4841

What the hell happened to my beloved Pz II? The rate of fire changed from three fast shots to one or two randomly? Did I miss an update?

4842

Holy crap. Finished a game in the AMX 38. Everyone Tier 2-4. 24 shots, 16 hits, nobody showed up under the damaged column. Most of those (all of those? I thought I got another couple shots off.) were into the side of an AMX 40. Tried AP and HE ammo, neither seemed to actually do any damage. I was close enough that most of my shots landed. I thought HE was supposed to do some damage even if you couldn’t pierce their armor.

4843

Rich it has changed over to the new drum magazine system. try holding down the fire button, or clicking it rapidly.

4844

According to in-game chatter from players, they kind of nerfed the effect of HE across the board. I haven’t confirmed that, but that’s what folks were saying.

And how in the hell does the AMX-40 go 50? I’ll have to check again, but mine is fully upgraded and is dog slow, certainly nowhere near that fast IIRC. Or maybe it just seemed slow. But the French tank guns through TIV are horrid.

EDIT: I just checked, and while the info for the AMX-40 says 50kph, it lies. The tank goes 20, 21 at most. It is indeed a slug.

4845

Thanks. I finally checked the 7.1 notes. Interesting.

4846

These French tanks are stupid. I’m getting sick of doing 0 damage every match.

4847

The AMX40 is fast downhill, but thats it cause it doesn’t hold the speed at all and the engine can’t get it remotely close to that speed.

4848

yep, it’s a 20 kph scout. I like their organic design even though the base setup looks like a rubber duckie.

4849

its funny, the amx-40 really plays like a heavy tank, despite what the matchmaker thinks. If you get to be close to top dog with it, you will smite down fools like the angry god of turtles.

4850

Or ducks. A WarDuck.

4851

don’t forget to claim your free tetrarch (tier 2 prem) + free slot. put in the code NEWYEAREU or NEWYEARUS on the world of tanks site

4852

Thanks. I’m only playing SWTOR right now but I’m sure that slot will come in handy later.

4853

In the US it’s NEWYEARNA if I’m not mistaken. Better check on the main site.

Edit: Yep see here.

4854

I skipped a bunch of French tanks with a whole lot of free exp and got directly into the tier 8 heavy - AMX-50-100. And got the 2nd gun on it right away. The tank is freaking AWESOME. It completely revitalized the game for me as it plays like no other tank. Revolver autoloader is a great idea and makes for a completely different gameplay.

I would say high tier French heavies are the most difficult tanks to play but also the most rewarding. One mistake and you are likely dead but if you play right and think about what you are doing, you will oblitirate one enemy after another.

212 penetration, 240 average damage per shot, 6 shots in a revolver, 2.5 seconds between the shots. Often enemies don’t have enough time to turn and aim at me before they are dead. It’s pure joy and definition of a glass cannon.

And 33 seconds to reload the revolver mean that you need to get the hell out of there when you are empty because by that time the enemies are pissed at you. :) However, having a friend in the same tank behind you, makes for a bunch of very disappointed chasers. :)

[edit] Just for comparisson sake - the top gun has 232 penetration, 300 damage, same 6 shots, same 2.5 sec between the shots and 45 seconds to reload the revolver. Can’t wait.

What also helps is to empty out the revolver, disengage, and relocate to another flank while reloading. The enemies on the original flank will often hesitate to attack thinking you are still there, while you start killing stuff somewhere else. And the 50+ kmh speed makes it easy to move around.

Too bad these tanks are now priority targets for everyone. :(

It’s also a rare case when stock configuration (plus the 2nd gun, which can be researched on the tier 6 ARL) is completely enjoyable. After having so much fun in it (had 20 matches yesterday, won 16), I think how much better it’s going to become with all the upgrades and I can’t stop grinning. :) BTW, I upgraded the tracks at the end of the day yesterday and the tank’s mobility improved A LOT. And it was pretty good to begin with.

So to everyone grinding out the French line, you have an awesome treat ahead of you. Just hope they don’t nerf it before you get there. :)

4855

On one hand im terribly yealous of you in your glorious tier 8 monster. that is such a fun tier. i bet the french one is a freakin beast. I have never driven the american tier 8 heavy, but both the russian (IS-3) and the german (King Tiger) are freakin awesome and very much fun to drive.

On the other hand i feel sorry for you. you have missed out on a whole bunch of freaky crap tanks. really truly terrible crap tanks. could be my flight simming past, but to me driving an absolute dog (or in the french light line, a rubberducky) has a charm of its own.

4856

I only had enough XP to get the tier 7 French heavy, the one without the autoloader. The one with the incredibly high profile and as much sloped armour as a Minecraft fortress. Talk about the red-headed step child of French armour.

4857

Lol. But I do understand where you are coming from, there is certain enjoyment in playing a tank generally perceived as bad and trying to find ways to get the best out of it. On the other hand though, the French low level tanks are also ugly, which puts additional strain :)

The truth is though is that I don’t play nearly as much nowadays and I decided that I want to get as much enjoyment as possible from the time I do have. And I wanted to try out the autoloader. I could go down the French medium line (they start having the autoloader at lvl 5 IIRC and seem like a lot of fun, especially the Lorraine and the BatMobile) but I decided on the heavies in case I get to tier 10 eventually and one is needed for Clan Wars.

I noticed a funny thing yesterday. On all other tanks I usually get a fair number of Snipers but not with the AMX-50-100, got only 3 in 35 matches. That was strange since the gun is very accurate and I usually fire 20+ times in a match (which is ridiculously high for a tier 8 heavy, regular heavy tanks rarely go above 15 shots and usually it’s around 11). On the Frenchie, I’d usually get something like 25 shots, 17 hits.

So I started thinking about it and noticed a few things. Firstly, even when shooting at a stationary target, reload is faster than aiming (the “between the shots re-aiming”) by about 0.5 seconds. Psycologically, I am used to firing as soon as it’s reloaded (because on regular tanks I am fully aimed by the time the shell is loaded), which led to missing a lot at range. Secondly, it reloads so fast, you kind of “don’t have time” to lead the target properly, if the target is moving. And thirdly, the tank is so vulnerable, it’s really scary to peek out for long time and it also adds pressure to unload asap. Finally, when you get 1 or 2 shells left in the queue, you REALLY want to unload them asap and start reloading while it’s safe, which leads to a lot more “wishful thinking” shots. Yes, you can press C to force the reload and you do it often but, again, it’s so tempting to shot the last couple of rounds at something, even if the chance of hitting it is next to nothing.

After realizing all that, I made a concious effort to aim properly and - tada! - 3 Snipers in a row. Seeing something like 25 shots/25 hits at the end of most fights is very satisfying. Especially with the top gun, rounds for which cost 1K credits.

Definitely the hardest tank to play.

4858

Speaking of French mediums. As far as I know, Lorraine is the only medium that gets exactly the same gun as its country’s same tier heavy. Yes, T-44 also gets the 122mm gun but its reload time is ridiculously low and you hardly see anyone using it.

This means that Lorraine gets 232 mm penetration (highest between all tier 8 tanks, same as AMX-50-100), 300 damage (second highest to that ridiculously slow 122mm T-44 gun) and the same 6-shot autoloader. 1800 damage in about 15 seconds.

This is a VERY mean gun, be very afraid of the Lorraine, focus it as soon as you see it and try not to attack it alone when it has a full revolver.

Luckily it has one of the lowest hp and no armor at all. M4E8 can kill it very easily if the Lorraine doesn’t see it or if it reloads the revolver.

4859

im about to break into tier 5 with the light french line. gonna be awesome. those small amx’es with the stupid big guns that go pow-pow-pow been a reall annoyance when im driving my kingtiger or IS-3. they die real easily though.

its stupid how much i still love the game. its been well over a year now and im as hooked as i was the first week of beta.

4860

Yeah, gotta give them the credit for their support of the game. As slow as they are (or rather used to be), the game is very different from the beta times, considering all the new tanks, maps, systems, constant events, etc. It’s the achiever’s paradise IMO, there is always some kind of carrot ahead.