BZ-58-2

BZ-58-2 is a Chinese tier 9 heavy tank. Its essentially just a tech tree 50TP but with more reliable hull armour at the cost of some other stats. It features a reliable 450 alpha gun with great gun depression, good mobility, and a solid armour profile.

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

Armour

(The BZ-58-2 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 252mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 330mm HEAT

When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 450-490mm auto-ricochet
Lower plate 135mm

Turret 340-600mm+
Cupolas 160-200mm

Armour vs tier all tier 8-10 tanks:
The BZ-58-2’s armour performance is the same against any tank it faces.

The lower plate is large and very weak, most tanks with HESH or premium HE can easily penetrate this.

The upper plate is fully impenetrable to all tanks due to both its thickness but also being an auto-ricochet angler. So unless enemies hit the very small driver viewport, which is a weakpoint (105mm of armour), they won’t penetrate the upper plate.

The turret is also fully impenetrable to nearly all tanks, however it does have a weakpoint on the roof, which is a 30mm plate, overmatchable to all guns larger than 90mm. There are also 2 fairly small cupolas which all tanks can easily penetrate.

Gun

The BZ-58-2 mounts a 130mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 450 on AP, 385 on APCR, and 590 on HE
-It has a 12.4s reload, giving it 2181 DPM
-Penetration on  AP is 248mm, premium APCR is 310mm, and HE is 65mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.8/4.1s
–Base aim time is 2.5s, but it can get down to 1.92s.
-Dispersion is 0.344/0.310
–Gun handling is 0.19/0.19/0.12, or 0.17/0.17/0.11 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees.

Overall this is a good gun. While it loses out on a small amount of DPM and alpha compared to similar tier 9 heavy tank guns, it does have a nice combination of decent aim time, good gun handling, decent accuracy, and great gun depression which make up for it.

Mobility

-Top speed is 40km/h forwards, and -15km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 35.4 deg/s on hard terrain, and 32.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.8 hp/t, it has a good 690 horsepower engine for its 47 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.3 hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.2 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1.1/1.2/1.8

Overall this is good mobility for a heavy. Top speed and reverse speed are both good, and traverse speed and effective acceleration rates are also good. This mobility can be boosted even further with the improved engine power boost that the tank has access to.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The BZ-58-2 has access to improved gunpowder and improved engine power boost.

Improved gunpowder is optional, this provision increases shell velocity. The BZ-58-2 already has good shell velocity with 950m/s on its AP, 1050m/s on APCR, and 880m/s on HE. These are all perfectly good for a heavy tank, and are actually slightly above average.

Since there are no other special provisions on this tank, improved gunpowder is a pretty good choice if you want to improve the tank’s ability to snap in clutch shots or just hit targets easily at longer ranges.
Using this provision would increase the velocity on AP to 1283m/s, on APCR to 1418m/s, and HE to 1188m/s.

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Improved engine power boost should be used in your setup, its a very “clutch” consumable, and can really save your tank in certain situations. This consumable essentially boosts your mobility by 35%, allowing you to accelerate much faster and turn much faster. It also increases top speeds, so its very useful for getting into position quickly, leaving a position quickly, or making a game-winning maneuver in battle.

This consumable would increase top speeds to 44km/h forwards, and 23km/h in reverse; and boost acceleration to 18 hp/t on hard terrain, and 16.5 hp/t on medium terrain. Traverse speed also increases noticeably.

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Gun Rammer:
Due to having an AP/APCR/HE ammo loadout, and due to already having good penetration, calibrated shells isn’t that beneficial on this tank. Also due to having quite low DPM for its alpha damage the BZ-58-2 generally does better with gun rammer.

Gun rammer would lower the reload time from 13.3s down to 12.6s, and increase the DPM from 2028 to 2135.

Improved Assembly:
The BZ-58-2 does not benefit from enhanced armour, since its lower plate is far too weak, the upper plate doesn’t rely on armour thickness, but instead on an auto-ricochet angle, and the turret is just too strong to need enhancing.
Note that the turret roof does not benefit from enhanced armour, at 30mm thick, enhanced armour would only increase it to 30.9mm. In terms of overmatch this only removes guns which are 90.1mm to 92.7mm in caliber, and no guns in the game exist within these calibers.

Since the tank just doesn’t gain any benefit from using enhanced armour, use improved assembly instead. This would improve the base HP of 2100 up to 2184.

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
The BZ-58-2 has both decent gun handling and decent dispersion, so really either choice can work on this tank.

Refined gun can be particularly effective for situations where you’re sitting hulldown and not moving much, the improved dispersion will be in full effect and the gun won’t bloom much due to your tank not moving much.

Vertical stabilizer works well for brawls and active gameplay, if you aren’t just sitting hulldown then it will help the gun to bloom out less when you move, making it good for situations where you’re moving often, such as brawling or flanking scenarios.

Gameplay advice

The BZ-58-2 has quite standard heavy tank gameplay. It excels in hulldown situations more than anything else, so a lot of its gameplay should revolve around being hulldown.

General gameplay:
Due to having that engine boost consumable, the BZ-58-2 can be played on the MT flank, its quick enough to reach it and to keep up with mediums. However, due to the low DPM of the tank, its generally a lot harder to perform well, especially if allied MT either retreat or just advance too fast and leave you behind.

Generally you should play the BZ-58-2 on the HT flank, where the often slower gameplay causes your lower level of DPM to be less of an issue, and you can use the strong hulldown armour of the tank to grind down the enemies’ HP.

In town environments you can also sidescrape, though be careful with this as there are weakpoints that enemies can exploit, and its easy to angle past the optimal point for this tank.

Trade in alpha damage:
Since you have quite low DPM and a slow reload, don’t try to out-reload or out-DPM enemies. Use the good 450 alpha damage you have to out-trade them, since many enemies you face will have less alpha damage (or 460, which is more but still very close).

These lower alpha damage enemies may try to shoot you twice for every time you shoot them, so avoid them until you are reloaded, then you can out-trade them in alpha damage again.

Use gun depression & hulldown positions:
The BZ-58-2 has a very strong turret and upper plate. The turret front is impenetrable to essentially all enemies you face (except the highest penetration TDs using premium ammo), and the upper plate is a very strong auto-ricochet plate. This allows you to be very effective in a hulldown situation, since you can be almost fully confident in your armour.

However, when hulldown there are 3 weakpoints, the 2 small cupolas, and the 30mm turret roof. These weakpoints mean you have to keep moving slightly to try and throw off the enemies’ aim and hope they miss.

When using your -9 gun depression, all 3 of these weakpoints disappear, meaning you have no turret weakpoints at all. When using the full gun depression, be confident with the armour, since you can easily hold back enemy tanks from taking positions when you can hit them but they can’t damage you back.

Use the speed boost:
Use this consumable often, as this gives the tank a massive boost in mobility. Since this consumable got buffed (recent update as of making this review), you can now use it much more often due to its fast cooldown. This makes it easy to use flexibly in multiple battle situations.

You can use it to rush to position at the start of a battle, to relocate after that initial start, to retreat if enemies rush, or just to quickly get over some uneven terrain. The more often you can use this consumable to great effect, the more of a benefit it is to your tank and to winning the battle.

Sidescraping:
Sidescraping in the BZ-58-2 is tricky. Due to a pretty decent 85mm of side armour, you can sidescrape and bounce shots, however there are still weakpoints.

The “wing” that extends over the tracks is penetrable in a sidescrape, though it is small. The cupola and turret roof are also both penetrable.

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Overall the BZ-58-2 is a fairly standard high-alpha heavy tank, but with a particular emphasis on using its armour in hulldown and gun depression scenarios. The speed boost consumable should be used as often as you can to make the most of the improved mobility.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

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

BZ-58-2 is overall a good tank.

Armour is good. Upper plate and turret are both impenetrable, lower plate, roof, & cupolas are the only weakpooints. Very easy to hulldown and decent in a sidescrape. Poor HESH protection, good HE protection.
Gun has has low DPM, good alpha, good penetration, good gun handling, good aim time, and average accuracy. Gun depression is amazing with -9 degrees.
Mobility is good, with a decent acceleration rate, good traverse, and good terrain resistances. Reverse speed is average with -15km/h. Also has access to a speed boost.
Speed is good with 40km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The BZ-58-2 is worth getting if you appreciate tanks with a solid armour profile when hulldown, and with great gun depression. The tank also has a reliable gun & mobility profile, which make it a consistent tank in nearly all scenarios. The only cases where it really struggles are when its low DPM cause it to be at a disadvantage.

Despite this being a good or even great tank, its also very similar to tanks that already exist in the tech tree. The 50TP is most similar, having worse aim time & hull armour, but better DPM & mobility. So unless you just really want to have that strong hull armour, better accuracy, or a speed boost, then going for the 50TP is a much more economical choice.

The BZ-58-2 is worth 12,000 gold. Its a good tank with a strong combination of traits. Its got a very reliable armour profile, good speed, and amazing gun depression. While it is a good tank, its just not that different from tech tree tanks like the 50TP or Type 68, which are also great tanks in their own regards with very similar traits to the BZ-58-2.

Most recently sold for:

Release in Contraband event – June 2024

Camo cost:

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