kedaha
3661
Really? I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see a T6 Sherman rather than vk or t34-85. His dps is only slightly higher than mine, I know i should bounce at least one shot and he has a lovely high profile that I can penetrate easily. Fully upgraded I really enjoy the vk once I’m not in with 12 t7-t8s as occasionally happens. That being said, I would like to try the American medium line before i get bored and quit :)
I find the Shermans, the Easy 8 at least, to be great tanks overall. Yeah, they’re tall, and the side shots are easy pickings, usually, but that fast shooting 76 is wicked and they’re fast and maneuverable once they’re upgraded. The front is decently sloped and armored as well. I’ve found the VKs to be hit or miss (literally); the T-34-85s are one of my favorite tanks to play though.
Dejin
3663
I really like the Shermans too.
The Sherman M4 has good speed and maneuverability, is fairly robust, and has a solid gun for its tier. I view it as the midpoint between the very fast and maneuverable but fragile T-34 and the slow but solid Pzkw IV.
The 76mm is getting a bit long in tooth for the Tier VI M4A3E8. You’ll need to take advantage of the tank’s maneuverability to get in side shot for high tier tanks, since the penetration isn’t that great. Once you get a feel for its limitations though, I’ve found the Easy Eight to be a very decent tank.
JoshV
3664
Yeah, that’s disappointing. This may be a ‘grass always greener’, but the VK3001P and the VK3001H are both awful for their tier, especially stock. The 3601 always looked like it was a bit more rough and tumble.
Just remember that the 3601 has terrible side armor, so you can’t really effectively play the medium-circle-the-wagons game with it. You kind of need to play it like a pseudo heavy and stick with the battle line, but you can redeploy more quickly than a heavy if you’re needed elsewhere.
It should be noted that the second (covered) turret doesn’t offer a higher rate of fire, it remains the same.
It does provide 30 more health, but is also 300kg heavier (so will slightly reduce mobility).
There are some additional factors to consider:
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The open turret supposedly is more vulnerable to HE than the closed. But in all my time with the game I have never observed open vehicles being more vulnerable than closed ones. This perception is likely to be only in the minds of players.
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The second turret changes the visual look of the gun to have a muzzle break. According to some admins, guns with a muzzle break make the vehicle more visible after firing (i.e. impart a higher penalty to the inherent camouflage value). But, this has never been confirmed by any developer.
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From personal, highly anecdotal experience, there seems to be something wrong with the second turret in terms of target detection. It boats the same 420 meters range, and I had the same binoculars equipped with it, and I seemed to be surprised from time to time by targets who were moving (while I was stationary) and detected me before I did them. This did not seem to ever happen with the open turret. But note, I only had 60 games in the thing before I moved on to the T25 AT.
pyrhic
3667
Yknow, i have to go into a training room and test it, but the t-34 really didnt seem that fast to me. It’s listed at 56kph, compared to the Pz IVs 48 and that just doesnt seem right. A bt-2 is also like 55kph, but it just seems way faster than a t-34…something’s not right…
Put a maxed T-34 beside a maxed PzIV and you’ll see a remarkable difference. The T-34 is nimble and fast, the panzer is slow to move and slow to turn; it does have a far more punchy gun though
Dejin
3669
The BTs are extremely fast. They are the fastest tanks I can remember driving, although I haven’t driven the Stuarts and I haven’t driven a Leopard anytime recently. Driving a BT feels a lot like driving a car not a tank to me. OTOH their poor armor, health, and gun didn’t make them much fun to drive. Most of their guns are extremely inaccurate (and probably the fact that I had a 50% crew didn’t help much …)
The T-34 are definitely much faster than the T-34-85. I suspect they are faster than the T-43, T-44, and T-54. [Wiki says faster than the T-43 and T-44 and that same speed as the T-54, although as someone pointed out earlier in the thread acceleration often makes a bigger difference than top speed in most circumstances. In fact the Wiki both claims that T-34-85 is only 2 kph slower than the T-34 but in text says “it is sluggish when compared to the T-34, even with the better engine” which is my experience. And says that the T-43 which is 3kph slower than the T-43-85 “is far more nimble than the T-34-85” and has “superior mobility” which matches my personal experience with the vehicle.]
T-34 is way faster than the Pzkw IV (particularly if the Pzkw IV has the upgraded turret which adds 25% to its weight), and a fair bit faster than the Shermans. I haven’t driven a Pzkw III/IV recently but IIRC the T-34 is just a bit faster and more maneuverable although the Pzkw III/IV definitely holds up a bit better under fire.
If you run tests against the Pzkw IV try to do it with the upgraded turret, because the weight difference is considerable – it adds an extra 5.5 tons to the vehicle weight.
Exactly my experience. The best T-34 gun is pretty decent in terms of penetration (but not as good as the PzIV best gun), but its damage is rather low.
ShivaX
3670
Top speed and acceleration aren’t the same thing.
A BT-2 will hit its top speed or close to it very quickly. The T-34 will only hit its top speed going downhill.
Its all about tonnage per horsepower for the most part.
Also remember that Top Speed is actually a magical cap on a vehicle. A Tiger rolling across flat ground goes as fast as one downhill because it can’t go over 30kph no matter what. A KV has a higher Top Speed iirc, but it will almost never hit it, while the Tiger can reach it quite easily.
I’ve seen this confirmed by the devs on the Russian forum but I don’t have a link. IIRC it was in that giant “Answers from the developers” thread about a week ago.
just downloaded the game. tonight i’ll test it out. time to grab all my old panzer books and get into the feel. :-) Nothing like a good tank fight!
Dejin
3673
It’s an awesome game if you like WW2 tanks, just as long as you don’t mind the arcade-y focus and the unrealistic guns they put on some of the tanks.
Yeah, ultimately, I keep playing because it’s like a sandbox where I can play with those little scale model tanks that still clutter up my office.
AlanC
3675
No more invisible walls with 7.0. You’ll be able to drive off cliffs if you so desire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzyJEusS9RE&feature=player_embedded
This will be awesome!
What they’re showing is the earliest version of what they can show and does not yet include earth gravity (which is why they look more like toys).
They are still deciding what to do with tanks that turn on their side or overturn completely, but they will probably destruct fully or after a certain amount of time, depending on the situation.
They don’t want MS-1’s riding on Mauses, and have to figure out how to handle “tank on tank” physics and damage.
The more air you get, the more damage you will receive. A tank that gets a meter (3 ft) or so will probably suffer no damage, while more air could result in anything from damaged tracks, concussions to crew members and up to complete destruction.
One thing is sure, people in fast tanks will need to relearn the maps, and you’re going to need to be extremely careful around water and cliffs, I think this may even call for a redesign of some maps after testing (this is my opinion, it was not mentioned in the video).
It’s a work in progress, I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon. Personally I don’t think they could implement this until very late in the year.
EDIT: There won’t be any changes to physics in 6.5 or 6.6. They will (most likely) start introducing some of the changes in 7.0. I’m guessing that the 6.4 addition of pushing dead tanks was one of the first and easiest changes to the physics engine that they were able to implement.
I wonder if you’ll be able to push little tanks over the edge with big tanks, either by brute force of ramming or by impact of large shells. Right now, tracking impacts (more likely, the track coming off rather than the impact) often spin you around, and if you’re going down hill when you get tracked, you can slide, too.
Dave47
3677
I had my first truly terrible team experience last night on Prokhorovka. I was in a T-29, moving up the west side of the map with a Lowe, an IS, a Sherman and a Panzer. We were doing ok on our side of the map, and our team was up something like four tanks overall. Suddenly, the Lowe (which was in the lead) takes some hits from an unknown assailant in the bushes up ahead, and ends up falling back with 30% life remaining. Everyone stops and hides.
After a minute or so the Sherman driver says: “T29 you lead.” I’m fairly sure this is a bad idea (I have the stock engine, and the T29 hull armor is weak) but I figure that someone needs to take point. So I charge slowly into battle, and am killed by a King Tiger, which is supported from behind by a M6 Heavy.
At this point I notice that none of my teammates followed me. They all stood back and sniped. I stay in the game, and yell at them to rush the defenders, but watch this same process repeat itself: The Sherman orders the IS into battle, but everyone stays back, and we lose the IS. Then we lose the Lowe. At that point the mediums are plunking away at the front armor of a hull down King Tiger with 4% health at long range. No effort is made to flank or to approach, and neither medium tank ever seems to switch to HE ammo. (Or if they do, they keep missing.)
So the enemy exchanged a M6 Heavy and King Tiger for a Lowe, IS, T-29, Sherman and Panzer. It’s the first time playing World of Tanks that I’ve actually yelled at my monitor. It was just embarrassing.
I feel your pain!
Seriously, one of my pet peeves is a teammate who cajoles people into doing stuff while not taking any risks themselves. Also, people who don’t understand the strengths and weaknesses of the different tanks. Not all heavies are created equal, for instance.
I have used my T29 as an effective spearhead, but it’s fully upgraded with 100%+ crew–and then, it’s only really successful when I’m on maps that allow a lot of hull-down action. As you noted, that hull is rice paper.
Riztro
3679
I just had a mental image of sending a leopard spinning off a cliff with my BL9. Oh, that would be so very nice.
Dave47
3680
Yeah. I don’t yet know many of the strengths and weaknesses of the various tanks, so I can understand the thought process that says “Hey, Tier 7 heavy, get your ass up there and FIGHT!” Where I totally started wigging out was when I realized that at least two players had made it into Tier 5 mediums while operating under the delusion that they were Tank Destroyers.
