Concept 1B

The Concept 1B is an American tier 10 heavium tank. It has a strong turret, but weak hull armour, an accurate and fast firing gun, and good mobility.

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

Armour

(The Concept 1B in the images is using Improved Assembly)

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

Armour when facing head on:
Upper plate 240-245mm
Lower plate 155-160mm

Turret 480-600mm
Cupola 115-190mm

Armour against AP shells is not shown as it looks identical to this, the hull is weak but the turret itself and the areas around it are strong.

VS tier 9:
Most tier 9 tanks (other than stock tanks) can fairly easily penetrate the Concept 1B when its hull is not angled. When the hull becomes angled, most tanks will have a chance to bounce off, however you have to over-angle the tank to get bounces from tanks with 250mm+ penetration.

The main strength of this tank against tier 9 tanks will be when its hulldown, as the tank is basically invincible then.

VS tier 10:
Tier 10 enemies are the same, they will only be able to bounce off the upper plate of the Concept is over-angled. Its best to just not expect to bounce shells off the hull, as it won’t get them reliably.

Again, the tank is almost invincible when the hull is hidden, enemies can only aim for the hatch at the very back of the turret. When using even a small amount of gun depression, this hatch becomes hidden.

The Concept 1B has 90mm of side armour, so it can actually sidescrape. However be aware that its engine deck is a weakpoint if enemies know to shoot it there.
You can see an example of this in the gameplay advice section below.

Gun

The Concept 1B mounts a 110mm gun

-Alpha damage is 380 on APCR, 330 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-It has a 7.6s reload giving it 3012 DPM.
-Penetration on AP is 258mm, HEAT is 310mm, and HE is 53mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.0s/3.2s
–Base aim time is 2.2s, but it can get down to 1.69s.
-Dispersion is 0.317/0.269.
–Gun handling is 0.14/0.14/0.1, or 0.12/0.12/0.09 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees.

Overall this gun is good in all areas other than penetration. Its one of the few tier 10s to still use APDS shells (classed as APCR in game), which means it has 3 degrees less normalization than tanks with AP. It also has very low HEAT penetration, being only better than medium and light tanks.

Other than this, the tank has very good gun handling, good accuracy, great aim time, and nice DPM and reload for 380 alpha. Concept 1B’s standard APCR shells also have the 4th lowest amount of penetration loss among tier 10 HT, only losing 3.88% of penetration at 500m.

Overall its a snappy and accurate gun, but it has to make up for low penetration by being accurate with each shot.

Mobility

-Top speed is 45km/h forwards, and -16km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 39.4 deg/s on hard terrain, and 36.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 17.8 hp/t, it has a decently strong 776 hp engine for its 44 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.9 hp/t on hard terrain, and 13.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1.2/1.3/2.4

The Concept 1B is quite a mobile heavy. It has good top speed, great acceleration rate, and quite good traverse speed. Overall its a fairly quick vehicle for a heavy tank.

While terrain resistances aren’t super impressive, there is very little difference between medium and hard terrain (1.2 to 1.3), meaning the Concept hardly loses any mobility performance by going off-road.

Special mechanics

Concept 1B has the emergency track mechanic, meaning it can continue to move in reverse at -7km/h when the track is broken.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Concept 1B has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer/Calibrated Shells:
Both equipment pieces are valid choices on the Concept, but start playing the tank using gun rammer first, only use calibrated shells after you have played a fair few battles in it and really feel you need more penetration

Calibrated shells will increase the tank’s APCR penetration from 258mm up to 271mm, HEAT from 310mm up to 350mm, and HE from 53mm up to 57mm. However it decreases DPM down to 2862, and reload to 8s.

Gun rammer improves the DPM to 3012, and reload down to 7.6s, quite nice numbers for its 380 alpha gun.

Again, when you first try the tank, use gun rammer. If you determine that the tank has insufficient penetration numbers, then switch to calibrated shells and try that.

Improved Assembly:
The armour layout of the Concept is really simple. Hull is an easy penetration, turret is impossible to penetrate, especially when hulldown.
The Concept does not play as an “armoured heavy tank”, but as a heavium, its turret armour is what really matters, and that already has more more armour than needed.

Use improved assembly, as enhanced armour won’t benefit the tank. The hull is just too weak to gain benefit from enhanced armour, and the turret doesn’t need enhancing.
Use improved assembly, it will take the Concept’s base HP of 2350 up to 2491.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Concept 1B is an active heavy tank that plays and brawls on the frontline. Due to its constant movements, it will benefit more by improving its gun handling with the vertical stabilizer.

Refined gun won’t benefit this tank as much, since it already has good accuracy, and it definitely does not play a passive role in battle.

Gameplay advice

The Concept 1B is somewhat comparable to an American version of the Chieftain Mk.6.

It takes the strong turret and great gun depression to a whole new level, but compared to the Chieftain, this tank sacrifices a bit of DPM and overall gun accuracy.

If you have played a Chieftain Mk.6 before, then the Concept 1B should feel quite familiar.

Generic gameplay:
The Concept plays basically as a regular heavy tank, but with less focus on hull armour, and more focus on mobility. This allows the Concept to sometimes make flanking maneuvers that other, slower heavy tanks could not make. Its good DPM and accuracy also mean that the tank can also work quite well on the medium flank (if it needs to).

When the battle starts, you should take this tank to the frontline (either the HT or the MT flank can work), find a position to go hulldown or to use your gun depression. From there, you just play like like any other heavy would, but always try to keep the hull hidden and only expose the turret.

Exposing the hull:
If you MUST expose the hull, you can either try to bait enemies by angling the front plate sharply, or you can sidescrape. The Concept 1B actually has the strongest side armour of all USA tier 10 tanks, and the upper part of its side armour is extremely well angled.

Be aware of the weaknesses though, you can’t angle past the 70 degree auto-ricochet point, as the side armour will get too weak. You also expose the engine deck when you sidescrape (shown below), but exposing this small part is still  better than just driving out sideways.

Over-angle and bait using the frontal armour:
You can also angle the front armour, and just expose that round the corner slightly, enemies may be baited into shooting the extremely angled upper/lower plate and bounce off. Be careful to not expose the drive wheel when you do this though, as that will both damage your hull and track you in place.

Use gun depression or go hulldown. In every situation in the battle, this is what the Concept should be looking to do. This is the Concept’s main strength, just being extremely resilient in a hulldown position. If you aren’t always trying to get this tank into a hulldown or gun depression position, you may as well just go play another tank, as going hulldown is what the Concept is made for.

Angle the hull.
This is worth doing even if you are on flat ground and out in the open, as angling the tank still makes it easier for enemies to accidentally bounce. If you just show the whole front of the hull to them, it makes it a very easy shot that all tanks can hit relatively accurately.

Overall

Armour – 6/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 8/10
Speed – 8/10

Concept 1B is overall a good tank.

Armour is impervious while hulldown, and the side armour is usable in angling and sidescraping, but the hull front is very wide and very weak.
Gun is great, with good DPM, accuracy, gun depression, and great handling. Its penetration is poor for a heavy.
Mobility is good, with a strong engine, good acceleration, and good traverse speed, and great reverse speed.
Speed is good, 45km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The Concept 1B is worth getting for players who love heavium tanks, hulldown heavies, or are very skilled at the game.

Due to its penetration and hull armour, the Concept is quite a high skill tank. To play it well, you need to know where to aim on enemy tanks to exploit their weakpoints, or if using calibrated shells, need to know how to play the tank with below average DPM and alpha damage. Its fairly weak hull armour means its not as forgiving if you position the tank incorrectly or make a mistake.

Due to this, great players will feel that the Concept is an amazing tank, as it has really everything that makes a tank dominant in game: strong turret, great accuracy, good mobility, great gun depression, and high DPM. Such players will know how to mitigate the weak hull and low penetration with their advanced game knowledge.
Less experienced players are better off not getting a Concept, you aren’t likely to enjoy the tank very much, as its quite unforgiving if you make a false step in it.

The Concept 1B is worth 21,000 gold. Its a good tank in the right positions, and in the right player’s hands, but its also not an extremely fun or exciting tank compared to some of the other tier 10s you can buy. This is worth 21k gold from a competitive point of view, but is only worth 16k if you’re wanting a fun tier 10 tank, as the Concept isn’t really too fun or exciting to play.

Most recently sold for:

Main prize of Blitzfair 2021 – December 2021
Concept 1B Crates – July 2022
25,000 gold (Full bundle) – July 2023

Camo cost:

Historical info:

Concept 1B is a real tank designed by the USA around the same time as the T95 medium tank project. It was intended to be a new MBT with a low slung silhouette and a sleek turret compared to the current mainstay tank, the M60 Pattons.

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