I have recently bought the BDR G1 B in order to get to the ARL 44 in order to see how good it is for myself. I have fully upgraded the BDR G1 B and played a few battles in it and I like this vehicle, The gun is very good with good damage and pen for its tier, The armor plays a lot like the T1 Heavy, one of my favorite tanks in the game. With it having a strong top turret and somewhat good hull armor with a lower hull weakspot. The turret has a cupola but I consider it a “false cupola” as it is as armored as the rest of the tank. The mobility is decent for a heavy, but can seem sluggish at times. Turret traverse is also decent for a heavy tank. Sidescraping could work in this tank but it is suggested to play ridgelines such as the entrance to the middle hill on Mines. The tank is very tall like its American cousin making it a large target on flat ground, when you hide the hull you can easily bounce most shots thrown at you from same tier guns, though higher tier tanks will have little trouble penetrating your armor. It’s top gun (DCA 30) does high damage at 225 damage per normal AP shell, about 190 per APCR shell and 270 per HE shell. At a reload of 10.3 seconds with maxed crew and no equipment the gun reloads pretty long for a heavy. The pen of the top gun is normal for a tier 5 heavy with 135 pen on the AP shell, 175 pen on the APCR shell, and 45 pen on the HE shell. With full upgrades and no equipment, the tank can reach a top speed of 26 km/h. Overall, the BDR G1 B is a good tank for its tier with strong turret armor and decent hull armor, how I play it is a ridgeline support tank. Using your strong turret to bait shots and slapping enemies with your good alpha damage, though it would be suggested to have an ally nearby to help you after you fire so you aren’t rushed during your long reload time. For equipment, I would suggest Rammer, Defense system, optics, GLD, enhanced armor, improved control, refined gun, toolbox, and your choice of the consumable equipment.
Rating,
Armor: 8, Great turret armor and decent hull armor
Speed: 5.5, Can be sluggish at times but can achieve good straight line speeds
Gun: 6.5, Great alpha, but moderate pen and long reload bring the rating down
Grind: 4.5, I free XP’d the tank but from looking at the stats of the gun and turret, I feel like the grind would be very hard due to a lack of pen from the stock gun.
Overall Rating: 6.5, The BDR G1 B can be a very fun tank to play if you know how to hull down and play the tank to its strengths.
This is one of my first reviews and I just wanted to make this review because I feel like this tank is slept upon for its bigger brother the ARL 44. I like this tank and even though I don’t have many battles in it I feel like I like the tank.