World of Tanks

[Simon_Jester]

The 122's main advantage is, of course, its alpha strike ability. However, unless your running a premium account, I wouldn't bother with it; the shells are expensive and if your going into higher tiers, money is always going to be in demand. It can also be an intimidation factor; the 122 hits hard and some of your enemies will actually look at what your mounting and then decide on tactics (but not many, lots of rambo's still out there) and on city maps especially, an advance will stall when a couple lighter tanks don't want to be the one to eat the 122 shell. Something I did not consider, but Agent Sorchus mentioned is training yourself to get used to higher reload and accuracy of higher tier guns. I would risk snap shots with a 107 that I won't with a 122 because of the inaccuracy and aim time of soviet guns as well as the cost. However, reload time, aim time, and accuracy don't get great in the upper soviet tiers, so get used to making your shots count.

Yeah, I experimented with this a bit last night and am disappointed in the 122's performance.

There are, as you say, a lot of Rambos. For myself I at least try to figure out whether an enemy KV is a 107mm, a 152mm, or a stock turret, whether a Panzer IV has the impossible Schmalturm turret, and so on, but even I would have trouble figuring out whether an enemy KV-3 had a 107 or a 122. The extra damage potential might be worth it if the rounds were only twice as expensive, but not at four times the cost.

For myself, I know I wouldn't let the 400 points of damage from a 122 round deter me from much of anything that the 300 points from a 107 wouldn't stop me from doing.

So back to the 107 it is, and I'll keep the 122 in storage for my IS... eventually. I've kind of lost the sense of urgency in working my way up the Soviet heavy tree, and am waiting on the eventual reshuffle of the tree and the associated gain in garage slots.

[xthetenth]

Weak is in comparison. I'd say the IS has weak armor as well, probably weaker because it doesn't angle well. It also has the misfortune of having a much less accurate gun. The T29 has a really nice armor suite that angles well as an added bonus, but the gun's inaccurate. Everything else rocks though. The Tiger (P) has really nice armor but it does have weaknesses and the thing's really slow. I'd say the T29 is still probably the best tier 7, but they're all really good. My stats in the Tiger and Tiger (P) are nearly identical. The only real change is a bit of difference in accuracy, but the Tiger sits farther back from the battle.

[Simon_Jester]

Er, I don't think the 122 is a weak gun as such, it's just that I honestly consider the 107 to be superior, mostly because of the high ammo cost on the 122. For a gun that is still only moderately accurate, and whose damage and penetration aren't that much superior to the 107, it just doesn't seem like a good way to rack up XP on the KV-3 with the goal of getting into an IS.

[Agent Sorchus]

On to actual news, Patch 7.2 is expected in February and besides the change in US heavies there will be a second TD line for the American players, and yes it includes the Hellcat. The other big thing is the new crew skills, something like 20 all told and no info yet on what they are. Link

Also the fog of war in clan wars is going up in two days. They finally worked the bugs out of the system for it. Good, because I know the T50-2 rushes are going to be hilarious.

Back to the 122, maybe once you graduate to the higher russian heavies the 122 being more similar helps when I take a jaunt in it. I did play with the 100 through IS, until I unlocked the second 122.

[Zinegata]

Yay for new skills! Yay for the M103!

Time to sell the T32 and buy a T34 though :/

[xthetenth]

Oh god yes. It's beautiful. I can't wait.

Sorchus, you're really expecting 50-2 rushes? I'd love to play some clan wars against you guys then because you don't seem to play much like us at all. You still need some heavy tanks to provide some backbone and arty to bring the huge firepower. Maybe some clans'll try something silly with a lot of French tanks or something, but I don't see it making nearly as much a change in composition as in willingness to change dispositions.

[The Vortex Empire]

I want to see AMX 13 rushes. If each one carries 6 90mm shells in one load, with a 3 second reload, then In 18 seconds they can put 90 90mm shells on one target. I don't imagine anything would stand up very well to that.

[xthetenth]

Batmobiles would work better, still six rounds but 300 damage instead of 240 or so, faster, and more HP.

[The Vortex Empire]

Which one's the Batmobile?

[xthetenth]

The Bat. Chatillon or whatever it is. The French tier nine medium. All you lose is a bit of cover if you can keep your whole force in the bushes. Still, I'd expect such a force to get lit up relatively early by a traditional team's T-50-2 force and the heavies to be able to circle their wagons and take advantage of their much larger HP pool and relatively good armor protection.

Also, on the subject of it being the batmobile:
skinners are awesome

[Agent Sorchus]

Rip vs SSGS

Unfortunately I think some of our best weren't recorded, only streamed. Here us one I thought sounded fun when we did it link.

I don't really think that the T-50-2 horde will happen, but it would be for a Quick cap stealthily at the second or third minute. T50s are just stealthy enough to pull it off, though AMX13's are also very stealthy. A full list of Batmobiles should be devastation, our first clan wars since the break saw one taking out 7 players completely solo, without even arty support. Sure most those kills were arty, but the rest? fucking unhurt Maus'. The AMX13-90 is probably plenty since HE might just be able to nuke with crits faster than the heavies can kill them.

[Nephtys]

I've always wanted to see 30 T-50-2's play World of Warplanes early. Same with 30 T2 Light Tanks armed with .50 Cals. That'd be hilarious to watch.

Oh well.

In other news, HELL YES. Second American TD Line! I'm looking forward to the M18 Hellcat, though also apprehensive. If they make it anything like what I'd like, it'd be borderline OP if you know how to use it.

After all, it's going to get the 90mm gun like the Slugger. Yet on a platform that moves 72 kph (due to game limitations), and is smaller? Who cares if the T18 has 15mm of armor, since the M36 never had useful levels of armor either. But being able to go ultra-fast and having a great gun just sounds too good to be true.

Also, Turreted versions of the T25 and T28? Sounds fun

[Agent Sorchus]

Actual some good news, apparently they might have fixed the in game limitations to speed. So they might actually have 90kmh Hellcats. I say might because the news is conflicted, Overlord said at one point that it will be limited in speed, but a met the representative event in October said the opposite.

[Zinegata]

I want to see AMX 13 rushes. If each one carries 6 90mm shells in one load, with a 3 second reload, then In 18 seconds they can put 90 90mm shells on one target. I don't imagine anything would stand up very well to that.

They're too damn vulnerable. You need T-50-2s running interference.

[xthetenth]

The T-50-2s are either going to be an ineffectual nuisance or dead fast, pick one. They can't keep their speed and do damage.

[Zinegata]

The T-50-2s are either going to be an ineffectual nuisance or dead fast, pick one. They can't keep their speed and do damage.

Ineffectual nuisance. The idea is that you need to have a T-50-2 distract and scout (run interference) while the AMX-13s shoot with relative impunity.

Against competent enemies though, the T-50-2 may just end up dead quickly anyway :p.

[xthetenth]

This is clan wars, the assumption is competence on both sides. The other assumption is that the traditional side has enough scouting to see it coming in time to prepare, and the alpha advantage of the French tanks is more than offset by their lack of HP and inability to bounce anything, while the heavies have a ton of alpha by sheer first shot damage and can bounce a lot.

[Hawkwings]

So I decided to get a E2 Sherman since it was on sale. Had most everything researched already because of the E8 I've had, so I upgraded it and sent it out on its first mission.

Victory!
Battle: Cliff Tuesday, January 24, 2012 10:19:21 PM
Vehicle: M4A3E2
Experience received: 2,886 (x3 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 23,541
Battle Achievements: Steel Wall

Damn fine tank, that Jumbo.

[S.L.Acker]

I could see a charge of the French brigade doing fairly well. With any luck 2 tanks should be able to put down a tank of equal tier before running away. The enemy will surely be slower so on the right maps it could be hit and run for the win. Arty, and the enemy getting good tracks would be the bane of this idea though.

[Thunderfire]

There are, as you say, a lot of Rambos. For myself I at least try to figure out whether an enemy KV is a 107mm, a 152mm, or a stock turret, whether a Panzer IV has the impossible Schmalturm turret, and so on, but even I would have trouble figuring out whether an enemy KV-3 had a 107 or a 122. The extra damage potential might be worth it if the rounds were only twice as expensive, but not at four times the cost.

The 122mm gun kills most T5 TD and T4/5 medium tanks with one shot unlike the 107mm gun. A SU-85 with 3% HP left is still able to hit the KV3 for 300 points of damage - unlike a dead SU-85.

[Simon_Jester]

Potentially- but you're paying an extra 730 credits on that shot for the "just to be sure" factor, and your DPS is worse, so if you have a target with more than 400 hit points, the 122 generally takes longer to kill it than the 107 does- so an SU-100 has more time to get off that damaging shot, even as the SU-85 dies instantly.

You see Tier 6 and larger opponents against which the DPS matters at least as often as you see Tier 4-5 opponents for which the alpha strike matters; in my experience you see them more often.

For me, after what was admittedly a limited number of matches, it just didn't feel like it was worth it.

[Vanas]

I was in a bit of a rut today with spectacular failures littering my wake. Then, somehow, I managed this.

Victory!
Battle: Mountain Pass 25 January 2012 20:05:25
Vehicle: Panther II
Experience received: 6,789 (x3 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 61,944
Battle Achievements: Top Gun, Sharpshooter, Master Gunner

As someone who doesn't score top guns very often at all, I'm quite happy. Killed 6, including a pair of same tier heavies, damaged another five more and missed three rounds out of 30. That'll do.

[PeZook]

Hey, what it is I've been hearing about the HE nerf?

Yesterday I took my disused 105 armed M4 out for a spin. I spy a KV-3 at some 75% health and I lob some shells at it and it doesn't do jack. Then, as he is engaged, I take careful aim and lob another shell between his tracks so that it detonates underneath it.

He fucking explodes.

Then I go and do the same to a Hetzer.

So, uh...?

[Vanas]

IIRC, owing to the armour model, tanks have very littl/no armour on the bottom. Furthermore, Soviet heavies (generally the domed turret ones, maybe the KV3?) have ammo stored on the bottom. You may have found a nice recipe for boom.

[The Vortex Empire]

Well, I know what I'm trying now.