The development of experimental Soviet heavy tank started in 1949 in the ChKZ design bureau under the leadership of Zh.J.Kotin. In 1950, a trial run of 10 vehicles was built. After a full series of tests and some changes, the vehicle was accepted into service in 1953 under the IS-8 designation.
Tier 8 Soviet HT
Hitpoints: 1550
Engine: 700 hp
Weight: 49,045 tons
Power-to-weight: 14,27 hp/t
Maximum speed: 42/14 km/h
Hull traverse: 26 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,055/1,247/2,11
Turret traverse: 25 deg/s
Viewrange: 360
Radio range: 440
today, a new Soviet tier 8 heavy premium tank is getting introduced to the supertest – it’s called IS-5 (Object 730) and here’s a short preview of its history and how it’s going to look.
Object 730 (also known under its IS-5 designation) was a Soviet heavy tank and a precursor to the later design known as the IS-8 (or T-10). To avoid confusion: there were two IS-5 tanks actually. One was a modified IS-2 (also known as Object 248), the other is this one.
The development of this vehicle started in late 1948. The goal was nothing less than complete overhaul (modernization) of the IS-4 heavy tank in order to increase its performance. The designers of the vehicle (Chelyabinsk plant) proposed to replace a number of internal components and to make the entire vehicle weigh less (specifically, to lower the weight from IS-4′s 60 tons to 50 tons. This “slimming”, along with the use of modernized engine was to assure better combat characteristics.
I don’t usually post various player proposals for WoT improvement, as, well, most seem to be of dubious quality (in some cases, that’s an understatement), but I will make an exception in this case. Hungarian player rlazol made a proposal to Wargaming in a form of an open letter regarding possible new map, called Budapest. While the English is somewhat… lacking, I think that the proposal looks quite solid. What do you think?
Thanks to several folks who sent me this (I always forgot to publish it, Winstonpus was the last one).
In case you are wondering what changed on the Mountain Pass in 9.5 – one infamous camping bush on the northern side got removed. Let’s face it… it was an annoying position.
Welcome to the third part of the artillery guide. Today the big topic will be aiming, which might make some of you reconsider the way you click those damn tanks. Before we start, big thanks to those 50+ people who started sending me encouraging messages when the FTR comments got locked. Some even sent gold, which took me totally by surprise and made my Christmas a lot merrier.
Sadly, some disturbed players couldn’t handle the guide again. No point mentioning the usual cancer wishes but one guy deserves a special mention. The “special” player award goes to Xensation, commander of IDEAL for 2 days of truly “original” trolling at our own TS.
COMMUNICATION
Arti drivers should be the most “talkative” players on the team but few really are. Talking to your team sure influences your win rate and many players are happy to work with arty when they realize you are ready to cooperate. Having an ally pull and track an enemy in the middle of your aiming circle is one of the most satisfying moments of playing arty. Due to your long reload and minimal movement you can use the chat and shortcuts more often than others. You also have the best tactical overview thanks to arty view and can see the HP situation anywhere on the map. That said, while you cannot expect your team to always listen or work with you, it is still worth doing no matter how many times you get frustrated.
the day before yesterday, Jingles made a review of the Panther 88. I think it’s a solid review, pointing out the flaws and good points of Panther 88, so check it out. It’s actually quite long though.
There is one part though (well, as far as I noticed) where Jingles is not correct. In the first battle, he states that this vehicle has very good camo factor. Well, actually, it doesn’t.
A proof for this statement can be found on Russian forums. You see, there’s a group of players, who dedicate their time researching the camo factors of ALL the vehicles in the game (well, at least those they can get their hands on). Their testing method is sound and it’s been going on for over a year. In case you are interested in various vehicles’ camo and the methodology used, I explained how it works in one older post.
According to this reseach, the Panther 88 actually has worse camouflage than Panther and Panther II – in fact, it has the worst camo factor than every other German medium tank including E-50. The original data can be found here.
My guess is that Jingles just got lucky with spotting. Basically, Jingles’ conclusion at the end is that while this tank makes a lot of money, it also has weak armor and the gun is not so good in tier 10 battles (the FCM 50t is better in many aspects AND it has limited MM). Whether it’s a good purchase or not, that I leave up to you, but I have one more argument for you:
According to Vbaddict, out of all 14 tier 8 premiums, Panther 88 is on 13th place with 48,55 percent winrate (the best out of “regular” premiums are IS-6 and FCM 50t). In net income, according to the same source, Panther 88 is 9th out of 13 (13 because the T95 premium data are missing), while FCM 50t is 4th. Panther 88 is earning only 60 percent credits of the Jagdtiger 88, which is actually cheaper in the premium shop currently.
As such, I still cannot recommend buying it. The fact we had no option of testing it during 9.5 test along with its steep price and problematic results… there are better way how to spend 40 Euro.
in the current supertest iteration, the T-54 Prototype upcoming Soviet tier 8 premium was nerfed as such (stats for 100 percent crews):
- hitpoints reduced from 1400 to 1300
- accuracy nerfed from 0,345 to 0,364
- accuracy on the move nerfed by cca 25 percent
- aimtime nerfed from 2,4 to 2,49s
- hull traverse nerfed from 44 to 42
Currently, the stats look like this:
Tier 8 Soviet MT
Hitpoints: 1300
Engine: 520 hp
Weight: 35,5 tons
Power-to-weight: 14,65 hp/t
Maximum speed: 44/18 km/h
Hull traverse: 42 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,055/1,151/1,822
Turret traverse: 45,9 deg/s
Viewrange: 380
Radio range: 700
yesterday, a piece of news appeared on some WoT webpages (including the Wotleaks) about Yuri Pasholok “confirming the appearance of AA tanks in the game”.
Basically, the person asking was referring to various AA vehicles for low tiers, specifically those with automatic guns, that would play the role of “Waffenträgers” on low tiers. Yuri Pasholok replied with “when it’s done it’s done” and some folks interpreted that in the way that we’ll be getting new vehicle class – AA tanks.
Well, not quite. First of all, I asked – and there are no such plans for now. Yuri can have access to this kind of information as well (he’s WG’s main historical consultant), but he’s also known as a troll on forums (by the way, if you run into a commenter “yuripasholok” in FTR comments, yes, that’s him), so I guess he was just trolling, OR he was referring to more multi-purpose tank destroyers such as the Sfl IVc, which, in real life, was a dual purpose vehicle. So don’t expect Wirbelwind or quad 50 cals or anything.
There is a core of truth in the reply though, as Wargaming was at one point actually considering treating LT-based AA vehicles as LT’s and MT-based AA vehicles as MT’s, but as far as I know, this never went anywhere.
- for now, the XP for “tanking” will not be implemented
- IS-3 ammo rack was not nerfed in 9.5
- the “winter fun mode” (SS: that Karl-like one) will be activated “after New Year holidays” (SS: if I see it correctly, these holidays last until 11.1.2015 in Russia)
- IS-6 gold ammo penetration will not be buffed
- apparently, Chi-Ri is not scheduled to be buffed either
- the mechanism where you will be able to add all sorts of junk to your tank (logs, cans, canvas etc.) is still in development, no ETA
- according to WG developers, Chi-Nu Kai has following advantages: good mobility, good gun, good viewrange and is VERY good at grinding, even during losses
- shell damage is a purely balance parameter, apparently it’s okay that 105mm gun 13TR (for some French tanks) gold ammo does more damage than regular ammo (300 vs 330)
