On the Firefly Line

Hello everyone,

thanks to Forceman4077 (US server), we now know some more interesting info about the British line. Forceman visited the E3 booth of Wargaming and talked to my favourite WG employee, The_Chieftain. Chief confirmed him in person that:

- the British “LL” Line with Firefly should come this year (no exact ETA yet)
- here’s the interesting part: the line will be a hybrid line – lower half until tier 6 (Firefly) will be medium tanks, the upper half will be British turretted tank destroyers

And yes, it is true, I was able to confirm this info from other sources as well. For “what exactly will the line setup look like” – I wrote about it here with tank descriptions, but roughly:

Tier 6 – Firefly
Tier 7 – Avenger/Challenger
Tier 8 – Charioteer
Tier 9 – FV4004 “Conway”
Tier 10 – FV4005 Stage 2

Lower tiers will apparently include M3 Grant, Sherman I and M2A4 (I am not sure about the M2A4).

90 thoughts on “On the Firefly Line

  1. What an excellent way to start the day! That is some great news!!

    I have been looking forward to the Firefly for quite a while.

  2. *Fingers crossed* – Hopefully WG does the tanks justice and make a line worth grinding… I also hope the firefly would contest the cromwell and E8 for the spot of best tier VI medium :)

    • Since when is E8 a good tank? Shoots too fast to aim, big as a barn… Maybe just not my style of a tank, to me it stands little chances against T 34 85…
      And Firefly will probably be something between a Jackson and a VK 3001 D, don’t expect a cromwell-type speed.

      • Didn’t people use to argue endlessly about the merits of whether to go through the E8 or E2 line? (Back when they were still relevant to the meta). I’m just hoping they give the Firefly decent maneuverability and a good turret to abuse the 17 pounder.

      • Firefly had a pretty low rate of fire because of the awkward mounting of the gun and the largeness of the shells, it was fairly difficult to load quickly in the Firefly and as for mobility, it was an M4A4 Sherman, so it, reality wise would be about equal to the T5 Sherman. If anything I kind of expect it to play like a hybrid of the Panther and T-34-85.

        • Rate of fire is a balance parameter though. For example: the Conqueror’s 120mm used 2 piece ammo that was relatively slow to reload, but in game it has quite good rate of fire.

      • How dare you insult the Easy 8!

        It’s my most played tank with almost 2k game and the tank I usually wipe the pubbies ass to the ground with.

        Little chance against a T-34-85? WHAT? WHAT? In a one-on-one engagement, I pump it so full of lead, it dies before it can fire a second shot at me.

        Bad aim time? What bad aim time, my reticle fully closes as soon as second shot is ready to fire. And if the aim time is actually bad, don’t use it as a fucking sniper, it’s got vertical stabilisers for a reason.

        Not only that, it’s hulldown capabilities are amazing, I’ve gotten 6 Steel Walls on it just by doing peek-a-boos over a hill.

    • Shoots too fast to aim

      Um, are you sure you’re talking about the E8? Because this is really only a problem for the 57mm armed tanks like the M7, T-34, and Ram II.

  3. I promised myself I won’t start a new branch till the European Tech Tree appears. WG is making it easy to keep my promise.

    So, this line has some copy tanks till tier 6 and then it has some frankenTDs with big guns on inadequate chassis. Don’t like it but I’m sure many will play them since they are historical (more or less).

    • Actually, no, no copy tanks :)
      The M3 Grant is a british VERSION of the M3 Lee, but it is different in many ways, the biggest being the turret on top.

          • Stating my opinion. But I’m glad my opinion causes butthurt. Carry on. And no, they will be exactly like the chinese tanks we got in WoT: aka COPIES. I have nothing against copied designs. I was just saying that it’s not interesting enough for some people to start grinding the line (me included).

            • Dayum this guy is some idiot lol
              Just which tanks is the firefly a copy of? The M4 Sherman? Going by your logic the American TD line must be a pile of boring crap with only a few “interesting” tanks. I suppose the stug 3 is basically a copy of the Panzer 3 as well and is just uninteresting and crap. As with the rest of the 1st German TD line. Alongside parts of the 2nd German TD line. Most of the SPG’s in the game are just boring copies of other tanks as well I suppose. Since they are all copies by your logic.

              Well in that case you opinion is invalidated and is a pile of illogical shit.
              Yes, people’s opinions can be a pile of illogical shit.
              Good day.

              • lol wut?……the guy is saying if USA has tank A and Brits take tank A but put a bigger gun …it is still tank A…..just with a bigger gun…..seems like a copy to me….and…are you all there? your rant made me think you have issues….”OMFGZ NO NO ONE CAN HAVE A OPINION DIFFERENT THEN MINE!”..that is you…..but good thing that is just YOUR opinion

              • If that’s how you understood my logic, sir, you got problems. No point in explaining logic to a individual with issues. Have a nice day!

                P.S. I pity you :(
                P.S.S. ironhidex got the essential.

  4. Yeah give us more 183mm Guns thats what WOT needs srsly why couldnt they just make a 2nd medium Line and not again some high Caliber shit…

    • they should’ve put the stage 1 in, 183mm auto loader, would’ve been fun…. 1 clip 1 top gun.

  5. Cool :D Death Star Stage 2 incoming ! :D
    Pretty soon we’ll have FV 183s and 4005 S2s shooting each other from a distance … and the first team to get the first kill will win, ad it’ll be a one shot one kill :O :D

    On the serious side, I’ll be looking forward to this, I mostly play the British/USA lines , ( except for the USSR heavy ^.^ ) and it’ll be nice to have something new to use. ( At least I won’t be forced to join in the majority and grind the germans :P )

        • Don’t give WG Ideas. Else we will get a Waffle with 183. Russian line does not need a another TD.

          • Don’t worry, Waffletrager MAUS will have better gun handling and has a 2 shell autoloader capable of 1 shoting 2 medium tanks with a clip and 2 shotting all other tanks in game. It will have a weak turret of course.

            Russian 203 mm TD will have accuracy of 0,74and 164 mm of penetration. it will shoot slower than KV-2, have no turret, no gun traverse ( 6 degrees ) no hull armour ( 26 mm ) , will have rear mounted gun ( of course ) , no gun depression ( russian standard ) , no camo rating ( spotted like E100 ), will be open topped ( of course ) and have low engine power ( 8 hp/ton ) but it’s stronk gun will be compensated with bad top speed. ( 22 km/h ) It will have 50 more alpha damage than Waffle E100 150mm ( with HE, AP alpha is the same )

            In real life of course it was an Arty, but so was T18 and WG don’t care.

      • Cause wg has a track record of introducing OP crap to get stupid people to pay $$$ then nerfing it later. It is turning into their SOP

        • Not really. They did it with the WT E-100 [and it probably still needs more nerfs], but what else within the past year followed that pattern? The Chinese? No. The Japanese? No not really. The British? No. British Arty? No. 2nd Soviet TD Line? No. etc etc etc.

  6. I just hope that the Sherman I will be the Grizzly I cruiser. It is the only Canadian tank that they haven’t introduced yet.

    • Well, Sherman I is a British name for M4, while Grizzly I was Canadian made M4A1.

      “Lower tiers will apparently include M3 Grant, Sherman I and M2A4 (I am not sure about the M2A4).”

      This makes me wonder though, what is going to happen with Australian AC1 and AC4 Sentinel? Is this the first sign of doom (as in, are they already planned as premiums)?

  7. Talking about guns:

    will all new TD’s gun be immediatelly available if shared with actual TD’s gun?

    I mean, will the 20 pdr gun on the Charioteer be the same as per the AT 15? If the answer is yes, i will be super happy for the new tier VIII TD! Great gun and DPM, turret and some agility (well, compared to the AT 15 even a snail is “agile” :P).

    I am curious about the tier X. Will it be another “Death Star”?

    • i suspect that they will do the same as the waffentreagers, same guns different names so you have to grind them again. Probably not you will get one shot off and then destroyed due to the weak turret, i also suspect it may have a lower RoF to compensate the silghtly more maneuverability the centurion hull offers

    • Yes! And where the hell is Achilles??? The only LL UK vehicle I am waiting for.

      • Grant has different turret than Lee.

        It does not matter on a tank that does not using its turret

        • How do you know it will not use it’s turret?
          Perhaps the M3 grant will be using its turret as opposed to its main gun. It could work if it has MM similar to the B1.

    • wargaming logic – A good medium tank line? Let’s put a M3 in front of it.

  8. Ahh more 1shot cannons to fill T10. More like a semi-hardcore mode. You do a mistake, you’re dead. Simple as that.

    So this means T10 will officially be dead in random battles and all that’s left to play will be T7-T8. Might aswell add the T58 with the original 6drum while they’re at it.

  9. yeay! british goofy turrets= no effective armor.
    ruskies are still the only ones allowed to have impenetrable turrets.

    • what do you mean impenetrable? i have no difficulty getting through the IS-3 turret the KV-4′s turret is easy the IS and the KV-1S have easy to pen turrets its only the IS-7 that has the closest turret to impenetrable and KV-1′s turret is easy to pen aswell

      • is-3 penetrable? only if the driver is noob and he stays below you. and even then chances are small.
        is-7, t-54, t-62, st-1, is-4 how you pen themif they use W A S D? the truth is soviets get the smallest hatches of all nations.

  10. The Firefly should be a lot of fun and a great sniper. If it has the proper 17pdr it should be like a Tier 5 Sherman with 171 pen and 150 alpha at Tier 6.

    The extra pen and alpha compared to the Easy 8 and Jumbo would be offset by slower reload because of the ammo (maybe 10 -12 rpm) and thinner armour. Although they will probably invent a 17pdr that has the performance of a 75mm HV (145 pen 135 alpha).

    Speed and maneuverability would also be worse than the Tier 5 Sherman as the gun is much heavier on the same chassis. The camo will also be quite a lot worse than the Cromwell and T-34-85 etc.

    I think the British received 36 M2A4s on lend-lease before the M3 Stuart Honey.

    • it wouldn’t be much slower. though the RoF would probably not be any more than the BP’s RoF with the same gun and all so yeah

  11. What? M3 Grant?? That is the british version of the M3 Lee!! More pub tanks!

  12. Well now we see the real reason they are nerfing the hellcat and jackson so they can force you in to grinding the firefly line. I just love the way WOT keeps screwing us over!

        • Or, you know, players complaining for a year and a half about the Hellcat being OP.

          They’re still waffling on what to do with the KV-1S, if the Hellcat gets a nerf then that might be a sign that they’re, you know, actually going to try and do something about the 1S at some point?

  13. Pingback: Немного слива с Е3 2014 от Wargaming | GOLD ALLIANCE | Золотой альянс WoT

  14. I wonder how they will balance this new 183……the current 183 is mobile enough….and the current 183s turret is enough …..so this new one will have weaker armor….probably better mobility….maybe gun depression?……all that is whatever to me…the main thing I would care about with this new 183 is the gun handling ….does it have less bloom…..does it aim faster…does it reload faster etc etc …….for me the gun stats are what will make or break this new 183 ….. I DO NOT think this new 183 noob tube is needed …..183 already is such a cheap 1 trick pony

  15. “Tier 6 – Firefly
    Tier 7 – Avenger/Challenger
    Tier 8 – Charioteer
    Tier 9 – FV4004 “Conway”
    Tier 10 – FV4005 Stage 2″

    But… But… The Achilles?

  16. Wait, so if the Challenger is a medium and the Avenger is a TD, assuming that the Avenger will be the elited form of the Challenger, what class does that make this vehicle? Medium or TD? Or will they be separate sister vehicles on the same tier like perhaps having the Cromwell branch off to the Challenger which connects back into the Firefly line at the Avenger?

  17. So they introduce bullshit German autoloader but completely ignore actual British auto loader designs? Fuck you WG. The Conway and 4005 stage 2 are shit in WOT terms, and you wonder why nobody uses the British lines, lazy shits.

  18. In light of this information, I’ve drawn up a revised British tech tree, to speculate at how this might look when implemented (plus a few ideas of my own). Colours indicate tank class.
    http://imgur.com/WQaTVWc

    - added the LL line, ending with the turreted British TDs.
    - added Archer and Achilles TDs as precursors to the turreted TDs. (Why the Archer was not originally in the TD line escapes me, as it would be more historical than the AT prototypes.)
    - added a half-line with a mix of light tanks and prototypes, ending with the FV301, which is an excellent candidate for a Chaffee-esque LT (fast, good gun, paper armour).
    - Sentinel AC4 as a tier 6 premium tank with the 17-pdr.
    - FV4202 replaced with Vickers MBT and moved to tier 8 premium, rebalanced with actual 105mm gun.
    - Unhistorical FV215b replaced with Chieftan.