World of Tanks Mark 2

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

The prime example is the Matilda. Its top gun can penetrate any tank it will ever see and it fires every two seconds, but it only does 55 per shot, so it often gets ignored until people realise just how many times you've hit them. I managed to solo a KV-1S once because he ignored me until it was too late because none of my individual shots seemed a threat.

Premium rounds can turn most fast-firing but weak guns into a similar situation by increasing the penetration enough to be dangerous to everyone.

[Nephtys]

Certain tanks 'know' they're proof against common rapid fire weapons, or effectively so. An IS3 for example, ought to have no fear frontally of an E8's 76 penetrating it, and will only naturally fire on the higher alpha KV-1S you're next to. Only with gold rounds, this is no longer the case.

And damn, thanks to gold rounds, my T110E5 feels a lot more vulnerable when I'm frontally penned 3 out of 4 times on a tank with really good frontal armor and hard to hit weakpoints. I'm going to switch to firing mostly gold back at Tier 9 and 10 to even the score, but well. It's a bit much.

At least T71 has no need for silly gold shells

[Simon_Jester]

Now that I've got the BL9, the IS-3 is turning out to be a damn fun tank to play Irish stand-down in at close to medium range.

[Thunderfire]

I'm loving this tank...
Victory!
Battle: Malinovka Monday, December 31, 2012 19:46:16
Vehicle: Valentine
Experience received: 1,826 (x2 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 17,857
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall, Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, Mastery Badge: "Ace Tanker"

I hated this one. Slow , very low DPM + lightly armored sides/top/back = bad tank. I need stupid enemies if I want to do well. 8k XP for a Churchill I is the best thing on this one.

[Marko Dash]

been grinding the hell out of the M4 and M36 slugger/jackson this weekend for the +70% creds and with good reason. the 2.6 million credits i needed to finally break into tier 8 with the T32.

which at the moment is completely stock as i don't have quite enough free xp for the tracks and i need to grind an additional 350k-ish to train crew, buy tracks, buy engine, and buy additional 105mm. then i can start grinding xp for it's turret of +1 bounciness.

[Temjin]

So I finished a surprisingly enjoyable grind in the BDR G1B. That thing is slow, it's has a high profile, and it has no gun depression. But holy shit does that 90mm gun make up for all of that. High alpha, accurate, with okay penn. It felt really nice to be able to take out a big chunk of a KV-1's health with a single well placed shot. And with that gun, at least I don't feel useless when I'm bottom tier.

So now I'm in the ARL 44. First impression? Who decided it would be a good idea to use a house as a turret? A family of four could live comfortably in that thing! Can't wait untill I can ditch it.

[The Vortex Empire]

So I finished a surprisingly enjoyable grind in the BDR G1B. That thing is slow, it's has a high profile, and it has no gun depression. But holy shit does that 90mm gun make up for all of that. High alpha, accurate, with okay penn. It felt really nice to be able to take out a big chunk of a KV-1's health with a single well placed shot. And with that gun, at least I don't feel useless when I'm bottom tier.

So now I'm in the ARL 44. First impression? Who decided it would be a good idea to use a house as a turret? A family of four could live comfortably in that thing! Can't wait untill I can ditch it.

Do not use the top 90mm or the 105mm. The additional pen is the only gain, but it's all unnecessary given the targets you face and the aim time and dispersion are absolutely horrific with both of them, you basically have to sit exposed for an hour before the thing finally zeroes in. The second best 90 is far better. Other than that, it's a solid tank once you get rid of the barn, but expect to be tracked a lot.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Also, with the second turret, avoid HE like the plague, especially KV-2s. The 30mm armour means that those HE shells are almost invariably going to penetrate and kill you in a single hit.

[Vejut]

Anybody have impressions on the new 8.3 test, particularly if they've fixed the arty like they think they have? Updating for it now...

[Nephtys]

I enjoy less arty per battle a great deal. Tier 9 and 10 are actually playable now, instead of having T92 batteries flatten the town you're hiding in every other game.

It does lead to hilarious stuff like this (someone elses screenshot):

[Imperial528]

Victory!
Battle: Siegfried Line Tuesday, January 08, 2013 8:24:23 AM
Vehicle: T14
Experience received: 517
Credits received: 16,990
Battle Achievements: Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, Mastery Badge: "3rd Class"

Bought this yesterday and finally getting the hang of it. Unfortunately got stuck in a duel with a KV-1 but I killed an M2 MT supporting him and damaged two StuGs, almost killing one. Weirdly the KV just kept shooting at my mantlet.

[Broken]

Anyone else seen a weird increase in shells getting eaten by tracks? Both my T34 and E50 had multiple shells just disappear into tracks yesterday. The E50 I can almost understand as I was sniping at long range at an E75 that was broadside to me, but the T34 was much closer to its target and still managed to lose shot after shot there.

[Vendetta]

First time I've seen one of these in the wild:


Spoiler

[WG] clantag = wargaming.net employee

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Vendetta, how do you feel the Churchill VII compares to the I? The Churchill line just seems to add armour and HP while rising the tiers while keeping the same godawful depression and roughly the same pen/damage, so I've stopped at eliting the I, but does it play better than I'm expecting?

[Vendetta]

I've not used it much. The Churchill seems to be affected more than most by your ability to angle the front, because the front armour is really serious (152mm) and you can use the protruding tracks to eat shells it can take a lot of fire.

However, it's got really low alpha and there seems to be a problem with the damage model in that the inner planes of the tracks take HP damage in some places (unlike the Churchill 1 or 3) making it far easier to kill than it should be. Especially since you'll regularly be facing KV-1Ss because everyone and his dog has one at tier 6. Staying at longer ranges can mitigate that, making it harder for common tanks to aim for the weakness, but it's there.


On the whole though, you have to remember that there's a hidden difficulty selector in WoT. Russian and German tanks is easy mode, American tanks are Normal, British and French tanks are Hard mode.

[Imperial528]

Victory!
Battle: Murovanka Tuesday, January 08, 2013 11:49:31 PM
Vehicle: T14
Experience received: 844
Credits received: 18,574
Battle Achievements: Lucky, Mastery Badge: "2nd Class"

Yay.

Once you get used to the low pen and accuracy that gun can bite pretty well. Killed a KV-2 with it. Got lucky badge because an enemy Hellcat (that I also killed later in the match) shot an M6 in the process of ramming me. This also gave me excellent cover to sit behind and snipe at the Hellcat with while simultaneously capturing the base. Overall four kills.

[Hawkwings]

The advice to not use the top gun on the ARL44 is junk. Get that top 90mm and use it. You will appreciate the extra penetration when you go up against those tier 8 premiums that you will see ALL THE TIME. Sure, when you're top-tier then you don't need it, but how often are you top? More often than not you'll be facing tier 7 and 8 heavies, and that is where the ARL44 really shines. It's not a good top of the heap tank, it's much better as a second-line sniper in matches where there are bigger tanks on your team to hide behind.

[Imperial528]

Victory!
Battle: Siegfried Line Wednesday, January 09, 2013 7:13:34 AM
Vehicle: T14
Experience received: 703
Credits received: 23,130
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall, Master Gunner

Finally, a match where I qualify for steel wall and survive. The armor may be 50mm, but with a good angle on the front plate I bounced at least five shots in a row from a KV-1.

[Imperial528]

Ghetto edit:

Defeat
Battle: Fjords Wednesday, January 09, 2013 7:25:24 AM
Vehicle: M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo
Experience received: 588
Credits received: 15,957
Battle Achievements: Cool-Headed, Mastery Badge: "3rd Class"

Not bad for a first match. Probably could've won too if that T-150 hadn't killed me. I had four kills and was about to get a fifth, and had single-handedly ground through a group of four-six TDs.

EDIT:

Second match blew that one out of the water:

Victory!
Battle: Ruinberg Wednesday, January 09, 2013 7:43:19 AM
Vehicle: M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo
Experience received: 1,680 (x2 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 17,072
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall, Sniper, Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, Mastery Badge: "2nd Class"

[AniThyng]

Any tips on how to get good firing positions with the e50? I can't seem to manage it without getting ripped to pieces by long range fire even from supposedly inaccurate guns, thanks to the non existent gun depression. I have the 105 already. So far I've had success only if the team is already winning, freeing me to fire without fear of retaliation, but that's obviously unsatisfying.

[The Vortex Empire]

The advice to not use the top gun on the ARL44 is junk. Get that top 90mm and use it. You will appreciate the extra penetration when you go up against those tier 8 premiums that you will see ALL THE TIME. Sure, when you're top-tier then you don't need it, but how often are you top? More often than not you'll be facing tier 7 and 8 heavies, and that is where the ARL44 really shines. It's not a good top of the heap tank, it's much better as a second-line sniper in matches where there are bigger tanks on your team to hide behind.

The 90mm F3 has a much better rate of fire and miles better aim time and dispersion on moving, and 170 pen is more than enough to deal with the tier 8 tanks you face. The top 90mm has higher pen and that's it, with only an insignificant gain in accuracy and horrific aim time and dispersion on moving. It's up to the player, sure, but I can't stand the top 90mm. I've used both, and I perform far better with the 90mm F3.

[The Vortex Empire]

I can only assume that we have radically different playstyles in that tank.

[The Infidel]

You know, you can play a ton of games and they go from disaster to nice, then something awesome happens, like this game. I played the Type 59 that flattened that T-50. It was a normal game and it was pure luck on my side, no setup. The video originally had "Benzin" by Rammstein as soundtrack, but Youtube didn't like that very much, so a remix of Sanxtion will have to do. A friend of mine played the E-50M. This both happened the same evening.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Victory!
Battle: Sand River Wednesday, January 09, 2013 7:54:08 PM
Vehicle: PzKpfw III
Experience received: 592
Credits received: 13,884
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall, Scout, Mastery Badge: "1st Class"

Even though the Panzer III has tin foil for armor, turns out it can bounce a lot of things at its tier or lower if angled properly. Too bad for me that this is very atypical of my performance in that tank, though.

[Rekkon]

70mm on the hull is hardly tin foil at tier IV. As long as they are not smart enough to aim at your turret, you are in good shape. The Panzer III was one of my favorites back in beta, but its sweet spot as a raider has since been eclipsed by many other vehicles. I still keep mine around. Pretty good win rate in it too.