Object 907, Soviet Mediums

Object 907 Evaluation and Soviet Mediums in general

By:

IrmaBecx

So you may have heard a new tank fell into my lap the other month, and it got me thinking about Premiums. I am saving up my gold hoping to get a good deal on a tier X tank, and the list isn’t all that long:

VK 90.01(P). AMX M4 mle. 54. And maybe the Object 907.

And of these three, the first two are pretty straightforward. A rear turreted German SuperHeavy with a properly German long gun, and a French hull down bruiser with the most powerful 130 mm in the game. But the third one? Note it says “maybe” in the above.

Let me try to explain why.

*

The Object 140 is my favourite tank in the game. Not my most driven. Not my most successful. My favourite. The one I am most proud of, and that makes me feel the most like myself when I’m driving it. We have a deeply emotional connection, my Object 140 and I.

And I wanted to like the Object 907. It’s arguably the most powerful Russian tier X Medium in that other game, and it’s one of those tanks I’ve been hoping would make the transition. But at the same time, it out-140s the Object 140 in two of the precise areas that make the Object 140 so good: mobility and camo rating.

But I mean, that’s OK. We want more tanks in the game, and sooner or later their capabilities will start to overlap. Also there are a few significant tradeoffs for these two advantages, the 907 has worse accuracy, worse DPM, worse armour, and it’s not as stable when firing on the move as the 140. But it does have one more degree of gun depression.

So it’s a similar tank. You trade a bit of armour and firepower for more speed and better camo. That sounds reasonable, no? And it kind of was right up my alley when I got to drive it in testing, but I just couldn’t seem to make real friends with it. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I’m not clicking with the playstyle. Or maybe I’m just not playing to it’s strengths.

I want to like the Object 907, but I’m just not sure I do.

*

Reading through the stats, it’s pretty easy to see how the Object 907 differs from the 140 and the T-62A. We actually have four Russian Mediums a tier X now, and I think there’s room for at least two more: a rear turreted one and a 122 mm. Each of these tanks have their own flavour, and the 907 is certainly different enough to warrant it’s place in the game.

It’s just not my favourite. I will always like the 140 best no matter what happens, and I doubt very highly I’ll ever get a 62A. The T-22 Medium doesn’t interest me like it used to, and I don’t think I’d actually pay for it, but I wouldn’t kick it out of my garage.

What about the 907?

Well, maybe I wouldn’t mind having one. I don’t have anything against it. I’d rather have a 907 than a T-22, and now that I think about it, I would probably rather have a new Medium than a new Heavy, wouldn’t I? And if I did get a new Russian Medium, it would be this one, right?

Fast tanks are always fun, even when they’re difficult to play, and the 907 is the fastest Soviet Medium in the game, except of course for the T-54 Lightweight. I didn’t feel like I quite got the hang of it in testing, so it has things to teach me for sure.

This is how you talk yourself into dropping the gold on a new tank. I know it’s coming, and I’ve been saving up as I said. Maybe the 907 is the tank I’ve been saving up for? The more I think about it, the more sense it would make.

Fortunately, I don’t have to sit here and dream. I could just log in to my press account and kit out the loan vehicle, and then I’ll put it through it’s paces.

*

So here’s the thing. I started writing this back in december when I thought the 907 bundle was going to come out, but then I guess it got pushed forward, and so I pretty much forgot about it. I did drive a few games on the press account, but it’s hit and miss, you know?

So anyway, that means I’ve had plenty of time to consider the proposition of the Object 907, and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. The Russian Light tanks are coming, and the natural predator of the Light tank is the Medium tank. Of course, if you’re going to take on the T-100LT in a Russian Medium, you’ll probably want to be in the 140 or the 62A because they actually have more DPM than the Light tank; the only thing the 907 brings to the table is gun depression and being a little more robust.

But yeah, I’ll be driving fast and light for the Motherland before long anyway, so why not mix it up with a little Medium tank gameplay? You can probably tell I’ve sold myself the tank already, can’t you?

Does that mean you should sit up and take note also?

No, not necessarily. What you should have done if you want a premium Soviet Medium at tier X is buy the T-22 Medium in the holiday auction. And if all you want is a fragile but mobile and hostile Russian Medium, then there are two very good options in the tech tree already, there’s no need to spend twenty thousand gold. And you know; the 907 is no T-22, it’s not going to become a hugely popular vehicle unless something drastic happens, and so you can probably expect prices to drop significantly with time.

For me though? I have almost all the tier X Mediums already; certainly all the ones that truly interest me, and so the Object 907 would round out my collection pretty nicely.

I mean, what else would I spend my gold on?

If you know Medium tanks, and Russian Mediums in particular already, there are a few things about the 907 that are going to disappoint you. 

First of all it fires about a third of a second slower than the tech tree tanks; I’m sure you know that can be an eternity in a tight spot. Second, it easily has the worst armour of any of the Soviet Mediums, and all you have to make up for it is mobility and camo rating. It does have the best camo rating of any tier X Medium, but no one seems to think that’s a real asset.

It also has the worst accuracy of the bunch, and it’s the least stable when firing on the move. If you’re used to your Object 140 hitting weakspots doing full speed drivebys, then the 907 is going to feel like a real letdown. But at least they won’t see you coming, right?

So what you have is a fast and stealthy tank, but you’ve paid fairly dearly for it in terms or armour and firepower. Oh, and you go faster backwards than the other tanks, but again people don’t usually consider that an advantage so much as a curiosity.

Okay, but if I want a fast and stealthy tank from beyond the iron curtain, why wouldn’t I just grind out the Object 140?

There’s no good argument against that. You would just grind out the Object 140. But then some of the exact things that make you like the 140 you can get a bit more of in the 907, and if you understand the 140 playstyle that’s going to make you a better 907 driver too.

*

I’ll say one thing, the Object 907 certainly looks good. It’s a few more days until the bundle drops so I’ve logged into the press account to drive a few games and try to delude myself I’m not making a gigantic mistake even considering this tank.

First game out the red team doesn’t have any Mediums on Malinowka. I cap the base uncontested and then drive straight for their 183, which goes down in seconds. Then I drive straight into the herd to take out a low health tank and try to get them turned around so my team can blast them, but by then I don’t have a team anymore; they’ve already broken through and it’s just a matter of cleaning up.

This is the good news/bad news of Medium tanks these days. Sometimes having a Medium advantage means you can establish map control and push the reds into a corner. Other times it just means a Heavy tank disadvantage, and you’re already 7 on 6 so to speak when the match starts.

Next game we have a pro toon in a Vickers Light/VK 90 on the reds, and it’s that new map with the houses in the middle. I figure if we don’t go left towards where A cap usually is we’ll get slaughtered, but out other Medium calls right, and I sort of shrug my shoulders and roll with it. Our Light tank does go left, but bravely turns around to flee after spotting the entire herd in that corner.

Meanwhile we have found a Kranvagn Nidhögg behind a house, and even without adrenaline we are talking almost 7000 DPM being unleashed on the poor Swede; that’s almost three Kranvagns a minute, and consequently it’s down in around 20 seconds. Behind it is the VK 90, having expected us from the other side and now taking fire from the rear and trying to angle up against two Soviet Mediums simultaneously while we pepper it’s weakspots.

It’s a classic lesson in Medium tank superiority: work together on the flank and focus fire, hit the slow and dug in tanks from the back and sides, put them in a crossfire with your main force.

“IRMA PERKELE” someone shouts. I can only agree, it’s a hell of a game. I fail to pen two of my overpowered Russian HE rounds on a Grille XV, taking a shot full in the face to do it, but I actually bounce two dead certain kill shots on just a sliver of heath just before the cavalry arrives, and I manage to collect myself enough to hit the last shot on the Vickers Light for the win.

I’ve said before that the Medium tank nerf paradoxically made Medium tanks more important, because they still have capabilities that Heavy tanks and TDs simply don’t have. You can’t hide a Heavy tank the way you can an Object 140, and you can’t make it go as fast as a Leopard. In some situations those things are going to make all the difference

Back in the day, you would roll up on the centre hill on Malinowka and hide in a bush while you lit up the entire red herd of Heavy tanks trundling their way towards the windmill, and then watch the rounds come raining in from the rest of your team. That’s the sort of gameplay you dream about in the object 907, because it’s not a brawler, and it’s not a sniper, it’s just a regular Medium tank.

*

I’ve struggled to make this point before about the Object 140. The reason I say it’s better than the T-62A is that it’s better at being a Medium tank. People just don’t understand what I mean, they keep repeating the T-62A is better because it just is better. Never once have I heard a convincing argument why; I ask “explain to me how” and they say “it just is”.

And then I say the Object 140 outperforms the T-62 by a small margin in terms of average winrate, and it has for the longest time. That’s just because better players choose the Object 140 they say, it’s not because it’s a better tank.

You mean to tell me that the reason the T-62A has been buffed is that Wargaming are simply too dumb to realise only the very best quality players in the game ever drive the Object 140, and it should therefore be balanced accordingly? So they made the T-62A better by accident? Or they do understand only the absolute cream of the crop drive the 140, and therefore they have purposely made it much worse than the T-62A?

There has arguably been one buff. Note I say ”arguably”, and it’s all about bench racing. But then bench racing does explain all the strengths of the 140, just not how to actually use them. The Object 140 got AP rounds instead of APCR the same time the T-62A got seven degrees of gun depression, but retained the tier-leading shell velocity. That means that over distance, the 140 will normalise better than the 62A, and so in theory it should penetrate more often. But then the 62A has better accuracy, better penetration, and better aimtime, so…

Where does the 907 fit in to all this?

Well, it’s the fastest, most agile, and stealthiest of the three as I said, but I don’t think it’s the best. Ironically, the numbers seem to suggest otherwise. With by far the least amount of drivers, the 907 outperforms the T-22 Medium by one percent and the 140 by four percent. The 140 likewise outperforms the 62A by one percent. That’s about the size of it.

You can interpret this in several ways.

One, the 907 is the best Soviet Medium tank in the game.

Two, only the very, very top of the line and most excellent players drive the 907.

Three, the 907 is the fastest Soviet Medium, and speed is a very powerful advantage.

Four, the 907 is a rare tank, and the sample is way too small to draw any definite conclusions. It’s possible the sample is skewed in some manner, and that’s why we are seeing these competitive looking numbers: 58% plus winrate, 2250 average damage, and even a 40% survival rate.

Diving deeper into the numbers, as of update 8.5, the most OP Russian Medium is the T-22 with a relative winrate of plus one. That is followed by the 907 with plus one half, and then both tech tree tanks have around minus one half. If you don’t know what “relative winrate” is, it’s just the vehicle’s winrate compared to the winrate of the player who’s driving it. So if you’re a 55% player, you’ll average 56% in the T-22 Medium, but only 54.5% in the T-62A.

*

Whichever way you choose to look at it, there’s more to the Object 907 than meets the eye. On paper it looks like the weakest of the niche, but the numbers, although they should be viewed with caution, actually suggest it’s among the strongest.

I would be inclined towards interpretation number three: speed is a powerful advantage. But it’s also an advantage that’s difficult to take advantage of; no pun intended, and you all know that four letter word in the back of your mind. Points for both four letter words, as one is most often followed by the other.

If you are an incorrigible yolo-artist, then the Object 907 is exactly the kind of tank you want to be in. It looks flash; especially wearing the “Ruthless” legendary camo, it’s light and powerful, and it explodes nicely when hit by massive shells. But even if you are Pro, I think the 907 is going to be a pretty hard sell for the majority of players.

As if to underscore that point I get three disheartening losses in a row, and am about to have a fourth one on Canals. I go D with our AMX Corsica against a Vickers CR and a 121B. Our AMX is taken out almost immediately by a 183, and all of a sudden I am surrounded by four or five tanks, so I have to retreat towards the centre, hiding behind bridge and trying to both keep the reds spotted for my team and not get taken out.

In the end I manage to hold them off until they flank me, and then I retreat behind my team, going the long way around to try to take out the Vickers and claim the D cap, because they have two to our one. Failing to reset my camo I take a fatal shot trying to cap. It’s down to the wire, the 121B with a cap advantage is running away from a T57 Heavy, but gets spotted out in the open and our driver actually aims the shot.

This is kind of what you can expect; this type of either/or gameplay.

And I am warming up to the 907 a little, because it fights like a demon when cornered, it flies across the terrain like the howling wind, and I hate to say it, but yes: seven degrees if quite comfortable in a lot of situations. I would have taken six on this tank.

*

But is this simple vanity or is it actually building my collection? I’m sure you know I have a lot of tanks I don’t actually drive but like having around, or that I say I’m going to get around to some day.

You know, when I “Git Gud”.

The only selling point I can stand behind 100% is that just like the AMX 30 B, the Object 907 is a perfect vehicle to keep that dream alive in. Because you have to know what you’re dong when you drive it, you’re not going to get a lot of bounces, you can’t side scrape anything larger than a Light tank gun; indeed you can’t even sidescrape a Light tank gun, it’s just not a tank that gives you anything for free. And it’s fast but it’s not that fast, the E 50 M does 60 too and has the same nominal specific power.

And yet here I am wanting to drive it again, and I know that in a couple of days I am going to drop 20.000 gold on the plain jane version and hope to get a good deal on the “Ruthless” camo down the line so it’ll match my 140 “Terror”.

I could have dropped a large chunk of my gold on the LT-432, which would have made a certain amount of sense since the Russian Lights are coming. But I really think I’ll get more mileage out of a tier X tank, even one as fragile as this. You hear me making all these excuses for myself?

I bought the AMX 30 B last holiday season, and if I’m honest I haven’t driven it that much. I do drive it, but not as much as my WZ-111 5A, or even my new Object 260. And I think that’s fair enough, because it is the type of tank you kind of have to be in the mood for, and that mood does strike me from time to time. I’m expecting the 907 will be about the same, and that’s OK.

*

Tomorrow is the day. Unless something happens the bundle is going to drop, and I’ll be logged in and waiting for my prize.

Or will I? Driving five games just now I lose four of them, which hardly seems encouraging. I keep meeting red teams that plow straight through mine, and I’m not exactly being an asset except for a round of initial spotting.

The Object 140 and 907 were actually competing designs for replacing the T-54, both started in 1953. A 100 series number means Uralvagonzavod as you may know, and 900 series should mean Stalingrad Tractor Factory, but the designer is often listed as “Design Bureau No. 100”; I’m not sure if they are one of the same. Either way the 907 was cancelled due to it’s complexity, and while the 140 was actually built, it was abandoned too in 1958.

And being 5 wins and 9 losses so far today, I can kind of see why they never built the 907. Well, they built the hull and it did some tests around 1955, but they decided the whole thing was just too complicated. It is complicated to drive; there’s just so many things that can go wrong.

So far today I’ve been outtraded by T92 Light tanks, taken a max roll from a 183 straight through the side that wrecked all my modules, killed most of my crew, and set me on fire, and I’ve been chased down by almost avery kind of Medium tank you care to mention plus an AMX 50 B.

Why is this happening? I can tell you I am very grateful right now for having access to a press account so I can try to figure these things out. It might well have been I had gotten tired of the struggle by now and decided to spend my gold on something else, but curiously all the difficulties I’m having seem to only strengthen my resolve to buy the Object 907.

There are still a number of hours left before I have to decide.

Nothing teaches you about the failings of a vehicle like driving it on the night shift. The 907 is a tank people know is kind of a pushover in a 1 v 1, because the armour is pretty thin, and for the same reason whey will often throw a shell in your direction no matter which tank you think they should be shooting at, because a lot of higher caliber guns will simply overmatch in a lot of places.

I keep driving, pulling off a win by simply doing hull down work and focusing fire on the Middleburg hill. But then it’s back to losing by thousands, and having hit the 50 game mark on the loan vehicle, I am running a 42% winrate. You have to agree that’s not super impressive. A couple or more games doesn’t change a lot, it’s still below 50%.

I’m zoning out watching HisRoyalFatness showcase the 907, trying to summarize my impressions. You have to be looking for those hull down positions, because that’s the only way your armour is going to hold up. I actually switched to calibrated shells, because the DPM is low as it is, and so perhaps it’s better to make the shots actually count.

That’s about all I’ve got. Six pages now, and I feel like I’m back where I started.

*

Ten minutes ago I pressed the button. Just coming back from my first game out, and of course it was a disaster. I roll up on B cap and catch the Sheridan shell on my gun barrel, but it’s all downhill from there. Our other Medium is nowhere to be found, and they basically just drive straight past us. Without the centre on Canyon we quickly lose the match.

Next game I have the hill all to myself on Dead Rail with a Grille supporting, and I pump out over 3000 damage for a convincing win. It’s like Fatness said; sometimes the tank is really powerful, and others it’s a complete letdown, especially the main armament.

I’m missing the “Ruthless” legendary camo from the press account, I really am. And since there’s a more expensive bundle, they’re not going to try and sell it to me just yet. Not that I have the gold right now anyway. Still running the calibrated shells so I can get that 330 HEAT penetration, but I am a little worried about the DPM. We’ll see how I do.

Otherwise, I’m running the same setup as on other Mediums: improved assembly, engine accellerator, and high end consumables. I had the thought I might run some sort of protective kit since the 907 is pretty fragile, but I don’t really want to give up the double food and super fuel. Also thought about adrenaline instead of the turbo boost, but the strength of the 907 is speed, not firepower.

In the end it doesn’t matter. I take three more sound beatings and now I’m down to the same 20% winrate I started out with on the press account. But yea, I wanted to be a 907 owner, and now I am one. I knew it was going to be a bit of a struggle.

But when you keep getting killed early with low damage, then very clearly you are doing something wrong. I am I think playing to one strength but not to the other, and I’m not listening to my own advice. You know, the one about people throwing shells after you on the off chance? I’m clearly spending too much time out in the open and making bad trades, because if I didn’t I’d stay alive longer and do more damage.

More cautious gameplay, then. Let’s give that a go.

To amuse myself I try to get rated, and my plan to take it easy goes straight out the window. I manage to win 6 out of 10 with 1500 average damage, landing me at 3020 rating; or just over the gold league limit. I don’t think that’s all that bad for such a tricky drive, but I can tell you I had to work for it, and it didn’t feel like I won more than I lost.

Two more games ironically turn out to be one that’s completely hopeless, where everything goes wrong and everyone shoots at me; a convincing 5000 damage loss, and the other an absolutely amazing one where I spot B on Overlord and then sort of hang around there, capping A, poking shots at a big TD using my superior camo and being chased around by a Yoh tank, but using my mobility to outplay them, and after a while I realise it’s just the two of them left and the rest of my team are on their way.

I’ll tell you one thing. If anyone tries to tell you being able to go 25 km/h backwards is not a real asset, then feel free to snigger at them knowingly. Not a lot of these big, lumbering Heavys and TDs can keep up when you get in close to them.

What you want to watch out for are fast Heavys, and especially out on the flanks. They can chase you down, and they basically only have to tag you to do damage if you are running away from them. It’s better to run away beforehand and try to remain unspotted. The camo rating is good, you can tanke that to the bank.

But yea, the thing will give you gray hairs. It’s the epitome of the high risk/high reward tank. And I know that’s what’s going to keep me coming back to it; indeed what has been keeping me coming back to it these last few days on the press account. At it’s best, there is nothing like this tank in the game. At it’s worst, you’re wondering what it’s doing at tier X.

And somehow, that’s about what I wanted from it. I didn’t need another Soviet Medium. I knew it was going to be a tricky drive. And I wanted one anyway, because I want that high stakes gameplay. I want to either fail miserably or win triumphantly, and in that regard if nothing else the Object 907 delivers in spades.

I think it looks cool. I like the whole idea of it. It’s the first thing I want to drive when I log in to the game right now. Between the 260 and the 907 I think I’m turning seriously communist in my tank driving.

*

But I also think that’s quite enough rambling, it’s time to sum up.

This is the first time the Object 907 is being sold outside of crates, and it’s an expensive bundle. As it is I think you can expect to pay maybe 15.000 for one inside a year. I am seeing a few of them out there. That makes me happy, and it shows there are drivers out there who appreciate the things the 907 has to offer.

Since it’s so agile it brawls a lot better than I expected, and you are going to have to fight tooth and nail. It doesn’t have a reputation for being robust; people already know it’s the worst armoured of the Soviet Mediums, and they aren’t shy about chasing it down.

The way to deal with that is of course to not stray too far from your team. When you get pushed, you head straight for your teammates hoping they will want to shoot at your pursuers.

And I have gotten away by the skin of my teeth in a number of situations, I have bounced huge TD shells off the turret and upper plate, and sometimes I’ve even won the game.

But the 907 playstyle isn’t super easy to figure out. Spending the weekend with it I am starting to feel a little more confident, but I’m still dropping winrate. And really, if I can’t get my Object 140 to win, why would I be able to win in the 907? It’s definitely a demanding drive, and if you haven’t driven the other Soviet Medium tanks then I think you’re really going to struggle to make this one work.

Still, for some reason I’m not sorry I bought it. It’s a lovely tank, nothing else quite like it when it works, and I did have some fantastic games.

However. Unless you are an elitist tank degenerate like I am, and you’ve been jonesing for the 907 specifically for some time now, I think you’ll be quite safe to hold off a little while and wait for a better offer. ISurely the fewer tanks that are sold, the faster the price is going to drop?

But yea, if you want to ruin yourself on what is basically a tier X T-54 Lightweight minus the Light tank camo and moved up two tiers, I completely understand.

IrmaBecx says listen to your heart on this one.

Belated Review Of The T-44-85

IS IT THE NEW “RUDY”?!

By:

IrmaBecx

So yea, I bought it. Straight up. It’s a good deal. You can get the luxury version with a tier V Matilda thrown in, or the executive version with the camo and all nine slots, or you can get the plain jane cheapo bench seat beater, which is the one I got.

I didn’t quite have the 7K to swing the camo bundle. But I did have the 5.5 the plain jane cost, and with over 1K left over for the next tier X crew training. I figured they’d try to sell me the camo half off sooner or later anyway. But even if they don’t, it’s only 950 gold, so the cheap bundle plus the camo will actually save you over 500 gold if you have the credits to spare for equipment.

Me, I tested the T-44-85, and so I have all nine unlocked already. But also I put my scraped together free gold where my mouth is; because this is the kind of bundle I keep talking about you should be on the lookout for.

And also because it is my duty as a tank philosopher.

Because this could very well be the contemporary “Rudy”.

*

Famously I have driven more games in the Hype 59 than any other tank in the game, but the Rudy is right up there in the top five. My Rudy has gotten me through times when I haven’t felt like I’ve wanted to drive anything else in my garage, it marked my defection to communist tank driving long before the Object 140 did, and I still maintain it’s the best tank in the game.

So. Faced with an obvious contender; because the T-44-85 is aimed squarely at me as a Rudy driver, what do I do? Do I cling to the old days and to some important ways in which the Rudy outperforms any contender, new or old?

No. I bought the thing right off. And not because it’s the new Rudy. Because it isn’t the new Rudy, but it wants to be. I can think of no more important question for current tank philosophy.

*

I lasted about ten games before I dropped the 950 gold on the “Bravery” camo. I think it’s one of the best looking premium camos in the game, and as that leaves me 6450 gold in the hole, it’s still a bargain.

Lemme tell you; even without the camo, the thing is nothing short of fantastic. It’s like someone tried to upgrade the Rudy who actually understands what the Rudy is all about. 

If you had to undertake such a project, a baby T-44 would make all the sense in the world as a point of departure. And there’s not a whole lot of “baby” about it, the T-44-85 is almost as big as the full size tier VIII. The turret is of the same type, and it’s more sturdy than the glorified T-34-85 that is the Rudy. Speaking of 85, you get a ZiS-S-53 85 mm which is actually a tier VI weapon. But this one has (367) after it, so they call it a tier VII now, and no wonder with those stats.

Basically, you will aim a little faster and penetrate a little deeper, but you won’t fire as fast or accurately compared to the Rudy.

Same thing with the armour and mobility. The T-44-85 doesn’t dance quite like Rudy, but it brings a thick forehead and sharp elbows to the dance floor. I don’t think the new tank is outright better than the Rudy, indeed a lot of people will prefer the latter because of the extra gun depression. T-44-85 gets six degrees; bog standard for a Russian Medium.

What’s so great about it? Well, a little bit of everything. You get a mobile, fairly sturdy chassis with what you might call the new tier standard caliber armament; some other tanks run 90 and 100 mm guns at tier VII now, but with an 85, you won’t feel left behind. Sprinkle a bit of Russian Bias all over that, and you have a pretty powerful little package.

More importantly, you have a package with a conspicuous lack of weaknesses.

*

What always made me say that Rudy is the best tank in the game is that Rudy can do anything with a bit of confidence, luck, and inspired driving, and I feel that same confidence rolling out in my new T-44-85. That feeling that you have everything you need to bring it home; all you need now is a plan of action.

So you roll out to get some spots, knowing you’ll be able to either make a good trade, do some hull down work, or simply GTFO if things get too hot, and perhaps one of the shots they throw after you will simply bounce off your behind because Russia. You feel confident in your Biased viewrange, and camo rating, and terrain resistance values; all those little things that can make all the difference when you’re living on the edge.

And I have been, of course. Driving straight at the reds to see what this little tank can do, and I can tell you; it’s a feisty little brawler. A few of these games I’ve been having practically made the purchase worthwhile by themselves.

The T-44-85 is a quintessential Russian Medium tank, right down to the six degrees of gun depression. You can sidescrape out to 20 degrees, frontscrape Heavy tanks past 45 degrees, and your turret front averages something like 250 mm of effective armour. All this in a small, low to the ground package with 200 alpha on a sub 5 second reload, even with calibrated shells.

I run the calibrated shells, but I don’t think it’s really necessary. No HEAT rounds, so there’s not a lot of increase, and the penetration values are higher than the Rudy as is. And the way you want to play something like this, you are looking for side and rear shots at armoured targets.

In a tier VII game, the Baby T-44 can take charge and push through. Moving up to tier VIII opposition, it loves to carry from the bottom. I drove a number of games yesterday thinking “this must be a fluke”, but going out again today, the tank keeps performing.

Maybe it just fits my playstyle?

*

So who might be interested in a T-44-85?

If you are a Rudy driver, you might want to take note. This is not a better Rudy, it’s just a new and different take on the same idea. If you like your Rudy, chances are you’ll like the Baby T-44 as well.

If you are interested in Russian Medium tanks, this could be a good starting point. But then so could of course the T-34-85 Victory, or the Rudy.

If you are a tank collector, then I definitely think the T-44-85 should be in your collection. Following the development history of the T-44, this would be the second generation T-44-85 prototype sent to trials, identifiable by the fact it has the ZiS-S-53.

Otherwise? I think if you are just a regular player looking for something to spend some time with, grind some credits, clear some missions, and have a few casual games, then this is exactly the kind of tank you should be on the lookout for. Something mobile and well rounded, easy to drive, and that responds well to standard tactics.

Before I make all this sound too good to be true, I will add that yes: the Baby T-44 is a tier VII, which means it’s in the perfect position to face the very worst the game has to offer in terms of overpowered collector tanks, lurking doom cannons, noob lemmingtrain teams, and the like. The very first thing that happened after I bought mine was I took a 152 mm from a T49 straight through my lower plate for 600 damage, and I’ve been both Smashered and Annihilatored a few times.

But these are facts of life by now, and I didn’t find it detracted all that much from my enjoyment of the Baby T-44. I’m still very happy I dropped the gold.

So what’s the bottom line?

Well, on paper the T-44-85 may not look all that special, and to an extent that’s because it’s not. It’s just a well designed vehicle, and as noted it doesn’t really have any drawbacks. There is nothing specific this tank can do that no other tank can, and that includes tech tree tanks.

You don’t need this tank. But you may still want it, and there are plenty of good reasons for that. It’s an excellent proxy tank for higher tier Mediums of the same style, it rakes in the credits same as the Rudy, and it’s quite a looker in my humble opinion. If you want to learn the Medium playstyle as executed by Soviet Mediums, then look no further for your training vehicle.

*

That would have been the end of it. I’ve started driving the Baby T-44 in skirmish mode and having lots of fun; it really is an excellent vehicle for that kind of fast paced, explosive gameplay, and I’m positively raking in the credits.

It doesn’t look like Wargaming supplies information about internal modules, but in this case they don’t have to. Every single T-44/54/55 variant out there has the exact same layout: driver front left, fuel tank and ammo rack front right and all down the right side. This goes for any Chinese variant too, including the WZ-120-1G FT Tank Destroyer. You always want to show your left side if you can help it.

The gun can sometimes feel a little “Russian”, but that also means it has a bit of Bias. It’s worth taking those snap shots and shouting “Rasha!” once in a while.

But on the whole the tank is very solid, and I’ve actually not driven anything else over the last few days. There is just one question I’ve been wrestling, because it is the most important. Namely this:

Is the Baby T-44 the new “Rudy”?

In several ways, the answer is “no”. The Rudy still turns faster, goes faster, and has more gun depression. It is not the case that the T-44-85 is outright better. Therefore, it cannot be the new Rudy. Also, the Baby T-44 has nowhere near the star quality the Rudy has, isn’t known from television, and so in terms of personality it is a little more muted. But it does have personality none the less; not the flamboyant kind that Rudy expresses, but one that is very approachable and easy to like.

*

I started writing this paper a while back now, but never got around to posting it, partly because of a recent struggle with writer’s block, but more importantly because it didn’t feel… well, finished.

I wrote the Baby T-44 is not the new Rudy, and yet it is, in a manner of speaking. This is how a tier VII Russian premium Medium tank that would have the same enduring appeal would look like; indeed does look like.

Is the appeal really that enduring?

So far at least, the answer is “yes”. I spent all this past season driving the T-44-85 in Ratings, and ended up low Gold league; same as I did in the 121B and in the IS-4 before that. Just recently, the Kunze Panzer joined my collection, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. But I’ve still been driving the Baby T-44, and I sometimes miss the robust chassis; especially when I drive my little Kunze full speed into something solid like the Ferdinand and lose all my hitpoints in a massive explosion.

Both these tanks, and the T-44-85 especially, has managed to do something for me I didn’t think would be possible without some major rebalancing: namely put the fun back in tier VII. In spite of the Smasher, and the Annie, and the T49.

I drive a few games in some of my favourite tier VII tanks; the Kunze, the T-44-85, and of course my old Rudy, all of which are absolutely terrible except the one in the Rudy, where I manage three kills and almost 2K damage with a dead driver.

But it’s all right. I know I drive with a little too much passion sometimes, and you can’t help if the reds make a good push against a disorderly defence.

This short excursion also tells me the Rudy still has it; it really is a magnificent vehicle, and it is perhaps a little easier to drive. Either that, or I’m just more used to it. But for getting into Soviet style Mediums, the Baby T-44 would be the way to go. Unless you run the 122 mm for some unfathomable reason, it’s literally just a step up from the T-44-85 to the actual T-44, or the T-44-100, or perhaps the Hype 59, and then further up towards the T-54/55A and the top dogs at tier X.

So yes, the T-44-85 is the new Rudy, but the Rudy is still the best. Something like that.

The important question, however, is should you have bought one when it was available, and should you keep a lookout for when it comes on sale next?

Absolutely. I truly love this little tank, and I won’t hesitate to endorse it to anyone interested in Medium tank gameplay, Soviet tank development, and solid, well balanced mid tier premium tanks.

See you out there!

T-22 Medium On Sale!

The Third Option

By:

IrmaBecx

Special shout out to TackyPing, who has requested this review.

So if you’re quick about it, you could be the proud owner of one of the most sought after tanks in the game. Yes, the T-22 Medium is on sale for the first time, and it’s not cheap. 20K gold they want for the plain jane version, and 25K for all the trimmings.

That’s a lot of gold. And yet I did briefly consider it myself.

I wrote a while back that when choosing between the Russian Medium tanks, you want to get the T-22, and if you can’t get that one, you get one of the other two. That sounds straightforward enough.

But is the T-22 still the gold standard? The non plus ultra of Soviet Mediums? And should you therefore consider throwing all that gold at it?

I fired up the press account loan vehicle to try to find out.

*

Russian Medium tanks are famously more fragile than you expect them to be; I found that out the hard way when I first got hold of them. But with the V-shaped hull and pike nose of the T-22, it looks as if this might be the exception.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same as the others. A high DPM 100 mm gun, six degrees of gun depression, and it does 55 km/h with about 20 horsepower per ton.

Actually, the armour isn’t all that thick. 80 mm sides and 100 mm front doesn’t exactly sound like an IS-7, but it’s all about the angles. You can autobounce pretty much any gun in the game out to 40 degrees side angle, and you even get a strip of spaced armour long the side. The front plate will likewise autobounce if you use gun depression, or if you wiggle side to side on flat ground.

And that’s really all there is to say about the T-22. It may look funny, but it’s really not a very complicated vehicle.

I drive a couple of games to try to get back into it, it’s been quite a while since I drove the thing. This is not one of those tanks I always have a go in when I’m on the press account. I always figured I’d get around to acquiring it for my collection one day, but now I’m not so sure. The Object 140 is my Russian Medium tank weapon of choice, and this is pretty much the same tank with a different armour layout.

Is it powerful? Sure. Does it bounce shots? Absolutely.

Is it going to be worth all that gold?

Maybe.

*

According to my calculations, the T-22 Medium has the fourth highest DPM of any Medium tank, but you’ll have to dole it out 310 alpha at the time. Being Russian it also has those HE shells with a little extra bang in them, 420 alpha rather than the expected 380 or 400. You also get a much slower shell speed than the tech tree tanks, around 1000 m/s. That’s only marginally faster than the HEAT rounds, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Such similar shell speeds mean you can use the same point of aim no matter which shell type you are using.

On flat ground, the pike nose only shows around 240 mm of effective armour. That’s not so great. But you only have to angle it three degrees to either side or upwards to start getting bounces. If you come across something with really high penetration, you’ll need more of an angle.

A lot of people seem to either struggle with or not like pike nose tanks. You sometimes see experienced layers trying to reverse side scrape, which is perfectly doable with the forward placement of the turret, and of course not a lot of things are going to go through that V-shaped hull. You can bounce most shells out to 40 degrees, and a calibrated HEAT round from a Jägeru out to 20 degrees. That’s pointing the gun over the inside rear drive wheel.

My personal experience is it’s seldom practical, but it does work. Just make sure you don’t drive forward when you meant to go backwards.

I’ve been running an “everything to the left” setup, but I will me making a few changes. More engine power instead of traverse, and more hipoints since the tank relies on autobounces anyway. With 90 rounds capacity you can bring a few extra HE shells with no problem.

I’m not sure about calibrated shells. You can fight Heavy tanks in the T-22 Medium if you have a good position with cover, and 330 HEAT penetration is a lot more comfortable than 300. This is one of few tanks I’m running adrenaline on; I don’t actually recall what my rationale was for that.

Out on the battlefield, it seems I’m not the only one taking an interest in the T-22. I see one or two almost every game, which is kind of cool. This is the first time the T-22 has been available as a straight bundle, and I hope people who have been waiting for that are happy with their new tank.

I manage to take a few out as well. It takes a little while to get used to the pike nose.

*

The contemporary T-22 doesn’t quite feel like the overpowered monster it has the reputation of being. It’s certainly powerful, but it is still a 100 mm Medium tank, and that’s about as far as you can get from the current Heavy tank and big gun TD meta. It’s still a nice drive. But is it twenty to twenty five thousand gold nice? It’s definitely not 20K gold better than my beloved old Object 140.

But it’s not really the same style of tank as the T-62A or the 140. The kinky armour profile makes it more of a brawler, and it can cosplay a Heavy tank for a short while. The 100 mm won’t have anyone fooled, though.

The armour profile is the great strength of the T-22, but it’s not always easy to figure out what to do with it. I’ve just been going the Medium route and trying to get into as much trouble as I can. This game is an excellent example; it’s a win, and not a very exciting one, but you’ll see me take on first one and then another T-22 Medium by the A cap on Castilla:

So yeah, that may have been one too many. The difference is the second tank has a height advantage on me, and so has an easier time penetrating the shots. I am running calibrated shells here by the way, and you can see me being quite liberal with the HEAT rounds. Also note the 440 alpha strike on the Grille; those HE rounds do make a difference.

The T-22 can bounce the biggest guns in the game, but you’ll have to work a little at it to make that happen. The overall feeling I’m having is the same one I got when I first drove the Object 140: this tank is more fragile than I thought it would be.

Sure, it’s fun to drive, and it’s not terribly hard to be successful in it. But I’m not sure the curious armour profile warrants a place for it in my garage, because that it really all this tank is about.

*

So should you buy one?

If you’ve been coveting the T-22 for a long time, then here’s your chance to throw some money at the problem. That’s fair enough. But I do think you need to have a specific interest in the T-22 for it to be worthwhile, something beyond the fact you heard it was good. You also want to make sure the six degrees of gun depression and the pike nose front won’t catch you by surprise.

If you are an avid fan of Russian Medium tanks, and you drive the other two regularly, then likewise this might be a good investment. If you happen to be a reverse sidescrape enthusiast for some reason, then it’s practically a must have.

Do note the T-22 has an even lower credit coefficient than the T-62A and the Object; this is definitely not a premium tank. It’s not going to make you any more credits than your tech tree beater, quite the contrary in fact.

But the T-22 is a nice drive. I had some fun taking it out for a few games. Not enough to warrant a purchase for me, but still enjoyable. I suppose you’re not risking a whole lot by dropping the gold on it except abject poverty. Once you get your head around the armour profile it’s not a difficult tank do drive.

Me, I actually think I’d rather have the 121B; a tier X Type 59. The T-22 Medium used to be on my want list, but over time I’ve grown less interested in it, and I don’t feel it would add a whole lot to my collection. The armour layout is definitely unique, but it’s really not all that different from the other Russian Mediums. If it had a flat front plate, I think you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart.

It’s a good tank. Good and expensive. If you want to treat yourself a little this holiday season then I’m all for that, but I encourage you to do your research and make sure you know what it is you are getting. It’s not automatically going to make you a super unicorn and it doesn’t give you a lot for free. It’s also been in the game for quite a while at this point, and experienced players will know how to deal with it.

I can’t really find a lot of fault with the T-22 Medium. It does what it’s supposed to, and does it well. For me that’s not quite enough to make it worthwhile, especially not in such an expensive bundle.

IrmaBecx says it’s a thumbs up, but still a pass from me.

Crate Of The Month: The STG

Rear Turret Medium?!

By:

IrmaBecx

So from today you can get your hands on a brand new tier VIII premium tank with a difference; two differences in fact, and they are both significant enough to make you either love or hate it.

Yes, the STG has arrived. You may have seen it out there being tested not too long ago.

And it’s a curious tank to say the least. You get a 122 mm main armament just like the Chinese Mediums, and then you get a rear turret and excellent mobility like the Chrysler K. You also get a strong turret but fairly mediocre hull armour, and what I suppose most people consider limited gun depression: five degrees.

So if you struggle with gun depression or with a rear turret; and it is a little awkward, then I can tell you right away that this tank is not going to be for you.

But for a Medium tank elitist and quirk tank enthusiast? That’s a different proposition.

*

So 210 mm frontal turret armour. 100 mm front plate and 45 mm sides. I get a 12.63 second reload yielding 1900 DPM with a rammer; AP and APCR don’t get as much value out of calibrated shells. This is of course the ubiquitous 122 mm D-25, very much the same as on a lot of other Russian tanks.

But the interesting comparison here is against Chinese Mediums like the T-34-3 or the tech tree T-34-2. You might add the T-44 running the 122 mm, but sadly that’s still nowhere near competitive on account of the low DPM. Basically, you get 5 mm extra penetration with slower shell speed, but the same razor sharp aimtime.

The armour is a little better on paper, but since the STG is a little awkward to manoeuvre, it’s not certain you’ll notice that. Specific power is also in favour of the STG. The 100 mm front plate looks good on paper, but there is a fold in the middle yielding an upper and a lower upper plate, and it’s only the lower upper part that’s 100 mm. The upper upper part is just 30 mm, meaning anything over 90 mm will overmatch it. The lower upper part is not as well angled as, say the T-34-3, and aiming down over your inner drive wheel, most tanks you face will punch through the front plate of the STG where a T-34-3 will bounce.

There’s more bad news. 45 mm side armour allows you to side scrape Heavy tank guns out to 20 degrees or so, but you have two wedges either side angling towards the front plate that will flatten out in a side scraping position. Your turret also has a fairly prominent hatch on your right hand side.

But with almost 20 horsepower per ton and 50 degrees of traverse, the STG is supremely agile, and if you are used to derpy Russian 122 mm weapons, you’ll have no problems with the STG D-25TS.

I can tell you I liked the tank right away. It’s certainly novel, and although it is a little awkward to drive, that is also part of the charm. It’s a unique tank that needs a slightly different headspace than your other Medium tanks; even something like the mighty Chimera.

*

So what’s it like to drive? I loaded up my press account loaner to find out.

No surprises in terms of setup. I run my standard combat setup with a speed boost and dual repair kits, about 30% premium rounds, and a few HE shells. I have to say I was a little disappointed in the “Guard” camo; instead of the magnificent Soviet style painting with the tank crew and slogan, the Blitz version looks more like the P.43/06 anniversario.

Ergo standard camo. It’s not like I need to save credits on the press account anyway. And with that, off we go.

I usually like to show my first game out, but it was a complete disaster. I didn’t get a grace period; straight into a tier IX game, and although we had a Medium/Light tank advantage, of course no one went the Medium route on Canals, meaning we quickly lost both map control and bases, and it was over very quickly from there. I only did two shots of damage before I got taken out.

Here’s my second game:

That went a went a little better; as you can see I managed to stay alive on 1% of my hitpoints and put out 2K damage in what was otherwise basically a lemmingtrain steamroll. The STG will not punch through the front of a Tiger II with uncalibrated premium rounds, but with the fairly thin frontal armour, you don’t want to fight Heavy tanks head on anyway.

The thing the STG does well in those situations is actually sidehugging. Your mobility is so much better than pretty much any Heavy tank out there, and if you juke back and forth, they won’t get a bead on you.

This game also shows you can’t be too aggressive with the STG. You have a fairly long reload, and you can’t really rely on the hull armour. What you can rely on however is the camo rating; the STG has I think the best camo of any tier VIII Medium tank, so you might want to take some cues from Tank Destroyer gameplay.

But yeah, it’s fun. It takes a little while to get into the rear turret and long reload playstyle, but as I said that’s also what makes it fun. Trying to do things a little differently.

*

I will say the STG is not a tank for beginners; it’s probably the least noob friendly vehicle I’ve come across. You might even call it noob hostile.

Also, it’s a crate tank, and you probably know my feelings about crates by now.

So I can’t imagine you’ll be seeing a lot of them out there, which is a shame, because I do think we need more tanks like this in the game; offbeat, curious, not your average tank in some manner.

I’ll also say I’ve been struggling a little with it, it can sometimes be hard to find your spot on the team and your role on the battlefield. The 5 degrees of gun depression is going to put a lot of people off, and as I said the whole setup makes it a little awkward to drive.

So should you buy one?

No. It’s a crate tank, and I don’t condone that kind of behaviour. But I think you should keep an eye out for when it comes for sale in a regular bundle if you have any sort of interest in tanks that are a little out of the ordinary.

The STG is a Pro tool; not in the sense that it gives you freedom of movement and action like, say, the AMX 30 Prototype, but int hat it takes a careful and knowledgeable driver to make it work at all. You will struggle to find spots to work from, because it doesn’t really compare to anything else out there.

But I also think the STG is a Pro tool in the sense it will have important things to teach you that you wouldn’t otherwise learn and that will diversify your gameplay, make you see the game in a different way. That’s in the best of all worlds, of course.

If you do choose to gamble for the STG, I think you should take a minute to consider what you are getting yourself into. This is not a pay to win tank; it’s more like gamble to struggle one. For it to make any kind of sense, I think you need to understand and be interested in the very specific things it has to offer.

So yeah; it’s a thumbs up with a lot of caveats for me. I like the STG, but I don’t actually know quite how to drive it yet, and for most drivers I think either the T-34-3, the Chimera, or the tech tree T-34-2 would be a better option if you are curious about the 122 mm Medium tank playstyle.

Stay cool out there.

The Object 140 Diaries

By:

IrmaBecx

On August 22 2017, I wrote a paper on the Object 140. I called it a “fallen star”, but maintained it was still one of the absolute best Medium tanks in the game. I also wrote that on paper, it could well be the perfect Medium tank for me, but that it wasn’t because of the history we had together, and my being too stuck in my ways and having a tendency to carry grudges for a long time.

But reading between the lines, I can see very clearly what was coming. All that green eyed hatred didn’t run nearly as deep as I imagined back then, and although I was adamant about not getting one, I had nothing but praise for the actual drive.

I did carry the grudge for quite a while longer, but on Thursday, March 1, 2018, I finally took the plunge. I had spent a year and a half grinding the horrid T-54, and in the end I just threw free XP at it. The Object 140 had by then become so unglamorous and pedestrian a vehicle I was practically destined to be its champion.

“This is where I start driving the Object 140 for real” I wrote. “Racing for pink slips”. I had already come to feel the Object 140 was the best Medium tank in the game, in spite of its underdog status: “An underdog, yes. But still a snarling, ferocious beast of a dog; a feral, vicious wolf hybrid that no one wants to come face to face with in an isolated spot, on their own, in the dark.”

You can tell I was lost to it already.

*

I just finished writing about my latest acquisition, the FV4202, and how much of a struggle it’s been trying to make it work. Hopeless, even. Disheartening.

The problem is, Blitz is my favourite game in the whole world, and nothing else is ever going to be able to replace it. I am a lost cause. A diehard. It is the game I was dreaming about as a child without knowing, and I want to keep playing it forever. However much I hate it sometimes, it’s still the best game on the planet.

But I’m not going to keep banging my head against the FV4202. Instead I’m going to bang my head against my dearly beloved Object 140. If I’m going to lose, I am at least going to lose in my favourite tank in the game.

Sheridans be damned.

My first thought was to spend some time on the press account getting back into it, but I quickly rejected that plan. I know what the Object 140 is about. And no one could see the stats anyway; I’m not ashamed of struggling driving my favourite tank.

So that’s all there is to it. It’s been a month since I last drove my Object 140, and I think it’s high time I got serious about it. Bring on the Bias.

*

I win three of my five first games, and it feels pretty good to be back behind the wheel of my Object. The fifth is actually a first class with over 4000 damage, in which I also get a bounce from a 183, and then eat the second shot before I track it in place and get behind it. Bye bye, camper.

And that’s not the only good game I had. I know the 140 is not the brutal frontline brawler it once was, and I know how fragile it can be, so I’ve been trying really hard to hold back a little.

The old 140 isn’t quite as fast as I remembered, but of course I drive the BatChat and the Vickers now. The armour still works sometimes, and it can certainly run circles around bigger and slower opponents. They say the Object got buffed last update, but I haven’t quite figured out how. Probably they just solidified the gun mantlet the way they have done on some other Mediums.

I think playing more careful is what you have to do to take advantage of the strengths of the 140 these days. It still has the best camo rating of any Medium tank in the game, and it’s low to the ground. You would do well to remember some of your Light tank lessons; indeed back in the day I said it was as close to playing a Light tank at tier X as you could get.

The weapon isn’t supremely accurate, but it does place the shots dead on at full speed. This is one of those Russian Bias things; if you don’t try to hit snapshots on the move, all the Bias in the world isn’t going to help you. And if you don’t angle, wiggle, and juke, you won’t get those troll bounces.

Object 140 obsolescence? Nowhere near. This old dog learned its tricks a long, long time ago.

*

So it is with a somewhat lighter heart I get ready to drive it again on Sunday evening. Well, night, actually. The night shift is usually a bad idea, but I don’t really care. I need the practice, if nothing else.

And I’ve kind of given up on the stats for now. I’ve not driven the 140 in earnest for a while, so I do feel a little rusty. But I try to focus on the positives, and again I have a couple of good games. A “good game”, by the way doesn’t necessarily mean we win. It means I do well in some manner, or it’s a close game, down to the wire. Getting away on just a few hitpoints and staying alive until the end. Having a good brawl. Taking out a skillstar. Something like that.

I need to take a short break however, and drive a Heavy tank for a mission. My WZ-113 has a birthday, so I’ll be running that and my 111 5A, staying at tier X. I got a few days of premium from the Battle Pass Wargaming were kind enough to give me, so I’m not really worried about credits anymore.

That was becoming a bit of a concern, by the way. Since quite a while now I’ve been trying to maintain a 3 million credit buffer so I can drive what I want without worrying. But I do tend to get a little stingy with it, and you can blow a million fairly quickly doing badly at tier X. By some miracle, I clear the mission in only three battles, and it’s back to the Object.

I drive a dozen games, and it’s a mixed bag. But again there’s plenty of action, and I think I won more than I lost. It’s a little like driving the Leopard 1 actually; you have to get over the fear and relax a bit, then things start going better. I even take down a Sheridan in an ill advised 1 v 1, eating two 600 plus damage shots for my trouble, but lasting all the way to the end and picking up two more kills, one of which is a skillstar. You can’t complain about that. The 14 hitpoints I was left with is 13 more than you need at the end of the game, and the 140 is a fragile tank.

But it’s also fantastic. I can’t tell you how happy I am finally back to doing what I want, which is to drive my favourite tank and have some good games. I still love my Object 140.

Can you see what’s going on here? I’m having fun again, and all it took was driving the right tank. 

*

Monday morning, and for some reason my Ipad hasn’t charged overnight, but I only have two missions I want to clear before the turnover. One more tank taken out and winning three rating battles.

First few games are a mixed bag, but I get the kill I need on a loss, and then it’s time for Ratings. I’m not super fond of Rating battles, because people are so serious about them, and that means the level of whining, swearing, blaming, and name calling is off the charts. This also proves to be the case, but luckily it only takes four games to win three. I saved one of them for posterity.

If I was serious about getting rated, I’d probably drive my 111 5A. It’s fast, it’s robust, and hits hard with the 130 mm. But I’m not; I’m serious about my 140, and so that’s what I want to drive, and since Heavy tanks and campy TDs are all the rage these days, Medium tank can have quite an impact.

And I like that. I’d drive my favourite tank even if it was completely out of meta, and when I say the Object 140 is my favourite tank in the game, it doesn’t mean quite the same thing it means to others, because I had to learn to love it. It used to be my nemesis, and now it’s my weapon of choice. I used to hate it and everything about the Russian bias it personified, but as I made my peace with the Bias and Wargaming knocked some of the polish off it, I grew much closer to it until one day; and it wasn’t really all that long ago, I had to admit to myself and the world it’s actually my favourite tank in the game.

I had been right back in 2017. The 140 is the perfect Medium tank for me.

*

I’m having the same lag issues a lot of people seem to struggle with lately, but I play a few more games in the afternoon, and it goes all right.

The Object will bounce shots if you try to angle it, especially against Medium and Light tanks. The most dangerous opponent these last couple of days has actually been the AMX 50 B. It’s fast enough to keep up with a Medium, and has 1200 damage on tap. Also, I suppose, people who drive a tank with paper sides and a so-so turret at tier X know how to drive.

But the snap shots… People say the 140 has worse gun handling than the T-62A because it has worse dispersion values. And sure, if you are standing still, hull down, trying to snipe a weak spot at 250 meters, then I’m sure you want to be in the latter. That’s just not what the Object is about. I don’t need dispersion, I need stability on the move and sigma, because that’s what’s going to let me hit and penetrate that Heavy tank that’s aiming at me as I charge across the terrain as fast as the tank will go. That happened to me just now, in fact. You can watch it on Youtube.

The Object 140 is a Medium tank with a capital M. And doing the things I like to do, it will out-Medium the 62A any day of the week, month, or year.

Speaking of, the 140 is actually outperforming the 62A right now by a few fractions, both tanks being around the 54% winrate mark. And you can say that’s because only Pros drive the Object, but then my next question would be why don’t they drive the 62A if it’s so much better? Why would they drive the inferior tank?

The simple truth is they don’t.

By the way, if you don’t know what “sigma” means, it’s the tendency of the round to go towards the centre of the aiming circle, no matter how big it happens to be. It’s a soft stat, and it’s one of the basic tenets of Russian Bias. I once described the 140 as being made out of pure Russian Bias with a thin coat of paint, and as I said I’ve made my peace with it. It’s a fact of life; or at least a fact of the game, and it doesn’t automatically allow you to win. It is to be found at the edges and in the soft stats, and that means you have to push the limits a little in order to take advantage of it. Even then, it’s not certain it will help you. The Bias is fickle, and I’m ok with that.

*

This evening I had two really good games; “good” in the exact way I explained earlier, meaning exciting and eventful.

Both times we had a Medium tank disadvantage, and both times I tried to watch the flank, because that’s my job as a Medium tank. If I rush forward and start fighting Heavy tanks and dug in Tank Destroyers, we will sooner or later get flanked by full health Mediums, and then it’s basically over for us.

That’s the type of situation when holding off and choosing your moment is really important. If I just run off and try to charge them, I’ll be taken down in a 2 v 1. The best I can hope for is getting a few hits in. So what I do instead is let them come to me; hopefully trade a little distance for damage, and then try to either get my team involved, or isolate them. I’m not scared of any tank in the game in a 1 v 1.

Both times it works out. In one I have a tier IX Medium helping me out, and in the other there is an afk skillstar in out base, so of course they will try to take it down first. Their greed becomes their undoing, although it is understandable, because we’ve all seen afk bots come back to life all of a sudden.

I captured the action for your enjoyment and edification, and in the second game you can see that shot I mentioned earlier. It’s against the E5 after I’ve taken the B cap. Sure, the E5 hit me back, but it was standing still. 

So this is what I miss people doing when I drive my Heavy tanks or Tank Destroyers; watching my sides and rear. And since I often feel that way, perhaps the better solution is for me to do that job myself.

*

Tuesday evening things don’t go quite as smoothly, and I have to remind myself I am doing something difficult, I am fighting an uphill battle, and that that’s the whole point of all this. I don’t want my stats to be a certain number; I want them to adequately reflect my performance, and my true measure of success is experience.

Even if the game didn’t go so well on the whole, I may still have done something good; taken out a strong opponent, made a successful play, gotten out of a desperate situation, or put out consistent damage even though no one else did.

All I want to do is drive my favourite tank. That is what I am doing. This is what it’s like out there.

And I do calm down a little. I know winning against the odds is more satisfying than winning as expected. But it’s still disheartening when you are trying to cover the flank and the red team just drives straight through your teammates.

It’s a strugglesome round of games; seven losses and five wins, and I can’t help thinking that’s not doing my winrate any favours even though I’m supposed to not care about that right now. those irksome 49% are still stuck in the back of my mind, and I can’t quite let them go.

*

Wednesday and Thursday are more of the same. Struggle, struggle, struggle, and I end up just playing a couple of short sessions.

The accepted solution here is to drop down the tiers for a while, but I would dispute the effectiveness of doing so in this instant. What exactly is driving something else at tier VII or VIII going to teach me about driving the Object 140 at tier X?

I do follow the other commonly offered advice of simply taking a break, but again; what is that going to teach me exactly? The only thing I can perceive as constructive is keeping at it, because none of my perceived obstacles will have suddenly disappeared when I come back from a break.

Also, there is a bit of an inconsistency in my approach to the whole thing. I say what I’m looking for is “good games”, but then I am also looking for more consistent performance, which means I haven’t given up on statistics altogether.

At present, I see no way of untying that particular knot.

*

But on Friday, my first game puts me right back in the groove. Manage to spot the middle on Yukon, and then hold it until it’s time to isolate some targets. I spend quite a bit of credits shooting HEAT rounds at the turret of a Maus, but they all go in except one, so I still come out in the black.

This proves to be an exception, and by Saturday evening my average winrate has dropped one whole percent.

Things aren’t going well. Putting fifty games on my Object 140 over the last few days, I don’t feel like I am improving, and I’m getting sick of losing all the time.

The last game I have before the update is actually a good one. I manage to hold the corner behind A cap on Fort Despair in spite of taking heavy damage, and I have someone I know a little punishing the reds while I keep them spotted and distracted as much as I can.

Nothing has happened to affect the 140 after the update; everything feels the same.

And it doesn’t feel right.

*

After a week and a half of driving my favourite tank in the game, things are looking dark. I’m not putting out enough damage, I’m not winning games, and I am left feeling doubtful about the viability of Medium tanks in the current meta for anyone that doesn’t have at least a 60% winrate.

I tried to drive my new 4202 a little, and although my damage output is good, I just can’t win any games in it. I’m supposed to be a solid 54% player, not a 40% one.

I’m pretty sure the thing is cursed, or they sold me a bad batch of HESH rounds. Either way all it’s good for is losing credits.

All that’s happened when I’ve tried to campaign my favourite tank is I am left with a serious case of “I hate this game”. I always hated campy big alpha TDs, I always hated missile tanks, and running a 310 alpha weapon at tier X just feels like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

I’m not impressed with the direction the game is going. Too many high alpha guns, too much armour, too many hitpoints to chew through. It all feels out of balance to me.

And you can look at average stats and say I am overreacting, but average stats say nothing about my particular game experience. Also, it’s not like I’m the only one complaining about the state of high tier gameplay these days.

So I’m going to end this project right here; it’s just making me depressed. I’m giving up on the Object 140 Diaries, because they are turning into the Object 140 Lamentations.

But I’m not giving up on my Object 140.

See you out there.

So, You Want To Drive A Light Tank…

Vickers, Batchat, Object 140

By:

IrmaBecx

So this will be an experiment in comparative tank philosophy.

I recently grinded out two of the three tier X Light tanks currently available, and I thought I might compare them to each other for the benefit of prospective Light tankers.

It’s like this; I think you either want to drive a Sheridan or you don’t. It’s not really a proper Light tank, it’s more of a novelty, and if you want to drive one, there isn’t a lot I could tell you about it.

That leaves the Vickers Light and the BatChat. But there is one more tank you might consider. Before there were top tier Light tanks, driving an Object 140 was about as close as you would get, and it still has the best camo rating of any Medium tank at tier X. If you are curious about Light tank gameplay, you could do a whole lot worse than going up the Russian Light tank line and getting an Object 140.

*

The 140 is of course not a proper Light tank either, but it can do some Light tank jobs. It doesn’t really have a lot of armour, it’s small and stealthy, and compared to an actual Light tank, you are basically trading firepower and armour for speed and camo on the move.

The way to make the Object 140 work as a Light tank is really down to playstyle. You don’t want to brawl your opponents; you want to spot them up and ambush them. Don’t attack frontally if you can help it, instead take advantage of your mobility and learn the most important thing for a Light tank driver; which is to run away from bad engagements and utilise the open parts of the map.

Choosing the Object 140 to get into Light tank gameplay may seem like the lesser option. It’s not super quick, and it’s missing the key feature of a Light tank – camo on the move, but in return you get much higher DPM and a few bits of armour to cover your worst mistakes. An Object standing still has better camo rating than a Sheridan; almost as good as the Vickers or the BatChat, but on the move it’ll be noticeably worse.

I drive a couple of games in my old 140, trying to keep to the sidelines and really concentrate on the spotting and support role. It’s going pretty well, although it is perhaps not quite as exciting as driving a BatChat. There is certainly a lot of overlap between Light and Medium tank gameplay.

You have to work a little harder to get the most out of the camo, but it does work. The tank being so small means it’s easier to hide, and if you get caught out, you have the confidence of being in an actual Medium tank with top shelf DPM and that wicked angle on the front plate.

While nowhere near as mobile as an actual Light tank, the 140 does provide an excellent starting point for further exploration.

“But Irma,” you say “could I not substitute the T-62A? I hear that’s better now.”

My answer would be “no” and “besides, it’s not”, and that’s not just because I am an Object 140 degenerate. The 62A is a different animal with slightly different capabilities, and what you are trying to do is play to the strengths of your vehicle. In terms of Medium tank gameplay, the stronger turret, gun depression, and pinpoint accuracy may seem like a worthwhile tradeoff. But we’re not trying to play a Medium tank here; we are trying to play a Medium as a Light tank, and in that sense, the 140 is simply a better ersatz Light tank than the 62A is.

A Light tank doesn’t need traverse, it needs speed. It doesn’t care about accuracy, it needs stability on the move. It doesn’t need armour, it just needs autobounce zones, and of course it needs good camo rating. The 140 does all of these things better, and is therefore more convincing in a Light tank role.

*

So if you want to go straight to the source, the choice is down to either the Vickers Light or the BatChat, and for most drivers, I think the Vickers should be their first choice.

I wrote in my review that these British Light tanks are very nearly Mediums. Your DPM and armour profile does rival some Medium tanks, and your tank is much more agile and has about the best camo around.

The Vickers can sidescrape about as well as the 140 can, it can get bounces off the front plate and turret sides when angled properly, and with over 3000 DPM on tap, from some angles it does look like a better Medium tank. But playing too aggressive means you aren’t taking advantage of two of the main strengths of the Vickers; namely superior viewrange, and superior camo rating.

This is one reason I run calibrated shells on my Vickers; to slow down my gameplay a little. The other is of course you get “cheap HESH” shells, and I want to max out the penetration on those. Driving it, the overlap between Light and Medium tank gameplay seems even more obvious. The Vickers is really just a regular tank, and it can sometimes be difficult to see what sets it apart.

Again, making the most of your top tier Light tank comes down to focusing on your playstyle. You can frontline your Vickers, get a few bounces, and trade shots. But if you do, you’re not really doing the tank justice, and you’re not learning good Light tank habits and taking full advantage of your Light tank strengths.

The beauty of the Vickers light is that it’s just a regular Light tank; like a tier X Type 62 or T-54 Lightweight. The only thing out of the ordinary is the high penetration HE rounds. It’s also quite strong with an almost full power 105 mm L7A1, made even more powerful by the excellent mobility and Light tank capabilities.

It’s not very difficult to drive. If you can drive the Object 140, you can drive the Vickers; with ten degrees of gun depression and 350 alpha it’s actually easier in some ways. And as this is a true Light tank, it allows you to learn how to take advantage of the Light tank camo on the move.

*

Your third option, then, is the famous BatChat. And although it may not look like an option for your first top tier Light tank, there really is no reason to shy away from it.

The BatChat has the same camo rating as the Vickers, and a competitive viewrange, not far off Medium tanks like the M48/M60 or the AMX 30 B. It’s just as fast as the Vickers, but has much better specific power, and there are a few other tradeoffs. You only have six degrees of gun depression, the armour isn’t as good, and of course you have an autoloader.

The BatChat armour is actually better than you think. It has a 60 mm front plate sloped back at 68 degrees, so you only need a two degree downward angle or a 25 degree side angle, and you will autobounce any gun in the game except the FV215b 183. The rest of the armour isn’t very good, but will sometimes bounce low caliber guns.

The autoloader has the same 310 alpha the Object 140 does, and if you look at the numbers, it has much, much lower DPM. But that’s deceptive, because the point of the autoloader is that with a full clip, you get something like 6200 DPM over six seconds for a potential 930 damage burst.

As you can imagine, that makes the BatChat extremely dangerous in late game situations; anyone with 900 hitpoints or less is a potential candidate for clipping out if you can isolate them. But the autoloader also makes it more versatile all through the battle; all you need to do is figure out your reloads so you don’t get caught out with an empty clip.

I get about a 14 second clip reload on my BatChat, and that’s not really all that long. It’s about twice as long as the Vickers, or about the same as a large caliber Heavy tank or Tank Destroyer.

Also, the clip reload provides a natural pause in gameplay you should learn to use for relocation and maintaining awareness of the situation around you.

Learning how to drive a BAtChat isn’t all that difficult. You are basically driving the same style of tank from tier VI onwards, and once you start getting your head around the autoloader playstyle, the rest is mostly proper positioning, resetting camo, and relocating effectively.

*

So I have been driving all three tanks lately, and having a lot of fun.

Light tank gameplay is exciting; that is why we drive them. The Object 140 doesn’t feel out of place in the trio, and I dare say I’ve been doing a little better in it trying to convince myself it’s actually a Light tank.

When I grinded out the Vickers and the BatChat, I thought the Vickers was going to become the daily driver, and the BatChat would just be something I kept around because I like it, but don’t actually drive a lot. In actuality, it has been the other way around; I just can’t get enough of driving my new BatChat.

If you already have the 140, or you have the T-54 and can grind it out pretty quickly, I maintain it’s a good learner vehicle for Light tank gameplay. It’s not quite as fast, so you won’t drive yourself into too much trouble, and when you do, you have some proper Medium tank armour and firepower to defend yourself with.

But there’s no reason not to go for a proper Light tank right away, and I do feel the Vickers is slightly more accessible. After the power crept Comet, the grind isn’t all that hard, and if you’ve been thinking about it, you might want to get it done before the Vickers Cruiser gets nerfed.

For me though, the fact I’ve enjoyed the BatChat so much is the big takeaway. The autoloader is not so much an obstacle as a catalyst of versatility, and it brings new possibilities to your Light tank gameplay.

In any of these tanks, you will get focused, you will be taken out early, you will take big hits from high alpha guns, and all sorts of trouble will befall you. But you will also learn to overcome these tribulations, to your immense satisfaction and enjoyment. The “high risk/high reward” nature of Light tanks is why they are so much fun to drive, and I think any well stocked garage should have at least one.

The fact I happen to like the BatChat best should perhaps not be taken as a recommendation if you are a newer player. Any of these three tanks will provide their own set of difficulties, and the autoloader is perhaps the most lopsided in terms of balance. But they also come with their own set of strengths, and the 900 plus damage burst potential also makes it situationally very powerful.

*

Learning how to drive a top tier Light tank is a tough job, but it’s also very rewarding. You do it in order to become a better player, plain and simple.

There are other tanks you might set your sights on at lower tiers; the Ru 251, the T-54 Lightweight, or any of the premiums out there. Even the quirky AMX 13 57 or the fairly useless Type 64 are worthwhile because they are Light tanks.

Light tank gameplay revolves around a few key ideas; reset your camo, run away from bad engagements, and trade distance for damage. Then learn to use all the space where there aren’t any tanks to your advantage. None of this is very complicated, it’s just with so narrow margins of error, and with so many possibilities at your disposal, there are so many ways to get things wrong.

But this is also why no matter how good you get, Light tanks will always provide a challenge for you. No one ever truly masters Light tank gameplay.

Driving Light tanks makes you look at the game in a new way, and if it doesn’t, you’re not quite gotten there yet. No other style of tank can translate thought into action with such ease as a Light tank. And grinding out a tier X Light tank and learning how to make it work not only makes you a better, more experienced player, but will also give you a sense of accomplishment other grinds can’t match.

You may not think you are good enough to drive one. Remember I said no one is, really; and the only way to learn is by doing. You may think Light tanks are too skittish and don’t match your preferred playstyle, and that I think is fair enough. You shouldn’t drive tanks you don’t like just for the sake of it.

But I would still encourage you to give it a go if you have the opportunity. Maybe you have one in the back of your garage, collecting dust. There could be a Light tank out there that is a good fit for you in spite of everything, and certainly they will have things to teach you, no matter what kind of driver you are.

*

So I drive a few more games, just to make sure. I have good games and bad games in all three tanks, and somehow I feel like the good games make up for the bad ones.

The 140 is the one I feel most confident in, which is just as well since it’s the worst at running away. I feel like I can hold my own in my full race Russian sports Medium when I get caught out.

But in terms of Light tank gameplay, I do feel the Object 140 is the least rewarding. If I had just gotten one because I was interested in Light tanks, it would only serve to strengthen my resolve that this is the way I want to go: I want more of this, so I’ll get a proper one.

I like the Vickers Light a lot more than it may appear, I realise that when I drive it again. It’s true I haven’t driven it a whole lot since I got it, but then I did start the BatChat grind right after I had gotten it.

The Vickers is a great drive, and it does everything it says on the box. I drive all over the map, trying to keep my engagements at range so I can fiddle with the ammunition selection, and I do land a couple of good “cheap HESH” hits. This is a proper Light tank, there’s no doubt.

I have the worst game of the session in the BatChat, but I also have the best game in the BatChat. BatChat platoon versus two random BatChats with a Sheridan on each team, and we took them down.

The BatChat is the most fun, but it’s not by a huge margin. I just find the autoloader gameplay so compelling. But it does make the BatChat an “either or” tank to a slightly greater extent than the other two. You could say it’s the most fun because it’s the most challenging.

What you might tanks away from this is that if you just want to dip your toes in Light tank gameplay, the 140 is a safe bet. If you want consistency, you go for the Vickers first. And if the possibilities of the autoloader sound interesting, you get the BatChat.

While you ponder this experiment in comparative tank philosophy, please enjoy that BatChat game I was talking about:

T-62A Versus Object 140 Again

Object 140 Forever

By:

IrmaBecx

So as far back as I can remember people have been pondering the age old question: which tier X Russian Medium tank should I get? I have struggled with it myself, and spent over a year and a half grinding for one because I think the T-54 is so boring.

These days, the answer is simple. You should get the T-22 Medium, and if not; get one of the other two.

A while back, Wargaming; as a kind of final insult, gave the T-62A seven degrees of gun depression, and people now mistakenly think it’s the best of the rest.

I’m here to tell you it’s not. People just think it is. I accused WG of having lost the plot back then, and said I wasn’t sure the buff was even going to work; if by “work” you mean finally make the T-62A significantly outperform the Object 140, because there still simply cannot be any other reason for piling all these preposterous buffs on it.

If you think the numbers say otherwise, let me give you some perspective. What happened when the buff came through was a lot of people thought “this is it – the final nail in the coffin of the once mighty 140”, and they started driving the 62A instead. Twice as many people drive it these days.

But they still don’t actually perform better in it. There was an initial surge in winrate, easily explained by all the Pro players giving the new buff a go, but the numbers have now stabilised, and both tanks are hovering around the 54% mark. After all these years of buffing one tank and not the other, all Wargaming have managed to do is make both tanks perform the exact same.

Yes. That is a bit of gloating you can sense behind my words. And everything I’ve said about the Object simply being better at being a Medium tank and the strengths of the T-62A being situational still stands.

I should say that according to Wargamings balancing stats, 55-65% players do perform slightly better in the 62A, but we are talking about a margin of maybe one quarter percent here. You can’t call that “significantly outperforming”.

*

The simple fact is the Object 140 is my favourite tank in the game. It’s the one I aspire to; the one that inspires me, and it’s the one I want to be driving when I have the best game of my life. If I was in any other tank, it wouldn’t be the best game of my life; that’s how this “favourite” business works.

There are tanks I do better in. Tanks I’ve driven more games in. But there is no other tank that speaks to me the way the Object 140 does, or that makes me feel quite as proud of myself when I do well.

It still feels a bit strange to be writing this. Many years ago I hated the Object more than anything. But no other tank will ever make the same journey from most hated adversary to proudest achievement, because there was always a tinge of green eyed envy behind my hatred; a realisation that if things were different, this feeling wouldn’t be hatred at all but perfect, everlasting love. And in the end, that’s exactly what it turned into.

When I was a young noob, all the Pros drove the Object 140. I am now a middle aged noob with a lot more resources, and so I walk around wearing that black leather jacket I couldn’t afford as a kid like it was still back in the day.

You might find that stupid. I find it amusing. And also deeply fulfilling in a way very few other things do, because it at once reminds me of how things used to be, and shows me a glimpse of what they may still become.

My path forward is clear. The old beast from Nishny Tagil shows me the way. It is who I am and what I want to be; the purest expression of myself as a tank driver, a tank philosopher, and a tank poet warrior in the classic sense.

*

So what is it like driving the Object 140 these days?

I’m not going to lie; it’s a bit of a struggle.

But then it was always a struggle, and I used to relish that. My long time friend and platoonmate Xeno pointed out I was just being silly, and reminded me how we used to hunt the notorious skillstar back in the day. Do I not remember?

Sure I do. And he’s right. I’ve been hiding out in the lower tiers hoping for Wargaming to solve the problem for me; you would think I’d know better by now.

And I do know better. After a couple of games yesterday getting completely wrecked I have a look at my winrate, and I realise with a sigh I am a few additional fractions away from the magical 50% mark. But the thing is, I tried to explain to myself about stats nine months ago, after I had finally accepted the Object 140 is my favourite tank in the game. Here’s what I wrote:

“I should mention my actual winrate in [the Object 140] isn’t so good, but I managed to claw it up to 49%, and that’s where I’m stuck now. “Stuck”, because I’m hung up on reaching those 50%, and staring myself blind at my number of wins and losses. Six more games. I have seven more before I reach 300 played, so if I win all seven in a row, I’ll be over 50% finally.

That’s how you get yourself trapped. Because what’s going to happen when I get there? Not going to stop playing it, so sooner or later I’ll lose a game and drop back down a bit. What I need to do is simply play better on average, keep doing that for a while, and then my stats will start showing an actual, accurate increase. It’s a process, it takes time. And pressuring myself to achieve a static goal in a set number of games isn’t going to help me.”

Then I talked about how I was still having fun in spite of everything.

And that’s what I understood again when my friend ragged me about forgetting my purpose and running away from my calling as a tank philosopher; which is of course hunting big game in my flimsy Medium tanks. Pitting yourself against the strongest and most successful tanks in the game is actually about enjoyment. It’s not a lot of fun being one shotted by a death star or missiled from cover by a Sheridan. But if you didn’t run that risk, you also wouldn’t feel the same sense of satisfaction when you take them down.

So the day after, I drove my beloved Object 140 first thing. And when I ended up on Middleburg with two skillstars on the red team, my heart didn’t sink; instead I thought “Yes! Skillstars. I’m going to hunt them down.”

So I played the mid range, trying to spot the left flank and help take out their Medium support. When our Yolo Wagon pushed forward, I sprung into action and we cleared the flank together, then circled into town where I spotted a 183 and took it out, finishing off with a nice shot to the turret; after that, it was just the mopping up left to do.

As always seems to happen, that one game made it all feel worth it, and reminded me in no uncertain terms of why it is I do this in the first place.

Winrate to me is not a badge of honour. It’s just an indication of my performance over time. But it’s easy to forget that winrate says nothing at all about how any of those games made me feel, and if you get enjoyment mixed up with statistics, that’s when the struggle becomes real.

*

The first step then, is adjusting my expectations. I am doing something difficult, something I haven’t done in a while, and so I should expect to struggle. I should not expect to see a rapid increase in winrate, and I’m going up as the underdog with the odds stacked against me.

One issue with the Object 140 is it has high DPM, but low alpha; add to that the armour plating is a bit patchy, and it’s not strange I find myself making bad trades all the time. This is why people say DPM is an overrated stat, because if you can work from cover and only peek out when you are reloaded and pre aimed, you can dictate the terms of the engagement. The short reload will really only help you get a second shot off faster, with taking out isolated enemies, and in a straight up hitpoint trading brawl.

Brawling, yeah… I guess in my head the Object 140 is still the fire breathing brawler Medium it used to be back in the day, and that’s just not how things are anymore. You need to find a different role, more geared towards supporting the rest of the team.

But the age of Mediums is not over. Quite the contrary; with Heavy tanks coming back in a big way, having speed, viewrange, and camouflage can make a real difference. I had a leftover mission from yesterday, and so spent half an hour or so trying to get three wins in rating battles. Made it too, with minutes to spare.

The Object 140 still snapshots like a dream, still dances around the feet of giants, and still gets bounces off the mediocre armour if you know how to use it. I chase down Sheridans, brawl with Medium tanks, get behind Heavys and Tank Destroyers and ruin their plans.

Not a lot has changed, other than my outlook.

*

So where does that leave us?

Well, for me I guess I managed to put a little fun back in driving my favourite tank, and all it really took was doing it.

But for others? Is the Object 140 still a viable option?

My first instinct in trying to answer that is to go back to statistics, but somehow that feels all wrong. Any Medium tank in the game is a viable option; you don’t need stats to tell you that. But that still tells us nothing about why you would choose this one in particular.

I know why I chose it. It was the one that felt right for me, and it always did. There was nothing about statistics that influenced my decision, it was all about feeling.

If you feel like the T-62A would be the right Russian Medium tank for you, I’m not going to argue against that. It’s perfectly possible the stronger turret roof, the gun depression, and the accuracy will make it a better fit.

I just think it’s a little pedestrian.

And there are still things the Object 140 does better, all of which add up to it being the best tank in the game at being a Medium tank, at least as far as I’m concerned. If you’re looking outside the Russian tech tree, you might have a look at the Heavy tank gun WZ-121, or the gun depression STB-1; both are serious contenders. I should say I perform better in both than in my beloved Object.

But again, neither make me feel the way the Object 140 does. And just as I’m not going to argue against your feeling, no one is ever going to be able to reason me out of the Object 140 being my favourite tank in the game.

The Object never got buffed even once. This is because there was never any need to, it’s not because Wargaming forgot to do it. The whole point of the T-62A buffs was trying to make the two Russian tech tree Mediums more diverse.

Don’t believe the hype. They’re still fairly similar, and neither significantly outperforms the other.

If nothing else, working on this paper has made me less afraid to take my favourite tank out into the field, and I have to call that success. The missile tanks don’t scare me anymore; they are not my nemesis, they are my prey. And hunting them down, just like I still hunt the death star and the mighty Bias-seven, there is no other tank I would rather be in than my favourite Medium.

Object 140 forever.

Victory Tanks – Best Bundle?

“I Told You Before”

By:

IrmaBecx

So if you’ve read one of my love letters to Rudy before, this is all going to be old news for you.

But it strikes me not everyone may have, and so I thought I’d make a few comments on what I would consider the most worthwhile “Victory” bundle. I tried driving the Object 252u today, but there really isn’t a lot to say beyond “IS-spam”, “Tier VIII is a cesspit”, and “One of the IS-spam tanks is going to fit you better than the others”; all of which I’m sure you already know.

Instead I ended up driving my Rudy and Cromwell B, which made me realise that in my case, the “middle” Victory bundle with those two tanks plus the IS-2 (1945) “Berlin” would absolutely be the way to go.

*

In fairness, all these tanks except the Rudy are just premium versions of tech tree tanks; they can all be had for free just playing the game. What you are actually paying for is convenience and credit making capability, plus a bit of added flair.

For the most part, that is. The Cromwell B does actually outperform the tech tree Cromwell in a few important ways, and we’ll get to the Rudy in a moment, but the IS-2 Berlin really is just a Premium IS or IS-2. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Dropping some cash means you get more gun depression and faster traverse than a “free to play” Cromwell. The only tradeoff is the “B” model has slightly thinner side armour, and it lacks the spaced armour the regular Cromwell has.

You should however understand the armour plating makes very little difference on these tanks; the tech tree Cromwell can side scrape low caliber guns on account of the overmatch mechanic, and at a 10 degree or less angle, it can actually stop a high caliber HEAT shell. The problem is, not a lot of tier VI and VII tanks have premium HEAT shells in the first place, and if they do, they won’t fire them at a flimsy Cromwell. What they will fire at it is HE ammunition, and the spaced armour will shave off some of that damage.

But really, that doesn’t make up for the two things the Cromwell B does better. The gun depression makes setting up shots a lot easier; thirteen degrees is massive, at any tier. The added traverse not only makes the “B” more agile, it also makes it faster, because it doesn’t bleed off as much speed when turning.

So what you want to do is use your speed, agility, and gun depression to run around avoiding taking damage and putting out harassing fire. The gun handling isn’t superb, but what you do is just keep snapping off shot after shot, and eventually some of them will go in. It’s all about fast paced, middle tier fun.

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If you are a newer player, it can be hard to understand exactly why a lot of people still swear by the Cromwell B and Rudy after all this time. When they first appeared, they were just so much better than anything else out there, but they are not immune to power creep and other changes to the game environment.

I like to say the Rudy is not a glorified tier VI tank, but a tier VIII tank in disguise, and I still maintain that’s true. If you don’t believe me, compare it to some of your favourite tier VIII Mediums, and ask yourself what it would take to move it up a tier.

I can tell you it’s not a lot. A penetration increase would pretty much be enough.

You get excellent mobility and firepower, plus some kinky armour angles that will get bounces you never would have expected, and that’s really all you need for most any kind of playstyle you care to try. Rudy is going to struggle a bit against the newly buffed Heavy tanks like everyone else, but that’s also been the whole point; making Heavy tanks relevant again.

For my money, there is hardly a finer Medium tank at tier VII. The harder you try, the more Rudy will deliver, right up to the point where it all goes south. It’s not overpowered, it’s just really, really good at being a Medium tank, and if you are either a fan of Medium gameplay or you want to be, Rudy will be a friend for life. I bought mine when it first dropped back in 2016, and I never looked back.

As a newer player, you’ll want to hang back and get comfortable with what your Rudy can and cannot do. Get used to the way it moves, learn to angle the armour, and pick spots where you can use the gun depression and the troll turret. From that, you can then go on to playing more opportunistic; popping up unexpectedly, isolating targets, doing drive-by style executions, and learning the CoD, the side hug, and the Box of Death.

If you haven’t heard about the BoD, that’s like a CoD, only you use your tank to block your opponent from moving their hull so they’ll only be able to use their turret traverse to try to catch up with you.

I could go on about how fantastic I think my Rudy is, why it’s the best tank in the game, and how much I still love it after all these years; but like last time, I’ll leave you with some gameplay instead.

This is Rudy doing Rudy things, supporting a monumental effort from the green Löwe in a matchup I had some serious doubts about right from the start, and then a Cromwell B game; mostly as a filler, but showing off the gun depression snapshot and quick relocation playstyle.

IrmaBecx says please enjoy:

Victory Tanks On The Cheap?

VE Day Discounts

By:

IrmaBecx

So from today, you can get some great deals on the “Berlin” or “Victory” collection of premium tanks, and quite frankly I don’t think there’s a bad one in the bunch.

The T-34-85 “Rudy” is still just about my favourite premium tank in the game, and I’ve written several puff piece love letters already. It’s still true I would be perfectly happy with one single tank in my garage, as long as it was my beloved “Rudy”.

The Cromwell B has been power crept a little, but it’s still good for some tier VI seat of the pants gun depression action, and the T-34-85 “Victory” is about the closest you’ll get to a proper seal clubbing premium tank these days.

The IS-2 (1945) is, well; an IS-2. And the ISU-122S is of course an SU-152 with the high DPM D-25 instead of the 152 everyone uses.

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I have two out of the five myself, but I’ve tried them all out, and I like them. None of them are very complicated; they’re basically just premium versions of tech tree tanks with minor tradeoffs and fancy paintjobs.

And why not? If you like your Cromwell or your IS-2, but you want to make a few credits driving them, here’s your chance to get one on the cheap.

The deal is, the tanks go for 3000 gold each, and unless you only buy the Cromwell B, you get nine slots and some premium camos where applicable; three of them have permanent paintjobs.

Other than maybe the Rudy, these aren’t overpowered stet pedders at all. They are all dependable, no nonsense, daily driver style tanks. Any one of them is worth having, and they offer a variety of playstyles. Fifteen thousand gold may seem a lot for some middle tier beaters, but for five tanks fully loaded and camoed up, it’s still only three thousand a pop, and most of them are tier VII.

Do you need them? Not necessarily. But you could certainly do a whole lot worse for a collection of mid tier credit grinders.

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I’ll not get long winded about stats, tradeoffs, and playstyles; instead I’ll leave you with some gameplay of the three you may not have seen around a lot; the T-34-85 Victory, the IS-2 Berlin, and the ISU-122S while you make up your own mind.

IrmaBecx says if you don’t have most of these already, now may be a good time to invest.

See you out there!

Best Tier VIII Medium Tank?

Best Of The Best

By:

IrmaBecx

So which is the best tier VIII Medium tank?

That’s easy, you say.

No. The best tech tree Medium.

Oh. Well, maybe you need to think about that. No one really drives tier VIII Mediums for fun anymore, do they? I mean, outside of grinding?

I stumbled across this question today doing my rounds, and it had me stumped, just like it may have you.

There are a couple of obvious answers. The T-54 Lightweight is the best tier VIII Medium; everyone knows that. But it’s also actually a Light tank, and some spoilsport is sure to point that out. Okay, then it’s the E50, everyone knows that too. But likewise, some smartypants is going to point out that’s actually a tier nine Medium, and we’re back to where we started.

Someone said the Tiger II is definitely the best tier VIII Medium, but again; there is a small issue with tank types.

So which one is it really?

I had two suggestions. It’s either the P.44 Pantera or the Indien Panzer. The Italian has an auto reloader, and the IndyPanzer is perhaps the best all rounder in the game, and it’s also the Baby Löwe. I mean, you can’t argue with that.

In the back of my mind, I wanted to say the T-34-2, but I know the heavy Mediums are an acquired taste; not to everyones liking.

Someone suggested the T-44, which makes sense, but it’s so generic as to be slightly boring. “Good-but-meh” as we like to say.

Both the P.44 and the T-34-2 have the same problem; they’re not really purebred Medium tanks. The Pantera is a Medium, only it has an autoloader. The T-34-2 is a Medium, only it has a 122 mm gun. The Indien has a different problem; it’s in such an awkward place in the tech tree no one really drives it. Normal people don’t want to spend more time driving the SP I C than they have to, and no one really likes the Daimler Mediums at tiers VI and VII. If you want the PTA and the Leo 1, why not just drive the Ru 251? That’s what I did.

So yeah, the IndyPanzer numbers are skewed by obscurity, But is it really the best of the best? If you were a new player, would you take the conscious decision to grind for it over all the other options?

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Let me tell you why some of them are disqualified.

The Centurion 1 is good, but it’s also the absolute slowest of the bunch, and that just won’t cut it in the current meta. Also it leads on to two HESH tanks, which are not only an acquired taste, but are also not super coherent in terms of playstyle, and perhaps not what you call “noob friendly” either.

The Pershing was always geared towards utility, which basically means mediocrity; it’s not really bad at anything, but it’s also not really good at anything, and it leads on to two other paragons of mediocrity. Being accessible is not the same as being the best.

The Panther II got a buff very recently, and although it’s gotten a lot better, it’s much too early to tell if it’s really going to supersede the Indien or the Italian auto reloader Panther. Personally, I believe it won’t. It does lead on to two amazing vehicles, but the stock E50 grind is still famously one of the hardest in the game.

The one tank I can’t really comment on is the STA-1. I used to like it a lot, and it has a few things going for it; among others a fantastic 90 mm gun, but again it’s not exactly noob friendly, and personally I just can’t get it to work anymore. If you persevere, you will however end up with perhaps the best tier X Medium in the game right now; the STB-1.

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There is of course another way to find out. You can look at the average performance. And then you have two options: either the balancing stats from 55 to 65% players Wargaming use, or the global stats off Blitzstars tank compare.

But before we get into that, I should perhaps say none of the tier VIII tech tree Mediums are really bad. They can all be made to work with the standard Medium playstyle, or with minor variations. But of course one of them can still fit you better than the others, and there is every reason to think about what exactly it is you are looking for in a Medium tank.

So looking at the latest averages from Blitzstars, I’m a little surprised to see the T-34-2 is actually the best performing.

But just like the IndyPanzer, I think that number is skewed by who actually drives it. Chinese Mediums are a breed apart, and I’m sure no one grinds them out by accident; but rather precisely because they want to drive a high alpha Medium tank.

The next best performing is the P.44 Pantera, but again I think people who go for auto reloader Mediums have a good idea of what they are looking for, and it’s not a generic Medium tank.

The third best performing is the old T-44. No surprises there. I didn’t say there was anything wrong with it; I just said it’s a bit plain and generic.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the “Pro player” numbers, but interestingly, the top three are in the reverse order. The T-44 is number one, then the Pantera, and the T-34-2 comes third.

So really, if you just want the best tier VIII tech tree Medium, and you don’t want any bells or whistles on it, it looks like the T-44 is the place to be. And then you have to ask yourself; if you are going for the T-54 and tier X Mediums anyway, why wouldn’t you go the Light tank route instead?

I know I did. And so we have gone full circle and are right back where we started; meaning that the T54 Lightweight is still the best tier VIII Medium in the game like everyone says.

I hate to say I told you so.

Or, you could drive an auto reloader or 122 mm instead.

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I forwarded the question, and there seems to be a lot of agreement about which tanks you should be considering among those I asked.

The Pantera ranks high, as does the T-44. The T-34-2 is also mentioned.

An auto reloader is perhaps the most versatile weapon you can field, but it takes a little knowledge to work out how to make the most of it. Contrary to an autoloader however, you won’t get caught out on a long reload, making the auto reloader more accessible.

The Chinese high alpha Medium functions similarly. It does require you understand the strengths and weaknesses, but it’s not really all that hard to get your head around, and by it’s very nature, it forces you to play a little more cautiously and therefore stay alive longer, do more damage, et cetera.

You could of course also run the 100 mm and have a poor man’s Type 59.

If all you want is a tier VIII Medium, choosing the Russian option is still a safe bet. You really can’t go wrong with the T-44. In fairness, a Light tank also requires a slightly more steady hand to drive successfully, but the Lightweight isn’t very much harder to drive than the T-44.

It’s not an easy question to give a straight answer to; there are lots of considerations you could take into account.

But there does also seem to be a fairly straightforward answer, and if you are looking for the best, you should definitely start by looking at the Russian, Italian, and Chinese offerings.

Or, you could take a chance on the newly buffed Panther II.

Best of luck!

Not a T-44…