WoT: 15 Controversial Tanks From The Past

Because the 11th Anniversary of the EU Server and the 12th Anniversary of World of Tanks is approaching I’m going to make some nostalgic articles about the game.

From over-powered tanks to crazy fantasy vehicles, we are counting down 15 controversial vehicles in World of Tanks.

Number 15 – Bat.-Châtillon 155 58

When the Bat.-Châtillon 155 58 was introduced in patch 0.7.4, it moved the goal post. This French SPG had a full rotating turret, quick aim time, it was incredibly maneuverable, and to top it all off, it was equipped with a 4 shell autoloader that can fire once every 6 seconds.
In patch 0.9.18 WG nerfed it all together with every artys into oblivion.

Number 14 – Rhm.-Borsig Waffenträger

Patch 0.8.9 saw the introduction of an entirely new line of German tank destroyers. These no longer depended on their armor, but on their stealth. And the tank that succeeded in that better than any other, was the Rhm.-Borsig Waffenträger. It was able to keep up consistent fire without getting spotted thanks to its fully rotating turret, and its best gun was- ironically enough- the stock gun. So without any grinding, you instantly had a stealthy mass murderer in your hands, and scores of enemies threw their hands in the air in utter frustration, after having been killed by yet another Borsig, which they weren’t even able to spot during the entire game. However, if the Borsig did get spotted and caught in the open, it was usually game over rather quickly for this tin can, which had virtually no armor. And thanks to the changes to the TD class such as the camo nerf in patch 0.9.1, or the view range nerf in patch 0.9.6, alongside the many map changes designed to reduce the effectiveness of long range snipers, the Borsig has lost a little bit of its mojo.

Number 13 – T18

The seal clubbers tank of choice at tier 2 has been the T18 for a long time. It combined great speed and armor with a gun that can one-shot even some tier 3 tanks. Then you put a 100% brothers in arms crew in it, stacking camo, equip the tank with modules such as improved ventilation, and you end up with an absolute axe murderer. The T18 was nerfed several times over the years, but it remained one of the go to tanks for rofl stomping the enemies. However, the days of stat padders in T18s have come to an end, as the T18 is due to be taken out of the game in its current form, and reintroduced as an … artillery.

Number 12 – FV304

There are SPGs, and there are SPGs, but there is only one FV304. This was by far the most trollish artillery in the entire game. But why? It’s got a terrible range, low damage, penetration and splash radius. So it’s crap, right? Far from it. FV304 was faster than most light tanks and could take on the role of scout when it was needed, it also fired fast and was accurate. FV304 also has an incredible gun arc allowing it to hit targets other artys cannot hit in their wildest dreams. Sure, it got nerfed in patch 0.9.3. Sure, it’s an SPG that haters gonna hate. But it was iconic.

Number 11 – Marder II

And here we have another seal clubber, the Marder II. If you are new to World of Tanks, you are probably going to say “What the f*ck are you talking about? The Marder II is crap.” And you would be right. But it hasn’t always been crap. Many years ago when World of Tanks was still young and players were able to drive their tanks at full speed towards a cliff, only to come to a complete stop when they hit a magic wall, in those days the Marder II was the seal clubbers go to tank of tier 3. It was agile, had a fantastic gun with a wide gun arc, and an insane camo rating. When fully decked out with a highly trained crew, there was very little that could stop it. But the nerf bat came down hard on the Marder II on multiple occasions, it was eventually nerfed into oblivion in patch 0.8.0 and finished off for good in patch 0.8.9.

Number 10 – M4 Sherman

Welcome to one of the meisters of the derp, the M4 Sherman, the tier 5 Medium tank for the Americans. But why is it on this list, you might ask. It’s a perfectly fine tank, a good one even, but it’s not overpowered. Right? Well not so fast. You see, the M4 Sherman can use a 105 millimeter Howitzer derp gun, and that Howitzer can shoot HEAT premium shells. Before patch 0.8.6, these HEAT shells had an insane amount of penetration, a whopping 150 millimeters. With that the M4 was able to ROFL stomp its way through the battlefield, one-shooting many tier 5s and lower tier targets, and severely crippling most tier sixes. This really became a problem since the premium shells only cost 2800 credits, and with a premium account you could easily afford to shoot HEAT exclusively and still run a profit.
Patch 0.8.6 put an end to that. The shell price was raised to 4000 credits, and the penetration of the HEAT shell was reduced from 150 to 104 millimeters. This effectively ended the M4 Shermans HEAT infused reign over the battlefield. Well it was fun while it lasted. A lot of fun actually.

Number 9 – M18 Hellcat

Imagine a turreted tank destroyer as stealthy as the Rhm.-Borsig Waffenträger. Now imagine you give it a top speed of 72 kph, tone down the gun a notch, and make it a tier 6. Well that would be completely crazy. So naturally you can find it in World of Tanks. It’s called the M18 Hellcat, and it used to be the strongest Tank Destroyer of its tier. By a mile. Its gun was pretty good. Its speed and agility were second to none for a TD, and its camo is the stuff of legends. Combine this with an absolute lovely view range, and the Hellcat was a stat padder’s dream. Of course, there are those who don’t like it, when someone else has something nice. So they called for nerfs. And WarGaming did not listen. So they cried some more, and were ignored. Then WarGaming decided that TDs are hurting the game, so they nerfed maps for TDs, they took the camo bonus away from TDs, and they nerfed the living daylights out of the Hellcat. That was in patch 0.9.3, and the Hellcat has never really recovered ever since.

Number 8 – Type 59

Perhaps one of the most hated tank in the game, the infamous Type 59. It had one reputation: It was completely over-powered. But in reality it really wasn’t. The Type 59 is a good tier 8 medium tank, nothing more, nothing less. As a premium tank is earns the player a lot of credits, but so is the nature of premium tanks. So why all the hate, then? In order to understand that, we have to go way back into the early days of World of Tanks. The Type 59 of that era had very strong armor, was highly mobile, and it received preferential matchmaking. At most it would see tier 9s, and back in the day the battle tier spread was much larger than it is today. And that meant that the Type 59 was regularly top tier, and it would shoot tier 5 tanks. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t like that? As you can imagine its popularity skyrocketed, to the point where Type 59s were the predominant tank in battles of its tier. Wolf packs of Types would maraud the maps, picking off enemies one by one. And since this tank was one you could purchase with real money, it was perceived as pay to win, by some people. The tank became so popular that WarGaming put an end to selling it, and in January 2012 the tank was removed from the shop. And since then, the Type 59 is only handed out on special occasions.

Number 7 – FV215b (183)

What do you get when you mount an artillery cannon to the chassis of a tank? You end up with the tank that has the highest alpha damage in the game. Of course we are talking about the FV215b (183). Equipped with a 183 mm cannon, this monster can one shot tier 9s, and even some tier 10s. Of course, all that damage comes at a price, and that is the price of the premium HESH ammunition, which sets you back a whopping 8000 credits per shell. There is other bad news too. Its cannon is just about the most inaccurate gun in the game, its reload is measured in days, and it carries just 12 shells of ammunition. Sure, there are better tier 10 tank destroyers in the game, but the sheer presence of a loaded and ready to fire FV has enemies shaking in their boots, and the braves once often don’t live to regret their mistake. This is a doomsday cannon on tracks, apart from the nerfs and removal from the tech tree in version 0.9.21 it is the only tank that deserves to be called “Death Star”.

Number 6 – T57 Heavy

From one tier 10 to another, say hello to the first Heavy tank on our list, the T57 Heavy. It marks the end of the American Medium tree, which is filled with auto–loaders, and the T57 Heavy is no exception. It can empty its clip of 4 shells in 6 seconds, and its reload time is less than 24 seconds. With more than 3200 DPM, at that time it was outstanding. It’s an offensive power house. That is why some people hated it. They called it OP, they called it broken. And then there was the other side, the people who owned one. Some of them actually wanted it buffed, and pointed to its sluggish speed, slow aim time, and miserable global win rate. But so is the nature of auto loaders. They have an incredible burst damage potential, and players on the receiving end often don’t react too kindly to being burnt down in 6 seconds. It got slightly nerfed in patch 0.9.3.

Number 5 – Tiger

Most of the tanks on this list are either OP, perceived as OP, or hurt the gameplay. But our pick for number 5 is different. Here is a tank that was feared on the battlefields of World War 2. It is the infamous Tiger. And the best part is, you can actually drive one in World of Tanks. Just imagine the excitement. So it is no surprise that many new players first research the German tech tree, in order to get their hands on this monster. It has to be epic, right? So they get in it, drive out, feeling so completely safe, this is a heavy tank after all, and a mighty Tiger no less, and then they get shot to bits. Then they ask themselves: “What is going on here? It is now that they begin to realize that World of Tanks plays it fast and loose when it comes to historical accuracy. It pits tanks from the early 1940 against post World War 2 tanks, prototypes like the T29 that never saw any combat, or O-Nis, that never existed in the first place. Experienced players know this fact all too well and simply shrug it off. They just move on, and right they are, because at the end of the day, World of Tanks is just an arcade shooter with pre and post-world war II tanks.

Number 4 – T-50-2

The T-50-2 was a tier 5 soviet light tank. It reached its maximum speed of 72 kph with ease and it accelerated like no other tank in the game. It was the closest thing to an actual racing car in World of Tanks. Before physics were introduced, T-50-2 drivers could navigate the battlefield at full speed without any regard for the terrain. But after patch 0.8.0 that changed. They were sliding all over the place. It was hilarious fun. But here is the problem. It wasn’t at all historical. We spent hours upon hours to find out anything about the T-50-2, but except that it was apparently called Object 211, we could not find anything. If it ever truly existed, it sure as hell did not have a 550 HP engine. In patch 0.8.7 it was replaced by the MT-25, and no one really cares about that one. Then in 2019 WG added it back as the Well-Deserved Reward.

Number 3 – AMX 50 Foch 155

All that whining about overpowered high tier tank destroyers probably started more than 10 years ago in patch 0.7.5, when the AMX 50 Foch 155 was added to the game. This tier 10 tank destroyer was the first of its kind to feature an autoloader, capable of firing 3 shots in 10 seconds for a total damage of well over 2500, killing many of the tanks it would meet in one clip. But that wasn’t all. The Foch had very strong frontal armor and was very quick indeed, courtesy of its 1200 horsepower engine. And it was stealthy, too. Needless to say that players cried out and demanded that the Foch be nerfed. They cried for a long time, and in early 2014 they finally got their wish, when in patch 0.8.11 the Foch had its armor weakened, its speed lowered, and its alpha damage reduced by 100 per shot. There are more extreme vehicles in the game these days, but we think that the power creep of late in World of Tanks may have started with this one, the AMX 50 Foch 155.

Number 2 – KV-1S

This one simply had to show up eventually, the dreaded KV-1S. This power house at tier 6 combined great mobility and decent armor with a devastating 122 millimeter cannon. One KV-1S was dangerous enough, but when in a platoon in a tier 6 game, these machines were simply unstoppable. This tank was over-powered for years. The calls for nerfs in the community went on for just as long, but WarGaming didn’t react. So the years went on, and the KV-1S continued to troll at tier 6. Probably sick of all that whining, Wargaming eventually caved in, and the nerf of the KV-1S was coming, and it was to be split into two tanks. That was in 2013. It took more than a year for that to actually happen, but in the fall of 2014, the KV-1S was finally changed. It was moved down a tier, and a new tank, the KV-85 took its place. The KV-1S became a tier 5 for some time. Then it was moved up next to the KV-85. It kept its former speed and agility, and one weapon of choice is a 122 millimeter Howitzer with a massive 450 alpha damage, allowing it to one-shot just about any lightly armored tank lower of its tier. So in essence, WarGaming shut up the player base by agreeing to nerf the KV-1S, and then they proceeded to turn it into another one-shot monster.

Number 1 – Waffenträger auf E 100

You saw that one coming from a mile away, didn’t you? Of course the Waffenträger auf E 100 simply has to take the top step on the podium. And it is easy to see why. Just look at the thing. No tank has ever looked this way, and probably never will. Something like this belongs in a Sci-Fi Movie, and not into World of Tanks. What on earth were WarGaming thinking when they decided that the end of the 2nd German TD line would feature a completely ridiculous Fantasy Tank. The list of issues with this idiotic design is so long, that it deserves its own article. (Soon™)
So let’s focus on the main issues. The WT auf E100 was a tank of the extremes. For starters, this thing had the worst camo in the entire game. It got spotted by everything and everyone. And it is a huge target with a gigantic turret that has no armor. Tier 1 tanks could penetrate it, and Artillery will make it a priority, just itching to drop a tasty HE shell on top of it for maximum damage. Its reload took the better part of a minute, and once it has emptied its clip, it had to hide all the way in the back, like a coward. But on the other hand, it had the most brutal stopping power of any tank in the game. It could clip any tank it met in less than 10 seconds, giving the term burst damage a whole new dimension. Not only that, but the 12.8cm cannon was extremely accurate and fast aiming. That’s hitting weak spots, easy mode. Its impact on the game play was quite severe, and not in a good way. It promotes a campy play style. Nobody wants to get clipped by one of these monsters, and the WT auf E100 driver too couldn’t afford to take any risks, and had to play very passively. And there was another problem with this tank. Many tanks leading up to it, share the same strengths and weaknesses. Great guns, good camo, and no armor. But since the WT auf E100 has no camo, you have to throw everything you have learnt prior, out of the window. A top tier tank should never require a completely different approach to the game, than the tanks that proceeded it. That’s just bad design. It is perhaps one of the biggest blunders that Wargaming has ever committed.
In version 0.9.15 WG removed the WT E 100 directly from the game and replaced it with the Grille 15.

Do you agree with our list? Which tanks do you think are the most controversial ones? Do you want to see more content like this in the future? Let us know in the comments.

27 thoughts on “WoT: 15 Controversial Tanks From The Past

  1. I played this game for a little while, and then I came back, so the story I know here is the golden age of m4 Sherman. but well… I’ve heard other stories at least once. wtf e100 is fun because I can guess the pain of the players at the time just by looking at the video on YouTube 😋

  2. Hellcat was indeed a scourge era marked in WoT history, however so was the Bat chat tier 10 medium, which dominated for several years.

    Tiger II deserves special mention because its been bad since day 1….which is the entire history of WoT. Despite pathetic non genuine intentions by WG over several “buffs”. So much for the most armoured tank of WW2.

    PZ5/4 alpha, unavailable to mere mortals for YEARS only the gods of WG could use one, and it slayed ALL before it (power creep eat your heart out).

    Same for pz 2 j….

    JPZE100 heavy nerf prior to release, yet 183 was later introduced doing what the jpz SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO…a nice kick in the balls to german armour players.

    The great HE nerf that has made pretty much EVERY HE reliant tank USELESS, type 5 etc..EXCEPT GOOD OLD RUSSIAN KV 2, a true workhorse of the masses.

    Then extra special SPESHUL mention needs to go to ALL THE OP russian tanks that have cursed this game for it’s entire existence, the objekts, the IS series, and a sprinkling of the KVs.

    KV5 infamous weakspot r2d2 turret, is a WoT cultural icon for example.
    The russian tanks are particularly easy to use, and from tier 8-10 in all classes they become EXCEPTIONAL, with the heavy tanks have medium tank mobility, speed and reloads while boasting HT armour….and the mediums getting medium tank mobility, light tank speeds, super fast reloads, and HT armour!.
    If you want proof, take a look at t54 5 second reloading most powerful gun, and 1 vs 1 with the 12 second reloading PTA, see who comes out on top!. Quite disgusting.

    To play a russian tank well, one simply has to hold down w, and click the left mouse button on occasion, at their leisure= win.

    And super extra special mention should go to the grille 15, which is what you got when you spent $150 AUD converting xp so you could grab the WTFE100 upon release because you loved collecting ze germans so much. Nice robbery there, WG.

    1. Tiger II deserves special mention because its been bad since day 1….which is the entire history of WoT. Despite pathetic non genuine intentions by WG over several “buffs”. So much for the most armoured tank of WW2.

      They were all quite strong until Daigensui (successfully) campaigned for the entire line to be rebalanced. They’re all still quite competent. In fact, while the T-34/85 is my most played tank, I can confidently look at the buffed Nazi lines and say that their tier 6 and 7 vehicles are better.

      I also don’t think they’ve ever been as weak as such wehraboos have whined. In the hayday of Tiger I whine, I ground it up from stock and a 75% crew to a 58% winrate while 56% overall, and ended up eliting it at a 63% winrate. Am I the greatest player in the game, to post such a winrate with such a trash tank and stock grind? Or are the Tigers just played by terrible players, too busy fantasizing about their impenetrable, undefeatable vehicle oneshotting all comers to properly learn how to utilize their equipment?

      I think we all know what the truth is.

  3. T5 KV-1S is no 1-shot monster. It’s not even that good at all.

    The rest of the list goes like this:

    15-OP
    14-OP
    13-OP
    12-Annoying
    11-OP
    10-OP
    9-OP
    8-OP
    7-OP
    6-OP
    5-Welcome to Wot
    4-Drive out to die
    3-OP
    2-OP
    1-OP

    So yeah nice list. There are other tanks on the same or higher level as the tanks in this list (i.e. 1st-gen TX maus/is-4/t30), but these are the classics. Lotta fun were had 🙂

    1. Well KV-1S when it was a tier 6 but not this tier 6.
      First it was a kV-1s with a long 122mm like the KV-85 got now but better in gun depression or something else in a older WOT.
      Then it goes to tier 5 and lost the 122mm (long) and keep the derp 122mm, then it goes to tier 6 again with a good 85mm

      The most broken tank in wot (besides WT that was stupidly op) was the E5 and the IS-4 when they appear with their 400mm and 380mm heat penetration that broke the game, and make armor useless, Then they got nerfed to the hell

    2. Tier 5 Kv1s used to good, I carried 96,000 credits of gold in mine! It lost a shit ton of credits but I ran at 60% win rate in for months

  4. Finally some good journalism and not the retarded „hehe WG bad, i heard from my sources WG does cocaine, i heard from my sources WG xyz [but never actually delivers xyz]“

    1. I had good memories of that tank. Was my credit farmer back in the day before I got a stable income

  5. I’m disapointed that the T26E4 is not at No. 1, yet alone on the list at all

    Since the T26E4 nerf back in patch 8.8 is the reason why we have so many “broken” premium/reward tanks in-game. But I guess momentary “Meta” is more important than the game’s long term health.

  6. Is this article written only now? As some of the facts are no longer true for quite a time.
    But good reading overall, brings back the “warm memories”. 😉

    1) T18 – it is reintroduced as an artillery already for years.
    2) Not only the M4 Sherman was a king of middle tier derp back in the day, similar 105mm gun was available on Pz.IV, and even on some Tier3 and Tier4 tanks and TD’s. On the lower tiers it created massive havoc and was extreme fun before all the nerfs hit those tanks and shells.
    3) FV215b (183) – you forgot to mention, that it was rebalanced/nerfed couple of times (HESH pen reduction, mobility nerfs), and those changes crippled the Death star a lot.
    4) KV-1S – it is not a Tier5 tank for quite a while now, it was moved to Tier5 and back to Tier6 not long after that. And as any other tank with a HE gun, after the HE nerfs, that gun is pointless now. Even with HEAT there are just a few tanks, which you can scare these days, as on Tier6 everyone has more armor and let’s not forget the general low tier HP buff few patches back, which again reduced the one-shot abilities of any tank.
    5) You forgot the most important record in this list as a position “0”, the dream of sealclubbers – T67 (or T49, as it was called in it’s glory days). All what you wrote about Hellcat, also applies to this one, and additionally T67 was even more mobile, had better camo and was facing lower tier tanks. If I remember correctly, it also got nerfed couple of times, but still in the hands of good players, it can do crazy things.

    EDITED:
    And I forgot one honorable mention to this list – chinese tank 122mm gun 300mm HEAT pen. At some point I remember those shells were availabe even on Tier7 or Tier8 pref-mm premium heavies and with them you could auto-aim almost anything you met on the battlefield with high chance of pen.

    1. The funny thing is I got into the illusion that the KV-1S is a tier5. I took inspiration from old videos and I mixed up some stuff which I’m going to correct eventually.

  7. Nice nostalgia ride, my account is old enough to have gone through almost everyone of these buggers except the Type 59 (it had already been removed when I joined).

    I mostly agree with the list, but I would’ve done one thing differently – honorable mention to the Tiger as the ultimate bait (historically legendary, a complete turd in the game), and replaced in the list by the T26E4 Super Pershing. It was one of my earliest premiums and really in a frontal engagement it just would not die, the armor was completely silly. Then WG thought it would be cool to nerf the armor into uselesness, and the backlash was so bad they partially reverted the nerf (as it is now, while not as paper-y as the fully nerfed iteration, it is still a sorry shadow of what it used to be).

  8. Who remembers the day when the lefh had a 5 second reload and was a tier 4? I do.. Yes it actively seen and met tier 3s and 2s t2 lights had to fight this monster lol pzb2s and pz2js were screaming in fear lol

  9. AUSF J ….. Helloooooo?
    Most iconic… C’mon
    That 1-150€ rat….

    Only powercreep stopped it.
    Also, it bashes newcomer’s
    Super healthy for a new Player flow.

    Seal clubbing in packs was sport

    1. I remember getting the Pz II J for super cheap during an event, played a few games but the gun is completely useless without gold, and even with gold it barely manages to pen same tiers.

      If people paid 100 euros or more for this thing, they are out of their minds.

  10. I can remember 10 minute battles with one elc, or one Cromwell or one t67 winning the battle alone.
    Those players are gone, those battles are gone and those tanks are no longer OP

  11. How can one the most OP tank can be forgotten that should have been between 1st or 2nd place.. literally Obj 268 v5 TD. That thing was the most OP upon release … what a research without mentioning it xdddd

    1. I have like 20 more tanks to write about, it takes some time to look after them
      ‘268V5 was a CN server exclusive for years, I’m not going to mention a tank which wasn’t available on RU/EU/NA at the time (2010-2017)

  12. Another premium with special MM, there was also the Mini-Maus, the infamous Pz38h735, in the controversial tank list.
    Slow but that was nearly impossible to penetrate at tier 2 with its special MM.

    And where is the T22SR, the medium T10 with an armor of heavy, that was so OP that players rigged to get it ?

  13. Thanks. I enjoyed this article. I have only played the game for about 2 years, and much of this was new to me.

  14. Perhaps one of the most hated tank in the game, the infamous Type 59. It had one reputation: It was completely over-powered. But in reality it really wasn’t. The Type 59 is a good tier 8 medium tank, nothing more, nothing less. As a premium tank is earns the player a lot of credits, but so is the nature of premium tanks. So why all the hate, then? In order to understand that, we have to go way back into the early days of World of Tanks. The Type 59 of that era had very strong armor, was highly mobile, and it received preferential matchmaking

    This is a bit of revisionism, having played since around the middle of closed beta. Tier 8 MT’s were rather poor and limited to trading shots at weakspots with heavy tanks, or simply providing overwatch to stop LT’s from sneaking past.

    The Type 59 was none of this. It was a fully-featured MT with good armor layout, workable gun handling (people who said it was garbage–in its defense–had never played T-43 with LB-1, Type 59 was very normal for its time; just average), good gun depression, and extremely good mobility… and it had preferential MM, with an armor layout not much different than the T-54.

    It wasn’t until the FV4202 was added later that a normal medium tank with functional armor, good gun depression, and good speed was available… years later.

    Type 59 only looks sane as medium tanks of its era were buffed over time and Type 59 has only been buffed occasionally. Compare 8.4 Type 59 to Panther II or Pershing and the differences will be night and day.

    And since this tank was one you could purchase with real money, it was perceived as pay to win, by some people.

    T-54 was the end of the tree at tier 9 for Soviet mediums and definitely proved why–buy premium account (see the P2W whitewashing here!)–so you can platoon with two other players, instead of only one. Then, you can enter the battle and operate as 1 unit, completely sweeping an enemy flank made up of maybe one or two tier 9’s and mostly tier 6, 7’s, a couple 8’s. In practice, it wasn’t much different than a heavy of the same tier, except it went 55kmh.

    And now with Type 59 you can do the same at tier 8 to tier 4’s!… if you bought a subscription.

    Don’t forget that gold ammo could only be purchased with gold until much later, after Type 59 had justifiably earned its reputation. Of course, a tank completely immune to standard shells in normal play requiring real money to defeat is P2W.

    WoT is less P2W now than it was, despite appearances. It is, however, much more heavily monetized. There’s many more opportunities to dump money into the game–just, without the tangible results of yesteryear.

  15. So they get in it, drive out, feeling so completely safe, this is a heavy tank after all, and a mighty Tiger no less, and then they get shot to bits. Then they ask themselves: “What is going on here? It is now that they begin to realize that World of Tanks plays it fast and loose when it comes to historical accuracy. It pits tanks from the early 1940 against post World War 2 tanks, prototypes like the T29 that never saw any combat,

    This is not the case at all. War efforts are not focused on individual vehicles; they’re fought with units, supply lines, and greater army movements. You cannot possibly implement these into an arcade shooter.

    Of course, the Tiger I outmatched an early production Sherman, which is why they were consistently outfought by the Shermans. The Shermans were produced in far greater numbers. They were not fighting individual Shermans as in-game.

    Additionally, many nations had tanks, but did not participate in the fighting, or did not execute their designs. Limiting the game to what existed is very, very limiting in scope.

    To alleviate these issues, Wargaming decided to tier vehicles by level of technology. They gave the Tiger I the long 8,8 gun and significantly enhanced view range and unrealistically good gun depression, so it could accomplish the same role in-game as it did in life–that of an oppressive sniper, with withering firepower and good vision for a heavy tank. Being able to see well out of your vehicle while buttoned up is a luxury even the Sherman did not have until far later in the war efforts, and a noted advantage of the Tiger.

    Historical accuracy for the Tiger I, even early on, meant using superior positions to maintain a good 800m-1200m overwatch, where the Tiger I’s gun was very effective and the Allied guns weren’t. It did not include driving into combat where the enemy could shoot you. As Tiger 131 demonstrates, just because your armor can protect you, it cannot protect your vehicle from being disabled.

    Is it historical accuracy to ask the Tiger I player hold fast to the same doctrine and tactics used by the Tiger I crews? Or is it historical accuracy to throw such learnings to the wind and fulfill the player’s wishes of how they perceive combat as it used to be?

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