New Player Question About Britain

[Tolstoyevski Tsuyasa]

Is there something broken about Britain? Some enemies I can penetrate, but the majority I cant penetrate even on unangled surfaces, and when they do there is almost no damage to the enemy. But I'm always getting one-shot by other nations with shells that seem to always penetrate from any distance, and always kill all my crew. Maybe there's something else about british vehicles that makes them good, but in all honesty playing them first almost removed any desire I had to try giving this game a chance. instead i just moved on to sweden

[Wandering Flare]

Britain uses exclusively solid shot ammo, so you are essentially shooting a bullet that needs to be aimed at the ammo to effectively oneshot people, meanwhile most other nations use APHE which detonates after penetrating the armor, thus a lot easier to oneshot the whole crew.

[Lunar]

Hey man, I'm not really a super elite player or anything, I started with the russian tanks years ago and those were alright, swapped to German and now Italian as of recently, If you want a fun tree that has a pretty enjoyable spread of vehicles I'd honest recommend Italy the most especially in lower tiers, there's some fun full auto/btr like vehicles to play with. Obviously stick with Britain if there's something in there you're super interested in getting.

[Tolstoyevski Tsuyasa]

So shouldn't their vehicles be at a lower battle rating then? I don't exactly understand how a Crusader II is supposed to compete against a sherman

[Wandering Flare]

Originally posted by Tolstoyevski Tsuyasa:

So shouldn't their vehicles be at a lower battle rating then? I don't exactly understand how a Crusader II is supposed to compete against a sherman

There are some tiny weakspots you can hit, but when it comes to light tanks against mediums in early WW2 the general philosophy is to flank and engage from the side as your guns will almost never be good enough to effectively fight frontally.

You were also in a full or at least partial uptier, which btw is a 1.0 BR maximum difference so in your 2.7 Crusader II you can face up to 3.7 tanks and as low as 1.7 tanks if you're lucky to get a downtier.

Britain generally has high pen for the price of being slow, paper-thin and not having explosive filler in their shells. If you're not in it for some specific high tier tank and you're not a masochist I'd suggest playing some other nation, though France and Japan are also not advised because their early tiers are just as hellish.

[jaxjace]

Originally posted by Tolstoyevski Tsuyasa:

So shouldn't their vehicles be at a lower battle rating then? I don't exactly understand how a Crusader II is supposed to compete against a sherman

Its not. The Crusader MK2 is 2.7, the First Sherman is 3.3 in order to fight the Sherman as the crusader you will have to be unlucky and fight it in an uptier. Even using your best round the Upper Front Plate of the Sherman is immune to your rounds. You will need to go through the lower plate, Machine gun port, or flat parts of the turret mantlet. In other words, you are supremely sub optimal compared to the Sherman, but you CAN still kill him, just not likely from the front.

[shadain597]

Originally posted by jaxjace:

Its not. The Crusader MK2 is 2.7, the First Sherman is 3.3 in order to fight the Sherman as the crusader you will have to be unlucky and fight it in an uptier.

Uh, you say that like a 0.7 uptier is uncommon in this game, when it is actually fairly common.

[xCrossFaith]

UK is my main nation but I have to say it's probably one of the worst picks if you are just starting in the game

You have to be EXTRA accurate with their tanks due to the lack of explosive filler in their ammo, so it will take more practice for you to do well in those than with tanks of pretty much any other nation

[jaxjace]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by jaxjace:

Its not. The Crusader MK2 is 2.7, the First Sherman is 3.3 in order to fight the Sherman as the crusader you will have to be unlucky and fight it in an uptier.

Uh, you say that like a 0.7 uptier is uncommon in this game, when it is actually fairly common.

Its about as common as every other matchup, 1.7 2.0 2.3 2.7 3.0 3.3 3.7, all equally likely.

[Your_White_Knight]

Originally posted by Tolstoyevski Tsuyasa:

New Player Question About Britain

Is there something broken about Britain? Some enemies I can penetrate, but the majority I cant penetrate even on unangled surfaces, and when they do there is almost no damage to the enemy. But I'm always getting one-shot by other nations with shells that seem to always penetrate from any distance, and always kill all my crew. Maybe there's something else about british vehicles that makes them good, but in all honesty playing them first almost removed any desire I had to try giving this game a chance. instead i just moved on to sweden

Nope, not "broken" at all

Good luck playing Japan

[shadain597]

Originally posted by jaxjace:

Originally posted by shadain597:

Uh, you say that like a 0.7 uptier is uncommon in this game, when it is actually fairly common.

Its about as common as every other matchup, 1.7 2.0 2.3 2.7 3.0 3.3 3.7, all equally likely.

Those aren't all equal. If we're rolling a 7-sided die, it isn't a properly balanced die. Point being, chalking it up to bad luck when it's going to happen on a regular basis, as an intended game mechanic, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Particularly in a new player's thread, it could lead to some unrealistic expectations.

[shadain597]

Originally posted by Tolstoyevski Tsuyasa:

Maybe there's something else about british vehicles that makes them good, but in all honesty playing them first almost removed any desire I had to try giving this game a chance. instead i just moved on to sweden

Sorry for the late reply, but I just noticed this last sentence. Early British ground vehicles are kinda quirky. One could argue that IRL design considerations and limitations are really on full display. Solid shot would be easier to make and store, and IRL most tanks will get abandoned if a shell punches through to the crew compartment, so post-pen isn't as important as it is in game. British tank design basically had two schools: the cavalry tanks and the infantry support tanks. The former group needed speed, while the latter functioned as more of a mobile bunker/barricade for infantry.

As for playing these tanks, I'd either flank or hide behind a wall of allies. In the latter scenario, you generally have the pen and reload speed to knock out main guns and/or the gunner, leaving the target vulnerable to your allies' more devastating explosive rounds. I don't really think of Sweden as being all that much easier to learn than the UK. If you are looking for a more beginner-friendly nation, I'd have to recommend USSR.

[Ceoran]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by jaxjace:

Its about as common as every other matchup, 1.7 2.0 2.3 2.7 3.0 3.3 3.7, all equally likely.

Those aren't all equal. If we're rolling a 7-sided die, it isn't a properly balanced die. Point being, chalking it up to bad luck when it's going to happen on a regular basis, as an intended game mechanic, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Particularly in a new player's thread, it could lead to some unrealistic expectations.

there are only 4 possible BRs, not 7. Your own BR, +0.3/0.4, +0.6/0.7 and +1.0. Each of them are filled by 25% of the team.
A battles BR is commonly referred to by the highest tank in the matchs/lineup. E.g. if the BR range is 1.7-2.7 the battle's BR is 2.7

[shadain597]

Originally posted by Ceoran:

Originally posted by shadain597:

Those aren't all equal. If we're rolling a 7-sided die, it isn't a properly balanced die. Point being, chalking it up to bad luck when it's going to happen on a regular basis, as an intended game mechanic, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Particularly in a new player's thread, it could lead to some unrealistic expectations.

there are only 4 possible BRs, not 7. Your own BR, +0.3/0.4, +0.6/0.7 and +1.0. Each of them are filled by 25% of the team.
A battles BR is commonly referred to by the highest tank in the matchs/lineup. E.g. if the BR range is 1.7-2.7 the battle's BR is 2.7

Jax literally just listed all 7 possible BR match-ups for a 2.7 vehicle. Please try counting. Just because you don't see all 7 in each individual match doesn't mean they don't count.

[Ceoran]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by Ceoran:

there are only 4 possible BRs, not 7. Your own BR, +0.3/0.4, +0.6/0.7 and +1.0. Each of them are filled by 25% of the team.
A battles BR is commonly referred to by the highest tank in the matchs/lineup. E.g. if the BR range is 1.7-2.7 the battle's BR is 2.7

Jax literally just listed all 7 possible BR match-ups for a 2.7 vehicle. Please try counting. Just because you don't see all 7 in each individual match doesn't mean they don't count.

And I explained why it's only 4 and not 7.

[Toblm]

Originally posted by Ceoran:

Originally posted by shadain597:

Jax literally just listed all 7 possible BR match-ups for a 2.7 vehicle. Please try counting. Just because you don't see all 7 in each individual match doesn't mean they don't count.

And I explained why it's only 4 and not 7.

You missed the 3 variants of downtiers. Which despite popular opinions do happen regularly.

Of course if you lump the downtiers into "your" BR, then its only fair the uptiers are lumped the same. So either there are 7 BR match ups or there is 1 BR match up.