World of Tanks

Back in the day for whatever reason, tanks at long range didn't move smoothly across the screen. They'd look like they were lagging (they weren't, just looked that way.) They'd just jump 50m ahead, pause, then jump ahead again, pause, etc. until they got within about 250 - 300m of you. It made hitting anyone at that kind of range virtually impossible. It allowed you to be a lot bolder in your open field moves if you were in a quick tank. That allowed the Stu G III with the 105mm to get into position easier. Then they fixed it and a decent shot can take you out. Made the assault Stu G a lot harder to play anywhere but urban maps.

The Hetzer is tougher than the Marder, but with the Marder's sight range and gun who cares? By the time they'd see you they'd likely be dead anyways or you could reposition. Not to mention the increase in tier will bring a lot bigger guns after your Hetzer.

The Stu G is a lot of fun. Slightly better armor than the Hetzer plus a lot quicker and more maneuverable. Add on you getting a choice between the 105mm and the 75mm/L70 (which is a 75mm machine gun/sniper rifle) and it's as much fun as the Marder, maybe even more fun.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

So what am I seeing of a tank at distance suddenly disappearing then reappering 50m later. Of course I think this is strictly related to detection and line of site because it usually happens with hills, houses, and other obstructions at range.

I like my little Marder II. Why hello there mister tank. BANG! (Other player; FUUUUUUUUU ONE SHOTTED BY MARDER WHORE!) >:3

I like that I can actually punch holes into the turret of KV at reasonable distance. Also discovered tracking is pretty easily done and aiming at the treads tends to get me more regularly penetrating shots on tanks like the heavies.

edited 12th May '11 12:39:39 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Yeah, that's intervening terrain. This was against tanks in the open.

When you're facing someone much higher tier then you the lower hull/tracks is a good place to aim for. The armor is thinner there and even if you don't penetrate you've got a chance to track them. Even better if you use HE rounds. I always keep a few HE for those big tanks I couldn't otherwise hurt.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

Ahh I take it the HE tracks them better.

I would play my heavy artillery more but,

1. It is damn inaccurate (Aim is as tightened as it can get and it is way off mark)
2. Folks forget artillery needs protection and support.
3. I usually end up on arty unfriendly maps.

I am still enjoying my IIIA and am hoping the next tank in line is decent.

Still have the T-46 in my garage. Ditched .5 accuracy 76mm (after a 5m miss) and said hell with it and slapped on a 45mm rapid fire gun.

edited 12th May '11 12:46:35 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

He doesn't have to penetrate to damage them. You have a chance at system's damage, and a few percentage points of damage, with a decent sized HE round. It also has a better chance of tracking someone than an AP round.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

That would be very useful in giving a big tank a knock on the head.

I need get out of the current arty tank or go back to the other gun because it was more accurate. It loads faster but the hit to accuracy just is not worth it.

Who watches the watchmen?

Tuefel - Didn't get your invite. Iunno what happened. Metal Gear. Whatever. PM me your username?

Played a bit today. Shit all experience, but wow am I suddenly making loads of munnay.

The Bus still isn't treating me much better. I'm starting to figure it out (and I bought the gigantic tier 6 gun for it), but it's still an awkward vehicle.

Almost doubt my decision to go Russian for the Tier X tanks - pretty much every single Russian tank up to the final one is less cool than its German counterpart. (At least the final tank is cooler.)

edited 12th May '11 7:20:54 PM by Barcode711

Worshipper of Ahura Mazda, as proclaimed by Zoroadster http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr

barcode. I think you just need to add me to your contacts as well.

What is your "bus with a big gun/"

Who watches the watchmen?

I'll try that.

The T-28. Not sure what you're supposed to do with a fast tank whose gun takes 3 seconds to aim and fires 13.33 RPM.

Worshipper of Ahura Mazda, as proclaimed by Zoroadster http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr

Hit and run raids mostly, Kill scouts, hit td's from behind, aggressive scouting, hunt down arty through holes in the enemy line.

I had T-28 In Beta once you get that bigger gun you are a real threat to other tanks. Ambush if your not in a field. your gun should hit pretty hard on even medium tanks, heavies, basically anything you come across. You will likely one shot light tanks. In general make yourself a pain the in ass to the enemy team.

Who watches the watchmen?

Ok just did a nice test run. Aiming for the under side where the treads are of the tanks really does work wonders one to two shots on light and medium tanks.

Who watches the watchmen?

Trust me, while the Tiger and King Tiger might ooze style, the Stalin series has them beat. The big German advantages in optics, accuracy, and communications don't really translate into the game. And in a 300m or less dogfight the Russians are as good if not better than the Germans.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

<reads the previous two pages>

Oh fuck, guys, I sold my Marder for my Hetzer

On the plus side, in my very first game with my Hetzer I bagged 4 tanks and recieved not one hitpoint of damage, so maybe it's charmed.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

84% on my Marder. Just...16% more..till I can get some camo upgrades....

Also, bought my second artillery. The Grille shoots a lot more often, which is great, but...what's with the non-map-length range?

PS: oh my god the grille is absolutely awesome

edited 14th May '11 10:31:24 AM by Barcode711

Worshipper of Ahura Mazda, as proclaimed by Zoroadster http://twitter.com/bpglobalpr

I ditched the shitty American artillery. Their accuracy never improves much only how much damage they do.

Working towards my first German Medium Tank.

And I realized I had money for the Camo Netting for my Marder II. Kiss 100k goodbye. I did not see an ammo ram in the list of compatible gear though.

I am getting better at beating the crap out of heavies. Mediums I eat for breakfast.

I wish we had the ability to choose no artillery matches.

Almost bagged me a Panzer IV but I was a bit impatient and pulled the shot too high and hit the main bodies armor. I had been taking sniping shots at him from a distance and damn near killed him. Couldn't load fast enough to finish him off before he creeped behind a hill and mangled two mediums and another TD. I came over the hill and was waiting for him. He came up squared off to me in the oblique. I could have hit tread well and finished him but I hit his hull and he got me.

edited 14th May '11 9:45:36 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

The Grille's first gun is shorter ranged but more accurate. The second can reach clear across the map but drops the rounds at random.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

I am liking even the first tier German arty. Though the bulk of my kills are still in direct fire mode because fools can't protect arty for shit.

Would you guys say a improved gun laying drive is worth the effort for a Marder II?

Also what are the various locks on the devices from and how do you unlock them?

I really wish we could customize our matches or match preferences. Like no arty all tank matches.

edited 15th May '11 5:27:57 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

So which groups should I focus on?

Fight smart, not fair.

Depends on what your looking for. I am keeping my T-46. The 45mm gun is fairly accurate and I can actually put holes in medium tanks and possibly track a heavy with careful close range shot.

I have a light, going into medium with Germans I might try and go for a Leopard as well. I want a heavy Russian tank because I like the looks and they are kind of Iconic of massive tanks. I am also going with German TD's because the German's had some crazy awesome ideas for TD's. I am currently looking at German Artillery line and hoping it plays better then the American one.

I am tweaking my crew and tank on my T-46 to be as good as possible. I will be doing the same for end game medium and end game td.

Light tanks are sort of fast and scout type tanks. They can hit reasonably well just don't try and stand toe to toe with medium or heavy tanks. You scout for artillery and to show where the enemy is.

Medium tanks are mobile and pretty hard hitting. The main body of most forces.

Heavy tanks are the slow heavy hitters. The can shoot fairly long distances and kill or severely damage most tanks in one hit.

Artillery are long range fire support and death to anyone sitting still too long. You will camp a lot but you get an awesome top down view.

Tank Destroyers are pretty much snipers. Not as sturdy as main line tanks but they are more then capable of punching well above their class. Marder II's are more then capable of killing heavies and taking long range shots at distant targets for example. Higher Tier TD's are scary.

It is actually kind of funny when you have a bunch of marders with 7.5cm and 7.6cm guns all on side. I kid you not we have rolled up heavy tank supported flanks all by ourselves.

TD's and Heavies can also hold a line really well. The combined fire power overwhelms most tanks and the longer site range of the TD helps out the heavy to spot enemies before they get too close.

I have actually found something nice about the Hetzer. Their 7.5cm guns are very accurate and they are closed cabin so HE and some arty is not as deadly to them.

edited 15th May '11 7:08:47 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Depends greatly on what you want to do.

Light Tanks - scouts, arty and low tier TD harassers. In the lower tiers where all tanks are lights they can be a lot of fun. For most of the game though lights are pretty much unable to do more than mildly annoy the big guys. Your main role will be to scout out enemy formations and find their artillery. Most scouts suck, they just suicide charge the enemy and die in two seconds. A good scout can literally turn the tide of battle by helping to get their artillery eliminated and their big boys picked off. Very hard to do well but when you do it well you'll be a game winner. Sadly you're small enough that in upper tier games your survival is more a function of ping and luck than anything else. The Germans have the best light tank in the game, the Leopard. The Russian A-20 isn't too bad either. The US M2 is very fast but has little to no armor.

Medium Tanks - Decent manuverability, enough armor to keep them from getting one shot or randomly killed, a gun with enough power to put holes in most mediums or lights and to hurt the heavies from behind or the side. It's hard to really classify them because they come in all shapes and sizes. You've got snipers that don't need to be anywhere near the front line like the PZIV with the 75mm/L70, mid range flankers like the T-34 or Sherman, or slower brusiers like the German VK's. Long story short you'll spend a lot of time in them. The Russians have the ultimate mediums the T-44 and T-54. Fast, good armor, good gun. They're hell on treads. The American Mediums aren't as fast but their armor is heavier. German mediums lead to the Panther and Panther II which are decent tanks they're just huge and hard to hide compared to the smaller US tanks and positively squashed Russians.

Heavy Tanks - Huge slabs of armor and big guns. Speed and manuverability are vanishing memories for the heavy driver. There's not a lot to say really. Big, heavy, tanks. The one real downside is that you are artillery fodder. The most important skill a heavy driver can learn is how to avoid artillery fire because unlike your pint-sized compatriots you can't count on moving fast to avoid artillery fire. The American heavy line starts off slowly and painfully. Their first heavy the M1 has a lot of HP but not much else going for it. It's a rolling billboard. The US heavies start to come into their own though with decent speed, big guns, and turrets that seem to be made with 2" thick tungsten. The downside is that their hulls are relatively thing. You can bounce shots off the turret of a T32 all day but put a round into its hull and the thing is in trouble. This means American heavies tend to move to position quickly, find someplace to go hull down, then plink down range. German heavies start you off in the Tiger and then into the King Tiger. The downside is that they are huge, the Tiger's armor is almost perfectly flat meaning that most guns of the long 75mm variety or larger can penetrate, and the King Tiger's mantlet is made of paper mache. Their guns are solid and very accurate. Still, the German heavy line is something you get into because you love their look or their history, not because you're powergaming things. The VK 4502 and Maus are at sever disadvantages compared to their Russian counter parts. Their guns are excellent and accurate, and their armor is thick, but they are slow, slow, slow. The Russians are the kings of the heavies. The KV-1 and 2 will have you ready to pull your hair out but the Stalin series is just awesome. Good armor, not the greatest, but its well sloped. Your profile is small. The only downside is the guns which being Russian are inaccurate compared to the German and US guns, but make up for it by being fucking huge. The IS-1 and 3 are easily the match of the German Tigers but the IS-4 and 7 are just monsters you'll either want artillery or your own Stalins to try and take out.

Tank Destroyers - Snipers of Wo T. You sit back and mail it in, usually. Tank destroyer's most defining feature is their lack of turrets. Their guns are fixed firing forward. This greatly limits their field of fire and in combat versus tanks with turrets that could be death in close so TD's hang back. This of course will go out the window with the turreted US TD's. However the trade off for no turret is, usually, much heavier armor than you'd expect at that level. Shooting at the front of a Jagdpanther or Jagdtiger is what veterens of Wo T like to call a "complete fucking waste of time." Tank Destroyers tend to have longer sight ranges than any other vehicle and a bonus to hiding meaning that not only can a TD see you long before you can see it, even if you do get in range to see it thanks to its hiding bonus you probably won't spot it anyways. US TD's weren't released in Beta and I'm focusing on German and Russians in the open game. US's TD's are going to be very fast, with big guns, and no armor. Russian TD's are what you might expect. Their armor isn't as thick as the Germans but it's still decent and their turn of speed is good. Their guns are not as accurate though. Once again the Russians compensate by putting the biggest damn guns they can in them. The ISU-152 and Objekt-701(?) mount a massive long barreled 152mmm cannon that no one wants to get caught in front of. The Germans aren't as fast but they have very thick armor and accurate guns. They make the best long range snipers.

Artillery - The source of 70% of the whining on the Wo T boards. Usually by people who can't fathom why standing still in the middle of a big field isn't a valid strategy. Arty gives you an interesting top down view of the battlefield you use to find your targets. You rely heavily on your team having good radios and spotting targets for you. It's not easy to get good at arty as it's 50% paitence and 50% zen voodoo. You need to have played the game for a long while to know the routes tanks tank. Good hiding spots, and likely movement patterns. This will allow you to predict where your targets are heading and get their first with an arty shell. Y Ou have to be able to predict where they're going because of how long it takes your targeting reticule to shrink down and even then it's kind of iffy. Bad arty will throw around a lot of shots and not accomplish much. A great arty player can crush drives all on their own and change the course of battle single handedly. US arty is fast firing, has huge ammo reserves (one of their tanks has 142 shells), but isn't that damaging or accurate. You will literally spray shots down range. I haven't run into much of their upper tier stuff but it looks like it gets more impressive. The German stuff tends to be tougher from and armor stand point, manuverable, and has long range accurate guns. The Hummel is a TD that happens to have an artillery alt firing mode. Russian arty is exactly what you'd expect. Slow, ponderous, and with accuracy that can be described as, "somewhere over there," but it is huge. They have the biggest gun in the game and one hit from it will leave even a Maus or Is-7 hurting. If you want the best arty I have to say go German. Russian is fun for the "HOLY SHIT!" factor when you score a hit but you're much more likely to actually get that hit with a German piece.

So, long story short, if all you're interested in is being in the best tank:

Lights - German Leopard Mediums - Russian T-54 Heavies - Russian IS-7 TD's - German Jagd Tiger Artillery - German

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

Well my Marder Crew are all 75 percenters now. :P spent some cash to get them trained. I will do the same for my t46 crew soon.

Big update coming along with American TD's changes to gameplay etc.

Arty would be more fun if there was less voodoo magic

edited 16th May '11 12:05:40 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

It's just more art than science. Especially with the bigger guns that take forever to load you've got the time to watch someone and how they behave. Having played plenty yourself you can figure out what they're thinking or just from knowing the archetype you can make a good guess and put your reticule where they're going to be likely be. Then it's just a matter of seeing if you were right. Then you have to accept that a 150mm artillery piece being fired ballisticly isn't going to be a sniper rifle. Most will get close enough to do almost certain damage but given their base damage you can't expect direct hits every time or you'd be one shotting everyone.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you made arty easier it would kill the game. It's already on the verge of being too good.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

The Jagdpanzer IV is great once you get the 88. When you get in games that go as low as Tier 3, YOU ARE A GOD.

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."

The gun's nice, the armor is nice, but it's just not as much fun as the Stu G III.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

Really? How so?

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."