WZ-111

Last updated 29 May, 2024.

WZ-111 is a Chinese tier 8 heavy tank. Its quite a special one as its the only Chinese heavy tank that was actually built. In game its a good tank with great maneuvrability, frontal armour, and a typical 122mm gun. It has access to special consumables.

Armour

(The WZ-111 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

vs 225mm AP (left image), 265mm APCR (right image)
When facing head on:
Upper plate 255-430mm
Lower plate 125mm

Turret 290-540mm
Gun mantlet 280-440
Hatches 160mm (280mm on edges)

vs 225mm AP (left image), 265mm APCR (right image)
Note that this is overangled, just to show the pike nose armour.

-At this angle the upper plate is still a strong 237mm, which is something that other pike nose tanks (other than the Obj.252U) just are unable to do.
-If you use enhanced armour, it adds 10mm of effective thickness to the upper plate when its angled like this (going from 237mm to 247mm).

Armour vs tier 7:
-Against tier 7 tanks the WZ-111 has amazing armour. Nothing even has a chance to penetrate the upper plate, and the hatches are quite troll due to their thickness and side angles. The only weakpoint is the lower plate.

Armour vs tier 8:
-Against tier 8 tanks the armour is still very strong. The only weakpoints are the hatches and the lower plate.

-If using enhanced armour and un-angled, nothing can reliably penetrate the upper plate other than TDs. If not using enhanced armour then some higher penetration premium ammo (265-275mm of penetration) will be able to go through the upper plate when un-angled.

-Note that the actual “pike nose” of this tank is only in a V shape across the hull front. If you don’t shoot this V shape, you will hit either the spaced side armour, the driver hatch (370mm+), or the flat part of the upper plate (430mm+).

-If your tank is not facing head-on to the enemies (as in its being angled slightly), enemies will still need premium ammunition to penetrate its pike nose armour. If its using even a small amount of gun depression, then the armour increases to a point where even premium ammunition can’t penetrate.

Armour vs tier 9:
Generally tier 9 heavies have over 245mm AP penetration, so they will be able to fairly reliably penetrate the upper plate’s V shape pike-nose.

Most tier 9 medium and lights have under 240mm AP penetration, so as long as they aren’t side-hugging and shooting down on the upper plate, most will still need premium ammo to penetrate the pike-nose. Due to the shapes and angled, the upper plate of this tank is still very troll, even if enemies can penetrate that V shape pike.

-The lower plate and the hatches remain weakpoints.

Overall the WZ-111 has quite a favourable armour layout. Its weakest points on the upper plate are still strong, and it has troll bounce areas which even the highest penetration guns will sill bounce off. Of course its turret is also extremely strong, with only 2 small hatches as weakpoints.

Try to avoid sidescraping.

The side armour is 83mm thick, and at the angle in the image, the shot will not penetrate (shot at the tracks).
However note the upper plate, which comes all the way to the edge of the hull, this is what makes sidescraping ineffective.

Gun

The WZ-111 mounts a 122mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 400 on APCR, 340 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-It has a 12s reload giving it 1993 DPM
-Penetration on APCR is 215mm, HEAT is 270mm, and HE is 61mm.
–Estimated aim time is 5.3/5.6s
–Base aim time is 3.1s, but it can get down to 2.39s.
-Dispersion is 0.381/0.331
–Gun handling is 0.23/0.23/0.14, or 0.2/0.2/0.12 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -5 degrees, its not great, but the low profile of the tank makes it quite usable.

This gun is slightly better than average for a 122mm heavy tank in tier 8 due to having slightly better aim time and gun handling.

The rest of its stats are almost identical to the other 122mm heavies, average DPM, poor dispersion, good alpha, decent penetration, but poor gun depression.
Note that this gun depression really makes very little difference compared to other 122mm heavies; -5 and -6 feel roughly the same on all these low profile heavy tanks, especially as the WZ-111 is one of the lowest profile tier 8 heavies (at least in hull height).

In the scope of all tier 8 tanks, this gun is really nothing special. Only among 122 mm heavies its slightly better than average, and that’s because this type of gun in general just isn’t the greatest.

Mobility

-Top speed is a decent 35km/h forwards, and -15km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 35.3 deg/s on hard terrain, and 32.1 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 13.5 hp/t, it has a decent 598hp engine for its 44.5 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.5 hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.3 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are the best for any tier 8 HT, at 1/1.1/2

Overall the WZ-111 has great mobility. Though its top speed isn’t as high as other heavies, this tank has some of the best acceleration and traverse speeds of any tier 8 heavy tank thanks to its ground resistances.
It makes the WZ-111 able to achieve a good average speed during battles, and makes it a quite mobile/agile heavy tank. Other than the IS-3 Defender, this is the only 122mm heavy that has fully consistent mobility: whether you stay on hard terrain or you go off road, the tank doesn’t lose mobility.

The WZ-111’s great ground resistances mean that it can maintain generally a better average speed and turn rate that’s consistent on all maps. Some 122mm heavies (like IS-5 and WZ-112-2) may have better top speeds, but on most maps they will find it very hard to utilize this, as they would need to stick to hard terrain only.

Consumables & provisions loadout

The WZ-111 has access to improved engine power boost, reactive armour, & tungsten shells (+ the standard adrenaline).

Provisions:
Provision loadout should be standard: 10% food, 3% food, and 10% fuel.

If you feel modules/crew often getting damaged, make sure to use defence system, if that doesn’t help, then drop 3% food for protective kit instead.

Consumables:
There are 6 consumable combinations you could take, each has different advantages and suit a slightly different heavy tank role in battle.

No matter which combination you use, the multi-purpose restoration pack is mandatory in all loadouts, just to let you repair the tank and be functional.

Tungsten Shells + Adrenaline:
This is a full damaging build, with an emphasis on damage causing during battle. You can either use the consumables at the same time for high damage output, or use them at different times in the battle for a longer DPM advantage.

Tungsten Shells + Reactive Armour:
This setup focuses on the tank’s durability and alpha, and ultimate damage-trading build. You can reduce the damage you take against an enemy, thus increasing your effective HP and causing the enemy to do less damage.
Simultaneously you can activate tungsten shells to deal 460 alpha and out-trade enemies even better. This loadout is good for damage trading, where you just poke out, shoot (maybe take a shot from the enemy), then retreat back to cover, and repeat again before the consumable runs out.

(Author note: This is the setup I use, since it focuses on the strengths of 122mm heavy tanks, their alpha damage, and the fact they are heavies with good durability.)

Adrenaline + Reactive Armour:
Similar to the Tungsten+Reactive loadout above, this loadout focuses on the durability combined with damage output. Compared to the previous loadout, this one is better for an all-out brawl where both you and the enemy are constantly taking damage, the previous one is better just for poking out to trade in alpha.

This loadout better in brawls where you have no cover, or the enemy can’t retreat from you, since you guarantee you can take full advantage of a quicker reload, and the enemy is forced to shoot you while you use reactive armour.

Tungsten Shells + Improved Engine Power Boost:
This setup focuses more on being quick into position and to relocate, making your tank quite flexible in battle with where it goes. Tungsten shells will let you dominate early positions with the increased alpha damage and out-trade enemies.

Adrenaline + Improved Engine Power Boost:
Similar to the setup above, this loadout lets you get to positions quickly and relocate quickly, but instead of increased alpha, Adrenaline gives quicker reload. Its a good in-between setup for both a fairly brawly playstyle while still having flexibility/speed.

Reactive Armour + Improved Engine Power Boost:
You can get to positions fast and be flexible in battle, but also absorb damage better in brawls. Its a general-all round consumable build which still works well, but the two consumables are used in separate situations and don’t combine well in one particular situation.

Other consumables:
-If you’re going to use an engine power boost, only use improved engine power boost and not the other 2. Since the WZ-111 already has great mobility, the biggest benefit from that consumable is the increase to top forward and reverse speed, which the other 2 engine boosts don’t give.

-One of the “super consumables” can be swapped out for a first aid kit, repair kit, or fire extinguisher, however if you do that then you may as well just not play the WZ-111. These consumables are some of the biggest advantages the tank has over other tier 8 heavies, and the combination of using 2 in battle is really powerful.

Equipment loadout

Gun Rammer:
The WZ-111 does not struggle with penetration. While the 215mm of standard APCR penetration may not be the best, its still decent; and the WZ-111 still sports that amazing 270mm HEAT penetration that 122mm heavy tanks get.
Calibrated shells are also a valid option, but generally they just aren’t needed due to the tank already having sufficient penetration, and gun rammer helps the tank more in close range brawls which heavy tanks often get into.

Use gun rammer to reload quicker and trade with enemies. Gun rammer gives this tank a 12s reload, and with 400 alpha that gives it 1993 DPM.

Enhanced Armour:
Due to having good base armour profile and armour angling, the WZ-111 benefits from enhanced armour quite significantly. This is especially noticeable with the tier 8 heavy tank penetration level (which is 225-270mm penetration).

Using enhanced armour adds a base 5mm to the upper plate, when you factor in angling, that’s 11mm added to the upper plate.
-This takes its weakest point when un-angled from being 255mm thick to being 266mm thick
-When angled it increases its effective armour by 10mm on the weakest point (from 237mm to 247mm).
-Enhanced armour also adds 6mm armour to the hatches, and 3mm to the side armour (giving it 86mm sides)
Overall enhanced armour greatly benefits the tank, and its definitely the more beneficial equipment choice.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Even though the WZ-111 sports better stabilization than most 122mm heavy tanks in tier 8, its still not that good when compared to other, non-122mm heavy tanks.

WZ-111 is also a close range brawling heavy, so its not often sitting still and being fully aimed; for this reason its better to improve its gun handling and make it more accurate in close-quarters fights. The WZ-111 is also quite mobile with its traverse and acceleration, so the gun bloom from movement is very noticeable.

Refined gun does still work well, just requires you to stop and aim for longer, which isn’t helpful in the close range fights of heavies (also it allows enemies more time to aim at you while you’re aiming at them).

Gameplay advice

The WZ-111 has quite a generic heavy tank playstyle. If you have played any of the 122mm heavies before, this plays almost identically to those tanks. Other than the advice below, play it like you would with other Chinese and Soviet heavy tanks.

General gameplay:
Don’t play passively, no 122mm heavy tank should be played passively, and the WZ-111 is no exception. This tank needs to get up in the face of the enemies and take dominant hulldown positions; of course, within a reasonable limit. Don’t take on multiple enemies alone, your reload is fairly long and DPM isn’t impressive, so don’t be over aggressive.

Similarly, don’t just ignore what your team does and go alone, even if you think they are making a wrong play, its still best to go where you have allied support.

Facehugging:
You can facehug enemies in this tank. It has an extremely low profile hull, and for enemies to hit it they will need both great gun depression and a low profile. Even then, many will still need to shoot premium ammo if they want a chance to penetrate. Though as there aren’t many low profile gun depression heavy tanks, most enemies you facehug can only see the driver hatch of the tank and the turret, so generally enemies will aim for the hatches.

Using gun depression:
If you need to use a gun depression position, don’t drive up it with your hull faced forwards. If your hull is in front of you, it props your turret upwards; so when approaching a hull where you need to use gun depression, drive parallel to the ridge. This will allow you to shoot over it, while exposing only your frontally mounted turret.
Click here for a guide/images of this ridgeline method.
Though -5 gun depression is not much, you can still use quite a few positions with this method.

Use consumables:
The “super consumables” that this tank has can define whether you win or lose a battle, don’t be frugal with their use, use them often.

Sometimes its best to combine the consumable’s uses (ie: use them at the same time for maximum benefit), this works best for:
Adrenaline + Tungsten Shells
Tungsten Shells + Reactive Armour
Adrenaline + Reactive Armour

Other times you can benefit from using them at different times, such as for Adrenaline + Tungsten shells, which can give you a damage boost for a total of 45s when not used simultaneously (and with HEC).

Make sure to use consumables in the correct way, and to benefit the WZ-111’s playstyle, for example:

Improved Engine Power Boost:
For getting into positions before enemy tanks, retreating quickly, relocating around the map.
Adrenaline:
For reloading quickly, damaging enemies quicker in brawls to get damage out quickly.
Tungsten Shells:
For out-trading enemies, gives you 460 alpha, which is the highest in tier 8 outside of the Caliban. Use it when poking out to take shots at enemies and damage trade.
Reactive armour:
For brawling (good with adrenaline), damage trading (good with tungsten), and absorbing damage when you know you may take multiple shots from enemies (such as against an autoloader).

Rare tank’s reputation

The WZ-111 is an unbelievably rare tank, not because its hard to get, or that players don’t have it, but because it has a bad reputation and a fairly un-interesting playstyle.
You can go thousands of battles in tier 8 and never see a WZ-111.

This is mainly due to the reputation the tank gets, youtubers and just players in general call the tank “the worst of the 122mm heavies”, and while that’s debatable, it does cause players to avoid buying this tank when its sold; therefore making it among the rarest purchasable tier 8 tanks.

This is actually an important point.
Players don’t know how to deal with its armour properly.
If the lower plate is hidden, often many players seem to just shoot the upper plate of the WZ-111, as it has that reputation of being a weak and bad tank. Its also got a “Chinese pike nose”, while players are used to easily penetrating the pike noses on the IS-3, IS-5, or IS-8, this tank’s pike nose is far stronger than those, and can even hold up when its angled.
Often when playing this tank you may find players underestimating this tank’s armour and just shooting AP at the upper plate (when the lower plate is hidden), whether it is or is not angled. The correct play would be to just aim properly and shoot premium ammunition, or just shoot its roof hatches.

Overall

Armour – 6/10
Gun – 5/10
Mobility – 6/10
Speed – 5/10

WZ-111 is overall a good tank.

Armour is good, upper plate is strong, turret is amazing with small weakpoints. Lower plate is very weak, not easy to sidescrape. Great HE protection, average HESH protection.
Gun is nothing special. Mediocre gun handling, poor aim time & accuracy, average DPM & penetration. Gun depression is poor at -5.
Mobility is good, with good acceleration, traverse speeds, and amazing terrain resistance. Reverse speed is average at -15km/h.
Speed is average at 35km/h.

Overall, WZ-111 the most well-rounded tier 8 122mm heavy tank (while this sounds impressive, note that the 122mm heavy tank itself is not an impressive tank type in tier 8).

-It has a strong armour profile, given that you hide the lower plate (its not as good as the 112-2, Glacial 112, or 252 U, but those arguably have excess armour which isn’t even needed against most tanks in tier 8).
-It has a better gun compared to other 122mm heavies, due to better handling, and can use tungsten shells for an alpha damage boost.
-It also has by far the best mobility (not speed) of any 122mm heavy tank, with better effective acceleration and traverse than all of them.
-The only real downsides of the WZ-111 are gun depression, and the fact it has typical 122mm heavy tank aim time and dispersion (which all 122mm heavies have).

Is it worth getting?

The WZ-111 is worth getting if you really like the playstyle of 122mm heavy tanks. Its a great option for players who want a tank with better gun handling or mobility than other 122mm HT; or if you just wished the IS-3/IS-5 had better armour, then this is worth getting. If you really like 122mm heavy tanks, this one feels by far the most reliable with its gun, its mobility, and its armour; its a very consistent tank, and consistency seems to be very underrated when players choose tanks.
If you aren’t interested in the 122mm heavy playstyle, you’re better off saving your gold up for a different tank.

The WZ-111 is worth 8,000 gold. Its a good tank, but its not the most exciting or interesting to play. The consumables are a unique feature which add an additional layer to the fairly boring 122mm heavy playstyle, which make this tank a bit more interesting and unique.

(WG does not often sell this tank, but it usually only costs 5,500 gold, which is a good deal as this is one of the better 122mm heavy tanks)

Most recently sold for:

5,500 gold (Full bundle) – February 2023

Camo cost:

“Pixel Wave” rare camo: 2D, costs 540 gold

Does not change the tank’s name in battle as its not a legendary camo.

Historical info:

WZ-111 is the only indigenous Chinese heavy tank that was ever built. While the 110, 112, and 113 are real tanks, none of them even had a mock-up model built; the WZ-111 had a full scale metal prototype built.

The in-game WZ-111 is nearly 100% accurate to the real life tank. It has the correct top speeds, engine power, weight, and importantly, its visual design and layout.

The only inaccuracies that the WZ-111 has are on its gun and its armour. China would not have used the D-25T gun on the WZ-111, as in 1960 this gun was very outdated, hence why China wanted to replace their IS-2 and IS-3 tanks with a new design. The actual gun meant to be used on it was the 122mm Y174, which was to have an autoloader (Not like the magazine autoloaders ones in game, but rather more like a gun rammer, or just automatic loading. Basically an increased RoF), night vision, and rangefinder.

The armour is very close to being accurate. The frontal armour and rear armour of the WZ-111 in game is correct, but the side armour should be 90mm, instead of the 80mm in game (armour homogenization changed it to 83mm).

Basically the WZ-111 is the only Chinese heavy in game that was actually built, and is surprisingly also nearly fully accurate to real life.
Interestingly, the exclusive camo the WZ-111 has is also historical. While not accurate to the 1960 era the WZ-111 was built in, the “Pixel Wave” camo seems to be inspired by modern day Chinese “Marine Digital” camouflages.

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