Hello everyone,

so, just like a lot of people I was looking forward to British tanks (my personal favourite was always the Achilles, I wasn’t thrilled about the Firefly, smelling a disaster) and was waiting to get my hands on test 9.5 – and it’s finally here. So, how is it looking?

Well, let’s start from the beginning. As usual, the installation is fine (you just have to download the entire client, but we live in blessed times when 8 gigabytes of download is not that big of a deal anyway). Installation was without problems and I tried the vehicles out last night (some, this morning). Anyway, so, I logged on (for some reason the client was remembering my old password before the change last month, that caused some confusion). Also, one strange thing, this is actually a CT1 round (first round of common test), but for some reason the patch is named as CT2. Probably an internal WG thing.

The one thing you will notice in a garage is the slight change of the missions buttong:

Yup, that’s right, there are personal missions now – not individual missions, but “personal” missions. Why is it called as such when they are the same for everybody? Anyway, when you click it, you’ll see the mission screen. I’ll get to them later, I have strange feeling they might be placeholders as well, but we’ll have a look anyway.

As you might remember from one of the videos, these missions must be manually activated. I think that’s a really bad move, because now only really dedicated (and aware) players will complete them. If that’s the goal, fine. But I kinda thought the goal was to implement an interesting mechanism, that will actually make more players play and stay with the game, which would be achieved better by allowing players to “randomly” win some of the missions, recieving relatively large rewards, which would then in turn trigger the interest in these missions, the players would go look for them etc.

But no.

Anyway, individual missions will come only after 15.1.2014 – this patch is mainly focusing on the new Firefly line, so without further ado, let’s have a look at it!

This is how the new British branch looks in the tree. Notice the lack of links between the old branches and the new, the only such link is the tier 4 Valentine to the Archer.

As you can see, the XP prices are listed in the tree. The XP prices are influenced by the fact that some of the later vehicles (especially the tier 9) have very limited choice of modules and thus the “lost” XP you’d otherwise spend for modules is compensated by increasing the XP cost of the next vehicle. This is normal balancing mechanism and was used ever since the start.

With that being said, to the vehicles then. And before you ask – no. In CT1, you can’t drive the Hitler Panther (Panther 88), for some strange reason they didn’t add it. And no, you can’t try the individual mission vehicles either (unless you actually fulfill the IM’s on the test server, but sorry, I am not such a masochist).

Anyway, one more thing: you might have noticed that placeholder warning of mine. To specify that a bit further: the Stuart, Sherman III and Firefly have placeholder values. Other tanks have, according to supertesters, old values, that were obsolete one or two supertest iterations ago. For this reason, I will not delve deep into the values and stats of these vehicles and instead, I’ll just post screenies and write my general impression. Will get to the full blown writeup (complete stats and such) in CT2.

To display full image size, please rightclick them and select “view image”.

M2

Modules:

Stock vehicle:

Elite vehicle:

Notice the German cross on the turret. Yes, it’s a bug, but a funny one :) Other than that, there’s not much to say about this tank. It’s not that different from the American tier 2 light tank really, it has roughly the same characteristics, same armor, same turnrate, but somewhat (10 percent or so) better terrain possability. It feels quite sluggish though for some reason, but maybe that’s just me. No really good or really bad sides on this vehicle. Oddly enough, a player using an elite version was not capable of circling the new Grant.

Rating: 4/10

Stuart I-IV

Modules:

Stock vehicle:

Elite vehicle:

Unfortunately, this tank is a pure placeholder. That includes stuff like terrain resistance, so there’s really no point in reviewing it, just have a look at the module list and the way the vehicle looks. I played with it two battles, it’s okay-ish, but as I said – a placeholder. Moving on.

Rating: ?

Grant

Modules:

Stock:

Elite:

This vehicle is not really a placeholder, just perhaps an obsolete iteration. Those looking for an interesting vehicle different from the Lee will be disappointed. This tank is practically identical to the Lee in every respect! It has a bit more viewrange (325 compared to 320), different crew setup (instead of 2 loaders it has 1 loader and 1 radioman), but worse mobility (42 traverse instead of 43) and less horsepower (410 instead of 440). It’s 2 tons heavier too, so in total, you get a Lee, but worse. With that being said, I had some fun with it. It works well I would say. The main difference is the presence of a 6pdr, which is actually not bad – it spits ammo fast and has reasonable penetration (plus some seriously penetrating gold shells, unlike the 75mm). In gold mode I think it would be a beast, quite expensive to operate however. I’ll have to test it more, but I think that unless they nerf it, the 6pdr spitter might be even a bit better than the top gun, but that’s just me. I’ll definitely try it out though.

Rating: 6/10

Archer

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Stock:

Elite:

Armor:

Ohhhh this one is FUN. Archer is brutal. I think that along with the Charioteer, this has to be the most fun tank in the entire patch. It has three features, that make it so great a vehicle:

- 17 pdr on tier 5

- very good traverse (-22,5/+22,5)

- solid gun depression (-7,5/+15)

Of course, it has its pitfalls – almost no armor (comes with being a light tank destroyer) and the odd speed of 12 km/h forward and 32 km/h backward. And here lies the key to the success with Archer. You have to go backwards. Most battles I’ve seen, everyone started crawling forward and complaining about the low top speed. I just reversed – sure, it requires a bit of focus (the steering is switched, you have to actually look backwards with camera, you can’t immediately engage target either), it’s not exactly a battle-worthy way of moving, but it gets you to your hiding spots with ease.

And then the fun starts.

I literally laughed at hapless enemies just driving before my gun and getting torn apart by the 17pdr. Only one ever managed to fire back. The vehicle has excellent maneuverability (for its speed) and good camouflage, so by the time they spot you, you already tore a hole in half of their team. The gun aims relatively fast (2,3s) and is relatively accurate (0,37) – both values are however more than enough when you consider you will not be firing on the move. In fact, I think it’s so good it might be nerfed, definitely try this one out.

Rating: 9/10

Sherman III

Modules:

Stock:

Elite:

Another placeholder. You might have noticed that this vehicle has SHITLOADS of modules. It’s really hard to judge how will it look in the game with placeholder values, but to be honest, I think it will be just like a regular Sherman – that’s how it drives now. Oddly enough, the 6pdr has the same model as the 76mm M1A1, because apparently Wargaming forgot to add the 6pdr model. Other than that, it has M4 Sherman’s mobility. The values are, as I said, placeholder, but the module list is authentic. The vehicle, despite having practically identical values to the American M4 feels sluggish again, not something I would keep in my garage, but we’ll have to wait for the second iteration for final judgement.

Rating: ?

Sherman Firefly

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Stock:

Elite:

Armor:

So, this is the tank so many were waiting for. Aaaaaaaaaaand…. it’s a placeholder. Yup, sorry, no Firefly testing for you! But I tested it anyway and… it’s crap. You heard me. You can declare me a heretic and burn me at stake, but I will still think it’s terrible. This tank has three major issues (that can be judged without looking at the gun properties):

- it’s very fragile (no armour)

- it’s very, very slow

- poor gun depression

Make no mistake, this is not a medium tank, this is a tank destroyer in disguise. If you play it like the Easy 8, you will die. Fast. The vehicle is definitely slower than the Easy 8 – on hard surfaces (roads), you’ll be going around 35 km/h, but any field or anything and it drops below 30 or even 20. It’s very sluggish too, not that turning towards your enemy will save you since you have no armor anyway. You’ll definitely be not doing any circling though.

The 17pdr gun is a placeholder. The poor depression however (-5) is correct, while the accuracy and rate of fire are not. Then ROF is obviously a placeholder (currently the vehicle has insane DPM) and so is the accuracy, but it’s not sure to what values will both be reduced (increased), so I’m going to let it go for now. Suffice to say that this will be a sniper certainly, not a brawler.

Overall, I have a really bad feeling about this vehicle. Many love it on test (due to its placeholder DPM mostly), but after that gets nerfed (and it will), we’ll see a sharp drop in popularity for this tank. Personally, I consider the Achilles better actually, but that’s just my opinion.

Rating: ? (expected poor)

Achilles

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Achilles, hm. The direct competitor for your favour with the famous Firefly, I can see how this vehicle could be overshadowed by the Firefly hype. But it shouldn’t be really.

Basically, it’s the tier 6 variant of the M10 (you probably know it IS the M10, just with a 17pdr). With that being said, the world that comes to my mind in connection with this tank is “bland but solid”. It has the same poor depression and elevation as the Firefly (-5/+20), but this is not a medium tank – it’s a tank destroyer and when sitting in a position you know will compensate for the issue, it’s not a big problem. The armor is bad (it won’t stop any shells unless you are unlucky enough to hit some of the tougher spots), but againg, it’s not a medium tank so it’s really not that big of a deal. If you are taking hits (especially at close range), you are doing something wrong.

It has one more huge advatage over the Firefly: it’s much faster. It reaches the top speed of 48 km/h easily and allows you to go where you need to be instead of crawling your way across the field into the nearest bush. Sure, it’s not the fastest or best armed thing on the battlefield, but I think it’ll do just fine.

Rating: 7/10

Challenger

Modules:

Stock:

Elite:

Stock armor:

Elite armor:

I included the armor screenshots so you know how the top turret now looks armor-wise.

Challenger is a bit of an odd tank – at least that’s what feeling I had from it. You might disagree, but I think that at this tier, it’s when the properties of the 17pdr are starting to lack a bit. With that being said, it’s fast, very fast – unlike the Firefly, the Challenger can reach its top speed easily and considering the fact it’s actually a tank destroyer, it’s very agile as well. The horsepower is quite outstanding for a vehicle of this weight (31,24 tons, 650 horsepower, 20,8 hp/t).

The turrets are a bit off (and I am not talking about the historicity) – the stock turret is actually much better armored, but at least the elite turret lost that spaced armor roof from the supertest. The elite turret however has 20 meters of viewrange more (380), so for a tank destroyer, that’s not supposed to brawl – definitely an advantage, even over armor. The gameplay seems to be roughly like the one of Hellcat, only with less alpha and more pew pew. The vehicle has a good terrain passability, but getting into close range fighting will get you killed. The vehicle however is very tall and it is my impression that it has sub-par camo factor (it seem to get spotted at places a Hellcat would go unnoticed). The gun however seems to demask you less, so overall it’s sort of a tradeoff.

It also has very good depression (-10/+20) and gun handling for now at least. Overall, I am not too thrilled about this tank destroyer, but it’s not bad, definitely beats the Firefly in terms of game comfort. Note that it has no 20pdr gun, despite earlier versions.

Rating: 7/10

Charioteer

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Stock:

Elite:

Armor:

Meet the tier 8 Hellcat. I consider the Charioteer to be the high point of the entire line and the reason I would actually grind it. It’s excellent. Sure, it has no armor, but it has awesome mobility (30 tons, 650hp engine, 21,66 hp/t) and the top 105mm L7 gun. Yes, L7 at tier 8. Too bad its parameters are placeholder – in current configuration, it’s a BEAST, it will tear up even tier 10′s when given enough space (sadly, as you can imagine, everyone is focusing on this tank for this very reason on the test server). Its firepower is truly brutal (and will be nerfed, no worries, as I said, the L7 stats are a placeholder). With that being said however, it does come with a price. The depression is rather poor and so is the elevation (-5/+12) and the armor is practically non-existent (the turret is triple overmatched even by 90mm’s, sides even by 75mm’s). A brawl will kill you. Nah – this TD needs to be swift, using its decent top speed (52 km/h) to switch between positions, like the Hellcat. I assume it will be an excellent flanker. Certainly worth getting.

Rating: 9/10

FV4004 Conway

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Elite:

Armor:

I included only the elite picture, because this vehicle has one unprecedented feature for a regular tank: it only has one gun and it only has one turret. The alternative 105mm gun (used in supertest) was removed.

With that being said, this vehicle is not really good. Far from it. It’s not really terrible either, it’s just somewhat strange. The gun has relatively decent characteristics (unlocking the Conway via the Charioteer actually unlocks the gun for the Tortoise, so THAT is useful), but it has poor depression and elevation (-5/+10) and there’s a price for having a fully rotating turret – the same gun behaves much better on the Tortoise (better ROF, aimtime and accuracy), but actually not THAT much and the Conway still has decent gun properties, like the 1,9s aimtime. I hope THAT is not a placeholder. The gun is also quite accurate (0,32 – Tortoise has 0,31).

But, of course, Tortoise has armor. This thing does not. Or rather, it has armor, but not enough. In tier 9 battles, 130mm of frontal turret will get penetrated quite easily and the hull is even more fragile (76,2mm Centurion hull). It has two nice features – a large and quite tough mantlet (152mm) and sides that have spaced armor plates over tracks and eat HE and HEAT shells nicely (to reverse it, I’d suggest aiming for the sides of the turret). Overall, the only thing I found the armor of this thing good for during the testing is stopping gold shells – a lot of people aim for the hull and it just eats the HEAT nicely. From sides only of course, overall this vehicle is rather fragile and will get torn up easily.

Which brings us to the question of mobility, because if you can’t shrug the shells off, you have to evade them. It’s… mediocre. Despite the mighty 950 hp engine and solid cca 19 hp/t power-to-weight ratio, the vehicle is not very agile (not sluggish either) and combined with poor gun depression, you’re going to have a problem peek-a-booming – not that that’s what you are supposed to anyway. Additionally, the vehicle is HUGE. You won’t hide that big-ass-turret – but at least it prepares you for things to come with tier 10.

I like TD’s and I love turretted TD’s, but this tank would not be a choice for me. It feels strange, it plays strange and I am not sure what to do with it. A lot of my “favourite” turretted TD spots don’t work due to the depression or – in worse case – will get you killed by using them. Generally, no.

Rating: 4-5/10

FV4005 Stage II

Modules:

Model:

Armor:

Okay, where do I start? I hate wall-to-wall vehicles, that are either absolutely dominating, or completely useless. With that being said, this has to be the most extreme vehicle in World of Tanks right now, and that includes the WT E-100. Okay, maybe they are on par.

You might remember that some time ago, when it was announced, I said this is a really, really stupid idea. And yes, I think that. Basically, you have the FV215b (183) without any armour, but driven to complete extreme. It’s still capable of those nasty HESH oneshots, but it fires faster and it aims faster. On the other hand, the vehicle has no armor whatsoever. Okay, the hull technically has some, but everyone fires at that BIG ASS TURRET, that’s only 14mm thick. How this vehicle will play in the random battles I have no idea, because it literally can’t hide. Anywhere. The turret always somehow sticks out and the first HE shell that hits you (even from relatively small calibers like 100mm) will wreak complete HAVOC on your modules and crew. I played several battles with it where one artillery shell knocked out practically all my modules and crewmen. Just like that. Add to that very poor gun depression and elevation (-5/+8) and limited turret traverse (45 degrees to each side like the FV215b 183)… no, I don’t see how this vehicle would even function. You get killed by pretty much anything and the lack of armor won’t allow you to bounce even the smallest of shots. I can imagine a Panzer IC defeating this vehicle simply by aiming at the turret and killing everyone and everything in it. It’s actually even more extreme than the WT E-100, because the turret is actually larger and taller.

Needless to say, this vehicle has no camo whatsoever and gets spotted by blind grandma driving a tier 1 across the map.

Of course, proper gameplay cannot really be tested (you can imagine how 15 vs 15 FV4005 on test server wouldn’t represent it), but I have no idea about the use of this tank in random battles. Of course, organized battles might be something different, but considering 90 percent of all battles in the game are random battles, I do think that’s not an excuse.

Rating: 1/10