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The B1 is weaker than i expected by looking at it. Yes, it's armour is good at deflecting tier 3 tank shells, and it it is slow, and weak to arty. It is all those things, and is quite undergunned as well. I actually have to shoot at a lee's weakspot! (the 75mm gun is a very easy pen on the lee)
The AMX 40 has better armour and a better gun, plus the thing is huge; you thought you were safe but you're not. The only thing i have found that is good about it right now is its MM value, it's almost always at the top. Overall, the B1 is vastly inferior in all ways except HP compared to the D2, which is like a god for its tier. So I thought the B1 is like a cow; it's big, heavy and somewhat intimidating to the little tanks but it's just easy food for anything that can penetrate iit, or anything Tier 4 and above. all tier 3 TD's eat it for lunch. When does it get better? The French line so far in my perspecitve:
T1-fun like T1 always is
T2-D1 is terrible
T3-D2 rules in T3 battles, but kinda sucks in higher tier battles
T4-B1 is a big bully... little tanks are its food and it's food for the big ones
T5-heard the BDR is the biggest PoS ever.
I hope the ARL is decent i am skipping the BDR for reasons found in its many hate threads...

I once saw a Type 59 engaging an ARL 44. EVERY . . . SHOT . . . BOUNCED.    off the ARL

The D2 is Not a god in its tier... at least not when I'm driving it. Or an M2 Med. Or a T-46. Or any form of artillery.

But in all seriousness, the premium B2 is much better, it was the armor to deflect most shots, and gains a favorable matchmaker.

As for the ARL, I can't give an opinion, but i do know that I destroy them all the time in my M6.

Well i usually got himmelsdorf/ensk in my D2 and most drivers at T3 are newer players that kinda suck so i got lucky i guess... Well it's good to know that the ARL is decent at armour, and it's pen is good. The B1 is still a problem... when i drive it i feel like a T34/105 with a damaged engine  

If the 75mm cannon (the real main gun) in teh front hull of the B1 was active them the B1 could either hold its own. or obliderate the competetion.
either way when the multi gun/turret controls are activated teh b1 will become 1000% better.

yeah I had a fight recently where I bounced Every shot off of an AMX 40 using my B1.   It didn't matter where I hit it or at what range.   I was point blank and shot at its tread and it did nothing.  Near the end he actually tried to ram me i my front facing. did no damage to me,  How I wish that big gun worked right then...  I'm still getting used to the char and I dont have its third gun yet but it does feel rather weak.  Honestly all the French guns have felt under gunned to me so far.  

It may just be my imagination though.  Especially since I like either fast moving tanks or TD's.  

The armor on the french tanks are really good though.  I've pulled through several fire fights I would have probably lost using any other nations tanks.

Get the engine and turret...can't stress enough on the engine, it actually make you faster than that AMX-40 iron duck powered by snail. The turret allows the mounting of D2's top gun, allowing it to actually compete at something.

The French heavy really require guts on the player's side to get things going...the light line's already going uphill upon reaching Tier 5. I don't see any lights (no pun intended) upon reaching Tier 5 on the heavy's side.

Now that i have the B1 fully upgraded, i can say one thing about it: bad accuraccy. Its reticle is small with its .34 but the shells fly all over the reticle randomly.... hit a marder 2 at 200m twice in a row then took 8 shots more to deal the killing blow. all with reticle fully zoomed in, and when it was moving i led it a bit. However, in the same match, while i sat out in the open shooting at the marder 2, i took no hits and everyone was shooting at the half-hidden T1 beside me. B1 is good at being ignored in T5 or up battles. But is that a real strength? It is good bait though . It was an enemy KV and StugIII against me and an m7 and our arty, so i sacrificed myself so the stug and KV wouldn't turn around and shoot the m7 in their base.

Great at sacrificing indeed, the B1...

I've used it to outrun a KV-2's 107 allowing a friendly KV nearby to blast that KV who is trying to shoot me to smithereens. Of course I was smoked first, but his turret simply can't keep up...

i rather like the b1 after getting it all lvld up. i stopped using it to push through to the t20 with my a3e8. ive been pretty sucessful with the tank after upgrading the gun. still have issues hurting the AMX but i can kill a B1 easy now that I know the weak spot for it.

For anyone else who doesnt know there are 2 week spots you need to protect in it. the dome on top the turret, and just inside the right track on the front. always get penetration on those spots.

Before I figured out the B1 weak points, B1 v B1, was like a 4 min fire fight with no damage lol

I find the B1 a nice breakthru tank when is at the top of the MM. Besides Lees, Marders and, obviously arty, almost all tanks of it's tier have a hard time penetrating it's frontal armor, and sometimes it sides.

What I do is always face the enemy to draw their fire and watch their shots bounce. Sure mines will bounce too, but in the 'who bounces less shots' game the B1 is almost always the winner.

occasionally the B1 might do something good, it has incredible MM, and many of the tanks at it's tier can not pen the B1 or can only do it with careful aim, which many low tier drivers don't do. With luck and a good match, the B1 can be quite good.

Best gun and engine, I find this thing just short of being totally useless. Honestly, I say this tank NEEDS somewhat historical penetration values. The French found it to penetrate 110mm of armour at 100 metres, at 0 degrees. Factoring in that that's pre-war steel, the devs can give it at least 70-80mm pen.

Yeah the last 4 battles i played in the B1 have all gotten me less than 150 exp each battle, whether win or loss. Simply not able to penetrate anything, and they were all T5 battles. the x3 exp for the first win got me 400 exp.... this grind is going to be long

The B1 tank really sucks. I think the penetration is horrible. I have to use gold rounds to penetrate anything. Even gold rounds do not pentrate very well. Useless tank.

Somebody wanna be in  platoon with me? i can't take this job alone.

I want to platoon but i don't have a mic so i guess i will try to find someone to platoon with, because the grind is going extremely slowly right now... only at 3/13k exp after over 30 battles...

It feels like the roles are switched between the French tier 4 heavy and tier 4 light. The light is slow but well armoured and has a good gun, while the heavy is slightly faster with less armour and a weak gun.

I am thinking about buying back the B1 just to prove to my self that i can get a decent victory rate with it, one thing i can't figure out is why does a tier 4 tank have a tier 3 gun makes no sense to me.

 littlebob, on Jan 25 2012 - 03:56, said:

The American M5 Stuart tier 4 light tank has a Tier 3 gun for its top gun...at least it shoots explosive...

The B1's gun is sufficient for its own tier really.