Archer is Useless - BR Discussions

[Ahhtaczy]

Grinding up the British tanks and you will have a very fun and enjoyable experience. The fast and agile cromwells will provide you with a good suitable gun carrage. That is until you get to the Archer, this tank is completely garbage. I will tell you why.

Keep in mind I am an experienced tank and aircraft player in game, grinding up the trees in four nations. But no tank has frustrated me more than the tank destroyer that is the Archer.

Pros
- Superior Gun at Battle Rating
- Ok Gun Depression ( Gets the Job Done )
- Decent Speed - Based on valentine ( Not the fastest )

Cons
- Terrible Armor
- Bad spalling affect (damage affects) - Result from overpenetrations - At battle rating its overkill
- Terrible manuverability - Try turning this thing at slow speed
- Bad reverse gear - This is rather annoying

BR Discussion
Lots of my time as a British tanker in game is facing the Germans and Russians.
The Germans are not a problem but the Russians are constantly destroying the Allied team. Of course the main killer of the allied team are the Russian T-34 tanks.

T-34 1940 - BR - 3.3 Cromwell IV - 3.3
T-34 1941 - BR - 3.7 Cromwell I - 3.7
T-34 1942 - BR - 3.7 Archer TD - 3.3

These tanks here in my opinion are the end-game for any tanks facing them. As the British an enemy team full of these you're chances are at this battle-rating you are going to lose. You're gun cannot penetrate them frontally without shooting the turret ( which is very trolly). While the T-34 and penetrate you almost anywhere on you're tank in standard combat range on close maps. You must use ambush attacks against these tanks and hit them hard in the sides.

If you are playing British tanks, please do not use this tank ( archer ) . You will most likely lose against other more "normal" tanks. The gun isnt worth the pain and time it is to get into position.

[Lorofish]

Archer is fine (spaded it).
It's not the best and no matter how low you put the BR a lot of people would still struggle using it. The fact is, it's just not an amazing design. There is a reason why the design has not been used on any other vehicles. You are not supposed to rely on your armour as this is a glass cannon. So the bad armour can't really be counted for as a reason to lower the BR.

Still, with that "reverse" speed you can easily go on a hill, take a shot, and then reverse back into cover. The gun is the same as the Achilles and has good penetration. Take the lower penetration round if you are overpenetrating. The actual reverse gear should only be used in urban maps, which isn't exactly where this vehicle can shine anyway.

[Ahhtaczy]

Originally posted by Lorofish:

Archer is fine (spaded it).
It's not the best and no matter how low you put the BR a lot of people would still struggle using it. The fact is, it's just not an amazing design. There is a reason why the design has not been used on any other vehicles. You are not supposed to rely on your armour as this is a glass cannon. So the bad armour can't really be counted for as a reason to lower the BR.

Still, with that "reverse" speed you can easily go on a hill, take a shot, and then reverse back into cover. The gun is the same as the Achilles and has good penetration. Take the lower penetration round if you are overpenetrating. The actual reverse gear should only be used in urban maps, which isn't exactly where this vehicle can shine anyway.

To me it doesn't matter about the cannon and armor. That much doesn't bother me. The thing that angers me is the manuverability and overall reverse rate. The valetine tank isn't great base, because it was slow ( infantry tank ). The camera also is terrible and often you must hold C (free-look) to drive properly.

[Zippy.do.dar]

I liked the acher you just have to plan alot
hit and hide as above

[Squirtbottle]

I think the Archer is really hard to learn but is okay, it definitely has to be a long range tank or else you'll be an easy target. I personally also don't like it, mostly because of the reload rate and maneuverability of its traverse (tank traverse). It's similar to the Marder III, which has terrible armor and horrendous reload; I really like the Marder III H though.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Archer was pain enough to spade, you would think that when you put gun barrel backwards in the tank then you would give it better reverse gear but no. One of the worst TDs out there right with SU-122 and StuH-42.

[kiro the avenger!]

i think its just perhaps the tank least suited to warthunder right now
ambush tactics in this game still require you to drive into position, so the archer either has an absoletly awful forward speed, or really long set up/take down times depending on whether or not you drive gun forwards to backwards
and thats on the maps where any kind of sniper ambush can be set up, theres so much urban combat around you cant just snipe

[Illusionyary]

The Archer is a novelty tank, I play it when I want some laughs and honestly I do okay in it. You just need to find a nice secure location and not move from it. I managed to get 7 kills in RB with it once just by sitting behind the hill on Poland near the C flag.