FV224 Chopper Review – World of Tanks

Firepower

Characteristic	Chopper	T29
DPM	1,869.27	1,517.09
Penetration	204	198
Damage	230	320
Rate of fire	8.13	4.74
Reload time	7.38	12.66
Caliber	83.40	105
Shell velocity	930	945
Ammo capacity	80	63
Potential damage	18,400	20,160

Around 1,8k DPM is good for a tier 7 heavy tank, it’s much better then what T29 has, also Chopper has a slight edge when it comes to the penetration.

Alpha damage is on the low side with only 230 damage per shot, you will have to expose yourself a lot in order to deal consistent damage if you are not going to have a lot of opportunities for double shots. Thankfully the ammo capacity should be high enough so you don’t run out of shells if you are going to be using a lot of double shots.

Gun Handling

Characteristic	Chopper	T29
Aim time	2.11	2.59
Dispersion	0.35	0.40
… damaged	0.69	0.81
… moving	0.20	0.22
… tank traverse	0.20	0.22
… turret traverse	0.12	0.18
… firing	4	4
Elevation	20	15
Depression	10	10

Gun handling is beautiful on this tank, really good aim time at 2.11 seconds, great dispersion at 0.35 and decent dispersion when moving. It also has full 10 degrees of gun depression to work those ridgelines.

Mobility

Characteristic	Chopper	T29
Forward speed	34	35
Reverse speed	12	12
Weight	60,000	64,499
Power/weight	13	13.11
Terrain resist (hard)	1.15	1.05
Terrain resist (med)	1.25	1.44
Terrain resist (soft)	1.82	2.49
Turret traverse	31.29	27.12
Tank traverse	22.95	23.99

Chopper seems to be a little bit more mobile then the T29 eventhough it has 1 km/h less, it makes up with ground resistances on medium and soft terrains. It enables the tank to reach the top speed and maintain it with decent power to weight ratio.

Tank traverse is not the best at only 23 degrees a second and turret traverse at 31, more nimble light and medium tanks will be able to outmaneuver you.

Armor

Characteristic	Chopper	T29
Hull armor	130 / 60 / 40	102 / 76 / 51
Turret armor	180 / 70 / 45	279.4 / 127 / 102
Health	1,300	1,250

Armor is not this tank’s strong side, especially when not using it’s gun depression. Hull is comparable to the T29, but the turret is nowhere near as good as on T29.

Weakspot wise, you have a choice between the commander’s hatch or the drivers hatch in the center of the upper plate. Both spots are 140 mm thick.

Interesting thing here is that the lower plate is actually stronger then the upper plate for about 10 mm of effective armor. Therefore if you are facing this tank in a tier 6 tank with around 175 mm of penetration, you have a better chance of damaging the enemy by hitting the upper plate.

Turret is not really solid either, forehead and cheeks are around 180-190 mm thick.

While using the gun depression, situation is better, you are hiding your weakpoint on top of the turret, hull armor is now around 215 mm thick.

You can still penetrate the tank while in this position into the driver’s hatch in the center of the vehicle because even at this angle it has 140 mm of effective armor.

Side profile is quite large, flat and poorly armored, only around 60 mm of effective armor, high tier tanks will be able to pen your side with HE or HESH rounds.

Rear of the tank is much of the same, pennable with HE and HESH rounds, autocannon light tanks will demolish you if they manage to flank you.

Miscellaneous

Characteristic	Chopper	T29
Stationary camo	8.09	4.79
… after firing	1.82	1.05
Moving camo	4.05	2.39
… after firing	0.91	0.53
View range	360	370
Radio range	460	777.03
Fire chance	20%	20%
Tank cost	1,500,000	1,450,300
Shell cost	365	1,009

Actually the stationary camo is almost double as good as it’s on the T29 which is suprising as the tank is not that much smaller then the american counterpart.

Seems like there is a trend with this radio range on UK double barrel heavies, once again it’s a lot worse then tanks on the same tier have.

Coated optics will be a must because of the bad 360 meters view range otherwise you’ll be blind.

Shell cost is low considering the alpha damage, good for the free to play

Conclusion

It’s a decent tier 7 tank with good DPM, decent mobility, great gun handling and usable armor especially on the ridgeline. There are no areas really where the tank is really bad, in our opinion it is one of the better heavies at this tier. Fighting tier 8s and 9s will be more of a challenge, they can pen you anywhere frontally and with such a low alpha damage it will be really hard to trade or even shut down higher tier enemies.

Check out our other reviews:

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• XM57 Review – High alpha fortress – World of Tanks
• FV226 Contradictious Review – instant double shots – World of Tanks
• DZT-159 Review – Best premium tier 9? World of Tanks