schurem
5001
the wolverine moves and turns its turret like a heavy tank, this is true. well it gets a little more nimble once you upgrade its tracks and engine, but not nearly as nimble as say an AMX-13. It does get the very fast firing 76mm that penetrates reasonably well and a good view range. Paper armor though! be careful playing this, never go on the front line, but stay back a little. its a lucrative tank once you get the hang of it. its bigger brother, the M-36 even more so.
I’m very much looking forward to the M-18 hellcat. Hopefully the same quick-firing 76 and should be zippy as hell.
I have found that the E8 sherman and the wolverine are the most effective countermeasures against light tanks such as the T50-2 and AMX-13’s. They fire fast and accurate. I dread wolverines when i drive my AMX.
Dejin
5002
I just had a Leopard kick my ass. I got a shot on him that took 1/4 of his health down, but after that he could circle faster around me than the turret would go, even using the back-away trick.
schurem
5003
you were on your own. a wolverine should not be alone. neither should any other TD. you need someone to cover your ass.
Its painful to see how few people understand the nature of tank warfare. how one and one are three, and how much momentum of attack means in armored warfare. far too often its trench warfare instead of blitzkrieg.
Dejin
5004
He was taking out our artillery. No one else went to help. Unfortunately he got the artillery and me.
I’ll have to say though, I find some of the new light tanks very hard to counter in any tank. The T-50-2 is very fast and very difficult to actually hit. And the new French AMX 13 tanks are very fast and very dangerous. It seems like the old artillery killing light rush is back on. I think it mostly stopped when they made it easier to draw a bead on tanks sometime in late beta, but it seems back in earnest now with some of the new fast tanks.
One strategy that’s not great, but which I would sometime use when defending our artillery is just to ram the enemy light, but with a French AMX, I suspect that would end up with my tank blasted to death.
As far as blitzkrieg goes, I think I tend to over emphasize it, and I do better when I curb that tendency. I generally do better when I move slowly and deliberately and stay on defense unless there’s a good reason to attack. When I started playing again, I would charge ahead, and I think it’s only now a week or two later that I’m back in rhythm and winning more game than losing again. A slower deliberate play that emphasizes stopping and waiting as much as blitzing ahead does better, at least for me.
schurem
5005
blitzkrieg != mad rush. like you say a deliberate push. stopping to fire, then moving again. what its about is staying mobile, not sitting in a bush or on a corner trading shots.
too often i see four tanks playing peek-a-boo with just one. this is a horrible misuse of force. in such a position of numerical superiority, the enemy must be overrun. yes someone will take a shell to the teeth, but the enemy heavy tank ends up taking rear and side shots. a “mad rush” is in order, but only if all go, not just one.
if one tank gets to hold up four, momentum is lost. even if he eventually succumbs, he’s won because those four are busy trading stupid frontal shots while elsewhere their teammates end up in a numerically inferior position.
Blitzkrieg is all about quick application of superior firepower to the spot where it hurts most. too bad often these PUG teams end up just running willy nilly and stopping when they meet opposition, or taking the enemy on one by one (the feared leming train)
People seem so afraid to take a shot that all tactics are abandoned as soon as they take a shell or detect a king tiger round the corner.
On the other hand, i have been in some thunderously awesome pushes. there’s nothing as awesome as swarming the frak out of a flank and then running roughshod over their rear echelon campers and artillery. to drive the enemy before you and hear the lamentations of their artillery lol :D
On the third hand, it’s a blast being a defender when they don’t blitz. For example, once I was the last defending tank on the S side in Lakeville. They made a mad valley push and soon we were down 9-5. I had left the rest of the team roaming around in the city and rushed back to defend once I saw what was going on. Tucking myself into that middle nook on the south side of the mountain I then proceed to blast away six of their tanks as they tried to make their way to our flag. It was glorious! “That’s right, just peek around one at a time. Bwahahahah!”
On the fourth hand, it really stinks when you’re the only one who blitzes and the rest of your group stays hiding. If you’ve stalled out, I find it helps to chat something like, “Okay W gang, looks like a five on one. Get ready to swarm.” Wait ten seconds then type “Ready?” Or if you’ve been keeping track of the other team’s tanks you can yell, “E dudes! Their Object and IS4 are pinned over here in the W, you’re safe to advance.”
One of the keys in a blitz is to keep switching who is lead tank. Highest health takes the advance. Ideally, you end up with five tanks at 40% rushing their base instead of two healthy tanks and three dead ones.
If you’re defending, don’t aim away from the half health Easy 8 to take on a healthy Tiger 2. Finish off the weakest tank that can hurt you, then work your way up.
For all of its silliness in some aspects, this game really does have some solid tactical sophistication if one chooses to avail oneself of it. Clan War battles are sometimes things of beauty, and with Fog of War now it’s particularly exciting. Sadly, my clan has had some difficulty in getting full rosters for battles lately; we have like 55 people or so but a lot of our senior players deserted for SWTOR or simply fell off the face of the earth. We’ve been pretty selective in recruiting because we don’t want to go the all-inclusive route that results in three sub-clans full of assclowns just to drive up numbers, but finding quality people who also have high-tier tanks has been tough. We’re nurturing our lowbies but that takes time. Going into matches against 12 Tier X and three Tier VIII arty, when you have half as many Tier Xs and the rest a mix of VIII to IXs is brutal.
Valentine’s Special today:
Tankers!
Valentine’s Day is here, and we want to show our appreciation for your continued dedication to World of Tanks by offering a free day of Premium account status to all players!
We’ve also prepared a special discount on the Valentine tank, offering it at 70% off!
So anyone else got favorite spots in particular maps? I’ll share one of mine from Fjords:
If I start in the east I usually go to this point marked in red, which is a nice rock easily reachable before the enemy (if you are in a med or non-slow hvy), with plenty of scope to hit anyone going the north route while keeping safe from counter attack. You can then turn south if needed later on. I’ve had great games from this rock.
If I start in the west I usually go along the north and sit by the rock marked in blue (I’m a big fan of an unbreakable bit of cover to sit behind while reloading!). Much prefer the red spot though!
pyrhic
5010
Anyone know if you have a gold tank(bought tank) and then sell it, if you can repurchase it for silver, or do you need to spend gold again?
second question, is the valentine any good? Looking at it’s starts and it seems like a pretty meh tank…reasonable protection for the tier, but slow and looks remarkably under-gunned…Compared to my 3 tier 4 favorites, it’s vastly undergunned to the T-28, slow to the PzIII, and generally less in all respects to generic M3 Lee…
Dave47
5011
To make matters worse, it’s classified as a light tank. So unless someone can confirm that it has a special matchmaker exception, I would expect it to be placed in the same matchups against high-tier heavies that all the other tier 4 lights are placed in.
Difficult to say, but not all lights are placed in high tier matches I don’t think. The Leopard/VK2801, T-50/T-50-2, and Chaffee certainly are, but I’m not at all sure the others in light lines are. The French are particularly confusing, as it seems the AMX 12t isn’t treated as a scout, but the AMX-13 75 is…but that’s just my perception.
The crater in front of the buildings northeast of of Spawn I on Ruinberg is deep enough get a SU-85 hull-down in, and offers a clear sightline on anyone coming up the outside road of the city.
schurem
5015
Yaaay!!! finally made enough silver to buy my IS-4. first game i played in it i got trashed like a fucking tin can. like three shots and KtfO. It also needs new tracks desperately. Anyway, really happy with it. I will learn its ways and completely wtfpwn all before me.
Once it’s upgraded–and you need all the upgrades, yeah–it’s godlike. The IS-7 is just a faster version (with slightly bouncier armor). Same gun, so people do have to fear you.
Dejin
5017
What’s the general thinking on the E-50, E-75, and E-100?
The E-50 seems pretty fast and tough from what I’ve seen. It’s a bit difficult for me to tell how good it is offensively though. I have trouble evaluating the heavies since I’ve got a lot more medium experience.
The Panther II really seems to be lacking at least until the turret gets unlocked, which requires the treads to unlock. I guess if I’d already unlocked the 7,5cm L/100 I might feel differently though. But running it with the 7,5cm L/70 I really feel like I’m not making a good contribution to my team.
schurem
5018
The E-100 is said to be something of a corker. The -75 is very nice. nicer even than the IS4 in some respects. Its like the wet dream of the guy who designed the kingtiger. I dont know about the E-50.
Dejin
5019
Excellent, I guess I’ll keep pushing up the Tiger line then. I’m about 35,000 xp short of the Tiger II. Not sure where I’m going to scratch up the 2,000,000 credits though.
Are the American heavies still considered pretty bad past the T29?
Panther II with the long 88 and all upgrades is a beast; it eats Type 59s for breakfast, and can bother most other tanks out there. A bit sluggish though. The E-50 is a nice package with its top gun; I don’t have one but I’ve fought a lot of them, and they get used sometimes as high-end scouts in Clan Wars. I have the E-75 unlocked but no money; on my IS-4 I find those things hard to kill from the front, that’s for sure. I don’t have an E-100 but we use them in Clan Wars when we need a tough heavy and speed isn’t an issue, but a Maus is way too slow.
