Finding your home tank in World of Tanks

on

I have 661 tanks in my garage at the moment. The problem with that is it can mean staring at an endless list of tank after tank, and it also means I can be all over the place. One day I was finishing off a bad battle and realizing, yet again, that the tank I was playing didn't really suit my playstyle. So that led me to sitting down and trying to figure out which tanks DID suit my playstyle. 

That meant trying to figure out what my playstyle was, and what characteristics of a tank were important to me. We need to also keep in mind that Wargaming makes at least a tentative effort to balance the tanks - so the odds are you're not going to find one tank that is perfect in every respect. For every characteristic that's important to you you'll have to identify some that you're willing to compromise on.

As I identified those characteristics that mattered to me I could filter down my tank list to just the tanks that best fit those. I should add that I really only play Tiers 6-10, so I automatically ruled out all but the most special Tier 5s and below. 

Of course, I looked at the characteristics that suit MY playstyle. Yours could be exactly the opposite.

One last comment - this is just a guideline. I left a couple of tanks on my list even if they didn't, strictly speaking, fit my profile if I just found them interesting or fun to play.

First off...what kind of tank?

I enjoy playing all the different classes (well, not much arty) so I couldn't just limit myself to one or two classes. That's the first question to address, in my opinion, though. Do you prefer heavies? Mediums? TDs? Light tanks?

Once you've answered that question (or answered it the way I did: All) you can start to ask some class specific questions.

Medium tanks

For MTs I identified that these are the characteristics I really care about in my playstyle:
  • Gun depression. I like to be able to play ridges and hills, so gun depression matters. I narrowed my list to MTs that had at least 8 degrees of gun depression.
  • Standard Pen. I don't like to fire too much gold, and I don't like bouncing every other shot. So I narrowed my list to tanks that have at least 205mm of standard pen.
  • Shell velocity. Along with pen the other gun handling characteristic I care about is high shell velocity. With good pen and good velocity I find that I can be pretty effective in the fight, so I set my minimum shell velocity for standard rounds at 1000m/s.
  • Turret armor. Along with my gun depression, I like my turret to be at least a bit bouncy. So I like to have at least 200mm of frontal turret armor.
Things I care about a little, but am willing to compromise on:
  • Mobility. The tank can't feel sluggish, but it doesn't have to be fast. Fortunately I didn't really have any MTs that I had to exclude just because they were too slow.
  • View range. Ideally with a good crew I'd like to be able to get at or near 445m view range.  Fortunately I've been able to make all of the MTs on my short list work in this regard.
Things I've decided I'm willing to sacrifice:
  • Hull armor. I try not to brawl in the open, my playstyle is to try to play from cover and use that turret and gun depression.
  • Alpha. I like big alpha, but I'll sacrifice it for the other characteristics on this list.
  • Camo. I don't pay a lot of attention to the camo ratings on my MTs.

The short list

After factoring in all those characteristics I narrowed my list down to:
  • Cent 5/1 RAAC
  • Object 274A
  • Primo Victoria
  • 122 TM
  • STB-1
...and a few more.

Heavy tanks

For HTs I have some similiar wants, but I change them a bit based on the role and realistic expectations:
  • Gun depression. I like to be able to play ridges and hills, so gun depression matters. I narrowed my list to HTs that had at least 8 degrees of gun depression.
  • Standard Pen. I don't like to fire too much gold, and I don't like bouncing every other shot. So I narrowed my list to tanks that have at least 220mm of standard pen.
  • Shell velocity. Shell velocity is not as important to me in HTs because I'm more likely to be engaging targets at close range. I still prefer close to 1000m/s but I'm willing to go down to 900 for an HT that otherwise suits me.
  • Turret armor. Along with my gun depression, I like my turret to be at least a bit bouncy. So I like to have at least 220mm of frontal turret armor.
Things I care about a little, but am willing to compromise on:
  • Hull armor. I try not to brawl in the open, but I still want some hull armor on my HTs. Bonus if you can sidescrape in them.
  • Alpha. I like big alpha, but I'll sacrifice it for the other characteristics on this list if I have to.
Things I've decided I'm willing to sacrifice:
  • View range. I'm not very concerned with view range on my heavies. Yes its sometimes helpful, but not essential to me. 
  • Mobility. I like to have some mobility, but not as important to me in HTs where I'm most likely to be micro-positioning and not flexing around the yard.
  • Camo. You're spotted, just accept it.

The short list

After factoring in all those characteristics I narrowed my list down to:
  • ChieftainP
  • T29
  • Renegade
  • Caern AX/Caern
  • STRV K (Like the premium credit earning)
  • WZ-111 5A
...and a few more.

Tank destoyers

For TDs there are two kinds of roles: Assault TDs that push in front with armor (usually turretless) and sniper TDs. I prefer sniper TDs; assault TDs just aren't my favorite playstyle.
  • Standard Pen. I don't like to fire too much gold, and I don't like bouncing every other shot. So I narrowed my list to tanks that have at least 220mm of standard pen.
  • Shell velocity. Shell velocity is big for me since I'm usually shooting targets at range. At least 1000m/s if not better.
  • Alpha.TDs are all about doing damage, so unless it has a fantastic rate of fire I want that alpha.
  • Camo. Bushwanker needs to stay unspotted as long as possible.
Things I care about a little, but am willing to compromise on:
  • Gun depression. Gun depression matters, but I can usually microposition my hull well enough to make it work when I have to.
  • Mobility. I like to have some mobility, to get into positions, to rotate when I need to, and to get away. But...I can give up a few km/h if I love the tank otherwise.
  • View range. I'm ok letting others spot for me. One of my Field Mod builds generally has binocs and the other doesn't. If the countdown looks like I have reliable spotters I'll go without. If it looks like I may have to do a lot of my own spotting, I'll bring them.
Things I've decided I'm willing to sacrifice:
  • Armor. If I'm unspotted my armor doesn't really matter too much.

The short list

After factoring in all those characteristics I narrowed my list down to:
  • STRV S1 (my most played tank in the game)
  • SU-130
  • SkorpG
  • E 25
  • T-103 (Yes, I kinda like it)
  • GSOR 1008
...and a few more.

Light tanks

For LTs I tend to prefer the scouting role most of the time. LTs are generally not great damage dealers (compared to the other classes) so I don't prioritize it. 
  • Camo. I like to be the invisible spotter driving enemy teams nuts. Over 35% is ok, over 40% is better.
  • View range. The further out I can spot, the better. 445 is table stakes. 470+ is better.
  • Mobility.I need to be able to scoot around the yard. A slow LT is a bad thing. MOAR SPEEEEEED.
Things I care about a little, but am willing to compromise on:
  • Standard dispersion. When I do shoot I want to hit. An accurate gun elps.
  • Standard pen. When I do shoot I want to pen. Luckily the mobility of the LT means I can usually get to the side or rear of a tank I want to shoot.
Things I've decided I'm willing to sacrifice:
  • Armor. It's a light tank. Other than maybe the LT-432 it doesn't really have armor.

The short list

After factoring in all those characteristics I narrowed my list down to:
  • AMX 13 57 - honestly one of the most fun tanks in the game.
  • EVEN 90 - Ridiculous hero camo nearly invisible when fully built out with a good crew.
  • LT-432  - One of the best all-around light tanks in the game.
  • AMX 12T, 59-16, MT-25 - Fun, capable, Tier 6 scouts
...and a few more.

So...what are your home tanks and why? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

GLHF!

Comments

Post a Comment