Balthazars

So, the Caernarvon in 2019...yep, still OP. After getting mega-buffed, this thing is now one of the best tier 8 tanks in the game. It's not as well-rounded as the IS-3 but in the right circumstances where you can leverage its strengths, it will blow all the opposition away. The DPM is absolutely insane. The alpha is more than reasonable given the rate of fire. The gun handling is pretty decent (aim time is a bit slow but it can snap reasonably well). The gun callibre is enough to reliably track opponents - and oh, if they don't have a repair kit available, this thing track-kills enemies like no other (so many times you will kill near full-health enemy heavy tanks who lack repair skill and who either don't have a repair kit or its on cooldown). The turret is excellent (only really had issues with high-tier HEAT on the turret forehead), and the hull is good enough to reliably bounce lower tiers and troll when angled same and occasionally higher tier guns. What's bad? The mobility isn't great. It has a great huge fat ass and horrid hull deck which means that arty - especially the low-tier fast, firing bastards (tier 6 arties will murder this thing as they can do 350+ damage reliably to you per shot if they know how to aim) - will end you pretty quickly. Penetration is weak when going up against tier-10 superheavies from the front, but hey, you're a tier 8. 95 games (without a premium account as I've let it lapse), 58.95% win rate, average damage of 1,900 and 589 assist. I managed to Mastered it once, which took a ridiculous 1,515 base XP, which gives an idea of what good players are capable of in this thing on a regular basis. The win rate for me is only below the O-Ho for tier 8s, and the only one tank that has comparable is the Cent I (which for some reason has a very high win rate, over more games too). The DPG is the highest of all my tier 8s, about 100 damage more than the IS-3. This thing is utterly insane. And it's fun to play too. Keeper.

Tried it just now a little bit. I agree starting with just 8 ammo is ridiculous. My first game, I only found 2 green crates (no ammo) before my first encounter with an enemy. Because he also isn't an idiot, it's a bit of a duel and we're bouncing shots off each other. Except I run out of ammo before he does (he had killed another player) and then I'm left trying to run away to find more ammo. Radar ping the map...not a single ammo crate in sight (plenty of green). By the time you run further, you just run into more enemies, and because you are all the same speed, it's very hard to lose someone, especially if they are set on killing you. So frustrating. Not sure I can stand to keep on grinding in this mode, it looks like it has the capacity to be irritating as all heck.

Used up my two fuel yesterday shortly after it dropped, without much information. It didn't seem much fun. At level 1, trying to stop 4 Panthers at the end when standard ammo bounces off the side and half the team of pubbies are already dead (i.e. used up all 3 of their tanks) means there is no hope of victory. Another game-mode where the grind seems absolutely unreal (they've killed Frontline in this way too). It's like WG is determined to make grinding in the standard game as quick as possible while simultaenously every event has a torturous, unrealistic grind unless you play the game like a full-time job. While a piece of improved equipment is pretty nice carrot given the bond cost, the game limit per day means you're pretty screwed in terms of your progress if you get unlucky in just one game.

I thought most people grew out of designing double-barrelled tanks once they got past the age of 6... It looks ridiculous, and it's hard to think of a way it could be designed where it would not be ridiculously OP.

So, the T20 in May 2019... Still a good tank at tier 7. It has great (if no longer that special after the introduction of the Leo and the Italian line) alpha for a medium in this tier, with quite good penetration (especially gold ammo), excellent mobility and flexibility with gun depression. Has a relatively small profile so can do sort-of-scouting roles when absolutely required. On the downside, the gun handling isn't great, although still nowhere near as rage-inducing compared to say the Swedish Leo, and the rate of fire is as expected a bit on the slow side. Armour is also pretty much non-existent and you will get penned by most things. Overall though the package is nicely balanced, and the tank is probably one of the best mediums in the tier, and even when bottom tier the gun and mobility means that you're never going to be completely useless. 70 games to finish the grind, 57% win rate, 1,256 DPG - right on par with my T-43, only a little less than the P43 ter and way better than my Leo.

I'm pretty happy with it. There's probably only one map which I totally hate in all tank types at all times - and that is Mountain Pass, which is the single most restrictive and corridory map in the entire game, which I hate with an absolute passion. It is awful to play as a slow heavy (long drive to get anywhere useful, and that crossing point in high tiers often means losing HP), awful as a paper medium (no flanking opportunities), awful as a scout (few safe spots to actually spot anything), half the map isn't useful, and it is entirely possible due to bad deployment/imbalanced teams to get trapped in one third of the map for the entire game. Hate it in all circumstances. Delighted to have it as my single map excluded.

So, in early 2019, I have just finished grinding the BP. As others have noted, after the torture that is the Churchill VII, this feels at first like a decent tank. Then you realise that it's actually a really bad tank, but you were so traumatised by the Churchill VII that even the BP feels decent in comparison. The main problem is that it still has the same crappy 20kph top speed. It gets to it and holds it a bit better, but it still does not go anywhere fast, and given you don't gain much in way of armour for such a poor top speed, it remains the number one drawback of the tank. Speaking of armour, while it's better than the Churchill VII, especially the turret, it is still flat and riddled with weakspots, and can rarely be relied upon to bounce things except when top tier. The gun is an improvement on the Churchill VII too, but is by far the worst for tier 7 heavies, with poor alpha, a rate of fire that doesn't quite make up for the poor alpha (4+ second reload is often not enough to squeeze out that second shot), and the low calibre of the gun means you also struggle to track opponents. Mostly the problem is that no one takes you or you alpha as a threat and are often more than willing to trade with you. Penetration is bad on its standard rounds and so-so with gold, but the gold is damned expensive and you will run deficits when spamming it (which happens often). It's not particularly fun and I am glad to be through it. 65 games, 1,098 average damage (by far the worst for my tier 7 heavies, which are all at the 1,200 to 1,500 DPG range), but somehow managed to win 65.45% of my games.

Have now finished the grind. 220 games with a horrible 46% win rate, with 1,963 DPG (for comparison, that is the second best DPG for me in a tier 9 medium, better than the E50, Cent 7/1 and T54, only behind the 430 - I have better win rates in all of these tanks). I want to like this tank, and on many levels, I do like this tank, but for me it is totally cursed and I cannot win reliably in it at all. It has a lot going for it, the clip if you get to dump it is 1,080 damage which means in the right situation you can go from not having done much damage to spitting out a 3-4k damage game just like that. It's two-shot system giving you 700+ damage is also extremely good without totally crippling the overall DPM means it's also very flexible. It's highly mobile, the gun handling is okay-ish, and it can put up some good view range numbers. The major down-side is the total lack of armour, meaning you will get penned by HE-slingers very frequently and arty will ruin your life. I had one stretch of games where I was full-penned by arty for 700+ damage for five consecutive games. Also takes a ton of module and crew damage. I like it, but somehow I hate it also because I just cannot win regularly in it and I cannot repair the win rate.

Ah, so it's not just me then... I hate wheeled vehicles just for this. High ping makes hitting them a freaking nightmare. As for the changes... my poor 430, I didn't think it was overpowered at all. The 430U nerf doesn't seem that significant and it will likely remain very good, unless its gun handling actually is enough to make it 'bad' like it is supposed to. STB seems strange, nerf its penetration and shell velocity and some other stuff in return for dispersion buffs and the medium tank siege mode? I get it will make it more unique but the penetration nerf seems way too much for a tank that is, in their own words, supposed to 'brawl' which means fighting super-heavies frontally on most maps. Leo could be interesting, but it's still a paper tank in a corridor meta.

I have a personal hatred of Mountain Pass, so that will probably end up being my pick to veto.

No, no, no, no, no please no. If there is one thing from the old days that this game does not need, it is getting one-shot by AP firing arty again.

Recently finished grinding this tank. How does it stack up in 2019 for an okay-ish player? On one hand, it's kind of good, on the other hand, it's kind of bad. The good is that is has a massive clip that can do serious amounts of damage to someone if you get them in the right conditions, including in some cases clipping out the entirety of a lower tier tank, or with some high-rolls, even same tier tanks. 1,800 burst damage is definitely something that can make you very dangerous in the right circumstances. The problem is that the right circumstances are rare where you can unload the entire clip due to it being 6 shells. Plus then you're powerless for 45 seconds, and given you have zero armour, you have no option but to cower like a little ***** during the reload, because even pretending to poke is risky because you never really bounce anything and don't have a lot of health. Gun handling also leaves something to be desired, despite decent penetration, you tend to bounce and miss a lot too, wasting shells. Mobility is decent but not as awesome as I had hoped for a paper tank, and while you can sort of keep up with mediums, you won't outpace most of them in a straight-line fight, and can't run away from them too much either. As with all autoloaders you can't really operate independently, but this is especially true with the 50-100 due to the huge inter-clip reload. Basically oscillates between awesome and utter trash, with a bunch of mediocre in the middle. Not really a keeper in my opinion. 110 games, 55% win rate, 1,568 damage per game, which is decent enough for me. Not as good as my best tier 8s but not my worst either.

Would take it just for the reduced damage from splash/non-direct hits and reduced stun duration. Especially on paper tanks (like the Standard B which I am grinding currently, which suffers badly against arty) it could potentially make a big difference. Suffering 400+ hp damage on a non-direct hit is pretty frustrating. However, one of the biggest issues with arty at the moment is tier 6 and tier 5 arty and their rate of fire, which I note hasn't been touched at all. These arties, like the Lef, the FV304, the M44 and the Grille etc. fire so damned fast and do so much damage to low tier tanks that don't have a lot of armour that it is entirely possible for one of these focusing you to kill you inside 3 minutes, with not a damned thing you can do to stop it (especially against those that have very high firing arcs). Low tiers are even worse for arty spam at the moment because of this, in my opinion.