World of Tanks - Free to play Panzer MMO

[Graphic]

Tiger is such a pimpmobile. Just tied my kill record (which was set with the Pz IV). I'm happy to have the boosted damage even with the longer reload.

And even being the top tank, I probably would have 5 hp left or died after the 4th kill in a pre-patch Tiger. Armor change finally makes it feel like the big bully it should be.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Sigurd]

It seems we are able to test out the French tanks. It is already test_2.
Downloaded the test_1 and test_2 patch to see what this is all about. first game:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I was able to move straight to a tier 6 tank (Medium line?) with my free experience.
This is the AMX 13 tank which I think is a light tank.. it is rather small (smaller than a Chaffee). I notice that the french bring a new feature into the game. the Cartridge gun.
You can shoot relatively fast 6 shots but then it takes a long time to reload new 6 shots.
AMX 13 has paper thin armour. only 40mm front turret and hull and I died pretty fast...

Need to do some Christmasy things. Will try this more later.

[Husar]

It seems we are able to test out the French tanks. It is already test_2.

b..b..b..but 5x XP first victory a day on the normal server!!!

We'll get the french tanks early enough anyway.

I also bought a Hetzer and some camos.

Graphic also told me about this german bonus code program, which gets you a T-127 and a day of premium, just click the picture, enter your e-mail and the homo sapiens verification code and you should get a bonus code to enter on the world of tanks homepage.

[Sigurd]

b..b..b..but 5x XP first victory a day on the normal server!!!

Yeah.. you could still get that 5x once every day and then play the test after. (see updated post above)

[rajpoot]

Graphic also told me about this german bonus code program, which gets you a T-127 and a day of premium, just click the picture, enter your e-mail and the homo sapiens verification code and you should get a bonus code to enter on the world of tanks homepage.

Nice...I just used the promotion and it works perfectly. Although i didn't realise I'll have to use the premium right away...most of the time will be wasted :(

Edit:
What tank is that...I can't see the T 127 anywhere in the USSR tech tee

[Graphic]

Nice...I just used the promotion and it works perfectly. Although i didn't realise I'll have to use the premium right away...most of the time will be wasted :(

Edit:
What tank is that...I can't see the T 127 anywhere in the USSR tech tee

Its a premium. Tier 3 light. If you haven't done it yet, make sure your garage is full before you do so you get a free slot out of the deal too.

[rajpoot]

Its a premium. Tier 3 light. If you haven't done it yet, make sure your garage is full before you do so you get a free slot out of the deal too.

I knew I might screw up if I hurried with the promotion.
I actually did not have my garage filled. There was one empty slot.
Somehow though my screw up didn't matter cause I still have the empty slot and the T127

[Graphic]

An extra slot must be part of the deal then. Cool

[Husar]

Yeah.. you could still get that 5x once every day and then play the test after. (see updated post above)

Not if I want to get anything done for my studies.

[rajpoot]

KV3 is one hell of a beast at times. Last battle, I played badly and we lost (rushed in like a noob), but it took 79 hits, HE and AP shells to bring me down. These bunch of tanks tracked me were at it for well over three minutes. I kept turning my turret but all I managed to kill was one heavy, T1 I think, who made the mistake of staying still.

[Graphic]

The new replay functionality is very convenient for someone like me who doesn't fraps every moment of gameplay, but I really wish they'd fix the jerkiness of it.

Here's a good Jumbo game of mine, using a replay.

[Veho Nex]

The new replay functionality is very convenient for someone like me who doesn't fraps every moment of gameplay, but I really wish they'd fix the jerkiness of it.

Here's a good Jumbo game of mine, using a replay.

What UI is that?

[Graphic]

Sniper mode: http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index....121611-update/

Tank icons: http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index....grepa-for-v70/

Health bars and tank names over tanks: http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index....mer-reloading/

[Sigurd]

The French tank Lorraine is just a great tank (tier 8 in test).
Meeting this on the battlefield when it has a full cartridge (6 shells) you are doomed, even if you sit in a tier 10. It has 232mm average penetration with its 100mm SA 47 gun and it is very agile (top speed of 60 km/h)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To bad it can't mount a rammer... the reload on this is atrocious.
It is also a great sniper... Very accurate guns (DCA 45 and SA 47)

[scottishranger]

Does it have a turret?

[Sigurd]

Does it have a turret?

Yes... the top tier french tanks have all the same concept with the entire turret hinged on a turntable. The whole turret moves with the gun.

[Sigurd]

I spent a few late evenings on the test server during the holidays and I have found my two favourite tanks in the game:

I love to play arty and this is just the ultimate arty out there. And since they have brought back the tracers, it is especially fun to play anti-arty.
The two top german arties can mount the 210mm morser which can load AP shells for credits. The HE and AP shell costs the same: about 1650 pr shell. But the AP shell has 303mm average penetration and 1500 damage. That will just kill anything. However... as my stats show, you seldom actually hit anything with it and HE shells are therefore advisable with its 2000 damage. You can kill 4 - 5 tanks but the post game results might just show 2 hits out of 10.

Compared to the GW Panther, the GW Tiger and Type E has a very narrow field angle. What so good about it then, you might ask. Well, even though it has a very narrow field it is nearly aimed at all times. It will take a few seconds to get that buzz which tells you it is ready to launch a mighty 21cm/2000 damage shell which will instantly kill any arty/french tank. I have also one-shotted Is7 and Object 704. Jagdtiger takes 2 shots.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This tank is the ultimate medium IMO... It dethrones T54. One on one, nobody can match it. It will take out a tier 10 tank in seconds if it meets it alone.
If you are in a group, this tank is not as dangerous as the armour is not that thick. But it is incredible fast - 65 km/h. You can do the T54 trick against a T54 and it will die in flames. It has the same tier 8 canon as Lorraine, but it has faster reload which is invaluable on this tank. No need for HE shells as this gun will penetrate all tanks in the game with its 232mm average. Watch out for the Bat in 0.7.1 it is a serious threat.
Playing Type 59 against this tank is useless.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[rajpoot]

If even tier 8 French tanks are going to be so deadly, how do they plan to balance out the other heavies with them?
For instance the IS7 is already a substandard heavy in it's tier. With French behemoths taking the field, I can't even imagine what's going to happen. Makes me wish I'd gone with the German heavy tree instead.

[Sigurd]

If even tier 8 French tanks are going to be so deadly, how do they plan to balance out the other heavies with them?
For instance the IS7 is already a substandard heavy in it's tier. With French behemoths taking the field, I can't even imagine what's going to happen. Makes me wish I'd gone with the German heavy tree instead.

You need to know how to fight them... They all have relatively weak armour (top tiers). If you encounter one, don't meet it head on. Try to find a place to hide behind. The peek-a-boo tactic will work (as long as you have support from the back). Also, if you are at 100% they only have to miss twice and you should be able to take it out. And stay in groups if the enemy fields multiple french hier tiered mediums/Heavy.
The only medium that might resist the Bat is the E-50. Those are the hardest to kill one on one. If you are in a Ferdi.. forget it. I took on two Ferdies and I used the one as shield agianst the other. They were both brought to tears and their 128 was not able to hit me. The Bat will also bounce shots from the S70 gun and even the derp gun of the T30. The 100mm fast shooter of the french top mediums only do 300 damage, and as such the gunner must know his business. I suspect the good penetration does serious internal injury to the tanks it meets because 6x300 is only 1800 damage and a Is7 should survive 6 shots if it is 100%, but they die just the same, often with burning fuel.

[Husar]

232mm pen also means you have to circle the real heavies, I doubt you can just penetrate a Maus or E-100 frontally with it, E-75 may prove hard as well. Of course you have a fast tank but theoretically almost no armour. What worries me is that you say it bounces shots anyway?!? Might just mean you're up against bad players though, they could use HE against your 40mm armour, should be devastating against the french tanks because it hardly bounces and their low armour value means most of the damage gets through. In the end the KV with derp gun may be the ultimate Bat Chatillon killer.

[Sigurd]

It might be as you say, a whole new ballpark in the public servers. The Maus' I met were no problem at all. Too slow to get you and every shot penetrated. I never tried any front to front action against the Heavies as I am used to Type. The Maus can't hit you if you sneak into it. the Bat might be the lowest tank in the game. Usually you shoot the heaviest in the back. They take too long to turn and you have emptied your six shooter before they have turned 180 degrees.

If you meet a Bat in a group, try to track it. If you do it is dead, dead, dead. The front of it is really sloped, even the driver hatch is sloped with the glacier. So I think if you hit it directly from the front it will bounce. Because it is so fast, it will nearly pirruet if you track it which exposes its behind. It takes only a few shots to take one out if the flank or the back is towards you.
The KV is not that good on distances but the Bat is... that monstrosity is easy to hit from the other side of the map The Bat uses 2 shots to take out a KV.. so the KV must get the first shot.

[Husar]

Yes, but how often do you get into a true one on one with a Maus on open ground?

What I meant with the HE and KV derp gun is that HE does not bounce as easily, usually it ricochets or so, but most of the time it explodes on the hull, when that happens it tried to penetrate the weakest spot of armour near it, on a bat that would be 60mm only at the front, since the angle doesn't really matter for HE explosion and 60mm is below most large-caliber HE penetration stats, it is very likely that it will penetrate and do full damage, for the KV derp gun that is 910 on average, for almost all guns it's more damage than an AP shell does anyway. Plus it is more likely to damage modules and crew members. Thus a single hit from an HE shell can be devastating to french tanks. Of course I haven't tried it yet, but read something similar on the official forums IIRC.

So yeah, maybe they are dangerous, but they're also incredibly vulnerable, most mediums have enough armour to prevent HE shells from penetrating them frontally, making AP the ammunition of hoice for most. The french tanks may change that and make people load more HE and switch more often. Helps with tracking them as well.
The frenchies on the other hand, should be happy not to be allowed to have a rammer as that opens up a spot for a spall liner.

Some big gun HE shell stats:

format: average pen/average damage

BL-9 (IS-3/4): 68/465
Pak 44 L55 (Ferdi/JT): 65/630
D-25T (IS): 61/465
M-10 (KV-derp): 86/910

Now some are not that high above 60mm pen and medium tank and other smaller guns are mostly somewhere between 40 and 60mm in HE pen stats, but that is the side armour of the Bat Char and IIRC the front armour of the Tier 8 that comes before it (and which the smaller guns are more likely to meet anyway) so I'd assume that HE can be a very powerful weapon against the french light/medium line, especially the 152mm derp.

And then I just noticed the turret has only 50mm max armour anyway, ma be even harder to hit but it looks like HE is your best bet against french tanks, not to forget it does damage anyway, even if it doesn't penetrate, and might hurt modules, plus it can be very disturbing to get hit by HE and make you miss.

[Slyspy]

The effectiveness of HE tank shells (but not IIRC artillery) on armoured targets was reduced severely last patch.

This generated much dismay (goodness me the WoT forum community is the most negative one I have ever known). It certainly hampers the effectivenes of light/low tier tanks when they face more powerful machines.

[Husar]

The effectiveness of HE tank shells (but not IIRC artillery) on armoured targets was reduced severely last patch.

This generated much dismay (goodness me the WoT forum community is the most negative one I have ever known). It certainly hampers the effectivenes of light/low tier tanks when they face more powerful machines.

Yes, but that is an entirely different situation, what you describe is an HE shell with say 50mm penetration landing on the 150mm front plate of a King Tiger. It obviously won't penetrate but explode outside, doing some minor damage to the tank because the armour absorbs most of it. The same shell landing on the front of a Lorraine 40t however, faces not 150mm armour, but 40mm, low enough to penetrate the armour with the explosion, you may have experienced this when an artillery shell lands on the weak top armour of your tank and, if you survive it in the first place, damages your tank considerably, usually also taking out some crew and modules. You could say the french tanks use what other nations consider top armour on all sides of their light and medium tanks.

Thus my advice is, when you encounter a french tank and it's not a heavy one with a lot of armour, try HE, might work wonders. Even if it does not penetrate, the low armour thickness shouldn't absorb a lot of damage and you may easily get a module, preferably the tracks.

It's possible that HE is nerfed so much that it's still useless because somehow the angle and slope apply or so but my impression is that HE is the balancing weakness of these fast, hard-hitting tanks that allows other tanks to keep them at bay.

In addition to their turret designs that put them at a disadvantage in rough terrain and when height differences are involved.

http://worldoftanks.eu/dcont/fb/medi...age_02_eng.jpg

Here's a recent explanation, it says penetration works as usual, so penetrating a sloped surface with HE may be hard, I'm going to try it, might work fine on the sides anyway.

[Sigurd]

Thus my advice is, when you encounter a french tank and it's not a heavy one with a lot of armour, try HE, might work wonders. Even if it does not penetrate, the low armour thickness shouldn't absorb a lot of damage and you may easily get a module, preferably the tracks.

The only problem with this approach is that you might not have one loaded in the first place. Even if you fire the loaded AP round which might track the french tank, while loading the HE, the french tank will shoot you to pieces. Usually they start by tracking you with the first shot and then continue with 5 fast but devastating rounds.
I have in a french tank been reloading when opportunity presents itself. It is wise to have a fully loaded six shooter.
Sometimes the french will trick you into thinking that they need a reload by firing a shot and then retreat to a safe place. Esp the Lorraine with its 1 minute reload. The Bat has much faster reload, so you shouldn't pursue it if it hides.

Another matter is the fact that the french will be firing at you when you finally reload that HE... If you have steel nerves you might be able to pick up the correct timing when you should fire back. I have fought tanks that fires just after I have hit it with my 3rd shot which makes their shell go wide and not hit. Then I can finish the job not worrying about getting smoked by a HE explosion.

[Husar]

So are you saying that everybody will only play french tanks or am I misunderstanding something?

And yes, I often fire out of cover, if they track me with the first shot then I'm often done for anyway, french tank or not. If I can retreat however, there's some time to reload. And if I'm completely alone on my flank early in a match with noone to back me up I may just suicide anyway because we're obviously doomed.

Of course I'm going to try fighting french tanks myself but you make them sound like they are in serious need of serious nerfing.

As for loading HE, I already do that when I cannot penetrate most tanks in the enemy team, I might just count french tanks to these and load HE right away if there are many of them.

[Sigurd]

So are you saying that everybody will only play french tanks or am I misunderstanding something?...
Of course I'm going to try fighting french tanks myself but you make them sound like they are in serious need of serious nerfing.

I think the developers do this on purpose. New tanks gets a little advantage over the others. People spend money to get them and then the devs nerf them after a while (Type 59 as a recent example).

I had a spin in my Bat last night and based on the following situation you decide if it is a little too dangerous:
I was playing Malinkova and had base II. I was fighting up at the mill when I noticed that all my companions down at the base was all gone and the base capture alarm was sounding. I raced down, going by stealth in the forests. I saw a AMX 50 68t hiding between the wood buildings as a guard. Luckily for me he was down to 10% and he didn't see me as I was approaching through the woods as stealthy as I could. One shot and he was toast. Then a JagdTiger saw me and approached front towards me and apparently he had HE because he took out 70% of my HP. He was at 88% and was reloading. I saw his bottom plate and fired my remaining 5 shots into it which promptly took him out around 20% every shot. I might have taken out modules while doing so, because he never fired again. I bet someone in a JagdTiger would think this frustrating that a small tier 9 medium are able to utterly defeat it by frontal shots, the strongest part on a TD in a 1 vs 1 brawl. I was rushed by a E75 and a Ferdi which tracked me and being empty, I was toast.

[Husar]

Depends on some additional info.
Did the JagdTiger take out some of your modules?
How far was he away when you shot at him and were you moving or standing still?
If you pumped 5 shots into his lower armour at 300m while going 65km/h then it's overpowered, if you were 100m away and standing still, that's okay.

It's not like there aren't "impossible" situations already.
For example a T-29 seriously hurt my Ferdi at 150m or so by hitting the very same spot in my lower armour plate every time while I could only really see his turret and not penetrate it (my shots also tend to miss the ears at that distance, no matter which gun I tried it with).
In other examples I had my IS-3 front plate penetrated at the very frontal spike (where you would assume it's impossible) by a KV-5 repeatedly (he always hit the very same spot) from 50m or so. Generally KV-5s seem to like premium ammo though because they often penetrate my Ferdi as well.
And then playing a stock Tiger in a Tier 13 match or so...

But what I dodn't understand is why all the other Tier9 mediums have top guns that do 218-220 penetration, which is just below the "useful against most tier 9 and 10 tanks" threshold beginning at around 225mm pen IMO, but the french already get a 232 pen gun at tier 8, my Pershing has 180, a lower burst fire rate, 240 damage and a lower accuracy as well. What it does have is more armour but against that 6 shot burst of 232mm penetration at 300 damage a shot it's useless.

I can see a lot of games coming where it's gamer over as soon as you see the first french tank, which may just be the first enemy tank you see at all. Not very encouraging.

[Graphic]

Unlocked the Tiger II. Anyone want to loan me 2.5 million credits?

[Veho Nex]

If I could I would. I currently have 8.9m credits and am all saved up for my Maus, but I need another 150k xp for it