idrisz
2721
in himmeldorf as an SPG, I park myself in the end of trainyard, and shoot either across or diagonally. it’s very easy to score hits if enemies comes through train yard.
That’s the beauty of this game and the reason I still play it after 9 months - there is no 100% winning strategy for any of the maps. There are smart things to do and there are stupid things to do but even the stupidest move can bring your team a win in a right situation.
Having said that, there are strategies that have a higher chance of success because they work in situations that have a higher chance of occuring. But even the most successful strategy will fall apart if the situation doesn’t develop in the way you hoped for.
Plus there is always a human factor.
In regards to Himmel, I agree with Dave. Statistically speaking, the opponent is not likely to send a sizable force through the hill, so if you do, you will have an advantage there. Also statistically speaking, your team usually doesn’t leave any flanks completely open and can do a decent job at holding the enemy for awhile (camping is easier than attacking). Which should give you enough time to go through the hill. Once you are off the hill, if you attack their back, you have an advantage on that flank and a good chance of winning the game. If you go for the cap, enemy team will most likely not turn around at once and attack you with full force - they will split and, again, you have an advantage.
That’s the most common scenario, that happens, if I had to guess, probably 55% of the time. However, it depends on so many variables and a lot of thinsg can go wrong. Your team having inadequate defense on some flank is the most common alternative scenario, which can occur due to your team’s disposition/skill/tier or due to the enemy team deciding to rush one of the flanks in full force.
If a coordinated team (a guild/clan) plays again PUG on the Himmel map, there is no doubt in my mind that the clan team should use Dave’s strategy, making sure the main city is properly protected. And because a clan can minimize most of the things that can go wrong, they will win most of the time.
Dave47
2723
World of Tanks, Day 2:
-I started off playing my (now upgraded) M2 Light Tank. It’s peppy and fast, and delivers a good punch against the poor souls still in T1 Cunninghams, but it seems to get into trouble against bigger tanks. Which is fair, but I would sometimes set up an ambush on rear armor, only to still lose the fight that I initiated. This may have something to do with my still-developing game skills, my 55% crew, the weird spotting mechanics, or just plain bad luck.
-I decided that light tanks aren’t for me. I don’t like firing on the move, or crazy mid-battle maneuvers. I tried to use my high mobility to either beat the enemy to a good ambush position or pull of some elaborate flanking maneuver, and occasionally it worked brilliantly, but most of the time it didn’t. I felt a stronger but slower tank would better suit my personal play style.
-So I bought the T2 Medium. And it was terrible! In fact, it was so bad that I just checked the blog, which confirmed that it’s larger and slower than my M2 Light, with the same gun, less armor (!), and only 10 more health points. Yuck!
-Should I work towards the M2 Medium? On paper, it doesn’t look great…
This works only if you get flank protection for the arty from some lights/mediums in the train yard, otherwise they get obliterated by the enemy’s scouts.
Really, you spend so little time in Tier 1-4 that what you play doesn’t matter. What matters is what you want to play later on. Decide now which tanks interest you most in the middle and high tiers and work towards them, even if the intervening steps are terrible. You’ll fight hundreds of battles in each of the Tier 5+ tanks, which are the core of the game.
idrisz
2726
Yeah I play with a platoon so I usually have cover on the side and in front of me.
also it’s really not an issue if I’m in my SU 26, since I blow them up before they get close, in the SU 8, I would need a lot more support.
The M2 Medium tank has a howitzer gun that 1 shots most of the tanks in its tier and sometimes higher tier tanks if you get a lucky shot.
It’s also pretty fast and manuverable.
Dave47
2728
You had me at “a howitzer gun.”
idrisz
2729
I call that M2 Medium gun the alien gun, since it has a little gun inside the big gun.
Talorc
2730
Make sure you give Tank Destroyers a try. I’d favour the Soviet ones over German, as the lower tiers ones probably have alight edge on their german equivalents.
It’s much, much easier to be tracked since beta. Not sure what has changed, but I was never tracked this much or quickly in my BT-7.
they fixed the warping tanks issue, so you can now manually aim ahead of a fast light tank and actually be able to hit it
Dejin
2733
Definitely. The 0.6.4 patch should help out lights when it comes out though. It will still be easy to hit them, but much harder to track them, since you’ll not only need to hit them in the sides, but actually hit either the lead wheel or last trailing wheel, not any of the wheels in the center or the broad center section of the tank in order to track them.
I’ve noticed a lot of Pz IVs mounting what appears to be a Panther-profile turret. Judging by the tech tree I assume this is the “Schmalturm” turret for the final gun.
Was this an “historically experimental” variant that just happens to be popular in WoT? Doing image searches it seems like even late model Pz IVs historically retained the low profile turrets.
EDIT: Googled it, and, “yes.”
Yeah, probably the majority of the stuff slapped on to the tanks in the game is ahistorical in some way or another. Not a big deal except in the little nagging way it annoys treadheads like me ;). Oh, and those German alternative turrets are fugly.
It isn’t so much that they’re ugly as that the Panther and Pz IV are at opposite ends of the short-tall spectrum.
The chance to have a Panther main armament on a PzIV is totally worth the profile increase though. I don’t even know if I’ll bother going Panther now.
It’s not the same gun, the panther gets the long gun that is very accurate and has better penetration.
edit: pzIV has the stock panther gun, but the panther gets the long 88.
Yeah, I was being unclear. What I meant was the Pz IV in WoT can get a 7.5 cm KwK 42 L/70, which I believe was the only gun the historical Panther got. Given that lots of other WoT tanks kind of all get ahistorical upgunned variants, that’s kind of eroded a bit I guess.
The schmallturm turret turns the PZ4 into a sniper. The traverse rate on it is incredibly slow compared to the stock turret, so much so that it really removes any ability you had to be a brawler. It’s my understanding that it’s something the germans tried to do, historically, but found it wouldn’t work because they’d already packed more mods onto the pz4 frame than it could handle, and this made it too heavy.
Yes and it’s one of my issues with TDs in this game.
The 42 L/70 was equipped by the JagdPanzer IV (as the PaK 42) and if they’d kept that historical split there’d be a better reason to play TDs than just camouflage. You’d then be presented with a real choice between the JPz IV and its long gun and extra camo, or the Pz IV and the benefits of a traversing turret.
In beta I gave up on my JPz IV because I could get all the good stuff on the Pz IV and not have to turn the entire hull to face the enemy.
