Last Minute Mutz Shoutout

The Bear Is Here!

By:

IrmaBecx

So you have one day and a few hours left to decide if you want a Swiss bear in your life, and if you are in the throes of indecision I’m here to give my opinion on it. I wrote a little less than a year ago there’s not a whole lot to recommend the Pz 58 Mutz except it’s a cool tank and it can sometimes be a really great drive. I also wrote it wasn’t quite where I was at as a tank driver back then, but that I might still get it because I love the IndyPanzer and I always really liked the Mutz too.

To make a long story short I have now bought myself one. I hoard my free Wargaming gold for precisely this sort of opportunity, and when I saw the full bundle with double cheese and extra boosters for a mere five and a half thousand gold I just kind of thought “If not now – when?”

I’ve passed on the Pz 58 a number of times already; last time it was six thousand fully loaded, and I am thinking it’s not going to get all that much cheaper, you’ll just get more stuff with it. I have to say I fell for the duck avatar; I’ll be fielding that one for the foreseeable future, but to each their own.

And buying the Mutz made me happy. I’ve not even driven it yet, it’s been sitting there in my garage all kitted out with the bear freshly painted on just waiting for me to get the urge.

That is not in itself unusual these days. I have plenty of tanks I used to drive but forgot about, tanks I like to have but likely won’t ever drive, and a few I’ve been meaning to drive but haven’t gotten around to yet. Two hundred and six tanks now; even just yoloing straight into the red team it would take me well over three hours to drive them all. This is what happens to jaded old tank philosophers.

I’ve said it before, but there really aren’t a lot of tanks out there I want to get my hands on anymore, and a lot of them are curiosities like the Panzer 58.

*

So what is the Swiss bear? And why would you want one?

If you’re feeling sceptical, then I quite understand. There are almost twice as many tier VIII premium and collector tanks as tech tree ones right now, and the Pz 58 is certainly not a “must have”. You could have a faster tank, a more stealthy one, a better armoured one, an autoloader or auto reloader, a bigger gun; all sorts of things. Even in the tech tree and sticking with 90 mm the Indien Panzer, Pantera, or even the STA-1 are all strong contenders against the Mutz.

It’s sort of a baby Leopard 1, or perhaps a baby AMX proto or 30B would be a more fitting comparison since it has a bit of gun mantlet. It’s not super fast but it’s agile, nice accurate gun with ten degrees of gun depression, and you can get a bounce or two.

Again, you could get all those things in the tech tree. But there’s no denying the Mutz is well put together, and if you keep your head down a little and don’t explode in the first two minutes it can be a good performer.

Here’s the deal. If you like tanks like the Indien, the PTA, or the AMX Proto, then this is that kind of tank. Nothing about it really sticks out; I don’t think it’s best in tier at anything. Dispersion is quite good, you can get it down to 0.277 with the refined gun module and double chocolate. But you don’t drive one for the stats, you drive it because you like the Medium playstyle and you think the painted bear looks cool.

You’ll want to watch out for the 30 mm side armour. That will sidescrape an 88 but not a 90 millimetre, meaning don’t even think about side scraping a TD or a Heavy tank; they’ll just overmatch it. But in a hull down spot using a bit of gun depression you’ll be showing around 200 mm effective armour give or take, and as I said the thing is agile, so it’s really not all that fragile when used correctly.

*

This is already longer than I intended, and I’m sitting here feeling a little bad for not having driven it. I mean, tank philosophy without tank driving is just bench racing, no? I’ve driven it on my press account, but like I always say it’s not the same.

In terms of setup there are no surprises, I run the extra hitpoints because the armour is sort of thin anyway, engine accelerator and high end consumables to max out the mobility, double chocolate, double repair kits and a turbo boost.

Or do I? Maybe I’ll run the refined gun and calibrated shells instead to make my shots count. Be aware the Mutz has APCR so there’s not a lot of increase, but I’m only losing 168 DPM so worth try. Tier VIII Mediums usually don’t have very high DPM anyway. My ammo loadout is 27/13/7 AP/APCR/HE.

What the hell. Let’s take it for a spin.

*

I really do think the Mutz camo looks great. Happy to have it in my garage just to look at. But tier VIII Mediums is where I came up as a tank driver and a tank philosopher; there was a time when they were all I cared about.

What about expectations? Well, it’s a bit of an HE magnet. I fully expect to get smashed a few times. Also 90 mm isn’t exactly awe inspiring at tier VIII these days; you can get a 105 or a 122 from the tech tree. That means building damage over time, which in turn means trying to hold on to my hitpoints, especially at the start of the game. Being so agile means it’s not a pushover in a brawl, I know I can take down other tanks in a 1v1; I’ve done it before. It rocks a solid 50% global average winrate with less than 200 drivers, so I’m not expecting any miracles.

Enough talking. Time to go.

First game out is on Dynasty; not my favourite map for a squishy Medium tank. But my team all go towards C and we each have a Smasher, so we end up chewing through them fairly quickly. I end up with some good spotting but not a lot of damage; just under 1000, but it’s a win so I’ll take it. They have two King Tigers, and I’m glad I went for the calibrated shells. Checking Armour Inspector my regular AP shells will almost go through the lower plate head on, and APCR will punch through the upper plate out to about 20 degrees side angle.

Next one is on Faust, and it’s Encounter. I try to spot the middle, but the reds all go towards the missile bunker. I get too close to a VK 168 too early on and take two big hits from nearby Heavy tanks, if it had been isolated I would have easily taken it down. Then a lucky shot towards the end sets me on fire and takes me out, and my teammates mess up the endgame against another Tiger II. It’s a loss, but it was down to the last shot so a good game all the same.

I’m starting to think I might change out the calibrated shells, because really I shouldn’t be shooting at King Tigers head on. But ending up on Molendijk I contest the B cap against an IS-3 Defender doing some slick hull down work, putting shell after shell through the front plate, so I think I’ll stay with the same setup. I shouldn’t fight Heavys frontally, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Supported by a yoloing P.43 ter the Defender finally takes me out, but by then we have all three bases and it’s basically all over. 2350 damage is top of the team and my best result so far.

Then it’s a loss on Normandy and a win on Alpenstadt meaning a 60% winrate after five games, but I still haven’t seen any tier IX action yet.

*

I drive a couple of more games just to make sure, but my mind is made up. I’m still happy I bought the Mutz, and not just because it looks pretty in my garage.

It’s really easy to mess things up and take too much damage, but that’s part of the charm. This isn’t some faceless IS-spam drone, it’s a Medium tank, and a lively one at that. I believe I’ve called it a “finesse” tank before (Ed: I didn’t. I called it a “thinking man’s tank”.). 90 mm may not be exciting, but it’s comfortable to work with and I like the gun handling a lot. And the thing will bounce a Heavy tank shell if you go hull down and keep it moving.

But this is a tank with kind of a high skill threshold. You don’t want it to be your first tier VIII premium, and perhaps not even your first tier VIII premium Medium. It’s something you’ll pick up down the line because you want to focus on your Medium tank driving without a lot of training wheels.

Me, I thought it was time. It’s a cheap bundle, even though I don’t really care about the bling and boosters and boxes. Just the tank, the paintjob, and nine equipment slots would have done it for me.

What about you? Do you need a Swiss dancing bear in your life? Do you have what it takes to field one against hordes of Heavy tanks, OP premiums, and camping TDs with huge HE shells?

Normally I’d suggest grinding out the Indien Panzer and finding out for sure, but with a little over 30 hours left on the bundle that my not be an option. And to be fair I’m kind of glad I’ve waited this long to get mine, because I knew exactly what I was getting myself into and I definitely don’t feel I overpaid for it. Doing your missions diligently and clicking on a few videos here and there you should be able to scrape together 5500 gold in a few months.

IrmaBecx says the Mutz most definitely has the tank philosophy seal of approval, with banners and gold stars. Just make sure that really is what you want.