FCM 50 t

Last updated on 27/09/24.

FCM 50 t is a tier 8 French medium tank. Its a very large medium tank with high weight, and decent mobility for that weight. Armour is decent, with high DPM and good penetration on its gun.

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

Armour

(The FCM 50 t in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 180mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 235mm APCR

Armour when flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 172-180mm
Lower plate 155mm

Turret front 195-210mm
Turret cheeks 225-295mm
Gun mantlet 300mm
Cupola 115mm

Armour vs tier 7 enemies: 
Tier 7 tanks will really struggle to penetrate the FCM 50 t. Its upper plate is strong enough to bounce nearly all tier 7 tanks if you just employ a bit of armour angling.

Armour vs tier 8 enemies: 
Against tier 8, the FCM has decent armour. Fighting against lower penetration tanks (175-185mm), you can angle the hull to bounce shots on the upper plate. Higher penetration levels generally won’t struggle to penetrate the upper plate.

The turret can hold up decently to roughly 200mm of penetration, but higher penetration rounds can penetrate the front and cheeks much easier.

Armour vs tier 9 enemies: 
Facing tier 9 enemies, the FCM has essentially no armour. Tier 9 tanks can easily penetrate any part of the FCM’s armour profile, even if its using gun depression. 

Gun

The FCM 50 t mounts a 90mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 225 on AP, 190 on APCR, and 270 on HE
-Reload time is 5.2s, giving it 2616 DPM
-Penetration is 212mm on AP, 259mm on APCR, and 45mm on HE
-Aim time is 3.5s/3.7s
-Dispersion is 0.317/0.285
–Gun handling is 0.14/0.14/0.08, or 0.12/0.12/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -8 degrees

Overall the FCM 50 t has a very good all-rounder gun. It has good DPM, good penetration, good accuracy, and decent handling and aim time. Gun depression of -8 is decent (with the tank’s size it can sometimes feel a bit awkward, but -8 is definitely still usable).

This gun is nearly identical the the one on the AMX CDC, just a bit toned-down in terms of its aim time and dispersion.

Mobility

-Top speed is decent, 51km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 54.4 deg/s on hard terrain, and 49.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 21.2 hp/t, it has a strong 1150hp engine for its 54 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 19.3 hp/t on hard terrain, and 17.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are decent, having 1.1/1.2/1.4

Overall the mobility of the FCM 50 t is not bad, quite average for a tier 8 medium. Its top speed is average, acceleration is average, and traverse speed is nothing special. For such a large and heavy tank though (54 tons), its quite mobile.

Provisions, & consumables

FCM 50 t has Improved Engine Power boost and Sandbag Armour for special consumables/provisions.

Consumables:
-Use adrenaline, it is very strong when paired with the high HP and decent armour of the tank, and makes it very proficient in brawling and DPM use.

-Use multi-purpose restoration pack in case of fires, module, or crew damage.

-Last consumable is optional, try it with improved engine power boost at first. If you notice that you often have damaged modules or injured crew, and you can’t repair due to having only 1 repair consumable, then consider dropping the speed boost for another repair consumable.

Provisions:
-Use 10% food, this is mandatory to make the tank decent in battle, it improved accuracy, reload aim time, view range, traverse speed, etc.

-Use 6% sandbag armour, this gives the tank an extra 90 HP putting it solidly as the highest HP medium tank in tier 8, its very useful for brawls, 1v1 fights, or just soaking damage in general.

-The last consumable should be 10% fuel as the FCM’s mobility is nothing special for a medium, and not using this would make it much less mobile.
However, you could use 3% sandbag armour, which gives an extra 45 HP, just to emphasize on the FCM’s strength. If doing this then you definitely need to Improved Engine Power boost in your loadout.

Equipment loadout

Gun Rammer:
Due to having good penetration, and not having any HEAT or special HE rounds, gun rammer is a better choice on the FCM 50 t. The improved DPM of the tank is one of its great traits, and helps it to brawl very well with other mediums, gun rammer is the perfect equipment choice for the playstyle of the FCM as it goes well with its high HP and good armour.

Gun rammer would improve reload time from 5.4s to 5.2s, and DPM from 2485 to 2616.

Improved Modules:
As the FCM 50 t weighs 54 tons with a good power/weight ratio and top speed, its able to ram enemy tanks quite well. Improved modules will improve the ramming ability of the FCM by reducing the damage you take from ramming enemies.

If you find yourself often with damaged modules or crew, then use defence system. This helps to prevent engine damage, and reduces the chance of crew injury or dying from ammorack explosion.

Enhanced Armour:
Both improved assembly and enhanced armour are good choices on the FCM, since it has both decent armour and high HP.

Enhanced armour is a better choice, as the difference of bouncing even 1 shot or forcing an enemy to use premium ammo is worth more in HP than what improved assembly would add.

Enhanced armour improves:
Upper plate from 172mm to 178mm.
Lower plate from 155mm to 160mm.
Turret front from 195mm to 200mm (at weakest point).

Vertical Stabilizer
The FCM 50 t has good base accuracy, and does not need refined gun. Even though the FCM sometimes may need to snipe from a distance (such as when it flanks enemies), its dispersion is sufficient enough. Its better to improve the tank’s gun handling with vertical stabilizer, as its a medium tank, it will be constantly moving around and changing positions, so its better to have good dispersion-on-movement.

Gameplay advice

The FCM 50 t is a fairly generic medium in its playstyle. It has some armour, decent gun depression, average mobility, and a typical 90mm gun; a very standard set of traits among tier 8 medium tanks.

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General gameplay:
Take the tank to the medium side of the map, this is where you can make some use of your armour, as medium & light tanks have significantly less penetration than heavy tanks. The medium flank is also where your HP advantage becomes evident, as the FCM can have up to between 82 to 495 more HP than any tier 8 medium or light tank.

Use terrain to hide the tank, as the FCM is massive, its one of the largest and longest medium tanks in the whole game, making it an easy target to spot and to shoot. Similarly, you should use the terrain to increase armour effectiveness, as the -8 gun depression does help to make the armour more effective, especially to enemy medium tanks.

Trade damage using DPM. Your single-shot alpha is quite low, at 225, so you need to pressure enemies by using the fast reload time to shoot them at least twice for every one time they shoot you.

Play the tank differently depending on what enemies you face:
Against low penetration tanks such as tier 7 MT/LT, or low penetration tier 8 tanks (175-190mm standard pen), you can play quite aggressively.

The armour effectiveness of the tank will be more noticeable against these enemies, combined with the high HP and DPM you have, it makes the FCM a very strong tank to contend with.

Against higher penetration enemies (tanks with 200mm+ penetration), it will be harder to bounce shells, especially on the hull. You have to play a bit more carefully since in most cases your armour won’t work, and you have an enormous hull that’s very easy to hit.

Ramming:
With its good speed, high weight, and improved speed boost, you can ram enemies for a significant amount of damage. You can also afford to do it due to the higher HP compared to most mediums.

In the right situations, ramming is worth doing, as it can take out a lot of HP (and thus lessen the time you take to kill an enemy). Add this to high DPM, and often you’ll win a fight after ramming an enemy at speed.

Sidescrape:
As shown below, the FCM 50 t can sidescrape very well, this is mainly due to having thick 30mm tracks, so when enemies shoot the drive wheel or tracks, the effect of double overmatch is less than on other mediums.

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Overall the FCM just plays as a fairly standard medium tank, using gun depression and hulldown positions to hide its hull, and using its high DPM to trade damage with slower reloading tanks. Sidescraping and ramming are unique gameplay aspects to this tank, as most mediums can’t pull these off effectively.

Overall

Armour – 6.5/10
Gun – 6/10
Mobility – 5.5/10
Speed – 5/10

FCM 50 t is overall an good tank.

Armour is decent. Upper plate can bounce low penetration enemies. Turret is rounded but penetrable to higher levels of pen (210mm+). Side armour is good, can sidescrape, HE protection is great, HESH protection is poor.
Gun has great DPM, good accuracy & penetration. Aim time and gun handling are quite average. Gun depression is -8 degrees.
Mobility is decent, with a strong engine and decent acceleration rates, though fairly mediocre traverse speed. Reverse speed is average.
Speed is average at 51km/h.

Is it worth getting?

FCM 50 t worth getting if you just want a slightly different 90mm medium tank. Most mediums with a 90mm gun like this don’t have nearly as high HP as the FCM, and only a few have effective hull & turret armour.

Its got some nice traits but its overall gameplay still doesn’t feel like anything too exciting or different.

FCM 50 t is worth 6,000 gold. Its a good tank and can be quite strong in some situations, especially if you find a 1-on-1 fight with a medium with lesser HP and DPM. Due to its ramming capability and its speed boost, it can be quite a fun tank.

Most recently sold for:

4,500 gold (Starting price), 3,000 gold (Final price) in Auction – August 2023

Camo cost:

Historical note:

FCM 50 t was a heavy tank designed by France in 1945. The FCM 50 t was presented as a competitor to the AMX 50 (AMX M4) project, it has a similar silhouette and design to the Tiger II. The FCM 50 t even uses some of the mechanical components of the Tiger II.

In real life this tank was a heavy tank, not a medium. However due to its armour being relatively weak and mobility being high for a heavy tank; WG deciding to class it as a medium in game does make sense.
The FCM 50 t was the first ever French tank in WoT Blitz.

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