Ho-Ni I

Ho-Ni I

Ro-Go Exp.

Ho-Ni III

Ho-Ni I

Ro-Go Exp.

Ho-Ni III

Japan

II Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.0	2.0	2.0

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:7 900

Purchase:10 000

This page is about the tank destroyer Ho-Ni I. For the other version, see Ho-Ni III

Description

The Type 1 Ho-Ni I is a Rank II Japanese tank destroyer with a battle rating of 2.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced along with the entire Japanese Ground Forces tree in Update 1.65 "Way of the Samurai".

Similar in appearance to the Ho-Ro before it, it changes out the 150mm artillery cannon for a more traditional high-velocity gun, being one of the most powerful ones at its tier. However, with no turret and very bad armor protection, it demands caution and patience, in exchange for being able to smash through even the heaviest tanks it faces.

Mobility:

The Ho-Ni I is based off the Chi-Ha chassis, which Japanese ground forces will be familiar with since it is featured on other Japanese early tanks: Chi-Ha,Chi-Ha Kai, Ho-Ro and Ho-Ni III.

Thus, it has a fairly good level of mobility, reaching a peak speed of 36 km/h on flat grass in Realistic, with a theoretical maximum of 40km/h. It also has a quite good traverse rate, both on the hull and the gun, performing a full 360 degree rotation from a stop in about 16 seconds.

Firepower:

Packing a high-velocity 75mm Type 90 Cannon, the Ho-Ni I has a serious amount of firepower at BR 2.0.

Its Type 1 APHE shell has up to 100mm of armor penetration, which is the second best of tank destroyers at its tier, only beaten by the Soviet ZiS-30, and being very closely followed by the American M3 GMC.

However, a cannon this big does come with two drawbacks; being that it has a fairly long reload time of 7.8 seconds, and no turret, meaning it can only aim in an arc in front of you. Thus, it is important that you make sure your shot lands, and that you are well aware of your surroundings, so that you do not end up wasting precious time turning your entire hull towards an enemy.

The Ho-Ni I does also not feature any machine guns, which leaves it unable to fight back against enemy aircraft or uncovered vehicles.

Armour:

The Ho-Ni I's excellent firepower and good mobility is balanced out by its very poor armor protection. The front of the hull is covered in unsloped 25mm plates, which is only sufficient to protect the tank from machinegun rounds.

In addition, the gun compartment of the tank is uncovered, leaving the gunner and commander extremely vulnerable to artillery, machine guns, and aircraft attack. As the tank only has three crew members, the death of two of them will leave the vehicle unoperable. Be sure to immediately retreat away from any artillery, preferably with your front facing the area being attacked, in order to protect the crew.

It is also important to try not to arouse the attention of enemy aircraft, as the open design means that any fighter plane can easily kill you in a single strafe. With no machine gun, it does not have any means of fighting back against them either, so stay in the shadows!

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	25 mm (12-32°) Front plate 15 mm (63°), 17 mm (81°) Front glacis 15 mm (37-59°) Lower glacis	25 mm (40°) Top left 25 mm (24-27°) Top right 20 mm Bottom	17 mm (69°) Top 20 mm (4-72°) Bottom	12 mm
Superstructure	25 mm (14-15°)	25 mm (0-11°)	N/A	10 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels and tracks are both 15 mm thick
• Belly armour is 8.5 mm thick.
• Roof superstructure armour will not protect crew from strafe fire.

Mobility

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons)	Add-on Armor weight (tons)	Max speed (km/h)
14.8	N/A	44 (AB)
		40 (RB/SB)
Engine power (horsepower)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	243	324
Realistic/Simulator	150	170
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	16.42	21.89
Realistic/Simulator	10.13	11.49

Armaments

Main armament

75 mm Type 90
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
40			-10°/+20°	±10°	N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	9.5	13.2	16.0	28.3	__.__
Realistic	9.5	11.2	13.6	15.0	__.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
7.8	6.9	6.4	__.__

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
Type 1 APHE	APHE	97	93	83	71	61	51
Type 94 HE	HE	11	11	11	11	11	11

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
								0%	50%	100%
Type 1 APHE	APHE	668	6.6	1.3	15	67.84	-1°	47°	60°	65°
Type 94 HE	HE	522	6.0	0.1	0.1	810	+0°	79°	80°	81°

Smoke characteristic
Ammunition	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Screen radius in m	Screen time in s	Screen hold time in s:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):
Type 90 Smoke	570	5.7	13	5	20	100

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Ho-Ni I.

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
40	37 (+3)	24 (+16)	1 (+39)	no

Usage in the battles

The Ho-Ni I should be played like most open crew compartment, fixed gun tank destroyers, fighting from a distance from the front-lines and delivering support fire. The thin armour means the Ho-Ni I will not survive a direct confrontation with any enemy tank and will require the vehicle to obtain the fighting advantage of being able to target the enemy first to ensure any chance of victory. The Ho-Ni I should also be wary of enemy aerial attacks as the open compartment and three-man crew means that an accurate strafing fire could potentially knock out the entire crew.

At its battle rating, the worst the Ho-Ni I could face are the German Pz.IV E and British Cromwell V and Matilda Mk II. The two medium tanks have sufficient armour to withstand the 75 mm gun while the Matilda II requires precise shot in order to destroy it frontally. All of these tanks have guns able to shred the Ho-Ni I apart if they could get a bead on the it.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 75 mm cannon is great, reloads fast and causes massive damages upon penetration.
• Very low BR, has a good chance of being matched with lower BR tanks.
• While at the same time will be able to match enemies on and above it's BR rather equally.
• Mobility is decent due to being built on a Chi-Ha chassis.
• Gun is able to effectively penetrate all tanks frontally from BR 1.0 to 3.0.
• Similar play style as the German Marder with better gun depression.
• Good gun traverse speed
• Powerfull HE shell (11 mm of penetration)
• Has smoke shells

Cons:

• Tall profile.
• Overall armour is thin.
• Poor cross country performance due to narrow tracks.
• Exposed crew space makes it vulnerable to air attacks.
• Reverse speed is abysmal.
• Only two types of shell.
• Only 3 crew member.
• Rather small traverse angle

History

The creation of their own independent armoured division had Japan also envision an enlargement of their artillery forces. They decided to build a series of assault guns based off the Type 97 Chi-Ha chassis. One of the first of these design was the Ho-Ni I which had the Type 97 chassis fitted with a 75 mm Type 90 field gun.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example,

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

ETC.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Japan tank destroyers
Ro-Go Derivatives	Ro-Go Exp.
Chi-Ha Derivatives	Ho-Ni I · Ho-Ni III · Ho-Ro · Chi-Ha LG
Ho-Ri	Ho-Ri Prototype · Ho-Ri Production
Other	Na-To
JGSDF
SPRG	Type 60 (C)
SPH	Type 75 · Type 99
ATGM	Type 60 ATM
Rocket	Type 75 MLRS
USA	▅M36