T-62A Sport Review

T-62A Sport
(Do mind that this was written 13th of June, 2014)

The T-62A Sport is the prestigious tank that you’ll get to drive in the Himmelsdorf Championship.
This is the epitome of Russian bias, but sadly for you Americans, it carries no gold whatsoever.
But how do you maximize your performance with this thing, in the beautiful sport of Football?

Himmelsdorf Championship:

This 3vs3 gamemode is based upon the greatest sport on earth after skiing; Football, or soccer for the uneducated, living on the other side of the pond.
Both teams spawn in a triangle formation, with random positions every game.

The ball obviously spawns in the center.

The main and only objective of this gamemode is to get the ball into the enemy’s goal, which should be self-explanatory.
Each time you score, the ball will magically move to the center again, so don’t expect an easy recovery.

The game ends either by 7min timer (The ingame description is lying), or by scoring 3 goals.
The team with the most scoring goals wins the game, otherwise it’s a draw.
You’ll be rewarded 500xp for participation and 500xp more for victories, as in 1000xp total.

The Tank Itself:

You have the most communistic armor possible in the game, so nothing will harm you, but expect getting tracked… a lot. Like, half the game.

With a 1500 horse-powered engine and weighing about 37tonns, you’ll get around 40HP/ton.
This will allow you to reach that top speed of 60km/h pretty quickly, though the tank has a very shit reverse speed, so it’s better to turn your front towards the target, than reversing.
Add the consumables, and you’ll get 46HP/ton.
The gun itself has most soft stats as the normal T-62A, except 8 seconds reload speed, without skills and equipment.
Everything else not mentioned is standard T-62A values.

Gearing Up:

The equipment/consumables setup is could be done 2 ways; Maximum recovery or maximum harasser. The last one is probably the worst of the two, but it suits the goalkeeper.

For maximum recovery, this would be the best setup;

Sure you can change the lend-lease oil with extra combat rations, but that’ll hurt your wallet.
If you have a spare, or want to waste money, use Vertical Stabilizers instead of Torsion Bars.
And as a harasser you basically just use the rammer instead of the repair box. (Not exactly a big change, but fuck you, that’s not the point.)
Also, engine module health is more or less infinite, so you can keep that removed speed governor on for the whole match.

And the vehicle carries only HE. Finally a gamemode where Xen can enjoy himself.

With skills, go for repairs. Or go full retard and retrain one of your existing commanders.
And exterior camouflage isn’t required, as you’re going to be spotted all the time.

Behavior, Roles and Tactics:

The First Attack:

I would first advise to get a 3-man platoon, as playing alone is like stabbing yourself continuously in the thigh, and this whole section is not written towards that purpose.
The first thing you do after that timer has ended is to activate your speed governor and start going fast.

The first approach on the ball is crucial, as you could easily take the lead by abusing a slow responsive enemy.

Going full ram on the ball, trying to align yourself with your platoonmate, so that the ball hopefully flies towards the enemies turf.
You could also try blocking the opposite approaching enemy tank, to allow your team to sneak by their first line of the defense, but has to be decided quickly, and tends only to work if he’s not going as fast as you.

The person spawning in the goal area can be very useful as a sniper, either going for enemy tracks or helping out with the ball’s momentum by shooting it.
He could also assist with the early rush, but it is not advised.

Goal!:

If you see that your platoonmate is about to score, or that the ball is about to go into the goal, quickly recover yourself back to the center of the map, as the ball will drop in the center just a few seconds after the goal has been made.

Most equalizers are done this way, and it’s a broken feature that can easily be abused by both teams.
“Goalkeepers” can easily take this to their advantage, by shooting the ball towards the enemy goal, and helping the team with another easy goal.

The Rest of the Match:

Your behavior throughout the match is obviously very important, but very different from normal public games.

Instead of going in straight lines towards your target, approach in curves.
This gives you higher chances of tracking your target, or changing the direction of the ball by shooting it or gently touching it with your sides.
It might also help your platoonmates by giving them more space to drive in.

Be careful going full frontal ram, as ball physic has its own RNG that will never work in your favor.
Try instead to track him before impact and creep past him while he gets mad.

If you’ve scored once, one cheeky tactic is to have 2 vehicles defending the goal, while shooting enemies tracks, and the 3^rd going for the ball.
This will certainly make some people go ballistic, and throw some kurwas your direction.

If you ever find yourself in a huge clusterfuck against the wall, which will happen frequently with these bootlicking pubbies, give them the space and concentrate on firing at the ball instead of sharing paint. Wallkissing is just time consuming and you won’t score any goals this way.

Also, remember to stay on the move as much as possible, as your tank is as much as a weapon as your gun. Ram the fuck out of them if it can help your teammate.
You might also get some nice air, if you’re pro MLG enough.

Replays: (WoT v0.9.1.0)

Here is a 60MB package of 62 replays that includes good plays, and some really sore defeats.
- Note: Package was sadly deleted.

Summary:

Fun gamemode, if you don’t mind taking a break from statpadding, golden showers or endless grinds.
I actually decided to start grinding the Russian mediums because of this tank, but of course I need my six sense first!
For EU, 50 victories would give you a “free” Gun Laying Drive, which took me 79 games.
50/13/6, as final score (Victories, draws, defeats).
It should also be know that I in total played liked ~120 battles in this gamemode.

So say hi to Kositsyn, my ever first Russian commander;