Test Server: Japanese TDs

Let’s Talk About The Ho-Ri

By:

IrmaBecx

On Thursday it’s off to the test server again, and as always I am very grateful for the opportunity. I suppose you’ve heard the Japanese TDs are going to be the big news.

I can’t wait, and I’ve spent the last couple of months getting ready. I’ve got over 200.000 free XP, 24 million credits, a handful of gold for crew training, and of course a big pile of high grade boosters to throw at the grind.

It’s been like four years since anything new happened in the Japanese tech tree; it really is about time. And I have to say I’m really excited for the new tanks, because I think they will be right up my alley.

So what can you expect from the new tech tree line?

Well, there are different types of Tank Destroyer out there, and the ones I usually go for will have both speed and a bit of armour. I am also partial to a lower caliber, higher DPM configuration, but I do enjoy a big boomstick once in a while.

The tier X Ho-Ri Type 3 has all those things. You get a 149 mm main armament with a slightly lower alpha than your average 152 mm and some of the highest penetration values in the game, you also get pretty sturdy although mostly flat frontal armour, and it does 50 km/h.

It’s basically an uparmoured Chi-Ri with a rear casemate and a looong gun sticking out of it. Six degrees of gun depression is fairly standard, and the gun doesn’t articulate so well, but the tank has good traverse numbers, so it should be fairly agile in spite of the mediocre power to weight ratio.

It feels a little like a cross between the Object 263 and the WZ-113G FT, or maybe like a tier X Jagdpanther 2, although I suppose it looks more like a Ferdinand with the flat casemate front. That’s 250 mm, which will bounce a tier X Medium tank, but without severe angling, a bigger gun will punch straight through.

Being Japanese, you get two kinds of AP shell, trading a bit of damage for higher penetration. This is a good thing, because AP shells normalise better than APCR. Stock dispersion is just a tad over 0.30, and with under 2 seconds aimtime, you shouldn’t have any problems placing your shots.

Note these are test server stats, and it’s possible they might be adjusted before final release.

So there are several things to like about the Ho-Ri already. Highest standard penetration in the game. Good mobility. Good gun handling. A few bits of armour. The trade off is simply you don’t have a turret, gun articulation isn’t great, and the engine is not super powerful.

With six degrees of gun depression you’re not going to be a hull down beast. You’ll be better off poking around corners. But with three to four hundred millimetres of penetration on tap, you won’t have a lot of problems penetrating even the most heavily armoured opponents.

So yeah; I’m excited to drive it. Looking forward to it. But there is of course the elephant in the room; the new Light tanks are going to be the nemesis of the Japanese TD line, and I’m not exactly looking forward to that. A while back, everyone seems to be driving the 183 on the test server. Now, it’s going to be all Sheridans.

Driving tanks on the test server is never a hundred percent representative, but I believe this time it’ll be even less so. It’s highly doubtful there is very much to be learned about the new Ho-Ri from getting blasted by hordes of overpowered Light tanks.

But really, that’s my only worry. The tank itself I think is sound. From what I can tell, the stats look promising. And I think once you get used to it, the Ho-Ri is going to be a really great drive.

Thus far my expectations on the tier X tank. But we are getting an entire new tech tree branch, and I don’t really know a lot about the tier VII through IX. As I am starting this, there’s no information out there except a few official “spy pics” from Wargaming.

But they are basically variants on the same theme, and a casemate Tank Destroyer is not exactly a very complicated construction. It’s just a box with a gun sticking out, and all you really want to know about it is how sturdy it is, how much firepower it has, and how fast it goes.

I guess tomorrow I’ll find out.

It is now Thursday, and I’ve spent a while on the test server marvelling at the new tanks.

The line branches off from the tier VI Chi-To and the first tank is called the Chi-To SPG. Getting into a tier VII game on the test server is next to impossible, but I drive it around a little in a training room, and it’s certainly frisky.

Stock gun is a regular 88, and then you get a 10,5 mm, also fairly standard. It’s basically straight off a tier VIII Heavy tank; 310 alpha and 215 mm penetration on a 6.4 second reload with a rammer. That means almost 3000 DPM.

The Chi-To SPG does 45 km/h flat out with around 40 degrees of traverse, and the stats say 150 mm front and 50 mm side armour, which should be enough. I’m not sure about the armour layout though; probably it’s just the casemate front that’s 150 mm.

But all in all, it seems like a fun little tank.

Then it’s on to the tier VIII Ho-Ri T.I, which has the top gun off the Chi-To SPG for a stock gun, and then you get a 12 cm cannon, trading a bit of DPM for better penetration and higher alpha.

Almost 250 mm on your standard AP and almost 300 on your premium AP; I should mention all these tanks have AP for premium rounds on their top guns. You’ll get 400 alpha, and your reload should be well under nine seconds with a few upgrades.

Again the tank feels pretty mobile, and with almost 200 mm of frontal armour, it should be able to bounce a few shells as well.

Strangely, I didn’t manage to get into a tier IX game either, but I can tell you the Ho-Ri T.II is a lot more sluggish than the two previous tanks in the line. It only manages 35 km/h and has a slower hull traverse; I’m hoping it’s because it has better armour, and that that’s why it weight almost 35 tons more than the tier VIII T.I. Even with almost a thousand horsepower, specific power is about the same.

Stock gun is not the same 12 cm, this is a 12,7, and then you get a shorter version of the 149 mm Ho-Ri Type 3 gun.

I’ve never seen a 12,7 cm gun before, but it’s similar to a 130 mm; same damage, and comparable penetration values. Moving up to the snub nosed 14,9 cm, you’ll have the same kind of alpha as a de tuned 152 mm, 560/545/640, with 290/340/85 stock penetration. It definitely looks powerful, but the gun handling is decidedly average.

At tier X, it feels like everything comes together. The Ho-Ri Type 3 is fast and mobile; I even managed to brawl a couple of those pesky sidewinders, although I wouldn’t recommend it.

Getting into a tier X game is no problem, but there are of course missiles flying everywhere, plus the general chaos and 99% of the chat is in cyrillic letters. So although it’s hard to make any sort of predictions about actual live server performance, I’m feeling pretty hopeful about this one. If nothing else it’s a great drive, and with 3-400 mm of penetration, it goes through most anything like butter, provided you actually hit it.

The gun articulation isn’t superb, and driving a casemate tank is in itself a little awkward, but as I mentioned, I’m a big fan of mobile Tank Destroyers with a bit of frontal armour, and this one just ticks all the boxes. For me, the tier X tank alone will be worth the grind, but I am hoping one or more of the others will turn out to be great also.

Facing other Ho-Ris out there, the armour looks pretty sturdy, and I actually got a few more bounces than I expected. From the side however, it’s a different story, you will want to make sure you don’t get flanked.

But if you like tanks like the Jagdpanther 2, the Foch (155), or the Object 268/263, then I dare say the new Ho-Ri could be something for you. Personally, I can’t wait to get started on the grind, Sidewinders and other vermin notwithstanding.

There are two other bits of news. First off, there’s a new joystick, which is a combination of the two extant types. They call it “Hybrid”, but since I’m not comfortable using the dynamic joystick, I’ve not tried it out yet.

The other thing is we are getting some massive hitpoint buffs for tier X Heavy tanks. “Super Heavys” like the Maus or VK 72 especially will become even harder to wear down, allowing them to tank even more damage and be more effective.

It remains to be seen how this will impact Medium tanks and TDs.

But the Japanese Tank Destroyer line I’m even more excited about after having driven them around a little. Overall they seem pretty mobile, reasonably sturdy, and they all have excellent firepower. Do note I am driving these tanks fully upgraded with a full combat loadout, and as the tanks are unlocked already on my test account, I have no information about how much XP the actual modules will cost you.

I’m sure the grind will be fairly awful. It always seems to be. But in the end, you’ll end up with at least one wonderful tank in your garage, and hopefully more than one.

See you out there!

Choosing Your Equipment

Equipment Exploration

By:

IrmaBecx

So I was talking to a friend the other day about equipment setup. They had bought a new tank, and asked my opinion on how to equip it.

I did offer some considerations, but it struck me my knowledge of all the nine equipment slots is kind of patchy. Some are straightforward, some I’ve done testing on, and some I don’t really know a lot about at all.

So, being of the tank philosophical bent, I figured I’d do a short breakdown on the various equipment modules; how they work, what tradeoffs you need to consider and things of that nature. Hopefully together we can all learn something new, and maybe even maximise our in game potential to some degree.

So let’s start from the top. I usually talk about equipment modules by numbers, starting from the top left, which is usually the straightforward choice between a gun rammer and calibrated shells.

The gun rammer gives you a shorter reload, that’s simple enough. But the calibrated shells give you different bonuses for different shell types; it’s 5% for AP or APCR shells, and then 10% for all kinds of high explosive shells, meaning not only regular HE shells but also HEAT, HESH and HEP, or ”cheap HESH”.

This means, if you have a middle tier tank with AP/APCR and regular HE shells, the actual gain in penetration may not be all that much. You may be better served by the shorter reload so you can at least fire more often. Let’s take the Hype 64 as an example; running calibrated shells, you are only getting between two and nine millimetres higher penetration depending on the shell, or you’ll get about a half second shorter reload running the gun rammer. In my experience, those few millimetres won’t make a practical difference; I’ll still need to use APCR against the same targets.

Penetration gains from running calibrated shells on the Type 64. You can see it’s not a very significant upgrade.

There are two ways in which you can utilise an equipment module like this; either you try to improve on something that is lacking, or you try to further improve something that is already good. Using the Object 140 as out next example, you may know it has low penetration for a Medium tank, but then it has the second highest DPM. In this case, you’ll either try to boost your penetration, or increase your DPM advantage.

Ultimately, your playstyle should be the guide in situations such as this. If you play cautious and reset camo between shots, you may want to run the extra penetration. If you are more of a brawler, you’ll probably want to fire faster.

Also, your vehicle may have one particular shell type you get a lot of use out of; like the HESH rounds on your Centurion 7/1, or the famous HEAT rounds on your Type 62. Both of these are the explosive type, and so you’ll get the higher bonus, thus improving on features that are already strong.

But wait, there’s more. If your tank has an autoloader, you can’t run the gun rammer, and you’ll have access to the improved ventilation module instead. The tradeoff here is less apparent; on the one hand you won’t lose more than a handful of DPM running calibrated shells, but on the other, the ventilation gives you a lot of small bonuses to things like viewrange and traverse numbers, making the tank feel more sharp and lively. If your traverse or viewrange is already good, you may benefit more from their improvement than your penetration values.

The second module is where I start waffling a little, because I haven’t done any testing on it. I usually run the improved modules rather than defence system because they reduce ram damage, and there’s just nothing better than plowing your tank straight into an enemy at full speed for a bit of shock and awe and extra damage.

It’s not immediately apparent what the trade off is here, but both modules provide the same defence against high caliber HE shells; ”high caliber” meaning over 130 mm in this case. From what I can tell, improved modules does just that; it increases the durability of your modules, so they are less likely to fail. The defence system does something similar, it reduces the probability of engine, ammo rack, and also crew damage.

The actual tradeoff seems to be between crew damage and ram damage; if you find your crew gets knocked out a lot, or you get set on fire all the time, you should probably be running the defence system.

You might also say unless you know you are going to be ramming people, the sensible thing is likely to run the defence system module.

The third module gives you the choice between making it easier for you to spot your enemies, or making it harder for them to spot you.

I will say I think I run coated optics on all my tanks. That’s partly down to simply wanting to be able to spot for myself, but also because I don’t really play tanks that sit at the back and have other people spot for me; most of my TDs are pretty fast and well armoured, and I tend to play my Light tanks more like Mediums.

If you drive something with exceptional camo values, like the E25, the Object 140, or the Chinese Tank Destroyers, then running a camo net might be the way to go, following the principle of improving on what’s already good. Otherwise, being able to see your enemies only a few meters before they see you can be a huge advantage, in any kind of tank. Again, your playstyle should be your guide here.

Starting on the middle row, module number four gives you the choice between a gun laying drive and supercharged shells. This one is fairly straightforward; you either get a 10% shorter aimtime, or you get higher shell speed as well as less penetration loss over distance.

That last part may take some explaining. AP and APCR shells lose penetration over distance. High explosive shells; and remember this includes HEAT shells, don’t.

But the big payoff is of course you get 30% higher shell speed. As before this can be utilised in two ways: either you improve on something that is already good, or you try to remedy something that’s not so good. Sometimes the speed increase may be helpful, and allow you to hit more shots at range, but most often I find if a tank has low shell speed, you just learn to deal with it. Also note different ammunition types will often, but not always, have different shell speeds; high explosive shells being the slowest, APCR the fastest, with AP somewhere in the middle.

The gun laying drive requires a lot less consideration. It’s a straight up decrease in aimtime; in practice it means your reticule will be smaller before it starts to shrink to where the gun stabilises. Personally, I run the gun laying drive on most of my tanks; I don’t find the faster shells give me a lot of mileage. Yours may of course differ.

The fifth module in kind of interesting, and here I’ve done some testing also. The choice is between more effective armour and more hitpoints, of which the latter is self explanatory.

The way the armour upgrade works, is it basically gives you better RNG. In a situation where someone has a 50/50 chance of penetration your armour, the upgrade gives them a 4% lower chance of penetrating. It doesn’t actually make the armour thicker, or make it act as if it were thicker in terms of game mechanics. Thin armour will still be overmatched, and here’s where you need to consider your vehicle.

Using the Type 64 as an example again, this tank has super thin armour. That means no matter how angled it is, you won’t ever be able to produce enough effective armour for the upgrade to come into effect; most guns will simply overmatch. So it makes sense to run the extra hitpoints, because they are always going to give you an advantage, albeit a small one.

So thin armour: run the improved assembly and get some more hitpoints. Thick armour, run the improved armour and get a few more bounces once in a while. On tanks with so-so armour, Mediums in particular, you may need to do some research by studying your opposition on Armour Inspector. Will you come up against tanks that have penetration roughly equal to your thickest effective armour? If not, or if you are unsure, then just get the hitpoints instead.

The sixth module I’ve also done a bit of research on, but at the end of the day it’s inconclusive. Your choice is between better traverse numbers and higher engine power.

Being a Medium driver, I used to run improved controls all the time to max out my traverse, following the idea of improving something that’s already good. turning faster means you don’t bleed off so much speed while turning, making the tank faster.

But the engine accelerator also improves the traverse a little, and having more engine power means you accelerate faster, and so your tank will again end up being faster.

Which module produces the most worthwhile upgrade is to a great extent dependent on the tank. My personal view is I’d rather improve on things that are already good, but on something like a turretless Tank Destroyer, there is definitely the case to be made that maxing out your traverse can sometimes save your life if you are cornered.

In the end, no matter which you choose, this module offers a significant improvement, and if I’m not doing them all at once, this is actually the fourth module I will unlock on any new vehicle, because it really wakes the tank up.

It’s also not as simple as letting your gameplay decide, because different tanks react differently to these improvements. If you haven’t made your mind up beforehand, do some trial and error, and see which works best for your specific tank.

On to number seven, first module in the last row, and on low or middle tier tank, this is the last one I will unlock. You are choosing between a more stable gun, or a more accurate gun.

The latter is easy to understand. The gun becomes more accurate; the dispersion will decrease.

What the vertical stabiliser does, is really just increase stability on the move; this is when the reticule starts blooming when you move your turret. With a vert stab, the reticule won’t bloom as much as it would otherwise, and so it will be smaller when your gun stops moving and it starts shrinking, alternatively as you zoom past at top speed, gun flailing everywhere, trying to land a shot at their side armour drive-by style.

Here you might also benefit from a bit of research. Numbers for stability on the move can be found on your favourite Blitz stat site, but those numbers may not tell you a whole lot. In this case also, I feel trying out both options will help you make the best decision.

Number eight is another shaky one for me, because I’ve tested one option but not the other.

Here’s what I know. If you run the track upgrade, it will always take two shots to break one of your tracks. If you don’t, it may sometimes only take one. I’ve tested this, and I know it works.

Being someone who drives a lot of fast and lightly armoured tanks, I’ve always chosen this option, because I know it works, and because getting tracked in place can get me taken out really quickly.

But you can only carry two repair kits, and then you’re done while they are on cooldown. The other option lets you repair all broken modules, including tracks, faster.

I’ve not tested this myself, so I really don’t know how, or how well it works. But I know some people like to run it because they drive something where for example the gun gets hit and breaks a lot.

I will leave it up to you to decide this one; all I can say is the track upgrade definitely works.

The last module I don’t think a lot of people bother with. I used to not unlock it myself. But I do at least know how this one works, and what I prefer to run.

What it does, is either give you consumables that have a shorter cooldown, or last longer. You can probably imagine that means not all consumables will be affected by the latter; only the ones that have duration, like speed boost, reticule calibration, or adrenaline.

Ever since I started driving autoloader tanks, I’ve started running speed boost on more and more of my other vehicles as well. For one thing it’s cheaper, but I also found I got a lot more use out of it.

I used to run adrenaline on all my tanks, and I still do on the brawliest ones with the shortest reloads. If you have a really long reload, the adrenaline isn’t going to help all that much, and it’s also a situational advantage; it only helps in a few situations. trying to get an extra shot in, beating someones reload for the killshot, or straight up damage trading.

By contrast, the speed boost is beneficial in all kinds of situations; there is practically no instance where your tank being a little faster isn’t going to help, at least to some extent.

And so what I like to do is run the high end consumables with the longer duration. That gives me a 19 second boost, and in any reasonably fast tank, that’s going to take you almost halfway across the map, meaning you will reach your first position sooner.

The delivery system as I said gives you a shorter cooldown period, and it affects all consumable types. I have to once again say your playstyle should be your guide here.

So there you have it. Those are my thoughts on equipment, and a few pointers on making decisions about them.

I will say running “everything to the left” like a lot of people do will always be an improvement, but there are also definite gains to be made by doing a little research or trying something different.

My approach has always been to improve on extant strengths rather than try to remedy deficiencies, and to run things I know for a fact actually work.

But not all upgrades work the same for all vehicles, and some gains are more significant than others.

In the end, you as a driver need to make educated decisions about what works best for you and your particular playstyle. My hope is this short rundown of the nine equipment modules will have given you some food for thought.

See you out there.

Krautpanzer: The Remedy

Falling Back In Love

By:

IrmaBecx

Somewhere deep inside, there is something that defines you; that tells you who you are, and who you want to be.

If you’ve followed my writing a while, you’ll know I spend a lot of time thinking about esoteric things like the personality, psychology, or philosophy of tanks. I guess just driving them and having fun is not enough for some people.

And hiding out in the middle tiers for a while, I kind of feel like something is missing. I’m not striving towards being who I want to be as a tank driver.

While it’s easy to blame outside influences, often these are things you cannot directly impact; that are beyond your control. And so I’ve always tried to work on things I can actually impact; which is basically myself, what I drive, my decision making, and what role I try to fill on the battlefield.

That’s what I’m thinking I need to do now.

Who I want to be is a Medium tank driver, but lately, that’s not been working out so well for me. In other words, it’s time to switch things up a little.

I figure about the dumbest thing I could do is drive a Heavy tank at higher tiers in the midst of the current missile crisis, so of course that seems like the way to go.

There is another reason, beyond just being contrary. I am sort of worried they will try to ruin yet another of my favourite tanks. I am thinking about my fantastic Krautpanzer 70; one of my absolute favourite tanks in the game. You may be aware it was actually supposed to be able to fire missiles, and so you can probably see what my worry is.

If that happens, I’m going to be fucking furious.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

It’s a little hard to explain what it is about the Kpz 70 that I find so amazing. It’s not super fast. It’s not that well armoured, it has a long reload and fairly low alpha for such a high caliber weapon.

It looks fantastic, of course. Like a huge Leopard 1 weighed down by a massive turret, resplendent in the “Steel Cavalry” camoflage.

And it’s faster than people expect. The armour works if you know how to use it, and the ammo selection means you always have the right round for any situation; at least in theory.

I have written quite extensively about the Krautpanzer, both trying to explore what it is that makes me like it so much, and trying to warn off people who might not end up finding it quite so fantastic. The very awkwardness of the Krautpanzer is actually a big part of the attraction for me; it’s not that I love it despite, but rather because it’s so awkward and quirky and therefore so unique.

Driving something out of the ordinary gives you a greater sense of joy and accomplishment when you start getting your head around what makes it work. That’s the reason I will still drive my Kpz when I don’t feel like driving any other tank in the game.

That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. You see where I’m going with this?

This paper was originally called “The Cure”, because that’s what I was looking for. It’s just I was afraid people might think I like pop music.

But either way it worked. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.

My Kampfpanzer 70, in a way, reminds me a lot of the Baby Hype I’ve been fielding lately. You know it’s going to be a tricky drive, so you don’t really have any great expectations. It’s a tank you got with the intention of driving thousands of games in, so you don’t care a lot about a losing streak. And you know with a bit of luck, or failing that cunning driving, you can end up having a really great game.

There is always that promise of a silver lining. The expectation of a light at the end of the tunnel. Less poetically; you know you could win big, but you’re not expecting to. One result will make you ecstatic, the other will leave you indifferent. There is no outcome that means disappointment or crushing defeat.

So even if the game was broken beyond repair, or you got the worst possible matchmaking in the history of the game for months, a tank like this is always going to be a good candidate. And here is why I think tank philosophy is worthwhile; it makes you think about these things, and seek out vehicles with such potential. It can sometimes make you see tanks and tank driving in a new, and more positive light.

So yeah. It worked.

Better than expected, in fact. My first few games were disastrous, but like I’ve explained, that didn’t really bother me. It’s been a little while since I drove the thing, and this always happens. Before long I was doing much better; maintaining distance, using hull down positions, letting the gun settle before firing, even side scraping.

If you look up the stats, they will state the Krautpanzer has 90 mm of side armour. That’s technically true, but there are two kinds of “side armour”. In this particular case, there’s the huge 60 mm behind the tracks, and there’s the tiny strip of 90 mm above them.

But that still means that out to 20 degrees side angle, you will autobounce avery single gun in the game except one, and even then the tracks might still stop a HESH round.

While we’re on the subject of armour; yes, it’s full of holes. The lower plate as usual, and I would say at least it doesn’t have the transmission up there, but don’t quote me on that. Wargaming don’t provide information on internal modules for the Kpz 70, but as I recall the hull is partly based off the Leopard 1, and that has the transmission in the back. I can’t imagine the Kpz doesn’t have a rear transmission also.

There is also the collapsible anti aircraft gun on the left hand side of the turret.It’s actually a cylinder with sort of shelf with a spaced armour box on top in front of it. I keep forgetting to “look left” to hide it, but it’s not really an easy shot, and mine doesn’t seem to get hit a lot. You don’t want to overangle the turret and show the sides; again there’s no official information, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were ammo racks in the back of the turret. Most tanks with that kind of overhang have them.

Otherwise, the old Krautpanzer actually seems to be working fairly well amidst all the chaos, and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. Happy and curious, because I can’t figure out exactly why. Heavy tanks are supposed to be obsolescent now. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky and landed on a winning streak?

No, the tank still works. It’s not a fluke.

I’ve driven like 20 games so far; I’m winning more, I’m doing more damage, even my WN8 is up, although I haven’t the faintest idea what that is. Also, I’ve made a few hundred thousand credits; my credit buffer is getting buffer and buffer every day.

It’s been a couple of days now of campaigning my Kpz 70, and I’m just enjoying it more and more.

Playing tier IX is nice. Back when I was going up my first tech tree lines, I held off at tier IX, because I wasn’t super into the tier X offerings until I started going for the E 50 M. After that I started feeling like there wasn’t much point playing tier IX, because tier X tanks were just better, no matter how much people said some tier IX tanks were “stronger tier for tier” or “in their tier”.

So it took me a while before I got back into playing tier IX for its own sake, and it wasn’t just because of tanks like the Kpz or the AMX premier. I found several tier IX vehicles I thought were great tanks in their own right, and not just weaker versions of their tier X counterparts.

The overall feeling is a little like playing middle tier back in plus minus two matchmaking, only not in the same game.

It’s also nice playing an old favourite like this in earnest. Extra nice because it’s been going fairly well, but driving the same tank gets you into it on a deeper level; that’s when you start figuring out all the intricacies and peculiarities of the vehicle in question.

And of course it’s super nice feeling my old favourite still works, and is still relevant in the game.

I guess this was exactly what I was hoping for when I first tested out the Kpz 70. I remember thinking how nice it would be to have a tier IX Heavy tank in my garage that looks so good, is fun to drive because there’s nothing else like it, and also makes a bit of credits so you can drive it all you want.

The best part is, I’ve been having some really great games. And that feeling Is I suppose what I’ve been missing the most. I wasn’t having fun before, and now I am.

So what’s the take away from all this?

Well, for one thing I made a good investment when I bought my Krautpanzer. It’s easily one of my most worthwhile in game purchases ever. For another, I was in a huff, made some changes, and now I’m doing much better.

I’ve always loved the Kpz 70, and this has been a sort of love letter to it. But it’s not really about the tank itself; I’m not saying it’s going to be the vitamin injection for you that it has been for me.

The principle though I think is solid. If you’re not doing so well, try making a change and you may end up doing better.

The question remains exactly why things are going better. The tank isn’t some overpowered monster, and I am not exactly a unicorn player. I also don’t think it’s a case of the Kpz somehow magically fitting into the current game meta.

What I did was simply move to a slower, better armoured tank with higher alpha damage. What that means is I’ve slowed down my gameplay a little, I’ve had to plan my shots better, and work together with the rest of my team.

The Kpz is not your average Heavy tank. It has some Tank Destroyer, and even a little bit of Medium tank somewhere in its DNA. But again, it’s not really about the tank; but rather about understanding and making the best of the unique characteristics and peculiarities of whatever vehicle you choose to drive.

The biggest take away is perhaps that somewhere out there is a tank that’s going to be just the right fit for you.

For me, getting back into driving the Krautpanzer has not only given me relief from all the frustration I’ve been feeling, it’s really been like falling in love with the tank all over again. I hear people say the Kpz is weak, and it needs all kinds of buffs, but that’s just not been my experience.

I think it has everything it needs. Or at least it has everything I need.

Never Give Up!

British Autoloader Centurion

Defender Mk. I

By:

IrmaBecx

So today you can be the proud owner of yet another “Defender” style tank. This time it’s a British Centurion with a stock turret featuring some spaced armour and a four shot autoloader.

I was never a fan of the original Defender, nor any of the others, but this is at least a Medium tank.

And as the bundle is for gold, I could just pop over to the old press account, unlock the tank, and have a go.

So what is the Mk I Defender all about?

I ran a few games without really checking the stats; I learned it has a four shot magazine with a 2 second interclip reload, and it’s not one of those new fangled auto reloaders.

The turret looks like it’s got a bit of armour on it, and being British I’m expecting it to have some gun depression. Putting myself in harm’s way, I do bounce same tier Medium tanks off the front.

It turns out, if you look down over the inside of your drive wheel, you are presenting quite a formidable armour profile. You have a strong gun mantlet, hull armour that will autobounce, and some extra spaced armour around the already solid turret front. And yes, it gets gun depression. Ten degrees.

You also get a 20 pounder, gun; that equates to just under 84 mm and so you’ll have 190 alpha. With four shots on tap, that means you have a potential burst damage of 760 over six seconds.

The mobility is excellent. The Defender Mk. I tops out at 46 km/h, but it gets there really quickly. I’ve left faster tanks in the dust off the line plenty of times.

And even though I’m not a fan of the “Defender” tank aesthetic, it’s actually not a bad looking tank.

Slogging through a few more games, I start seeing some tier IX opposition. With 226 mm of penetration your standard AP will still work fine in most situations, and as you can’t run a gun rammer on autoloaders, there is a case to be made for calibrated shells. Using AP and APCR the actual increase isn’t that great, but you also don’t lose more than a tiny bit of DPM, and the way an autoloader works, DPM is basically meaningless anyway. What counts is bust damage and interclip reload.

But not running ventilation will also impact other characteristics, like aimtime, dispersion, traverse speed, and viewrange. Calibrated shells cost you six meters of viewrange, but then the Defender Mk. I already has the highest viewrange of any tier VIII Medium; which in fact means the highest of any tier VIII vehicle in the game, and this is an important advantage for an autoloader.

What will happen is, you’ll push forward and find a hull down spot. As long as your gun is loaded you can basically bully your opponents, but sooner or later you’ll be on that sixteen second reload; or sixteen and a half without vents. They will then be able to casually move in and pick you apart, especially if there is more than one of them.

So staying at a bit of range range is the way to go, and you do have the tools for it. Shell speed is good, accuracy is good, and the aimtime is also really good. No reason to get up close and personal unless you are moving in to clip someone out.

Speaking of, the autoloader will of course become more and more dangerous as the battle progresses and people start losing their hitpoints. Even bouncing one out of four shots, the threshold below which you can clip someone out is well over 500 damage.

So all in all, the Defender Mk. I has some real strengths, and basically there’s only one thing to balance them, which is the full clip reload of around sixteen seconds.

Well. And low end alpha for the tier. And low DPM for a Medium tank. And it’s mobile, but not very fast. Also the hull armour isn’t that great.

I put almost 20 games on the press account loan vehicle before I packed it in, and I’ve done fairly well; considering the usual chaos of tier VIII. I also drove the Lorraine 40t to see if I liked that better; you may recall it’s also a four shot autoloader Medium tank, and I don’t feel like I do. The Mk. I trades alpha damage and penetration for armour.

Speaking of trade offs, I would say the ones you’ll find on the new Defender are fairly significant, and I don’t think I’d recommend this tank to a newer player. If you don’t know how to position yourself, and if you are unused to the lop sided “all or nothing” auto loader mechanic, then I think you will struggle to make this tank work.

Is it powerful? Yes. Is it fun to drive? Yes, I think it is. Am I going to buy one? Not a chance.

As I said before, I’m not a fan of the “Defender” series tanks to begin with, and the Mk. I isn’t going to change my mind about that.

Should you buy one?

If you struggle with the Lorraine and want a bit more armour, or you are a big fan of autoloaders, then sure. It’s an expensive bundle because the tank is new, and if you feel you want to pay some extra for the novelty, then go right ahead. I believe any halfway competent player will be able to make it work.

I don’t think this is a “must have” by any means, but that conclusion is of course deeply influenced by my personal aesthetic bias against the “Defender” series tanks. Take that into account when I say “this tank is nothing special”.

It’s nicely balanced, i has an engaging playstyle, and I had some fun driving it.

IrmaBecx says this is a definite “Maybe”.

Pop Up Aratinga?

Hypetton Offer

By:

IrmaBecx

So this will, once again, just be a short shout out to a tank I always liked, although you wouldn’t think so looking at it. At least I didn’t; I think it’s one of the ugliest looking tanks in the game.

Otherwise, I might have owned one already. But the fact that I don’t really has very little to do with the vehicle itself, because every time I tried it out on the press account, I ended up really enjoying the drive, and spending more time driving it than I had expected.

It’s just a solid tank.

And today there seems to be one of those pop up offers going around where you can get yourself a brand new 59-Patton with nine equipment slots, the “Aratinga” premium camo, an attachment, and two weeks of premium time for the measly sum of seven thousand gold.

So what is the 59-Patton?

That’s easy. It’s a Type 59 with a Patton style turret and a US 90 mm gun. You can tell, because it has the exact same gun handling as the American T95E2, except you get ten degrees of gun depression instead of nine.

I would say also the hull is sturdier, but that doesn’t really matter because this is a hull down tank first and foremost.

And it’s nice. A pleasant drive. Works like you expect it will, and as I said I always end up having more fun than I expect driving it.

I was going to say it’s not really a Patton turret, but it is. You get the same armour as the tier X M48 Patton or the M60; 178 mm at the front. This being tier VIII you also have to deal with the old style machine gun hatch on top, but I always found that’s a completely reasonable tradeoff.

The 59-Patton is also slightly more agile than the US version.

So the tank itself is not really all that complicated. It’s easy to understand what it is and what it does.

The tricky part is deciding whether or not you actually need one in your garage. Certainly this is a good deal, and I think the tank is good as well. But personally, I’m going to pass, and it’s simply because I happen to have two tier VIII Chinese premium Mediums already.

If you own the T95E2, you definitely don’t need the 59-Patton too, because they play really similar. If you have the Type 59, you don’t actually need the Hypetton as well, but you might still want it for a bit of variety; in fact, I think a Type 59 driver is the perfect candidate to be a 59-Patton owner, unless you already have the T-34-3 also, like I do.

The Type 59 is the original, and it’s still the best. That’s the one you want to be keeping an eye out for a good deal on.

But if you have it already, and you are looking for something a little bit different to change things up, then I think you should be paying attention to this offer.

If you don’t have any tier VIII premium Mediums, then the 59-Patton could be a good starting point.

Actually driving the thing isn’t very complicated. Both the hull and the turret can take a fair bit of punishment, and if you stick to hull down positions and don’t get flanked, you’ll be really strong. Ten degrees of gun depression makes setting up the shots easier, and also makes your armour more effective.

If you’ve driven the Type 59, or maybe a T-44 variant before, you should have no problem with the angling, and you can tank a bit of damage in a brawl. Just remember what this is, is a perfectly reasonable Medium tank, and not some kind of fire breathing monster.

I just ran a few games on the press account, and I’ve come away feeling like I always do; the 59-Patton is a great drive, has an enjoyable playstyle, and it’s reasoably powerful. It may not look like much, but it works really well, and I stuck around a while.

Okay, but what’s the bottom line?

As I said initially, the real question is do you really want the tank. It’s a good deal, yes; it would be even with half the stuff you’re getting. It’s reasonably powerful, yes; you shouldn’t have any problem getting it to work. But is it really what you are looking for?

I think for the right kind of prospective driver, the 59-Patton could be a great deal and a worthwhile purchase.

Just make sure you really are that kind of buyer.

Cromwell B Offer

The Bromwell

By:

IrmaBecx

So I’m still slumming it down in tier VI, and wouldn’t you know, Wargaming is trying to sell me a tier VI tank.

It’s not going to work. I have the Cromwell B already.

But I recognise this is a good deal, should you for some reason be in the market for some fast paced middle tier action. You get the plain jane Bromwell and a whole month of premium time for about a fiver.

I will say you probably don’t need a Cromwell B. You could just grind out the tech tree Cromwell, or perhaps the VK 28.01 if you want a bit of sloped armour.

But like I said, it’s nice to have a tier VI beater around for just casual gameplay, and the Cromwell B is a great candidate. It’s one of those premiums that for some reason are outright better than their tech tree counterparts.

In this case, the Cromwell B has three things over the tech tree Cromwell. It has five degrees more gun depression, it has almost twenty degrees more traverse, and the side hull armour is slightly thicker.

I will confess that last bit had me confused. It turns out that thicker armour is only the small shelf directly beneath the turret; the rest of the side is more like 25 mm, and it doesn’t have the spaced armour the regular Cromwell does. That means the Cromwell can actually side scrape lower caliber guns where the Cromwell B can’t.

But the Cromwell B isn’t about armour, it’s about speed and gun depression. The extra degrees of traverse mean the Cromwell B doesn’t bleed off nearly as much speed as the regular Cromwell does when turning, and it manoeuvres better is tight spaces. Setting up your shots is much easier in the B version.

The weapon looks like a stock Cromwell gun, but it’s not. You get the exact same gun handling and penetration values out of the short barrel 75 mm Mk. V as you would from the top Vickers HV off the tech tree tank, plus that lovely extra gun depression.

I will say in spite of its many strengths, the Cromwell B is pretty fragile, and you will want to watch your hitpoint trading. There’s no real way of mitigating incoming damage except simply not getting hit, and you’ll want to be working from cover at all times.

The shells fly slowly; under 800 m/s, and you may have trouble placing your shots at range. But you don’t want to be getting too close, because as I said the armour isn’t going to hold up. Also, your penetration values aren’t fantastic, but they get the job done.

The way to deal with this is to just keep firing. Get as many shots on target as you can, and some of them will penetrate. For such an agile and dextrous vehicle, the weapon really doesn’t show a lot of finesse, except of course it points downward really well.

When the Cromwell B was first introduced, the game was very different. There are more big guns and big armour in the game now, and I’m almost surprised to see it still performing so well on average. If you are wondering what a bit of extra traverse and gun depression will mean, the answer is about five percent higher average winrate; the “B” is pushing almost 60%.

Now, that probably has a lot to do with the tank having been in the game for such a long time, and a lot of people knowing how to drive it really well by now. That doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to pad your stats.

But for me, the Cromwell B isn’t really about stats either. It’s about fun. It’s about bombing around the maps at high speed blasting out as many shots as you can. Finding spots where other tanks can’t get the gun down, and getting away from bad engagements by the skin of your teeth, managing to pull yourself over the finish line with only a handful of hitpoints to your name.

And I think for the Cromwell to be a worthwhile purchase, you need to be into that kind of thing; trading armour for speed and manoeuvrability, trading alpha damage for rate of fire, and executing the core gun depression Medium tank playstyle without being able to bounce shots off the turret face.

So should you get one?

Maybe. It’s a good deal, but do you really want the tank? You could just grind out the tech tree version, and with a new British tier X Light tank on the horizon, that may not be such a bad idea.

I mentioned the VK 28, that’s very probably the stronger vehicle of the two. Or, you could get something with even more armour, or maybe a higher caliber weapon.

But for a bit of middle tier mayhem, the Cromwell B is still a safe bet. It’s not very complicated to drive, and it has some real strengths for you to work with. I just took mine out for a few games, and it’s just as much fun to drive as I remembered.

If you enjoy the regular Cromwell already, you may well be in the market for the B model also. It’s a little more agile, it’s much cheaper to run, and it’s easier to set up shots with the extra gun depression.

If you mostly drive Heavy tanks or Tank Destroyers, the Cromwell B could be the perfect tank to give you a bit of perspective; get you into the core Medium playstyle without having to grind anything.

You will have to dump a little over a million credits to get all nine equipment slots unlocked, but with a month of premium time you should be able to make it all that back before long. It’s not that the tank needs all the help it can get, but spending resources on such a capable vehicle is always a good investment.

Is the Cromwell B itself going to be a good investment?

For the right kind of driver, I would say most definitely. And it doesn’t take a lot to be that right kind of driver; all you have to do is be up for some fast paced, low caliber, high gun depression, seat of the pants style middle tier action.

When I gave up being a German separatist tank driver, the Cromwell was the only tank I wanted to drive. So much so I free XP:ed my way to it, and then continued on all the way up to the Centurion 7/1. Then came the “HESH debacle”, and I got turned off higher tier British Mediums after that.

But I still kept all the tanks, even after I got the Cromwell B. I’ve not driven my actual Cromwell since 2017; I always go for the B model instead, but I like having it in the garage because I have such fond memories of the grind.

And I still like the Cromwell B, I really do. I like the speed, I like that it turns on a dime, and I like the thirteen degrees of gun depression. I also like the idea of the Cromwell; a small, fast, boxy, lightly armoured Medium tank that’s all about agility and choosing the right positions.

If you are a newer player, it can be tricky to get a grip on the Cromwell B. It’s been in the game a really long time, and if you ask someone about it, it’s almost universally understood to be a quite powerful tank, even bordering on overpowered.

The truth is, the Cromwell B used to rule the battlefield back in the day, but the game was very different back then. Today, different kinds of power creep has made tanks of this type less relevant.

But then in spite of this, the Cromwell B still manages to maintain an almost 60% average winrate with thousands of drivers. How can this be?

The reason is that the Cromwell B has a few things that experienced players will be able to capitalise on. They will have learned not to expose themselves too much in a tank that deals badly with incoming shells, and so they will hold on to their hitpoints. The extra speed means they become more flexible; they can reach positions quicker, relocate more often, run away faster, and just generally go wherever they are needed. Thirteen degrees of gun depression means you won’t see more of them than the top of their turret as they poke out and take a quick shot at you.

It takes a bit of skill and experience to fully take advantage of everything the Cromwell B has to offer, and I think you should be aware. But being so, this fact still can lead to two different and contradictory conclusions:

You may think you don’t quite have the skills yet to drive a Cromwell B, and so you don’t get one. But you could also decide to get one precisely because you don’t quite have the skills to drive it, so you can practice until you do.

That’s what I like to call an investment, or more poetically a promise for the future. Those are the things that keep me coming back to play the game.

Tier VI is a stepping stone that leads on to bigger and better things. But it’s also a place you can always come back to, because it’s still serious enough to be a microcosm of the higher tiers. And when you do, it’s nice to have a few dependable old beaters to drive.

In the long term, that’s what the Cromwell B is. A dependable middle tier beater you can always have a few casual games in. You will likely end up doing the most of your credit grinding in a tier VIII premium, and I think most of us aspire to be tier X drivers sooner or later.

But lately, I’ve been really happy slumming it down in tier VI, and I’m glad I bought the Cromwell B all those years ago.

IrmaBecx says two thumbs up and hammer down!

Cromwell Knight. I never understood why we didn’t get this fantastic paintjob in Blitz?!

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.