World of Tanks IV: We're on Fire!

[Elm11]

So I realize that, being an Xbox user, I am late to the game on this, but is there a way to play with your friends? There doesn't seem to be a matchmaking lobby or anything of that sort; rather, it seems entirely random which game you're placed into.

How is the Xbox version, by the way? I won't be touching it, given my aversion to Xbox Live and my unwillingness to start from scratch, but it looks like it's fairly well done.

Edit: I helped!

[Leon]

Point of view: this post is via my tablet PC, page 2 was very hard to read on it. Pages 1 & 3 show up normally. Not everyone cares about your bragpost ethier so do the considerate (i know its hard for you visulize the concept) thing and spoiler it.

[KillianHawkeye]

How is the Xbox version, by the way? I won't be touching it, given my aversion to Xbox Live and my unwillingness to start from scratch, but it looks like it's fairly well done.

Edit: I helped!

Well... I can't really compare it to the PC version since I haven't played that.

That being said, my review of the Xbox version is that the controls and the GUI/HUD are pretty good and the matchmaking is fast, so the game is very easy to play (although there is still a lot of strategy that I need to learn). I guess the major downside right now is that there are only three countries at the moment (America, Germany, and the UK, and the UK doesn't have any TDs or artillery tanks). I don't know if they're going to add more later on, but considering that I'm capped at six tanks in my garage since I don't want to spend real money upgrading it, I'm not really unhappy with the selections that are available to me.

[Brother Oni]

I suspect it's still going to have the joypad drop in accuracy and speed compared to a mouse, but if everybody is handicapped in the same way, it won't make much difference.

Besides they can always tweak the turret traverse and aiming times suitably for the control system.

[KillianHawkeye]

I suspect it's still going to have the joypad drop in accuracy and speed compared to a mouse, but if everybody is handicapped in the same way, it won't make much difference.

Besides they can always tweak the turret traverse and aiming times suitably for the control system.

I dunno, unlike a more conventional FPS game, I don't see this relying on quick reflexes or twitchy cursor movement.

[Grif]

I dunno, unlike a more conventional FPS game, I don't see this relying on quick reflexes or twitchy cursor movement.

There are times when battles devolve into duels and who shoots first wins.

Or that one snap shot that you made early in the battle sealing the fate of a crucial tank.

Yes, they do matter, even if they don't matter quite as much.

[SanguisAevum]

There are times when battles devolve into duels and who shoots first wins.

Or that one snap shot that you made early in the battle sealing the fate of a crucial tank.

Yes, they do matter, even if they don't matter quite as much.

This. Sometimes, the difference between a win and a loss is landing a shot on an enemy weak point in the middle of a knife fight.

If i was playing on the 360, it would be with a mouse and keyboard connected.

[GloatingSwine]

A couple of nice games on Komarin:

Game one

The enemy held the island for most of the game and our attack along the west stalled, but we held the east, eventually drove them off the island, and cleaned up the west.

Game two

Closer game this time, the enemy pushes west hard and grinds down our tanks there, they have more east as well but they meet a solid push from our team and that ends with only me left. Endgame is a two man carry between me lurking in the forest and my toonmate giving vision control from the island. I beg for Radley Walters at the end.

[MCerberus]

Actually the controls are pretty decent for dueling, as soon as you accept in your head that the camera moves exactly as fast as your turret while in sniper/zoom. Also there's a matter of the controls being muddied a bit actually makes it feel more of "I'm controlling a metal death machine."

Before I was on this comp, WoT kind of seemed like a shooter with tanks instead of a tank game.

Side news: Got my Panther 2 fully upgraded. 88 L/71 aim time we meet again. I'm not willing up to give my vents/optics for a Gun Laying Drive though.

[Janwin]

15cm is quite good for the shock factor, and can be surprisingly effective at holding down an area. The low-ish penetration doesn't quite matter at tier 8 as it does in tier 10.

Except that even as Tier 8 you get into a huge number of Tier 10 battles. While the 15cm has its strengths, the negatives hurt doubly-so on the Rhm-B. First of all, with the 15cm, in order to pen a lot of tanks out there (it has a 215 pen value for AP) you pretty much must run gold rounds, and since it's APCR it has a tendency to find spaced armor and do absolutely nothing. Additionally, the 15cm is basically and E 100 gun with a little less pen. I have absolutely no diffuculty using the 15cm on my E 100 to devastating effect firing gold rounds, but usually, in order to line up a shot, you're going to get shot in return as soon as you're visible. The E 100 can absorb or bounce a number of shots, which the Rhm-B. cannot. You simply don't have the luxury of lining up the right shot with the Rhm-B., as if you're close enough to target a specific spot you're already lit and if you're far enough to remain hidden you can't target a weak spot.

Yeah, that's probably true, but I tend to prefer DPM and reliability over alpha - I can't shake the feeling that if I wanted shock, I'd go for the ISU-152. Still, either way, I'll have to unlock the 155 before I get up to the WafflePz.4. Maybe I'll discover it's amazing when I get it, but from the stats, it looks pretty appalling compared to the 128.

Edit: Random capitalisation because doing German exercises means I keep capitalising nouns

The 12.8cm is, in the vast majority of cases, simply the better gun. If you're doing a team battle, the 15cm can shine since you know people will protect you while you're reloading, but in a pub battle or pretty much anything else, you want to sit way back where you can't be seen and snipe weakspots with high penetration, which the 12.8cm is VERY capable of doing.

You don't do this kind of insanity with the 15cm:

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[Jonzac]

Ok Janwin, but that's when your top tier on a wide open map. You couldn't build a better scenario for a long-range sniper to excel at. How do you do on Ensk or Ruinburg? I'd say those shorter ranges are when the alpha gun would outperform the 12.8cm

[Janwin]

Ok Janwin, but that's when your top tier on a wide open map. You couldn't build a better scenario for a long-range sniper to excel at. How do you do on Ensk or Ruinburg? I'd say those shorter ranges are when the alpha gun would outperform the 12.8cm

Even in those maps, I would still disagree, for the same reason I posted above.

1. With the shorter ranges, the Rhm-B's camo rating isn't helpful as you're going to be spotted as soon as you move to take a shot, simply due to the open view paths. This means that you will be seen, and will need to aim, shoot, and scoot quickly to minimize the damage you receive (Rhm-B can't take a whole lot of hits before it's dead). With the increased aim time of the 15cm, you have to expose yourself longer to guarantee your round will hit a spot it can penetrate, which increases your own danger. With the 12.8cm, due to an absurdly high penetration rating and quick aim time, you can snap shot weak spots and get out of dodge quickly.
2. With the longer reload time and shorter ranges of engagement, it is more likely that a medium or light tank can get on top of you quickly. With the difference in reload time, I'd still much rather have the 12.8cm to be able to get as many shots out as possible, and with a higher DPM, it'll matter much more since at that tier most tanks (even mediums) have more HP than a 15cm will deal in one shot.
3. Even with the shorter average ranges in a city map, there are still certain lanes of fire which you should be taking advantage of with an amazing sniper of a TD. With the 15cm, you can't take advantage of these lanes (for example, on Ensk, the 1 line, Ruinberg from the town shooting west into the city) as your gun isn't as accurate for sniping weak spots. This is a tank where you should be looking to stay outside of spotting range for most tanks so that even if you're in the open, you aren't visible, but in order to take advantage of the 15cm you have to get close enough that that's not possible.

Besides, I don't know about you, but I can't exactly pick what map I'm going to play on when joining a random battle... I'd rather take the gun that will allow me to deal some damage before I even have to expose myself, and then toward the end of the battle when everything is low health and I am forced to expose myself have a faster rate of fire to quickly eliminate the remaining threats. The 12.8cm simply has greater versatility than the 15cm, and while there are some situations where a 15cm is great (like team battles since you have a team who can protect you when needed), for the average random pub battle, the 12.8cm will work much better.

And yes, that was top tier in a sniping map, but I can guarantee that if I had the 15cm, I would not have done that much damage as I would have missed a LOT of those shots from the range I was engaging. I've had tier 10 battles in which I was only around 200 damage behind the WT E 100 on our team as well, and don't really ever have a bad game in the Rhm-B with the 12.8cm since I can be certain of being able to pick out weak spots and hit them reliably, even against higher tier tanks.

[MCerberus]

Turns out all you need to ace a Tiger 2 is an assault map, binoculars, and 5000 damage worth of 105mm AP rounds.

My repair/rearm costs from that one was 45k.
Made a 35k profit.

[Calen]

Another tanker here. I don't play a lot, right now only tier 7 doing the painfully long grind to the Pershing, I just hope it is worth it.

NA server turmacil

[AMX]

So THIS just happened.

I'm not quite sure how - those two 183s should have turned me to scrap.

Still, it's kind of a pity that I didn't get one more kill, of course...

[GloatingSwine]

Attn Tankists, this is a public service announcement.

The Chi-Ri is a terrible tank.

It is a tank with one trick, it isn't a very good trick, and when it's stock it can't even do the trick yet.

Do not play the Chi-Ri unless, like me, you are strange and want to get Ace Tanker in all the tanks.

Even then you'll hate yourself.

[Leon]

Or you wish progress up the line further...

That being said the vast majority of the whole tree are terrible tanks.

[Eldariel]

Another tanker here. I don't play a lot, right now only tier 7 doing the painfully long grind to the Pershing, I just hope it is worth it.

NA server turmacil

Pershing is actually quite solid all-around as one of the best hill-fighters for its tier with a decent gun, good mobility and the trademark American turret (or at least mantlet). So, should be good for you.

[MCerberus]

The Xbox just got the Valentine half-line.
Cruiser 2 is DERP PRINCE OF TIER THREE! People think "light tank" and then get one shot.

[Grif]

The Xbox just got the Valentine half-line.
Cruiser 2 is DERP PRINCE OF TIER THREE! People think "light tank" and then get one shot.

Personally, I fear the 40mm Pom-Pom more. That burst.

[darksolitaire]

The Xbox just got the Valentine half-line.
Cruiser 2 is DERP PRINCE OF TIER THREE! People think "light tank" and then get one shot.

That's one tank that actually benefits from auto aim. HE shell has surprisingly high arc, so one can auto aim in third person view and lob the shot over some low cover. Not something you end up in every game, but it's hilarious when you can pull it off

[Leon]

The Alecto is quite good at that trick ~ also good for lobbing it over your own cover since its so low.

[MCerberus]

The Alecto is quite good at that trick ~ also good for lobbing it over your own cover since its so low.

I like the Alecto with the high-velocity howitzer better though. Plus it has useful AP

[Brother Oni]

I can't get the hang of the Alecto. Any suggestions as to how to use it?

[GloatingSwine]

I can't get the hang of the Alecto. Any suggestions as to how to use it?

"Nice tracks you have there. Shame if something were to happen to them. Every five seconds."

[Grif]

I can't get the hang of the Alecto. Any suggestions as to how to use it?

Like the T82, if you get my meaning. Lurk in the bushes, and lob HE at anyone who looks at you funny. (25-pdr is hilarious.) Your best defense is to be never be seen and you're speedy enough to run away if you think you're seen.

(Alecto can be played recklessly if you feel like it. Incredibly risky though.)

[MCerberus]

So, this happened

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I assume you can guess which tank I was.

edit- I was suicide rammed by a T32 too... would have been able to carry with a Radley-Walter's(had 1200hp left before being torn to pieces tracked on weird terrain) if he hadn't gone all "from hell's heart" on me

[GloatingSwine]

So I finally got my Chi-Ri fully upgraded.

And it's still rubbish.

Marginally less rubbish than without the autoloader, it has a sort of ghetto-122mm that fires every 8.5 seconds, but at anything like range one of the shots will bounce and one will miss, and its weedy damage means that a part clip is way less useful than on a traditional autoloader.

And it's slow.

The second turret is nearly 7 tons heavier than the stock one, that's like strapping an entire ELC AMX to the roof, which means the power to weight is blargh.

[AgentPaper]

Started playing this a few days ago, been having a surprising amount of fun. At least, when I'm not raging at getting stuck into yet another match where half of the tanks are tier 5, I'm tier 3, and it's the first time playing on that map.

Anyways, I've been working up the german tree. My current garage is:

Spoiler

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Leichttraktor - Surprisingly fun little tank even after unlocking many of the later versions. It doesn't seem to be especially great at anything, but is just so good all around that you can't help but do well in it. I still come back to it every once in a while.

Pz.Kpfw. II - Pretty much the same as the Leichttraktor, though it seems to suffer more from not being specialized compared to tier 1.

Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. G - Is it just me, or is this thing a pile of #%@^? It's not fast enough to be a scout, it's not armored enough to be on the front line, it's gun isn't accurate enough to be in the support line, and it takes far too long to reload for it to be a flanker. I'm still playing with it to get to the VK 20.01 (D), but it seems like all I can do is just kind of wander around the battlefield like a toddler that tries to be useful and just ends up getting in everyone else's way. It's the first tank that actually makes me feel guilty for dragging down the entire team playing it.

Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. A - The first tank that really felt like a light tank to me. Man does this thing haul ass (well, compared to the previous "light tanks" I've been using). It's also the first tank that feels like it has a real specialization, which is to dash around and drive the enemy crazy trying to land a hit on me. Of course, thin armor means that if they do land a hit on me, I'm probably dead, but there's nothing more fun than driving circles around a bigger tank shooting it to death while it desperately tries to turn to face you.

Pz.Kpfw. III - Basically the Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. A, but it can actually take a hit or two (but no more). Playing this feels kinda like a "Pocket Battleship": I can kill anything I can't out-run, and I can out-run anything I can't kill. Probably my favorite tank out of the ones I have so far.

Panzerjäger I - Can anyone say "glass cannon"? Seriously though, once I figured out that I could not, in fact, go to the front lines or try to flank using this (like I'd been used to with the Leichttraktor), it's grown on me a bit. it requires a much more patient playstyle than the other tanks, sitting back and picking off targets that other people spot. Still, it feels a bit weak compared to the other tier-2 tanks, since it falls apart under even the lightest of attacks.

Marder II - This tank makes me glad that the Panzerjäger I has so little armor. The Marder II actually has OK armor, at least on the front, but even it can't really stand up to enemy fire. If I had started out with this armor though, I may never have realized that the role of Tank Destroyers was to sit back a bit and support the tanks in front of them, rather than charging up with the rest of the lemmings and getting liquefied as soon as some light tank came at me from anywhere but directly forwards. It also make me appreciate the strong forwards armor a lot more than I otherwise would have.

That out of the way, does anyone know a good guide to the various maps in the game? The ones I've found all seem to be either out of date, or focus too much on little tricks and tips rather than the broad strokes like where to go and what to do when you get there.

Oh, and of course, I'm AgentPaper on the US West server, if you want to add me to the list.

Edit: Also, any suggestions on mod packs? I'm currently using King's All-The-Basics Modpack, and while I like most of the information it gives me, it feels like it clutters the screen too much, to the point where it's actually difficult to see what's going on sometimes, especially when many tanks are involved.

[Grif]

Started playing this a few days ago, been having a surprising amount of fun. At least, when I'm not raging at getting stuck into yet another match where half of the tanks are tier 5, I'm tier 3, and it's the first time playing on that map.

Welcome.

Note that the style of play changes drastically once you reach tier 4/5. And tier 4 can be incredibly awful if you're new to the game. (Pz 38 nA in particular, gets shafted, because it is "classified" as a scout tank even though it's unsuited to that role. A remnant of the old system and utterly outdated, since tier 4/5 lights are outclassed by mediums on higher tiers anyway.)

That out of the way, does anyone know a good guide to the various maps in the game? The ones I've found all seem to be either out of date, or focus too much on little tricks and tips rather than the broad strokes like where to go and what to do when you get there.

Oh, and of course, I'm AgentPaper on the US West server, if you want to add me to the list.

Edit: Also, any suggestions on mod packs? I'm currently using King's All-The-Basics Modpack, and while I like most of the information it gives me, it feels like it clutters the screen too much, to the point where it's actually difficult to see what's going on sometimes, especially when many tanks are involved.

I cannot comment on mods, since I don't use any, though I have seen people at least recommending the mods that allow you to zoom further and display last known position of enemy tanks.

As for maps, I'd recommend you get a friend to create a training room and explore each map in detail. Some maps will only be available to higher tiers. (I believe tier 1-2 are confined to Malinovka, Himmelsdorf, Province and Mines.) That's how I learned the maps personally.