I'm not sure anyone else here plays them, but I am pretty addicted to War Thunder Ground Forces, and other people like World of Tanks or Armored Warfare. If nobody else shows up at least I can post screenshots, rants, youtube videos etc. I started getting serious about WTGF because my character Anhelia Aescar is a tank commander during her military service (fantasy world, but dieselpunk-y in character). So I wanted to understand the mindset a little? And I think I do, now. Especially, the complete lack of confidence that the machine will actually protect you. No tank is armored sufficiently to be invulnerable, and it's easier to up-gun than up-armor a vehicle, so odds are on any battlefield there are going to be at least some guns that can penetrate your thickest armor, and many more that can kill you if they find a weak spot, which there always are. And the mindset of always thinking about cover, being aware of terrain, looking for geography that will let you use the earth as armor and vegetation and man-made objects as disguise. About sight-lines and concealment. My original experience with tank games though was M1 Tank Platoon back in 1989, though, and that was a good game indeed.
So this is the vehicle I'm currently having a lot of fun with, the British Archer self-propelled gun. Why's it fun? Because it's a challenge to play, but is very effective if you work within its limitations. Which are many. For one thing, the gun points backwards. Yes, the right-hand end here is the front. Why is it like this? Not so that you can shoot while running away, despite appearances. Rather, the available chassis was the Valentine infantry tank, which was becoming obsolete but existed in large numbers. The Valentine wasn't that big, and the gun they wanted to mount was the Ordnance QF 17-pounder anti-tank gun, which as you can see here is rather enormous. Furthermore, it had to fit within length restrictions for carriage on trucks or railways. If the gun had been fitted firing forwards, it would have either stuck out a long way in front, or a very high superstructure would have to be used -- not great for concealment. So the answer they came up with in a hurry was to fit it all together this way. It wasn't really that much of an impediment for its intended role, which was for ambush and prepared positions in general. One of these would find itself a nice hiding place and shoot at enemy tanks for a bit, and then when it had drawn too much attention it could rapidly drive off "backward" to find another position to do the same thing. The challenge in War Thunder is to use it in the way it's intended. Stay back. Keep the vulnerable, lightly armored hull down behind cover. Take long-range shots at enemies who don't know you're there or who can't hit you at that range. Scoot back behind cover. If drawing too much attention, move. Don't charge into things. Avoid using it on maps where the long sight-lines and cover aren't available.
I haven't played in months, but I've been working my way up the British heavy line in World of Tanks. I've made it to the Caernarvon, but I have a lot more fun playing the Matilda than anything else, so it's probably going to be a while before I get anywhere with that. Also I used to play a lot with my family and they've mostly moved on to other games, sighhh. The Matilda is heavily armoured (...for a tier 4 medium) and has three gun options - I thiiiiiink I've got the QF 2-pdr Mk. X-B but I didn't actually pay attention to the names when I was equipping mine so I just know I've got the little pew-pew gun with the high penetration and rate-of-fire. Here's a picture, but I'm not sure which gun it's showing. I'm not much of a strategist, so the Matilda is pretty great for me because it allows me to roll right up to something like half the tanks I'm matched with and pew-pew them to death while they shoot at me ineffectually. It's pretty slow but the gun is accurate from a distance, too, so I can hit enemy tanks the scouts are lighting up even if I can't actually keep up with them. Also, it has a great name, so it's my favourite.
I like the Matilda as well in WTGF. Slow as all hell but it takes a pounding and refuses to give up. I like the Churchill for similar reasons as well. It looks to me like yours in WoT has the Littlejohn adaptor fitted to the gun which allowed for faster, harder-hitting projectiles. I know WoT allows you to get all kinds of upgrades for tanks that often were only experimental in actual history, while WTGF tries to stick closer to what actually got deployed in production (with some exceptions, especially later-war German designs which often in real life did not get out of prototype status because Germany was too destroyed to actually make them by then). The biggest difference between the two games is that WTGF tries to model actual internal damage and WoT uses a hit point system, which often means that in WTGF you get 1-shotted more easily. Both are fun though!
That picture of my Matilda reminds me of something I wish they'd implement: functioning smoke canisters. The Matilda has two launchers but they do nothing so far in game.
Oh yeah, my little brother tells me that the Maus never actually got past the prototype stage. I guess that was good for the Allies, bad for anyone who wanted to see actual functioning snorkeling tanks? Smoke grenades seem like they could have a lot of uses! I ran across a thread on Reddit where someone said they'd asked about the possibility of them being added into the game and were told they weren't planning on it because it would mess things up for players on lower-end PCs. Bummer. =/ I played a few games on WoT last night since this thread reminded me it existed. I'm so out of practice I was shaky at the end of every battle like I used to get when I was first playing, haha. I didn't make it to the end of any of them but I did a reasonable amount of damage, considering.
Apparently one Maus saw combat in the defense of Berlin, probably one that Hitler had been playing with. I'm not sure it did much good, but then not much could at that point. That makes sense. Maybe in a few years' time. I remember it being SO confusing.
What's WTGF like? I thought I remembered hearing that they were planning on adding airplanes into tank battles, or something like that.
They do. Arcade-mode tank battles, if you and your squad are doing well you get the temporary choice to swap into an aircraft and either be a bomber, attack the bomber or defend the bomber. They get about a minute's flying time at most. In Realistic mode, which among other things has no enemy markers, you can spawn into an aircraft after your first or subsequent death in a tank if you have enough spawn points for it. Of course, watch for AAA as well as enemy fighters.
You're welcome, it was fun! I'm sorely tempted to try WTGF out now ... maybe after I finish my stack of things-I-need-to-finish and have more free time I'll give it a go. ^^
