World of Tanks

[Mr. Coffee]

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.

Yeah, once I get my PzIV I'll probably do that as I'm having way the hell to much fun driving my PvIII around (it's the ultimate scout wagon, zippy as all hell upgraded, good turning capability, good brakes, just watch the hell out for Tiger IIs and Hummels and you're golden for boom and zoom tactics). For now, I just wait for the match, upgrade my tank, and in another 2k XP I'll be in my PzIV.

[Zinegata]

I'm also playing in the English beta. I've been an arty tank driver for much of the beta, and I've levelled up enough to get myself a nice, shiny, Hummel.

I must say though, that us arty tank drivers are the most misunderstood members of the World of Tanks community .

Arty tanks aren't really unbalanced. People who say that it takes no skill to drive one are probably people who've never tried using one.

First of all, it takes a fair amount of skill to hit fast-moving scout and medium tanks - as long as the tank drivers know what they're doing. Too many players drive in straight lines or predictable patterns. They also stop too long before getting a shot off. From the perspective of an arty tank, it's fairly easy to tell which tank drivers have talent, and those who don't. Given a skilled arty tank player vs a skilled scout/med driver - the hit rate of arty should be well under 50%.

What arty excels at is disabling heavy tanks. Even light arty often scores immobilizing hits on stuff like Tiger IIs and IS-7s, which make them easy pickings for the rest of the tanks.

Secondly, arty tank drivers need to look at the game from a strategic perspective. They can't just drive off into the horizon thinking they'll kill a couple of tanks. They need to talk and coordinate with the scout tanks (nothing is as frustrating as seeing a scout tank reveal 10+ enemy tanks, but it goes to waste because the arty isn't in position yet). They need to make sure all of the approaches to the base are covered. They also need to make sure that tanks in their team are in a defilade, while the opposing team's tanks are in the open.

That last one is a major, major reason why arty can be so overpowering. Too many players don't realize that there are large areas in the battlefield that cannot be hit by arty fire due to obstructions. They simply engage the enemy wherever they meet them - even though they're in open arty country while their opponent is in a defilade.

Last night, my team went from 15 to 8 tanks in a matter of seconds because they rushed into the open, while the enemy tank were shielded by a mountain (they lost only 3 tanks). However, as soon as the surviving tanks pulled back and reversed the situation, we managed to pop 7 enemy tanks in quick succession while losing just another tank.

FInally, lots of things are out to kill arty, because we're kinda vulnerable but put out a lot of damage. In matches with lots of arty, it's a good idea to have a designated counter-battery specialist whose only job is to spot and fire on arty flashes (this is countered in turn by having arty reposition with each shot).

Scout tanks also love trying to kill us, as well as mediums like T-44s. Often times, we have to rely on our fellow tankers to save us. Other times (and this is my preferred solution), I come out fighting and drive my Hummel like a Tank destroyer. It's worked out pretty well for me so far. I once had a battle in Himmelsdorf where I destroyed three enemy tanks in face-to-face combat (a Jagpz, a Stug III, and a Mk IV). Guts can make up for Wafer-thin armor sometimes .

[Zinegata]

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.

Light tanks actually excel in cities and rough terrain once you know the maps.

If you're in a town (i.e. the right side of the Lakeville map), you're generally immune from artillery fire. You can also pop in and out of LOS of bigger tanks that would have killed you in one or two hits. What you should really just avoid is colliding into terrain (because that makes you a sitting duck), but with enough experience you should be able to know the intricacies of each map.

What I'd love to see are more scout/light tank drivers who try to survive more than 5 minutes. A lot of them simply try to rush towards the enemy base, detect as many enemy tank as as they can, and then die. I'd prefer scout drivers who detect the opposing team's main axis of advance, fall back, and then come out again once main attack has been defeated.

I've only had a handful of scout drivers who are capable of doing this, but whenever they're around it's always a pleasure to play with them.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

The problem is not that artillery is necessarily overpowered (it is), it's that gameplay revolves around it. If this were World of Self-Propelled Guns that might be ok, but it's not so it isn't.

Yes, it's technically true that a good tanker can vary speed and movement in order to juke artillery... but that blows. Doing it is not fun. It also makes you incredibly vulnerable to just about everything else on the battlefield, because the second most lights and mediums go anything less than full throttle, they're dead. And since turning bleeds off a huge amount of velocity, even for slight adjustments, that means going in a straight line. Even still, juking and jinking to try to throw off artillery you think might be looking at you at any given moment is often only partially effective. Again, it blows, it's not fun, and chiefly, it is a concession to the notion that the game inherently revolves around the artillery. When a tank must do this, it ceases being about having tank battles and becomes Dodge the Artillery Online.

Artillery literally dominates all too many matches. The maps can essentially be boiled down into the small patches of artillery dead-zones, and the game plays out from there. Karelia is a particularly salient example -- how many rounds grind on because two opposing blobs of tanks are bottlenecked in the eastern pass, hugging the mountain and rocks to avoid artillery? Neither side is willing to do anything more than pop out for a brief pot-shot, because both teams know leaving the "shadow" of the mountain or their boulder means instant death via artillery.

It has become the only viable strategy with my VK3001P, in fact -- I immediately gun for the best artillery dead-zone I can find, and then just sit there for most of the match taking pot-shots at anything I can see. It's kind of tedious and usually boring. I can't actually, you know, maneuver my medium tank around doing medium tank things, because one random artillery jerk-off might decide to land a shell somewhere within 20 meters of me and instantly blow off my tracks, effectively painting a huge KILL ME sign on my tank. This is compounded by the juking and jinking thing -- most medium tanks worth their salt (except the light-in-spirit PzIII) carry guns far too large to fire on the move. Useful, effective fire requires a complete halt and 1-2 seconds of aiming before firing and moving again. This is risky enough with other tanks and TDs on the field, which is fine, but artillery makes this a generally suicidal move. A medium tank can't be arsed to fuck around with random velocity changes, because the slightest movement throws off his own shots. Medium tank "scoot and shoot" play is rendered useless by the mere presence of artillery.

The "under 50% hit rate" versus lights is particularly laughable -- it only takes one, and it often doesn't even have to be a hit! Landing a shell anywhere near a light tank will either completely obliterate it on a direct hit, or blow off its tracks on anything less, which might as well be instant death because it is. Popping a repair kit is a waste of 3000 bucks, because it doesn't matter at that point. A lost 60km/h is still lost, and the tank is a sitting duck until it can get up to that speed again. If it's been hit, chances are good it's not even possible anymore thanks to track, engine, or driver loss.

tl;dr -- Fuck artillery.

[Zinegata]

Eh? Jinking around works against all tanks. Particularly the real big killer of the battlefield: The long-range anti-tank gun mounted on a heavy TD or heavy tank. Seriously, arty tankers are lucky to get 3 or more kills, while 3 is the minimum for a well-driven heavy tank with an 88mm gun or better.

Moreover, you only need to jink when you've been spotted, because otherwise arty doesn't know where to shoot at you. And if you're not jinking against regular tanks, you die quickly.

What to do in a particular round depends largely on the tank composition on both sides. Trying to fight it out in the open when the opposition has at 3 or more heavy artillery pieces is a very bad idea - but againt fewer artillery pieces or lighter stuff like Sturmpanzers it's totally viable to try and rush an enemy base.

Finally, I think the main problem is that you're not using your VK3001P correctly. If you're a VK3001P, and you're getting hit by artillery, then you're doing something very wrong. Artillery shells are valuable, take a while to reload, and are generally reserved for killing heavies. A Hummel may be able to one-shot a Leopard II, but it usually takes at least 3 shells before scoring a kill-hit, and that's 3 shells that didn't go and take 15-30% per hit off an IS-7.

The arty guys who should target VK3001Ps are the ones driving Sturmpanzers, Grilles, and SU-26s, all of which do only moderate damage to a VK3001P (albeit they may temporarily immobilize you). If you're getting targeted by heavy artillery it means that you're probably the only target the enemy arty is seeing.

A VK3001P is a long range sniper. That's what the big gun is for. It shouldn't be the first and only thing the opposing scout sees. Leave that to the Mk IIIs and Leo 2s.

Instead, group together with the other long-range shooters and snipe at the enemy tanks. Your speed is for respositioning, not for trying to run circles around an enemy tank to avoid getting hit. If you want to try and run circles around enemy tanks while firing at them from point-blank range, drive a T-44.

World of Tanks is a team game. And arty is what makes it a team game more than any other element, that lets each tank do its role. Most games without arty often end up becoming very boring, because it just involves tanks trying to out-circle each other in open fields, with the winner being the team that decided not to split apart and concentrate their forces.

[Ritterin Sophia]

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.

Little bit of advice, make sure to have some stockpiled cash and a couple thousand extra xp on your Pz.III to trade in for free xp with your gold. The Pz.IV with the basic engine has about 1/2 the speed of the III and takes about twice as long to get up to full speed as it's predecessor, the vanilla suspension also limits you almost entirely to linear movement, make a turn and what little speed you have will drop off so fast you may as well stop.

[Mr. Coffee]

Well, I can honestly say the PzIV is a good tank. Just scored my first kill against a heavy tank, a fucking Tiger II no less, and did it with a 75mm L/48 gun. Was pretty damn easy to, all I did was get into knife fighting range of him while the last light tank on my team was taking control of the CAP (was just me and the light vs that Tiger II at that point). I waited till the Tiger II driver started to try and steer that lumber turret towards me, gunned the engine and just circled him to keep his turret pointed 90 dgrees away from me and shoot into his sides and rear aiming low for the tracks and engine compartment. Sure, half my shots pinged off him, but the ones that penetrated fucked him up pretty good.

And for added hilarity, in another 8k XP I'll have enough to just double research the new turret and the 75mm L/60 gun for my PzIV, at which point I'm gonna splurge the credits for camo netting, a loading rammer, and a periscope so I can hid in the bushes and snipe the unholy fuck out of people. Hijinks and hilarity will ensue.

[Zinegata]

The 75mm gun on the Mk IV is one of the best sniping guns in the game. Enjoy.

[Slacker]

I play pretty aggressive and in-your-face with my T-44, often acting as a 'heavy scout', avoiding the enemy superheavies and walking into the back of the enemy base to splash arty. I play primarily with a bunch of RL friends, and we play on a LAN, which makes communication very simple. A wolfpack of 2 T-44s and a Panther is a terrifying thing for enemy arty to deal with, and once we've killed it we generally single-target DPS a lower tier heavy, like the KVs, the Tiger Is, IS-1s, etc, and pick it apart. Without support, a Maus or IS-7 is just going to be picked apart by our heavy tanks, so we just try to stay out of their firing arc.

Of course, when the reset happened I basically dumped all of my XP to maxxing out that tree and getting an elite T-44 off the bat, so their secondary skills are jacked and I dropped a lot of gold upgrading the T-44-it's got the vertical stabilizer, which is huge I think for it, enhanced gunlaying speed, etc. I also have a speed governor, and generally a repair kit and lend-lease oil. That extra 6 or 8K will sometimes ultimately lose me money, but more often it helps keep me alive and get me another kill or more detections or something like that.

That said, the thing I enjoy most of all is Tier 2 or 3 games. I don't really want to get a heavy tank, so with my T-44 I'm pretty much done in terms of top tier stuff. So I have a jacked BT-2 and an almost-as-jacked SU-18 and run around in the lower level games like I think a lot of other people do. It's a pretty easy way to get a steady cash flow and I normally do very well in those games. In fact my only Top Gun award comes from a game in my BT-2 on one of the new maps.

[Mr. Coffee]

I play pretty aggressive and in-your-face with my T-44, often acting as a 'heavy scout', avoiding the enemy superheavies and walking into the back of the enemy base to splash arty. I play primarily with a bunch of RL friends, and we play on a LAN, which makes communication very simple. A wolfpack of 2 T-44s and a Panther is a terrifying thing for enemy arty to deal with, and once we've killed it we generally single-target DPS a lower tier heavy, like the KVs, the Tiger Is, IS-1s, etc, and pick it apart. Without support, a Maus or IS-7 is just going to be picked apart by our heavy tanks, so we just try to stay out of their firing arc.

I've been doing the same thing with the PzIV and getting together with the other PzIV and T-44 guys on my team and running trains on the other team's back field. You get four big gun mediums running around like that and even the guys in Tiger IIs and Ferdinands start to sweat a bit. Also, I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I pin some arty clown in a Hummel up against the wall and start cramming 75mm AP up his ass. If the match making in the game was more reliable I'd love to get like four or five guys on vioce comms so we could seriously coordinate the carnage.

Name's Angus McAWESOME in game, add me to your friends list or some shit.

[Highlord Laan]

Just got my PzIII last night, immediately researched the suspension upgrade and dropped in the maxed out engine and a 50mm gun before I even saw action in the thing. Holy hell, it's a beast. Got in a slugging match with a T-28 and won, even though I was taking arty hits and getting detracked every six seconds or so. It took getting hammered by arty and a KV, and finally the intervention of a Leopard to finally kill me, and even then I still killed the T-28, one of the arty with a horrendous long-range shot, and did a number on the Leopord before finally going down.

Next match, I ended up on a map wit primarily light tanks and artillery, so I went spamgun hunting. Wasted the arty, killed three light tanks (seven kills in total) before getting tracked by a T-34. What ensues is a bunch of light tanks slamming me as the T-34 kills my teammates. I was getting hit from all sides, my Panzer's armor laughing at the attempts of T-46's and Ausf A's to kill me, and scored two more kills before the T-34 came back and killed me from the side, but not before I killed me a pair of A-20's. Ended the match with nine kills.

I'm so happy with switching to the Panzers away from the Russian trees. These things are punishment absorbing monsters. This is the first tank I'll actually be spending creds on mods for, I'm loving it that much. Then I'll go back and do the same with my BT2 speed wagon.

I'll be going the PZ III/IV route, personally. I might go the superheavy route, but I may just stick with the mediums.

[Commander 598]

I'll be going the PZ III/IV route, personally. I might go the superheavy route, but I may just stick with the mediums.

Stick with mediums. Superheavies are about 75% terrible at everything but getting Steel Wall.

[Mr. Coffee]

Ok, I set up an in-game chat channel. Just type SDN in the searchbar in the channels tab, no password.

[Mr. Coffee]

Before I forget, has anyone tried the 105mm L/28 gun for the PzIV? Was wondering how it compares to the 75mm L/60 gun.

[Highlord Laan]

I've discovered three things about Artillery in WoT:

1. They use brown icons because they're shit.
2. Must be a good past few weeks in WoW, because all the jackass WotLK heroic-wiping BM Hunters are playing WoT
3. May as well just remove the tanks and put every player in charge of a towed tube battery, since then we could all play one-handed camping matches together.

[Slacker]

Before I forget, has anyone tried the 105mm L/28 gun for the PzIV? Was wondering how it compares to the 75mm L/60 gun.

I find any sort of heavy-bore, slow firing gun really clashes with the playstyle one normally runs with with mediums. I pretty much always fire from the move in my T-44, and only getting a half dozen shots a minute or less would really screw that up.

This game rocks playing in the same room as people in your group. We've had nine people playing in three groups playing at once, and the handful of times we're on the same team things get absolutely ridiculous.

[Highlord Laan]

Before I forget, has anyone tried the 105mm L/28 gun for the PzIV? Was wondering how it compares to the 75mm L/60 gun.

I find any sort of heavy-bore, slow firing gun really clashes with the playstyle one normally runs with with mediums. I pretty much always fire from the move in my T-44, and only getting a half dozen shots a minute or less would really screw that up.

This game rocks playing in the same room as people in your group. We've had nine people playing in three groups playing at once, and the handful of times we're on the same team things get absolutely ridiculous.

Oh, indeed. Evan basic chat communication can work wonders. Just getting the ball rolling during the thirty second countdown is all it takes most of the time.

Me: I'm heading east, then North. Will pull around to the west and circle to the center, hunting artillery. Anyone coming along?
Player [xxx]: I'm in.
Another one: Me too
And another: Sounds good.
Arty1 and 2: We're going to the tress in the SE corner. Can we get some cover?
Several: Got you covered.
The Heavies: Going straight up the middle, crushing all who come before us.
Me: We'll meet you there. We'll probably have their lights chasing us.
The Heavies: *grin* Just lead them our way.

Match Begins.
The main trick is getting people to follow the plan. Arty patrol meeting the opposing skirmishers? Don't break off to fight them, get them to follow you to where ever you're meeting up with your heavies, and lead them to the feeding zone. Don't stop and circle the enemy arty, hit them as you dash by and let your arty take them out. You're the heavies and you see your light fellows coming your way with a tail? Don't move to meet them, instead, stop in cover, sight in, and get ready for feeding time

About five minutes later, our arty is hammering away, enemy art is smoking rubble, and we're mopping up what little resistance managed to escape.

[Rogue 9]

My clan has a Mumble server and strict comms protocols. When we get a bunch of our platoons on the same team then God have mercy on the fools who stand against us, for we shall not.

[Zinegata]

Before I forget, has anyone tried the 105mm L/28 gun for the PzIV? Was wondering how it compares to the 75mm L/60 gun.

I find any sort of heavy-bore, slow firing gun really clashes with the playstyle one normally runs with with mediums. I pretty much always fire from the move in my T-44, and only getting a half dozen shots a minute or less would really screw that up.

This game rocks playing in the same room as people in your group. We've had nine people playing in three groups playing at once, and the handful of times we're on the same team things get absolutely ridiculous.

Yep. The 75mm is simply the superior gun for a medium tank, or even a tank destroyer. Its only real competition is the 88mm if the tank can support it (which the Mk IV can't).

[Zinegata]

I've discovered three things about Artillery in WoT:

1. They use brown icons because they're shit.
2. Must be a good past few weeks in WoW, because all the jackass WotLK heroic-wiping BM Hunters are playing WoT
3. May as well just remove the tanks and put every player in charge of a towed tube battery, since then we could all play one-handed camping matches together.

None of these are true.

[Zinegata]

Before I forget, has anyone tried the 105mm L/28 gun for the PzIV? Was wondering how it compares to the 75mm L/60 gun.

I find any sort of heavy-bore, slow firing gun really clashes with the playstyle one normally runs with with mediums. I pretty much always fire from the move in my T-44, and only getting a half dozen shots a minute or less would really screw that up.

This game rocks playing in the same room as people in your group. We've had nine people playing in three groups playing at once, and the handful of times we're on the same team things get absolutely ridiculous.

Oh, indeed. Evan basic chat communication can work wonders. Just getting the ball rolling during the thirty second countdown is all it takes most of the time.

Me: I'm heading east, then North. Will pull around to the west and circle to the center, hunting artillery. Anyone coming along?
Player [xxx]: I'm in.
Another one: Me too
And another: Sounds good.
Arty1 and 2: We're going to the tress in the SE corner. Can we get some cover?
Several: Got you covered.
The Heavies: Going straight up the middle, crushing all who come before us.
Me: We'll meet you there. We'll probably have their lights chasing us.
The Heavies: *grin* Just lead them our way.

Match Begins.
The main trick is getting people to follow the plan. Arty patrol meeting the opposing skirmishers? Don't break off to fight them, get them to follow you to where ever you're meeting up with your heavies, and lead them to the feeding zone. Don't stop and circle the enemy arty, hit them as you dash by and let your arty take them out. You're the heavies and you see your light fellows coming your way with a tail? Don't move to meet them, instead, stop in cover, sight in, and get ready for feeding time

About five minutes later, our arty is hammering away, enemy art is smoking rubble, and we're mopping up what little resistance managed to escape.

Exactly. If you want to win in World of Tanks, it boils down to coordinating with your teammates.

Too many people play this game thinking they can single-handedly outmaneuver and destroy 7 tanks all on their own.

Sorry to burst the bubble of these Rambo-wannabes, but I've only seen one type of tank that is even remotely capable of doing this, and when they do it they're not the ones wracking up the kills .

[Mr. Coffee]

Going back down the German tree to the Luchs so I can get the Leopard.

[Highlord Laan]

More of you fuckers need to get in on this so we can get whole SDN platoons going.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Yeah. Join the channel!

Also, I bought a new tank slot with some gold. I think I'm going to try out TDs, which I really haven't yet. Artillery is fun, but it feels dirty playing it, so now I want to what the TD game is like.

Also,




(this game is begging for a Downfall interpretation. It'd be hella meta)

[Mr. Coffee]

Hitler: What the fuck do you mean all I got is a lousy Ausf A?! What the fuck did you assholes do with my Tiger II!