World of Tanks

I haven't really messed with the US mediums, I went for the Hellcat instead, which I think is a blast (at least once it gets the 90mm), especially compared to the Panther V. Though I also enjoy my IS and KV-3. The French could be fun, so could the Brits. I do have some slots to play around with now that I got that free crap premium and that chinese low tier. Sounds like going chinese won't be that much fun, though they do have ridiculously high tier lights. To bad that that seems to be mostly pointless since the high tier mediums eclipse them.

The Chinese just suffer from atrocious gun depression and a tendency to catch on fire.

US mediums are punishing if you play them wrong or get caught in a bad place. They're designed to flank far out and then run around taking shots from odd hills and such. The front turret is bouncy, and everything else is paper thin. But they have some decent guns on them for appearing and disappearing. The Brits are a higher degree of difficulty entirely because they have the same basic play concept, but need time on target for their guns to be good. You can't really hit and run when you're plinking away for ~100 damage with the cromwell/comet. And the Cent is a target the size of a small building (but still with a bouncy as shit turret)

It really depends what style you play imo. I do way better with mediums than heavies, because my playstyle does not go well with slugging it out over choke points. My best heavy is a Conq entirely because it plays more like a fat medium that can't take a hit from anything. On the medium side I think the T20 is amazing, the T-34-1 is kind of fun, the T-54 is awesome, and the T69 gets the worst teams in the MM known to man. Dear god do I only get terrible teams in that tank.

Zipping out to a flank and then chewing the ass-bone off of some poor slob in a Löwe is what this game is all about. hellcat is great for that. if you like hellcat or easy8 and are good at it, go try a crommie on for size.

Or one of them li'l AMXes. they freakin rock for such gameplay but they have tiny hp pools. you really need to be able to manufacture yourself some luck with those. There's no feeling like ninja'ing the fuck out of four hummels and a king tiger in an AMX13-75 and then getting blown up by some n00b in a hetzer

One way to manufacturee yourself some luck is to not be the one starting the party, but to crash somebody elses' party. This is fucking hard to do if you are agressive and in a fast tank. going AFK for a minute or two may help with that :P

Strangely despite my love for swift punchy things, i also have a whale of a time in HMLS Bert, my TOG*. It's slow as shit but dayum! a motherfucking 17pounder at tier6! and with good RoF as well! I may be late getting to the party, but once i get there, hoo boy, let's dance!

I'm finding that I enjoy the medium's much better than the heavies as I can impact multiple fronts within a battle. Speed and maneuverability are king in my book. I'm having a great time with the t-54 and still run the t-44 as it's fun as hell. Even though the AMX 50-100 is a heavy, you have to play it like a medium.It has the speed, but is very fragile, so don't lead.

Saving up for T9 is brutal. I have several tanks that I've unlocked, but haven't bought so with the crew training at 50% and 6M in the bank, I got to pick one out of Lorraine 40T (T9 medium), E-75, JagTiger, AMX 50-120, E-50 or the Object 261.

I've been loving the mediums, but recently have been enjoying playing my Tiger II so decided to try the E-75 as I have a lot of mediums right now.

Boy is the grind tough on this tank. Slow as molasses and not that hard hitting. I'm going to upgrade the tracks / engine before I get to the big gun as manueverability is far more important than power for me as I can shake quite a few shots by keeping the tank angled. Just the tanks & engine are 75K xp with the upgraded turret & tier 10 gun another 100K after that. Ouch.

That's always a kick in the nuts- grinding up to a new tank and realising that your next 50 matches will be in a crappy vanilla tank.
As far as medium versus heavies go, I suffer from the irony that my best results and stats are from mediums but I much prefer to play a heads-down brawling heavy. Playing a medium is highly dependent on other players also playing the game properly (engaging tanks to allow you to flank, reinforcing you when you rush to grab a choke point) and bitter experience has led me to understand that my team needs a competent heavy player more than a medium player.
In other news, the Chinese IS2 continues to be a monster. I feel like Godzilla when I'm top of the tiers. The T30-1 is okay but vulnerable to good players and the 110 is nice but doesn't seem to do as much damage as other tier 8s I play.

A team needs a solid armored block most of the time, and it sucks being the top tier medium in that situation. "Look, I know you guys need an anchor, but I HAVE NO ARMOR AND CANNOT PEN THEM FROM THE FRONT"

That said, I've played some comically one sided games with entirely medium teams. We just overload a flank and never stop. The main thing I see people do wrong in WoT is overload a flank and then get tied up behind rocks because nobody's willing to take the one hit from the lone TD defending it so everyone else can get past him. I see so many lopsided flanks get tied up this way, and have done the same and held down 5+ tanks while alone in a medium because people just get freaking cowardly.

Yeah, that's a constant problem, and one of the reasons that a platoon of decent tiered mediums can be really deadly, as they can coordinate better.

Yes, there is nothing more awesome than being in a wolf pack of five mediums tearing up one heavy after another. When I'm in a TD I am always checking where the mediums are. I hate it when there's one close by and he doesn't blunder in to your view, it means someone good is driving it and you're screwed.

But there is: Fucking a heavy or a big TD up in your little light tank then scuttling off unscathed whil cackling like a madman.

Yes, I just killed a SU in my t-50 last night all by myself, that is a fun feeling, but sucks when you're in the TD and it happens to you!

So, in another thought - do you think I'm grinding too many tanks in one night? ;-)

I don't think I've ever even owned that many tanks, let alone at once. How do you find the Tiger II generally performs for you? I just got it tonight and I can't even survive the first 30 seconds of a battle, let alone get a kill. So far I think it's lost me around 3.4 mil counting the cost of the tank itself. I am right on the border of selling it.

Heh, I have a scary amount of tanks. I found an oversight in one of the promos they ran that let you get gold WAY cheaper than normal by buying a tank in the gift shop over and over and each time it would give you the tank's value in gold if you already owned it, and each time it came with a free slot. Interestingly you can only do 10 transactions with them per day and they start declining you.

Presently I have:

T1E6
T71
M4A2E4
T14
T29
T34
T18
T25AT
T25/2

Comet
Churchill 1
Black Prince

Panzer 5/4
Panther 2
Tiger 2
VK4502A
Jadgpanzer 4

Lorraine 40t
AMX 50 100
AMX Ac mle 1946
Lorraine 155 50

Ms1
Tetrarch
T-50-2
T-44
Churchill 3
IS-7
Object 704
S-51
Object 261

M5A1 Stuart
Type T-34
Type 58
Type 59

And 10 empty garage slots.

This is after selling the low tier french premium TD and arties this week because I realized I haven't played them since I shifted the crews to standard french tanks when the real french lines were introduced.

I'd say I actively play about half of those daily all the time. On days I play a lot I try to get my daily on all of them.

Biggest regret: Selling my IS-4 to get an IS-7. Wish I'd saved so I'd have both.

4 of my tier 8's are within 50k xp of elite and I have like... 200k credits right now. :(

Grinding credits is absolutely the biggest bummer for me. I bought the FCM to help with the boredom and make it a bit faster, but it's not done much to increase my enthusiasm for such activities. It is, however, still the funnest tank I have to play in my quite small garage.

I think my problem may be my huge garage giving me packrat-like tendencies. If I had reason to sell off this crap maybe I wouldn't be so broke!

I've certainly no such issue with that, I regularly sell tanks mere hours after buying them because I can't stand how they play.

Wow, I had the most difficult time with that tank until I had it elited. It really doesn't perform until you have everything maxed out. It is not a heavy bruiser.I find it hardly ever bounces any shots. It's a bullet magnet.

Here's how I learned to play the Tiger II:

1. It's a sniper tank, the gun is extremely accurate
2. It has one of the largest view ranges in the game. Pair it with a set of binoculars and you can see the max distance the game will detect.

So, this is how to maximize the xp you gain:

Try to scout at the beginning of the game, and light up tanks. Find a big bush and sight other tanks. Don't shoot as tempting as it is, it will destroy your cover. You can gain an incredible amount of xp letting others "damage upon detection"

In the middle of the game, hang back and snipe. Use the accuracy to hit critical spots, tracks and general support.

Your goal is to be at 60% or higher health at the end of the match where you can help finish off other tanks.

Once it's elited and you've equipped a rammer and vents, it's a pretty darn good tank. As always, YMMV

BTW - here is where I get my stats from:

www.noobmeter.com/player/na/tmanpdx

It's a good way to measure your improvements, such as they might be.

Yeah, I really wasn't expecting it to be a sniper, as it seems to bounce a ton of shots when shooting at them. However, upon driving it, I find it almost more squishy than the Tiger I. This thing just might not be for me, maybe I should go back to the old IS-3 for tier 8 heavy tank fun.

Heh - I have at present:

USSR: Churchill III, T50, SU26
French: ELC
USA: Ram II, M10, M41, Chaffee
UK: Cruiser MkI, Cruiser MkIV, Valentine, Covenanter, Matilda, Matilda BP, Churchill I, VII, BP. Crusader, Cromwell, Comet, TOG II
About 10 open slots

the is-3 is so much better than the tiger II it's not even funny.

And I'm hating the e-75. It sucks. As bad as the IS-8 is, the E-75 is even worse. I've got 100K to the big gun. This will take about a year based on how much I hate this tank.

I played enough high tier tanks in beta/ test to know that high tier tank gameplay tends to suck anyway, as I don't play clans. T4-6 is the sweetspot for me

The IS-3 is my best win rate tank ever, at 63% in nearly 200 battles (1593 avg damage, 77% hit rate). I have debated picking it up again just because I enjoyed it so much.

My Tiger 2, for comparison, is at 43%, even though I don't think I do that terribly with it (1476 avg damage, 77% hit rate). My overall win rate is 53%. It's a tank that does a lot better in an urban setting than in the open. The sweet spot for it is when you can come around a building heavily angled so that any shot on your hull is very likely to bounce. You really need to use your german accuracy to place shots on hatches and viewports to try to cripple the enemy.

I actually have an awful win rate on my IS-7 but I have truly awful luck with the teams I get on that tank despite playing well with it. (39% win rate, 2198 avg damage, 80% hit rate)

Yeah. I also do not enjoy high tier tank gameplay, for the most part. Up to tier 9 is usually tolerable, but get a few tier 10 tanks in the mix and it just becomes a chore. I feel a lot of it is because of the insane damage and pen values on all tier 10 tanks. I exclusively play random battles, I've never actually been in a clan and don't plan to be.

I feel so credit poor, I finally manage to get enough XP to move up to either the IS-3 or the Panther II or the next arty after S-51...and I don't have the money to do any of those moves.

More shots definitely tend to bounce at low tiers. You guys got me on the french path, and the Tier III frenchies seem to bounce everything, even if it's like a slug for speed. And then I get thrown in a match with Tier Vs and just die in one shot.

8.4 preliminary guide is up. Brit TD line, new german lights and existing lights are being moved up a tier.

Its obvious there's going to be two british TD lines. The heavy line is what we are getting in 8.4, but in due time the line containing among other things the Archer famous backward tank should and most likely will be added.

Really looking forward to it. it's been a while since they put technical improvements in the patch notes.

Having a great time inching my way up the chinese lines. most likely gonna open up all of em from type 34 but first i will continue on light. i just love to be nimble.

Finally made enough cash to buy the Uralmash (Su-101). It pwns. I dont find silver a real problem, but i have some very enjoyable and stupidly profitable moneytanks such as the Su-122-44 and the Type 59.

I'm having major problems making any credits at all except on my Premium JgdTiger 8,8cm. I thought I used to make good money in Tiers 5-7, but my returns there seem pretty paltry even in good rounds. Is there still a sweet spot somewhere in the middle tiers that actually earns reasonable credits?

I'm temporarily running premium account, but the returns still seem pretty poor compared to what I remember.

With premium, and running the T8 premium tank the FCM 50t, If I literally do nothing the entire match but afk at the start I will still make 10kish credits, post repairs. An average map win or loss is usually 40k-60k post repairs/ammo/consumables. A good map can see as high as 90k. I can't compare to the other premiums as I don't own any of them ( except that crappy american tier 2 one everybody got ).

As far as non premium, I run whatever the credit bonus for the week/weekend is ( Was tiger/t29/kv3/BP last week, is now artillery from tier 5-6 ). Barring a weekly special I'll run my KV-1 which can make around 10-30k a game, depending on how well I do. Tier 5 is so easy, and the KV-1 so good, that I normally pull towards the high end of the spectrum. I also used to run the VK3601H which is a monster at tier, and fairly decent up to tier 7, with some difficulty at tier 8 due to low pen. I have heard that they nerfed it, though, and it now rarely gets below tier 8. I find that while running premium account anything below tier 8 will make a profit regardless of what I do during the match, so I usually just cycle my mid tier tanks when grinding credits, while the FCM/KV are stuck in a battle

I'm trying to farm credits to buy a M48A1 Patton. I had 3.5 million credits out of 6 million credits saved and then the British tanks came out and now instead of 3.5 million credits, I have a Centurion, a Comet, a Cromwell, a Matilda, a Valentine, and a Churchill VII in the garage. What can I say, I like British tanks :-)

I've managed to collect about 1.5 million of my 3.5 million credit horde back, although I'm also about to unlock the Black Prince, which costs ... about 1.5 million.

Anyway, much as I love my JgdTiger 8,8cm Premium, playing it over and over again to earn credits was getting old, so I picked up a FCM50t (I prefer playing mediums and with the Type 59 no longer in the store, this seemed like the closest fit). This tank is fascinating, although I haven't quite decided if I like it yet. While it's technically a heavy basically plays like an extremely large, fat medium tank. It's just as fast as a medium tank. Turret traverse is very fast. Defensively just about everything shot at it goes through. I don't think I've ever had a shell bounce off of it. AFAICT it's armor is about comparable to a Panther II (actually probably worse, since I think the Panther has better slopping). The gun is pretty solid. Good penetration, relatively low damage, particularly for a heavy. Good accuracy, reasonable reload speed. Actually I think it's pretty close the the JgdTiger's 8,8cm gun.

Adekan if you've got tips on how to play the FCM50t, I'm very interested in hearing them.

I've been debating whether to get the FCM50t as well, as I love my AMX 50-100 and I've heard these are very comparable except the FCM50t doesn't have the clip. I have gotten used to playing back, and attacking a weak spot, similar to how I play the T-54.

Whenever I go up against a FCM50t, I'm never worried, because as you stated, everything is going to pen. I really really want a type-59.

I typically try not to play too aggressively; I'll usually move up to around 100-200 meters from my chosen flanks front lines and wait for some bigger, heavier tanks to catch up and take the lead, while taking potshots at anything that seems safe to do so, then analyze the map and find where I can get flanking shots on unsuspecting targets. The tank has a very fast reverse gear, so peek-a-boom is a valid option here as the gun also scopes in very quickly and is very accurate. It's also a more than passable sniper, although its camo value means your target is most likely going to see you as you are sniping, so make sure you've got cover nearby or he's sufficiently distracted.

The front armor of the tank is the same as an ARL 44, so if you've played that tank you can use the same angling methods to bounce shots fairly reliably, although I would still avoid taking direct fire wherever possible. The fact that the tank never sees tier 10 means you'll always be against things you can pen if you hit weakspots, I very, very rarely see tier 9 matches even. Knowing the map you're on makes all the difference in the world, some maps are just bad for this tank with its large profile and poor gun depression.

I can upload a replay of a semi-decent match ( I haven't played it much lately, was grinding the Tiger all week ) if you'd like.

While I haven't played an AMX 50-100, I would liken the FCM more to a Pershing or Panther II. Very agile, little armor, fast firing good damage decent pen gun. It's actually faster than either the Pershing or Panther II, though. I've beaten both in a drag race by a long shot. It's pretty hilarious when a heavy is leading the wolfpack.

That would be great! Thanks Adekan.

As asked, here it is: http://mwreplays.com/replay/WHDWDP7X0M22/ It's not one of my best, but it's a pretty accurate usage of the playstyle I posted.

Solid gameplay. Shows the accuracy of the gun, but you were picking on T7's (t29, Tiger), when you went to shoot the T59, you didn't pen, but that sloped armor of the front is notoriously bouncy (I carry gold rounds specifically to counter T59's). How does the gun do against T8 & T9?

That was a T-54 actually, but they look identical from the front so it's easy to miss. I was aiming to re-track him and let arty finish him off, but I rushed the shot a little and went off target The gun has a lot of trouble with E-75s, most shots on the rear even bounce if the driver is any good at all and wiggles some. The rest of the T9 lineup can be easily penned when aiming for weakspots, as you should be naturally. I have no issue with penning any T8 tanks, bar maybe the T28 ( why is the commanders hatch so damn small! ). This is all with standard credit rounds, no gold. I've never used gold on this tank before, as it is mainly for making creds.

I hate my 101, absolutely hate it. The whole concept of an action TD that uses speed and agility makes no sense to me. Once you are tracked, you are dead. Trying to shoot in a wildly spinning vehicle is its own form of pain. The armour is crap and the gun is nowhere nearly as useful as the BL10 on the ISU152. Again, it only has a place if the rest of the team plays the important parts. I'd sell it in a heart beat if I wasn't so intent on grinding every Soviet tank.

Does it have a decently accurate gun? Thats what makes the hellcat fun, you just stay on the fringes and snipe. Or you're mixed in with some lights, giving them a decent gun on the flank, and able to keep up with them as well.

This actually sounds a lot like the StuG III. It's fast and spins like a top. Armor is only so, so, and gun is decent. In general, I think most people like it a lot more than it's successor the JgdPzr IV which is tough, but slow and has a relatively slowly rotation.

I actually liked both of them, but they do play very differently.

The problem with the SU-101 isn't the "action TD" concept. You're supposed to use the speed to relocate a lot, not to charge the enemy. The problem is that the complete and utter lack of gun depression and the tiny gun arc prevents it from actually setting up in useful places, which is a problem the StuG doesn't have.