World of Tanks Mark 2

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, I had a lot of fun with the T-26/46. Preferred the BT twins, but the other ones are good too.

Also...I think I'm in love with my KV-1 and VK-3601. Those tanks are SO much fun to run.

[Temjin]

So on Himmelsdorf, does the hill ever actually matter?

Players in game often insist that whoever controls the hill wins the game, but I've yet to see any evidence of this. I just had a match where a guy managed to convince my entire team to capture the hill in an encounter battle. We did, but of course by then none the handful of tanks that went to the cap point were alive and no one on the hill could get to the cap point in time to stop them from capturing it. There a few important areas of that map I can think of, but none of them are the hill.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

The hill's important, in that you can't ignore it, but sending everyone up there is just as bad. You basically want to have enough up there to foil a flank attack from that direction and/or flank from there yourself, while the rest of your team goes for the cap.

[Vendetta]

So as someone who hasn't played but is interested, how much grinding am I going to have to do before I start getting competitive light tanks? Or is it just going to be a constant rape fest?

I'm specifically interested in playing Soviet light tanks.

The concept of "competitive" is a bit odd for Light tanks, as your ability to kill mans will generally decrease as you go up tiers.

It's quite possible to start up a brand new tier 1 and smash everyone if you know what you're doing, because most of the time in a tier 1 you'll only meet other tier 1s and occasionally mixed 1 and 2s, and you can hurt pretty much anything in any of those matches (that's not french, but the french tanks only come equipped with harsh language).

As you get higher tiers you'll meet progressively higher tiers (until the tier 5 scouts can meet anything up to tier 10) and your role changes to being more about hunting down artillery, which you can pretty much always murder, and scouting for other tanks.

It all comes down to how the matchmaking works weirdly for lights. TDs, Mediums, and Heavies basically only meet things up to two tiers higher than them, and artillery gets bumped up a tier because it gets to hide at the back, so their concept of "competitive" is different to those of Lights.

[Vendetta]

So on Himmelsdorf, does the hill ever actually matter?

Players in game often insist that whoever controls the hill wins the game, but I've yet to see any evidence of this..

The team that controls the hill gets to go back down the other side of it and flank the guys fighting along the alley at the bottom of the hill. I've managed to do hilarious damage by hitting the back side of a team all focused down that alley.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Another funny battle with the KV...sitting in the middle of a field with both my tracks blown off, and literally all I hear is 'ding, ping, DONG!' as shells bounce off me from every conceivable angle. I wrecked a BDR and a Sherman that tried to get close, all while bouncing those shells. When my tracks eventually got fixed (stupid of me not to load a repair kit...) I just trudged along to the enemy base, and everyone fled away from me since nothing they had could touch me.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Another funny battle with the KV...sitting in the middle of a field with both my tracks blown off, and literally all I hear is 'ding, ping, DONG!' as shells bounce off me from every conceivable angle. I wrecked a BDR and a Sherman that tried to get close, all while bouncing those shells. When my tracks eventually got fixed (stupid of me not to load a repair kit...) I just trudged along to the enemy base, and everyone fled away from me since nothing they had could touch me.

Back before the KV split, I once picked up a steel wall with one-hundred and thirteen hits. Four or five autocannon armed lights hosed me down for several solid minutes, and kept breaking my tracks, while I kept missing with the derp cannon (that got annoying). It was like being caught in a hailstorm.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I don't think any of them had autocannons, but it certainly felt like getting caught in a hail-storm...that's for sure.

Also: T-34 with the Zis-4 57mm...SO FUN!!!

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

I don't think any of them had autocannons, but it certainly felt like getting caught in a hail-storm...that's for sure.

Also: T-34 with the Zis-4 57mm...SO FUN!!!

I respectfully disagree, thus far, I have found nothing fun about the T-34, the only reason I'm still running it is to fill out the Russian tech tree. The 57 is better than the 76, but to me that's like saying getting shot in the shoulder is better than getting shot in the face, its true, but the point is you still got shot.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Eh, I like it. But I much prefer my VK and KV though.

[xthetenth]

So on Himmelsdorf, does the hill ever actually matter?

Players in game often insist that whoever controls the hill wins the game, but I've yet to see any evidence of this. I just had a match where a guy managed to convince my entire team to capture the hill in an encounter battle. We did, but of course by then none the handful of tanks that went to the cap point were alive and no one on the hill could get to the cap point in time to stop them from capturing it. There a few important areas of that map I can think of, but none of them are the hill.

Hill used to utterly win games on that map and mode because the cap was so slow that you could roll cap and then come down and wreck the other team. Then they sped up the cap timer and you need a relatively balanced group to avoid getting surrounded. I still tend to prefer a token force down low to decap and roll the hill and come up behind them once they're in cover from the front.

[Aaron MkII]

So as someone who hasn't played but is interested, how much grinding am I going to have to do before I start getting competitive light tanks? Or is it just going to be a constant rape fest?

I'm specifically interested in playing Soviet light tanks.

The concept of "competitive" is a bit odd for Light tanks, as your ability to kill mans will generally decrease as you go up tiers.

It's quite possible to start up a brand new tier 1 and smash everyone if you know what you're doing, because most of the time in a tier 1 you'll only meet other tier 1s and occasionally mixed 1 and 2s, and you can hurt pretty much anything in any of those matches (that's not french, but the french tanks only come equipped with harsh language).

As you get higher tiers you'll meet progressively higher tiers (until the tier 5 scouts can meet anything up to tier 10) and your role changes to being more about hunting down artillery, which you can pretty much always murder, and scouting for other tanks.

It all comes down to how the matchmaking works weirdly for lights. TDs, Mediums, and Heavies basically only meet things up to two tiers higher than them, and artillery gets bumped up a tier because it gets to hide at the back, so their concept of "competitive" is different to those of Lights.

Well I guess I'll see when its finished downloading, but I'm content to recce and scoot around after arty.

[xthetenth]

The T-50 is one of the most survivable tanks for diving in far enough to get spots on other tanks and laugh while arty drops shells on them and the -2 is even better even if it's a long ways off. The T-50 will be the introduction to real scouting and it's one of the top four scouting tanks in the game and two of the others are more hybrids than pure scouts.

[wautd]

Also: T-34 with the Zis-4 57mm...SO FUN!!!

I concur. At least fully upgraded and with a well experienced crew this makes a good hit and run tank. Pity it's not in the same line as the heavies anymore (although it makes more sense now). Oh well, T-28 with the 57mm is equally fun. It's less armored, but the matchmaking is also more kind to it so it evens out.

Just got a KV-1 and T49 since last night. Finally another heavy other than the Churchill (which is fun, mind, just I wanted other heavies as well). The T49 looks like fun once full upgraded. The KV-1 has the main disadvantage of other heavy tanks: when it makes me feel invurnerable, I become sloppy and end up being ganked from all sides

[Simon_Jester]

Parked my Super Pershing in the arches of the railway bridge on Widepark last night. That kept anyone from getting at my flanks, so I was a cork in the bottle for their whole west flank. Started chewing up a few enemy tanks. I only nailed a KV-1S and badly crippled a T-44, but...

I took 28 hits from various 88, 90, and 100mm guns, and I'm pretty sure a near miss or two from artillery, before someone finally managed to put my tank down. By that time, we'd already won the game, and I like to think I helped.

Good match. Got to remember to try that more often.

[darthkommandant]

I killed a Churchill with a pz II luchs the other day and lived to tell the tale. Granted I did have help from some arty but I took off at least 50% of his health with my 50 mm gun.

[Vendetta]

I hate trying to use the 50mm on the Luchs. You have to have the fat turret that takes a week to traverse. I prefer to keep the 37mm for arty hunting and just annoy other tanks whilst the big guns on my team do the actual work.

With the right combination of zooming around and hiding I've managed to keep six enemy tanks and TDs distracted in one corner of the map for a solid minute, whilst my team killed three of them off before they eventually took me down. Locking down a third of the enemy force in one corner allowed the rest of my team to clean up the map as well, and we won pretty handily.

[Aaron MkII]

So first match I got some paltry xp, 7 i think. Second I got 70 something but it runs so slow on the pc that its hard to get a hit. Would have had a Yank dead if not for that. Still, got him down to 29%

There is bullet drop, right?

[The Vortex Empire]

So first match I got some paltry xp, 7 i think. Second I got 70 something but it runs so slow on the pc that its hard to get a hit. Would have had a Yank dead if not for that. Still, got him down to 29%

There is bullet drop, right?

There is bullet drop, but your reticule automatically accounts for that, so there's no need to compensate for it yourself. Your gun automatically aims to land a shell where you are pointing.

[Vendetta]

The aim reticle accounts for bullet drop automatically, it's there and sometimes lets you skim a shot over cover, but you don't have to correct for it. You do have to lead targets though, if your frame rate is too low turn the graphics down (I have literally everything except draw distance on minimum so my old laptop can cope).

Aiming is a little weird. Your accuracy circle represents where the shots could land, but if you imagine another circle of 1/3 the size in the middle of it, 70% of your shots will land there.

The best way to survive and get plenty XP at tier 1 is to not be the guy at the front. It's all down to how spotting and radio works. If you see an enemy then anyone you are in radio contact with (whose green dot is on the minimap) gets to see that enemy as well, even if they're not in sight range themselves. What that means is that if you trundle out in front and you see someone, they can probably see you, and that means that the other seven guys behind them that you can't see can also see you. Which tends to lead to a fairly short lifespan as seven guys all open up at once. So, don't be that guy. Second mouse gets the cheese and all that. Sitting at the back also means that your accuracy will be better. Your accuracy is affected far more by moving your tank than by turning your turret. If you can sit and snipe then even in a stock tank with a newbie crew you can walk away with 350 or so XP (I've made 1200 in one match in a Leichttraktor, but that was with a fully trained crew, and more importantly with knowing the Malinovka map really well).

Find a nice place at the back where you can get clear firing lines, let your team trundle forward (there's always a few lemmings) and spot enemies which you can then shoot. Because you're at the back you're likely to stay out of sight range yourself and therefore be at less risk. You don't need to get kills to get XP you only need to do damage, but you do get a bonus for getting the killing blow.

Whilst you're using your tier 1 tank you can hurt pretty much anything you come up against, the only thing you'll really have to worry about is the T18, which has ridiculous front armour and can instantly murder you if it has its best gun, and maybe the french tier 2 lights (D1 and H35, which also have thick armour, but are armed with potato cannons and move slowly enough that glaciers get road rage).

[Simon_Jester]

So first match I got some paltry xp, 7 i think. Second I got 70 something but it runs so slow on the pc that its hard to get a hit. Would have had a Yank dead if not for that. Still, got him down to 29%

There is bullet drop, right?

Lag can be a bear.

Make sure your drivers are updated, and look into some of the low-resolution graphics packs; that helped me get my 'average' lag in games from something like 100-150ms to more like 60-100.

[Aaron MkII]

Woot! Bt2! I forgot to buy ammo though, so I hid behind a hill and tried to spot.

Much faster then the MS-1 as well.

[Skywalker_T-65]

The BT-2 (and its big brother, the BT-7) are two of the fastest tanks in the game. If you like fast scouty type play, then you'll love those two (more so the 2 since the matchmaker is kinder). It helps that they have decent guns for their tiers.

[Simon_Jester]

Fast light tanks can also be entertaining when used as battering rams, assuming you can find something that stands still long enough for you to hit it.

This is of course a strategy best saved for, say, forgetting to buy bullets.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Hilarious thing just happened in my Stuart...I was charging the base (on an Encounter map) and got into a battle with two other Stuarts. I was backing up from them...when I back up into a Hetzer and blow it up. I've seen funny collision deaths...but never a light tank hitting something in REVERSE and blowing it up.