World of Tanks II: Fighting, Bragging, Raging Edition - All aboard the Lemming Train!

[Grif]

A word of warning: The first grind to Tier ~V is the worst part of the game. And yeah, they're doing a terrible job of making it friendly for new people; you'll be in games at a serious disadvantage with terrible crew, no equipment, and no play experience on top of it.

The game gets rolling once you get a Tier ~V tank that's good at making money (any of the heavies, meds or TDs work really; special mentions to BDR for a ridiculous gun, KV-1 for spaced armor, M4 for the best secondary values such as gun firing angles & good Howitzer, StuG III for ridiculous camouflage values and S-35 CA for the Fist of God gun). Then you can save money to buy new vehicles, equipment, better starting crews, etc. on sale and grind new vehicles much faster, and get to higher tiers too.

But the first grind to Tier V is a bit rough with some poor tanks you have to play through and poor equipment all-around; German TD line is probably the least painful followed by the Soviet Heavy line.

The Soviet Heavy line has the... T-28. Yeah. The "medium" tank that has the profile of a barn without any armour to speak of. But the KV-1 is worth all the pain.

I'd recommend the German TD line first. The Marder II is still good, and the Hetzer is just ungodly.

(Alternatively, try the US medium line. The Stuarts are okay for their tier, though the M5 gets a scout MM for being a tier 4 light.)