Snap Shot: The T 55A Missions

I decided over the holiday break that since I didn't have any lines I was passionate about grinding right now (I'm half-heartedly grinding the British casement TDs) that I might work on the T 55A campaign missions.

(Image from The Daily Bounce - an excellent WOT and WOWS blog)

Since I naturally play a lot of LTs, MTs, and TDs I'm already most or all of the way done with those categories, but since I don't play a lot of HTs I've only got about 5 of the HT missions done. And since I rarely play SPG I only have 4 of the SPG missions done.

So...time to break out the HTs and SPGs to knock out some missions!

Heavy Tanks

I'm actually doing two missions simultaneously here. 

First off I'm doing Union-12 for the Excaliber, which means I have to block twice my HP in damage, four times. And since it's Union, it can only be done in Soviet or Chinese tanks (though it doesn't have to be a HT).

Secondly, I'm doing HT-3 for the T 55A which requires me to destroy 4 tanks of 3 different types. (I skipped HT-3 previously and did HT-4 and HT-5 already)

Luckily there are some good Soviet and Chinese tanks to choose from here.  This morning I mostly played the Defender, the IS-3A, and the 112.

The Defender is sort of the obvious choice because its armor is god-like; especially against same or lower tiers. The tough part of doing a blocking mission with it is that the armor is TOO good. People either won't bother shooting at you, or they'll quickly tire of bouncing and will press 2 (or 3). I need 3K blocked to do Union-12, and I didn't get more than 2200 in the Defender this morning.

One thing I was reminded of, though, is what a bully the Defender can be, especially when it's top tier. I had a game on Ensk where I basically just drove straight into the enemy, shooting everything in front of me. Unfortunately I couldn't persuade the enemy to shoot me, even though I deliberately crossed in the open to try and draw fire. Finally I ended up face-hugging, and pushing, a KV-4 who bounced two shots off my turret and then just never fired again...even though I held the kill shot for quite a long time hoping he'd bounce some more. Finally I just killed him and moved on. 3 kills, ~2500 damage done, ~1500 blocked, 15-5 win. Easy mode.

The Defender is also more mobile than I remembered. It's not FAST, exactly, but for what a solid bully it is didn't expect it to be as comfortable to drive as it is.

The IS-3A was my fallback tank for if the Defender got killed and stuck in battle. It's got good (not great) armor, and I haven't played it enough yet. Plus I'm biasing towards premium tanks right now because I'm still grinding credits with the Festive Atmosphere.  

I wasn't as successful in the IS-3A. I did decent damage, but struggled to reliably block incoming shots. I feel like while the Defender's armor stands up really well, especially if you can hide/angle the lower plate, the IS-3A's hull is just really unreliable. So it just HAS to be hull down and I never quite got a good enough map for that.

I DID get within 150 hp of the 3100 blocked needed in one game, but then got killed before I could bounce just one more shot. SoClose!

The 112 I didn't expect much of, but I trained the Santa commander for the WZ 111-4-1-4-14-1 in anticipation of moving my current 5-skill WZ 111-4-1-4444 crew to the 5A when I get that unlocked and so I was training him in the 112. And it's a premium, that can make credits. I actually had a nice 3-kill battle in the 112, but didn't make any mission progress.

Arty

I complain a lot about arty, and I still believe that 3 arty in a battle is too many in World of Tanks. That said, I'm fine with 1 arty in a battle, and 2 is (depending on the map) usually ok. I've discovered that I sort of like playing arty when I'm tired and don't want to "try hard". I can load in, barely have to drive, just click on the map and hope good things happen.

Also see: How to counter-arty

For as little as I "try" when I'm playing arty it's startling how often I'm top 5 in damage and XP in battles. That might say more about my teams than my skill in SPGs but still....

Additionally because I was getting tired of getting Blueprints for low-tier arties, I decided to just go ahead and grind up ALL the arty lines, at least to tier 6, during the holiday break. I had the Soviet Arty to Tier 7 from a couple of years ago, and the U.S. arty I have at Tier 8 (plus I kept the M44) so I didn't need to do much there. I ground up the Brit, German, and French lines though and have a few observations:

• I'm working on SPG-5 for the T55A and that means that I have to stun/track people and my team has to do at least 1800 damage to them. Seems like it shouldn't be that hard, but getting people to shoot the tanks you stun/track isn't as easy as it sounds. 
• The British arty fire kinda fast, but they do very limited damage and they have VERY poor range. I never realized how close to the battle you have to be in a Bishop or an FV-304. You have to almost be within draw range to hit anything. Also the FV-304 only has tier 4 and 5 guns neither of which can stun, which is a problem if you're doing stun missions. The FV has nice mobility and good shell arc (so you can shoot behind buildings/hills) but the rest of it is kinda crap - the line gets much better when you get to the Crusader at tier 7.
• The tier 6 French arty - the AMX 13 F3 - is actually really good.  Excellent mobility, surprisingly accurate, nice high arc, good alpha, no range issues at all. I like this little tier 6 a lot and I'm in no hurry to move up to the tier 7. The one drawback is a long reload - about 30 seconds.
• The German tier 6 arty - the Hummel - is kinda middle of the road. It's not uncomfortable, but the mobility isn't as good as the French arty. Reload is a similar 29.x seconds, and alpha is just slightly worse. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I'll probably go to the G.W. Panther at Tier 7 eventually, but no rush.
• The USA tier 6 arty - the M44 - is widely considered the best at the tier, and it is good. Mobility is good, reload isn't bad at ~20 seconds.  It's just a pretty comfortable arty all around AND the shell cost is lower than everything except the awful FV-304 so it can make some really good profits.
• The one "high tier" arty I have is the M40/43 (tier 8 USA).  It takes forever to reload (~45 seconds) but when it hits it's very nice. I dropped 1005 damage on a Pantera this weekend, which was fun (for me). I've been mostly using this one to try and get SPG-5 because it has the longest stun duration, and I figured it's more likely I'll get a tier 9 or 10 game and maybe I'll track somebody in front of a Death Star or a Grille 15 and get my needed damage in one or two shots.

If nothing else, playing HTs and a SPG the last week or two has been a nice break. I was starting to feel a little burnt out.

GLHF!