World of Tanks

[veredus]

I have a couple of things I typically do to help the team win matches when solo. When you are one of the top tanks on your team, watch which way your other big tanks go and go the opposite way. Otherwise you'll just be turning around to save that flank anyway. Also ask for help when inevitably the only help you get is that stupid PZIV racing off ahead to die. When middle of the pack or lower pick a pick a big tank and stick with him w/o getting in his way. There is a lot you can do to help, even if it's just tracking big tanks and being super annoying.

When in platoons we use pretty much the same tactics except when your platoon is the top three tanks, it sucks, but split up. I'm not a super awesome player but I'm well above average with a 57% win rate. I have done very little clan wars, it's way to serious business to most people for my taste so almost all of my matches are pubbies.

Also I know it's been said before but try to find some people that are good tactically to platoon with and watch them after you die. A lot of this game is knowing when to be aggressive and when to shoot and scoot, where to wait, where to hurry through etc. And use your mini map. It's surprising the amount of people who are taken by surprise from tanks spotted on the mini map.

[Abagadro]

Ya, I've learned a lot by "ghosting" into good players' tanks (not just my platoon) after I get blowed up.  The XVM mod really allows you to pick out good players to do this with.

[Merusk]

Of all the suggestions, the only one I'm truly not doing/ good at is knowing when to shoot and when to scoot.  I'm far too aggressive sometimes and put myself in to bad spots.  I've begun to curtail this with my more expensive tanks, but still fall in to the trap a LOT when playing down at T4 & T5.

Oh, and XVM.  I've got it installed but have no idea where the stats are.  I must not have something toggled right.

[Amarr HM]

Make sure you are starting Wot with the right executable, not the normal one, it's something like Wot-xvm-proxy.exe (should have come with the xvm zip file and is to placed in the wot install folder).

[apocrypha]

Edit the XVM.xvmconf file that you copied from /xvm-doc/Samples/Full config/ to /res_mods/0.7.x/gui/flash/ so that line 20 says:

"showPlayersStatistics": true,

I have no idea why that isn't done by default. 


0.7.3 has landed, and Type59 is back. I weakened and bought one. Played 3 games in it and made 200k credits. Yeah, bollocks to premium account, this thing is waaaay better for money making!

Haven't checked out the whole Russian heavy line yet but I'll probably just sell the KV-1, KV-2 and T-150 after taking them for an exploratory spin later. They're all elited and it's not like I need a money maker now. I'll miss the KV, one of my favourite tanks.

Seen one of the new maps, Dragon's Ridge. Looked awesome - they've done some really nice stuff with terraced hills, new foliage designs (bamboo!) and a nice ground-hugging mist effect. Pic:

Was very confusing fighting in it since I hadn't even got round to looking at the map pics beforehand. Very hilly, lots of slow terrain, lots of cover. I'm guessing it's going to be city fighting for heavies in the centre, flanking battles on the West and no idea on the East, never got over there. The big green marsh-looking area on the East reminds me of the central part of Karelia - slow and good for TDs probably. Map:

Anyone played on South Coast yet?

[Merusk]

I didn't realize the Russian patch was dropping today and ran in to a bit of serendipitous luck.   I'd bought a KV on Friday because I was seeing them all over the place prepatch and wanted to drive one again. 

Having a little more skill than when I first played it 5 months ago I had a lot of fun. Whee.   So much fun I finally got to research the KV-3 and bought it last night to play around with it.   I didn't realize until reading patch notes this morning that I'd get 2 free tanks and slots out of that.  Very nice!

Oh, and I was using the wrong executable, I was continuing to use the standard shortcut.  I'll made adjustments this evening, thanks for the tips.

[apocrypha]

Just had my highest XP game ever, on Mines in T20. 33 shots fired, 28 hit, 6 kills. T20 is so versatile, I love it. I started out on the island, sniping enemy tanks trying to take the hill, moved back to the centre to defend when our attacking force failed and at the end of the match was pushing through the town to flank the last remaining enemy Tiger P and arty. Superb fun 

Victory!
Battle: Mines 08 May 2012 13:18:27
Vehicle: T20
Experience received: 11,120 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 55,087
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker, Master Gunner, Top Gun

[Tmon]

Nice one.  I ran a few clanwars matches but besides the serious business part of it, it remineded me too much of raiding.  Sitting around for 45 minutes while we put together a comp, briefed the plan and then waited for the match to drop then repeat for several hours just sucked all the fun out of it for me.  Add in having to show up every night and burn out is just a matter of time.  I think our serious clan wars guys last about a month before they either drop out of the clan altogether or just stop showing up for clan battles.  A few move on to the mega clans but most just say screw it and go back to pugging.

[Ginaz]

I wasn't expecting the new patch to be released for another week or two.  Good news.  I'm glad I was able to re-buy the KV and KV3 when they were on sale a few weeks ago and pick up the IS4 last week.

[UnsGub]

I ran a few clanwars matches but besides the serious business part of it, it remineded me too much of raiding.  Sitting around for 45 minutes while we put together a comp, briefed the plan and then waited for the match to drop then repeat for several hours just sucked all the fun out of it for me.  Add in having to show up every night and burn out is just a matter of time.

Clan Wars can be totally hardcore.  Every night, ~365 days a year.  Hours making rosters, ATC, and training battles. But any clan setup like just described that is not going to be long term on the map.

Clan Wars is only 30 minutes for us each battle.  ATC and strats 15 minutes before start and then the battle.  Rosters rotate and nobody plays seven days a week.  We platoon right up till Clan Wars and Companies as soon as they are over.

Biggest challenge with Clans Wars is getting into fights and dealing with collecting gold expectation while getting soft not fighting.

No Clan Wars tonight due to patch.

[Amarr HM]

Just had my highest XP game ever, on Mines in T20. 33 shots fired, 28 hit, 6 kills. T20 is so versatile, I love it. I started out on the island, sniping enemy tanks trying to take the hill, moved back to the centre to defend when our attacking force failed and at the end of the match was pushing through the town to flank the last remaining enemy Tiger P and arty. Superb fun 

Victory!
Battle: Mines 08 May 2012 13:18:27
Vehicle: T20
Experience received: 11,120 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 55,087
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker, Master Gunner, Top Gun

Wait til you get into a Patton ;)

Victory!
Battle: Malinovka 08 May 2012 22:01:23
Vehicle: M46 Patton
Experience received: 11,910 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 89,191
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker, Boelter's Medal, Confederate, Top Gun

[Ginaz]

Anyone have opinions on the new tanks?  I have essentially 6 new tanks and I'm just wondering which ones are keepers and which aren't.  And I totally forgot about the new French premiums, a tier 3 TD and a tier 4 SPG.

Edit: I ditched the KV-1, KV-2 and T150.  Didn't care for them at all.  The KV-3 and (especially) the IS-8 are fantastic.

[apocrypha]

Wait til you get into a Patton ;)

Victory!
Battle: Malinovka 08 May 2012 22:01:23
Vehicle: M46 Patton
Experience received: 11,910 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 89,191
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker, Boelter's Medal, Confederate, Top Gun

Niiice!  

Anyone have opinions on the new tanks?  I have essentially 6 new tanks and I'm just wondering which ones are keepers and which aren't.  And I totally forgot about the new French premiums, a tier 3 TD and a tier 4 SPG.

Edit: I ditched the KV-1, KV-2 and T150.  Didn't care for them at all.  The KV-3 and (especially) the IS-8 are fantastic.

My IS4 has the trollgun so I've only played it once and it's pointless with that gun. Top tier tank with a peashooter, not good. I've done exactly the same as you with the rest of the Russian heavies, sold the low tier three. KV-3 feels like the old KV - slow but with a goddamned naval gun on the front. IS-8 is great fun, nice and mobile, can be played very aggressively, feels like a natural progression from the IS-3.

[Amarr HM]

Thanks Apoc, nice game in your T20 too.

Played a little with the IS-8, kinda like an uber IS3.

[Merusk]

Anyone have opinions on the new tanks?  I have essentially 6 new tanks and I'm just wondering which ones are keepers and which aren't.  And I totally forgot about the new French premiums, a tier 3 TD and a tier 4 SPG.

Edit: I ditched the KV-1, KV-2 and T150.  Didn't care for them at all.  The KV-3 and (especially) the IS-8 are fantastic.

I played one or two games with the KV1 through to KV3 last night.   The KV-1 isn't bad if you're still in the mindset of old tier 5 like I am.  It's faster (or felt so at least) than the old KV and still blows shit up well.  I wasn't even in a match vs more than Tier5 and 6 vehicles, though, so it may be weaker than it felt. 

The KV2 feels exactly like the old KV did with all the upgrades. I only had the Derp gun for it in the matches I played last night, though.  The Derp always makes you feel good when you blow shit up.  I also had a decent team in that match.

I manage to elite out the T-150 with free exp after my match in it (I had 10k sitting on my Type 29 and hadn't converted it prior to playing the 150)  so I haven't tried it with all the upgrades yet.  The gun I had on it at the time felt weak and I was wtfpwnd by some Type 29s and an M18.   I remember bouncing  a lot of shots because I was cockblocked from the good guns by the stock turret in that game.   Now that I have it I'm going to give the tank a few games before discarding it.  Right now it seems like it's just fodder, though.

The KV-3 feels damn slow. I had the first engine upgrade on it and I was still crawling, so I can't imagine how horrible stock would have been.  However, it's feels more survivable than the other KVs.  I played 2 matches in this, and in the loss match I wound-up in a slugfest with an ARL-44.  I lost because I wasn't sure where to shoot him on the front to do damage, while the KV3 still has the same weak spots as the tier 6 KV3.  Still, it took him 4 shots to finally pop me, and he was getting plink damage from some tier 5 tank to my rear.

The second match I got caught at the end of match by a Lowe and T-29 tag-team as I was backing up into support fire from a KV5 and Su-100.   Foolishly stopped backing and the lowe popped me in the engine, but I took 2 from the lowe and one from the T-29 that only destroyed my ammo rack before that.   I was running the old KV's 107mm gun and couldn't seem to get pen on the Lowe (till I ammo shot him) but I'm liking this tanks' durability.  If I can get the 122mm I may have a new favorite tank.

[Ginaz]

The KV-3 is better in almost every way now except for its MM value.  Its not the bully beast it use to be, curb stomping other tanks when it was on top, but its still a great Tier 7 heavy.  The upgraded gun makes a huge difference and it also feels faster and more manuverable. 

The IS-8 does feel like a super charged IS-3.  Faster, more manuverable and with a bigger gun.  Its also very bouncy.  I soloed and IS4 with it last night.  It wasn't even close as I proceeded to push his shit in by angling the tank and playing peekaboo around a corner.  I had just under half my HP left when it was over.  I predict there will be many calls to nerf the IS-8, just like there has been with the new US tier 8/9s.

The IS-4 as a tier 10 is kind of meh.  Its not bad but I still enjoy the US T110 much better.  Its another "free" tier 10, so bonus, I guess.

[Engels]

Ginaz, its all about the driver. I solo'd, and I do mean every single shot, two IS-8s in my Patton just a few hours ago.

I personally have not found it very bouncy at all. I can pen that tank with much greater ease than I penetrate an IS-3.

[Ginaz]

Ginaz, its all about the driver. I solo'd, and I do mean every single shot, two IS-8s in my Patton just a few hours ago.

I personally have not found it very bouncy at all. I can pen that tank with much greater ease than I penetrate an IS-3.

I guess it is.  Most people's problems with this game (and most other games for that matter) often lies between the keyboard and chair.  I've never had any problems soloing T9 meds in any of my T9/10 hvys, except for maybe an enemy Batchat (nerf those French bastards ) or playing my Maus, which can get seriously fucked up if a med gets up close and circles it.

[Ginaz]

OK, so I researched, bought and played the KV-4.  Horrible tank.  Too big.  Too slow.  Too many weak spots.  Terrible hull and turret rotation speed.  I've already sold it.

[Merusk]

Am I the only one who, upon encountering French tanks, thinks to themselves, "IF the damn French had actually been able to use these the war would have been over long before the US got involved... Fuckers."

Yes?  Ok then.

[UnsGub]

Am I the only one who, upon encountering French tanks, thinks to themselves, "IF the damn French had actually been able to use these the war would have been over long before the US got involved... Fuckers."

Yes?  Ok then.

No.  Most of the tanks in WoT are Post War.

[Brolan]

Am I the only one who, upon encountering French tanks, thinks to themselves, "IF the damn French had actually been able to use these the war would have been over long before the US got involved... Fuckers."

Yes?  Ok then.

No.  Most of the tanks in WoT are Post War.

Actually the early war French tanks were the best in the world at that time, but they didn't use them together in a blitzkrieg fashion.  Instead they spread them out evenly over their formations.  Big mistake.

[Sheepherder]

Am I the only one who, upon encountering French tanks, thinks to themselves, "IF the damn French had actually been able to use these the war would have been over long before the US got involved... Fuckers."

Yes?  Ok then.

The only non-superheavy and non-light sized tank in design when the war broke out was the Char G1 designed by Renault.  Which was effectively a lighter armoured and slower Sherman.  It was cancelled because the infantry was in a pissing match with the cavalry.  How effective it would have been would be a matter of conjecture, however, I think this should offer some enlightening commentary on the quality of the work put out by the French defense industry:

Char B1:


Char D1:


Char D2:


SOMUA S35

Not quite as bad.

Actually the early war French tanks were the best in the world at that time, but they didn't use them together in a blitzkrieg fashion.  Instead they spread them out evenly over their formations.  Big mistake.

Lolwut?

The things were slow, they were tall, with a gun that couldn't be expected to take out a Panzer IV while firing HEAP rounds, that you had to refuel every 90 kilometers, with obvious flaws in the armour protection, and broke if you drove it on pavement.  Oh, and those fucking hull guns. Oh, and the commander doing literally all the work for every gun in the turret, along with his other duties.  Goddamn, France.

[apocrypha]

"Military Parade" special ended and during it I managed to research and purchase: S-51, Tiger, Jagdpanther, T25 AT and GW Panther. Total savings 3.4 million credits. 

I'm not sure why I bought 2 different arty... I only play arty occasionally to learn how to avoid arty fire better, but whatever!

[Amarr HM]

I only noticed the list yesterday and it gave me two of my next purchase tanks half price, VK3002DB and AMX1390. Shame the IS3 wasn't in there too, that took a huge chunk out of my wallet.

[apocrypha]

I was hoping to get the AMX 13 90 too but only got about halfway through the AMX 13 75 xp :/

As an aside, how is the "community" on the US servers? I ask because the racism and abuse on the EU servers is getting out of hand. I happened to have the General chat window open the other week and noticed regular racist comments being made, mostly aimed at the Polish, and no moderation at all. I've sat and watched it every now and again since then and it goes on all the time. Moderators *instantly* pipe up and warn people as soon as they speak in any language except English, but they completely ignore the constant xenophobia and racism.

I'm so used to this being considered unnaceptable that it shocked me a bit. In-game racist abuse is common but seeing it in a moderated open channel is really shitty.

[Amarr HM]

From the sounds of it glad I didn't play on the EU server, though the CW time difference is a bit of a hassle.

The community seems fairly good on the US server, our clan leader is one of the head moderators and has been for a while, he's pretty much made of awesome. Haven't seen any racism & doubt it would be tolerated, the mods are fairly snappy with chat bans.

[Mortriden]

I was hoping to get the AMX 13 90 too but only got about halfway through the AMX 13 75 xp :/

As an aside, how is the "community" on the US servers? I ask because the racism and abuse on the EU servers is getting out of hand. I happened to have the General chat window open the other week and noticed regular racist comments being made, mostly aimed at the Polish, and no moderation at all. I've sat and watched it every now and again since then and it goes on all the time. Moderators *instantly* pipe up and warn people as soon as they speak in any language except English, but they completely ignore the constant xenophobia and racism.

I'm so used to this being considered unnaceptable that it shocked me a bit. In-game racist abuse is common but seeing it in a moderated open channel is really shitty.

I very, very rarely see any sort of racism in-game; and when I do it usually gets crushed by the public populace in-game.  I've seen teams TK a racist as well.  Which was refreshing.

[WayAbvPar]

Finally decided to give this a whirl. Having a blast so far. Played some matches with Fur and Engels last night...I do an excellent job at garnering attention and making multiple enemies waste ammo shooting me  Really need to learn some of the basics still. Been playing less than 48 hours and already have a sleep debt; this is very dangerous 'one more match!' kind of game. Reminds me of Civilization (just one more turn and I will go to bed...ffw to 3 hours later, saying the same thing).

In game name is the same as here, so add me to your friends list if you are so inclined. I joined up with EVIL so those of you who are in it as well are stuck with me regardless  

[Mortriden]

Any of you that would like can add me as a friend as well.  Game Name: Valhalla01.  I run mostly around 9-11 PST... that's been a little less now, I just discovered Dues Ex 3 and that's been like crack for me recently.

[Engels]

We occasionally get a teaparty asshat saying crap in game, because you know, barak osama and all that, but by and large its racism free.

That said, specific clans within the game, on their own TS server, can have a serious amount of stupid. BG had a pretty homophobic environment, for instance, and I know for a fact that there are Chilean and Argentinian clans that are openly neo-nazi, but that wouldn't affect you unless you're part of the latino community.

[Brolan]

Am I the only one who, upon encountering French tanks, thinks to themselves, "IF the damn French had actually been able to use these the war would have been over long before the US got involved... Fuckers."

Yes?  Ok then.

The only non-superheavy and non-light sized tank in design when the war broke out was the Char G1 designed by Renault.  Which was effectively a lighter armoured and slower Sherman.  It was cancelled because the infantry was in a pissing match with the cavalry.  How effective it would have been would be a matter of conjecture, however, I think this should offer some enlightening commentary on the quality of the work put out by the French defense industry:

Char B1:


Char D1:


Char D2:


SOMUA S35

Not quite as bad.

Actually the early war French tanks were the best in the world at that time, but they didn't use them together in a blitzkrieg fashion.  Instead they spread them out evenly over their formations.  Big mistake.

Lolwut?

The things were slow, they were tall, with a gun that couldn't be expected to take out a Panzer IV while firing HEAP rounds, that you had to refuel every 90 kilometers, with obvious flaws in the armour protection, and broke if you drove it on pavement.  Oh, and those fucking hull guns. Oh, and the commander doing literally all the work for every gun in the turret, along with his other duties.  Goddamn, France.

The Char B was fighting tanks that could barely penetrate its armor.  Here is a quote from your own link: In 1940, the vast majority of Char B1 combat losses were inflicted by German artillery and anti-tank guns. In direct meetings with German tanks the Char B1 usually had the better of it, sometimes spectacularly so as when on 16 May a single tank, Eure, frontally attacked and destroyed thirteen German tanks lying in ambush in Stonne, all of them Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs, in the course of a few minutes. The tank safely returned despite being hit 140 times. Similarly, in his book Panzer Leader, Heinz Guderian related an incident, which took place during a tank battle south of Juniville: "While the tank battle was in progress, I attempted, in vain, to destroy a Char B with a captured 47-mm anti-tank gun; all the shells I fired at it simply bounced harmlessly off its thick armor. Our 37-mm and 20-mm guns were equally ineffective against this adversary. As a result, we inevitably suffered sadly heavy casualties"

Even French light tanks had heavy armor (for the time) and were tough to kill.

[Ginaz]

Am I the only one who, upon encountering French tanks, thinks to themselves, "IF the damn French had actually been able to use these the war would have been over long before the US got involved... Fuckers."

Yes?  Ok then.

The only non-superheavy and non-light sized tank in design when the war broke out was the Char G1 designed by Renault.  Which was effectively a lighter armoured and slower Sherman.  It was cancelled because the infantry was in a pissing match with the cavalry.  How effective it would have been would be a matter of conjecture, however, I think this should offer some enlightening commentary on the quality of the work put out by the French defense industry:

Char B1:


Char D1:


Char D2:


SOMUA S35

Not quite as bad.

Actually the early war French tanks were the best in the world at that time, but they didn't use them together in a blitzkrieg fashion.  Instead they spread them out evenly over their formations.  Big mistake.

Lolwut?

The things were slow, they were tall, with a gun that couldn't be expected to take out a Panzer IV while firing HEAP rounds, that you had to refuel every 90 kilometers, with obvious flaws in the armour protection, and broke if you drove it on pavement.  Oh, and those fucking hull guns. Oh, and the commander doing literally all the work for every gun in the turret, along with his other duties.  Goddamn, France.

The Char B was fighting tanks that could barely penetrate its armor.  Here is a quote from your own link: In 1940, the vast majority of Char B1 combat losses were inflicted by German artillery and anti-tank guns. In direct meetings with German tanks the Char B1 usually had the better of it, sometimes spectacularly so as when on 16 May a single tank, Eure, frontally attacked and destroyed thirteen German tanks lying in ambush in Stonne, all of them Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs, in the course of a few minutes. The tank safely returned despite being hit 140 times. Similarly, in his book Panzer Leader, Heinz Guderian related an incident, which took place during a tank battle south of Juniville: "While the tank battle was in progress, I attempted, in vain, to destroy a Char B with a captured 47-mm anti-tank gun; all the shells I fired at it simply bounced harmlessly off its thick armor. Our 37-mm and 20-mm guns were equally ineffective against this adversary. As a result, we inevitably suffered sadly heavy casualties"

Even French light tanks had heavy armor (for the time) and were tough to kill.

I read that book, Panzer Leader, which was a translation of some of the post war writings of Heinz Guderian, the man responsible for coming up with the blitzkrieg and who is generally regarded as the pioneer of armoured tactics.  From what I read in the book, the early German tanks were even bigger pieces of crap than the French ones. The German armoured forces were hampered by the restrictions placed on them after WWI and Guderian sometimes had to train with trucks instead of real armour.  Its actually a pretty good read, to see how sad of a shape the German military was after WWI and how inept the allied forces and political leaders were just prior to and after WWII started.

[Furiously]

What I found interesting.... Is Patton was a young Lt. during the Punitive Expedition of 1916 and he is in charge of 10 soldiers in a horse mounted cavalry unit...and when he went raiding one day instead of taking the horses, he took the three supply cars and lead the first US motorized assault. Of course he tied the bodies of the three guys he killed to the hoods...

[Sheepherder]

Even French light tanks had heavy armor (for the time) and were tough to kill.

The Germans were beginning to field the PzKpfw IV in 1939 (which could breach a Char at 700m).  By the time they invaded France, they had ~500 of them (out of 2445 tanks), compared to ~700 Chars and 430 S35's (out of 3383).  Fucking everyone was fielding pisscutter tanks in those days, France wasn't some fucking tank design savant, as evinced by that fact that most of their were destroyed by the rigors of driving on a highway.

Lastly, you're completely ignoring the Russians, who were rolling out T-28's and T-35's in the early to mid 30's.