World of Tanks Mark III

[Xess]

I try to be very generous with other players, but some people make decisions that boggle even my average-skilled mind. I was playing Encounter on Murovanka and this SU-85 drives onto the cap circle, as he is driving an M4 he could one-shot pops up and shoots him in the side. He then ignores the M4 and drives to the other side of the cap circle getting shot the whole way before he finally decides to face the M4. Needless to say the M4 killed him without him getting off a shot. I don't know how someone can be that clueless.

[Vendetta]

Attn Tankists, this is a public service announcement.

The Chi-Ri is a terrible tank.

It is a tank with one trick, it isn't a very good trick, and when it's stock it can't even do the trick yet.

Do not play the Chi-Ri unless, like me, you are strange and want to get Ace Tanker in all the tanks.

Even then you'll hate yourself.

[The Vortex Empire]

Sometimes I love pubs. Dumped a clip in my WTE-100, but an enemy IS-8 with 150 hit points left was closing in. I thought I was screwed, but the idiot rammed me, a 100 ton tank, in his 50 ton tank and exploded.

[Agent Sorchus]

Defeat
Battle: Ruinberg on Fire 3/10/2014 5:56:59 PM
Vehicle: VK 30.02 (M)
Experience received: 1,031
Credits received: 30,026
Battle achievements: High Caliber, Mastery Badge: "1st Class"
Defeat
Battle: Fisherman's Bay 3/10/2014 6:48:35 PM
Vehicle: VK 30.02 (M)
Experience received: 894
Credits received: 30,626
Battle achievements: High Caliber, Mastery Badge: "2nd Class"

This tank is just good. to bad teams are bad.

[Simon_Jester]

What is the Chi-Ri's trick?

[Xess]

What is the Chi-Ri's trick?

A 75mm gun with a 3 round drum and 1 second cycle time. Shoot 3 times in 3 seconds basically.

[Vendetta]

The distinction being that the intraclip is fast enough that the aim doesn't settle between shots, wasting the USP of the autoloader in many cases because shots miss, and that it's on a gun with only 150 pen at tier 7 on a tank with no armour, bad mobility due to poor power to weight ratio, and which is roughly the size of an AMX M4 with camo to match.

I've been playing it alongside the 3002D which has roughly the same gun but on a way better tank and they are night and day.

[The Infidel]

Sometimes, it feels good to be a bit lucky. 9 kills with my T18. The 2 last ones while I was capping. I really didn't think they would come, but they did...

http://wotreplays.com/site/679671#winte ... rntsen-t18

How do you guys get the picture from Wotreplays on the screen? I only manage to put the URL here.

[Vendetta]

Hit printscreen and it drops a screenshot in the screenshots folder. I crop mine just to show the battlereport because photobucket shits on the image quality otherwise.

[Vanas]

You know, I don't give two shits about efficiency scores, but I do find it amusing that after a couple of weeks of not playing the game, it's jumped upwards. Apparently, me not playing the game increases my skill.

[Argosh]

Do not play the Chi-Ri unless, like me, you are strange and want to get Ace Tanker in all the tanks.

So you have Ace Tanker in all of your tanks?

[Vendetta]

I do care about purple points. On the basis that doing more of the things that get you them means on average you win more, and winning is fun.

Finally got my recent WR to approach 60%, just need to hold this kind of performance, and to curb my potato tendencies to get more consistency.

So you have Ace Tanker in all of your tanks?

Not yet, intentionally seeking Ace badges is something I've settled on relatively recently (ie gotten good enough to actually intentionally try for rather than just accidentally get). Got them for over half of the tanks I've played. I'll go back and fill in the gaps as and when I can be bothered. I do have ace in all the Japanese tanks up to tier 6 though, and am trying to ace all of them as I go up the tree. When I've done Japan I reckon I'll go back and do China or France (as they have the next fewest missing).

Latest one was the VK3001H, which I finally decided to actually play (to train the crew in Repairs for a Tiger P), which I got on the third battle.

[Agent Sorchus]

Victory!
Battle: Windstorm 3/15/2014 3:47:40 PM
Vehicle: ELC AMX
Experience received: 3,266 (x2 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 142,367
Battle achievements: High Caliber, Mastery Badge: "Ace Tanker".

Everyone should have an ELC in their garage, it's simply one of the most fun tanks to play.

[Simon_Jester]

God, yes. Especially because you only have to hit the enemy twice to 'break even' on damage ratio.

Hm.

That's why damage ratio annoys me as a metric. For DPS-focused tanks it requires a lot more hits- something like a Panther or M4A3E8 has to basically park and pump round after round into an unresisting target in order to dish out anything like as much damage during a match as they take. It's not that they can't do it, it's that it's a pain in the ass.

Meanwhile, just thinking about the statistics- tank destroyers and artillery have low HP but powerful offensive guns. Heavy and medium tanks have larger hit point pools, but inferior firepower.

It's common sense that if they're even vaguely balanced, tank destroyers and SPGs will dish out more damage than they take. Otherwise, the TD would lose a duel against a same-tier medium or heavy every time, because it would run out of HP first. And SPGs would have very little actual impact on battles, for the same reason. If your 200-HP artillery vehicle isn't doing several hundred points of damage in a given match, it's not being very effective at all.

And if the TDs and SPGs are busily dishing out more damage than they can possibly absorb, it follows that the light, medium, and heavy tanks are taking more damage than they can deal to the enemy. On average, of course, and allowing for exceptions to the rule in the hands of skilled players.

So basically, if someone spends all or almost all their time driving actual tanks, and is of strictly average skill, the odds are that their damage ratio will be less than 1:1. Still probably higher than mine, though.

[Vendetta]

God, yes. Especially because you only have to hit the enemy twice to 'break even' on damage ratio.

Hm.

That's why damage ratio annoys me as a metric. For DPS-focused tanks it requires a lot more hits- something like a Panther or M4A3E8 has to basically park and pump round after round into an unresisting target in order to dish out anything like as much damage during a match as they take. It's not that they can't do it, it's that it's a pain in the ass.

Easy 8 can make its HP in damage very easily, an agile fast firing tank can take many opportunities throughout a match, you don't have to just sit and pump shots into things (though with a 2.8 second reload you frequently can anyway).

No-one actually uses damage ratio as a metric though. It's all about how much damage you do, not about how much you take or can take. And different tanks can do different amounts of damage. Some can't do very much because they're a bit shit, some can make their own HP easily.

Average damage is the best predictor of winrate when normalised against the capabilities of the tanks you've actually played*, do more damage and you'll win more games, kill more tanks and you'll win more games. Do more damage and kill more tanks and you'll win even more games. Start doing damage & kills early in the game, carry on doing it throughout the game, and you'll win even more games.



* This is the point of WN8, by analysing the dataset of a large number of players it plots how much damage/kills/spots/defence a tank can be expected to do in the hands of a player of a given skill level, and then scores your account based on the number of games you've played in each tank and your total stats. It's a pretty good indicator of how much direct influence you're having on your games.

[xthetenth]

WN8 is a bit borked because it's all about driving tanks you drive better than the bad pubs. WN7 is a bit bad because to optimally play for it is degenerate gameplay that doesn't actually strictly lead to a maximum winrate. A lot of top purple play is just camping an exploitable spot and extracting damage while your team folds and then falling back to spots where it gives a lot of openings for shots to dig them out, but a decent amount of the time against decent players they'll end up facing too many tanks.

[Simon_Jester]

Easy 8 can make its HP in damage very easily, an agile fast firing tank can take many opportunities throughout a match, you don't have to just sit and pump shots into things (though with a 2.8 second reload you frequently can anyway).

Put this way- you can do that. I can't. Thus, I find the Easy Eight annoying (ironic given my username) because it places a high demand on my agility, terrain-reading, situational awareness, and ability to engage crossing targets. The first three I lack because I'm a mediocre player most of the time. The last I lack because my computer is probably in the bottom 5-10% of those playing the game; if it were any more inferior it would be physically impossible to play at all.

Tanks that can fire from ambush at long range, score a few hits, and still have contributed meaningfully to the game even if they can't maneuver well to dodge counterfire... it's easier for me to be effective there.

Also SOME brawler tanks like the T14, which have the sheer mass and weight to pin enemy tanks in place in a facehug, I can do fairly well with those.

* This is the point of WN8, by analysing the dataset of a large number of players it plots how much damage/kills/spots/defence a tank can be expected to do in the hands of a player of a given skill level, and then scores your account based on the number of games you've played in each tank and your total stats. It's a pretty good indicator of how much direct influence you're having on your games.

Cool beans.

[Vanas]

I don't know, the ELC AMX hasn't hugely appealed to me, unlike it's exact opposite.

I've started to be very tactical while using it, too. Having problems holding the cap? Deploy TOG-type mobile cover and forge a mighty battle-fortress. Really, it doesn't matter how many shitty matches I've had, the TOG is a joy.

In non-TOG news, I finally picked up a Type 58. Gun depression remains horrible, but the couple of matches so far show promise. I might be getting the hang of this 'medium' business.

[Vendetta]

Bat Chat stronk tenk, most fun tenk EU.

Also check out that cheeky arty at the end. Sneaky, but not sneaky enough mon ami!

[Luke Starkiller]

So, the IS-4 is such a bad tank...

Victory!
Map: Steppes
Date: 18/03/2014 9:20:48 PM
Vehicle: IS-4
Exp: 3,684 (x2) Credits: 116,676
Achievements: : Steel Wall, Defender, Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, Mastery Badge: "Ace Tanker"

[Vanas]

Well, that ended in a fairly tense game of 'spot the Tiger'. I don't know how he got to the end with full health, but I was very unhappy when I saw him.

[Vendetta]

Wargaming need to get off their arses and change those British tier 10s. I have both researched now but don't want either of them.

I want my Chieftain dammit!

[Vanas]

I think the Chieftan's been labelled 'no' for a very long time.

Also, must be a bonus weekend as my teams have all decided to reinvent suicide as a group activity.

[The Vortex Empire]

A WG employee was actually seen in Bovington tank museum measuring the armor on a Chieftain, so...

[Vanas]

Welp, 20 matches, no wins. And not even slightly losing. All but one was a total curbstomp that basically left me at the mercy of 9-15 enemy tanks.

My teams may have actually achieved more if they'd shot themselves into a ditch because at least that way they'd actually gone somewhere and have hit something.