The Casual Tank

Safe Bet Beaters

By:

IrmaBecx

So I’ve been trying to write something cohesive for ages now it seems, and nothing has come of it.

It’s because I’m not having fun. And being in the situation of not getting paid for my work at all, I tend to just be silent if I don’t have anything worthwhile to say. I try to stay positive and constructive, and if I feel I can’t be for some reason, then I’d rather keep quiet.

But I have been driving a few games here and there anyway, and so I thought I’d maybe write something about that.

When things get like this, you need something to fall back on. For a lot of people, that’s going to be some kind of middle tier monster like the KV-2, but that’s just not my kind of fun. I still like a bit of a challenge, and I want a bit of speed.

Here, then is a short presentation of three of my favourite go-to vehicles that I always seem to come back to sooner or later for a bit of driving tanks just for the sake of driving.

*

Number one is of course the tier VII premium T-34-85 “Rudy”. I’ve had my Rudy for years at this point, and I still love it so much.

Sure, Rudy is a little bit of a powerhouse. In fact, it was one of the early premiums that simply outclassed their tech tree counterparts in several important ways, and once I realised, I immediately gave up and bought one.

I never looked back. I thought if there’s going to be such blatant Russian bias, I’m going to get in on the action. Let it work for me for once.

It turned out to be a lot more than once. Rudy is one of my most driven tanks in the game, and I can always trust Rudy to step up when I’m feeling down and just be the great drive I always remember it to be.

Rudy has some super troll tier VI Russian bias armour that will sometimes bounce stuff you wouldn’t believe, very solid firepower, and excellent mobility for a Medium tank. Taken all together, there’s practically nothing Rudy can’t do, and the more you push it, the more Rudy will rise to the challenge.

Admittedly, in spite of power creep Rudy is by no means an underdog, but we are talking about a glorified tier VI Medium tank here. If you take a big shell from the side, that 45 mm side armour that won’t get overmatched by a tier VIII Heavy tank gun when side scraping isn’t going to hold up, and against those well armoured higher tier opponents, you will need to dip into the skill round cache.

No worries. Rudy makes a ton of credits. And with the 85 mm caliber, you’ll still have about the same alpha as the standard rounds on a tier standard Medium tank weapon.

So yeah, Rudy has some pretty wide margins to play within. If you don’t want to sit at the back and let others have all the fun, there’s no better vehicle for getting out there and getting involved.

*

If that’s not enough Bias for you, then how about some German bias instead?

What? You never heard of German bias? You may not remember the introduction of the New German Light tanks, but let me tell you; the Bias was so fierce they nerfed all the tanks into the ground, and many of them never recovered.

The Littlepard was saved, of course, due to the tireless work of the “Save The Littlepard” Foundation, and remains a tier V terror. But it was never the best tank in the game; the VK 28.01 was, and it took some very significant nerfing to make it give up the crown.

But for a few casual games, you don’t need to be the actual best; being one of the best is still plenty. The VK is a Light tank with armour, and that tells you pretty much all you need to know in order to drive it.

The final nerf to the VK 28 had to do with speed and power; it’s not as blisteringly fast as it used to be. But it used to be the fastest tank in the game in practice, because it had such amazing acceleration, so it’s still not a slow tank by any means. It doesn’t traverse quite as well as before, which means it bleeds off more speed when turning.

Also, you get the once famous Waffe 0725, which has a conical barrel to increase shell speed and penetration; which is also why it can’t fire High Explosive shells. It’s not as sharp and accurate as it used to be, but it’s still a formidable weapon.

In spite of this not being the best tank in the game anymore, driving your VK 28 against hapless noobs in tier VI is basically a war crime, or at the very least bullying. You can go anywhere you want, you can negate incoming damage with your “Light” tank armour, and you won’t have a lot of problems penetrating your shots. In a favourable matchup, you can definitely carry the day all on your own.

I never had a problem with the VK 28.01 being so powerful, because it’s a tier VI and it’s in the tech tree. All you have to do is grind one out, and we can be on even terms. And I think it’s important there are this type of open secret powerhouses in the game; tanks that are accessible without too much effort, and that you can then hold on to for stat padding, casual games, and in this specific case, even grinding credits.

*

So that’s what I’ve been driving. Fast and flexible, powerful mid tier tanks.

But I also couldn’t help getting back into the Type that’s finally Hype; the fantastic Type 64 I got for free in the lunar event. I hope you got yours too, because it really is great to have around.

The tank itself is fairly weak. I’d say it has exactly two things going for it: a high top end speed, and it has Light tank camo on the move. That really is it as far as the vehicle.

What makes this mediocre Light tank so fantastic is the fact it was free, and the fact it’s a premium. Even without premium time or boosters, the thing should comfortably pay for itself, no matter how much expensive equipment and resources you throw at it; and believe me – it needs all the help it can get. If you were going to pay money for a Type 64, I would still say get a Cromwell B instead, but as a free tank, I am just liking it more and more.

You roll out in a 64 expecting to be smashed, and that if you happen to win, it won’t be because of you, but because of the rest of your team. That’s a pretty low set of expectations.

But you also roll out knowing that if you manage to make a few good plays, you can end up winning the day in spite of the fact you are in a mediocre Light tank. Not really having anything to work with except mobility and concealment puts your playstyle and decision making into focus, and that’s why I keep coming back; even when things don’t work out, the gameplay is just more rewarding.

And if things go really terrible; well, you were expecting to lose anyway, and hey – the tank was free, so what does it matter?

Really, then; when you roll out in the littelest Hype, you have everything to win and nothing to lose. I have to say I like those odds, and that’s why I am growing to love the Hype 64 more and more with every drive.

You may not be a Medium tank elitist like I am, but that’s not the point here. The point is I think everyone needs this kind of a fall back vehicle; something you know inside and out, enjoy to drive, and can put dozens and dozens of games on without worrying.

Maybe it’s your old Death Wagen 2, trundling along trying to be every bit the Tiger it was once meant to grow into. Maybe it’s your IS-6 that you’ve driven so much you can angle the armour in your sleep. Or perhaps it’s something more exotic, like the Dracula, the T23E3, or an enriched Sturer Emil.

In the best of all worlds, every premium tank purchase would be like my Rudy. You look at the stats and like what you see, buy the tank, and then you put hundreds and hundreds of games on it and live happily ever after.

Maybe you have something in the back of your garage. A free tank you never drove. A tech tree grind you put aside for later. An old favourite you stopped driving for some reason. Maybe you should give it a go and see what happens? Even if it doesn’t turn out to be the right tank for you in the long run, perhaps it could be the “right now” tank?

*

When the game is changing and evolving in a direction we don’t feel comfortable with, we can still find solace in the very fact the game does change and evolve. Nothing lasts forever; not even spare parts, and months from now, it will have changed into something different.

If that something turns out to be even less comfortable to us, there are some ways in which we can make ourselves heard; contrary to what you might think, Wargaming do actually listen to their players. It’s just they don’t always tell us they heard us, and they don’t always do as we would have liked them to do.

In the mean time, there is still a bit of carefree fun to be had. All you need to do is find the right tank, and for me, that’s something capable but not overpowered, something fast and agile, middle tier, and fun but not too difficult do drive.

*

You may be thinking all this sounds obscure and complicated. I’ve been driving tanks for well over five years at this point, and I know exactly what I like about them. It’s very possible you don’t feel the same confidence in choosing your vehicle.

The whole point is for this not to be complicated, but of course; how are you supposed to find something you like if you don’t really know what you like?

There are several approaches you might try, and they basically mean breaking everything down into categories.

Start simple. Maybe there is a nation you feel some kind of affinity for? A lot of the time, vehicles from the same nation will have a few traits in common. They may look similar, move similar, or run the same kind of weapon. There is the Russian 122 mm D-25 for example, the famous German 88 mm, or the French 90 mm long guns. Maybe they’ll have similarly shaped turrets, meaning they can all use the same hull down positions on the maps.

The emotional component should not be overlooked, because why would you want to be driving a tank you don’t like? You may not fall head over heels like I did with my Rudy, but I’m sure you can find something you think looks cute, or silly, or just plain cool. Maybe you are a history buff, and you want to be driving something historically accurate. Maybe you want something so ugly it has a sort of paradoxical inner beauty.

The actual reason is secondary, but it’s much easier to get your head around something you really feel you want to drive. And there are plenty of things to look for beyond appearances.

Even if you’re just starting out, I’m sure you’ve tried a few different tank types already. As you progress, you will learn how they differ from each other in more detail; how they drive, what kind of jobs they do, and what playstyle seems to be the most successful in them.

This is where people will start thinking of themselves as Medium drivers, or Heavy tank drivers, or whatever it may be. You find there is a certain playstyle you really like, and you will tend to enjoy tanks that can execute that particular style more than others.

Let me give you an example. Quite a while ago now, I started thinking what would happen if I didn’t have my press account anymore, and I found the only tank I would really miss was the Object 263. At the time, I had just finished grinding out the Foch (155), and I was really into the brawly, aggressive playstyle without a turret.

Driving a TD with some frontal armour was like the antithesis of camping; going head to head with the biggest tanks in the tier and taking them down while bouncing their huge shells off the front.

There are actually quite a few tanks out there that can do the same thing to various extents; you might get the pike nose Object 268, the slightly slower but more well armoured Chinese TDs, or even something like the newly buffed T25 AT. Then there are the premiums. The SU-122-44 is not the scourge of tier VII it used to be, but it’s still a fast tank with a bit of armour and a Heavy tank D-25.

As soon as the WZ-1201G FT dropped, I immediately realised this was going to be the Type 59 of turretless brawler TDs, and I bought one right off the bat. Yes, I realise the tank is really powerful, but I’m going to say that’s not why I like it with a straight face. I like it because it’s a brawly Tank Destroyer that does 50 km/h and has frontal armour; that’s a playstyle I really enjoy, and of course it doesn’t lose me any credits at all so I can drive it all I want.

The economics should be taken into account. You can look up the credit coefficient on most every tank in the game on Blitzstars Tank Compare page; there are some tech tree tanks at middle tiers that make a fair amount of credits. If you happen to fall for something expensive to run, just spend some time grinding together a credit buffer so you don’t have to worry about driving those casual games.

*

Personally, I’m still bumming around tier VI in the littelest Hype. I just did 1800 damage on Fails Creek and lost because the team evaporated, and then I made out a lot better on Canals, pumping out over 2000 damage and a few kills for a first class medal.

It’s fun because it’s high stakes, fast paced action, but it’s not really consequential. I don’t care about my Hype 64 stats. I’m not super invested in tier VI gameplay. I’m just running a few games because I like driving tanks.

And so the Type 64 has managed to put the fun back in the game for me. I’m not sure it’s going to be the right tank for me in the long run; I’m still dreaming of becoming a competent tier X player, but it most definitely is the “right now” tank.

If someone had told me back when I wrote my latest review on the Type 64 I was going to end up loving the thing like this, I would have laughed at them. I mean it is mediocre.

But as I said, with nothing to lose, you can’t help but feel a little more like a winner once in a while, and that’s the main thing the Type 64 does so well. It allows me the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised. The secret to happiness is, as ever, low expectations.

So here’s hoping you find the same kind of tank for yourself. A safe bet. Something you can beat up on all the time and still come back to for more. A daily driver in the truest sense of the word.

Best of luck, and see you out there.

I’ll be in the maxed out Hype 64 with the standard camo on it.

T-62A – Clutching At Straws

Wargaming Loses The Plot

By:

IrmaBecx

So the rumour is that the T-62A is going to get eight degrees of gun depression.

In the plainest of terms, I think that’s a terrible idea, and I think it shows an extraordinary lack of imagination that quite frankly makes me disappointed in humanity.

The worst part is that someone would go to such extreme lengths just to make the T-62A outperform the Object 140, because there can simply be no other reason. And you have to wonder “why?”.

The T-62A is the second most driven tier X Medium tank in the game after the Object 140. It used to be the other way around; a lot of people sold off their 140s when the 62A got buffed, and buffed, and buffed again.

But there was always this small, irksome problem. No matter how many buffs Wargaming threw at the 62A, the Object 140 would still outperform it by something like 3% on average. It seems some people are finally realising this, because the number of 140 drivers has been on the rise.

*

I spent the day trying to drive the T-62A and 140 on my press account, and I came to the same conclusion I always do. Both tanks are fairly similar, both are pretty fragile, and I much prefer the Object 140. 

But then I got access to the test server, and I can tell you the rumours are true: the T-62A is getting 8 degrees of gun depression.

I drove quite a few games, even managed a 1 v 1 Mastery, but I would like to think that was more down to my driving than the actual tank. I could have done the same thing in my beloved 140.

And so besides my being super disappointed in the buff even being considered in the first place, I am even more disappointed in the tank itself, because it’s not really very different. It’s still a T-62A only with 8 degrees of gun depression, and I think it’s just as boring as it always was.

Here’s where you are going to start doubting my objectivity, because I am going to argue the same thing with two different conclusions. I always said the Object 140 having six degrees of gun depression instead of five was a general strength, useable in any number of situations. But I also think the T-62A having eight degrees of gun depression is a specific strength, because it’s just not useable in as many situations.

In order to take advantage of a gun depression Medium, you need to know the playstyle, but you also need the proper terrain to make it happen. In a lot of situations, it’s not going to make any difference at all; like when you are on flat ground, or side on in front of a high caliber gun.

I’m sure a lot of noobs are going to fall for it. Not this one. I am not going to trade the other strengths of the Object 140 for two degrees more of gun depression, because I don’t think it’s going to be worth it.

The sad thing is, there would have been other ways to make the T-62A more competitive, while still making it different from the Object 140. They could have just made the front plate thicker, that would have make a huge difference.

They could also have given the T-62A better depression over the sides, but not over the front and rear, like the old E 50M used to have. Both would have made the T-62A more interesting to play.

*

In all honesty, I’m not even sure the gun depression buff will make the T-62A outperform the Object 140 at all. It will probably make a difference, but I’m not convinced it’s going to make it outright better.

A couple of years ago, people used to say the STB-1 was OP because it had ten degrees of gun depression, and therefore no one would ever be able to shoot at it. They were vehement it needed a nerf.

The reality is, the STB was always pretty fragile, and in all other situations but when you were using that gun depression, every shot would go straight through it. It’s better now when they gave it a substantial armour buff, and I really think it has made the tank come into its own.

The eight degrees, sadly, do not make the T-62A come into its own; they only give it training wheels. And again, I don’t think they make the tank any more interesting or fun to play, just a little easier in some situations. I have to say both conceptually and in practice, the “new” T-62A is a huge disappointment.

I will admit not only do I believe the buff is going to be fairly ineffectual, I am also secretly hoping it will. Because where is left to go? What preposterous buffs could they pile on it to try and make it more attractive to me?

Because this is about me. I am a Medium tank driver, and here is a Medium tank that doesn’t interest me in the slightest. Wargaming are trying to make it more attractive.

Of course, it’s not just  me. They are also trying to make new players take an interest in it, and if they take the bait, I think they are in for a rude awakening.

I should hasten to add the same is true of the Object 140.

But three more degrees of gun depression isn’t going to change what the T-62A is, namely a 100 mm Medium tank that’s pretty fragile except the turret at tier X. Making one work is a chore, and it always was. The buff is going to help you out in some situations, and it’s going to radically change the nature of the tank, but it’s still going to be a difficult drive, same as it always was. Same as amy tier X Medium is.

Sadly, changing the nature of the T-62A in this particular way doesn’t change it for the better, at least not in my book.

Let’s see if history will prove me right.

Tier X And The Leopard 1

Fear Of Flying

By:

IrmaBecx

The Leopard 1 was one of my three first tier X tanks. My first was the E50 M, and then I got either the STB-1 or the Leo; I don’t actually remember which came first.

The point is, this was a long, long time ago, and after all this time, I still haven’t put a lot of games on my Leopard.

The reason is simple. I’m still scared to drive it.

Even on the press account, where I can drive any tank I want as much as I want for free, and no one can see my stats, I’m a little scared to.

On the face of it, that’s not so strange. The Leopard is famously fragile, and it definitely doesn’t give you anything for free. But after five years and hundreds and hundreds of top tier games, what is it I am still afraid of, really?

*

The thing is, driving tanks at tier X used to scare me, period; no matter which actual tank I was in.

I didn’t think I had the skills to make a significant contribution, and I was afraid I would drag my team down with me. Four years ago, that was probably often true.

Conventional wisdom dictates you shouldn’t rush up the tiers, and if you feel out of your depth, you should drop back down the tiers and work on your gameplay before you give it another go. Certainly others will be quick to let you know they think you are doing something wrong and you don’t belong in tier X at all.

I agree with these sentiments to a point. But I also think there are specifics to be learned in actual top tier gameplay that playing lower tiers just aren’t going to teach you, and in the end driving tier X tanks is the only thing that’s really going to teach you how to play tier X.

I remember the initial shock. Tier IX doesn’t prepare you for it. Playing against top tier tanks in one thing, but shouldering the responsibility of driving a tier X tank yourself is something quite different. You don’t get to bully tier VIII vehicles, and you don’t have bigger and stronger teammates to support you; you are the bigger and stronger teammate.

Of course, being in a souped up tin can like the Leopard 1 makes the job that much harder.

But it’s not that much harder. Driving a Leo successfully basically means not taking any hits. You have to find other ways to negate incoming damage than bouncing shots off your armour, although that does actually happen once in a blue moon.

And it’s not like I haven’t tried. I’ve done a few hundred Leopard games, and my stats aren’t really any worse than in other tier X tanks.

*

I got over the fear of tier X driving in general thanks to my friends. Platooning with people who play better than I do always made me feel like I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Of course, I also had to deal with their pro matchmaking, and we were always up against another platoon, meaning there would be at least two people on the enemy team working together. In some ways, going out on your own is actually easier.

The first thing I leared was that really good players have bad games too, and it wasn’t always my fault. I also learned that even if things look hopeless initially, sometimes it all works out in the end.

Another important lesson was that I was by no means the worst player up there, and this adresses something I think is at the core of my fear of driving the Leopard; the feeling that I somehow don’t deserve to be a tier X player in the first place. That I haven’t paid my dues, haven’t passed the test, and that I am simply more suited to playing lower tiers.

The reality is, there is no test. All you have to do is drive a few hundred games at tier IX, and pay the six million or so for a tier X tank. It is now yours; even if you cheated a little and threw gold or free XP at the grind, having a tier X vehicle is really the only requirement. No one can stop you from pressing the “Battle” button except you, yourself.

The Leopard 1 is arguably the best Medium tank in tier X, except it has no armour. That’s really all there is to it. Even if it’s susceptible to taking big hits, it has both speed and firepower to make up for it. That is what I found once I started driving it in earnest.

I learned the surgical precision isn’t just for hitting weakspots or hatches at range, it also lets you land the most improbable snap shots. And it lets you get your shot off faster in a peekaboo fight, even if they have your aimtime beat.

I also learned to use my hitpoints in lieu of armour, simply driving out to take the hit if it means I can take someone down.

But I didn’t learn to get over my fear of driving my Leopard 1. Perhaps I never will. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing; it being after all so fragile.

*

Driving a couple of games, I can immediately tell it’s been a while since I dared drive my Leo; I’m driving it like it was a regular Medium tank, and that just doesn’t work. Poke out the same place twice, and you are going to take a hit. Get in a brawl with another Medium tank, and you are going to bleed hitpoints. Play too aggressive, and you’ll end up a burning wreck.

After a few catastrophic battles, I start doing a little better. Keeping my head down, relocating after each shot, trying to maintain distance.

I know there are people who frontline their Leos and manage to do upwards of five or six thousand damage. I am not one of those people; I just don’t have the skill.

But skill is not everything. What you also need is resolve, and without it, your fear becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

A prophecy of fiery doom.

*

Still, we are nowhere closer to answer my original question: what is it I am afraid of?

More than thirty thousand games. Winning a little over half on average, that’s almost fifteen thousand losses. Am I simply afraid of losing the battle?

No. I am perhaps afraid of being the cause of losing a battle, but not to the point of not even trying. And here we approach one of the reasons why I drive the Leopard 1 in the first place; I know that victory with the odds stacked against me brings much greater satisfaction.

Also, learning to deal with such an easily perforated vehicle forces you to step up your game; be all you can be as a tank driver, and try your hardest. You remember I said the Leo doesn’t give you anything for free, rather you have to do practically everything right in order for it to be successful.

No matter how long I search inside myself, the only explanation I can come up with is the feeling of not being worthy of driving such a magnificent machine as the Leopard 1.

And that’s all wrong.

There is no tank in the game that is above you in that way. There is no secret society you have to join, no hidden fee you have to pay, no forbidden knowledge you must acquire. All you have to do is grind out the tank and you are free to drive it.

The fear of driving my Leopard, then, is the fear of being free. The fear of the unlimited. The fear of imagination.

You may remember Paul Atreides reminding himself that “fear is the mind killer”, and this is precisely why.

The fear of not being worthy is also the fear of being worthy. The fear of having to prove yourself, and of being proven right, and justified, and accepted.

Sometimes, freedom means death. Some people still prefer it. And I know myself to rather go straight for the throat of a death star than cower behind a rock in fear of it; meaning the symbolic death of my pixel tank does not actually scare me.

*

So the way to deal with all this if you are still choking, is to not think vertically, but laterally. I know the Leopard 1 is the best tier X Medium in the game, not only because I can read the numbers, but also because I drove them all.

Every single one. There is not a tier X Medium, or Heavyum, or turretless Medium in the game I haven’t driven.

I know the Leopard 1 is the best because it showed me it is.

I know because I compared it to all the others, and they fell short.

So if you find you are a little out of your depth driving a warp speed tin can with superb gun handling and serious firepower, then don’t drop down the tiers; grind out something else.

You could buy an AMX 30B and have practically the same tank with a gun mantlet. That’s going to increase your survivability. You could get the STB-1 like I did, which has some serious armour now, allowing it to brawl as well as execute the hull down Medium playstyle.

The Patton or M60 may be eternal paragons of mediocrity, but that still means they do almost everything pretty well.

Or, you could go the heavy Medium route. The E 50M and WZ-121. Robust chassises that are a lot faster moving around than people expect.

If you are desperate, or have exquisite taste, then you can “go Russian”. Accept the existence of Russian bias; the fact the T-62A is the best hull down sniper and the Object 140 is the best overall Medium tank in the game.

You could also do the complete opposite and get a BatChat 25t.

Either way, don’t give up on tier X. Just do something different. Worst case, get a Heavy tank or Tank Destroyer. Some of them can be pretty dynamic.

I’m not going to give up on my dreams, I’m going to hound myself to drive my Leopard 1 more. And I know every time I drive it, it gets a little bit easier facing my fears.

Never Give Up!

Cold War Workhorse

What Is It About The T-55A?

By:

IrmaBecx

So I’ve been talking a fair bit to people about the T-55A lately; you can get one fully loaded for about the price of a new tier VIII Medium for another eight days or so.

What we’ve been talking about is how it compares to the T-54, of course, and to other tier IX premium tanks like the K-91 or the AMX 1:er prototype.

I was always hoping it would be introduced; I assumed it would be in the German tech tree, and so it would have given me the opportunity to drive a Russian Medium tank, while still remaining true to my “German only” policy of yesteryear. Disappointingly for me, it turned out they put it in the Hybrid tech tree instead.

But otherwise it’s a fine tank, and I enjoy driving it a lot. I prefer it to the tech three T-54 by about a mile and a half, although I’ve been somewhat at a loss to explain exactly why.

This, then, is an attempt at doing precisely that.

*

The first thing that strikes you looking through the numbers is the T-55A combines the best of both of the top guns on the T-54. You get the penetration and shell speed of the D-54, and the accuracy and DPM of the D-10T2C.

For this, you give up about 20 mm of frontal armour, both on the turret and the front plate; everything else is exactly the same, except you get 50 more hitpoints.

That doesn’t sound like a world of difference, and it’s not. But then there wasn’t anything wrong with it in the first place; the reason I’m not a fan of the T-54 is it’s so consistent and predictable in its performance I just find it too boring to drive. Boring, and expensive to run.

The T-55A nullifies the latter problem, but surely that’s not enough to ameliorate the former?

Add to this the fact we are talking about a tier IX premium tank; no one actually needs one of those. It’s an extravagance of the first order. And not only that; there are three others you might want to take a look at before you drop your hard earned gold on the T-55A.

First off, there is the AMX 1:er prototype; an unarmoured Medium tank with a gun mantlet, ten degrees of gun depression, and Light tank mobility.

Then there is the K-91, a Russian Heavy tank like no other, and the only high tier autoloader in the Russian vehicle park.

Finally there is the Kpz 70; likewise a unique Heavy tank with a massive hull down turret and a not-quite 152 mm main armament.

Last year, I bought two of them; the Krautpanzer and the AMX proto, and although I feel I made the right decision, things could have been different. The K-91 especially was always a favourite drive of mine on the press account; it was the first tank I ever supertested, and I fell for it right away.

Like I said, it’s a Russian Heavy tank like no other. A tank for people who don’t necessarily like Russian Heavy tanks at all.

What’s great about the K-91 and the Krautpanzer both is they have unique playstyles; you can’t find anything that even resembles them in any tech tree. What’s great about the AMX 1:er is it’s very likely a much better tank than you will ever be a driver, and so it’s always going to be a great investment for you.

But what’s so great about theT-55A, other than being very closely related to one of the best tanks in the game?

I’m still a little at a loss to explain that.

*

Let’s look at the demographic. Who is this tank for?

Well, people like me. Medium drivers with delusions of grandeur. But my delusions are so grand I got the AMX proto instead.

Who else?

Fans of the T-54, obviously. If you think yours is too expensive to run, then the T-55A is basically a premium version. 135% credit coefficient isn’t huge, but it’s enough to make the tank pay for itself without having to grind credits, and to me that’s the whole point of tier IX premiums.

There is the argument the T-55A is the least interesting of the four I mentioned. You can’t get a French high tier Medium in the tech tree, or a Heavy tank with either a 152 mm gun or a 100 mm autoloader. Even if the gun/launcher off the Kpz is a bit muted, it still has the highest alpha of any tier IX Heavy tank.

But then not everyone wants interesting. You may want comfort and familiarity instead, or a bit of residual Russian bias. It’s not like Hybrid nation bias is unheard of.

How about newer players?

I’m not going to recommend the T-55A be your first tier IX tank. It comes up against the strongest tanks in the game, and if you are unfamiliar with top tier gameplay, you will end up doing really badly.

That said, you could definitely do worse. Sure, the turret front doesn’t get more than 250-300 mm of effective armour, and the front plate won’t stop a tier X Medium tank gun head on, but the T-55A relies more on autobounce angles anyway. The gun may struggle against Heavy tank frontal armour, but you’re not supposed to frontline against them; that’s not your role.

*

If you can handle five degrees of gun depression, the T-55A is a powerful tank. The whole trick is not trying to make it do things it wasn’t built for, like ridge fighting. If you know the T-54, you won’t have any problems.

It’s also fairly easy to learn how to angle it properly, and do “the Russian thing” with your front plate and turret behind small undulations in the terrain.

This is actually one of the things I like about tanks with little to no gun depression; they force you to look at the battlefield and set up your shots in a different way. Basically, you don’t poke over things; you poke around them. It’s not hard to learn.

You can take on the T-54 in a one on one and take it down, but the tanks being very evenly matched, it’s all going to be down to your skill.

I like that as well; emerging victorious from those types of situations means I played well; it doesn’t mean I was driving the superior tank, because no matter how you look at it, other than the earnings, I don’t think you can argue the T-55A is straight up better than the T-54.

If you go for the bundle, you’ll get all nine equipment slots unlocked, and I recommend you do that on all your tier IX and X tanks anyway. I’ve been running the “everything to the left” setup, but whether you run the speed boost or adrenaline, you will benefit from high end consumables.

I’ve also found I run engine accelerator more than I run improved controls lately; you’ll have at least 60 degrees of hull traverse either way. Calibrated shells I still go back and forth on; your playstyle should be your guide there.

*

It appears not a lot of people actually drive the T-55A; a drop in the ocean compared to the Russian original.

It’s really not surprising; even being a fan, I struggle to find a lot to actually recommend it.

If you are looking for something different, then one of the other three tier IX premiums will probably be more up your alley. And in all honesty, I am pretty sure I would get the K-91 to round off my collection rather than the T-55A.

And that I think is the main problem here. Even if the T-55A clearly outperformed the T-54; and it does in terms of both average winrate and damage output, it’s still not a very original concept. Like I said, it’s basically just a premium T-54.

Is that going to be worth it for you?

IrmaBecx says try as I might, I don’t think anyone else can answer that question. 

T-34-85 “Rudy”: Still The Best?

The Contemporary “Rudy”

By:

IrmaBecx

So this is not going to be my usual hyperbole about how the T-34-85 “Rudy” is the best tank in the game. It’s also not going to be a teary-eyed epitaph lamenting its untimely demise.

Rudy is not dead, just power creeped like everyone else.

The fact is, I don’t tend to drive a lot of tier VII anymore, and it’s because of the veritable explosion of high caliber weaponry at mid to high tiers. You all know what I’m talking about. There used to be the Helsing and the KV-2, now there’s the Skorpion G and the Smasher, not to mention the usual IS-spam.

But it also means I’m not in tune with the current tier VII meta. The same thing happens when you figure you’ll play some lower tiers because it’ll be easier, and you find you simply don’t understand what’s going on down there, and you end up getting wrecked really quickly.

The first handful of games I played were a disaster for precisely this reason. I could be blaming kids off school, or bad RNG, or matchmaking, or Wargaming voodoo magic, but it’s really my own fault for neglecting my Rudy for such a long time.

*

If you don’t know about it, Rudy was one of the first premium tanks that was outright better than its tech tree counterparts, in this case the T-43. If Rudy had a 100 mm gun, it could have easily passed for a tier VIII tank in those days, and a lot of people, including myself, bought it as fast as we could.

But yeah. No matter how buff Rudy is, it’s still a glorified tier VI tank. You get a slight front plate upgrade, that’s the only difference in terms of armour. The weapon is virtually the same 85 mm Russian workhorse you get on tanks like the KV-13 or LTTB.

Rudy also has eight degrees of gun depression, and is very agile, sporting over 50 degrees of track traverse with no upgrades. I get around 70 degrees with my combat loadout and crew skills.

The one drawback, other than basically being a tier VI tank with some bolstering, is the penetration values. They’re not great, and you will notice this trying to take on tier VIII beasts like the buffed Löwe, the veteran SuperPershing, or the new Object 262u, not to mention those new German behemoths.

*

In fairness, Rudy doesn’t struggle any more than other tier VII Medium tanks do, but it’s also not the dominant force it once was. Rudy is an excellent ridge fighter, peekaboomer, short flanker, and relocator.

Sometimes, that’s all you need. Other times, it’s like no matter what you do, it’s all in vain.

You can still have some excellent games in the Rudy, but it’s not going to be the stet pedder vehicle you perhaps imagine; it’s a good tank, a fun tank to drive, but it’s not some kind of overpowered monster. If it ever was, that was years ago.

The trouble I’m having, is I suppose not taking that into account, and therefore overestimating my capabilities. Rudy can bounce a 122 mm shell, but that doesn’t mean you should frontline against Heavy tanks. Rudy can take down higher tier opponents in a one on one brawl, but that doesn’t mean you should pick on them.

It also doesn’t mean you should hide behind your team the whole time; it just means you need to keep your head down a little, not take unnecessary damage early on, and choose your battles wisely.

Is that enough to make it a worthwhile purchase?

Maybe. I think it depends on what your expectations are.

If you collect tanks, then sure, no problems. If you want something new, or a tank that’s going to teach you a few things, then go right ahead. But if you heard the Rudy is overpowered, and you are thinking it will help you perform better, then that’s setting yourself up for disappointment.

That was then. This is now.

*

So that was supposed to be the end of it, but then something happened. I needed just a little bit of damage to clear a mission, and so I jumped in my Rudy, because other than being a great drive, Rudy almost always pays for itself.

A few minutes later, everything was different. I had one of those games that made me remember what is so great about Rudy, and why it was my favourite tank for many years. In fact, it made me realise I still love Rudy with all my heart, and I always will.

It’s because Rudy is amazing. Rudy will accept any challenge and go down swinging. Rudy will fight like a lion against overwhelming odds, and Rudy will help you get your nose over the finish line when no other tank would have been able to.

It struck me Rudy isn’t so different from my new favourite tank the Object 140; both are deceptively fragile, but once you get to know them better, they can be immensely strong if you just let them.

That may not be what you are looking for. But it’s the reason I always said the T-34-85 “Rudy” is the best tank in the game, and every once in a while, I still believe that’s true. 

Rudy is a challenge. But Rudy is also rewarding in a way that very few other tanks are.

IrmaBecx says accept no substitute.

Crate Of The Month: T-22

T-22 Medium – Gambling For Bias?

By:

IrmaBecx

So the T-22 is back in the store. Well, sort of, because you have a 95% chance to end up with no tank and a bunch of boosters you didn’t really want.

Personally, I consider myself too poor to gamble for pixel tanks, and my advice is you should too. The last crate I bought was when the Kpz 70 first came out; I bought one crate “to keep the dream alive”, I said, but I ended up buying it in a straight up bundle a while later, because of course I didn’t win one.

I don’t support this particular business practice, but I understand WG needs to make money, and I think it’s up to everyone or their parent or guardian to decide for themselves.

You want my advice? Don’t buy crates. I’ve said all that before, but it bears repeating.

*

I had the extreme pleasure of driving the T-22 Medium before it came out, some of my colleagues and I are in Wargamings T-22 commercial. You can catch a glimpse of me in an AMX 50B on Himmelsdorf and I am in one of the T-22s also.

The T-22 always interested me; it’s a reward tank in WoT PC, but more importantly, it’s a Medium tank with a difference, and that’s always going to make me pay attention. The difference being, it has a V-shaped hull edged with spaced armour, same as the IS-7.

It also has a pike nose same as the IS-7, but not as well armoured. If you angle out between 10 and 15 degrees, it will autobounce even the biggest guns in the game unless they use premium rounds. On one side, I should say.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard Russian Medium, six degrees of gun depression on a 100 mm weapon, strong turret front, fairly agile, and around 3500 DPM with a rammer. But the solid side armour makes it an excellent side scraper, and it hull downs really well looking over that pike nose.

The lower plate is the same thickness, and the V shape means it’s not as wide as on other Mediums. It’s also aggressively sloped backwards and goes to autobounce angles with a bit of angling, but of course, no matter how you angle it, one of the front plates is going to clear up.

The frontal armour is really your only weak point, in most engagements, that’s where you are going to take the most hits. The turret roof is also weak, but you don’t have any prominent hatches.

T-22 Medium armour profile showing V-shaped hull

What all that adds up to, is not only a powerful Medium tank, but one with a difference; difference being it has Heavy tank armour in a lot of situations. If you get it into either a sidescrape or reverse side scrape situation, then practically nothing is getting through.

I tried reverse side scraping, and it totally works. You don’t have to worry about your front plate showing. My only problem is, I seldom find it practical. It takes a little while to get set up and get your angles right, and then you are kind of stuck in a static position, which is not the playstyle of a Medium tank.

Hull down works better for me; all you need is a little bit of a gradient to go up and down, look straight forward, and nothing is going to penetrate that pike nose. They also won’t be able to get a shot at your turret roof, but mind your lower plate.

Together, these positions form the basis of the T-22 playstyle. In any situation, you want to be showing either your turret front and pike nose, or your side armour, otherwise it does practically the same jobs any medium tank does.

What this means, is the T-22 can pick on Heavy tanks, and it can sometimes do Heavy tank jobs; same as the E50 Ausf. M can, and that’s what makes it so powerful. Some people say it’s a little too powerful, especially not being freely available like this.

But the T-22 is not the only “problem tank” in this regard. The game is in a state of change right now, with some tanks having line-specific consumables, and Wargaming are monitoring the situation closely, ready to make balance changes. There is the argument to be made the game is out of balance right now, and it’s going to take some time before it stabilises.

Hull down against a Jpz E100

So what’s the T-22 like to drive?

Well, I like it. I like it a lot. I’m still basically a noob, and I often have trouble in tier X games. Driving a powerful tank doesn’t change any of that. Getting a borderline overpowered vehicle isn’t going to make your actual gameplay any better.

But I still enjoy it. Trying to find the right angles, juking and wiggling to get clutch bounces, side hugging people who don’t realise there’s just no way they’re going to penetrate your side armour or turret front. You need to work at the T-22 to make it perform; that’s what I enjoy.

I’ve not been spamming games in my press account loan vehicle, and it’s because I hope to own it one day. I think it’s a marvellous tank.

But it’s also an expensive tank, especially now when there is no limit to the amount of money you could spend to try to get a hold of one. I am of course hoping for a regular bundle, and also hoping I will be able to afford it once that happens.

For now, the fact this tank is in crates makes it a no-no for me, and I would encourage you to make the same decision, but as I said, to each their own.

Russian Medium tanks can be a lot more fragile than you imagine, even one with such formidable armour as this one. Getting one isn’t going to instantly make you a better player. 

IrmaBecx says keep that in mind when you start eyeing those crates and wondering if paying your bills is really all that important.

Why Drive The Object 140?

Dr. Strangelove – The Object 140

Or:

“How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Russian Bias”

By:

IrmaBecx

On March 1:st 2018, I made the ultimate decision between the two seemingly identical flavours of Russian Medium tank bias, and I never looked back. This is well known.

People yell at me when I say the Object 140 is the best Medium tank in the game, citing all kinds of ways in which the T-62A is clearly superior, and I agree, yes; yes, it is. At some things. And if you like those things, then you should definitely get one.

But then there is the small fact that the Object 140 always seems to outperform the T-62A in terms of average winrate by a few percent.

One explanation for this is that newer players will go for the T-62A, and veterans will choose the 140. But over the last few months the number of players are roughly the same, and as far as I’m aware, the trend continues among higher average WR players.

Still, I know plenty of veterans who dumped their 140 after the Medium nerf and kept their T-62A.

And of course, none of this has anything to do with why I chose the Object 140 instead.

After writing about what my favourite tank is, and what it means to have a favourite tank to begin with, I’ve started driving my Object 140 more.

I should mention my actual winrate in it 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.

*

Anyway. It’s going better. The rumours of Object 140 obsolesence have been grossly exagerrated.

And I’m having fun doing it. There’s nothing like winning in your favourite tank, and I have accepted the fact the 140 is my favourite.

But spending more time with the Object 140; using it as my daily driver, I’m beginning to understand more clearly just what it is that makes the Object superior.

Not superior at bouncing stuff off the turret. Not superior at hitting aimed shots at range. But superior at being a Medium tank. This is where most people have stopped listening because they thing there’s something wrong with me, but what I mean is this:

The Object 140 does exactly four things better than the T-62A.

It depresses the gun down one more degree, which is a 20% improvement over the T-62A. It hits snap shots better on the move. It goes 5 km/h faster. And it has the best camo of any tier X Medium tank.

Someone else actually explained this to me after reading one of my Object 140 rants. I had said for newer players the T-62A is likely the better option, but Superschnitzelkoenig noted I had actually been arguing the contrary.

The key difference is, the main strengths of the T-62A are specific strengths. The main strengths of the 140 on the other hand, are general strengths.

Compare this to the adrenaline/speed boost trade off. The adrenaline is helpful in two situations: trying to get a second shot off faster, or straight up DPM trading. The speed boost is helpful in any number of situations.

One could argue, and the Schnitzelkönig did, this makes the Object 140 a little more accessible to newer players, and I had to agree. They won’t need to put themselves in specific situations to take advantage of the specific strengths of the T-62A.

Translate this to someone who really knows what they are doing, and the result will be the same. Although a good player can take better advantage of specific strengths, they also take better advantage of general ones, and naturally they will do so more often.

*

You can argue back and forth. In the end, the two tanks are fairly similar, and they can do much the same jobs.

It’s only when you take an interest in their points of divergence this stuff becomes important at all; you could just as well listen to conventional wisdom, or get whichever one you think looks better.

The Object 140 is my choice, and it’s the right choice for me. It’s the right choice, because the 140 is my favourite tank in the game; the purest expression of what I aspire to be as a tank driver. That may be a subjective, deeply personal reason, and you may not agree.

But that is also the kind of reason you need in order to choose the Object 140 over the T-62A. You have to want to make it work, you have to want to learn and improve; the reason for driving the best Medium tank in the game, should of course be that you want to be the best Medium tank player you can be. 

Shouldn’t it?

The Object 140 can be extremely fragile, extremely frustrating to drive, and there is no clear and obvious path to success. The latter can be a weakness, but it’s also one of it’s greatest strengths – versatility.

Once you start flanking all across the map to get to where the action is, you’ll see what I mean.

The real truth is, even if the T-62A was clearly winning more than the Object 140 on average, I still wouldn’t drive it. It’s just too boring to me. You should probably take that into account when considering my endorsement.

I say endorsement and not recommendation, because I don’t really recommend anyone drive tier X Medium these days, unless they really, really want to. It’s a tough job; among the toughest in the game.

But I am being serious when I say simple versatility is the way the Object 140 outperforms the T-62A, and I stand by that analysis; if nothing else because it is backed up by WG statistics.

*

I said at the beginning none of this has anything to do with why I chose the Object 140, and that’s true. The reason I chose it is I want to be an Object 140 driver.

It’s easy to say let your preferred playstyle decide for you, because you may not have one. But you still have the same consideration in front of you: specific versus general; static versus dynamic; situational versus general.

It’s hard to make the “wrong” choice here, the two tanks being so similar.

If you plan on getting both, then the question is moot. Sooner or later you’ll be able to compare them yourself, and maybe you’ll find you like one better than the other.

Looking past all the similarities, what really differentiates the two tanks isn’t very hard to identify. Understanding what these small differences mean in terms of gameplay; what possibilities they offer, and how you can best take advantage of them, isn’t quite as straightforward.

The trade off you are making may seem insignificant, and in a lot of situations it will be. Nearing the limits of performance is where the Object 140 will truly start to shine, and that’s where you’ll be able to see the benefits of driving the best Medium tank in the game.

The only question is, is playing at the edge of performance really where you want to be?

No one else can answer that question for you.

“What’s Your Favourite Tank?”

My Favourite Tank?

By:

IrmaBecx

My friend and colleague Frodo Nifinger posed a seemingly innocent question yesterday: What are your five favourite tanks?

It sounds simple, but even Frodo himself mentioned seven tanks. I could narrow it down to maybe fifteen. Others had two or three, but struggled to fill out the list further.

I knew it would be tricky to single out five vehicles from my quirky and extensive collection. But to my absolute horror, I came to the sudden and terrifying realisation I didn’t even know where to start. Naturally, the first tank that will come to mind is your favourite tank, which will be at the top of the list.

I realised I don’t know what my favourite tank is anymore.

*

It’s the Rudy, of course. I have a strong emotional connection to my Rudy, and I have had it for a long time. I’ve often said I could live in perfect harmony with just one tank in my garage as long as it’s the Rudy, and that’s still true.

But that’s the minimalist, feng shui approach. As a tank philosopher who has driven every single interesting tank in the game and a few more in testing, should I not be able to come up with a better answer?

A truer answer, I am thinking, because the fact is tier VII is not my favourite tier anymore, and Rudy is a reflection of the time when it was.

So it’s the Type 59. My most driven tank ever. My daily driver; my constant companion, against which all others are measured.

First of all it’s not necessarily a good idea to look for your favourite tank in terms of numbers. I know people with thousands and thousands of games in the IS-6 who hate it worse than anything else.

I do like the Type 59 a lot, or I wouldn’t drive it so much. I’ve always loved it because it turned out to be exactly what I imagined it would be, it worked exactly like I thought it would, and it’s never failed me since. But the truth of it is, the Type 59 is the tank I’m most comfortable in; it’s not my actual favourite just because I’ve driven it the most.

Also, a tier VIII tank is probably not my favourite tank in the game anymore either, and anyway the little Black Dog would have a thing or two to say about the whole thing.

*

So is it the E50 Ausf. M? That is my most driven tier X tank ever. It’s also my first tier X, and at the time it was the only one I wanted that also seemed a realistic choice.

Back when I was a noob, driving tier X was a special occasion. It made me nervous. I would never just drive a casual game at tier X; I would always work up to it, and make sure I could afford to. Getting over that threshold took a lot of work, but I made it happen, and today it’s not such a big deal anymore.

What I mean is, it doesn’t scare me anymore, because top tier is still a big deal. It’s the non plus ultra of tank driving; playing in the big leagues, quite literally. Being a tier X driver was always something I aspired to, and now I am one.

But then I spent just as much time learning to like tier IX again. I used to love playing the underdog against the biggest armour in the game, but after a while I just felt like why not just be in a top tier vehicle also? People kept telling me some tanks like the PTA or the E50 or T-54 were “stronger tier for tier” than their tier X counterparts, but I never quite bought that. Against tier X competition, why not just drive the better tank?

It turns out there are some amazing vehicles in their own right at tier IX, the Kpz 70 taught me that. You can’t move up a tier and get the same experience. Same with the K-91; driving those two tanks was a small revelation for me, and put the fun back in tier IX. 

I ended up buying the Krautpanzer, and it’s still the tank I drive when nothing else in the garage seems to catch my fancy. One of the most unique vehicles in the game, it’s also one of the absolute best looking, and it has a playstyle all it’s own. Is the Krautpanzer perhaps secretly my favourite tank?

I’m actually not going to answer “no” to that; it’s just if so I haven’t fully realised. It’s a pleasant thought, but I don’t think it’s the whole truth either.

Back to the E50 M then?

*

No.

I will say a tier X tank is probably my favourite tank in the game at this point, but it’s not this one, because the E50 M has “done a Löwe”.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the Löwe was once one of the most misunderstood tanks out there, and some drivers would swear by it, because they had figured it out. Over the years it got buff after buff, and the people who had sworn by it started to play it less and less, until the buffs reached a point where driving the Löwe was just no fun anymore. It had grown too powerful.

The E50 M was a little like that, and it was likewise buffed in increments. it’s renaissance came with the big armour meta; suddenly people started looking nervously at that huge front plate and sturdy side armour.

The “Löwe moment” for me was when they gave the E50 M full gun depression over the front plate. That’s all it took to make the E50 M too powerful.

I’ve spent years learning to work with the gun at exactly the right angle to get the full depression. The tank is a little easier to drive now, but it’s also a little less interesting. A quick look at the performance stats will also tell you the gun depression buff was totally unnecessary.

I still like the E50 M; and really I shouldn’t be complaining. The E50 M is now what I always wanted it to be in my head; a monstrous powerhouse that strikes fear into the hearts of the enemy. It’s just… you know; a little too easy.

What about the polar opposite? That’s the thought that keeps me up at night.

*

Here’s another thing. I have learned to love a lot of tanks. Sometimes it’s been while grinding, sometimes it’s been in testing or on the press account, and once or twice it’s been taking a chance on a new premium tank.

But spending time with a tank; learning its ins and outs, it’s peculiarities and abilities, is in itself a satisfying experience. and it’s not always the vehicle you think that will provide it.

Like the WZ-111 1-4. It looks like a Chinese IS-8. Look closer, and you’ll see it gets a 130 mm. That’s cool, but it’s not really that impressive. Not until you actually drive it, and realise the 1-4 is a wonder of balance; a fantastically synergistic vehicle, something you could never imagine looking at it on paper. I thought it would be a stepping stone to the 113, but it turned out to be one of my favourite tanks.

One of. A Heavy tank is not going to be my favourite tank in the game, and if it is, it’ll probably be the Krautpanzer.

It would be nice if my favourite tank was just one I liked the look of, started driving, and immediately felt great about. The thing is that’s happened to me dozens of times by now.

And that’s all fine, but it still irks me I can’t give a straight answer about what my favourite tank in the game is.

Or, maybe I just don’t want to face facts.

*

The fact is, there is another tank I’ve spent quite a bit of time driving. It doesn’t show up in my stats, because most of it has been on the press account.

The first tank I drove on my press account was the Type 59. That was the one I was most curious about, because I drove a lot of tier VIII. But the second tank I drove was the Object 140, because that was my Nemesis; my sworn enemy and most hated adversary.

You may recall what happened. The 140 got nerfed, then power creeped, and then they gave it regular AP for standard rounds; all of which turned it into a pale shadow of its former self, and so bland and uninteresting as to be almost transparent.

Naturally, I fell for it. I became the Object 140s perhaps staunchest defender, vehemently denying there was anything wrong with it at all, or that any other tank was in any way shape or form better than it.

The first thing that struck me when I drove the 140 was how fragile it was, and this was back when it was overpowered. If you didn’t know how to handle it, you’d get wrecked – overpowered or not, and I didn’t have hundreds of games in other Russian tanks to help me deal with the limited gun depression.

I tried driving the T-62A too; in fact I was sure that was the Russian Medium for me for a long time, but in the end I realised the 140 just fit me better, and I didn’t feel I needed both of them for my collection.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised just how well the 140 fit me. It was like an extension of myself as a tank driver; it has everything I need. But getting one for my collection was one thing; it wasn’t my first Russian tank. The problem was, I didn’t identify as an Object 140 driver.

That became easier when it got all the polish taken off it. I have no problem standing up for an underdog tank. For every stet pedder who sold their 140, my connection to mine got stronger.

But we are talking about favourite tanks here. And the thing that keeps me up at night is I can’t say the Object 140 isn’t my favourite tank in the game; in fact it would make all the sense in the world if it was, and the only problem is I don’t want to be someone who has the Object 140 for a favourite tank.

*

To me, the Object 140 is still the best Medium tank in the game. I first learned to hate it, then I learned how to drive it, and finally I learned to love it.

In a way, Rudy is still my favourite, because without Rudy, I wouldn’t be who I am today as a tank driver. In another way, the “right now” tank is always my favourite; I get very involved once I set my sights on something, and I don’t want to drive anything else.

The Foch was like that, and the WZ-113. The 121. The 263. And it’s not like their glory has faded; it’s just I recognise the process after having been through it a few times. My approach to the game is always long term; increasingly my reviews are focused on the viability of a new tank in the long run. Anyone can have a fling. Any premium tank can make credits. But which ones are going to stand out in the long run as your “ go to” vehicles?

I like to say the Leopard 1 is a promise for the future, but the plain truth is I’m still a bit scared to drive it after all these years. The real promise for the future is the Object 140, because it doesn’t have a gimmick. It’s just a really well balanced, well put together vehicle that has everything it needs and nothing more except a thin coat of paint and some Russian bias.

What makes it the best Medium in the game is that it can do everything. It’s amazingly versatile, adapting to changing situations with lightning speed, and the only limiting factor is your own ability.

That speaks to me as a tank driver. I don’t want to win because I have the biggest gun or the strongest armour; I want to win because my gameplay was superior, and the perfect vehicle to realise that ambition is the Object 140. That’s the plain truth.

*

I think without reading it back I will have mentioned between five and seven tanks in this essay, and it’s safe to assume they would be on my top five list.

It doesn’t really matter. The game is constantly evolving, and that’s the great thing about it. Tomorrow, everything will be different. That is something to look forward to. There is hope for the future.

And what have we learned from four pages of rambling about liking tanks for different reasons?

Perhaps not a lot, except there are different reasons, and it’s not always easy to give a straight answer, or put your top five tanks in order, one through five.

Also that if you put a gun to my head, I would admit the Object 140 is probably my true favourite tank in the game. Because of the faded glory, because of our history together, but most of all because the Object 140 is the tank I want to be driving when I win the best game of my life.

Everything else would be second rate.

❤

T-34-85 “Rudy” – the No-Brainer

 

Rudy Returns Yet Again!

By:

IrmaBecx

 

So my friend bought the “Rudy” the other day to grind some credits, and if you know me, you’ll know I’m all for that.

“Rudy”, of course, being the best tank in the game.

I tried to explain about when I first got my own Rudy all those years ago; when I finally took the plunge and started driving Russian Medium tanks, having been strictly a German tank purist in those early days, although I had started dabbling in British Mediums also.

If you knew anything about reading stats, you would immediately see Rudy was going to be worth it. You have to remember there were a lot less tanks back then, and the T-34-85 “Rudy” made a tremendous impact in the meta of yesteryear.

Me, I thought I saw something else too. Two things, actually.

First off, Rudy was supposed to be a tier VII rival to the T-43; considered a Russian powerhouse in those days, even though it was quite obviously just a souped up tier VI T-34-85, but looking at the stats, I figured Rudy wasn’t just a tier VI tank only a little stronger.

Rudy was a tier VIII T-44 in disguise, only a little weaker. Fifteen millimetres or so weaker. That’s a little.

*

The other thing was more diffuse. But just looking at Rudy from a distance, I didn’t feel the usual fear and revulsion; my heart didn’t sink the way it did when I had to face Russian tenks in the wild.

The immediate sensation was I could totally see myself driving “Rudy”.

As I’m sure you know, “Rudy” is actually a Television superstar from Poland. That fact alone is of course fascinating; there actually is a real “Rudy” out there somewhere. You can search “Four Tank Men and a Dog”, and watch Rudy charge against the Fascists in glorious Soviet era black and white.

The Polish thing I made quite a big deal about. I lied to myself Rudy was actually Polish, and not Russian, and therefore my betrayal against the Fatherland would be slightly ameliorated. That means “not as bad as it looks, really”.

Like I said it’s a total lie. Rudy was one of the first generation Premium tanks that were just outright better than their tech tree counterparts, and wearing the Russian flag, it would of course just laugh in the face of any accusations of Bias or overpoweredness.

“What Russian Bias? I am Polish! ”

I realised all my rock star tanker friends and enemies alike would throw all their money at “Rudy” as fast as they possibly could, but more importantly, I realised something else. I wanted to do the same thing myself.

Not because everyone else were going to do it. Because it was just so obviously the right and proper thing to do. I was convinced I was never going to be really happy with my tank collection unless it was crowned by the jewel that is the T-34-85 “Rudy”, and I also knew right away we were going to be friends forever and ever.

So this is it people. If you are reading this looking for some kind of recommendation, then here it is:

“Rudy” is the absolute best in game purchase I ever made in my life.

I would be completely happy with just one single tank in my garage, as long as it is my T-34-85 “Rudy”.

Outside of tier X; after all these years, the T-34-85 “Rudy” is the best tank in the game.

That is all you need to know.

*

I drove my “Rudy” yesterday, and those couple of games were all I needed to put me back in the “Rudy” frame of mind.

Because Rudy may have Russian Bias coming out every orifice, but you need to understand what Russian Bias is. Outside actual stats, like ground resistance (“What? It’s only a little tier VI Medium tank, it doesn’t need ground resistance…”), once you are out there you need to work for the Bias, because it’s all out there on the edges of performance.

“Rudy” will hit the most insane snap shots, but you have to keep firing in order to get lucky. “Rudy” will bounce dead-certain kill shots off the kinky WW II armour; shot traps and all, because it has just enough beefed up tier VI armour to not get overmatched, and if you are doing over 30, powersliding through a turn, then that kill shot is going to bounce off the front plate, right next to the super obvious driver’s hatch weakspot.

Because Russia.

Because Rudy can dance like Michael Jackson. Walking across the moon like an ethereal presence; seemingly moving in the exact opposite direction you would imagine.

That’s what “Rudy” does. If you dance around the edges of performance, you will reap a fruitful bounty. And that doesn’t mean Rudy is a very complicated drive; only suited for Pro drivers, it just means it can be. You can throw any job in the game at Rudy, and a lot of the times, Rudy is going to surprise you. Disappearing around a corner the last second before the enemy shell whizzes past, on just a handful of hitpoints; the dog has to help hold the thing together in there so it won’t just implode like the Bluesmobile from the savage beating you’ve taken, and then blasting out from the other side, securing the kill with a no-scope return shot across the shoulder.

Outside of tier X, the “Rudy” is going to give you the best games of your life; sooner or later. The better you get at driving, the more Russian Bias you can take advantage of. And it just never ends. Even after all this time, “Rudy” still surprises me doing the incredulous stuff you just don’t ever see. Unless you make some kind of pact never to play tier VII again, the Rudy is the best investment you’ll ever make, because Rudy says like that cop in “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry”:

“My top end is un-limited! ”

I just never get tired of driving it. No matter how much I love bombing around in the ultimate Bias Machine, my beloved Object 140, there will always be time for Rudy. Because the Object 140 may still be the best tier X Medium tank in the game, but it’s not “Rudy”. I told you already.

“Rudy” is the best tank in the game.

I don’t know how else to say it.

*

So how do you drive the best tank in the game, in the tier VII of today?

Same as you always did. Pedal to the metal. Full on race spec tanking. Rev up the diesel V-12 and drop the hammer; the 85 will be loaded by the time you reach top speed. Slam on the brakes, fire the gun, do a 360 degree pirouette, and you will be loaded again just as you complete the turn. That’s the kind of fierce mobility and firepower you are dealing with.

You basically have tier VI armour. But I mean the CDC has tier VI Light tank armour, and it still does pretty good at tier VIII, right? Don’t get hit. Or if you do, dance and wiggle, and Rudy will shrug off most reasonable shots like nothing.

Rudy has gun depression. That’s so you can aim down over one front drive wheel, and even though your armour is so flimsy, Rudy just goes all red.

“Rudy” means “Redhead” in Polish.

You don’t stop punching the pedal; Rudy wants to rock back and forth, and wiggle and jiggle to find the ultimate gun angle; Rudy likes to move. The completely off the charts mobility stats were one of the things that sold me on the Rudy right away, and when I took it out the first few times, it nearly blew me off the seat. Remember, I was used to Panthers.

These days, we have other speed machines in the game; all Rudys tiers infested with Light tanks of all kinds, roving IS drones that move like Mediums in tier IX Heavy tank armour, and heavy hitting Chinese hull down beasts. Or the 50 km/h “Tank Destroyer” turretless Medium tanks with tier X weaponry? It’s fair to say “Rudy” has been power creeped a little bit.

But that’s not Rudy’s problem. Rudy is still the best. It’s just now you have to work a little harder to realise Rudys awesome potential. There is not a tank in the game the Rudy cannot take down in a  one-on-one, or even three-on-one.

Rudy just doesn’t care. Rudy runs away and pops back up unexpectedly. For someone who loved flanking manouvers and stalking lone prey already, driving the Rudy back then was an absolute revelation.

To this day, I am never scared of anything driving my beloved Rudy.

Rudy is fierce, but your gameplay will have to be also. That doesn’t mean Rudy won’t work if you stay back, it just means you won’t see Rudy at the edge of performance; triumphing against the elements of game mechanics time and time again.

But that’s all fine. If you drive Rudy casually, playing solid support and going hull down T-34-85 style, then you are still going to be raking in the credits. Rudy will do casual no problem.

But just be aware; if you do se a slight opening, all you have to do is think “fXck it, let’s go!” to yourself, and Rudy will roar into action in a cloud of diesel smoke and cordite, drop the Adrenaline, and watch Rudy blast out approaching, and often in excess of, three thousand five hundred DPM.

Not a lot of tanks stand up to that, especially if they’re not expecting being pounced on by a tasmanian devil made entirely out of overpoweredness, Russain Bias, and dumb, blind luck, unconvincingly painted over with a thin sheet of cultural reference to hide the worst of the blatant disregard for anything even resembing “balance”.

And yet, Rudy is a wonder of balance. It’s just when you push your luck, you almost always get away with it – especially if you tried it before, and know exactly the split second you need to pull back from the lovely damage farming and pull back to get the perfect bounce off your 75 mm thick front plate that is full of holes, but will actually produce like 300 mm of rapidly disappearing effective armour approaching 80 degrees of angle.

The gun mantlet will eat a HEAT shell. The tracks too; make sure you run the track upgrade so it takes two shots to break your track. The 75 mm turret sides will also produce 300 mm effective armour looking down a bit at your opponent, but they will autobounce anyway.

The upper side armour is only 45 mm, but that will actually bounce a Box Tenk or an IS 122 mm at autobounce angles.

That is not saying “side scrape against huge guns”; it just means it can be done. If you angle up, the side armour might bounce the shell, because it is thick enough. If it had been 40 mm, a 122 mm would have punched straight through, but Rudy isn’t actually Polish, Rudy is a Russian tank, and has inherited this small piece of Bias from the T-34-85 at tier VI. Literally the only difference between the two chassises is Rudy’s front plate is 30 mm thicker so Rudy can bounce a Death Star.

There is no gun in the game that will overmatch the Rudys front plate or turet cheeks. It would have to be at least 226 mm caliber. Basically, you need a Sturmtiger or “Atomic Annie”.

That is what Russian Bias is, and if you understand and accept that, then Rudy will be the best drive you ever drove. If you like the retro Polish TV series angle, then that’s just a bonus. Because even without the pop culture, Rudy is a truly powerful vehicle; easily able to handle anything you throw at it.

Not every time. But often enough to be astounding, and also more often the more you work at it.

If you are going to buy just one Premium tank, that you can keep enjoying through tens of thousands of games of playing, then the T-34-85 “Rudy” is that vehicle; if you have even the slightest interest in driving a fire breathing Medium tank.

You can run Rudy full race spec and live on the edge, or you can pack some protection kits and play it safe doing support. Rudy is up for anything; a casual game here and there, or serious tier VII credit grinding. Chasing down Light tanks. Breaking through the flank. Destroying lurking Tank Destroyers. Harassing Heavy tanks until they explode from hysteria.

Rudy is not invincible. That is obvious; or it wouldn’t need all that Bias. And it doesn’t actually need it – Rudy would have been a really good tank turned down several notches.

It’s just a T-34-85 on steroids. Does 55 easy. 53 degrees of traverse, stock. Two and a half thousand DPM without a rammer. Eight degrees of Biased gun depression. And it rakes in the credits.

I mean, really…

 

IrmaBecx says: in a tier VII daily driver; what more do you want?

  

My T-34-85 “Rudy” on May Day a couple of years ago. This was when the IS-5 first dropped.

  

If you don’t want to take my word for it, then just pull up your favourite tank stat source, and then don’t compare the “Rudy” to the T-34-85, or the KV-13, or the T-43.

Instead, compare it to the tier VIII T-44 with your favourite 100 mm gun on it, and remember Rudy started out as a tier six tank.

You’ll see what I mean about the “fifteen millimetres weaker”. If you put a 100 mm gun on the Rudy, then nobody would believe it wasn’t a tier VIII tank…

E50 Ausf. M of Destiny

 

The Spear of Destiny

By:

Irma Oden Becx

 

I’ve said before the Leopard 1 was the first tier X tank I never thought I would ever, ever get to drive.

I did. It didn’t take that long, even; the Leopard 1 was my third ever tier X tank. Soon after, I got a magic press account from Wargaming because I write stuff like this, and so I could drive all the Leopard 1 I ever wanted, for free.

And if you are reading this; you probably helped pay for all those free resources.

If you did: thank you.

But the magic press account isn’t the same. I’ve had the same account, under the same name, since August 10:th 2014. That’s the one that counts. That is where I have all my laurels and accolades; my scalps and trophies, taken in battle.

Earned in battle.

And after all this time, I can be quite the warrior at times. When I get all my ducks in a row, and manage to keep my focus.

But I didn’t drive the Leopard 1 first thing I did. I drove the Object 140; at that point the most powerful tank in the game, because that was my greatest enemy.

Because, if the Leopard 1 was the first tank I didn’t think I would ever get to drive, the E50 Ausf. M was the first tank I did.

*

The German people fought against their enemies until death; until the very end.

Not because they were especially honourable, but because they fought for a lie. The lie that they were the chosen people; chosen by the gods to realise some great destiny. The lie of no compromise; of final victory, or final defeat. The grandest lie, perhaps, of all.

If you ask a defeated enemy to yield; they will yield, unless they believe their death would serve some higher, honourable purpose.

That is what is called “honour”.

And you have to be very careful, because these lies about grandeur are seductive. I was called upon to serve my country, and I stood up to do it. The same way millions did before me, I was ready to learn how to be a warrior. And I did learn. Then they gave me some badges and a piece of paper that said I was an excellent soldier, but unreliable and insubordinate; very capable, but not good at taking commands.

All I really learned was it was all still a big lie, and a lot of things about human nature and the negatives of group dynamics based on violence and hierarchy.

More lies. Because you know how to make a soldier. You break someone down, and then you build them up again, according to a strict hierarchy. Simple rules. Obey, or be punished. Serve, or be degraded. Do or die; in the literal sense.

The punishment for desertion is death, in practically all armies. Mine too, in wartime.

*

When I was a soldier, the war was somewhere else, and yet uncomfortably close. At one point, it was discussed having my regiment sent down to former Yugoslavia, but things seemed to quiet down, and nothing ever came of it. That’s about as close as I have ever been to war.

And still, growing up during the cold war, I already knew all about it. I knew what would happen. I knew how it worked. I knew it would destroy me; destroy my whole life, and everything I knew, even if I kept on living; just as it has destroyed millions before me, who lived to see the other end of war.

The cold war, they say, ended in 1990. And maybe it did.

But for me, the war will never end. Because I was a child in wartime. It may not have been here, and it may not have been me, but we all lived under the threat of either nuclear holocaust, or conventional warfare. The guns were loaded in Berlin. Two superpowers mere meters apart, mere miles from where I lived. The same Berlin where those Germans had fought for every piece of rubble, because the all-encompassing lie they fought for wouldn’t allow them to do anything else.

And the Nazis were wrong. They were. I believe that in my heart.

But so were everyone else, because war is in itself wrong. It shouldn’t ever be. It should never happen. No people should have to live under the constant threat of death, violence, or persecution. That is what I believe.

So why was the German E50 M my first tier X Medium?

Because all of the above.

*

As a child, I played nothing but war games. It was the only thing that interested me. I would throw myself into innocent dreams of daredevil heroism, “Bravery, Honour, Loyalty”, like the Walloon Legion Rexist badge says. If I had known I’d be sitting here with almost a hundred different pixel tanks at my disposal at age 45, it would have shattered my young mind; no matter how much science fiction books I had read already.

I remember in one, someones brain was transplanted into a huge tank on a planet light years away to fight in a galactic war. You have to admit driving pixel tanks on my Ipad isn’t terribly far removed from that?

So here I am, then; living in the future of my wildest dreams. and what do I drive?

The E50 M. My “Spear of Destiny”.

*

I call it that, because of “Castle Wolfenstein”, of course. It was the first time I got to fire the MP40 in simulation.

Oh, did I mention; I always played the Germans when we played war? It was because of what I said earlier. No soldier is truly honourable, because war is hell. So I figured I could just as well wear the coolest uniform. I didn’t want to fly a Spitfire with a posh accent, I wanted to fly a Messerschmitt BF-109 in a black leather jacket, a crusher cap, and a monocle; the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross jauntily around my neck.

“>>Achtung, Spitfeuer!<<”

That’s all it was. Not “Die Fahne Hoch.”

And so I’m not a WW II buff. I am not a tank connoisseur. I am just a child playing with his frightening war toys, because he is still afraid of the war. The war that ruins everything; the dissolution of society, the holocaust and armageddon.

Ragnarök.

The twilight of the gods. Our old gods, the Germans said. And also my old gods, Tor, Freja, and Oden.

The whole Germanic fantasy. They tried to steal that from us and tell us it was theirs, but it’s not. It’s still ours. Our heritage, and there is nothing Germanic about it. That is the lie, trying to seduce you into believing in something greater than yourself, but not for your benefit.

For someone else’s. Someone who functions very well in a strictly hierachic society. In a dictatorship.

If you remember my piece of paper from the Army, you’ll know that’s not me.

*

I understand all this, and yet my fascination remains. And with the E50 M especially, because it represents precisely the fantasy aspect. The Jägeru also, of course, but the E50 M more so, because it is in fact a complete fabrication. Wargaming made it up for our enjoyment.

And I’ve said before it’s a brilliant fabrication, because it’s so plausible. It follows known wartime design directives, and design philosophy; it’s basically a huge Panther tank, massaged into a hyper efficient shape like a purpose built race car.

The Object 140 is the same. It was actually built, but the version we have in the game is the dream of the Object 140; I’ve often called it “Russian Bias Personified”. Likewise it’s like they just painted a thin coat of pixel varnish over the very embodiment of their respective design philosophies: the Non Plus Ultra top tier vehicle.

Top of the line, top of their game.

And when I first drove the E50 M, it was everything I had dreamed it would be. Bombing around the same maps in a fifty ton beast doing over 60 km/h on the straights just made them seem so much smaller.

The exhilarating sense of freedom was so intoxicating, I just drove around with wild abandon; throwing myself into fierce up close combat at the slightest hint of an enemy.

My once most hated enemy the Object 140 especially.

It was unquestionably the best tank in the game once. And I still think it’s the best Medium tank in the game, all things considered.

These days, it is one of my most prized possessions. My grandest wreath of laurels, the crossed swords to my Iron Cross that is the Spear of Destiny. My most treasured and beloved combat trophy of all.

The scalp of all scalps.

*

The face of war that threatened me as a child, was mechanised warfare in Europe. The face of the enemy, when they finally revealed themselves, would be a Soviet T-series tank in matte grey/green with a red star painted on it.

The exact same tank that’s in my garage now, wearing the name “Terror”.

The Object 140 is the face of my childhood terror, but I am not a child anymore. I just remember being one. And the same way I wore the uniform of the enemies of my grandfather Oden as a child, I now wear the image of my own childhood enemies in make believe battle against my friends, and for the same reason.

Because war is terror. And it tries to seduce us into violence.

But the Object 140 is not my enemy anymore, it is one of my most trusted lances.

Because a tank is a spear, in a philosophical sense. The spear becomes a rifle. The rifle becomes a cannon. The cannon is put on tracks. You put some armour around the gun crew, and the spear is now a tank.

And I broke it. Broke the sharpest spear of the enemy. I defeated my childhood terror.

I beat the Object 140 in earnest battle. And I did it in the E50 M.

At that point, the E50 Ausf. M had the lowest DPM of any tier X Medium, and the 140 had the highest. But I found out that doesn’t matter if they can’t punch through your front plate, and they aren’t really that tough anymore after you plow straight into them going 55 with that front plate they can’t shoot through, and then you start dancing and taking their tracks off again so they stay still while you shoot them.

Driving the E50 M taught me even the best tank in the game could be taken down. And that that was more satisfying than actually driving it.

Driving the Object 140 taught me even the best tank in the game can be dead in the water in the wrong situation. And that being the best tank in the game doesn’t mean what you imagine it does.

Driving both of them taught me any tier X Medium can be the best tank in the game, if you just play it well enough. And also that no matter what the best tank in the game happens to be this update, all I want to do is drive my beloved Medium tanks.

The E50 M now has 8 degrees of gun depression over the front, and that was enough to put it in the Twister offline finals. The Object 140 was there as well, some teams not trusting their BatChats to do the heavy spotting.

The old spear is still sharp, it seems.

We who drive it have always known this. The E50 M, when driven by someone who knows and loves it, is one of the most formidable tanks in the game; it always was. Even before all the buffs.

The Object 140 is perhaps the purest Medium tank at tier X in terms of playstyle. It can do everything.

The E50 M can not. But it can do some things the Object can’t and those things can be a huge advantage. Both tanks will relocate very quickly, but they will go to do different jobs. They each play to their particular strengths.

And the strengths of the E50 M are obvious. It has a powerful chassis, can hull down and side scrape, and puts the rounds exactly where you want them. Let those facts inform what you try to do with it, and you can wreck entire teams on your own.

I am a lone wolf. Don’t platoon very often.

But the E50 M is a big bad wolf, and it works best in a pack. You shouldn’t go in expecting to do all the work yourself, what you want to do is facilitate the work of others.

The essence of Medium gameplay. Being an annoying presence to the enemy all through the battle.

If there ever was a tier X Medium tank to recommend as your first, I would say the E50 M is the only one that comes close. All the others have caveats.

The first one being: why would you want to drive a tier X Medium at all?

*

For me, that’s easy. It’s the most like driving a BF-109 with a monocle.

That’s all it is.

The endless fascination of the Spear of Destiny.