Gaijin has made some very good changes for the economy, so I applaud them for that. Alas there is still much to fix in my opinion, anyways here is my review...

While I do recommend this game it has a pretty decent learning curve and can be very very frustrating at times. Couple that with a very long and arduous grind for the top tier tanks it is not for the faint of heart, those without much freetime, or those of you who can't just buy your way to top tier

DISCLAIMER:

You can spend money on premium tanks/planes/naval. Some of these are incredibly strong and are borderline op *cough cough* 2S38 *cough cough*. These make it much easier in the grind for higher rank vehicles so if you have the money I would definitely would buy a couple paired with a premium account.


GROUND REALISTIC BATTLES:

This game can be very silly and enjoyable with friends, and if that is what you are looking for then you will enjoy the ♥♥♥♥ out of the game in the low tiers.

Mid-tier being ranks being late 4 to early 5 are a struggle for most every country and it varies on when you will feel like you hit a wall in these tiers depending on which country you are playing. But trust me it gets better later. This is also the tier of the genuinely good players. Angle, round type, and where you shoot on someones tank are what will determine if you will have fun here. If you find a tank that is seemingly unkillable remember the name and go test the protection analysis when previewing that tank.

Top tier is currently plagued with nothing but laser guided missile spam from drones to planes to helicopters, but when you aren't being bombed spammed to hell then it can be quite rewarding getting long range kills and watching the russian turrets go flying off their tanks.

AIR REALISTIC/ARCADE:

I don't really play much air realistic unless I'm going for a specific fighter or bomber but overall I'd say that air arcade is probably the most fun in this game especially when using biplanes or jets its just very goofy all the dogfights

NAVAL:

Does anyone actually play this?

In reality though its okay... not super enjoyable cause the games take forever and feel like you are shooting peas at each other. Personal opinion though if you want to play a naval game I would much rather play WoW than try to play/understand war thunder naval combat.

HELPFUL TIPS:

DO NOT RUN YOUR ENTIRE AMMO LOAD! You will become a rocket ship if you do. Also regarding ammo, the rounds you research cost money to refill after the game is over so make sure you aren't running a ton of different round types. I only ever run 2 different at a time.

If you plan on making the grind to top tier, pick 2 or 3 of the actual vehicle lines to go down. This will help focus your research making it more "rewarding" and you will progress a lot faster.

Angling your tank is hands down the most op strat you could possibly do, instead of them having to only shoot through 100mm of armor you have effectively made then now have to shoot through 200-300mm of armor.

Always help repair friendlies if the coast is clear, otherwise tow them out or kill the guy shooting them. You also get free silver lions for helping repair

Make sure your first two modification researches are for parts and FPE otherwise you will only be able to fully repair while on a cap point you control, and without FPE you won't be able to put out those pesky engine fires.

As I said for my mid-tier review, if you can't seem to kill a tank then go into the protection analysis when previewing the tank

[country tree] -> find tank -> right click -> preview -> armor -> protection analysis

Anyways that's all for my review, so good luck out there tankers or pilots!!