Object 260 Review!

The Pike Is Loose

By:

IrmaBecx

So the Object 260 is on sale today, and if I hadn’t owned it already I might have considered dropping all my scraped together free gold on one. 17.5K they want for it; that’s the plain jane version with the eastern bloc park bench interior, and that’s sort of a middle range price for a tier X collectible without the special camo.

Full disclosure: my Object 260 was free, I got it from one of those snow globes last year, and I got the snow globe itself from Wargaming. I don’t have the “Pike” camo, which I think runs you a little over 2500 gold at present without a discount, but I will own it one day because it fits the tank.

Now, this should immediately make you suspicious for several reasons. I am of course a WG lackey and collaborator, and so you should consider my endorsements with that in mind. It’s easy for me to say I would have bought a tank I already own; I’ve been meaning to buy the CDC for like six years, and the M4 Rev and many others. Just waiting for that really good deal, no? To add to your suspicion this is a Heavy tank, and not only that it’s a prototype for the IS-7; a tank which although respectful of I have outspokenly never, ever liked.

So what’s the deal? And by the way – isn’t this just a less powerful IS-7 without the grinding?

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Clearly the IS-7 comparison is relevant, because the Object 260 is the direct predecessor. It’s the IS-7 Prototype. So you get a little less armour but a little more agility, a 122 instead of a 130, a shot trap turret, and you still have to deal with that pike nose. That part is easy to understand.

But the thing is, as much as I dislike the IS-7 I simply love the Obj 260, and that’s a bit of a surprise even to myself. I was inclined to drive it just because it’s not an actual IS-7, but I was expecting I’d come away with the feeling I wouldn’t kick one out of my garage. Considering I love the Object 140 and 907 but not the T-62A and am fairly indifferent towards the T-22, perhaps there is a sort of pattern here and again this part is easy to understand. The fact this is an Object 260 and not an IS-7 alone would be sufficient for me to like it.

My feelings on the IS-7 I think are fairly well known, but let’s use the analytical approach and consider what the IS-7 really is: namely a huge Medium tank. It’s not all that big for a SuperHeavy, and it’s certainly nippy although not especially agile. The reason it can cosplay a Heavy tank better than, say, a WZ-121, is simply they hung enough armour on it for you to basically just drive it straight at the enemy. This is the reason I never liked it: it’s just too easy to drive.

you won’t be surprised to hear me argue this is also the precise reason I love my Object 260. It’s true it has a smaller gun and less armour. That doesn’t make it less of a Heavy tank; but rather more of a Medium tank and that’s really the way I like my Heavys, I will drive anything that can do some Medium tank work in a pinch. The Object 260 goes further than that, it’s like it was made specifically for those instances of Medium tank gameplay. I would go so far as to say the less you treat it like a Heavy tank the more successful you will be.

This is not like the WZ-111 5A versus the WZ-113; same-same but different, this is the same tank in two different modes. The sports tank and the grand tourer.

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And you know, everyone likes a sports tank. You just have to make sure that’s what you need for the job at hand. You wouldn’t buy a sports car for heavy transport, you’d buy a truck. So if you like slogging it out face to face with the big game out there, then maybe the IS-7 is a better fit. Or perhaps the Lewandowskiego.

If you enjoy other Heavy tanks with strong streaks of Medium DNA you’ll like this one too. And if you really like your IS-7 then there’s really no reason why you wouldn’t like the 260 as well because it many ways it is a similar tank. The straight line speed. The pike nose. The black hole spaced armour along the side. You will already know how to use the armour profile, and really driving a pike nose tank isn’t all that complicated. You just have to keep cool and point it straight at the enemy.

There are three important differences between the 260 and the IS-7, corresponding to the three balancing categories of armour, speed, and firepower respectively. Concerning the latter the Object 260 is clearly superior; DPM and gun handling are both noticeably better and you get HEAT rounds instead of APCR with slightly higher penetration, although not as high as the IS-4. It’s faster, more powerful and agile. But it’s not quite as robust with main armour 40 mm thinner and fewer hitpoints. It doesn’t have that cockroach carapace you can stomp on all day to no avail.

So it’s a bit of a different tank. Like the E6 versus the E5, or the Chieftain Mk VI versus the Super Conqueror you trade agility and firepower for brawn, and this will allow some elements of Medium tank playstyle.

I set my Object 260 up with my usual combat loadout: calibrated shells and speed boost, double repair kits and double food. My ammo loadout is 23/13/8. Don’t forget to bring some HE shells, because of course there is a bit of Russian Bias going on. You get the same 68 mm HE pen the IS-7 130 mm does, meaning 75 mm with calibrated. Tier standard for a sub 130 mm is 60 mm.

And then I just rolled out. It’s not a very complicated vehicle.

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I end up on Dead Rail with just one Light tank against two Mediums. But I’m a Medium at heart, no? If we don’t hold the high ground those two Mediums will pick us apart, so I make my way up there. I’m not going to outspot a Medium tank and get lit up before I reach the rocks. Looking sideways I see a WZ-121 and throw a shot towards it; a speculative shot that actually hits the tank but bounces off. Fully expecting to take a hit, the return shot instead ricochets harmlessly off my tank.

Now, this shouldn’t be possible. That 121 has the fastest aimtime in the game, I’m maybe 70 m away and showing at most 135 mm side armour. All I can figure is there was a slight downward angle, and the shell bounced off either the underside of my spaced side armour or hit the very top of the turret. It’s a completely bullshit troll bounce, but I’ll take it. Unfortunately our Vickers goes middle so I’m expecting to be alone against the 121 and an Object 140, but the WZ doesn’t want to fight a Russian Heavy up close and retreats. We own the high ground.

I am taking fire from across the map, no use staying here. Their TDs are taking a beating down towards the middle so I flank around getting behind their Jägeru, but now I’m in a hurry being pounded by the Medium tanks. Turning around and dipping down I inexplicably bounce the killshot off the 121, but once it’s gone I can get hull down against the 140 and take it out.

And that’s the game. We pushed through the flank, took out their spotters and support tanks and now there are three Heavys surrounded in the bowl by our spawn left to mop up. It’s basically a slaughter.

Now, if those Mediums had contested the high ground together they could have taken me down. I can’t point my armour straight at two tanks at once, and they both have excellent firepower. But relocating and then letting us corner them instead meant victory for us.

Next game is a disaster, I don’t even want to talk about it.

But then it’s time for Alpenstadt, it’s Supremacy and we have a tier IX Vickers Cruiser against a red E50M. Otherwise the teams are evenly matched with three Heavys and TDs, so going the Medium route is a risky move. But the ÜberPanther is a very dangerous tank, so I move towards A hoping to get a shot in before it reaches the houses on  the hill.

A K-91 on the red team as the same idea of supporting the Medium flank, I manage two shots before it’s in cover and the E50M is right behind it, I miss my shot at it. So now they have the corner and we have no D support, but I can put some pressure on them by starting to cap. They will either poke and we’ll have them in a crossfire, or we’ll get the cap and then I can start getting in their face.

Naturally things don’t go as planned. Both red tanks push forward, I hit the E50M in the side as it charges the Vickers CR, but I decide to go for the K-91 which is on lower HP. Take two shots and have to resurrect my driver, but now my speed boost is off cooldown and it’s short work taking out the K-91 while it’s reloading. Unfortunately our Vickers goes down having brought the E50M down to almost a one shot for me and it does indeed take two shots to take it out. his whole exercise has cost me 2000 hipoints, but we own the flank, we own the cap, and so I start capping.

But there’s no time, a VK 45.02 B is attaching or E4 right in front of me so I leave the cap and go help out. Only two tanks left so I farm a bit of damage and end up with over 4K damage and a first class. Piece of cake really; at least in the tactical sense.

Not going to get long winded about these honestly fairly mediocre games, but the fact is we probably would have lost both of those games if no one had paid attention to the flank. The Heavy tank meta is going strong, especially in tier X Ratings, but a single Medium tank that owns the flank can completely wreck even the best laid plans.

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The day after I roll out again, and it’s about the same story with two wins out of three. With the rebalancing of the tier X Heavy tanks the 260 does now feel lighter on it’s feet than a lot of same tier Heavys, and out on the flanks it doesn’t feel fragile at all. I also stand by this being a Medium tank in disguise, again racking up almost 4K just by going A cap on Castilla and then putting the base campers in a cross fire.

170 games I’ve put on my 260, more than on my IS-4 but nowhere near as many as on my 111 5A, and of course I don’t have an IS-7. I have to say I’m very pleased with it, just a great tank without a lot of bells and whistles.

Here’s where you should start getting suspicious again, because I am a Medium tank player at heart, and the only Heavy tanks I do like tend to be for specific reasons. One of those reasons is mobility; I will choose fast over brawny every time. Another one is just being a regular tank, a bog standard, daily driver type beater that does what it says on the box and nothing more. Neither, I would assume, makes the Object 260 sound more appealing to a player without my particular tastes.

But the essence of Russian bias is a conspicuous lack of serious drawbacks, you may think that’s boring and in the case of the Great Bias Beast-7 I would agree, but what it actually means is being pretty good at virtually everything, and then often you will have something you do really well on top of that.

And it’s true I am a Medium tank degenerate, but that doesn’t change the fact mobility is one of the most powerful advantages in the game and one of the most important factors in balancing. Very often WG will dial back a strong vehicle by limiting the top speed, engine power, or making it traverse slower. Likewise they will often buff those same things when a tank has been power crept or doesn’t perform so well.

But yeah. As much as I dislike the Bias-7, I have remained one of it’s staunchest defenders against the charge of obsolescence, and I still say it’s one of the tanks you should consider for your first tier X because it’s powerful and it’s easy to drive, plus you get some truly hilarious troll bounces off that cockroach carapace – I’m talking point blank, high calibre, straight from the side, and the round will just disappear into some dark vortex of spaced bias and non-Euclidian angles.

So I’m not going to pretend the IS-7 isn’t the logical choice, no one actually needs the collectible pre production model.

There are a few reasons why you might still consider one. A lot of people complain about the IS-7 gun being derpy, and the 260 gun is much snappier, has higher standard shell speed, better skill round penetration, and better accuracy. You might wish your IS-4 or IS-7 wasn’t quite so sluggish. Or as I said you may really like your IS-7, and be curious about a tank that is both similar and different.

It’s an extravagance. I spent months and months scraping together my hoard of gold from missions and events, and this would have put a big hole in it. However, as extravagances go this one strikes me as fairly reasonable; it’s a great tank that’s easy to drive, looks good, drives well, and the “Pike” camo I think is just the right side of ostentatious.

Two thumbs up, no doubt. Tank Philosophy seal of approval. IrmaBecx says if you sometimes wish your Heavy tank wasn’t quite so… Heavy, this might be the tank for you.

See you out there.