Good weekend of battles, Wargaming did a x3 Crew Experience weekend which I appreciate since I'm busily trying to grind my crews to better skills and perks.
Organizing the Garage
This weekend I finally came up with my plan for the garage. I've got 14 slots in the garage, mostly because I'm cheap and only bought one additional slot as part of a basic mission. As there are five classes of tanks and I like to be "well-rounded" I decided I'd try to get a nice balance of all of them. As a result I decided to have 3 LTs, 3 MTs, 3 HTs, 3 TDs and 2 Artys. I was already part-way towards that goal at the start.
So here's what I'm going for.
Light Tanks (LTs)
I already have a Chaffee that I enjoy a lot and a T21 that I'm getting fairly good at. The Chaffee is fast and nimble. It handles well and, for an LT, has an ok gun. The T21 is a little beefier, can take a couple of hits (but not too many) and has a pretty good gun when you want to fire. The Chaffee is at home in any bush on the map. The T21 feels a little awkward in the bushes, because of its size, but still gets away with it most of the time - and rarely gets 1-shot killed on those times that it doesn't.
That left me thinking about a 3rd light tank. I've seen people driving the AMX ELC bis, the French light, in battles quite a bit and it looks like fun...so I decided I'd make that my third.
That meant I'd have to grind up the French light line. I'm at the AMX 38 at the moment and will hopefully be in the AMX 40 in a day or three, depending on how much battle time I get.
End result: Chaffee (USA), T21 (USA), AMX ELC bis (France)
Medium Tanks (MTs)
This one is a bit tougher. I've already got an M7, which is fun and I recently acquired a T-34 which I'm just getting built out. The third one was a bit of a tough call. So I went to Tanks.GG and laid out a comparison of ALL of the Tier V medium tanks and I started to eliminate a few.
I tend to play MTs more as flexing flankers, moving around the battlefield and trying to shoot enemies in the side and rear while our heavies or TDs have them engaged from the front. So mobility was as important to me as heavy armor or a massive gun.
As part of that comparison I put up my M7 and T-34 as well, to see how the prospects would match up against what I've already got. Eventually I narrowed it to three: the American M4, the German PZ III/IV and the Czech Skoda T-24.
My next step was to go on YouTube and watch a couple of battle videos of each of those tanks, just to get a feel for how they played.
Finally I took a peek at what was next in the line for each of those; just in case that swayed my decision. Ultimately I decided to go with the M4, at least for now. Strictly on specs I preferred the PZ III/IV, however I'm already grinding the American line that leads to the M4 (for reasons I'll get into next) so the M4 was going to be faster/easier/cheaper to get into.
My plan is to drive the M4 for a while and if I decide I don't like it and don't want to continue up that line to the Easy 8 (or Easy 2) I can sell it and start up the German line to the PZ III/IV. So I'm in the M2 Medium at the moment, and hope to move up into the M3 Lee in a day or two.
End result: M7 (USA), T-34 (USSR), M4 (USA)
Heavy Tanks (HTs)
For the heavy tanks I have just one currently, the German Tier VI VK 36.01H. I got it just before the T-34 and am still building it out and training up the crew. I'm starting to enjoy it, even though the heavy tank brawling style isn't my natural style of play.
For this decision I did a Tanks.gg comparison (like before) and I narrowed my choices down to the iconic Russian mid-tier heavies (the KV line) and the Americans leading up to the T29. I decided to start a thread on the World of Tanks forums to ask for opinions on mid-tier heavies and other than one jokester who recommended the Churchills the opinions were split. Most people loved the Tier VII T29, but at Tier V it was almost unanimously the KV-1.
Well, since I have three spaces for HTs I decided to do both. So I'm back in the T46 at the moment, grinding towards the T28 and then the KV-1. And I'm also in the M2 Medium on the American side...which will lead to both the M4 medium (see above) and the T1 Heavy. I'll probably linger in the T1 Heavy for a while, then move up to the M6. Take my time at the M6, get my crew trained up with a couple of skills/perks and eventually get into the T29.
On the KV side I'll get into the KV-1 and probably linger there for a while, training up the crew, etc. At some point I may try to jump over to the KV-1S and maybe up the line from there, but we'll see. I don't plan to be in a big hurry, especially before I've got skills for the crew.
End result: VK 36.01H (Germany), KV-1 (USSR), T1 Heavy (USA)
Tank Destroyers (TDs)
For the TDs I have a different problem - I have too many of them already. Currently I have the American T67, the German StuG III G and a pair of Swedes: the lkv 65 and the lkv 72. The 72 I kept because it's fun to play and the 65 was just what I ended up grinding that line into. To be honest I don't like the 65 that much. It drives well, but the armor is crap and the gun, while fine, isn't so overpowered as to be satisfying, especially in higher tier games.
I love the T67 and the StuG III G so what I've decided to do here is keep those two and, eventually, sell off the lkv 65. I'm trying to decide if I want to wait until I've managed to grind out enough XP for the lkv 90, but I'm thinking probably not. I just don't enjoy the 65 enough to want to drive it that much and I need the garage slot for the T1 Heavy. I may, eventually, swap the lkv 72 out to get back into the lkv 103, which I did enjoy as well. But for now....
End result: T67 (USA), StuG III G (Germany), lkv 762 (Sweden)
Artillery (SPGs)
This was the easiest of the bunch because I've already got a pair of Russian artys that I'm satisfied with. The Tier V SU-122A and the Tier III SU-26. I don't play arty very much these days and I'm fine with this pair. The 122A has the pop to deliver some satisfying damage (and earn some decent credits) and the SU-26 is a very entertaining lightweight with its super fast reload times.
The downside of the 122A is the long reload time. You're basically going to get 2 shots a minute. For the SU-26 it's the tiny gun. It's fun to shoot every 5 seconds as an arty, but it's a little frustrating to plink ricochets off O-Is and other big heavies.
Could I be persuaded to try the British Bishop or FV304 sometime? Maybe. The French leFH 188B2 is intriguing as well. But for now...I'm good.
End result: SU-26 (USSR), SU-122A (USSR)
Summary
You may have noticed that my entire garage is (or will be shortly) mid-tier tanks. It would be very easy for me to turn this into an expensive hobby. Spending real cash to buy more garage slots, premium tanks, gold ammo, etc. In order to be really good at the top tiers, especially if you don't have 40,000 battles in the book, I suspect you'd need to spend a lot of $. I'm not interested in going there. So for me I think Tier V-VII is going to be my sweet spot for a while. You can still have some success in those tiers now, and a lot of fun, without spending lots of $ on premium tanks and ammo
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