World of Tanks

[Mr. Coffee]

Yeah, I upgraded the Ausf A so it's not completely useless. Waiting for my PzIII

[Mr. Coffee]

Ok, maybe the Ausf A isn't such a huge POS. Somehow managed to score 6 kills with the damned thing. Me, two other lights, and a medium were moving up the side of the map and ambushed two mediums coming towards are base, the arry guys were on the ball and dropped one of the mediums to 10% health and I was right behind the guy so I shot him in the ass with my tiny assed 5cm gun. BOOM! Then we continued towars the enemy based and I the kill shot in on two light tanks, then I was inside their base. Turns out SPG and Arty guys don't like it when you ram your tank into the side of them and hit them upside the head at point blank with HE shells. Dropped three arty back-to-back like that.

Good times.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Damn son. That's a pretty good run for an Ausf A (it's still a piece of shit). It probably helps that the matchmaking is a little better than it used to be; when I was running in my Ausf A 90% of my matches had half the enemy team composed of Tigers and KVs.

[wautd]

Aww, I loved the Hetzer - it was the first vehicle in which I ever had a shell bounce off. It was a joyful moment. Of course, I hated the Marder II, but you would too if you were staring down three IS-3s and a King Tiger.

You're kidding right? It's so slow it makes a KV-1 looks fast, it's gun arc is so tiny you can't hit fast moving targets, and the gun is so weak you can't hurt the slow ones. The sloped armor is nice, but I kept getting trown into matches where's half the tanks could one-shot me to death.

I guess I had more luck finding matches in the Marder. I still have it and use it now and then. Pretty fast, wide firing angle, quick reload and pinpoint accuracy with decent damage to boot. It's like a semi automatic sniper. Hell, yesterday I solo'd 3 other tanks at point blank range by sitting just behind the corner (and then artillery got the best of me )

[Highlord Laan]

I have come to loathe artillery with a fury I rarely ever show in video games. Only rogues and the occasional moron hunter in WoW generate the same reaction. Aside from the completely bullshit matching system that puts my 76mm armed A-20 on the same field as TigerII's and IS4's, I can barely move ten feet before getting a track blown off by some one-handed playing easymode fuck, if not destroyed outright.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Yeah. I'm increasingly forced to conclude that artillery Ruins The Game. Technically, it's a beta, so one can be forgiving, but they are in serious danger of pulling an APB.

APB did the same thing... they threw the game out there with horrific, catastrophically unfun balance issues and however much potential the game may have had simply ceased to be of any relevance after a week of enduring torturous ur-fun systematically murdered the desire of an interested player to actually, you know, play the game anymore. The developers sat with their thumbs up their asses for over a month with only a vague acknowledgment of the problem, and by that time the damage had been done. The game imploded a month after that.

And that's exactly what's going on with the artillery situation. I know. I've played artillery. I've been on both ends of it. For a game allegedly all about tanks, it sure isn't much fun for the tank players right now. The developers need a fire lit under their asses and a drastic restructuring of artillery yesterday, or failing that completely removing them from the game until such time as a workable solution can be found. Letting cripplingly broken features fester in an online game like this is extraordinarily damaging to its future.

[Rogue 9]

Perhaps this should be said on the World of Tanks forum? Usually they get people complaining about artillery in terms of "ZOMG, arty is t3h suck!!1!" Which as you can imagine, doesn't tend to give a very good impression of the problem.

[Mr. Coffee]

Ok, got my PzIII yesterday. Neat tank (especially after having schleped along in that shit-o-riffic Ausf A), but the gun options are pretty lackluster and barely able to ding other mediums, but that 50mm KwK39 L/60 gun is great for blowing SPGs to smithereens. Sadly, the 75mm L/24 gun is seemingly more useless than the 37mm gun the tank comes with standard, I shot a fucking Luchs in the ass (and I mean dead on the rear of the hull at maybe 10m distance), didn't do a damned thing. So now my thing is using the PzIII's speed (track and engine upgrades FTW!) and dash up one side of the map to get into the enemy's rear areas to go arty hunting and put some pain on those unballanced camping douche commandos. Not so fucking tough when a medium tank pins your ass to the side of the map and pumps 50mm HE into your side armor, ya fuckin arty nub! Suck it!

THough to be fair, if a Heavy even looks at me it'll one shot me. Goddamned ISs and Tiger IIs.... Though I did tie up three heavies by running (and mean running, as in full speed to keep up that sweet, sweet transversal velocity. Thanks EVE!) in circles around them when I stumbled on them around a clump of buildings. So there I was just driving in a circle at 55kph hoping one of these behemoths didn't land a lucky shot on me while the arty nubs on my team slowly picked them apart.

also, why ain't mod moved this thread to G&C yet? I mean really, guys... Really?

[Mr. Coffee]

New found happy on the battlefield...

Playing Arty spotter. As long as I got at least two arty guys on my team that ain't dumber than dogshit (long shot to be sure, but sometimes they surprise you), I tell 'em to watch me and stand-by for targets, then I run like a dealer holding 2 kilos with the entire narcotics squad on my ass. Now if only I could reliably find non-pants-on-head arty players...

[wautd]

I started on the German tank tree as well. The Pz III Ausf A isn't that bad (and by that I mean you'll get quickly enough exp to move to the Panzer III proper. The Hetzer was a much longer grind).

Oh and I now got a T-34 as well. I don't get why many people find it an ugly tank, because I find it a sleek yet powerful looking piece of machinery.
First one where I trained all my crew immediatly to 75% but at first sight I couldn't notice that much difference compared to a standard 50% crew.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Crew makes a huge difference. Got my crack PzIII crew up to an effective 116% and the difference is phenomenal. In a proper match-up, my PzIII is a herald of death. It doesn't hurt that the long barrel 50mm is capable of penetration on a Panther. It won't dent heavies much, but anything less can be shredded by a tricked-out PzIII.

Likewise, a 75% crew can make a tank that seems shit perform at least passably. By the time I got to tier 4 I was training my crews up to 75% by default.

that 50mm KwK39 L/60 gun is great for blowing SPGs to smithereens. Sadly, the 75mm L/24 gun is seemingly more useless than the 37mm gun the tank comes with standard

That 50mm is beast and I swear by it, but some people actually prefer that short 75mm. Apparently if you load up with HE you can do quite a bit of damage with it.

As a bonus, the PzIII leads nicely into the PzIII/IV if you're going the Panther route. The III/IV is kind of like a III with more armor and a high power 75mm gun.

[Mr. Coffee]

Likewise, a 75% crew can make a tank that seems shit perform at least passably. By the time I got to tier 4 I was training my crews up to 75% by default.

This. After I got my PzIII I spent all of my day's gold and a good portion of my match earnings getting my crew to 75% (the fighting got them all to 80-88%), and it made a huge difference. Driver's more responsive and my gunner/loader are way more accurate and the gun's back in battery a lot faster. Radio guy upgrade even helped a bit.

That 50mm is beast and I swear by it, but some people actually prefer that short 75mm. Apparently if you load up with HE you can do quite a bit of damage with it.

I find the 50mm to be a hell of lot more accurate at range and much better penetration up close, never mind it reloads in like 1/3rd the time the 75mm gun does. The only time I've actually killed anything with that 75 was if I could sneak up on an arty or TD's flank/rear and point blank them after ram-pinning them. at range you can't hit shit with it, and up close your reload speed is so low that if you don't kill it with the first or second shot you're gonna get ganked.

As a bonus, the PzIII leads nicely into the PzIII/IV if you're going the Panther route. The III/IV is kind of like a III with more armor and a high power 75mm gun.

I'm gonna keep proceeding up the Tiger tree. Going after the PzKpfw IV next. Upgraded to that 75mm L/70 those things can rock faces.

[Mr Bean]

That 50mm is beast and I swear by it, but some people actually prefer that short 75mm. Apparently if you load up with HE you can do quite a bit of damage with it.

This is correct the L/24 is mostly useless when loaded with AP. Load it with HE however and you have a very good chance of ripping off tracks, jamming turrets and during other nasty things to most medium and heavy tanks. Simply keep moving, get your reload rate as high as it will go and then save your AP for the back deck shot when the enemy tank turret is stuck and missing a track as to make the drive up to the back and shoot his engine deck shot easy.

[Mr. Coffee]

You know what'd make me really happy? Is if this game would actually act a little more sane about ranking and where it places your. Going into a game in a PzIII when there's eight or ten heavies on the field is actually worse than the arty spam. Also, Tiger IIs can one shot a PzIII. Who knew?

[wautd]

You know what'd make me really happy? Is if this game would actually act a little more sane about ranking and where it places your. Going into a game in a PzIII when there's eight or ten heavies on the field is actually worse than the arty spam. Also, Tiger IIs can one shot a PzIII. Who knew?

I don't mind that it happens (adds some flavour to the game), just not as often as it is now.

[Thanas]

Moved to the proper forum and edited the title to reflect that.

[Mr. Coffee]

Thanks, Thanas.

I don't mind that it happens (adds some flavour to the game), just not as often as it is now.

Well, it wouldn't be that big a deal except it's like the servers can't make up their mind if I belong in matches mostly composed of medium and light tanks or if I belong in matches with a few medium tanks and OH DEAR GOD THAT'S A LOT Of FUCKING TIGERS. In the former I can hold my own pretty well, but in the later my only option is move fast and hope like hell the arty is paying attention and the enemy heavies see things they'd like to shoot more than me (try not to look important, the other guy might be low on ammo and not want to waste it on you).

[Rogue 9]

Thanks, Thanas.

I don't mind that it happens (adds some flavour to the game), just not as often as it is now.

Well, it wouldn't be that big a deal except it's like the servers can't make up their mind if I belong in matches mostly composed of medium and light tanks or if I belong in matches with a few medium tanks and OH DEAR GOD THAT'S A LOT Of FUCKING TIGERS. In the former I can hold my own pretty well, but in the later my only option is move fast and hope like hell the arty is paying attention and the enemy heavies see things they'd like to shoot more than me (try not to look important, the other guy might be low on ammo and not want to waste it on you).

That, and with the superheavies and high-end arty it's actually probable that the shell costs more than shooting you with it is worth. No, seriously.

[Mr. Coffee]

That, and with the superheavies and high-end arty it's actually probable that the shell costs more than shooting you with it is worth. No, seriously.

I had a guy try and argue with me that the 'premium" ammo was even worth it. With the high end tanks, SPGs, and TDs, maybe, but from what I could tell with the stuff available for light and medium tanks the difference in damage isn't enough to justify spending the gold on something you're not even going to connect with half the time.

[Serafina]

Well, i got a beta-key a couple of days ago. Nice game, but i tend to really suck at aiming right now - without auto-aiming i would be mostly screwed.

Right now i am going for the russian mediums. I love my new BT-7. Many of my enemies are REALLY out of my league, but that also means that i get a load of money if i can sneak up to an AT or Ari. Or in some cases just blaze trough enemy line while the heavies are duking it out.
As my second tank, i have an AT-1, because i love sniping and need a tank in case my primary get's blown to pieces.

What i really DON'T like is the heavy map-dependency of my current tanks. Without some open terrain - for moving or a good LOS - both are pretty much screwed. And some maps just don't have any real open terrain.

[Mr. Coffee]

Well, i got a beta-key a couple of days ago. Nice game, but i tend to really suck at aiming right now - without auto-aiming i would be mostly screwed.

I just put the A (or which ever reticle you use) on the target and keep shooting till you hit. Works for me.

Right now i am going for the russian mediums. I love my new BT-7. Many of my enemies are REALLY out of my league, but that also means that i get a load of money if i can sneak up to an AT or Ari. Or in some cases just blaze trough enemy line while the heavies are duking it out.

BT-7's are fast as hell, be the scout. Never stop moving and always move laterally or diagonally in relation to the other guys to try and screw up their aim. If you manage to sneak up on an arty or tank destryer, try to pin them on the side or back with yoru tank to keep them from moving and shoot into their weaker side and back armor. Learn to use the ctrl key and mouse on the map to call attention to targets you spot so the arty guys know which way to point their gun.

As my second tank, i have an AT-1, because i love sniping and need a tank in case my primary get's blown to pieces.

You'll almost always make more credits per fight then what it costs to fix your ride, but whatever.

What i really DON'T like is the heavy map-dependency of my current tanks. Without some open terrain - for moving or a good LOS - both are pretty much screwed. And some maps just don't have any real open terrain.

Just do what you can to run and gun. Try upgrading your crew member training and buy the upgrades for your tank like engines and treads to make them go faster and turn harder.

[Serafina]

You'll almost always make more credits per fight then what it costs to fix your ride, but whatever.

Umm...you KNOW that you can quit the battle after you are shot down and still get the same reward? (Not if you are still alive tough, IIRC).
Hence, i keep the other tank(s) around in case i get shot down - that way i can earn some extra money and experience AND i don't have to sit around for several minutes without doing anything.

[wautd]

I'm interested to know how the T-60/T-70 light tanks in the full game will turn out to be. In Men of War (despite a RTS game, it's probably most comparable to this game), they could be a brutally effective in raiding the rear.

Then again, it's probably hard to top the mighty Leopard. I havn't trained for him but by Jupiter, that's one scary little tank if your in a AT or SPG

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

The Leopard is insane. I've had 75mm AP rounds bounce off its rear armor.

[Commander 598]

Ah, I was wondering why there was no thread for this...

Running a D10T equipped T-43 as my main tank. I laugh at poor playing high tier heavies. Like the time I almost solo'd a King Tiger AND Ausf B at the same time...