Royal Equestrian Armored Division

Vergil wrote:

Ketchup wrote:*10k experience until researching the M103*
Yay.
*Checks credit cost... 3.6 million, currently at 1.1 million*
Fuuuuu...

aaaand this is how they box you into buying a premium tank

Actually, if I sold my beloved Jumbo Sherman and my T32, I would be much closer to affording it.
But I also want a Crommy, which is 900k.
Selling the M46 would be too much of a waste. I was considering a premium account, but not a premium tank.

Well honestly a premium account is enough if you play enough, you should make a small profit every game no matter which tank you're using as long as you don't explode right away.

Guess I really should consider buying premium for a little bit...I'm really kinda addicted to this game.

Odds are pretty good you'll get at least a day free for the anniversary event.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Heard some friends mention it on teamspeak last night. Don't know much about it, though.

Just made an account, sent you a join request XT. Looks like fun, any advice on how to start?

RoboRed wrote:Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Heard some friends mention it on teamspeak last night. Don't know much about it, though.

They'll probably post a code in the next few days on-site that you just log in and redeem there.

StoneSlinger88 wrote:Just made an account, sent you a join request XT. Looks like fun, any advice on how to start?

The lower tiers can be brutal, just stick with it. If you have problems penning, do what I tell my friends to do if someone isn't on hand to point out weak spots to you:

Spoiler:

There are exceptions to those rules, but until you learn the particulars of every tank, that's a good guide to go by.

As far as what to play- try everything. Some tanks are better than others in the end, but what really matters is what you have fun with.

@stone: don't give up. First tier is a pain in the ass and I would have ragequit from the game had xt and camo not been there to help.

Also, run through the tutorial if you haven't already. It'll give you a fair runthrough on how things work, and you get some cash and xp for completing it.

Don't be shocked if some things just can't be penetrated. When you're a light tank remember that by spotting an enemy and letting a heavier ally kill them you still get exp. Scouting is massively important so if you're clearly outgunned in the earlier tiers, be the sneaky guy observing the enemy and marketing targets.

That's the biggest thing that puts people off in my experience. Their first encounter with a seemingly indestructible KV-1! Not all tanks can hurt every tank. Some can't hurt certain tanks at all. Just try to stick to your own tier and you should usually be fine.

As a quick guide, here's some tanks to really be careful of.

KV-1 - Insanely hard armour for early tiers to deal with. But it's slow and its lower front glacis is rather weak. Do not get into a "hit me hit you" contest with one of these things at early tiers. It will win.

KV-1S - If you have the misfortune to encounter the community's easiest target for "Most OP tank in the game" then this will be it. It's lighter and faster than the KV-1 and easier to hurt but that gun it has will mush you in a single shot. If it's pointing at you at all...just don't hang around. Only attack when it's looking elsewhere.

Cruiser Mk4 and Covenantor - Pretty weak tanks, but if you get too close to one with a Pom-Pom it will shread you in seconds at low tiers. Keep your distance from these two. Not hard, they're pretty slow for light tanks.

Hetzer and T18 - These things are cheese on tracks. There's a recent metagame of high tier gamers tricking them out, throwing premium ammo into their derpguns and going new player hunting. Don't hang around for too long, get your shot and move again, as their guns are difficult to aim and take advantage of you sitting still.

Man...fuck KV's...I hate those things...

Not too bad after my first two games. First game, I damaged two, destroyed one, and was then destroyed. Second game, destroyed two, survived until the end. I've been trying to stay out of sight and engage tanks already shooting at something else. I've gone German for a bit, anything I should go for instead?

Pretty much to parrot the guys before me, don't get disheartened in the beginning. All throughout this game you will be punished harshly for every mistake you make, none moreso when you're learning to play. But, it is a fairly simple game to get to grips to and have fun with. Also it'll take several thousand games to get good at it and be able to positively influence big stats like your winrate.

For someone strating out, I'll also say that if you're already aiming for a specific tank in the game, don't be dissapointed if it isn't as good in the game as you expected. This game sometimes reflect poorly on tanks that were excellent in real life (the tiger is perhaps the most notable).
I would reccomend you play with 'true' tanks first- not Tank Destroyers or artillery, until you have a feel for the game. As a rule of thumb, heavy tanks are easiest to play with, followed by medium and light tanks being the hardest to get to grips with. This only really applies at tier five and above but its worth noting when deciding what tech tree you initially want to explore.

In addition to notes about tanks made by other people I'll add one of my own.
T1 Heavy: An American Heavy tank at tier 5, the same as the KV-1, it is a tall vehicle but its' front and turret are difficult to penetrate with lower tier weapons and is a struggle even for some heavy tank guns. This isn't unusual with heavy tanks, but the T1 (and its' bigger cousin the T6), both have a unique track arrangement on the side which although it looks like armour, you're shooting the track so most damage will be absorbed by that module. The actual hull of the tank is only a thin band at the top above the track slot. Shooting below that and you'll find your shots doing no damage frustratingly often, even with relatively powerful weapons.

Fuzzy wrote:


Hetzer and T18 - These things are cheese on tracks. There's a recent metagame of high tier gamers tricking them out, throwing premium ammo into their derpguns and going new player hunting. Don't hang around for too long, get your shot and move again, as their guns are difficult to aim and take advantage of you sitting still.

Guilty as charged. I have both tanks and use them as troll vehicles. They require slightly different tactics to face. The T18 can't hide as well as the Hetzer so as long as you keep moving you're unlikely to be killed from one lurking in wait, but its' front and side armour is extremely formidable. If you're ina tier one or two vehicle I would reccommend not bothering shooting at the front and simply retreating and trying to out maneuvre him.
The Hetzer can hide well and has excellent frontal armour, so be wary about going into unexplored areas- one hit from a Hetzer can kill almost any tier four vehicle or below, as well as seriously ruining the day of smaller tier 5 tanks. This vehicle can also turn really quickly, so one on one you're not as likely to get behind him as you might think if the Hetzer is a competent player.
However, the Hetzer's side and especcially rear armour is paper thin, so if you get the opportunity to hit one in the side or rear, even if you're in a much lower tier tank, take it. Similarly if you see a hetzer distracted by a teammate and you can get beside it they become easy kills.

Another general rule of thumb is to beware of any tank with a short and fat barrel. It means its' most likely packing and is inaccurate and has a long reload but is immensely powerful.

StoneSlinger88 wrote:Not too bad after my first two games. First game, I damaged two, destroyed one, and was then destroyed. Second game, destroyed two, survived until the end. I've been trying to stay out of sight and engage tanks already shooting at something else. I've gone German for a bit, anything I should go for instead?

Well, a general rule is that Germans snipe, Americans hull down and Russians brawl (also Russian and Chinese bias is insane). It gets a bit more complicated than that though and german tanks are fine to play.
I'm trying to update my NA version.when I do I'll invite you to a platoon if you're still around.

Win Rates came in for the most updated time.

This is (incorrectly) how WG judges what tanks need a buff or nerf,on their win percentage.

This makes about as much sense as it sounds. ie - None.

Judging by this, the FV4202 is the most powerful tier 10 in the game, apparently.

The IS-7 is apparently the least powerful tank in the game, period.

etc etc etc

This is how they judge balance changes. Not by listening to the multiple smart critiques and feedbacks they get from the EU server (the most multicultured unbiased group in the entire community).

Game working as intended then...

I sold my Hetz a few weeks ago thinking I would feel less dirty without abusing it.

Didn't work. I still have a T29.

EDIT: ...and yet Fuzzy, they still don't nerf the Foch 155. I don't get that at all.

WG's always had something of a fetish for TD's and AT's. They're the one tree that you can always rely on to be pretty decent for the most part. Even the British ones are doing pretty well. The Tortoise is a beast.

Bought 3 days of premium, ground the hell out of my Alecto last night when I got back from work, got my AT-2 and had one game with it.

Stock, it's slow as hell (and I understand I'm gonna have to get used to this for the rest of the line), gun's decent, but the thing is a stonewall. And I enjoyed trolling a Valentine (and the arties I KNEW he was scouting for, miraculously enough).

Didn't accomplish much, though. My team was, predictably, a bunch of nincompoops. The two light panzers with me didn't understand the concept of "backup and stay behind the moving cover", and ran to the front lines and got blown to smithereens. Valentine tried to outsmart me by moving to high ground, but got tracked and destroyed by me. By the time I finally got to the enemy base, everyone else was dead, and the rest of the enemy team was capping. And since I had all the mobility of a house, there wasn't much else I could do.

Slightly disappointing start, but it was far from the tank's fault. And I got a kill out of it and survival points.

You'll probably need to platoon with it for best effect tbh

The British AT tanks are really all or nothing. If they get hit by things they're resistant to then you can take hits all day without a hitch.

But arty or anyone who's carting gold ammo around will just destroy them like they weren't even armoured at all. Anything above your tier, forget it. You're dead. Anything on a flank, forget it. You're dead. Anything close enough to abuse the absurd weakpoints, forget it. You're dead.

But encounter someone who is the same tier as you, who doesn't know the weakpoints, isn't arty, has no speed and doesn't have any gold ammo and you will just roll over them.

They make the most satisfying and most frustrating tanks ever at once.

Special info is up

http://worldoftanks.com/news/2207-world-tanks-2nd-anniversary-weekend/

unfortunately this basically means 4-5-6 is going to be unplayable this weekend due to the massive number of derp shermans / derp pz IVs that will be running around.

Really? Premium discount right when I just bought premium?

Vergil wrote:
unfortunately this basically means 4-5-6 is going to be unplayable this weekend due to the massive number of derp shermans / derp pz IVs that will be running around.

Which I shall use my paper-armored Crusader to pepper with 57mm holes. Mwahaha.
And plenty of Tier 8 mediums and premiums running around to destroy with my Patton.

Man, NA gets such awesome specials, we always get screwed over on the EU ones for good specials half the time. Hell our last one was just 2x crew experience and that was it.

Hoping there isn't a Caernarvon discount on ours though, I just got it!

On that note, I really really don't like the Caernarvon. It's just a Black Prince but with the same gun, less armour, not much faster (still slow as anything) and a vastly slower traverse speed. All that increased was the depression and if that's your only bonus in a heavy tank...something is wrong.

The EU specials have been getting better. To be fair, last weeks' was 'the calm before the storm' and in the last couple of months the EU server has got specials for tier 8, half price on premium accounts and ammo. there probably will be something good planned for this weekend, it'll probably be announced on Friday.
They also changed the garage. Can't say they didn't go all out for this one.


With the Caevernon you'll need it fully upgraded to see a lot of difference. More gun depression for this vehicle is good, it means you can try and only keep your 165mm turret with the massive mantlet exposed, because the best gun has a high rate of fire you can't really duck in and out of cover. The gun is also spectacular. It has more penetration than the best gun on the King Tiger and does a few hundred more DPM too and is amazingly accurate.
You play it as a second line damage dealer and it's pretty fast as well- it can almost keep up with the VK4501 A whilst outperforming it in almost every single way so you can exploit flanks with it. The crucial thing is that you can't take hits with it and you need to keep facing the enemy and be aware of being flanked youself.

hawkeye92 wrote:The EU specials have been getting better. To be fair, last weeks' was 'the calm before the storm' and in the last couple of months the EU server has got specials for tier 8, half price on premium accounts and ammo. there probably will be something good planned for this weekend, it'll probably be announced on Friday.
They also changed the garage. Can't say they didn't go all out for this one.


With the Caevernon you'll need it fully upgraded to see a lot of difference. More gun depression for this vehicle is good, it means you can try and only keep your 165mm turret with the massive mantlet exposed, because the best gun has a high rate of fire you can't really duck in and out of cover. The gun is also spectacular. It has more penetration than the best gun on the King Tiger and does a few hundred more DPM too and is amazingly accurate.
You play it as a second line damage dealer and it's pretty fast as well- it can almost keep up with the VK4501 A whilst outperforming it in almost every single way so you can exploit flanks with it. The crucial thing is that you can't take hits with it and you need to keep facing the enemy and be aware of being flanked youself.

The top gun is the 20-pounder. Can't be used for any manner of profit at all, unfortunately. Stuck with the 17-pounder if you don't wanna bankrupt yourself.

Fuzzy wrote:
The top gun is the 20-pounder. Can't be used for any manner of profit at all, unfortunately. Stuck with the 17-pounder if you don't wanna bankrupt yourself.

105mm shells for the Patton and T32 are very expensive to use. They cost the same, 1k each, but the Patton's shells have higher penetration. Still inadequate against tier 8s, and shooting when you even have a chance at bouncing is too costly to consider in many cases. Even when I do a ridiculous amount of damage to the other team, I lose credits from ammo costs. Fun fact: When they introduced the M46, it had the highest potential DPM of any vehicle. Then came the French tanks and the tier 10 mediums.

Ketchup wrote:

Fuzzy wrote:
The top gun is the 20-pounder. Can't be used for any manner of profit at all, unfortunately. Stuck with the 17-pounder if you don't wanna bankrupt yourself.

105mm shells for the Patton and T32 are very expensive to use. They cost the same, 1k each, but the Patton's shells have higher penetration. Still inadequate against tier 8s, and shooting when you even have a chance at bouncing is too costly to consider in many cases. Even when I do a ridiculous amount of damage to the other team, I lose credits from ammo costs. Fun fact: When they introduced the M46, it had the highest potential DPM of any vehicle. Then came the French tanks and the tier 10 mediums.

The difference is they do way more damage per hit then the lower damage 20-pounder. The amount of shells it takes a Caernarvon or Centurion to kill a target is greatly more than a King Tiger, T32 or similar 1000 credit shell. Because their guns are more efficient with their money. The math has been done a few times now, the 20-Pounder is by far the most expensive gun in the game to run, despite not really being that great a gun overall. They have a penetration bonus yes, but no-where near enough to justify 680 creds per shot on a rapid fire lower damage gun. Especially when taken into account that British tanks (and their weirdly weak modules) cost so much more to repair to begin with.

Fuzzy wrote:

Ketchup wrote:

Fuzzy wrote:
The top gun is the 20-pounder. Can't be used for any manner of profit at all, unfortunately. Stuck with the 17-pounder if you don't wanna bankrupt yourself.

105mm shells for the Patton and T32 are very expensive to use. They cost the same, 1k each, but the Patton's shells have higher penetration. Still inadequate against tier 8s, and shooting when you even have a chance at bouncing is too costly to consider in many cases. Even when I do a ridiculous amount of damage to the other team, I lose credits from ammo costs. Fun fact: When they introduced the M46, it had the highest potential DPM of any vehicle. Then came the French tanks and the tier 10 mediums.

The difference is they do way more damage per hit then the lower damage 20-pounder. The amount of shells it takes a Caernarvon or Centurion to kill a target is greatly more than a King Tiger, T32 or similar 1000 credit shell. Because their guns are more efficient with their money. The math has been done a few times now, the 20-Pounder is by far the most expensive gun in the game to run, despite not really being that great a gun overall. They have a penetration bonus yes, but no-where near enough to justify 680 creds per shot on a rapid fire lower damage gun. Especially when taken into account that British tanks (and their weirdly weak modules) cost so much more to repair to begin with.

A problem with the T32 is that it's gun has the lowest penetration among tier 8 heavies, so shell bounces make it expensive to run.
The Patton can sling rounds very quickly and do excellent damage, but bounces render the cost worthless, so I can't take advantage of it unless I'm behind a Maus or slow-traversing TD because I have to very carefully place shots with a medium accuracy gun. Very rare to happen.

But I can see the issue with the 20-pounder. I've never used it in-game, but if it's a 'low damage, high penetration, rapid-fire' gun then a cost of 680 is way too high.
Patton gets 'reasonable damage, low penetration, rapid-fire gun' for its tier, but I'll always gripe about how absolutely awful it is.

Sorry for ignoring your invite last night, Ketchup. Forgot your username was different, and you don't show up on the roster anymore, so I didn't know it was you.

RoboRed wrote:Sorry for ignoring your invite last night, Ketchup. Forgot your username was different, and you don't show up on the roster anymore, so I didn't know it was you.

I had figured that was why. Think nothing of it.