First French Tank – FCM 50t
By:
IrmaBecx
So the FCM is back in the store today, and I though I’d dust mine off and give you all the low down.
Me, I bought mine years ago, and I’ve always liked it. A lot of that was it was new, it was French, and it didn’t really resemble any other tank in the game. It’s been one of my periodic credit grinders, but it’s also seen long periods of disuse.
So what’s the deal? And how does the FCM fare in the current meta?
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You all know the FCM is a Heavy tank originally, but our version is supposedly a Medium tank. I say “supposedly”, because it’s not all Medium; it still has Heavy tank camo values, which are around a third of what you get from an actual tier VIII Medium.
I had to check camo guru Frodo Nifingers research, and yes: it shows the FCM is in between the Löwe and Tiger II in terms of camouflage.
That’s not great. Especially since the tank itself is not exactly small to begin with.
What you get in return is two engines, meaning 1100 horsepower, and a solid 20 horsepower per ton. The FCM simply flies across the ground. If you’ve driven French Heavy tanks, there’s simply no comparison.
You also get an excellent French 90 mm DCA 45 long gun with high penetration, and eight degrees of gun depression, which isn’t great but it is standard for the tier.
In terms of armour, it’s also not fantastic, but it does have some. The forward mounted, German inspired turret deflects some shells when pointed straight at the enemy, and you will get some bounces off the front plate and 80 mm sides. Just mind your rear drive wheels stick out at the back and can be penetrated in a sidescrape situation.
So there’s nothing really standout about the FCM 50t, and still the tank ends up being so much more than the sum of it’s parts when you actually drive it.
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The reason the FCM has such massive power is the French didn’t want to use a German engine. Instead, they jammed two French V-12 engines in there, and that’s why the tank is so big. It’s really a strange combination of pre-war and wartime technology, and the FCM actually lost out to the ARL 44 because it didn’t use as many existing components.
And the excellent power and mobility is really the raison d’etre of the FCM 50t. If it were slower, it would need either more armour or more firepower to compensate.
As it is, you want to go hull down or otherwise work from cover, especially against higher tier opponents.
And that’s really no problem since the FCM is so agile, despite it’s enormous size. The FCM thrives out on the flanks.
The bad news is, the armour isn’t really going to stand up to higher tier opponents, and with bad camo on such a big tank, it’s going to be a preferred target for high alpha guns. It doesn’t really have any of the qualities that define the current game meta: strong armour and high caliber.
Your main problem, I would say, is not the tank itself, but driving a tier VIII Medium in the first place.
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Let’s say however you do want to drive a tier VIII Medium. I think you could certainly do a lot worse than this.
It’s sort of strange relying on mobility and gun handling in such a big tank; it feels counter intuitive. And the best plays I make in mine relies on doing things the enemy team doesn’t expect.
Looking over the competition, you can get a tier VIII Medium that does certain things better. You can get more firepower, more armour, or more speed if you like. But it’s always going to come at a cost, and the FCM is really in the middle of all categories.
If you think the tectonic plate camo looks cool, then you can get a good deal on it this week. And it’s a fun drive, it really is; the tank seems to succeed almost in spite of itself. All it needs to be successful is keeping within it’s limitations and a bit of an imaginative driver.
The question is: are you that driver?
And the straight answer is: not necessarily.
First of all, you hay have a tier VIII premium Medium already, and if you do, it’s not certain the FCM 50t is going to really add anything of value beyond the novelty. It certaily doesn’t really do anything other premium Mediums can’t do, and it has a few weaknesses that aren’t really compensated for.
The tank does struggle in the current meta.
The only reason I think to get the FCM, is if you’ve wanted it for a long time for your collection, or if you think it looks cool, and you are curious about the playstyle. There is no actual selling point that I can think of.
That’s not a great conclusion for what is one of my favourite tanks, but the reason I like the FCM has more to do with what it was than what it is. It used to be the only French tank in the game, one of few premium Mediums. And it’s not really a typical Medium, although it does support a Medium playstyle.
Would I buy one today?
I’m not sure I would. I would miss having it, but there are four French premium Mediums now; you can get a 105 mm gun, you can get tier leading speed and mobility; you can even get an autoloader. Other than being cheap, there’s really nothing to recommend you get the somewhat bland option.
And in a wider sense, as I said tier VIII premium Mediums aren’t exactly scarce either. It’s very possible one of the other ones will be a better fit for you.
IrmaBecx says unless you’ve been wanting the FCM 50t, or you enjoy a bit of a challenge, you can do better in terms of a tier VIII credit grinder.
IrmaBecx School of Tank Philosophy 