AMX 13 90 Guide

Main characteristics:
- Hit Points: 1100
- Cost: 113.000 XP, 2.370.000 silver
- View range: 400m
- Signal range: 400m with stock radio, 750m with upgraded radio

Crew:
1: Commander, which also acts as a radio operator and a loader
2: Gunner, which also acts as a loader
3: Driver

Mobility:
- Top Speed: 64km/h (able to achieve up to 96km/h)
- Power to Weight ratio (when fully upgraded): 23.5 hp/t
- Traverse Speed: 38°/s with stock suspension, 40°/s with upgraded suspension
- Turret Traverse Speed: 46°/s
- Engine power: 250hp with stock engine, 280hp with second engine, 300hp with third engine, 350hp with top engine
- Comment on mobility: Fairly average for a light tank. Top speed is not bad, and it can be relatively easily achieved with the top engine, although even with it acceleration is not a strong point of this tank. The biggest mobility problem this tank has is the fact it loses a lot of speed during low speed turns. This problem also occurs during high speed turns, but to a somewhat lesser extent. On the positive side, this tank has the ability to accelerate in reverse rather quickly, achieving a top reverse speed of 23km/h on flat ground, and up to 34.5km/h downhill, effectively allowing it to outrun some tanks while reversing. Overall, mobility of this tank is good enough. It should be noted that all but the top engine are researchable on the predecessor of this tank, AMX 13 75

Armor:
- hull: 40mm in the front, 20mm on the sides, 15mm in the rear
- turret: 40mm in the front, 20mm on the sides and in the rear
- Comment on armor: Although a few lucky ricochets may occur from time to time thanks to the shape of the hull, they're too rare to be effectively relied upon at any time. The key to survival in this tank is definitely not in attempting to ricochet incoming hits, but avoid being hit at all, either by effectively using its mobility, or staying out of sight.

Armament:
This tank is able to mount 2 guns, both of which are featuring autoloaders.

1: 75 mm SA50
- Penetration: 144mm with AP, 202mm with APCR, 38mm with HE
- Damage: 135 HP with AP and APCR, 175 HP with HE
- Rate of Fire: 13.85 shells per minute
- Magazine size: 6 rounds
- Magazine Rate of Fire: 30 shells per minute
- Magazine Reload Time: 16s
- Accuracy: 0.36m
- Aim Time: 2.3s
- Depression/Elevation: -6°/+13° frontally, +9° on sides, +7° in the rear
- Cost: Stock gun, no XP cost, 64.200 silver, acquired for free upon purchase of tank
- Comment: This gun sacrifices damage per shell and penetration for a much higher Rate of Fire, combined with greater accuracy. Its magazine reloads relatively fast, and the autoloader is able to deliver all 6 rounds in 10 seconds. It can be useful against lighter and faster targets such as other light tanks and some medium tanks, but it struggles against heavier targets. Low penetration of this gun usually forces players to play this tank as a flanker, but even when played in such a manner, low damage output presents a problem. Overall, it's not a bad gun, it can be used in some situations, but it's just not good enough for most tasks that an AMX 13 90 has to do.

2: 90 mm F3
- Penetration: 170mm with AP, 248mm with APCR, 45mm with HE
- Damage: 240 HP with AP and APCR, 320 HP with HE
- Rate of Fire: 6.47 shells per minute
- Magazine size: 6 rounds
- Magazine Rate of Fire: 22 shells per minute
- Magazine Reload Time: 42s
- Accuracy: 0.38m
- Aim Time: 3s
- Depression/Elevation: -6°/+13° frontally, +9° on sides, +7° in the rear
- Cost: 15.000 XP, 87.000 silver
- Comment: This gun is all about the burst damage it can cause, with its high damage per shell and good penetration of shells. To achieve this, it sacrifices both the rate of fire and accuracy, but neither to a great extent. In fact, once the magazine is loaded, all 6 shells can be delivered rather fast, in about 14 seconds, which in turn allows this tank to cause massive amounts of damage fast. However, once the magazine is empty, this tank becomes defenseless for a rather long period, which in turn presents the largest drawback of this gun. Another problem with it is its aim time, which is high enough to ensure this gun being effective only on close ranges. On medium and long ranges, you're forced to wait quite a while for your aiming circle to shrink, which in turn means you will fire your magazine a lot slower, as the shells actually load before the aiming circle has shrunk completely. Overall, this is a very good gun, useable in all the tasks that an AMX 13 90 has to do, and extremely effective at some of them.



Review:
"Hit & Run" - a motto of every guerrilla warrior, and a motto of every good AMX 13 90 driver. However, it's more than a guerrilla of tanks, it's an excellent multipurpose machine that can excel in several roles. It's not easy to master them all, and there are many more ways to play this tank wrong than right. On its own, it has a difficult learning curve, but usually it doesn't come on its own, because in order to get to the 13 90, one usually has to play through 12t and 13 75. Both of these are similar in a way to the 13 90, especially when it comes to the role of passive scout, All 3 of them also have very similar harsh matchmaking. Therefore, most players that get to 13 90 already have the basic idea on how to play it gained through experiences on previous 2 tanks.

This tank can be a good active scout, if played properly, using its strengths, and minimizing weaknesses. Using its excellent view range and great camo properties, along with its decent mobility, it can scout from a very long distance, and cover a lot of ground while doing so, especially in the open maps. This allows it to remain undetected for quite long while lighting up enemies. In case it gets detected, the fact it's at long range greatly helps it to avoid any incoming fire while it relocates to another position. Attempting to actively scout with this tank in more common ways, such as getting close to enemy lines and attempting to use mobility to avoid incoming fire usually yields very bad results.

As for passive scouting, this is where this tank excels to great extent. It's fast enough to get to key positions on the map in time, eliminate any opposition it may encounter once it arrives to position, in the form of opposing passive scouts, and overlook the entire battlefield with its great view range. However, it takes a lot of patience to passively scout with this tank, as its gun packs quite a punch, so it can be quite a challenge to resist temptation to open fire on the enemies yourself. Although this tank has great camo properties when not firing, they are quite bad after firing due to the size of its gun, so an AMX 13 90 that opens fire almost certainly becomes an AMX 13 90 that just got spotted by the entire enemy team. Lifespan of such AMX's tend to be rather short, and their usefulness quite low.

As an artillery hunter, it's one of the best tanks in the game. It's able to detect artillery from long ranges, catch up to it and eliminate it with 2-3 shots max, effectively being able to kill 2 or if lucky 3 artillery units within seconds, without any support from others. With support, it can do even more, as any barely decent team will instantly focus fire on the spotted artillery, and this tank is able to get that artillery spotted fast, keeping it spotted till its eliminated. Any team that lets an AMX 13 90 slip through behind their lines to their artillery, will be a team that loses its entire artillery support in a matter of seconds.

When engaging enemies on its own, it's fully capable of eliminating any light tank in the game, along with most tank destroyers and medium tanks of the equivalent tier. It's also fully capable of engaging heavy tanks, though it'll rarely be able to destroy them in one burst. Still, it's able to severely cripple any tank it encounters, and if it's still alive once AMX begins to reload, it's usually unable to retaliate, either because of being too severely damaged, or because AMX managed to get to a safe distance using its speed to outrun the pursuers.

Another role this tank can fill is the role of a tank destroyer. Although it's not its primary role, it can do so both as a sniping destroyer, and as a brawler, either using its decent accuracy and penetration values along with good damage per shell to snipe from a distance, or using its speed to get close to target and then devastating it with burst damage.

It can even be played as a medium, to flank the enemy team, using its mobility and firepower, though it's highly recommended to do so together with actual mediums, because a good medium has one quality that the AMX lacks - usable armor. AMX that attempts to flank alone, is almost certainly going to be destroyed before it can cause any significant damage. However, when in pair with an actual medium tank, it's able to achieve a lot. Therefore, it truly excels not as a medium, but as a medium supporter.

Overall, it's a tank that can perform many roles, which makes it extremely useful on the battlefields, since it can adapt and change its role as the situation evolves. If done properly, it can often turn the tide of the battle.

Some tips about playing AMX 13 90 successfully:

When actively scouting:
- do not get spotted as long as possible, keep enemies at ~380-400 meters from your position and drive at those distances. You will spot them, they will not spot you
- if spotted, disengage and retreat to a safe distance from the enemies before attempting another scouting run. Attempting to continue scouting while spotted will lead to your prompt elimination from the battle.
- hold your fire, no matter how tempting target you see is, as long as there's someone else that can eliminate it, do not attempt to do so yourself. Firing your gun will get you spotted, even at distances of ~400 meters.
- in case you're the only one that can engage the target and you know for a fact not a lot of guns will be pointed at your direction upon being spotted, stop, aim and fire. Fire as many shells as you can from your magazine, but start retreating the moment first gun points in your direction
- while retreating, always reload your gun, so it's ready for usage once you're back in the front
- you can not suicide scout in this tank, you can just suicide before you managed to scout anything.

When passively scouting:
- Be aggressive when taking key positions, there's no other scout that can beat you in a direct engagement, so don't be afraid to brawl with them to take the key position
- Once in position do not fire unless absolutely necessary. If you have fired your gun, retreat immediately.

General tips:
- Pick your battles wisely. Fight when and where you want to fight, with the opponent you choose. Never let opponents fight you on their terms, adopt tactics of guerrilla warfare, hit fast, run faster.
- The best opponent you can engage is lightly armored, has under 1400 HP (anything that ain't a heavy tank) or is distracted by your teammates, which will allow you to fire a quick burst on its side or rear, crippling it or eliminating it in process before it's able to retaliate
- Avoid attacking alone
- Never rely on your armor
- In games with lots of artillery, scout for a while to let your arty soften up the enemy team, then go for enemy arty. If you're successful, most of the enemy tanks will be damaged or destroyed, and their team will lose all artillery, making victory very certain.
- When engaging opponents at close range that engage you back, it's not a bad idea to always stay on the move and fire at them from a close range, your gun is accurate enough to allow for it

To sum it up, AMX 13 90 is an excellent machine, able to perform well in many roles. It's a good scout, a good fighter, decent destroyer, overall a great all-rounder. The trick to using it well is realizing when to be a scout, and when to be a fighter/destroyer. In capable hands, it will be a game changer on many occasions, and will provide lots of fun to its driver. It should also be mentioned that mastering an AMX 13 90 will greatly help anyone whose ultimate goal is to get to tier 10 tank in this line of vehicles, the Bat Chatillon 25t, whose playstyle is not much different from that of an AMX 13 90, which is why this tank is sometimes referred to as "Baby Bat".

Advantages of tank:
- Good mobility
- Multifunctional and doesn't fail at it
- Excellent view range
- Excellent signal range, you'll always let everybody know what you spotted
- Can be a game changer in capable hands
- Will cripple or destroy any tank that engages it 1 vs 1
- Well camouflaged
- Combination of excellent view range and good camouflage properties allows it to always be the one that spots before he's spotted (worst case scenario, mutual spotting at the same time) , the only way to surprise this tank is by hiding in a bush, which can be done to any tank in the game.
- Decent HP pool allows for surviving several shots
- Is really hard to be oneshot by anything, including high tier artillery and tank destroyers

Disadvantages of tank:
- Unreliable armor at best
- Prone to module damage
- Turret mounted in the back
- Completely defenseless for long periods of time during magazine reloads
- Small ammo capacity
- Can be difficult to maintain
- Extremely harsh matchmaking, always in tier 9 or 10 battles, usually tier 10.

Suggested crew skills:

1: Commander
first skill: Sixth Sense
second skill: Situational Awareness
third skill: Recon
fourth skill: Intuition

2: Gunner
first skill: Deadeye
second skill: Camouflage
third skill: Snap Shot
fourth skill: Intuition

3: Driver
first skill: Smooth Ride
second skill: Camouflage
third skill: Repairs
fourth skill: Clutch Braking

Suggested equipment:
The first two slots should be filled with Improved Ventilation and Coated Optics, as you're going to do a lot of scouting on the move
Third slot can either be used for a Binocular Telescope, or a Gun Laying Drive, both can be rather useful, so it's up to you, whether you want to fire your gun a bit faster at long ranges when sniping, or if you want to spot at longer distances and snipe if possible. Binocular Telescope might be a better idea here, but it's really up to every individual player to decide what they prefer.

Extra notes:
- One of the most modern historical tanks available in game, AMX 13 was produced till 1987, and is still used in various variants in 13 countries around the world
- the AMX 13 with 90mm cannon was produced from 1966 onwards




Originally written by FoxWMB