks with under 200mm of premium penetration. Most tier 6 enemies will be unable to penetrate your tank in a facehug.

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The BZ-58 features fairly standard heavy tank gameplay. Just go to the heavy flank, use the armour, and brawl with other heavies using the comfortable combination of DPM and alpha damage.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 5.5/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 7.5/10
Speed – 6/10

BZ-58 is overall a great tank.

Armour is good, upper plate is impenetrable, turret is quite strong with small weakpoints. Hull sides are weak, HE protection is mediocre. Fairly average HT armour.
Gun is good, great aim time, good gun handling, high premium penetration, with a nice alpha/DPM combination. Gun depression is a comfortable -7 degrees, but dispersion is quite mediocre.
Mobility is good, with great acceleration & traverse on hard terrain, and still good traverse and acceleration on medium terrain. Reverse speed is average.
Speed is good at 38km/h.

Grind overview

The BZ-58 leads on from the Type 58, it costs 56,000 XP to unlock. No modules are unlocked from other tanks in the Chinese tech tree.

Turret:
The stock turret is decently armoured, able to easily bounce most same-tier standard ammo frontally. Unlike the top turret, this turret has large turret cheeks, making it an easier target to hit for premium ammo.

It also has a larger weakpoint on the roof.

vs 178mm AP penetration.

Gun:
When stock, you mount an 85mm gun with good DPM and a quick reload, but a fairly low 200 alpha. Penetration is still very good on HEAT ammo; with dispersion & aim time being the same as the top gun.

This is a decent gun, but you’ll have to try use the quick reload to trade with DPM, and not rely on alpha damage.

Mobility:
Stock mobility is actually still decent. There are 2 engines to research, but both only add a small amount of horsepower (increasing from 515 to 540, and 540 to 570). The stock tracks give the tank 1/1.5/2 terrain resistance, and 0.22/0.22/0.16 dispersion on move.

The tank is still fairly mobile, but its more important to stay on hard terrain, since the stock mobility profile is slightly worse, and the worse terrain resistance amplifies the mobility difference on medium terrain.

Research path:
Upgrading the turret and gun first are probably the best things to go for. These will increase your HP from 1300 base to 1400 base, improve armour, and improve your gun. While the stock gun doesn’t really have much worse stats, its alpha is significantly less, making it reliant on its quick reload. The upgraded gun will let you trade damage more effectively and is overall just more comfortable for the heavy tank playstyle.

Tracks should be researched on this tank, since it both improves mobility, and improves gun handling. This makes the tank more mobile but also more accurate.

The engines should be left till last due to how little engine power they add, and due to the stock engine still providing decent mobility for the tank.