This is a question I've asked myself many times over. To those that have seen me play under the name xrt0 in the North America server for World of Tanks. You'll notice I have a fair number of Chinese tanks played. I admit I used Free XP and rushed my way around and my first ever Chinese Tank was actually the Tier 7 IS-2. From there I kept going and got the 110, the WZ-111 model 1-4, and last but not least, the Tier 10 Chinese "Heavy" tank simply known as the 113.
For all intents and purposes. I want to compare the 113 to it's smaller more mobile cousin also in the Chinese Tech Tree as the medium tank known as the 121 later in this article, I will even add a few interesting notes on other tanks like the 112, IS-4, and the non existing WZ 111 model 5-A.
To those coming into the Chinese Heavy Tech tree, the 113 is a very unceremonious and quite disappointing end to a fairly well performing tech tree of Russian design copies for the Chinese. The IS-2 is quite self explanatory as it's an IS-2 exported post-WW2 from Russia to China. The 110 has many similarities to the IS-3, but is a modified variant of the IS-2U. 110 is arguably one of the best if not strongest tanks in it's tier and/or class as some people see it as an alternative to the IS-3. Considering the IS-3 is a very popular if not mandatory Heavy Tank used in competitive play, the 110 could see similar levels of viability with it's similar armor design, solid mobility, and more accurate, but slightly less damaging gun. Moving on to the Tier 9 Chinese Heavy Tank is the WZ 111 1-4. The 1-4 is an all around solid performer, it's upper front glacis of the hull has a pike design seen on the IS-8 although not quite as refined. The lower front plate is quite flat and doesn't mirror the upper's making it far easier to penetrate leaving it as an obvious weak-spot. The turret is sufficiently protected and sloped so it can bounce various forms of shells as long as it's facing forward. What defines the WZ 111 1-4 best though is the last gun to unlock. It has a Tier 10 gun seen on the IS-7. A gun with 490 average damage, decent accuracy, aim time, and reload with moderate gun depression (for Chinese tank standards in game) of -5. The gun is quite deadly, and quite respectable for a heavy tank.
Now we come to the black sheep of the tree. The infamous 113. The 113 takes a big departure from all the other Chinese Heavy Tank designs. As the past 3 tanks all borrowed something from the Russians. The 113 is it's own unique design, and was design as an alternative to the seemingly modular WZ 111. Do note 3 actual WZ 111 type tanks exist in this game, 1 exists as an accessible Tier 9 heavy (WZ 111 1-4), The WZ 111 model 5-A was tested as a Tier 10 heavy, the base WZ 111 is a Tier 8 premium heavy tank for China possibly even players in China who may buy it like the Type 59 or Type 59 Gold. Videos of the 5A can be see on YouTube. It's performance seems to be akin to the 111 1-4, but balanced to be quite efficient in Tier 10. It's a shame it was removed and replaced with the 113. The 113 as previously stated is unique and actually borrows parts from both heavies and mediums of Chinese tank design - it's represented in game quite well seeing as it has the same exact gun also shown on the 121 and the final unlock of the WZ-120. Although a few soft stats separate the 121 and the 113's guns, make no mistake. At it's core, they are the same gun.
So why should the 113 exist when WarGaming had a perfectly nice tank they had in test, then decided to ditch it and put the 113 as their Tier10 Chinese Heavy? It's hard to say, maybe they were considering bringing the WZ 111 5A far into the future when the ability to change hulls is possible. The 113 is easily comparable to the WZ 111 1-4. Both are lengthy tanks, they have the ability to do quite good speeds on flat ground reaching as high as 50km/h. But from there, it gets weird and seemingly disappointing to the 113. 113's gun is a 122mm that's capable of 440 average damage with a respectable rate of fire of 5.5 rounds per min. But put that in comparison to the 121 which has the same gun with an ROF of 6.25 RPM. Why does the medium have a better ROF? Both have the same aim time of 2.7 seconds, though the accuracy of the 113 is worse by 0.1m to the 121 of 0.36 to 0.35. A very minor difference, one last difference which may help differentiate the 121's gun to the 113's is that it has less gun depression giving the 113 a slight edge. 4 degrees of gun depression exists on the 113, and 3 degrees to the 121. While it's only 1 whole degree off, numbers that low make either of these tanks quite hard to really use and require a person to master their tank and taking as much possible advantage of the terrain to fare well with. But still, why is the 113 lackluster or disappointing? Although it does have a good health pool of 2300 health. Reasonable mobility, and a decent but not exactly a noteworthy gun for a Tier 10 Heavy, it's frontal armor can be seen as a blessing or a curse.
The frontal plate of the 113 is exactly seen from the 112. The 112/113 both have a 120mm thick armor sloped at about 68 degrees. When the tank is slightly turned left or right to increase angling, it can bounce various shots exceptionally well. Now this 68 degrees can mean quite a lot in regards to the game. At 70 degrees, all AP or APCR shots basically auto bounce. OK while it's not quite as absolute at that, getting as close to 70 degrees can negate even 300mm+ penetration rounds of any sort assuming it is AP or APCR, so simply turning the tank a few degrees when facing an opponent who isn't using HEAT rounds and firing at the upper front plate of the 113 will have a difficult time. Though due to the length of the tank, if this is turned or angled a little bit too much and exposing the sides or even the engine compartment of the tank, it can lead to quite a lot of trouble. The 121 also has a similar frontal armor design, but if I recall the actual slope of that armor is 60 degrees - it's still quite bouncy nonetheless and can use the same common tactic of turning anywhere from 10-30 degrees while trying to not expose too much of a side or rear to help deflect incoming shots. Although offering less protection from the 113, it is logical as the Tier 10 medium shouldn't have the same level of protection as it's heavy counterpart. At this point, I was going to mention the IS-4, but it is only in passing. The IS-4 is another tank that seems to be under used and finds itself in the same position as the 113. A Tier 10 Heavy Tank largely ignored since other tanks can do what it does much better. The IS-7 may have less health, but has a decent gun, and it's frontal hull armor has some great sloping making it hard to penetrate the front unless it's a shot at the lower front plate of the glacis (which can be hidden fairly easily). The IS-4 has identical health, same engine horse power (750HP), a similar 122mm gun that has minor differences to the 113 and 121 to establish itself as unique with far more depression of 6 degrees. It's frontal armor is different though as it's a 140mm thick but has the same armor design as the ST-1 (at least in visible comparison). It could be argued the IS-4 is a minor upgrade over the ST-1, the tier 9 Russian heavy tank that precedes the IS-4.
There's a running gag in FTR about the 113. Basically posting comments mentioning the 113 probably results in a warning or even a temporary ban. Why? I'll be honest, I don't know the EXACT reason why. But I have a good assumption.. Because the 113 is a running joke. It's not even desired for competitive play, it's one of the rarest seen tanks here in the North American servers and probably ties or beats the Object 263 as rarest Tier 10 vehicle to encounter either as an ally or enemy tank in game for Random Battles. Right now, a multitude of medium and heavy tanks can outperform the 113 at Tier 10, and even Tier 9! That's not even considering it's cousin the 121. The IS-4 is already a potential superior despite being under-utilized and a somewhat rarity in game (at least in NA). IS-7 is miles above better in defense, and it's DPM is seemingly worse, but offers far more versatility for only 150 less health. The FV215b (heavy tank not TD) while rare in it's own right is still a usable tank overall as it has an excellent sniping gun, and since the turret is rear mounted, it can side scrape/reverse angle far better than the center mounted turret of the 113. Don't even bother to mention the T57 Heavy as that's already seen as one of the top competition tanks due to it's fast reload for the auto-loader and excellent mobility. The E-100 is a completely different animal that while slow is still manageable and seen as a somewhat TD due to the sheer alpha damage of it's massive 15CM gun, mixed with it's high health and armor. The Maus exists but that is a stark contrast in regards to a heavy to the 113 like the E-100 is, but it still exists as a Tier 10 Heavy just for the sake of argument. Even the often overlooked AMX50B which gets overshadowed by the T57 Heavy still seemingly has better utility and good mobility like the 113. It's armor as a heavy is underwhelming, but as a magazine fed auto-loading tank, it can burst enemies down just like the T57 heavy.
In the end, the 113 is a niche tank that requires players to master every aspect of it and attempt to negate it's weak spots as much as humanly possible to make it perform as a good tank just to match up with the other heavy tanks in game which can out perform it in their own different ways. I've personally used the 113 and got 56 games on it played. For those 56 games, my win rate is 48%, quite low all things considering. Why? Mainly since I felt like dead weight for my team. I tried to play it the best I could with what knowledge I knew. Coming into the 113, I already know about it's 4 degrees of gun depression, it's 120mm thick, but highly sloped frontal armor which really doesn't make it too think if dealt with at the proper angle. It's long frame and center mounted turret to somewhat be able to side scrape/reverse angle if need be, it's decent gun - but having said all of that. I still played the tank poorly and couldn't get a single game in those 56 games to warrant anything special, not a single game/replay was worthy to put on a youtube video. This tank is a waste of space for a Tier10 tank, and I really wonder why the first non Russian design based/inspired Chinese Heavy tank in game had to be so awful. I guess WG had to make a point, go Russian (or Russian inspired) or go home.
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