The Leopard 1 mounts a fantastic gun on a very mobile chassis 

 

Why Speed is Armor, and Firepower is King

 Who Needs Real Armor?

 

For quite some time now, many people have known that if you depend on armor, or drive a tank that does, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. The game has more or less been creeping towards this direction, and it clearly favors certain tanks. This isn't to say you can't do well in a heavily armored tank, or that things like armor angling, proper use of hull-down tactics, are useless, but they aren't what they used to be. The game has become much faster, and much more dependent on having either very high burst damage (autoloaders), or very high alpha. DPM, or damage per minute, can be useful, but is largely overshadowed by the previously mentioned attributes. 

This phenomenon goes hand in hand with the ongoing powercreep in the game, as well as the innovation of gold ammo for credits. I personally believe that gold ammo should not exist in this game, as it greatly unbalances certain tanks, while merely making others adequate at best. Examples of this would be the T69, without gold, it's definitely harder to play. Wargaming knows that they have to powercreep this game to keep it going, to keep people spending the insane amounts of money that many have spent. The reason I know this occurs is because I've spoken to many people who have admitted this, and if you read the forums enough, you'll see it there too. At any rate, the fact that Wargaming doesn't seem to care about retaining many of their veteran players, and instead mostly pander to new players, gives me the idea that they are indeed getting many, many new players. This isn't necessarily a bad thing mind you, but it doesn't make the veteran players feel very confident spending money on future Wargaming endeavors. 

You might be asking, why would Wargaming essentially make armor mostly useless, in an armored vehicle combat game? The answer is simple: being historically accurate does not really contribute to powercreep, and the current model Wargaming has obviously makes very good money, for now. This isn't to say War Thunder ground forces or some other more historically accurate game cannot be successful, but coming out with crazy new prototype tanks is something people seem to pay money for.

the legendary Bat

Speed Is Armor

What exactly does this mean? Simply put, the more you stay mobile, out of the line of sight or fire of the enemy, the better chance you have of survival, and possible success. If you don't need to rely on people bouncing rounds off of your tank, you will survive more, guaranteed. Given the massive proliferation of gold ammo in the game which is painfully obvious if you try to drive anything that depends on armor, it's no surprise that faster tanks have largely taken over. What I mean by fast is anything that has relatively good acceleration, ground passability, track traverse that isn't anemic, and a top speed over 40 km/h. Tanks such as the Maus, T95, JP E-100, T110E3 are examples of tanks that heavily depend on armor, and are quite slow as well. It's precisely tanks like these that are mostly being power crept out of usability. Having played the T110E3 on the test server, I can say it is actually quite good in some cases, but you won't change a game in it the way you can in a Bat Chat, T-62A, or Leopard 1. 

Given that it's quite hard to survive in higher tier battles, the use of hard cover that cannot be shot down is really the best way to make sure your tank can stay alive, and fighting. Most good players have known for awhile that while driving heavily armored tanks can be fun, depending on armor is really not a good idea. Take the French tanks for example, every tier 10 is used in Clan Wars to some extent, and in the case of the Bat Chat 25t, it is a Clan Wars staple. This is after all the nerfs to the Bat, which was originally a tier 9 medium with a 6 shot autoloader. 

Bat Chat 25t nerfs:

accuracy went from .31 to .36
increased aim time
increased reload time for the drum as well as in between shots in the clip
reduced hit points
reduced gun depression
reduced view range
increased ground resistance 
reduced track traverse

Despite all these nerfs, this tank is still one of the best in the game when used properly, and is one of the primary Clan Wars tanks. This has more to do with it's tremendous top speed and acceleration combined with very good firepower. With the 105mm gun, it has 5 shots for 390 average damage, allowing for 1,950 potential burst damage in a relatively short amount of time (27 rpm inside the clip).

the less legendary AMX 50B

Other examples of tanks that mostly rely on speed are of course the AMX 50B, which, while not being as useful as the T57 Heavy (more powercreep), when its speed (65 km/h) is used effectively, it can turn the tide of many tough battles. This tank is also used in Clan Wars from time to time, despite the nerfs it received (all French tanks except the Foch 155 have been nerfed considerably). There's also the Leopard 1, another tank used in Clan Wars in a somewhat similar role to the Bat, as a scout, 2nd-3rd line damage dealer, and possibly close-support if necessary. Although somewhat new, this tank has proven it's ability to be a fast, excellent sniper, and useful scout.  

STB-1, obsoleting mediums in a match near you

The upcoming patch will include Japanese tanks, and the tier 10 medium is the STB-1. This tank will combine aspects of the Leopard 1 (good mobility, same gun), T-62A (relatively good turret, low profile, very high DPM), M48/M60/FV4202 (excellent gun depression/elevation). Despite not having the greatest accuracy and somewhat increased aim-time, this tank, for all intents and purposes, will obsolete every tier 10 medium currently in the game, other than maybe the Bat Chat. It's also another perfect example of a tank that mostly lacks armor, but makes up for it with solid speed/agility, and very good firepower, although in this case, DPM still isn't as good as high burst damage or alpha in my opinion. 

Firepower Is King

Firepower has been getting more and more ridiculous in this game in almost every patch Wargaming releases. One of the first very big indications of this was when the French tanks were released. This took the playerbase by storm, since it was the first time autoloaders were introduced, and many people had no idea how to deal with it. The better players quickly mastered the AMX 13 75, 13 90, Lorraine40t, and Bat Chat 25t, causing much chaos on the forums, and in-game. This was because all these tanks were actually pretty overpowered when they first came out (big surprise), and when properly used, could easily turn defeat into victory. The effective burst damage provided by autoloaders effectively negates these tanks inherent lack of armor, and when combined with their speed, it makes for a deadly combination. 

When talking about firepower, one must mention the E-100, and when you mention the E-100, you need to look at all of them. When the original E-100 was introduced, it was yet another step up the powercreep ladder, as it combined high alpha damage, better speed than the Maus, and quite substantial armor. There's also the JP E-100, the first tank to break the 1,000 average damage per shot barrier. Finally, the WT E-100, the tank that has a 6 round Jagdtiger autoloading gun, with 3,360 potential average damage per clip. All of these tanks have contributed to the firepower powerceep, although the JP E-100 isn't considered all that great by most people.

Tanks that either have autoloaders, or high alpha damage, that is, high average damage per shot, are generally considered to have the best firepower. This is because these tanks allow you to do a lot of damage in a shorter period, without risking your hit points. Tanks that rely on DPM, unless the DPM is significant (T-62A, STB-1) are generally harder to be successful with because you have to remain out of cover longer.  

It's safe to say that if you're driving a tank that has either high speed/maneuverability, or high firepower, you stand a much better chance of getting your team a victory. This is of course provided you are able to take advantage of the strengths of these tanks. Wargaming has been pushing the firepower envelope quite often, and it's safe to say they won't stop anytime soon. I can't understand where this will eventually take the game, will we have hover tanks that fire lasers and can permanently cloak? Where does it end?