World of Tanks Mark 2

[Darth Wong]

Did this a few hours ago, it made me so happy:



See that dead M37? I got him just by watching the smoke from his gun and blind firing where I figured he'd be. Direct hit, instant kill.

Unfortunately we lost the match, but I didn't really care.

Yeah, some guys are really good at counter-battery fire. It helps to have a good idea of where the guy is already.

But it's a double-edged sword; if you spend the opening part of the game staring at un-scouted parts of the map looking for arty vapour trails, you are not supporting your team's advance by destroying or suppressing enemy tanks. If you happen to be looking at the right grid square and you take out the enemy arty early, then it's probably worth it. But if you're looking at the wrong square, then all you're doing is staring at trees while your teammates could have used your firepower.

Worse yet, if the enemy arty is fairly mobile and is smart enough to move after each shot, you can spend the whole game shooting at shadows. I've seen that myself; the enemy kept firing at where I was ten seconds ago, while I was firing at his tanks and destroying them. The guy kept doggedly trying to kill me the whole game until he found himself virtually alone, staring at ten tanks rushing his base.

[Imperial528]

Yeah, if I try to go for it I only do it on maps with predictable arty locations, or where the enemy arty is firing so often that I can accurately get their position, which is what happened there.

I don't spend more than a minute doing it, and if an enemy tank is spotted I'll switch to that. Unfortunately in that map my teammates were idiots and charged one by one at heavies who were well hidden and had plenty of support, so one side got completely wiped out. What followed was the remaining half of the team getting hit by twice their numbers and some enemy mediums killed off all the arty.

[Skywalker_T-65]

You know whats funny? I've heard that the 'gun mantlet' armor is generally the strongest at higher tiers correct? The funny thing is, that is the weakest frontal armor on my VK. Literally...I'll bounce shells to my frontal armor from ANYWHERE else, but the mantlet is getting penned by T5 tanks on a regular basis. Odd it is...

[Skywalker_T-65]

Question...all I've heard about the short 88 is that its only marginally better than the L/70...but its stats are FAR better (damage wise...L/70 still has slightly better pen) now that I've looked. Its a T7 gun where the 70 is a T6 gun for starters...detailed stats being:

L/70:

Penetration: 138/194/38mm

Damage: 135/135/175

L/56 (short 88):

Pen: 132/171/44mm

Damage: 220/220/270

I'm curious, because everyone said that the 88 did only marginally better damage. That doesn't look like 'marginally' better to me...

[The Vortex Empire]

Question...all I've heard about the short 88 is that its only marginally better than the L/70...but its stats are FAR better (damage wise...L/70 still has slightly better pen) now that I've looked. Its a T7 gun where the 70 is a T6 gun for starters...detailed stats being:

L/70:

Penetration: 138/194/38mm

Damage: 135/135/175

L/56 (short 88):

Pen: 132/171/44mm

Damage: 220/220/270

I'm curious, because everyone said that the 88 did only marginally better damage. That doesn't look like 'marginally' better to me...

The 75mm has a much higher rate of fire though. On the 3601, the 88mm has 1777.6 DPM and the 75mm has 1772.55 DPM, and 5 DPM isn't much of an improvement. The 75mm will also be getting a major buff with the next update in pen and accuracy. I'd argue that even in it's current state, the 75mm L/70 is the better gun all around.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I haven't played with the 88 enough to be sure, but I still think I'll prefer the L/70. Especially with the upcoming buff. I was just curious since I was told it only did marginally better (though yes, when you take into account rate of fire it isn't THAT big of an edge).

[Simon_Jester]

It depends what you want.

The 88 makes the 3601 a pretty good brawler tank and a pretty good sniper tank. The long 75 is not really suited for brawling because it lacks alpha-strike damage; you will rarely be able to put down an enemy with one shot, even if they are already damaged badly. But it's a great sniper weapon.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, now that I've gotten a few battles down I can see the different play styles. And I think I still prefer the L/70...at least with the 3601. Not sure on the Tiger since I'm conserving creds at the moment (only about 150k) and don't want to splurge the 66k needed to get it the 88. Especially since the only tanks I have to sell are the 3601 (never going to happen) the Premium Stuart (never getting another premium soooo...) and the ELC (too darn fun to sell).

What is nice about the 88 though...I took down a PzIV in two shots...can't do THAT with the L/70...

[Simon_Jester]

You may need to grind some credits. The Stuart's credit income probably isn't good enough for that, but both the ELC and the 3601 should make good money-makers.

Check to see if you have any old modules (obsolete tank suspensions, etc.) kicking around to sell, or ammunition in your depot for guns you don't have anymore. Sometimes you can raise some credits that way.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Hmm...didn't know I could directly sell the old ammo/modules. I'll try that later. And the Stuart can get (at best) only 10k or so per battle. I just keep it since its the only Premium I'm likely to get, in addition to being a good T3 scout.

Now the ELC/3601...they DO make some good money when I win and win well.

[Simon_Jester]

Look at profit, not just income. The Stuart's repair and ammo costs are tiny, so it can make a very good profit per match even if it's income isn't great.

For credit grinding, pick your two most profitable tanks and alternate between them- if you get killed in one, just do a match in the other. That's my advice.

[Darth Wong]

It helps to have a good variety of tanks in the tier 5 to 7 range, so that when those double credit weekends come around, you actually might have the tanks in question. Someone who just goes down one line tends to miss most of those double-credit weekends, but someone who has a smattering of many tank lines has a better chance of taking advantage of them.

Right now it's double credits for the KV-1, which is already an excellent credit farmer.

[Esquire]

Damn - if this were next weekend, there's a fair chance I'd have my KV-1...

[PainRack]

A quick question about AT tactics. Is it better to switch to HE and use long range shots against a heavy tank or focus on going in close and using AP to hit vulnerable spots?

[xthetenth]

I pretty much run AP for everything. HE is so prone to 20 damage or no damage whatsoever that I'll probably just chuck AP downrange and hope for a fluke shot. That's me though and I'm used to running slow reloading guns against tanks with thick armor so your mileage may vary.

[Vanas]

I'll have to agree there. I pack maybe 2 HE rounds just on the off-chance that I find an arty while I've only just started to reload.
Or to make sure that the Type 59 explodes when shot.

AP/APCR are really the way forwards unless you're toting a derp cannon. Most tanks, you can usually find *somewhere* to shoot at. Vision ports, periscopes, cupola, flat bits... though if it's an IS-7, you're pretty much screwed frontally.

[xthetenth]

I don't even use HE on arty, I've gotten burned bad a few times doing it. A reliable twoshot is usually fine by me.

[Simon_Jester]

A quick question about AT tactics. Is it better to switch to HE and use long range shots against a heavy tank or focus on going in close and using AP to hit vulnerable spots?

It depends on judgment.

Suppose you're fighting at long range against an enemy's frontal aspect. You have to fight for some reason. If you know your tank gun has 125mm penetration and you're shooting at something with 160mm frontal armor, getting closer isn't going to help and you're better off lobbing HE from farther away. At least then the enemy might miss when they start shooting back.

If you're fighting in close quarters where getting at the enemy tank's flanks or targeting weak spots is actually possible, then go for it; it's usually more effective unless you have a dedicated HE gun like the KV-2's 152mm.

Of course, sometimes you should just look at the enemy tank and go "nope," and find something more penetrable to fight. Lightly armored and low-tier tanks in a match usually should try to steer clear of places where you can predict ahead of time that lots of well armored heavies will come roaring through.

I pretty much run AP for everything. HE is so prone to 20 damage or no damage whatsoever that I'll probably just chuck AP downrange and hope for a fluke shot. That's me though and I'm used to running slow reloading guns against tanks with thick armor so your mileage may vary.

For mid-tier tanks, which still have reload times around 3-5 seconds, but routinely fight well armored Tier 6-7 heavies... I'd say the HE can be worth it. Just make sure it makes sense to be fighting the heavily armored enemy at all- no point taking on a Jagdtiger head on in a Sherman, even if you know you can ding half a dozen HE rounds off his frontal armor before he gets round to killing you.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I make sure to keep HE in my VK and Tiger, simply because I know I'm likely to run into tanks that I can't damage otherwise. But if I'm running a lower tier tank (say my Stuart) I don't, since neither HE nor AP will help me against the bigger tanks. And in that case, its better just to have the AP for use on the tanks I can pen.

[Aaron MkII]

Well as I have discovered, light tanks are a death trap. I'll spend matches were I never shoot, just scoot from cover to cover and look around. I'm actually considering buying a cam net for my M3 just for that little advantage.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Depends on the tank...the ELC AMX is a very speedy light tank, but it can actually do quite a bit of damage with the 90mm loaded onto it. Of course, its also a Tier 5 Frenchie, which means you have to go through the counter-intuitive AMX 38 and AMX 40 (counter-intuitive since they are lights that play like heavies).

[Simon_Jester]

Light tanks are definitely a niche in this game.

In World of Tanks, if you can enjoy playing heavies you can probably enjoy playing mediums and vice versa. There's sort of a continuum between the 'heavy mediums' (like the VK3601) and the 'light heavies' (like the KV-1S). Tank destroyers are quite different from either mediums or heavies, but are sort of similar in that you spend most of your time in gunnery duels. What changes is the relationship between mobility and firepower.

But light tanks are almost as different from the 'big three' as artillery is. A light tank rarely accomplishes anything on their own, without at least benefiting from the rest of the team creating a diversion so they can slip into the rear.

So some people just... don't turn out to be light tank players. Like me, come to think of it. I love the ELC because it's like a fast tank destroyer, not a typical light.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I love the ELC too...but it shows just how ODD the French light tree is. You go from the AMX 38/40 which are both lights that play like heavies (good practice in that regard, but still) to the ELC which is a fast murder machine, to the AMX 12t which is somewhere in-between. Le Frenchies are odd in WoT...

[Aaron MkII]

I just don't have the patience to grind through the French early lights.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Very few people do. I'm one of the most patient people out there and I almost rage-quit on the AMX 40...