T-34-3

The T-34-3 is Chinese tier 8 medium tank. It has great turret armour, a high alpha gun, and very high penetration; though it lacks gun depression and hull armour.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Is it worth getting?
7. Most recently sold for:
8. Camo cost:
9. Historical info:

Armour

VS all tier 7-9 tanks:
Against enemy the T-34-3 faces, the armour performs roughly in the same way.

The hull is weak to all enemies, only a few tanks with very low penetration (tier 7 tanks) have a chance to bounce off the upper plate, and all enemies can penetrate the lower plate.

The turret is strong, the only tanks with a good chance of penetration are high penetration tier 8 and 9 tanks using premium rounds. Even though there are weakpoints, they are small and hard to hit. If you keep moving back and forth it will be even harder for enemies to hit the cheek weakpoints.

Note that though this tank looks identical to a Type 59 or WZ-120, its armour is just much worse. You can’t bounce nearly as much, and its sides are also much weaker at 55mm. 
Most enemies with 120mm+ guns will be able to HE the side armour of this tank.

Gun

T-34-3 mounts a 122mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on AP, 340 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-Reload is 12.6, giving it 1900 DPM
-Penetration is 175mm on AP, 270mm on HEAT, and 61mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 2.3/2.5s
–Base aim time is 1.05s, but it can get down to 0.9s.
-Dispersion is 0.362/0.326
–Gun handling is 0.25/0.25/0.18, or 0.21/0.21/0.15 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees

Overall the gun is ok, it can do its job. The AP penetration is terrible, but the HEAT penetration is best in tier. The DPM is the worst for a tier 8 medium, and its gun handling is positively atrocious. Though the dispersion at 100m is not too terrible, it has high alpha, and aims unbelievably fast. Overall you won’t miss many shots as long as you aren’t firing on move.

Mobility

-Top speed is 50km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 59.8 deg/s on hard terrain, and 47.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.9 hp/t, it has a decent 598hp engine for its 35 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 21.1 hp/t on hard terrain, and 16.9 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 0.8/1/1.6

T-34-3 is notably slower than tanks like the T-34-2 and the Type 59, though overall the mobility isn’t too bad and the tank can get around just fine.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

T-34-3 has no special provisions/consumables.

Gun Rammer:
The T-34-3 has the lowest DPM for a single-shot medium tank in tier 8. Though it may look like it has terrible penetration, it doesn’t.
Keep in mind that your tank’s penetration potential should be based on the highest penetration ammo you have, in this case its HEAT. The HEAT penetration of the T-34-3 is the best in its tier at 270mm, so it will not at all struggle to penetrate when you use the right ammunition.
Do not use calibrated shells on this tank, that is a terrible equipment choice on the T-34-3.

Its far better to use the gun rammer, as it helps shorten the long reload time of the tank, and improve its already low DPM.

Camo Net:
T-34-3 has shockingly bad camo rating, its almost as bad as some heavy tanks. Due to this you may often find the tank getting spotted when you don’t expect it and by enemies you think can’t see you.
The T-34-3 does not play a frontline or brawling role, it is a support medium tank, so it will not need the view range as much as it needs camo.

Improved Assembly:
T-34-3 has a very low base HP of 1300, this is the lowest in tier 8. Using improved assembly to increase this to 1378 is completely necessary, especially as this tank has no hull armour to speak of.

Refined Gun:
Seeing as the tank already has an amazingly fast aim time, and it plays the role of a support medium, refined gun would mean that the tank is able to hit its shots more accurately.
Its aim time isn’t that long to begin with, so as long as you stop to shoot (which you should always do in this tank) refined gun will always be the better choice.

Gameplay advice

Due to the T-34-3 not really having the best mobility, quite poor DPM, terrible hull armour, and poor gun depression, it plays the role of a laid back sniper/support tank. This tank is not a brawler, and it needs to play cautiously.

This is not to say you should play it as a TD and camp in a bush, as that would be playing the tank incorrectly.

Use allies to win:
The T-34-3 needs to be played as a tank that uses its allies HP, armour, and cover fire, to effectively use its own great alpha damage and decent accuracy. The T-34-3 isn’t a great tank on its own, but with allies supporting it and helping to take hits, the T-34-3 can support them and deal damage quite effectively.

Always try to have allies with you, as the reload is so long and DPM so low, that even all tier 7 medium tanks can out-DPM your tank. Allies can help deal with enemies while you reload.

Play as support on the 2nd line:
Never be the one on the front line, as the T-34-3 doesn’t have the armour to block damage, and doesn’t have the HP to absorb hits. Again, you need to let allies take the hits and absorb the damage.

Its far more effective to play on the 2nd line, where you can easily fall back if needed, or alternatively push forward and help the teammates on the frontline.

Go hulldown:
Since the tank does have good turret armour, you can use hulldown positions and move back and fourth with only the turret exposed. In a situation where the hull is hidden, the T-34-3 does have a very strong armour profile.

Is it worth getting?

T-34-3 is not an easy tank to play and its not a tank everyone will enjoy. While the tank definitely isn’t bad, its also not very exciting or fun to play; and overall its statistically worse than the tech tree T-34-2.

Overall the tank is decent, but has a somewhat boring playstyle, with not much too enjoyable. For a premium tank, the STG is very similar, and is a much more enjoyable tank.

The T-34-3 is worth 5,500 gold, this is the price it usually costs to purchase, and is the maximum price you should ever pay for this tank. Its not good/fun enough to be worth paying more than this.

Most recently sold for:

5,500 gold (Full bundle) -August 2022
5,000 gold (Tank only) – May 2023
5,000 gold (Tank only) – August 2023

Camo cost:

Historical info:

The T-34-2 and 3 were both real tanks.

The concept for these tanks was to make a T-54-like tank indigenously.
Note that these tanks came before China gained access to the licence for building the T-54 (which China turned into the WZ-120/Type 59).

These tanks were cancelled due to China gaining access to Soviet tank technology in terms of the T-54, nullifying the need for China to create their own version from scratch (which is what the T-34-1, 2, and 3 were meant to become).

T-34-3 was to use the gun of the IS-2, the D-25T, and be similar to to the T-54 as an overall concept. Apparently, the T-34-3 ended up looking very similar to the T-54, though there are no images of the T-34-3 design.

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