Its excellent at creating chaos. You can wait for the battle to get underway then flank and seriously disrupt a spearhead, or make an end run to the guns in the rear. I may die a lot driving my kv-13, but its win ratio is excellent. Getting a heavy tank to turn his turret 180 degrees can turn the tide at certein moments of the battle.
Very true–you’ll see Lowes and IS-4s spinning their turrets to track an annoying medium while a VK4502 or KT beats up on them. I’ll even eat the death if my Tier VII medium results in a Tier IX heavy biting the dust.
Dejin
3863
IMO those are the correct targeting priorities. I take out the lightest tank that can badly damage me. For example, if I’ve got a Marder with 7,62cm shooting at me and a VK3601(H) with 88 shooting at me, I take out the Marder first. I can take out the Marder in 2 shots, that means I’ll have two tanks shooting at me for as long as I take to fire twice. In contrast, if I try to take out the VK3601(H) I probably take 5-7 shots, so I’ll take damage from both the Marder and the VK3601(H) for 5-7 shots. End result is prioritizing the heavier tank, even if it has a slightly bigger gun results in my taking a lot more damage.
Taking out the lighter target first makes the most sense, unless the lighter target can’t really damage you. In your specific example, I’m not sure if the KV-13 counts as something that can’t damage an IS-4 or Lowe, as I’ve never driven either. But in general, going for the heavier target first IMO is a mistake.
Of course the better strategy is to duck into cover where only one of your targets can hit you. This is often doable if a medium runs through the lines.
I do agree that fast mediums flanking and disrupting the enemy can be a very effective tactic. I just don’t agree with you on proper shot selection.
I don’t think we’re necessarily disagreeing. Even if the heavy is right to try to one-shot the lighter tank–and I actually agree, that’s the best practice–they still aren’t shooting at your heavies. In effect, by splitting their attention, you’re sacrificing a medium to allow your heavies to kill their heavy, or, if they ignore the medium, you’re likely to survive but they likely will not. Either way, by getting into the mix and distracting them or nibbling away at them, you’re contributing whether or not you actually kill them.
So, if I get killed doing that, most of the time they’ll die too. Ideally, though, I’d like to do hit-and-run stuff, distracting them and then getting away.
What complicates things with the KV-13 and other sturdy mediums is that often, unless the medium is damaged already, the bigger tank can’t one shot them. In that case, given the longer reload times they are dealing with, turning to deal with the medium can be a less than optimal choice. But then, as I noted, once you allow yourself to be caught between two forces, you’re kind of screwed anyhow.
The back of many a tanks’ turret is a weak spot. If you can get a heavy monster to show it to your sides’ heavy monsters, you are killing them thrice as quick as you’d be with just your pea shooter. So wether it’s sound tactics or not for the heavy to go after the little dude, he always wins. even if he gets one-shotted.
on the other hand, it doesnt hardly always go off like this. often one gets one-shotted by an imperious firing line long before any disruption can be caused. c’est la vie i guess. cant wait to unlock my T20
I had a recent game with my still mostly stock KV-13 where I swing around the flank of four enemy heavies that were in a standoff with five of ours. All four swung their turrets around to target me. I ended up dying, but all four enemy heavies were all dead from side/rear turret hits before they were able to swing them back toward our heavies.
Basically I’d been plinking away at one of their VK4502’s in the pack with my crappy 76mm HE and decided that this was stupid and figured what the hell. After the incident I made a point to taunt them for all trying to kill someone who couldn’t even hurt them and exposing their flank armor to our high tier heavies. Of course this is the sort of action that turns the tide but gets you no real credit/xp reward beyond a better chance to win, but it was satisfying.
Yeah, and one reason I’d love more robust combat reporting is to give people a more accurate account of what actually goes on. So much is focused on who got what kills–which is often irrelevant, as I can’t count the number of times I’ve come along and one 1-10% damage, but it was the LAST 1-10%, to an enemy. Not that there’s any real way to communicate tactical accomplishments like yours, but there’s got to be something that might help.
Along those lines, I wonder if it might not improve the game to change the staging of matches to allow you to reconfigure your tank’s modules/gear AFTER you find out what map you’re on. Some maps are much better with a sniping configuration, while others are much better set up for a slugfest. Given that generally you’d want to select units that are suited for the terrain in “reality” (whatever that is!), this doesn’t seem too outlandish, and might make Campinovka and other maps like that a bit better.
I also wouldn’t mind if it shoved the fact that I did the other 90-99% to that guy down my ‘team’s’ throat. Just because you have a 0 by your name at the end of the match doesn’t mean that you didn’t nearly win the thing by yourself. (As ShivaX and I have done quite a lot. We platoon every night and there are many maps where if we hadn’t beat the stuffing out of the other team we would have easily lost. Yet some jackass struts around with his top gun lording it over us…except we did the vast majority of that damage.)
Yeah I love games where someone bitches that I’m a useless arty, but my endgame score shows 0 kills and 11 enemies damaged and a confederate medal…
Sometimes the game is frustrating as hell but sometimes you have those awesome streaks too. I just had three rounds where I went 6 kills without dying on SU-152, then 5 kills without dying on SU-8, and then 5 kills without dying on SU-85
Yeah, one match on my DB, in Campinovka, I rushed the field towards the end of a close match and as I came through the main line, I swiveled left to kill one, swiveled right for another, then back left for a third, all one-shots, then careened into the cap circle. Folks actually followed, too. Fun times.
Talorc
3871
I did get my first ever Confederate battle achievement on Steppes playing a similar role with a Tier 5 M7 last night, ended up damaging 7 other tanks others finished off - including one awesome circling of a Tiger & KV on the rocky side (rather than the road gully). Their turrets were too slow to hit me, and me circling around the back meant our two heavy tanks could come out of hiding on the other side of the rocks and smash them.
I do agree though that the score board needs to be more than just “kills” and was actually based on what you actually get xp/credits for - doing damage at least. In the above match I made a massive difference to our eventual success, including effectively taking out two of the top tanks on the other team, but on the scoreboard had zero kills.
I suspect though that the xp awarded is not calculated until a batch at the end based on the final result, it is not awarded on a “real time” basis.
I would also like it if the statistics page in your garage recorded credits earned / average credits per vehicle as well as XP.
Talorc
3872
Ok, so the KV is officially a monster with the 107mm. Got my first Steel Wall (and second) last night. Kind of helped I got put into some matches where I was the top or near top tank. The 107mm can basically one shot pretty much anything tier 4 or lower which is fun. My average xp per match is sky rocketing with the KV now.
And the M7 is also fun with the new turret and better 75mm. The guns are nothing to write home about, but the 6pdr is very fast, accurate and has decent penetration (but low damage) or the top 75mm is adequate and can throw HE in a pinch. Tank is definitely all about positioning and goes more than decently fast with top engine, and turret traverse is very fast.
I picked up my IS and unlocked the Tiger, but I’m seriously cash strapped. I’m on the verge of unlocking the T-43 and the T25 AT, plus a bunch of modules, and within striking distance of the Panther, but I need to grind credits. Right now my best moneymaker actually seems to be the KV-13 with the mini-derp 122, as the shells are cheap. Sadly, the tank is often dead at the end of a match, which takes away from the net income. I can also do pretty well with the Slugger or DB, as they are more likely to survive, but I actually lose money sometimes on the ISU-152. Arty is a wash; the shells are expensive for the M12 but there are only like 18 of them in a match…
RichVR
3874
I’m just getting started in the game and love it. Trying to catch up on it, as usual a QT3 thread is the best way to do it besides the wiki. Questions:
I’m in the midst of working German light tanks. I like the PzKpfw II and have researched all of the upgrades. It seems to be a fun tank to play and has gotten me most of my kills. Where to go from there?
Against my better judgement and pocket I bought gold. I purchased the PzKpfw 38H735 (f). It doesn’t seem to be as good as the PzII. Am I playing it wrong? The data states that it’s essentially a captured French tank. What is the difference besides armor and shots per minute? (and the other stats, although on paper it looks like it should perform better)
Any other advice you’d give a noob?
Dave47
3875
Unless it has been nerfed, yes, you are playing it wrong. The Hotchkiss is sometimes referred to as a “Mini-Maus” because it is so incredibly dominant in Tier 1-2 matches.
Depending on how new you are, you may not have noticed how the matchmaker seeds matches. Basically, as a Tier 2 tank, you will be placed into one of two groups: a “newbie” battle of Tier 1 and 2 tanks, or a battle in which your Tier 2 tanks is the lowest tier. As you progress, matches will start to involve up to four different tiers, and your play style (or your game outcomes!) will differ radically depending on whether your tank is top tier, bottom tier, or in the middle.
I believe they did nerf it, for the very reasons you mentioned. Either way, the reason to buy a gold tank is not because it’s powerful (they are usually less so than upgraded tanks of their tier) but because it’s a great cash maker (they earn far more per match than corresponding tanks).
vyshka
3877
Would gold tanks also be useful for training up crews and their skills?
No, because crew experience doesn’t really transfer across tanks.
vyshka
3879
Secondary skills do though.
If you have gold to burn, you can buy a 100% crew for a gold tank and use it to train up their secondary skills, possibly faster if you set the tank to accelerate crew training. You’ll then have to later retrain that crew to another tank (either free, with silver or with gold).
