TS-5

The TS-5 is a tier 8 American assault TD. It has a great gun with the highest penetration in tier 8, a strong armour profile, and decent mobility.

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

Armour

(The TS-5 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

vs 265mm APCR (head-on vs angled 10 degrees to the left)
When facing head on:
Superstructure 280-600mm
Lower plate 200-650mm
Cupola 120mm

VS tier 7:
Most tier 7 tanks will really struggle to penetrate the TS-5’s lower plate. With AP normalization considered, enemies will need about 185mm AP penetration to go through the lower plate if its flat.

If the TS-5 angles, the thickness doesn’t change much but it just makes the lower plate harder to hit.
The hatch is also a weakpoint, but only on the front and rear, the sides of the hatch actually have strong armour.

VS tier 8-9:
Tier 8 and 9 tanks will see the same view as shown in the images above the only exceptions are the tanks with under 185mm penetration.

The lower plate doesn’t get any weaker with higher penetration rounds, as its so well angled towards the bottom part.

Try to always hit as high up on the lower plate as possible. The lower down you hit, the higher the chances of a bounce.

Gun

The TS-5 mounts a 120mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on AP, 340 on HEAT, and 515 on HE
-It has a 7.6s reload giving it 3132 DPM
-Penetration on APCR is 258mm, HEAT is 340mm, and HE is 60mm.
-Aim time is 3.9s/4.3s
-Dispersion is 0.344/0.310
–Gun handling is 0.25/0.25/0.12, or 0.21/0.21/0.1 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees, gun arc left/right is +10/-10, which is decent.

This gun is a decent gun for the assault TD role that this tank plays. It has very high DPM, a quick reload, great alpha, and good accuracy.
Its got a long aim time and poor gun handling though, so its really not suited to being far from its opponents, the closer it is, the more it hits. Its gun depression is also very poor at -5, making it even more awkward as this has no turret and a rather long hull.
The penetration on AP is one of the highest in tier 8, and it has the best penetration of any tier 8 tank on its 340mm HEAT ammo.

Mobility

-Top speed is 26km/h forwards, and -12km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 34.6 deg/s on hard terrain, and 27.2 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.8 hp/t, it has a decent 878hp engine for its 59 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.4 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.6 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average, at 1.1/1.4/2.1

The TS-5 is a fairly mobile tank for being an assault TD. Its top speed is 6km higher than most of its competition, it has quite good engine power, and traverse speed is decent.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The TS-5 has no special consumables or provisions.

Gun Rammer:
As TS-5 is among the highest in standard penetration, and is the highest for premium penetration in tier 8, there is no reason to use calibrated shells, this tank does not need it and it would be a waste of the DPM that it does actually need.
Use gun rammer, the assault TD gameplay is based around just running down enemies with insane DPM, and gun rammer is needed for this. It gives the TS-5 a 7.7s reload with 400 alpha, for 3132 DPM

Improved Assembly/Enhanced Armour:
Both are valid equipment choices on the TS-5, as it has a lower plate that wants to be improved, but it also lacks HP.
Compared to all tier 8 TDs, the TS-5 has a decent 1200 base HP, however, for an assault TD, this is very poor. Other tanks like the Turtle Mk.I, AT 15, and T28 all have 1400-1450 base HP.
Using improved assembly only gives this tank 1272 HP, which is still better than its base 1200 HP.

Enhanced armour’s main benefit is to the lower plate, it will improve its effective thickness from 200mm up to 208mm. This would mean that instead of needing 185mm to penetrate, enemies will now need around 195mm of standard penetration (at the TS-5’s weakest point of lower plate).

Vertical Stabilizer:
The TS-5 already has quite good accuracy for its alpha, however it has very poor gun handling, and it also plays on the frontlines, meaning the tank will constantly be turning to shoot enemies. It needs to have improved stabilization so that it can be accurate after it moves, and more importantly, when it turns. Use vertical stabilizer, refined gun is not helpful on this tank.

Gameplay advice

The TS-5 is a bit of a strange tank to play due to its gun depression and armour layout.

Play the tank aggressively.
Don’t be passive, the TS-5 thrives on aggression as its gun is built for it; if you aren’t putting in 2 shots for every time the enemy shoots once, you will die with very little damage dealt. Enemy tanks with 400 alpha can kill you with just 3 penetrating shots, so make sure they take multiple hits each time they hit you (if possible of course, don’t make stupid plays without thinking or considering the situation and the position you’re in).

Drive forward and don’t stop.
Do this if you have allies to support you. Sometimes this tactic can work very well where you just keep driving forward with no regard for being over-aggressive. With your team ready to support and push with you, you can very quickly win a flank or take out multiple enemies in one push.

Facehug enemies.
Yes it lets enemies shoot the hatch, but its better than giving them free shots into the lower plate, and it ensures that you are putting your full 3132 DPM into the enemy with each time you reload.
Facehugging works in this tank as your lower plate is angled inwards so sharply that when you get closer to enemies, they have to aim down on it, which makes it impossible to penetrate. Its also fairly low on the tank, meaning that enemies can’t actually hit the lower plate in a facehug (unless they are an LTG)

Go hulldown.
The main weakpoint of the TS-5 is its lower plate, the hatch is a weakpoint but is not the one that players default to when the lower plate is available. Hiding the lower plate and then turning left/right and going back and fourth abut will mean that enemies may miss you hatch, and there’s no other weakpoint they can aim for on the tank.

Be careful when going hulldown, the gun is mounted so close to the lower plate (height wise) that it makes it hard to use positions that don’t come almost all the way up to the gun. If the hull down position is too low, enemies may still be able to shoot above the cover and below your gun to hit the lower plate.

Angle/turn/wiggle the hull.
Doing this is very important as it may make enemies bounce off the lower plate or hit the tracks. Never just sit still in the TS-5, even wiggling back and fourth a little can help generate more bounces.

Overall

Armour – 7/10
Gun – 8.5/10
Mobility – 4.5/10
Speed – 2.5/10

TS-5 is overall a decent tank

Armour is strong overall, but the cupola is weak, and the lower plate weakpoint is hard to hide/angle.
Gun has decent aim time and accuracy, but poor handling and gun depression. DPM, penetration, and reload are all very high.
Mobility is decent, acceleration and traverse speed are both decent, and gun arc is good. Reverse speed is poor.
Speed is poor, 26km/h.

One aspect you can’t see on stats is how far forward the gun is mounted on the tank. This is good for using hulldown positions, but is very awkward when you turn a corner to shoot an enemy, especially with the TS-5’s long hull.

Is it worth getting?

TS-5 is not worth buying. While its a pretty good tank and can deal good damage, its just very awkward to play. Most of the time it won’t perform exceptionally, and at the end of the day its just a slightly better version of the T28.
If you really want an assault TD, then you will be better off going for a Jagdtiger 8,8, as its just able to do well in a wider range of scenarios.

There are definitely times when this can do well, and there are players who will love this tank. But for most players, its a bit of an awkward vehicle.

The TS-5 is worth 6,000 gold. While the tank is good and can definitely perform insanely well in favourable situations (such situations mean you can do 4-5k damage easily), its just too inconsistent with the gun depression, meaning in actuality its not doing huge damage most of the time. The armour highlighting also makes it quite easy for enemies to deal with the “troll” lower plate, and its low HP means that when it does start to take hits, it becomes low health very quickly.

While its a good tank, its not too different from the tech tree T28, and the TS-5 can just feel so awkward to play with its long hull and poor gun depression. Don’t pay more than 6,000 gold for it.

Most recently sold for:

6,000 gold (Starting price), 4,500 gold (Final price) in Auction – August 2023

Camo cost:

Historical info:

TS-5 was actually designed with the intention of mounting a 105mm gun, the 120mm gun was not meant to be on this tank.

The TS-5 bears resemblance to the T110E3,  this is because it was one of the deigns that was created during the development process of the T110 GMC.

The in game names of the T110 tanks are incorrect.
T110E3 should be called T110E5
T110E5 should be called T110E6
T110E4 is a fake tank made by WG. The only T110 tank with a turret was the T110E6, all others were casemate tanks. More about the T110E4 here.

Back to homepage