KV-1S MZ (Lesta)

Page last updated 02 April, 2025.

The KV-1S MZ is a tier 6 Soviet heavy tank. It features an autoloader with high burst damage, fast reload, and very high DPM. It also features the same great mobility as the regular KV-1S, with a fairly weak armour profile.

Armour

(The KV-1S MZ in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 150mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 200mm APCR

Armour when flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 92mm
Mid angled plate 155mm
Lower plate 82mm

Gun mantlet 145mm
Turret cheeks 90-170mm
Cupola 90-110mm

Side armour:
The KV-1S MZ has 65mm side armour, which is quite good for tier 6 and can be used for sidescraping in most cases.

Armour vs tier 5-7:
Armour performance will generally be the same against any tank you face.

The upper & lower plates are weak, most tanks can easily penetrate both, even when you angle. The only area that would get a bounce is the well-angled mid plate.

The turret front is decent, but the front of the turret cheeks can be penetrated by most tanks. The small size and rounded shape of the turret do make it harder for enemies to hit shots easily on the turret.

Gun

The KV-1S MZ mounts a 76mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 160 on AP, 120 on HEAT, and 200 on HE.
-It has 4 shells in the magazine, with an 1.5s intra-clip reload, so in 4.5s it can burst out 640 damage.
-It has a 9.1s magazine reload, giving it 2833 DPM.
-Penetration on AP is 145mm, HEAT is 197mm, and HE is 39mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.2/4.5s.
–Base aim time is 2.3s, but it can get down to 1.87s.
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.293.
–Gun handling is 0.26/0.26/0.12, or 0.22/0.22/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees.
-Shell velocity is 816/900/816 m/s on AP/HEAT/HE.

Overall this is a great gun. It has great dispersion, good aim time, and decent penetration.

What stands out instantly when playing the tank will be the extremely high DPM for an autoloader. With 4 shells doing 160 alpha with only a 1.5s intra clip, KV-1S MZ has one of the most potent autoloaders between tiers 5-7. The reload of the gun doesn’t even hold it back, similar to a Ke-Ni Otsu you can choose to reload at almost any time due to only a 9s magazine reload.

The poor gun handling combing with high speed/mobility means the tank does need to take time to aim, but its well compensated by the great accuracy and insane DPM of the gun.

Mobility

-Top speed is 43km/h forwards, and -11km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 35.3deg/s on hard terrain, and 29.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.4 hp/t, it has a strong 702 horsepower engine for its 43 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 16.4 hp/t on hard terrain, and 13.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.2/1.6

Just like the tech tree KV-1S, the KV-1S MZ is very mobile and agile for a heavy tank. It has a great top speed, combined with a strong engine and great terrain resistances, which make it very easy for the tank to reach its top speed. Traverse speed is good on both terrain types, though the slow reverse speed can sometimes catch you out if you over-extend.

Equipment & provision setup

Improved Ventilation/Calibrated Shells:
Either can work, or, neither is needed. The KV-1S MZ has already got both very good DPM/accuracy/mobility, and it has good penetration, so it could get away without using either vents or calibrated shells. Its down to personal preference for which one to use.

Vents will help to slightly improve the reload time, aim time, accuracy, and traverse speeds of the tank. The small improvements are hard to notice but they stack together to make the tank a bit more comfortable.

Calibrated shells would improve penetration on APCR from 145mm to 152mm, on HEAT from 197mm to 217mm, and on HE from 39mm to 43mm. The better penetration would help you to deal with the frontal armour of more tanks, especially tier 7 heavy tanks.

Improved Assembly:
Since the KV-1S MZ has very thin armour plates for a heavy tank with mediocre armour performance, there’s no reason or use to using enhanced armour.

Its far better to use improved assembly, as the KV-1S MZ has low HP for a heavy, and improving it would help you to survive more hits/high-rolls and last longer in battle. Improved assembly would increase your HP from 1000 to 1060.

Vertical Stabilizer::
With very poor gun handling on the move (0.26/0.26/0.12), and great dispersion (0.326), the KV-1S MZ should use vertical stabilizer. Its terrible gun handling and high level of mobility/speed cause the gun to bloom out a lot when you drive or move around in this tank, and you have to be moving a lot since you don’t have much armour or HP.

Vertical stabilizer will help to improve this and cause the gun to bloom out less when you move, and help the gun to get aimed in faster when you stop moving.

Gameplay advice

Overall gameplay can be very flexible, as its a fast heavy with a very quick reloading and high DPM autoloader.

General gameplay:
The KV-1S MZ is a heavium, with weaker armour but better mobility than other heavies. It can work well on either the MT side or the HT side of the map.

Depending on what tanks are on the enemy (and your) team, you should decide where to go on the map. For example if the enemy team has a Hyperion & a Ju-To as heavy tanks, vs you & another heavy, you might consider going to the MT side for a sweep game and flanking around the enemy heavies.
(Reasoning is that your slow aim time and poor armour/HP will cause you to quickly lose a fight to those tanks which have heavy armour and harder to hit weakpoints.)

Generally you can take advantage of mediums as they have weaker armour and stand no chance against the autoloader that this tank carries, so playing the MT flank does often work well for the tank. You can also play the HT flank by using flanking & creating crossfires to put the good mobility and DPM to use while negating the weak armour.

Due to the low durability (relative to other HT), try to keep with allies who can help you take hits. You can support them with your high DPM and autoloader, and they can tank the damage when you can’t.

Don’t rely on armour:
Avoid relying on the armour or HP of this tank, both are unimpressive. The armour is weak by HT standards as it is traded off by a high level of mobility. Sidescraping is the most effective use of the tank’s armour, however it does still have its weakpoints on the turret cheeks, and if you reverse out too far the upper plate can be shot.

The HP is also low, at only 1000 base, which is the lowest in tier 6 bar the KV-2. A lot of tier 6 TDs have the same or very similar HP (which is bad news for the KV-1S MZ), and a tank like the KV-2 with 560 alpha can halve your HP in one shot. Its best to try avoid being the tank taking the hits against other tanks, and just poke out and dump the magazine after the enemy has shot.

Using the autoloader:
Since you reload so quickly, you can often get away with reloading the entire magazine even when you still have 2 or 3 shells left in it. This is similar to how the M-IV-Yoh or Ke-Ni Otsu play, using the short periods of downtime in the battle to immediately reload, rather than hesitating and trying to save those shells for another use.

Unlike other autoloaders, the reload time of the KV-1S MZ isn’t very punishing, so as long as you don’t reload while there are still targets to shoot, usually this works out well for the tank.

Bait the enemy while you reload:
If you are reloading and have an enemy in front of you, you can fake a push as though you are reloaded and ready to shoot. Sometimes this can make enemies hesitate or pull back, which with only a 9s magazine reload, will give you enough time to reload back to full without taking a shot.

Overall gameplay of the KV-1S MZ relies more around negating its armour use as much as possible while maximising on its DPM & speed. It works well doing flanking on the HT side, or just pushing and being a spearhead on the MT side of the map. Its best to avoid head-on engagements with heavily armoured or high alpha enemy heavy tanks.

Overall

Armour – 3.5/10
Gun – 8/10
Mobility – 7/10
Speed – 8/10

KV-1S MZ is overall a great tank.

Armour is quite weak for a heavy. The hull armour is poor, the turret has multiple weakpoints, and it can’t hulldown too effectively. Sidescraping is a decent tactic for this tank.
Gun has insane DPM for an autoloader, high magazine capacity, and fast damage burst. Its also fairly accurate but has poor gun handling and only 5 degrees of gun depression.
Mobility is good, with great overall acceleration and good hull traverse speeds. Reverse speed is average at -11km/h.
Speed is very good for tier 6, at 43km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The KV-1S MZ is definitely worth getting. Its a very fun tank due to its good mobility combined with its fast firing autoloader, which basically feels like it never stops shooting.

It won’t be worth it if you’re a player who likes strong armoured and durable tanks, as this is very much the polar opposite type of heavy tank. Its all based around its good gun and mobility to negate its weak armour and low HP.

The KV-1S MZ is worth 5,000 gold. Its a great tank with very unique gameplay for its tier and even arguably for the whole game.

Most recently sold for:

Event release – July 2024
Quest reward – March 2025

Camo cost:

The KV-1S MZ currently does not have any special camouflages.

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