War Thunder

I noticed today they just changed the Kugelblitz's BR to 7.0, meaning it now sees 8.0 opposition. Dammit. Now I've either got to up my lineup to 7.0 or ditch the Kugelblitz, and I love the Kugelblitz. Those twin fast-firing 30mm cannons are excellent in both AA and taking out ground vehicles; not from the front at this BR, but they can chew up the sides and rear nicely.

So I forgot to save the replay for this one, and thus can't prove it, but let me share with you how I killed a Tiger in my first game with the KV-1 Zi S-5.

Also, I had no gun.

Earlier in the game I had been attacking an M6 alongside my buddy in his T-34-57. The M6 hit me in the turret front and damaged my gun barrel. I tried to return fire and my barrel blew off. As this was my first game in the Zi S-5, I had yet to unlock parts and thus could not repair my gun. This was not ideal.

Now we were playing on Ash River, starting from the West, and had pushed up past the central cap area to the hills at the enemy's edge of the basin when the Northern cap, which our team held, started to get de-capped. My buddy and I get to the edge of the basin and see in the cap circle a Tiger I and a Pz IV...G? I think? Long 75 and side-skirts, in any event. I decide that I'm going to run interference against the Tiger, get its attention while my buddy starts off by taking out the Pz IV and then focusing on the Tiger.

For those of you who are easily disoriented or simply can't remember, Ash River's Northern cap is in some very low ground, with large rocks and fallen train cars interspersed throughout and a fallen railway bridge providing a barrier for the area. Or, to put that another way, I was a KV-1 at the top of a hill with no gun and no survival instinct and was at the top of a hill, while this other dude was a Tiger with his back to me and no clue I existed and was at the bottom of a hill.

I did what came natural. Got the fuck outta that guy's attention.

I was doing probably about thirty-five Mph when I hit him, and the impact knocked out a couple of his crew and ruined his transmission but, more importantly, it also lifted the back of his tank. The Tiger I is a tall tank with bad gun depression, especially over the back, and while the KV-1 is by no means petite, being angled up away from me even by a little left the Tiger with no recourse but skipping rounds ineffectually off the top of my turret. Meanwhile, my buddy set merrily about slaughtering the IV G.

After about twenty seconds of this wrestling, during which time I've been grinding forward into this Tiger just to make his life some tiny bit worse, he does the most wonderful thing. He tries to pull forward. Suddenly both of us are shoving him forward; I imagine he hit his top speed in a heartbeat. He hit the train car in front of him too, doing about 30 Mph. The impact killed his crew and I was credited with his destruction. That may be the most disgustingly happy I've ever been in War Thunder.

I believe it. That is pretty amusing actually.

A little look at the new vehicles being added in update 1.49

Skyraider hype.

Any new interesting ground vehicles?

I noticed we seem to be missing ground vehicles for some nations still like Great Britain. I so wanted to clunk around in British tanks like the Matilda's.

There's a little list there but it doesn't seem like too many. Couple T-34 variants, M18 for the Americans. Jerries have a new StuG.

List could always expand though.

And I'd love to see the English tanks get in here. Japanese maybe but they were mostly shit so I can't imagine they'd get far. Then again their planes are shit too so eh.

I saw somewhere they are in the works but they may also be adding other crazy things.

Had a couple good runs with my Russian set today. Bagged some good hits with my Zis-30 made me happy. My Bt-7 has the good ammo for AP and it had it in time for what I am now calling 'The day of the Stugs'. Nearly half of the enemy team was stugs. Tough bastards to crack if you don't have the right ammo.

Craziest thing I see is the T28. I hope that means the T28 super heavy tank because that'd be awesome.

I killed my first Maus today with my Tiger IIH; was rather pleased with myself!

Germany still gets no love...also US is getting its own TD line? Cool.

I'm surprised they're also adding in the Doom Turtle tho...I wonder if there's any gun in the game that's capable of penetrating that 305mm front armor...

edited 19th Apr '15 7:19:43 AM by onyhow

Maybe another Doom Turtle.

If not you could probably just circle the thing fairly easily, it's huge and fat and slow and adorable in it's own special Doom Turtley way.

I don't think anything can pen from the front. Unless it has a thin spot. Otherwise the sides and back are the primary targets.

edited 19th Apr '15 4:00:08 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Yeah, it's super unwieldy and dog slow, if they model it accurately. Designed to be completely proof against the German long 88 from the front. Records show it was mostly intended for anti-fortification concrete-busting work, though it certainly could be also used as a heavy tank destroyer from prepared positions.

With a top speed of 8 mph and only a 500hp engine, it was grossly underpowered.

Amazing that one still exists in real life, and that nobody knows why it sat in a field for 27 years or why nobody noticed it in that time.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of ammo does everyone use?

I usually going with some type of AP shell with an explosive for my tanks but I've been using the rigid shells with my Panzer III to make up for the tiny gun and I'm really liking them. Might try it with my other tanks too.

For planes I always go for as many tracers as I can.

edited 19th Apr '15 6:17:34 PM by LeGarcon

I balance my ammo for penetration at ranges. Usually one ammo is better at long range then others or another has better pen at short ranges. Most of my tanks don't have access to HEAT ammo yet. My Stug will be the first.

I had the HEAT with my M 4 A 3 105...good penetration, kinda crap on internal fragmentation...still need that to pen heavier tanks tho...HE round aren't good for that.

edited 19th Apr '15 9:30:40 PM by onyhow

Sometimes players are too cautious. Our team realized at the very end if they actually moved around flanks and attacked they could do something. My M13 half track did some good business of swatting multiple enemies skirting the flanks. The ability of that vehicle to hammer through armor is kind of scary.

edited 20th Apr '15 12:24:09 AM by TuefelHundenIV

The AAA in general is pretty good at hurting armor, and most have a more armor-piercing loadout for ground targets. My Kugelblitz just got uprated because of that (dammit!). In real life, AAA often got used against less well-armored opponents; they can shred armored cars, APCs, light tanks and pretty much anything short of a medium tank / MBT. Even on those, they can do damage though the crew will probably survive. They key is that AAA generally has extremely high muzzle velocities giving them great AP capability with the right shells.

In fact, most of the postwar generation of AAA was rapidly obsolete in its primary role, but got used for anti-infantry work instead. Only radar-guided AAA really kept being viable against aircraft.

Generally, for shell choice: I evaluate the HEAT first to see if there's any point. If the HEAT doesn't beat the regular AP ammo that you get to begin with at 1000m, it's not worth bothering with. If it does, it's worth having some. Generally HEAT will have the same penetration at all ranges, and if it's got better penetration over about 700m or so it's worth keeping a few for long-range shots. For some tanks (Sherman 105) it's essential. World War II HEAT wasn't great, though, and is often more inaccurate than AP.

If there's a solid AP shot, it's worth having some in your loadout. The problem with solid shot is that it does much less damage than AP with an explosive core, so only use it when the enemy armor and range make it essential.

For most tanks, the only point of HE is against lightly armored targets like AAA. I generally don't bother. The only exception is the howitzers with high-caliber guns, such as the Sherman 105 and the Russian short-barrel assault guns. If you have one of those, use HE and fire at the turret; the fragments will often penetrate the top of the tank.

edited 20th Apr '15 1:20:26 AM by Morven

I knew about the use of AAA in the historical sense. But the .50 cal is not known for defeating tanks even light tanks. So seeing my M -13 shredding tanks and even making the Pz II sweat a little is still a bit of a surprise.

edited 20th Apr '15 1:45:29 AM by TuefelHundenIV

At 200m, the M 2 HB with AP ammo can penetrate ~25mm of homogenous steel armor and ~23mm of face-hardened armor.

True but only a few of my kills were that close. One of them was a fellow M-13.

After a rather obnoxious match last night I believe more then ever that the spawn zones need to be protected from all attack not just from artillery. A T-34 was camping the hill and plinking players the second they spawned. It usually takes a few seconds for a player to gain full control of their tank and get rolling. They either need to shield the spawns with natural obstacles or give them a protective "invisible wall" of some sort.

edited 20th Apr '15 7:27:30 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I wish my T-34 excursions would go that well. They used to be these indomitable juggernauts but now I'm getting one shotted every time I go out. Always right in the fuel tanks and the tank explodes. Too fragile.

But on the other hand, that 85mm gun is so damn nice.

And yes, spawn camping should have more barriers to it. Which map were you on?

Morven I can't recall the name off the top of my head. I should still have the replay as it was fairly recent. If push comes to shove I can dig around and look it up.

The map's orientation is One team in the N/E and N/W corners and their opposite numbers in the southern sector with similar orientation. Roughly in the middle of the map is a hill top fortification with a flag cap in the middle with multiple entry points into the fort making it hard to hold. There is a sort of open gorge to the east of the fort with roads along both sides that the two teams can take to reach the fort. They frequently have sniping fights across the gorge. The west half of the map is very hilly with several roads all around it with high cliffs and hills for the N/W spawn.

The western entrance and slope of the hill fort looks directly over the S/W Spawn zone allowing plunging fire into the tops of tanks as they spawn. I had my engine blown out as soon as I spawned and then my crew killed by the follow up while I was still wondering what the hell happened.

edited 20th Apr '15 7:26:40 PM by TuefelHundenIV