Well, hello again and what do we have here this time.
We have the new marathon tank, the Chinese medium 122 TM which you could get for free.
So, let’s see if what Wargaming say about this tank, is it just Chinese whispers or not?
This tank was available for free by playing all 10 stages of the new Lunar Challenge mission. Each stage reduces the cost of the tank by 10% so if you complete all 10 you get it for free.
The look.
For some reason the first thing I noticed was ‘it has a BIG GUN’ and it does and we will definitely be coming back to discuss that further a bit later on.
With or without the super colourful and full of fireworks camo this tank looks very different. It has what looks like spring roll launchers on the side of the turret and another on top which must fire spring rolls at the enemy? They are only cosmetic and are not part of the hit box but they can interfere with people trying to shoot the weak cupolas. Other than that, it looks like a normal Chinese/Russian medium tank.
So, let’s get into the chop suey.
The stats
The first thing I noticed and I know many have too is the smal DPM of only 1430 which makes it the lowest DPM tank of any tier 8 medium and this fact will dictate how it should be played and also how it should be played against but the good news, the really good news is it has a 400-alpha gun.
Standard ammo has a decent 233 pen and HEAT is 299 so no complaints there but remember the HEAT is slow. The playstyle will be medium to long range so with the penetration drop off at range don’t be surprised to see a lot of HEAT coming in your direction.
Gun handling on paper seems to be ok with some good and bad mixed in but that reload of 17 seconds base is what takes everyone’s attention away from the good points. For a Chinese tank, -8 gun depression is good and means you can play ridgelines and the 2.21 second aim time is also acceptable. Dispersion isn’t great and Vertical Stabilisers is recommended to help with that.
The ammo count is 30 rounds and where you might think this seems low just remember that long reload time to, I doubt you will be running out.
Mobility
Forward speed is 50 and a reverse is only 15 km/h. The forward speed on paper seems ok but in reality, when you play the tank it feels slow and sluggish and won’t see 50 that often unless it learns to cliff dive. The reverse is a very low 15 meaning peaking can be nasty. Terrain resistance is bad and the tank feels really sluggish for a medium.
Armour, Health and others
Hull is 120mm and the turret is a nice 280mm and with 1400 health overall. I was happy with the armour until I looked at the 2 huge cupola which is easy pen unless at range. The tank will do very well and be able to bully lower tier tanks but of its own tier and above it has nothing special to stop it getting killed. People will need to learn to try and block the weak cupola’s which are large with their barrel and or wiggle a lot.
View range is also really low with only a 370 base so it will be hard to max out a good view range without using food and optics if your crew isn’t really good.
Some good points are the crew from your 121 will fit perfectly in this tank and it actually has an ok camo rating.
Playing it
I didn’t know what to expect when I played it for the first time and the games were over so fast as everyone seems to play differently through marathons. The first thing I noticed was how sluggish the tank felt and how slow it was at accelerating, it felt closer to a heavy and climbing the hill on Westfield to join the heavy fight seemed to take forever.
I also found the sluggish nature of the tank and the really bad 15km/h reverse speed a hinderance when trying to play the ridgeline up there and everything seemed to pen me. I found the long reload a problem and as soon as people realised it was so long, I started to get hit 2 for one on reloads.
The way to defeat this tank is to use your superior reload speed to shoot it twice and most tanks you are going to meet can. If you get caught on your own or you try and sit and trade you won’t have a very enjoyable time.
I couldn’t play many games but I soon realised that this tank needs to be played medium to long range where you can use its ok accurate gun and good alpha but without getting pushed on the reload.
I think all of the bad things about the tank are there to balance out the alpha of the gun and rightly so. Its good that wargaming may have slowed down on introducing OP tanks that just change the meta and power creep all the other tanks. Balance is good for the game. This tank will be a beast in lower tiers but that can be said for most higher tier tanks.
Conclusion
Is it worth the full price? I don’t think so but I do think if you played enough of the marathon to get a good discount and you had the money spare, why not.
SwedishLadyC 