GSOR 1008

GSOR 1008 is a tier 8 British tank destroyer. Its main feature is its gun, with a 2 shell autoloader, amazing shell velocity, and 440 alpha on its HESH ammo. Other than its it has weak ammo, terrible gun handling but good aim time, and very unimpressive mobility.

Armour

(The GSOR 1008 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 180mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 61mm HE

Armour when flat and facing head-on:
Upper-upper plate 125-140mm auto-ricochet
Upper plate 88-92mm
Lower plate 65-70mm

Turret face 50-80mm

Armour protection against AP & APCR ammo:
The upper plate is slightly rounded, and there are 2 angles, the lower angle is easily pennable, the upper angle is an auto-ricochet which will bounce all AP and APCR type shells.
Basically 80% of the GSOR’s front is an auto-pen to any tank you will face, the other 20% is an auto-ricochet.

Armour protection against HE ammo:
The turret front can be HE’d by tanks with over 51mm HE pen, but it can be quite hard to aim for due to how small the turret is and all the angles it has.
Turret sides are HE-able to everything, since they only have 30mm of armour
The hull sides are covered completely with spaced armour so you won’t be HE’d there unless enemies shoot above the sideskirts.

The tank is fairly small, so it has good camo rating. That should be your “armour” since you can’t really bounce shots and 1150-1196 HP isn’t a huge amount of HP.

Gun

GSOR 1008 mounts a 105mm L7 autoloader gun.

AP:
-Alpha damage is 350.
-Penetration is 248mm, or 268mm with calibrated shells.
-DPM is 2544, or 2473 with calibrated shells.
–Shell velocity is 1066m/s.

HESH:
-Alpha damage is 440.
-Penetration is 170mm, or 184mm with calibrated shells.
-DPM is 3198, or 3108 with calibrated shells.
–Shell velocity is 1411m/s.

HE:
-Alpha damage is 440.
-Penetration is 53mm, or 57mm with calibrated shells.
-DPM is 3198, or 3108 with calibrated shells.
–Shell velocity is 1066m/s.

Other gun stats:
-Reload time is 14.0s, or 14.5s with calibrated shells.
-Intra-clip reload is 2.5s, with 2 shells in the magazine.
–Estimated aim time is 3.2/3.4s.
–Base aim time is 1.71s, but it can get down to 1.32s.
-Dispersion is 0.335/0.285
–Gun handling is 0.3/0.3/0.1, or 0.26/0.26/0.09 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -8.5 degrees.

Overall the gun of the GSOR is decent as base, but amazing if you use the right equipment. It has great DPM on its HESH shell, with good penetration on AP. Reload time is good, and intra-clip is fairly quick.

The base aim time is good, but is very much countered by the terrible gun handling and fairly unimpressive dispersion. The GSOR 1008 has some of the worst gun handling in game, and really has to fully aim to be able to hit targets reliable. Snapping in shots doesn’t work well in this tank.

Mobility

-Top speed is 49km/h forwards, and -17km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 40.8 deg/s on hard terrain, and 34.6 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.5 hp/t, it has strong 633hp engine for its 44 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 13.2 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.1/1.9

Overall this mobility is very unimpressive. While it has a high top speed, but the tank rarely ever reaches it, as its acceleration and traverse speeds are both more similar to a fast heavy tank. Overall the mobility is decent, but don’t expect this tank to be nimble.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

GSOR 1008 does not have any special consumables/provisions.

Improved Ventilation/Calibrated Shells:
Both of these are good, particularly on the GSOR more than on other tanks for a few reasons. Try out each one for a few battles to decide which one works best for you, as it will be different for all players.

Vents:
-Improve the already-great aim time (1.27s base, 3.1/3.3s estimated).
-Improve the mediocre dispersion to a decent level (0.335 -> 0.324; or 0.285 -> 0.275).
-Improve reload by 0.5s & increase DPM by 71.
-Improve both turret & hull traverse speeds.

Vents give many small improvements to the tank, for the GSOR the most important ones are the improvement to aim time, traverse speeds, and dispersion. These really make a difference to how accurate/consistent you are with the gun in battle.

Calibrated shells:
-Increase AP from 248mm to 268mm
-Increase HESH from 170mm to 184mm
-Increase HE from 53mm to 57mm.

As this tank has no premium HEAT/APCR shell, its highest penetration shell is lower than other tier 8 tanks, so improving penetration is useful to increase your maximum penetration shell. You also use HESH as your primary ammo, which has low base penetration, again its very useful to increase that penetration.

Camouflage Net:
With level 7 camouflage crew skill, camouflage paint, and a camo net, the camo rating of the GSOR will be 76% while stationary, 54% while moving, and 11% after a shot. All of these camouflage values are very good, and its essential to have on a tank destroyer that occasionally needs to snipe and has no armour.

Improved optics are not needed on the GSOR, as it does not need to spot for itself, but it also just has very poor base view range, and optics would not make a big difference in its gameplay.

The GSOR needs to use its sneaky TD nature, as it has no armour, and remain unspotted for as long as possible; so use a camo net.

Improved Assembly:
GSOR 1008 has no armour to enhance, the only area that can bounce enemy shells is based in armour angling and not thickness.

Use improved assembly instead, and take the GSOR’s fairly decent 1150 base HP up to 1296 HP. This is still fairly low in the scope of all tier 8, but its decent for a TD.

Refined Gun:
Despite its terrible gun handling, refined gun will generally be a better choice on the GSOR than vertical stabilizer. The reason for this is due to the fact the tank has such good base aim time that the vertical stabilizer’s effect isn’t so noticeable. Even with a vertical stabilizer, you still have to stop and aim fully, and if you’re going to stop and aim then you may as well improve the dispersion (from 0.335 to 0.285).

Gameplay advice

The GSOR is an ambush/second line TD. It has the ability to snipe but also has the ability to double as a medium tank when it needs to.
For the first part of the battle, you should play the tank as a sniper or on the 2nd line to support your allies. However, once the battle progresses, you can be a bit more active and play like a medium tank with a big autoloader gun.

Always stop to shoot:
The GSOR is designed to miss shots if it doesn’t take its time to stop and aim, this is due to it having terrible gun handling. Luckily though, it does have great aim time and good dispersion, so when it does stop, it can aim in quite quickly.

Use bushes and camo rating as armour:
While you might get the occasional bounce from enemies who don’t aim, most shots will penetrate your tank.
Use the great camouflage rating and bushes on maps as your armour. As the camouflage rating is high, the GSOR can easily remain unspotted in a bush until the moment it shoots. Once you shoot, its best to pull back behind cover, then reload and repeat it again.

Load HESH:
This should be your primary ammo. When the battle starts, immediately load HESH.
-Your HESH is just like AP on all other tanks, its the ammo with less penetration but higher damage, and thus you should be loading it as your standard ammo in battle.

-Your AP is just like HEAT or APCR on other tanks, it does less damage, but has more penetration. So you should only switch over to AP when you see that you are unable to penetrate them with HESH.

DO NOT start the battle with AP and switch to HESH “when I see an enemy that can be penetrated”, that is terrible logic and makes no sense; your HESH is just like the standard ammo of all other tanks, so use it in the same way as you would with a standard ammo round.

(If you don’t want to do this because HESH costs 7,200 credits for 2 shots, maybe don’t buy this tank. Its not a credit grinding tank because it uses HESH. It can make credits, but its not as efficient as other tanks.)

Overall

Armour – 3.5/10
Gun – 8/10
Mobility – 5/10
Speed – 8/10

GSOR 1008 is overall a good tank, but not easy to play.

Armour is weak on all areas, HE protection is decent due to size and spaced armour.
Gun has great penetration and impressive burst damage. Reload is fairly quick, gun depression and aim time are good. Accuracy is not great, and gun handling is terrible.
Mobility is mediocre, with a fairly unimpressive engine power and acceleration rate, and mediocre traverse speeds. Reverse speed is decent, turret is fully traversable.
Speed is high, at 49km/h.

This tank is good but not easy to play due to weak armour, mobility, poor gun handling, and complicated ammo use in battle. To do well in this tank, you have to be skilled enough to know where/when to position, how to use the different ammo types, and how to deal with the rather poor armour, accuracy, and mobility.

Is it worth getting?

This tank is only worth getting for very good players. The GSOR is a tank where a good player will make the tank seem OP due to its amazing gun capabilities, but a less skilled player will struggle in it.

Less skilled players will struggle to use the tank with its poor armour, low HP, complicated ammo usage, and its not great mobility. Compared to other TDs, the GSOR is very slow, weakly armoured, and has terrible gun handling; its only advantages are having a turret, and 2 shell HESH autoloader.

The GSOR 1008 is worth 8,500 gold. Its a tank that is able to perform well in battles when played perfectly, but struggles when put into the wrong scenario. Its not at all user-friendly though, so its best to just avoid this tank if you don’t think you can make it work.

Previously sold for:

New release crates – August 2022
Draw – February 2022
12,500 gold (Full bundle), 10,000 gold (Tank only) – May 2023
12,500 gold (Starting price), 11,000 gold (Final price) in Auction – August 2023
10,000 gold (Tank only) – September 2023

Camo Cost:

“Excalibur” camo: 3D, animated, costs 2,500 gold

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