4481

A-20 is bad, but it opens up some great tanks. T-28 is your next one and that’s a superb tank for it’s tier (especially with the top gun); after that it’s KV/t-34 i think? both cool

4482

Not sure which IIIA you were using. Its incredibly fast and packs a really strong gun for its tier.

Its basically armorless, but so is everything in Tier3.

A-20 leads to the T-34, T-28 leads to the KV. Different trees.

I never minded the A-20. Its a fast scout and can mount a gun capable of hurting a lot of things. It doesn’t turn for crap, but its got speed, so its all about using that to your advantage.

4483

Have you played the Leopard? I was expecting a Leopard since the A-20 is in the same place on the Russian Tree, but it’s inferior to a Leopard in pretty much every way except top speed.

4484

The Leo is a completely different animal, its (or was) the end of a tree. For its tier its horribly overpowered really. The A-20 is closer to the M5 or Pz3 (though the Pz3 avoids high tier matches).

4485

I was in one of those games again. Malinovka. In a Marder. One guy says, ATTACK. But we were in the north and I just said no. Got a decent position. Popped two guys. Then a fast tank, don’t remember which, lit a bunch up. Cool, I think. Wrong, a few guys rush and get popped. Long story short, the end was me and one arty vs. three arty and a tank.

Nothing for a while. I get pissed and go left and pop the tank coming on that flank.

I go arty hunting. Get two arty. Cap and get popped by the last arty. Draw.

::sigh:: I should never get off the boat, dammit!

4486

That sounds like a draw to be proud of!

4487

Ya, as mentioned, you’re confusing lines a bit.

The russian heavy line is full of really, really, good tanks. The T-46 was pretty average, but i can’t think of any Tier 3 that stand out over the others. The T-28 is a monster of a tier 4, with a top gun that hits well above its weight, then the KV and KV3 and IS. I can’t think of another line that has as many great tanks.

The A-20 is on a horrid line of bad tanks - the BT-2 is great, and i plodded down the whole path hoping for something as good, and not finding anything until the T-34-85 and its ascendents.

4488

I had a great time with the T-34, the T-43 I wasn’t all that fond of but the only tank in the russian medium tree that I actively disliked was the A-20. Bt-2 is an awesome tier 2, Bt-7 get’s enough lowish tier matches to still be a lot of fun, T-34 with the 57mm gun had silly accuracy even with max reticule, 34-85 getting the 100 D10T gun at tier six is a huge advantage and the 85mm is no slouch either. Like I said, I’m no huge fan of the T-43 but the 44 is so much fun, I cannot wait to get the T-54.

4489

Nice draw!

I had one of those games yesterday too. We start on Lakeville, 1 Object (the Soviet T9 TD) and 3 (!) T95’s (the US T9 TD’s) are on the other side. And NO ARTY. And a bunch of heavies against them TD’s (I was in my IS-4). I was like “WTF are we supposed to do with them?”

But no tank and no matchmaker can make up for stupidity. A few of their tanks went to attack through the valley (our Jagdtiger took care of them), a few went through the town (our group took care of them). One T95 desperately tried to catch up with the (now dead) town group of teammates, was swarmed by like 6 tanks and died at the edge of the town very fast. One T95 decided to take extra defensive position near the valley entrance, leaving the other one (located by the middle pass) alone and, shortly, dead to the swarm. Extra defensive position didn’t help him either as he followed his teammates into Valhalla maybe 30 seconds later. I don’t even know what happened to the Object. Vaporized?

It was a super fast fight, took maybe 5 minutes top. Our team lost 2 scout tanks and we killed all enemies, including the 4 super TD’s. Who needs arty. :) Our team was playing like we were coordinating in Vent, it was amazing.

With this game, you never know how the fight is going to end. That’s why they call them Random :)

4490

I’m currently in a love-hate relationship with the game.

One pain point is earning money as a non-premium in higher tiers. I like the fact that you can lose money - I think that’s an important part of balance. However, it really seems skewed in that an ‘average’ game at tier 7 will barely cover repairs and ammo(and sometimes not even). I had a great round in my IS the other night: got top-gun, steel wall, was one of 3 tanks that ended the game alive and…I made 4500 credits in the end(22k earned version 17.5 spent). Last night I was also in the IS, in a tough rough with 2 GW E arties on the other side, and lots of tier 9 and 10 heavies. Needless to say, I bounced about 10 shots, hit maybe only once and gradually got cornered and died horribly. I lost over 12k (5k earned, over 17k spent).

I’ve got enough research and money to go to the IS-3, but why bother? I’m pretty certain it’s just another money-loser. Meanwhile it just chaffs my ass that a T-59 won’t get thrown in those battles…

The other pain point lately is all the fast tanks. Though I generally like their inclusion as it adds a layer to the game that it lacked before the MM sometimes doesn’t balance the fast movers well enough. One match in particular that comes to mind is coming against 3 T-59s and 3 T-50s…and i’m in my GW panther and just know that they’ll overwhelm what few protectors decide to help defend the arty - which they did.

So now, for the first time, my arty is now losing money about a third of the time too. I drive 6 tanks regularly - t-50, t-43, KV, IS, GW-Panther, and VK3001P - and of those, really only the VK and KV can make any money(the t-50 does too, but on a much smaller scale).

anyways, just random venting i guess…

4491

All legitimate concerns. I often spend a play session in T2 and T3 tanks. It just ends up being more enjoyable. Take a break from the big guys and keep a couple of the little fellows in your garage. Be the annoying fast guy with the rapid fire cannon for a while. It helps.

4492

If you’re going to play tier 7+, it’s very hard to do so without outright buying money via gold, or owning a tier 8 premium tank.

4493

Do you have any elite lower tier tanks?

4494

Had one of those games again. I’m in my Lowe. Top tier with two other Lowes. I say, Lowes, don’t rush (this is in El Halluf) find a spot and snipe.

For once I get agreement from both Lowes. We find spots. I get three kills from distance. But of course, it ends up me and an arty. I get two guys who have to crest a hill. pop them right in the belly. Very satisfying. But ultimately we lose.

My Lowe stats suck because I just figured out that it’s the ultimate glass fucking cannon. Slow. LOOOONG reload time. You have to play a Lowe like arty. Or you die fast. Yeah I’m stupid. Just figured this out. Damn.

4495

Lowe is meant to be a sniper, and it is good at it. The turret actually has pretty good armor, but the hull doesn’t. At range it can go toe-to-toe with other tier 8s. The reload time is good compared to some others at that tier, like the IS-3. And it is of course super slow. Stay at range and you can do very well with it.

4496

The recent specials featuring the M4 Sherman and a few other tanks gave me quite a boost in credits. I purchased a 3-day Premium account for the special 1 day price at the beginning of the last holiday special to maximize my earnings. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I had gained 4,000,000+ credits over the course of the weekend.

I plan on using the same plan during the next WoT special.

4497

This is pretty much the route I went. Im in my M3Lee right now grinding out for the Sherman. I am alternating matches between the Lee, my T2 premium and a premium Hotchkiss and using gold to transfer the exp over to free.

4498

I have a Matilda. It’s undergunned and slow but absurdly well-armored.

4499

Unless you play medium tanks (of tier 7-8), which still earn money.

It’s all in the ammo costs. Pyrhic’s IS costs him 1000 credits a shot, so of course it’s going to be difficult to make any money without premium. A tier 7 medium, on the other hand, something like a T-20, with 250 credits a shot would be making money in the same place (which is why I don’t understand why his T-43 doesn’t earn him money - mine did). His KV and VK3001P, unsurprisingly, earn money, again due to low ammo costs.

One of the major factors in sustainability, or even making money, is the ammo cost of whatever gun you are using (tier 5-8 mediums and tier 5-6 heavies). The other factors are; using something with reasonable repair costs (ditto) and trying to play well - meaning doing damage, regardless of whether the team wins or loses.

So I’ll continually disagree with the generalization that tier 7+ is not possible to run without premium. It very much depends on which tier 7+ vehicle one drives. Starting with tier 9, though, either a premium account, or tier 5-7 money earners, become required. That or one of the premium tanks (an option I never personally indulged in).

4500

also, the stuff you get to shoot, and wether you can damage it matters a LOT for profitability.

A T-34 (the russian one) is very cheap to run and shoot. But it will not get matched up with the big boys and still be able to hurt 'em. If you meet a tiger in one, you are dead meat and you only scratch it up a bit. This wont make you much moneys.

If you drive a KV however, with the big ol’ derp gun on it, you meet that tiger and you fuck him the fuck up. cha-ching motherfucker!

For this reason the T-34-85 is such a good moneymaker. It gets matched up with some serious metal and with the D10-T you may not kill it, but you shure can put some hurt on 'em. If you are lucky and play it well, this tiger you meet, it will die horribly! ding-ding-ding!

your mileage might vary.