World of Tanks

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Huh, weird, the VK3001 (p) is actually the first German tank that hasn't been a painful grind for me. I wasn't on the beta, so I don't know what it was like back then, but I've been kicking ass and taking names with with the VK 30 (p) since I got it, I picked up a first class mastery badge in my first match. My only complaint was that it was a little undergunned with the PZ4's long 7.5 cm, and that obviously went away when I got the 88. Sure, the VK doesn't have the armor of say, the Jumbo, but I'm not going up in the thick of things with it, either, so that's not so much of a problem. I tend to sit back about 300-500 meters and let that superb German railgun do the work, I can't wait to see what the long 88 on the Tiger (p) is like. It can only be better, right?

[Vanas]

Well, the 88 L/56 is a painfully underperforming piece of junk to most people. The 88 L/71 you'll get on the Tigers on the other hand is one of the best guns in the german tree in my opinion. So, I'm guessing you'll probably enjoy it.

[xthetenth]

It's pretty much the short one now with 200mm of penetration which is more than enough to hurt anything in your tier, a good bit more accuracy and more aim time (which isn't a big deal because you won't be going fast), and if you aim it well it'll pen anything in the game. Just save your free xp for it because you want to grind that as little as possible when you're struggling to make 20 kph. The armor's great but it's not perfect, especially when you have to try flanking. Consider yourself lucky that you can grind right to it, the Tiger has to grind its turret as well, so it spends a lot more time undergunned, and some of that with a turret so bad looking the ingame picture has the upgrade turret, which is shared only with the ARL 44. Apparently the intended tiger is as ugly as Old McDonald's Barn.

[The Infidel]

I hated my VK3001 when I was grinding to my Tiger and Panther. Thinner armour than PzIII/IV and one tier up. Awful. The VK3002 on the other hand, I like. I was planning to sell it when I got the Panther and Tiger, but decided to keep it. Got 53% win rate in it. Not much extra, but a little bit.

These days, I have IS-4, Tiger II and lots of stuff below, but enjoy more low tier fighting. I absolutely love my BT-2. The T18 with 75mm howitzer can be a beast and now I got my SU-26, too. Wong is not Wrong! It's great fun, but I only use the 150cr ammo. When I'm used to high tier ammo prices, 150 vs 75 is a no brainer for the extra damage they give away.

Since it's tier 3, it's cheap to get both in cr and xp. Get one and have some great fun!

[The Infidel]

Got 5 kills and 2 damaged. Played encounter. Enemy had 4 in base and I took out all of them. T18 with 75mm (most normal ammo and 5 gold, just in case) is fun. Equip with binocs and camonet.
Victory!
Battle: Ensk 23. juli 2012 12:51:37
Vehicle: T18
Experience received: 1 608 (x2 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 11 520
Battle Achievements: Defender

[AniThyng]

Thank goodness a upgraded tiger looks like the tell thing. The upgraded panther turret is ugly as hell. I'm not doing vvery well with it. With the long 75 I can nip away at heavies and if I critical do relation, but anything comes remotely near me and I'm in trouble because panther has fuck all agility. And I got called a coward for hanging back and sniping all for heavies guarding the base in an assault match. I killed 2 and took the other 2 down to critical, what more do you want? I so much as expose myself to thirty guns at close range I'm toast

[Skywalker_T-65]

What do you expect? Most people hate snipers because they actually know how to play. You'll notice that the people who call you a cowardly sniper are the type to run out in the open like idiots.

EDIT: Now, granted if your using a Russkie tank charging is your best option. But you still don't go through the middle of the map killzone. That's just stupid.

[AniThyng]

Man that autocorrect did a number on my word choice.

Of all the tanks I have in my stable the Panther is pretty much the most different to play - I thought I might be able to use it like my E8 but that has turned out to be not the case - gun depression is non-existent, turning circle is huge, it isn't particularly fast on normal terrain, and the L/100 is a very poor gun at close range, especially against other Mediums that manage to close to brawling range, where the high penetration cannot make up for the low alpha damage.

All my other tanks (an E2, an E8, a VK3601 and a Tiger) are basically able to take care of themselves at medium and close range (granted the Tiger is a sniper heavy, but it's also better at turning and feels more agile(!), and the gun has enough alpha to be a threat to anything that gets near me). While it's hard for me to think in terms of how to effectively use the Panther without getting killed (too fragile, yet unlike the E8 I can't dodge). It's the only tank I have at the moment with a <50% win rate.

When I do get a good position though, it's very satisfying to repeatedly get explosive critical hits with that L/100. The Tiger's L/71 bounces a lot more comparatively, especially against American heavies and TDs. How I loathe them when they find a hull down position and the 88 just bounces.

On a side note - it still sure is ugly with that overlong gun though. I know it's a vaguely historical turret but still. It's hedious and does not at all resemble the iconic panther look.

And yeah, driving the Tiger with the stock turret was terrible. With that and the short 88 it was like driving a VK3601, but with none of the benefits (being able to bully lesser mediums into submission)

In fact it is kinda wierd that the panther is so terrible at brawling - wasn't this supposed to be a medium so well armored and deadly it was practically a heavy IRL? Ah well. I know if you want taht in WOT, get the 3002 DB but still.

[Skywalker_T-65]

The Panther was the best medium tank of WW2 in most ways when it actually worked. Better gun than the T-34 (I think the long 75 even beats the 85 of the newer 34's) and better armor than the Sherman. But apparently they forgot that. Then again the biggest tank I have is the PzIII/IV so I wouldn't know for sure.

EDIT: Oh, and I've found myself glad I went for the III/IV and not the IV itself. The latter has that horrid short 75 to start with, while the former gets a long gun that is great at nailing lower tiers and can even damage higher tiers if you know what you are doing. It won't get the L/70, but I'm fine with that.

[AniThyng]

Well reflecting on it further - the Panther's historical opponents are in game the Tier 5 M4 and T-34, which I suspect a Panther even in stock would not find a problem, so I suppose it is sort of correct - instead of putting the panther against its historical peers, it's forced to face down its qualitative peers, where it's not quite so impressive.

[The Vortex Empire]

Man, I love my Panthers. In my experience they're good at pretty much everything. Got a 57% winrate in my Panther and a 61% winrate in my Panther II, and both of those are nearly entirely solo battles, as I don't platoon much.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I'm debating if I'm going for the Panther or Tiger at this point. Thankfully I still have to go through the III/IV (loving it!) and the VK 3601, so it will still be a while till I have to decide on that. Going without gold is making it take longer, but at least I'm not spending any money!

[AniThyng]

Man, I love my Panthers. In my experience they're good at pretty much everything. Got a 57% winrate in my Panther and a 61% winrate in my Panther II, and both of those are nearly entirely solo battles, as I don't platoon much.

Any tips? What equipment did you put on them? At the moment I have camo net, optics and the rammer, and am contemplating if it would be worth getting Binocs in place of the camo.

[AniThyng]

Ohh, Leopard I as the top tier medium in 7.5 (yay!)...on the other tree (nay!)

Hilarious watching people flail over it being an MBT and some poor confused souls unable to comprehend that the Leo I in its original form isn't exactly heavily armored. As someone put it "I can't wait till people realize that they're getting a Batchat only without the autoloader" and "German fanboys want their 70mm armored tank, they'll get their 70mm armored tank" (Because some people are mystified why a "modern" MBT has such thin armor and think it's WG's "anti german bias" again.

On the other hand...Centurion!

[Vanas]

The Panthers are some of the few tanks I have with a decent win rate. Love the Panther and the Jagd, somewhat less enthused by the PII, but we'll see if the matchmaker changes make it more fun.

The only equipment on my Panther is a rammer and vents. Best advice I can give is to hang back in most matches. You're not a medium medium, so don't expect to play as one. If you're the top thing on the map you can reasonably drive the damn thing as a heavy; it's quite capable of taking on T20 and IS tanks head on at close range if you just angle the hull and use cover smartly.

You've got the most accurate gun in the game, if low-damage. Don't be afraid to reach out and touch someone from half the map away. Especially if they're at 5% health or something.

[xthetenth]

I wish I had my sig from my clan's forums. I believe the gist was German Bias: now in the form of 70mm of fearsome Krupp steel backed by the most resilient of ammo racks and without a pyrophoric transmission in sight.

I still don't think I grok the panther properly, but hanging back as a default plan works a treat. I seriously doubt I'll be able to get the same sort of results out of the P2 as the other tier 8 mediums, though, Panther II: Panther Harder looks real anemic next to the T-44, which is second only to the Patton for being able to take potshots and get back in cover before the enemy realizes and very nice and accurate, the Pershing, which is second only to the Patton in its ability to get on hills and make everything else its bitch, and the type 59, which bullies like a champ and gets a surprising amount of use from its heavy turret armor.

[Nephtys]

Yeah. Gotta say, I don't really fear Panthers of either variety.

At Tier 7, no medium has shit on the amazing hull-down skirmishpower and speed of the T20. The T-43 is sorta bad though, since it's basically the same thing as the T-34-85.

At Tier 8, the Pershing is king of hull down fighting (high maneuver, accuracy, gun depression with a really bouncy mantlet too!), the T-44 has a horrifyingly powerful cannon, and the Type-59's frontal armor is still stupid against everything it's likely to face short of a tier 9 heavy.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Part of the problem is the game's balance is skewed by even the real tanks having access to Fantasy Imagination turrets and guns (or even worse, fantasy guns on real turrets; e.g. the Tiger using the King Tiger's 88), so the Panther's historically tough-nut-to-crack front armor is bizarrely useless. I need to grind out a Tiger again and do some comparisons; a Panther should be a little harder to crack on the front than a Tiger, but I have a sneaking suspicion that won't be the in-game experience.

And I second the hate of the Panther's upgrade turret. I resolutely refuse to use it on my Panther (in its pretty Dunkelgelb with field Rotbraun/Olivgrün airbrushing) and Pz IV. At least my Pz IV goes a little faster without the extra weight...

If they really wanted to make tanks upgradeable, I don't see why they didn't have it so you progress a Panther (for example) from Ausf D to Ausf A to Ausf G. There's a turret upgrade in there as well (an update to the mantlet design) so that bit is satisfied without needing to resort to some imaginary drawing-board wet dream.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I hate the look of the bathtub turret on the PzIV. It sucks that the L/70 needs that turret...but since I went for the III/IV I don't have to worry about that. Its a fun tank to play for sure, even if it isn't as good of a sniper.

[xthetenth]

Part of the problem is the game's balance is skewed by even the real tanks having access to Fantasy Imagination turrets and guns (or even worse, fantasy guns on real turrets; e.g. the Tiger using the King Tiger's 88), so the Panther's historically tough-nut-to-crack front armor is bizarrely useless. I need to grind out a Tiger again and do some comparisons; a Panther should be a little harder to crack on the front than a Tiger, but I have a sneaking suspicion that won't be the in-game experience.

From what I remember of the tiger it needs really extreme angling to bounce 160 pen guns while the Panther has a much easier time of it. Also iirc, they could mount the long 88 on the Tiger, they just never saw a need. By the time they did the King Tiger was using it anyway.

[KlavoHunter]

I found a platoon of guys who all wanted to grind our Lees together, and we were a 3-tank platoon of death and destruction to anything and everything in front of us. My favorite incident was on that newish map with the beachfront village in the west, hills in the center, and a long pass in the East from the back of one base to the other. Some brave Churchill tank thought he'd win the game by taking the East pass, and when he finally finished his death march all the way to our base, he was set upon by our trio of Lees who blew him up in about 2-3 combined salvos of 75mm through the side access door of his otherwise-impenetrable tank...

I'm not sad to see the Lee go, though, now I have a Sherman with the hilarious 105 derp gun where I get mixed results - I oneshot small tanks with casual ease when I use the Force and just fire wildly instead of aiming, and splash uselessly against the front of bigger tanks.

[Simon_Jester]

Aim low with the 105, in my opinion. Lower glacis is often relatively weak, and from some angles you can (I think) get under the tank and hit the belly armor with splash damage.

[DrMckay]

Loving the Pz IV, bought a rammer even though f2p, and binocs and camo net. I'm going to unlock both the VK 3600 and 3001 because this tank is so damn much fun to play.

Picked up the lee again, and am on the long, long crawl to the sherman after hearing good things. but any way to make the Lee suck less, I have all the upgrades, and am playing like a TD, but I'm just not closing the deal. gaah.


fully upgraded t49 is awesome as all get out, (hello 60kph) and I am on the stpz in the german SPG tree (I like the german and russian spgs the best so far)

and the SU-8 is busy being a horrendusly expensive garage queen, but when I land a hit or use it as an impromptu AT gun, OMG so much fun.

[Darth Wong]

Picked up the lee again, and am on the long, long crawl to the sherman after hearing good things. but any way to make the Lee suck less, I have all the upgrades, and am playing like a TD, but I'm just not closing the deal. gaah.

The Lee kind of sucks, although I did have plenty of good games in mine. For a long time, my highest-XP game was actually my Lee: ~1500XP. It was kind of frustrating when I had tier-6 tanks and my service record still showed that my best game was on a Lee. It's one of those tanks where you can have some very good games if things go right, and really bad games when things go wrong.

fully upgraded t49 is awesome as all get out, (hello 60kph) and I am on the stpz in the german SPG tree (I like the german and russian spgs the best so far)

and the SU-8 is busy being a horrendusly expensive garage queen, but when I land a hit or use it as an impromptu AT gun, OMG so much fun.

Wait till you get the SU-14. It's slower than molasses and it's so huge that it can't hide anywhere, but it's so much fun to score hits. If you hit an enemy tank the right way with the upgraded gun, you can one-shot tanks that you normally do not expect to one-shot. In my last game, I got a one-shot kill on a Lowe from 100%. In my previous game, I got a one-shot kill on a Ferdinand from 100%. I may only score three or four hits a game, but the amount of damage is hilarious. It's not unusual to score only three hits, two of which are kills.

[Hawkwings]

Just had a blast playing my Sherman E8 in a medium company, with 2 other E8s. First match on Ensk, I spent most of the match chasing a T-50 around in the field who was trying to get our arty. After I blew through most of my ammo and finally killed him, our attack was falling apart so I went over to help. Just about the time I got to their base our last combat tank died, leaving me, a T-50, and a french arty. So... Sherman E8 with a chaingun vs 4 slow-ass KV-1Ss? No problem! The chaingun isn't just fast, it's damn accurate too, and I was tracking, sideshotting, and glaciating the hell out of those 1Ss. The T=50 got one, I got the other three, and much rage was had by the other team. Accusations of gold rounds flew, and were thankfully cut off by the round ending.