CS-52 LIS

The CS-52 LIS is a tier 7 Polish medium tank. It has good strong hull and turret armour, a great gun with good alpha and aim time, and decent mobility.

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

Armour

(The CS-52 LIS in the images is using Enhanced Armour)
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Drag slider Right –> to view 168mm AP
Drag slider <– Left to view 218mm APCR
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 180-195mm
Lower plate 105-110mm
Turret 235-245mm (196mm on the weakpoints next to gun)
Gun mantlet 345mm
Cupola 90-120mm

(When the hull is angled, like shown in the image, the upper plate is 195-215mm)

VS tier 6:
Against tier 6 enemies, the CS-52 is very well armoured. Most enemies you face will struggle to penetrate the upper plate, and all enemies will struggle to penetrate the turret.

When using premium ammunition, some tier 6 tanks will be able to penetrate the turret cheeks, but its still a fairly small weakpoint. The upper plate will be weak to premium ammunition, though angling may still help get bounces.

The lower plate is weak to all tier 6 enemies.

VS tier 7:
Facing tier 7 enemies, the CS-52 still has quite good armour. The upper plate is able to bounce shells from most same tier medium and light tanks, but TDs and heavies will usually penetrate. Angling the hull will help to get even more bounces from same tier enemies.

The turret is also still strong, but same as the upper plate, most TDs and heavies will be able to penetrate the areas right next to the gun mantlet. By continuously moving the tank, there’s a higher chance that enemies miss and bounce off the edges of the turret or the gun mantlet.

The lower plate is still weak to all enemies.

VS tier 8:
Facing against tier 8 tanks, this tank’s hull is quite weak. Angling it will allow you to bounce some of the lower penetration MT and LT, but anything with more than 180mm penetration will be able to fairly easily penetrate even if the tank is angled.

The turret is still decent but again, if enemies have over 190mm penetration, they will be able to penetrate the turret cheeks fairly easily.

In tier 8 don’t rely on the hull armour, and when using the turret armour move back and fourth, don’t sit still.

The CS-52 LIS can sidescrape (shown above), since its side armour is a quite good 70mm thick, however it can’t over-angle at all.

Gun

The CS-52 LIS mounts a 105mm gun

-Alpha damage is 290 on AP, 250 on APCR, and 380 on HE
-It has a 8.4s reload, giving it 2066 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 158mm, APCR is 197mm, and HE is 53mm.
-Aim time is 2.9s/3.1s
-Dispersion is 0.371/0.334
–Gun handling is 0.14/0.14/0.12, or 0.12/0.12/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -6.2 degrees

The APCR rounds have a terrible 16.75% penetration loss over distance. So every 100m of distance, these shells lose 8.25mm of penetration (up to 500m, where penetration levels off at 164mm).
However the shells do have very high velocity, 980m/s on AP and 1,569m/s on APCR, and HE is 822m/s

Overall this is a very good gun, though its DPM is not very high, it still has a decent reload for its high alpha, it has great aim time and gun handling, with decent penetration. Only its dispersion is quite poor. The gun depression is quite usable as this tank has an very low slung hull.

Mobility

-Top speed is 47km/h forwards, and -19km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 61.3 deg/s on hard terrain, and 55.7 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 17.8 hp/t, it has a decent 650 horsepower engine for its 36 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 17.8 hp/t on hard terrain, and 16.2 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average, having 1/1.1/1.4

Overall this mobility is unimpressive. The top speed is slightly below average, and its acceleration rate is just average. The tank does have good traverse speed and great ground resistances, but for a medium its not the quickest of tanks, but that’s due to its good armour.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The CS-52 LIS does not have any special consumables provisions.

3% + 10% Fuel:
Due to the tank being fairly slow for a medium, and DPM not being one of the tanks main strengths, you may want to consider using the small 3% fuel. This will give some extra engine power, and result in a slightly more mobile tank.

Gun Rammer:
The CS-52 LIS is a high-alpha medium, meaning its reload is quite long and DPM is quite low. Gun rammer is important on this tank, as tier 7 is a big DPM tier, many tanks in tier 7 have DPM levels that rival tier 9-10 tanks.
This means that the CS-52 can’t really afford to lower its DPM, as some tanks have 600-1000 more DPM than it.

It doesn’t necessarily need calibrated shells, as for a tier 7 tank it does still have decent penetration It also has great aim time (and decent accuracy if using refined gun), so you can quite easily hit weakpoints on the tanks you can’t easily deal with.

Enhanced Armour:
The CS-52 LIS is one of the best armoured tier 7 medium tanks, and it definitely does play with an emphasis on that armour, as its mobility is less impressive than other MT.

For this reason, and the reason that enhanced armour does make a difference, its better to use enhanced armour instead of improved assembly.
The upper plate will go from from 180mm effective armour up to 187mm
The weakest point of the turret will go from 196mm to 204mm

Even without using improved assembly, the CS-52 LIS still has a good base HP of 1250.

Refined Gun:
As the CS-52 has amazing aim time and quite good gun handling, the main issue with the gun is actually its accuracy.

When playing the tank, as the aim time is so quick, often you are able to get the gun fully aimed in, but miss or bounce due to the reticle still being such a poor 0.371.
Because of this amazing aim time and good gun handling, its actually more beneficial for the tank to use refined gun, and improve its accuracy down to 0.334.

If you really think vertical stabilizer is the best choice, then try it and see how it feels. If you keep missing while using vertical stabilizer, switch to refined gun, as it really does make quite a difference.

Gameplay advice

The CS-52 LIS plays as a regular medium tank, just a bit slower.

General gameplay:
You should always go to the medium flank, the only case where its a bad idea is if you would be going there alone. From there, find a hulldown position, and just use your gun to trade damage with enemy tanks.

Do not play very aggressively, this tank doesn’t have enough DPM for that gameplay. If you want to take on an enemy alone, you have to use the terrain to try avoid them while you reload, as there is no other MT in the tier with such a long reload as this.
Play on the frontline, use hulldown positions, and trade damage. Be wary of the situation, as your mobility isn’t the best, you will need to plan ahead if you want to escape a situation.

Trade in alpha damage:
Do not trade in DPM, this is the reason you should try avoid 1-on-1 fights, as the tank uses its alpha to stack up damage. You should try to avoid enemies as long as possible after shooting them. Due to the 8.4s reload of this tank, all other mediums will be able to put in 2 shots for every time you shoot, and you have to not let this happen.

If you put in 1 shot for every time the enemy shoots, you will come out with more HP, as the CS-52 is the highest alpha medium tank in tier 7 (along with the Leo and Svear).

Give time to aim:
The CS-52’s gun has good aim time but poor accuracy, meaning for it to really work well, you have to let it aim in, as otherwise its dispersion may make you miss.
Let the gun aim in, it has quick aim time and good handling, so you don’t even need to sit still for long before it reaches an accurate point.
Each shot is worth aiming in, as you have the joint highest single-shot alpha of all tier 7 medium tanks.

Go hulldown and use gun depression:
Due to the strong turret and hull armour, the CS-52 is very good in a hulldown situation, it can bounce far more shots as its weak lower plate becomes hidden.
The only weakpoints on the tank are its small cupola, and its turret cheeks (to higher tier tanks and same tier premium ammo). Keep the tank swaying back and fourth to throw off the enemies’ aim, it my cause them to miss and bounce off.

Though the gun depression is only -6.2 degrees, this is actually quite usable. The CS-52 has a very low profile, so the gun is actually not too far off the ground, and its -6.2 degrees generally doesn’t struggle to hit enemies.
The situation where it will struggle is when you try to go on a ridgeline or up a hill and try go go hulldown. However, you can still use hills and ridgelines in this tank, there is a guide for how to do it here.

Overall

Overall the CS-52 LIS is a very good tank. It has reliable armour against same and lower tier tanks, it has a superb gun with great aim time and alpha, and its mobility is decent considering the armour. 

Its a unique tank in its tier, as its the only one with proper hull and turret armour, along with a very nice gun with high alpha.

Is it worth getting?

The CS-52 LIS is worth getting for players who like medium tanks similar to the Type 59 or Titan 54d. Though this doesn’t have the most flashy stats, its a good reliable tank that has a great gun and armour profile for its tier. 

The CS-52 LIS is worth 5,000 gold. Its quite an easy tank to use, and its quite a strong vehicle, and its fairly unique, its a medium tank with good hull and turret armour, which is something that very few other medium tanks have in tier 7.

Most recently sold for:

-CS-52 LIS was the main reward of the “Blitz turns 8” event in 2022. 
-Reward for “Big Boss Expedition event”, received after 200 victories.

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