Pudel

The Pudel is a Polish tier 6 medium tank. Its basically the same German tier 6 tank formula but changed slightly to make it a different tank. Pudel sports good mobility with great penetration and accuracy, though it severely lacks armour.

Armour

(The Pudel in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

vs 130mm AP
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 110-115mm
Lower plate 95mm
Turret 235-245mm (196mm on the weakpoints next to gun)
Turret 100-120mm
Cupola 115mm

Note that 130mm AP is just about the lowest amount of penetration on a tier 6 tank, and the only tanks you face with less penetration will be tier 5 tanks.

vs 44mm HE

The Pudel has 35mm side armour, which means that even a well placed HE shot from a 75mm gun can penetrate the Pudel.

Try to NEVER expose the sides in this tank. Good players who know about the side armour will exploit it and shoot HE.

Its rear is an even weaker 20mm, so every single tank you face can penetrate the rear with HE.

VS tier 5:
Some tanks with under 120mm penetration will struggle against the upper plate and turret of the Pudel, especially if the tank is angling slightly.

All tanks with over about 125mm penetration won’t struggle at all to penetrate the Pudel.

VS tier 6-7:
Facing against tier 6-7 enemies, the Pudel will not bounce anything. Play the tank like it has no armour, because against these enemies, it really doesn’t.

Note that the Pudel does have -8 gun depression, however even when using this -8 degrees, its turret is still only 120mm at the thickest point; and the upper plate is still easily penetrated by anything with over about 125mm penetration.
You can try turning the hull slightly to make it thicker, but you still won’t bounce much.

Gun

The Pudel mounts a 7,5cm gun

-Alpha damage is 160 on AP, 135 on APCR, and 200 on HE
-It has a 5.1s reload, giving it 1900 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 160mm, APCR is 182mm, and HE is 20mm.
-Aim time is 3.0s/3.3s
-Dispersion is 0.299/0.269
–Gun handling is 0.13/0.13/0.08, or 0.11/0.11/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -8 degrees

The Pudel has a great gun, its got high standard penetration, decent DPM, great handling and amazing accuracy. There isn’t really any downside to this gun. Even though its DPM is slightly under the other 160 damage guns, its still decent enough.

Mobility

-Top speed is 50km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 51.6 deg/s on hard terrain, and 43 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 23.5 hp/t, it has a very strong 1035 horsepower engine for its 44 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 23.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 19.6 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average, having 1/1.2/1.6

Overall the Pudel feels like quite a quick tank, especially in terms of acceleration. Its top speed is quite decent and its terrain resistances are average. The tank turns quite slowly for a medium, but that’s just standard for a Panther tank in tier 6, all of them have this trait. The traverse speed doesn’t really hold the tank back but it can sometimes be awkward.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Pudel has sandbag armour but no other special provisions or consumables.

Provisions:
Your provisions should be 10% food for general gun stats, 10% fuel for general mobility, and 6% sandbag armour to increase the low HP of this tank.

Gun Rammer:
Due to having great penetration, the Pudel doesn’t really need to use calibrated shells. Tier 6 mediums generally have around 2000 DPM, and this is just below that with gun rammer. Its better to use the gun rammer so the DPM level is still competitive, rather than calibrated shells which are just unnecessary.

Improved Modules:
As the Pudel weighs 44 tons and has a great acceleration rate, it can ram enemy medium and light tanks very well. In tier 6 and 7 there are very few MT and LT that weigh more than the Pudel, and you should definitely be utilizing ramming in this tank.

Improved modules will allow the Pudel to ram enemies, but take less damage from the ram.

Improved Assembly:
The Pudel’s armour is just too weak to enhance. Enhancing it will make its armour stronger, but not by enough, and it will still be weak against all tanks of the same and higher tier.

Use improved assembly, it stacks with the sandbag armour that this tank has, giving it a total of 1120 HP. If you don’t use either the sandbag armour or improved assembly, then the tank will only have 1060 HP.

Vertical Stabilizer:
As the Pudel already has very good base accuracy of 0.299, it really doesn’t need refined gun. It also does not play as a long-range sniper, it still plays a fairly active medium tank role, so the tank is constantly moving. Considering this more active playstyle, its better to use the vertical stabilizer to make the gun more consistent during and after movement.

Gameplay advice

The Pudel is basically just a standard tier 6 medium tank, it has weak armour, a gun with good DPM, and good mobility. You basically just play it in a generic medium playstyle, but account for the large size and weak armour.

Always go to the medium tank side of the map when possible, try to go hulldown and/or use gun depression, and try to always keep your fat hull hidden from the enemies.
While this tank can and should ram enemies, don’t play stupidly. Only ram enemies if they are isolated or your team are pushing with you; if you just rush in to ram someone and they have allies to support them, then you would just be wasting your tank.

Try to remain out of the enemies line of sight:
Just do this whenever its possible. If there’s a rock, only poke out when you’re reloaded and you know the enemy isn’t watching you. If there’s no cover, just leave and get into cover. This tank’s weak armour is a huge downside which is compounded by a large German tank hull, meaning its an extremely large target.

Your HP really doesn’t last long if you are not playing like you have no armour (which you don’t), and that HP is really helpful later on in the battle when you may have to trade it to deal damage or get tanks killed.

Play like you have all enemies that hit you will penetrate, so try to keep hidden and conserve your HP.

Don’t expose the hull sides:
When your tank is exposed to enemies (sometimes you just can’t avoid it), try to only show the front of your tank. If they get to the sides or rear, then they will be able to easily penetrate HE, and your HP will diminish very quickly.

Go hulldown:
Try to hide the hull whenever possible. Though the turret isn’t that well armoured, its still stronger than the hull, and its a much smaller target. When you are hulldown there’s also a chance that enemies bounce off the edges of the gun mantlet.

Overall

Armour – 3.5/10
Gun – 8/10
Mobility – 8.5/10
Speed – 5.5/10

Pudel is overall a good tank.

Armour is weak, the front will resist HE, but nothing else. The sides and rear are very weak to HE.
Gun has good DPM, penetration, and gun handling. Accuracy and aim time are great, gun depression is decent.
Mobility is good, a strong engine with good acceleration rate and decent traverse speed. Reverse speed is average.
Speed is good at 50km/h.

Is it worth getting?

No, the Pudel is not worth getting. Considering there is the VK 30.01 (D), a free tech tree tank which offers the same gameplay (without the ramming), and that there is another tier 6 Panther which is just far better (and usually costs the same), there is no reason you should buy the Pudel, unless you just like its camo.

The Pudel is worth 3,000 gold. Its a decent tank, and the ramming aspect of its gameplay does make it quite fun. Just don’t buy this knowing full well that Bretagne Panther does everything this tank does, just better.

Most recently sold for:

3,000 gold (Tank only) – July 2022
2,500 gold (Full bundle) – July 2023