Pharaoh

Pharaoh is the 5th tank of WoT Blitz’s “stereotype Halloween character” tanks. Its visual design and name imply that its a mummified pharaoh.

The tank has very strong upper plate armour, good mobility, and a high penetration 3 shell autoloading gun.

Armour

Drag slider right -> to view 180mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 220mm APCR

Armour when on flat ground:
-Upper plate 222-245mm
-Upper plate spaced armour 250-280mm
-Lower plate 140mm
-Turret 195-210mm

-Note the side armour of the tank, its angled correctly in the above image.

vs 225mm AP
-This is tier 8 HT standard ammo penetration
-The upper plate weakpoint is where the Pharaoh’s “chest piece” is damaged, at the lower part of the upper plate.

vs 180mm AP (top image), 220mm APCR (bottom image)
Using -7 gun depression

Upper plate 285-325mm
Upper plate spaced armour 330-370mm
Turret 195-210mm

VS tier 6:
Tier 6 enemies generally have 130-160mm of standard penetration, they don’t have much chance against this tank; even with premium ammunition, very few have much over 200mm of penetration.
This means that the armour of the pharaoh will hold up very well against tier 6 tanks, and the only weakpoint is the lower plate, even to premium ammo.

Of course there are a few exceptions with very high premium penetration, and there isn’t too much you can do to stop them from penetrating the turret other than to keep moving in the hope that they miss.

VS tier 7:
Tier 7 tanks face the exact same issues as tier 6, so they can either shoot the lower plate, or shoot premium ammunition at the turret.

Only a few tanks (USA and German HT) have enough standard penetration to go through the turret. Other HT need to use premium ammunition, and most mediums and lights don’t have more than 205mm of premium penetration and may still struggle to penetrate the turret.

The hull is still impenetrable to most non-TD tanks.

VS tier 8:
Tier 8 has an enormous penetration increase over tier 7, and the average penetration of heavy tanks is around 220-225mm. The penetration range of most mediums is about 180-218mm (not including Centurions and TVP, they are outliers).

Since the weakest point of the upper plate is about 222mm, most tier 8 heavy tanks, the TVP VTU, and Centurions will be able to easily penetrate the “damaged” part of the upper plate.
However if they miss and hit the spaced armour (which is the “chest piece” on the upper plate), it will result in a non-penetration. If the upper plate is angled, these tanks will find it even harder to penetrate.

Most MT will be unable to penetrate the upper plate with standard ammunition. Tanks with over 200mm standard penetration (French and German MT) will be able to penetrate the turret, but most other medium tanks will still need premium ammunition.

Gun

Pharaoh mounts an 88mm autoloader gun.

-Alpha damage is 250 on AP, 210 on APCR, and 330 on HE
-It has 3 shells in the magazine, with a 2.5s intra-clip reload, so in 5s it can burst out 750 damage (or 990 if using the great HE shells).
-It has a 13.6s reload, giving it 2653 DPM
-Penetration is 185mm on AP, 237mm on APCR, and 64mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 3.3/3.6
–Base aim time is 2.03s, but it can get down to 1.65s.
-Dispersion is 0.371/0.334
–Gun handling is 0.22/0.22/0.15, and it can be improved to 0.19/0.19/0.13 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees.

-The HE of the Pharaoh is impressive. It has 64mm of penetration, which is usually the amount that 127-130mm guns have. With calibrated shells it has 70mm of penetration. The HE damage per shell is 330, so if all 3 penetrate its 990 damage.

Overall this gun is good. It has quite a fast intra clip of 2.5s, and a very good clip potential of 750 damage. The reload time isn’t too long, and penetration is very good. The gun handling isn’t great for 250 damage, but the fast aim time makes up for it. Its quite comfortable to use and it doesn’t often disappoint.

Mobility

-Top speed is 38km/h, and reverse speed is -13km/h.
-Acceleration is quite good, 13.1hp/t on hard terrain, and 11.1hp/t on medium terrain.
-Traverse speed is quite slow, 31.1 deg/s on hard terrain, and 26.3 deg/s on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are good, with 1.1/1.3/2

Considering its armour, the mobility of the Pharaoh is quite good. It has an above-average top speed and good acceleration to use it. Traverse is a bit slow, but its not unusable.

Special mechanics

Pharaoh has the special mechanic “Desert Force”.

This is a nod to how the tank is based on a Pharaoh (referencing Egypt specifically and the desert environment), hence it receives a mobility boost on desert classed maps.

On Black Goldville, Desert Sands, Oasis Palms, & the event map Wasteland, the Pharaoh receives 30% improved mobility overall, and 50% faster module repair speed. This results in:
-Faster hull traverse speed.
-Acceleration to 17hp/t on hard terrain, and 14.4hp/t on medium terrain.

This just means that the tank is just far more mobile on Desert maps, which is actually quite a big advantage to have with its other statistical aspects.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Pharaoh has no special provisions/consumables.

Calibrated Shells:
The penetration of the Pharaoh is actually already very good, 237mm of APCR is already above average premium penetration; so improved ventilation does work just fine on this tank.

The reason to use calibrated shells on this is for its HE, since it would go from having 64mm of penetration to 70mm, which is a hugely impressive amount for an 88mm gun. 70mm will allow the tank to penetrate HE on the sides of some mediums and heavies where most other tanks can’t.
Using calibrated shells hardly decreases the DPM, it also gives the tank 194mm AP penetration, and 249mm APCR penetration.

Improved Modules:
Other than ramming enemy tanks (which improved modules helps), the Pharaoh needs protection of its fuel tanks. If enemies hit the transmission, engine, or fuel tanks of the Pharaoh, it catches fire very easily. Improved modules reduces the chances of that happening.

Enhanced Armour:
The Pharaoh is quite armour focused, and improving it does benefit the tank as it makes it even harder for tier 8 enemies to penetrate the hull, and for tier 7 enemies to penetrate the turret.
Enhanced armour adds almost 8mm of armour to the turret, and 5mm to the hull. Factor in the angling and it makes a significant difference.

Improved assembly is also a decent choice on this tank, as it would increase the tank’s HP from an already very high 1600 to 1696, which is the 2nd highest in tier 7.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Vertical stabilizer is essential Pharaoh as its an autoloader. Other than making the tank more accurate while it moves, and after its stopped moving; vertical stabilizer also decreases after-shot-dispersion.
Its important to have that as low as possible on an autoloader, as it allows the tank to shoot its shells quickly and accurately, without having to wait for the aim circle even after it has a shell ready.
Refined gun will not be useful on the Pharaoh as its a frontline heavy tank, it doesn’t need improved long-range accuracy.

Gameplay advice

Pharaohs plays similarly to a tier 8 autoloader, such as the Somua SM or an Emil. If you’ve played any of those tanks before, it should be quite easy to get used to the Pharaoh’s gameplay.

The main armour weakness of the tank is it’s lower plate, so hiding behind cover when possible will greatly increase how much damage you can block. The turret isn’t extremely strong, but it’s quite small, so if you move left/right along a ridge, enemies may miss the turret or hit a red area.

Since the upper plate is flat, it’s armour can be angled (as shown in the armour images above). If the armour is not angled, it can be quite easy for some tier 8 enemies to penetrate.

Overall

Overall the Pharaoh is quite unique for its tier, with good hull armour, mobility, and a regular type autoloader; which there are very few among tier 7 heavy tanks.

It’s statistics are quite solid and it doesn’t really lack too much in any area, it’s quite well rounded.

Is it worth getting?

Pharaoh is worth getting, it has quite a fun gameplay style and is unique in its tier since there aren’t many “regular autoloader” heavy tanks.

As its a Halloween tank its unlikely to appear in store, though it may appear in BlitzFair auctions in the future. The tank is worth 8,000 gold, while its good and quite fun, there are many similar autoloader heavy tanks to choose from.

Most recently sold for:

Secret of the Lost Pyramid event release

Camo cost:

“All-Seeing” camo: 2D, costs 1,500 gold.

Special features:

Halloween tanks often have special built-in features, sometimes they are intentional, sometimes they aren’t; some are visual, some are in statistics.

-The intended feature of this tank the “Desert Force” perk, which gives the tank improved mobility and module repair speed on all desert maps.

-A probably unintentional feature would be the fact that the Pharaoh lacks any track sound effect. All tanks in the have have one of 3 track sounds (which are different for LT, MT, and HT, but WG has started crossing sound effects, like on the Type 64), however, the Pharaoh and Medjay don’t have any track sounds, only engine sounds.

-The Pharaoh features special animations, black “aura” is constantly flowing around the turret, and an animated flame comes from the base of the gun barrel to the end of the gun barrel after each shot fired.