BZ-68

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-68 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 246mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 320mm HEAT

Armour on flat ground when not angled:
Upper plate 330-335mm
Lower plate 150mm

Turret face 315-320mm
Gun mantlet 380mm
Cupola 155-210mm

Side armour:
The hull sides are 80mm thick, with a 10mm spaced sideskirt at the front half of the hull.
This 80mm is not very practical for sidescraping, as the front track wheels are quite weak, and that 10mm spaced plate doesn’t cover the drive wheels.

There’s also a “shoulder” weakpoint, just like on the BZ-166.

Notes about armour:
-Due to the upper plate relying heavily on angling, it becomes very weak when enemies are looking down on it, or your hull is pointed down.

-The turret sides are also like this, the moment the turret turns slightly, one side’s turret cheek will become weak.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Against tier 8 tanks, essentially nothing can penetrate either the hull or the turret. The only weakpoints which tier 8 tanks can penetrate are either the lower plate or the small cupola on the roof.

Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Against tier 9 enemies, the upper plate and turret are both impenetrable to most enemies. Only enemies with very high penetration premium ammo even have a chance to contest the BZ-68’s armour.

Enemies will need 325mm+ penetration on HEAT, or around 310-315mm on APCR, to penetrate the turret of the BZ-68 (so only HT with great premium penetration, or TDs, can penetrate the BZ-68). The hull is even stronger, and most tanks can’t penetrate it even with premium ammo, unless in close range.

The lower plate is a weakpoint for all enemies, and the cupola is also penetrable.

Armour vs tier 10 tanks:
The armour is still extremely solid against tier 10 enemies. The turret and upper plate are both impenetrable to all standard ammo, and will reliably bounce all premium ammo from MT and from lower penetration HT (such as 60TP for example).

Higher penetration tanks will be able to penetrate the turret cheeks, most HT which have 320mm base premium penetration or higher, and of course any TDs which shoot the turret with premium ammo will penetrate.

The lower plate and cupola are weak to all enemies.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

BZ-68 has no special provisions or consumables.

Use adrenaline, multi-purpose restoration pack, and small repair kit.

BZ-68, just like other tanks in this line, has weak fuel tanks and ammorack, and receives damage on these modules quite frequently. The two repair kits are necessary for keeping the tank in a usable condition, since a damaged ammorack causes an extremely long reload, and fire damage is not uncommon.

Protective Kit as a provision is also a good option if you still find yourself being damaged even after repairing twice in battle.

(You can notice the weak modules in the gameplay videos below)

Gun Rammer/Calibrated Shells:
For the 130mm gun, use gun rammer. This gun has a regular ammo loadout with good penetration, it also is less reliant on just a single shot of damage, since it has a quicker reload and lower alpha compared to the 152mm gun. With this gun, its more important to have a competitive level of DPM rather than improved penetration, especially as its penetration is already good.

Gun rammer would improve the reload time from 12.9s down to 12.0s, and the DPM from 2308 to 2146.

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For the 152mm gun, either gun rammer or calibrated shells can work.

You can either choose to focus on improving the tank’s ability to deal its big alpha, by improving penetration.
Calibrated shells would decrease DPM from 2146 to 1996 (on AP), and increase reload time from 14.8s to 15.9s. Penetration would increase from 242mm to 254mm on AP, 160mm to 176mm on premium HE, and 60mm to 66mm on standard HE.

Or you can choose to improve its reload time with gun rammer, since its premium HE shells can’t penetrate the frontal armour of most heavy tanks anyway. This also lets you deal more frequent damage to enemies that you can’t penetrate and are forced to splash HE on.
Gun rammer improves the reload down to 14.8s, giving the gun 2156 DPM.

Improved Assembly/Enhanced Armour:
Either choice is a good choice on this tank.

For improved assembly, it works since the armour of the BZ-68 is already solid for a tier 9 tank. Its upper plate and turret can reliably bounce all standard ammo, and the turret will resist up to around 320mm of premium penetration.
Improving the HP would take it from 2100 to 2226, helping to trade damage more effectively with its high alpha (both on the 460 and the 530 alpha guns), and survive longer when it does take hits.

Enhanced armour is also a good choice, since it does make the turret and upper plate noticeably stronger.
Enhanced armour improves the turret armour from 320mm up to 332mm, which will help to bounce much more tier 9-10 heavy tank premium ammo.
Upper plate armour would improve from 330mm to 344mm.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Since BZ-68 is a frontline heavy tank, it doesn’t need improved accuracy from refined gun. Refined gun would only really benefit this tank in situations where it can stop and fully aim in each shell, which isn’t how heavy tanks generally play.

Vertical stabilizer is the better choice for both guns, since it helps make the tank more accurate in the closer range environment that a heavy tank usually has to fight in.
(This is especially helpful due to the tank’s somewhat slow turret traverse speed, meaning you occasionally have to turn the hull as well to get the gun on target. Turning both the hull & turret reduces accuracy further than just turning one).

Gameplay advice

For the 130mm gun, the BZ-68 has fairly standard gameplay, since its got a standard gun, good mobility, and solid heavy tank armour.

For the 152mm gun, the BZ-68 plays very differently depending on what tier you face. Against tier 8s it can play quite aggressively and trade damage very effectively. Against tier 10s you have to be more passive and act as support to allies who can penetrate the enemies which you can’t do anything against.

130mm gameplay:
Take this tank to the HT flank. Try to find hulldown positions where you can hide the lower plate and use some of the gun depression to increase your armour.

Try to aim each shot when using this gun, avoid making snapshots or rushed shots. While this 130mm gun has great aim time and good gun handling, its 0.362 dispersion is quite mediocre, and means that its easy to miss smaller weakpoints or long range shots if you don’t let the gun fully aim.

Also, despite the amazing 1100m/s shell velocity on standard ammo, note that they are APCR and not AP, so they lose a fair amount of penetration with long range shots, and don’t have as good normalization as AP. 

With the 130mm gun, you should trade with alpha. Few tier 9 or tier 8 heavies have more alpha than 460, though many are equal. If you trade shot-for-shot then you can deal good damage while conserving HP due to the solid armour.
Avoid exposing the tank when you’re not reloaded, since the lower plate is large and weak, and you would just be letting the enemy damage you for free without you being able to damage them back.

The 130mm gun plays generally in the same way no matter which tier you face.

152mm gameplay:
For this gun, gameplay is very different depending on what tier you play against. However, for both tier 8 and 10 enemies, you must keep with allies and have support, due to the long reload of the gun and its inconsistent penetration.

When top tier and facing only tier 8 and 9 tanks, you can play fairly actively and somewhat aggressively, the tank has amazing armour against tier 8s, and nothing but the highest penetration TDs even have a chance to penetrate the turret or upper plate. You can use the standard AP shell very effectively, since 530 damage is very significant, and 242mm (or 254mm) penetration can easily deal with most tanks you face. Premium HE has fairly low penetration, but many tier 8 heavies will have penetrable lower plates (but not all), and you can easily penetrate against medium and light tanks.

When bottom tier and facing only tier 9 and 10 tanks, you need to be more passive. While the tank still has great hull and turret armour with good mobility, the gun is now significantly less effective. Your AP shell can still penetrate the fronts of most tanks, with only a few posing a challenge (such as Maus, VK 90, T110E3, and similar tanks). The premium HE shell is much  less useful in tiers 9-10, and you shouldn’t expect to penetrate many enemies on the lower plate or other frontal weakpoints. In tier 10 its especially important to keep with allies, as against some enemies, you can’t even penetrate AP, but still have a long reload. Allies are needed to help cover that reload and deal with enemies that you’d struggle to penetrate.

Using shell types:
For the 130mm gun, these are just regular shells, and don’t need much explanation. However note that you may need to use HEAT more often than on similar tier 9 heavies, as the BZ-68’s standard APCR shell isn’t very impressive in terms of penetration.

For the 152mm gun:
AP-
Use this against most enemies. Unlike other tanks with a premium HE shell, that premium HE is not your primary ammo that you should load at the start of a battle. This is because its penetration is very low for a premium HE shell, and it only does 70 more damage than HE, making it not worth using unless you really have a very easy shot with little chance of it missing or hitting spaced armour.

Premium HE-
As said above, this shell’s penetration is unimpressive, and deals little more than the AP shell. This is best used against the sides and rears of enemies, since very few enemies that you face will have enough side armour to resist 160/176mm of penetration; however many will have enough frontal armour.

Standard HE-
This is only best used against very thin armour plates, such as the rears of tanks or on paper TDs. Its penetration is only 60mm (extremely low for a 152mm gun). Note that against tanks with spall liner, this shell only does 600 damage on average (down from 750).

One of the best uses for this shell is against enemies you can’t penetrate. Its good to splash under the belly of enemy tanks or onto engine decks to deal good splash damage when you can’t penetrate AP.

Go hulldown & use gun depression:
Due to the very solid frontal turret and upper plate armour of the BZ-68, it becomes a very strong tank when going hulldown and hiding its most obvious weakpoint, which is the lower plate.

Using gun depression also increases the turret armour to a point where even high penetration (330-340mm HEAT) premium ammo can’t penetrate the turret face. Even though the tank only has -6 degrees, its low profile make this actually quite usable, and the BZ-68 is very easy to position.

Angle/wiggle the tank:
If on flat ground and with not cover, angle and wiggle the hull back and fourth. This is effective in this tank, since it can bait enemies into hitting the tracks when they try to aim for the lower plate.

This also keeps your armour angles and thicknesses fluctuations, so enemies with just enough penetration (such as 330mm HEAT trying to go through the upper plate) won’t be as confident to shoot at your armour which is changing due to the tank’s movement.

Sidescraping:
Its best to try avoid sidescraping in this tank. While its sides are a decent 80mm, it has a weak track wheel when sidescraping. The hull also has a “shoulder” weakness right above the tracks, which is always exposed when sidescraping.

Generally sidescraping isn’t very effective in this tank.

Facehugging:
Avoid facehugging enemies with the BZ-68. Its armour relies heavily on angling, especially the upper plate. Even the fairly flat turret is angled back, so if you facehug an enemy, this juts reduces that armour.

Facehugging also gives enemies easy shots into the usually small cupola, since in close range, even smaller cupolas are easy to hit.

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Overall the gameplay is fairly average with the 130mm gun, being quite similar to many tier 9 heavies with a similar mobility profile and a similar alpha damage.

The 152mm gun requires more careful gameplay due to the long reload and inconsistent penetration. You can be aggressive in top tier battle, but have to be more passive when bottom tier. This gun always requires allied support due to its penetration and reload time, however is very effective at damage trading.

Tank gameplay:

Gameplay with 130mm gun:

Gameplay with 152mm gun:

Overall

Armour – 7.5/10
130mm Gun – 5/10
152mm Gun – 4.5/10 (this gun can be a 6-7/10 in the right situations, but its not consistent)
Mobility – 6.5/10
Speed – 7/10

BZ-68 is overall a good tank with the 130mm gun, and an ok tank with the 152mm gun.

Armour is strong, upper plate is very solid, and turret is thick though fairly flat.
130mm Gun is decent. Aim time gun handling are good, with decent DPM, penetration, and alpha damage. Accuracy, & gun depression of -6 degrees are both mediocre.
152mm Gun is decent, but doesn’t perform in all situations. Aim time & gun handling are good, alpha damage is decent. DPM, reload time, and penetration are all very low, and accuracy is bad. Gun depression is -6 degrees.
Mobility is good for the armour, with decent acceleration and good traverse speeds. Reverse speed is good.
Speed is good at 40km/h.

Is it worth keeping?

BZ-68 is a unique tank in tier 9. While its 130mm gun with 460 alpha may just seem like “yet another 460 alpha heavy tank” when compared with the 50TP Tyszkiewicza, WZ-111 1-4, or E 75, it does actually offer some points which make it different.

None of the other 460 alpha heavies in tier 9 offer as good of a combination of turret & hull armour, with mobility. Unlike the WZ-111 1-4, the hull armour is reliable; unlike the 50TP, the hull hasn’t got big weakpoints; and unlike the E 75, the tank can actually reach its 40km top speed fairly reliably.

For the 152mm gun, its more unique, since the only heavy in tier 9 with similar alpha is the Kpz 70. That being said, the Kpz 70 is basically just better. While its armour is less reliable, it has a much better gun, with a better reload for 30 more alpha, having a high penetration round, and overall much better accuracy and gun handling.

While its unique for a tech tree tank, its not a very consistent version of the tank to play, since it struggles to deal damage to heavily armoured tanks, even if it can splash HE. Some players may enjoy this high alpha, but other players may hate the inconsistency.

Is it worth keeping?
Of course, as a tech tree tank, keep it if you enjoyed playing it. Its always available in the tech tree so you can buy it back whenever you want.

Is it worth grinding to just to get this tank?
No, since its 130mm gun offers very similar gameplay to a tank like the 50TP or WZ-111 1-4. While the 152mm gun is unique and can be fun to play, this depends on your preference as a player. Its premium HE damage isn’t really special enough to justify its low penetration, and the lack of a high penetration shell often holds this tank back.

Grind overview

The BZ-68 leads on from the BZ-166, it costs 190,000 XP to unlock. No modules are unlocked from other tanks in the Chinese tech tree.

Turret:

vs 246mm AP penetration

As shown above, the stock turret still has very good armour against standard ammo. Its very flat, but about 272mm in effective thickness, so can reliably bounce essentially all standard ammo from tier 8-10 tanks.

Its weak to premium ammo due to it being so flat, and since most tier 9-10 tanks have over 280mm of premium penetration, they’ll be able to penetrate. However its a fairly small turret, so enemies will have to actually aim (especially if you’re moving).

The stock turret also gives the gun 0.14 dispersion on turret traverse, compared to the top turret with 0.12.

Gun:
The BZ-68 can mount the 130mm gun on its stock turret. This gun is a competitive option, since it has good penetration and alpha of 460. The reload time, gun handling, & aim time are slightly worse due to being mounted on the stock turret.

The 152mm gun would actually be far less effective on a stock tank, so using the 130mm is the best choice while grinding crew and modules. Only mount the 152mm after getting to 100% crew, and getting the top tracks (and of course the turret, since only the top turret can mount it).

Mobility:
Just like with previous tanks in the tech tree, the BZ-68 only has one engine upgrade, and this upgrade only adds 40 horsepower. This is a fairly small increase for a 49 ton tank, so the stock tank won’t be much less mobile than with the top engine.

The stock tracks do cause the tank to be much slower and less accurate. Compared to the top tracks, the stock ones give the tank 1/1.4/1.8 terrain resistance (compared to 1/1.3/1.7), worse traverse speed, and worse gun handling of 0.22/0.22/0.12-4 (compared to 0.22/0.22/0.12-4).

The combination of worse terrain resistances, traverse speed, and gun handling, make the tracks one of the most important modules to research.

Research path:
On this tank, research the tracks first. Tracks improve so many areas of the tank, helping to make the gun more accurate, and improving the overall mobility of the tank. These are also the cheapest module at only 20k XP.

Research the turret after the tracks. This improves armour by a huge amount, increase HP by 100, also helps with gun handling, and improves many gun stats slightly. This will improve the tank’s performance by a huge amount.

The last 2 modules (152mm gun/top engine) are up to you. If you don’t think you’ll use the 152mm gun, or are fine with just grinding with the 130mm gun for a bit longer, then get the engine first.
If you want to play this tank with the 152mm gun, then research that first, since the engine doesn’t add that much to the mobility of the tank. Its a nice improvement, but the tank is still perfectly usable without it.