Type 59 Chinese Medium Tank Guide

Type 59's Exceptional Valor on Airfield.

The Type 59 medium tank is a real joy to play. Its one of the most successful tanks launched by World of Tanks. This is evident by all the name callings against the Type 59 - from wallet warriors, to chinese junk, and to lame remarks like how the Type 59 is ruining the game. To all these lamers - will they ever grow up? Instead of lamenting, its better to learn to play the game. This guide is written for the Type 59 medium tank, but most of it applies to any medium tank. The Type 59 is an all terrain tank. This makes it wonderful because it can fight under all conditions. Regardless which map you're playing, whether its urban city, open terrain, or swamp, the Type 59 has command over the terrain. Contrast this to a Tank Destroyer (crappy at city maps). Or SPGs who get pwned on city maps. And heavy tanks who are so vulnerable to arty on open terrain maps. But the Type 59 is, an all rounder, any map, any terrain tank. The Type 59 is a fast, powerful tank, suitable for fast flanking attacks. Every Type 59 driver needs to take advantage of its speed, its hot sexy gun, and if used well, the Type 59 rewards the player generously with lots of credits. Being a premium tank, its role as a money maker is well known. On a non-premium account, here's what you can expect to make :- Average earnings are around 30k to 40k credits. Good earnings are around 50k to 60k credits. Poor earnings are around 10k to 20k credits. Average earnings mean an average performance in battle. Good is when you’ve had a particularly good time kicking ass. Poor is when you’ve got your own ass kicked and made an early exit. The earnings are based on a non-premium account. On premium accounts, multiply them by 1.5 and you’ll see the speed at which your cash cow makes you credits.

As a Cash Cow

On higher tier battles (tier 8 and above), most tanks are money losers. Continuously driving an E-100 or Object 261 will empty your credit balance very quickly. So in between them, players use premium tanks to top up their balance.

The Type 59 doesn’t disappoint in the earnings category. As a premium tank, it earns above average credits per battle. The repairs are cheap, so even if you do really bad, you’d still make a profit from it.

The fastest way to make credits and experience is to use a Premium tank and buy a Premium Account. An average player who plays for 8 hours straight can earn around 2 million credits. Yes, I said that right – 2 million credits in 8 hours. If you play for 4 hours, you’d make around a million credits. I made 600k in just slightly over 2 hours. In a good battle, you can make over 90k, and occasionally in excess of 100k.

Priced at 7,500 gold, it is comparatively cheap to the Lowe at 12,500 gold. If you’d like to make fast money and experience, the gold price you pay to buy a Type 59 is definitely worth it because the Type 59 is a money maker.

My recommendation is to use the Type 59, and buy a one day Premium account for making fast money - and it doubles up as training grounds for medium tank strategies.

Versus the Lowe, the Lowe premium tank has the highest credit earning ability. The Type 59 ranks second, along with the KV-5.

Type 59 as a Fast Attacker

Somebody once said the Type 59 is not fast. Obviously that person hasn't driven a heavy tank like the Tiger 2, E-75 or E-100.

Being a medium tank, its role is an attacker - its not so suitable for defense. If you want to play defense, then drive a tank destroyer. If you’re in a Type 59, then its best used for attacking – either attacking enemy flanks, or sometimes spearheading an attack.

The Type 59 is fast, and its equipped with a hot 100 mm gun. Not counting the French tanks, it has the highest penetrating tier 8 gun (131 mm -219 mm) equivalent to Type 44 for non-premium ammo. For premium ammo, the highest penetrating is the M26 Pershing (tier 8), but who uses gold ammo anyway. French tanks have very good guns, but they suffer from weak armor.

The gun isn’t the most accurate at 0.34 meters/per 100 meters, but you don’t need high accuracy for close combat. Its very easy to win the Sniper Achievement in a Type 59 – not because the gun is so accurate, but because you’re fighting at close range. The Type 59 excels at close range combat.

The reload is fast enough, at 8.57 rounds/per minute - the aiming time is 2.5 seconds. It has good speed (55kmh), good acceleration/maneuverability, and decent protection, which makes it well suited in a fast paced, close combat environment.

We’ll cover on combat strategies a little later in this guide.

Equipping the Type 59

Since the Type 59 is constantly on the move, the following optional modules will complement its role as a fast attacker :-

			Air filter Class II – 5% increase in crew performance. This gives your tank a well rounded boost. Having the added speed and acceleration (from driver), visibility range (from commander), quicker aiming (from gunner), quicker loading (from loader) are all important characteristics in a fast paced combat. Cost is 150,000 credits.
			Vertical stabilizer Mk I. Provides a 20% increased accuracy when moving or turning the turret. Don’t leave this out. This gun stabilizer makes a world of difference when aiming and shooting while moving. Because you’re moving all the time, this will make the difference between seeing your gun sight jump all over, to a consistent stabilized view. This is a must get. Cost is 500,000 credits.
			The third module may be fitted with the Enhanced Gun Laying Drive (increased 10% aiming speed), Medium Caliber Tank Gun Rammer (increased 10% loading speed), or Repair Toolbox (increased 25% repair speed). All are useful, and are advantageous in a close combat fight. But you may only choose one. I chose the Gun Laying Drive to speed up my aiming, but this really is your preference. Cost is 500,000 (GLD), 200,000 (Tank Gun Rammer), 500,000 (Repair Toolbox).

For the Consumables category :-

			Small Repair Kit. I always have the small repair kit ready to use. Its attached to hotkey “4”. Cost is 3,000 credits.
			Small First Aid Kit. I also always carry the first aid kit. Often times your crew gets injured and you’ll need to heal him. I attached it to hotkey “5”. Cost is 3,000 credits.
			For the last consumable. You may choose between Fire Extinguisher, Removed Speed Governor or High Quality Oil. All are useful, but you may choose only one. Here’s what they do :- Fire Extinguisher is really helpful because you will be lighted up on more than a few occasions. Simply press hotkey “6” and the fire is snuffed out. Quality Oil provides 5% additional engine power throughout the entire battle. This is also nice, except that it costs 5000 credits per use. For this reason, I seldom use the Quality Oil, preferring instead the Fire Extinguisher or Removed Speed Governor. Removed Speed Governor gives a 10% boost to engine power, but damages the engine. This is really helpful to speed up acceleration. But the really neat thing is its free to use. It costs 3000 credits to buy, and although it’s a consumable, but its never really consumed - it can be used over and over again, and you don’t need to buy it again. The price you pay however is in engine repairs. It damages the engine, and although you may not have been hit by enemy fire, but you still need to spend credits to repair your engine. The repair costs however are minimal, maybe around 3000 credits. Here’s how it works. I have it assigned to hotkey “6”. When I want additional power, press hotkey “6” to activate the engine power boost. Press hotkey “6” again to switch it off. For every second it’s on, you get a 10% power boost, but it eats away at your engine hitpoints. You never really feel the engine damage until the engine hitpoints reaches half. When that happens, you’ll receive the message “Engine damaged” and your engine power immediately drops by half. It really sucks then coz your tank will be really slow – it can be repaired with the repair kit though. Use it sparingly, only when climbing hills, rushing the enemy or whenever you need the additional acceleration.

My recommendation is to use the Fire Extinguisher or Removed Speed Governor. You must try both in order to decide for yourself, especially the Removed Speed Governor.

Crew Skills

You’re gonna need a 100% crew. There’s no point spending 7500 gold to buy the tank, and then drive it with crappy 50% crew. It will cost you 800 gold to train all four tankers to 100%, so be prepared to pay 8300 gold for getting this tank (7500 for tank, 800 for crew training). If you need a new garage slot, price that in as well (300 gold for a garage slot). In total, you could be set back by 8600 gold - plus the required credits for purchasing Optional Modules.

For Crew perks and skill, most of them are useful except for camouflage. The "Brother's In Arms" is a good perk to have as it increases effectiveness of your entire crew. I have this as my first skill.

The “Repair” skill is important too. Be prepared to be tracked, main gun damaged, turret jammed, fuel tank hit, and so on many times as you will be in the front lines. A quick repair speed is most crucial to get your tank up and running again.

Other perks such as "Sixth Sense", "Deadeye", "Smooth Ride" are all nice to have as these improve performance of your battle tank.

Fire Fighting skill comes next. More than a few times, your tank will be set on fire. I usually counter this by carrying the Fire Extinguisher (consumable), so whenever I get lighted up, I’d just hit “6” and the fire is put out. If you have 100% Fire Fighting skill, the Fire Extinguisher becomes less important – thus you can then carry the Removed Speed Governor instead.

Camouflage skill is last. You’re not a tank destroyer, neither a scout sneaking around. So this skill is really unimportant.

Now that you've bought your tank, equipped and crewed them, its time for battle...

Combat Tactics

Type 59 Combat Tactics is continued on next page...

PS Note:- As of January 17 2012, the Type 59 is no longer for sale. The reason was because too many players were buying this great tank, that the devs pulled it in order to achieve a balanced game play. Those who purchased prior will get to keep their tank.