Groundtank

The Groundtank is a tier 8 hybrid nation superheavy. Its designed in collaboration with the Dune movies. It features a very odd armour design, with strong hull armour and a decent turret. It has decent speed but very slow traverse, with a 440 alpha gun with decent overall stats.

There is a bug on this tank showing it has very high camo rating on-move (82% with a level 7 camo crew skill). This is not true, the tank’s camo on-move is normal (28% with a level 7 crew skill) for a heavy, and actual performance of this camo rating is of a heavy tank, and not a tank with 82% camo rating.

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

Armour

(The Groundtank in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

When flat and facing head-on:
Central upper plate 255mm
Angled plates above tracks 230mm+
Lower plate 155mm

Turret cheeks 260-280mm
Weakpoints around gun 200-220mm
Turret roof 330mm+ autoricochet

Armour notes:
The weakpoints around the gun are all real weakpoints, not just visual elements.

The lower plate is very far back on the hull, basically under the gun. Due to this, you can turn the hull to hide the lower plate by using the tracks.

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
Against tier 7 tanks, the Groundtank has very strong armour. Its turret cheeks and upper plate are both impenetrable when facing head-on, and the only weakpoints on the tank are the lower plate, and the areas around the gun.

If the tank angles the hull to hide the lower plate, then there are no weakpoints to standard ammo.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Against tier 8 tanks, the armour is still strong, but has more weakpoints.

The upper plate and turret cheeks are strong to standard ammo, but penetrable to many premium rounds. Using enhanced armour does help make these areas slightly harder for premium ammo to penetrate.

The weakpoints around the gun are all fairly strong to standard ammo, but penetrable to premium ammo, and this is the same for the angled plates above the tracks.

The lower plate is weak to all enemies.

Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Against tier 9 enemies, the tank has fairly mediocre armour.

Most tier 9 heavy tanks will have enough penetration to go through the turret or the upper plate if the tank isn’t angled (this is since tier 9 HT have standard ammo from 245-258mm penetration).

Most tier 9 MT and LT will still struggle to penetrate the tank with standard ammo, but premium ammo from any tier 9 can easily penetrate most areas of the tank.

Overall armour performance:
The armour of this tank looks really impressive on paper, its strong and thick with many good angles.

In practice its quite hard to use perfectly. There are always weakpoints enemies can go for, if your hull isn’t angled, then the lower plate is visible. If the turret is turned slightly then its weak to most premium ammo. If the hull is turned, then there are weakpoints on the “inside” of the upper plate.

This is an armour profile where sometimes it will work perfectly and bounces everything, other times it will be penetrated in areas you didn’t anticipate or expect could be hit. Generally its strong armour, but it requires some angling knowledge to use well, and wont always hold up.

Playing against a Groundtank

Due to such an odd armour layout there are a few things to be aware of when playing against this tank.

Frontal weakpoints:
The upper and lower plates are very far back on the hull, so turning the hull can make them harder to hit or even hidden completely.

Don’t be baited into shooting these plates when the tank has its hull turned, they are usually small and hard to hit at such an angle, and the enemy could just turn the tank and bait you into shooting the tracks.

Instead shoot the weakpoints shown in the below image:

Note that these upper plates are angled like stairs, so the alternate between being flat and being angled.

The flat parts of this plate are larger than the angled areas, so the chance of hitting the flat part is quite high, and its an easy penetration.
Sometimes the shell does bounce off the auto-ricochet angled part of the “stair”, but generally the shell penetrates.

If you want to guarantee a penetration with no chance of bouncing, then just shoot AP or APCR, then just shoot the “inner” area, or shoot the area under the “stairs” armour plate, but above the track (this part is the base side armour).

Other weakpoints:
The turret cheeks are weak to around 255-260mm of penetration, most tier 8 heavy tanks and many tier 8 mediums can penetrate this with premium ammo, and most tank destroyers can penetrate with standard ammo.

The areas around the gun are small weakpoints, but there are multiple and they are fairly weak.

The side armour isn’t a weakpoint when its over-angled unless you have very high penetration AP or APCR ammo; its usually not a reliable penetration to lower penetration or to HEAT ammo due to the large distance between the spaced armour and the base hull armour behind it.  
When shooting the side, the shell also has to pass through the tracks, which are worth 20mm of armour.

Gun

The Groundtank mounts a 130mm gun

-Alpha damage is 440 on AP, 370 on APCR, and 580 on HE
-It has a 13.6s reload, giving it 1935 DPM.
-Penetration on  AP is 217mm, APCR is 270mm, and HE is 62mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.8/4.4s.
–Base aim time is 2.5s, but it can get down to 2.04s.
-Dispersion is 0.371/0.334
–Gun handling is 0.21/0.21/0.16, or 0.18/0.18/0.14 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees.

Overall this is a decent gun. DPM and reload time are both fairly decent, especially considering that the gun has 440 alpha. Penetration on all 3 shell types is good, and the tank has very good HE alpha damage.

For its alpha, it actually has better-than-average accuracy, with decent gun handling, and decent aim time. This doesn’t mean its accurate, but its definitely not too terrible for a 440 alpha gun.

Gun depression is great, it makes the tank flexible on a ridge and allows better turret armour use.

Mobility

-Top speed is 37km/h forwards, and -15km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 23.5 deg/s on hard terrain, and 18.1 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 13.6 hp/t, it has a decent 1492 horsepower engine for its 109 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.6 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.5 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.3/1.5

Overall this is good speed but poor mobility. A tank being fast and being mobile are very different. In this case, the Groundtank is fairly quick, with a good 37km/h top speed, and fairly decent acceleration to let it use that speed. However, its mobility is terrible, as the hull traverse speed is one of the worst in the whole game.

The tank slows down by a huge amount when needing to turn, and often has to stop completely before turning a corner. This really slows the tank in overall mobility, though if it doesn’t have to turn much then its fairly mobile.
The turret traverse speed is equally bad, being 23.08 degrees/s, which isn’t terrible for a heavy tank, but its not good considering how slow your hull turns.

Special Mechanics

Groundtank has access to the “Desert Force” mechanic. This mechanic essentially just makes the tank 30% more mobile on desert maps.

It increases traverse speed on hard terrain to 29.4 deg/s, and on medium terrain to 23.5 deg/s.
Acceleration increases to 17 hp/t on hard terrain, and 13.6 hp/t on medium terrain.

This makes the tank easier to maneuver, especially with its traverse speed. The mobility difference on desert maps is very noticeable due to this mechanic.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Groundtank has no special consumable or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
The penetration of the Groundtank is already good, especially with that 270mm premium APCR penetration. It generally doesn’t struggle to penetrate enemies it faces. Use gun rammer instead, since the tank already has a long reload, and fairly low DPM for a heavy tank.

Gun rammer would lower the reload time 14.7s down to 13.6s, and increase the DPM from 1800 to 1935.

Improved Control/Engine Accelerator:
There’s a valid argument for either of these equipment pieces.

The tank turns so slowly, and hull turn rate is very important for angling the hull armour. Improving it by using improved control would help this (however you won’t notice in battle).

Also due to the tank turning so slowly, you may just want to cut the losses on traverse speed, and fully maximise your tank’s acceleration rate by using engine accelerator.

Enhanced Armour:
Currently no exact numbers, as no model of this tank is available.

Enhanced armour is a much better equipment choice on this tank, as it makes a big difference on the turret cheeks, which will let you bounce more premium ammo from tier 8 tank, and make it stronger to tier 9 standard ammo.

Even bouncing 1 shot is worth far more than the HP you gain from improved assembly, and the tank’s base HP is already an above-average 1900 HP.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Due to having already decent dispersion of 0.371 (for the alpha damage of the gun), and due to the fact that the Groundtank is a frontline brawler of a heavy tank, it doesn’t benefit from refined gun.

Vertical stabilizer is a much better equipment choice, since the Ground tank is essentially always turning its hull and turret due to the low traverse speeds, and since it brawls on the frontline and is constantly moving to engage targets. Vertical stabilizer helps the tank to retain more of its accuracy when its moving, and helps it to get aimed in quicker after it stops moving, which is more suited to how a heavy tank plays.

Gameplay advice

The Groundtank plays a fairly generic “big alpha” heavy tank role. Its somewhat comparable to a VK 100.01 (P), just quicker and less armoured.

General gameplay:
Take this tank to the heavy tank side of the map. Its traverse speed is far too slow to be able to play on the medium flank, where you’d need to constantly be turning to get shots into the quicker and smaller medium/light tanks, and the long reload combined with unimpressive handling would struggle to deal damage.

Play in town environments or in areas where you can go hulldown. The armour of the Groundtank does work even on open ground, since you can hide the lower plate with the tracks, but its still best to have hard cover to hide certain weakpoints.

Trade using alpha damage, don’t try to out-DPM or out-reload enemies, since most just have better DPM and reload times.

Turn both the hull and turret, since the traverse of both are slow, you need to be turning both at once to get the gun onto enemy targets before they move.

Stay on hard terrain:
It is paramount to keep to hard terrain in the Groundtank, since it allows the tank to turn 5 degrees/s faster than on medium terrain.

This is very important due to how the tank needs to use that traverse speed to angle the armour, turn the hull, and to just maneuver in general. Keeping on hard terrain also does improve the acceleration, but the most important aspect for this tank is that traverse speed.

Hard terrain are paved areas, roads, paths, etc. Medium terrain is the majority of map terrain, its anywhere which is not  hard terrain.

Use hulldown & gun depression positions:
Due to having a great -9 gun depression, with 440 alpha, the Groundtank is perfect for poking ridgelines and trading damage with enemies.

The turret armour of the Groundtank is fairly flat (angled only to the sides, not top), so it doesn’t increase much with gun depression use. Don’t rely on it more or expect it to be stronger than when on flat ground due to this. The main use for hulldown or gun depression positions for this tank are to hide the lower plate and other hull weakpoints.

Angle the hull:

As shown in the image above, angling the hull makes the lower plate smaller, or even completely removed as a weakpoint.

It does expose other areas, however its likely that many players you face won’t know about them, as the lower plate is the most obvious and known weakpoint of any tank.

Sidescraping:
This tank looks like it can sidescrape deceptively well, however it does have a significant weakpoint, which is its hull shoulder plate, angled almost like stairs with an alternating flat/angled area.

This area isn’t always a reliable penetration, however its also not a reliable bounce area either. If an enemy knows to shoot here, then try to either angle less (increasing thickness of the hull shoulder), or just avoid exposing that plate against them

The images above are shown against 265mm APCR. Notice how far the hull sides can be over-angled, yet still remain red. Also notice how the hull shoulder penetrable.

Turning the turret:
In a sidescrape, after shooting and then going on reload, DON’T turn the turret inwards. Keep it facing towards the enemy, or even turn it away slightly, like shown below. 

Aim properly:
The Groundtank has fairly decent overall stats relating to its accuracy. Aim time, dispersion, and gun handling are all better than the average “trash 122mm” tier 8 heavy guns, while having 40 more alpha than those guns.

However you still can’t snap shots or treat the gun like its accurate. Due to such a long reload and good alpha, its worth properly aiming each shot to make sure it penetrates, and not rushing it and then missing.

---

Overall the Groundtank just plays a fairly standard high-alpha HT role, sort of similar to both the VK 100 and the Type 57. It can sidescrape and angle, use gun depression and hulldown, trade with its 440 alpha, and has fairly decent speed for reaching frontline positions.

Just be wary of being circled by enemies, even slower heavy tanks can easily out-maneuver you in close quarters due to that terrible traverse speed.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 6.5/10
Gun – 5/10
Mobility – 4/10
Mobility – 6/10 (for desert maps)
Speed – 6/10

Groundtank is overall a good tank.

Armour is decent, the hull is strong due to how easily the lower plate can be hidden. Turret is decent, but its very weak when its turned even slightly, and weak to premium ammo. 
Gun has great alpha damage with decent dispersion, though with fairly average aim time, gun handling, a slow reload, and lower-end DPM. Penetration & gun depression are both good.
Mobility is mediocre. The engine and acceleration rates are both decent, however traverse on all terrain types is abysmal. Reverse speed is mediocre at -12km/h.
Mobility on desert maps is much better due to the “desert force” mechanic. The tank accelerates impressively quickly. It still turns slowly but its noticeably better. Reverse speed is the same.
Speed is good with 37km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The Groundtank is worth getting if you like big alpha and solidly armoured heavy tanks with good gun depression. In tier 8 that’s a fairly unique combination, with only the Type 57, Skoda T56, VK 100, or VK 168 being even remotely similar. Its also just a unique looking tank, with a very unique armour layout.
(On top of that, it weighs 110 tons and can go 37km/h)

If you hate slow turning tanks or can’t stand guns with mediocre handling, then its probably worth avoiding this tank, as its one of the slowest traversing tanks in the game, and its gun handling isn’t as impressive as some other tanks.

The Groundtank is worth 8,000 gold. Its a good tank with some strong traits, and a very unique armour layout, however its not OP. It can be fairly strong in amny situations, but does have very significant limitations, and its armour is quite easily countered if you know the weakpoints. At the same time, you can abuse that crazy armour against less knowledgeable players, or even against better players by using good angling.

Its gameplay is fairly generic as far as heavy tanks go, it plays a similar role to a Type 57 or VK 100. Its a fairly new player friendly tank due to its weird armour layout but also hard hitting and penetrating gun.

Most recently sold for:

Dune collaboration event release – February 2024

WG has announced that the Groundtank and all Dune related content in the game will only be available in the current event, and will not return due licencing limitations.

Camo cost:

Back to homepage