This tank saw combat in the battle of guam, battle of Manchuria, and Battle of Okinawa to name a few. With the soviets capturing more then a third of the total vehicles. They took heavy losses when encountering both American Sherman’s and Stewart’s and BT-7’s and similar Soviet armor During the battles this tank took place in. This tank came in Type 1 47mm and low velocity 57mm, with the 57mm being inferior to the soviets and the ranged advantage of the K-45 leading to the destruction of many of the 57mm tanks. Its 47mm “Shinhoto” variant had expanded space for easier loading in the turret and a 5 man crew.
Reason for addition : Japan still lacks a tech tree tank capable of holding its own with the ability to take out tanks within the early BR rankings. This would go a long way to giving them better equipment that’s impactful. This would also allow a tank to have a little bit more armor so it wouldn’t be as flimsy and capable of being penetrated by heavy machine guns, 20mm T-60 (depending on angle) and the GMC AA gun.
What battle rating? BR I
What faction? Japan
Production numbers: estimated 930 (over 1100 with all variants)
I belive it’s already in game with a different name, the Chi-Ha Kai, as an old event tank. It should 100% be moved to the tech tree though, along with the normal Chi-Ha, it’s absolutely ridiculous the “best” BR1 Japanese tech tree tank is the Ka-Mi.
From the research I have seen the kai variant was the original model, that was the first upgrade that they made. The Kai variant featuring the 47 mm gun. Probably the most used example as there are minor cases like this, We can look at the AS-44 and see that it has a tech tree unlock and a premium squad. That’s different from event yes, but it’s even more available to people on a larger scale.
Seeing the resources I seen a old event tank for the original but not the Kai or above tank.
Included in the TT would allow even a solid yet gentle shake up to early br2 as well still on a BR I basis but enough to show a positive sign. You still have many BR2 Options to stop it, any AT rifle and still be placed engineer guns or a well placed tank shot, it’s armor is only 33 at best but it’s the best they could offer as a in-between from 50. So I see it best in BR I as a sort of AS-44 situation. This is all based off of the resource, and various searches on the variants.
The premium is the regular type 97, didn’t notice this was a event tank. Must have looked in the wrong area. Even so, maybe they can give that event one a skin and put the unpainted one in the TT still. They have cases like the AS already with a event and TT unlock so it shouldn’t be to much of a issue.
