WZ-111

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 manauverability, great armour, and a typical 122mm gun.

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 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).

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.

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.

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. Generally 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.

Gun

The WZ-111 has a 122mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on APCR, 340 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-It has a 11.8s reload giving it 2036 DPM
-Penetration on APCR is 215mm, HEAT is 270mm, and HE is 61mm.
–Estimated aim time is 5.4/5.8s
–Base aim time is 3.1s, but it can get down to 2.53s.
-Dispersion is 0.381/0.350
–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. Its aim time and gun handling are slightly better than other 122mm heavy tanks, and this does make a noticeable difference in battle.
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.

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 36 deg/s on hard terrain, and 32.7 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 13.7 hp/t, it has a decent 608hp engine for its 44.5 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 13.7 hp/t on hard terrain, and 12.4 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are insanely good, at 1/1.1/2

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. 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.

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.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The WZ-111 has no special consumables or provisions.

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.

Its much better to use a gun rammer, which will give this tank an 11.8s reload, and with 400 alpha that gives it 2036 DPM.

Enhanced Armour:
The WZ-111 can use improved assembly and the armour will still work just fine. Improved assembly gives the WZ-111 an extra 108 HP , taking it from 1800 HP to 1908 HP.

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 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. So use a vertical stabilizer.

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.

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 theya re making a wrong play, its best to go where you have allied support.

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.

Overall

Overall, WZ-111 the most well-rounded tier 8 122mm heavy tank.
-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).
-It has a better gun compared to other 122mm heavies, due to better handling.
-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, so its not a downside compared to them).

Rare tank and its reputation:
The WZ-111 is an unbelievably rare tank. 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 probably the rarest purchasable tier 8 tank.

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 “fake 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.

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 7,500 gold. Its a good tank, but its not the most exciting or interesting to play. It also has to compete against the Obj.252U, which is usually only sold for about 8.5k gold. If you want this tank, 7,500 gold is the maximum you should pay, its not worth any more than that.
(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:

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.

Back to homepage