TSL-7 Defender

The TSL-7 Defender is a hybrid nation tier 8 medium tank. It features all-round stats, with good turret armour, great accuracy & aim time, and decent general mobility, but low speed. It has am autoloader with a fast reload but mediocre intra-clip.

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

Armour

(The TSL-7 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 205mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 259mm APCR

Drag slider right -> to view 205mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 259mm APCR

When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 180-195mm
Lower plate 105mm

Turret front 254mm
Gun mantlet 245-430mm+
Turret right cheek 270mm
Turret left cheek 240-250mm

Armour vs tier 7 enemies:
Facing against tier 7 tanks, the TSL-7 has decent hull armour.

The upper plate will be red to most enemy medium & light tanks due to their lower penetration, however if enemies are looking down on it (such as in a facehug or close range), then it will be penetrable. Note that heavy tanks will be able to penetrate the upper plate more reliably due to their higher penetration.

If angling the hull, the lower plate can be quite troll, since its almost at an auto-ricochet angle. This means when driving on uneven terrain (the hull angle changes), or when turning the hull, the lower plate can become an auto-ricochet, especially in close ranges.

Armour vs tier 8 enemies:
Against tier 8 enemies the hull armour is very weak, all enemies will be able to easily penetrate the hull.

The turret armour is strong, with the exception of the left side turret cheek, which becomes extremely weak if its turned even slightly. The turret front will be able to bounce most same tier enemies, up to around 260mm of penetration if you angle the turret correctly. If not angling then the left side turret cheek will get penetrated by just around 230-240mm of penetration.

Armour vs tier 9 enemies:
Against tier 9 tanks the armour performance is quite similar to tier 8. The hull is very weak but the turret is strong. That weak left turret cheek will be extremely easy for tier 9 tanks to penetrate, even when using gun depression, so angling the turret is essential.

Angled correctly, the turret front is still impenetrable to standard ammo from all tier 9 LT, MT, and HT, though premium ammo can penetrate fairly easily.

Gun

The TSL-7 Defender mounts a 90mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 225 on AP, 190 on APCR, and 270 on HE
-It has 3 shells in the magazine, with a 3s intra-clip reload, so in 6s it can burst out 675 damage.
-It has a 12.8s reload, giving it 2150 DPM
-Penetration on  AP is 210mm, APCR is 245mm, and HE is 43mm.
–Estimated aim time is 2.7/2.8s
–Base aim time is 1.65s, but it can get down to 1.23s.
-Dispersion is 0.322/0.273
–Gun handling is 0.15/0.18/0.09, or 0.13/0.16/0.06 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees.
-After-shot-bloom is 4.000

Overall this is a great gun, it has fast aim time, good accuracy, good gun depression, good standard penetration, good burst damage, and very quick magazine reload. The downsides are quite mediocre penetration on premium ammo, fairly unimpressive gun handling, and an unimpressive intra-clip reload.

Despite the downsides this is a reliable and very flexible gun, easily able to hit shots in battle due to great accuracy & aim time, and its fast reload allows it to very easily reload whenever needed.

Mobility

-Top speed is 42km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 51.2 deg/s on hard terrain, and 39.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 21.5 hp/t, it has a good 901 horsepower engine for its 42 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 21.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 16.5 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.3/1.55

Overall this is a mediocre mobility profile. The top speed is low, traverse speed is below average (especially on medium terrain), and has quite mediocre terrain resistance numbers. While the acceleration is good on hard terrain and decent on medium terrain, you can’t do much with it due to the top speed being so limited.

While not bad (and definitely not as slow as a 122TM or T26E4), the TSL-7 doesn’t have impressive mobility or speed.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The TSL-7 Defender has no special consumables or equipment.

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Improved Ventilation/Calibrated Shells:
There’s a viable argument for either equipment piece on this tank.

Calibrated shells can be really useful due to the low premium penetration on this tank, 245mm APCR. In some situations (especially against HT like the Tiger II) it can make it difficult to deal with certain enemies. Using calibrated shells would increase penetration on AP from 210mm to 227mm, APCR from 245mm to 257mm, and HE from 43mm to 46mm.

Improved ventilation may suit you better if you’re used to playing tier 8 mediums which have low penetration (such as T-44, CS-53, STG, Panther II, or other Soviet MT with 240mm or less penetration). Due to the TSL-7’s great aim time & good accuracy, it doesn’t need improved penetration to perform well, as it can aim for weakpoints easily.
Improved ventilation would make the tank reload faster, have higher view range, faster traverse speeds, better aim time, and better accuracy, overall just improving the tank’s general performance. 

Enhanced Armour:
Due to the good turret armour and decent hull armour, the TSL-7 benefits more from enhanced armour than it does from improved assembly. 

Improved assembly adds only 56 HP, which isn’t even worth one shot of damage from the weakest enemy.

Enhanced armour would improve:
Upper plate from 180mm to 187mm
Turret front from 254mm to 262mm
Turret right cheek from 270mm to 278mm
Turret left cheek from 245mm to 252mm

Enhanced armour would help with the overmatch weakness on the lower plate, increasing its nominal thickness from 40mm to 41.2mm, stopping all 122mm guns from being able to overmatch it.

Improved Control:
Due to its slow traverse speed, especially on medium terrain, and due to having quite a low top speed, improved control is a better option than engine accelerator.

Refined Gun:
Despite not having great gun handling with 0.15/0.18/0.09 (very mediocre for a medium tank), the TSL-7 doesn’t need vertical stabilizer as much due to its low top speed, slower hull traverse, and its very quick aim time.

Refined gun works very well combined with these aspects of the tank, as the gun naturally won’t bloom as much as other tanks due to the TSL-7 being slower; yet it will still aim in very quickly, letting the tank take full advantage of the improved accuracy of refined gun.

Gameplay advice

The TSL-7’s gameplay is actually quite unique, as there aren’t any other autoloader medium tanks in the game which share the same traits as it.

The TSL-7 is most comparable to an M26 Pershing, just if it got turned into an autoloader. It has the similar strong (but not always reliable) turret armour, 225 alpha, good gun depression, similar mobility profile, but a lower top speed.

General gameplay:
The TSL-7 should be used on the MT flank, it does very well in hulldown or gun depression positions where it can expose just its turret. Be careful of positions being too tall though, as the TSL-7 has one of the lowest profile hulls for a tier 8 medium, causing its gun to be quite low to the ground.

Generally its best to try to avoid 1-on-1 fights with other tanks. While the TSL-7 has good DPM & fast reload for an autoloader, the majority of medium tanks will still easily out-DPM you.

Avoid overestimating the mobility & speed of this tank. Its easy be used to playing other mediums (in any tier) and think you can rush positions or make a quick retreat, but its harder to do due to the limited 42km top speed that the TSL-7 has. In many situations, its not even worth making an attempt to quickly rush positions, since enemy tanks will just get there first.

Reload:
The TSL-7 has one of the quickest magazine reloads in tier 8 at under 13s. This means you can easily reload almost whenever you want, to have a full magazine for the next engagement.

On most autoloaders its worth waiting a while to try and use your final few shells in the magazine, since the reload is quite long and you’re vulnerable during that time. However on the TSL-7, due to its fairly mediocre 3s intra-clip reload, in many situations you may only use 2 shells (or even just 1), but you can reload immediately due to how fast the magazine reloads.

Don’t chase the full magazine:
Due to its fairly slow intra-clip of 3s for its fairly low alpha of 225, its especially impractical to try and unload a full magazine into an enemy if they have retreated too far (you have to over-expose). Your alpha damage isn’t high enough to make it worth a damage trade (unless its to secure an important kill), and the intra clip just makes doing such a maneuver even more awkward.

Note that the full magazine damage is 675, so its useful to quickly reload to take out enemies with that amount of HP or less. There isn’t any point to expose your tank and take damage from enemies if you only have 1 shell left in the magazine, the fast reload allows you to quickly reload fully, and be able to trade damage with 3 shots into the enemy.

Go hulldown & use gun depression:
The hull armour of the TSL-7 is unreliable against same tier enemies and tier 9 enemies, the best use of armour is by hiding the hull and only showing the strong turret.

The turret cheek on the left side in the images below (right side from PoV of driving the tank) is significantly weaker than the rest of the turret, you can mitigate this weakpoint by turning the turret, and exposing only the 254mm plates on the front and right side of the turret.

TSL-7 also has a great -9 gun depression, making it very easy to use with gun depression positions, and quite strong as a ridgeline tank.

Be wary of mobility:
Make sure to keep the tank’s low top speed and mediocre traverse speed in mind when playing, since these do limit the tank in terms of how quickly it can take up positions, or flank around an area.

In most gameplay aspects, the speed and mobility of the tank aren’t an issue at all, since the acceleration of the tank, along with ability to use hulldown gameplay (ie: not be forced to move out of positions) make the tank feel no different to other mediums. However in situations where you have to “rush” or quickly retreat, the top speed will be noticeable and cause you to have a disadvantage.

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The TSL-7 has the gameplay of an all-rounder medium, just with an autoloader. Its similar to the T69, or a an M26 Pershing (just if it was an autoloader). It does well hulldown, where it can use its great gun depression & turret armour.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 6/10
Gun – 6/10
Mobility – 4/10
Speed – 4/10

TSL-7 Defender is overall a great tank.

Armour is good for a medium, with decent frontal hull armour to lower tier enemies and a strong turret front. Easy to use with gun depression. HE protection is average, HESH protection is poor.
Gun has good DPM for an autoloader, very quick magazine reload, great -9 gun depression, good accuracy, & fast aim time. Intra-clip reload isn’t impressive, premium penetration is low, & gun handling is mediocre.
Mobility is mediocre, good acceleration & hard terrain mobility, but mediocre traverse speed & medium terrain resistance. Reverse speed is average, -20km/h.
Speed is low with 42km/h.

Is it worth getting?

While the stats of this tank are quite unassuming, and don’t look anything impressive, the TSL-7 is actually a great tank. The combination of having strong turret armour, great gun depression, great aim time/accuracy, and a very quick magazine reload, make it a very effective tank in battle. The tank performs a unique role, since it just has unique traits other medium tanks can’t offer. Unlike a T69, it has great accuracy, turret armour, and standard penetration; and unlike a Defender Mk. I, it has a low profile, some hull armour, and a significantly faster reload time.

Yes the tank is worth getting, however it is worth noting that the TSL-7’s stats aren’t especially focussed on the autolaoder aspect. While tanks like Bourrasque, Skoda T27, Defender Mk. I, or Lorraine 40t all have some special trait to their autoloaders (such as high damage, small magazine, fast intra-clip, or large magazine), the TSL-7 is more of an all-rounder tank, with turret armour, gun depression, accuracy, and good DPM, but less interesting stats on its autoloader gun.

The TSL-7 is worth 8,000 gold. Its a great tank which offers unique traits, and is quite strong in battle due to them. Its fast magazine reload with great accuracy and aim time, combined with gun depression and turret armour just make this such a reliable autoloader tank for tier 8.

Most recently sold for:

New release crates – July 2024

Camo cost:

Historical info:

The TSL-7 is not based on by any tank in game nor any tank or design that actually existed, its fully made up by the WoT Blitz team.

It may have taken some inspiration from the LTG on its turret due to its shape and on its hull due to its low profile, the suspension seems to have been inspired from tanks such as Sheridan or 121B; but the tank itself isn’t based on any single vehicle.

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