Balthazars

You still need the time to be able to make it work. Timezones mean that I'm pretty screwed because evening when I get home is usually when the curfew is still active, so knowing that, I'm simply using it has a means to grind credits and free XP, for which it is actually pretty good. I agree that defending is much harder to guarantee a good rank, especially depending on how bad your team is. I've had a defending team capitulate in just over 11 minutes just now, no one in the entire game got over Captain rank (defenders had just 1). I agree with @Jesse_the_Scout that the respawn mechanic does weight things in favour of the attackers because they can yolo, die and then respawn into another zone, overload it, get XP by jumping on the cap rinse/repeat. As a defender, if you get stuck in a lane that gets vacated, you waste a lot of time driving around and may not get any XP to show for it if you fail to find anything to shoot at.

Agree on this very much. As I got one in the loot boxes I thought I'd try out in the IS3A, but in this mode the worse mobility compared to the regular IS3 is very, very noticeable because of a lot of the soft terrain (particularly in the first rank of zones) as it struggles to get up to speed or redeploy around the map. The regular IS3 is much better for this mode. Mobility in this mode is king, I'm pretty much only playing the T-44, the Progetto and the Skorp G at the moment.

I kept my usual gold layout in tanks from randoms (so about 25% gold ammo) and rarely have to use it last time, but I imagine that's enough even with increased heavy spam. Last time around I found any tank with mobility, especially on defence (otherwise you die if the sector falls) is pretty much mandatory. The regular T-44 is a good option if you don't have the premium version. The Pantera probably does okay instead of the Progetto if you don't have that too. The regular IS3 does well, and probably a bit better than the "A" version due to better mobility (and last time I played it with a sub-100% crew and did fine). The Patriot is okay, the Skorp G does very well. Last time I pretty much just used the T-44, Skorp G and IS3. This time I'll be throwing in the Progetto and possibly the 53TP. Also, I found last time around that the Inspire reserve is pretty good for racking up assist if you time it well and hit a lot of allies with a lot of targets, as all the damage that inspired tanks do is counted towards your assist tally, which can be good for ranking up.

So I do have this thing fully upgraded at long last. I really want to like this tank, I enjoyed the tier 8 and I like the mechanic of the auto-reloader. But good grief the game is trolling me hard whenever I drive it. I can't remember the last time I was penetrated for full damage by arty on such a regular occurrence (4 games in a row for 850+ damage just recently), not even in light tanks. While my DPG has been slowly increasing from the abysmal 1,100 with the stock gun (slowly climbing, currently at 1,600~ish), I continue to be stuck at barely 40% win rate after 105 games. So frustrating.

I'm pretty sure neither the 430 or the 430U have been nerfed since they changed it/introduced the mini-branch. The 430 is one of those strange tanks where on paper the gun should be terrible. Bad accuracy, -5 gun depression, poor gold round. But while the gun does troll you on occasion, it snaps shots that it has absolutely no business doing. It's Russian hover-med mobility on a low platform (good camo and useful for going hull-down) with a strong turret, hull armour that is perfectly capable of trolling opponents with some wiggle, and a very good standard round (so it makes good bank for a tier 9 with a premium account). I performed so much better in the 430 compared to the T-54 I couldn't understand why the latter was viewed so highly, especially after they nerfed the DPM gun on the latter.

As @zbran noted above, since they made SOS and BIA work together, girls should basically only be commanders, as you can get 6th straight away and have the free BIA/SOS skill available as well. If you grind whole lines and move the crew, you'll have a solid team by the time you reach tier 10. As for suggestions: Russian meds are indeed good, although I recommend going Obj 430 --> 430U instead of T-54 --> Obj 140. For me personally, the 430 is vastly superior to the T-54 as the latter had a significant nerf to the gun handling of the DPM gun which I found extremely frustrating. But the whole line is pretty good from tier 5 upwards. The IS7 line now probably peaks at the IS3, which if you don't have one is worth having. The T-10 used to be the highlight of the line but it's not there anymore. I haven't bought the IS7 yet so not really sure what it's like in this day and age. I'm thinking about the German armoured TD line (the waffle line is tough to use in the current meta and I hated the Grille-15) myself, not played any US TD lines. Generally, use the girls as commanders in lines/nations where there are several good tanks that you will enjoy playing, or where you intend to grind a whole line.

I would caveat that by saying it is delightful when upgraded. I'm finding the stock grind pretty painful, so painful in fact I couldn't bring myself to finish the last 5k XP for the top gun and used free XP. I was doing sub 40% win rate with DPG of only 1,100 (worse than my tier 8 mediums). At least with the top gun you can actually do some decent damage, but the mobility still feels sub-par with the stock engine.

Yeah, I don't know why aspects of the World of Tanks community are so sensitive about nerfs. When it comes to game balance, there is basically two methods of doing it: either everything is overpowered (see Starcraft: Brood War for an example), or you have a constant cycle of buff/nerfs that take place in order to shift meta around and try and keep things from getting too out of hand (see, Starcraft II as an example). I also don't get the argument about 'we paid real money for it so you can't change it'. In the two games I mentioned, not only did 'things' people paid real cash to get (full priced box plus expansions), with certain units etc. being completely unrecognisable several years down the line after balance patches, but those games also have active professional scenes where some players arguably lost games (and thus prize-money) due to changes in balance. Sure, you see balance whine, but there's nothing like this type of "OMG THEY'RE GOING TO NERF MY PIXEL TANK, I DEMANDS REFUND" rage. I honestly don't get it.

I think most of the 'gems' are going to be low tier tanks (probably up to tier 7 at max) because a lot of people don't stick around at the tier to keep playing and just keep on moving up. I think 'hidden' is going to be pretty subjective, and in most cases, the tech trees are pretty figured out - and I do agree with @Rexxie that the differences between tanks are getting smaller. Again though, at lower tiers there are tanks with more unique combinations still so that helps with that. I'll second the VK 30.01P as a hidden gem because it's my first ever three-mark, and I love it. It has an excellent combination of alpha, mobility, usable armour (the turret will bounce quite a bit) and penetration for the tier. It's only real weakness is poor gun handling. For me, the best of the tier 6 mediums (which is a very strong collection of tanks).

I've just finished the grind for the Pantera today. 105 games, 53.33% win rate, ,1659 damage per game - which is one of my best DPG for tier 8 (on par with my best performing heavies, and better than all of my meds and some of my heavies). It's an interesting tank. On one hand, I quite like the auto-reloader mechanic, it certainly rewards you if you plan your shots properly and take into account your reloads. On the other hand, the mechanic can be quite punishing given you're a 240 alpha tank with glacial reloads if you empty the clip, so the reality is often you cannot use the full burst damage because you'll often need to stay in the engagement (because the clip isn't strong enough to kill most tanks in the early and mid-game). Other characteristics - the gun is pretty good, solid pen, good accuracy and pretty decent gun handling means that it can work at most ranges. Mobility is surprisingly good as it's a lighter Panther hull, with an excellent straight-line stop speed and fairly decent flexibility. Armour is pretty much non-existent, making you very vulnerable to HE. The tank is also huge, making using it as a sniper difficult if you haven't got room to work on draw distances. Overall, it's fun and a good tank, overall quite balanced. If you don't have the Progetto premium, this makes a pretty decent substitute as it doesn't require much gold ammo usage so is still profitable.

I'm on the grind for this currently, and the stock grind is pretty painful for no reason because WG likes to **** with you. Cannot wait to get the top gun, but once you at least have the turret there is some strength that you can leverage. The gun handing of the stock gun with the upgraded turret is pretty good too. Mobility is so-so with stock configuration.

I've finished the full grind (both tier 10s unlocked) on this just today. 290 games, 52.41% win rate, 1,820 DPG, only around 700 assist. I did somehow manage to 2-mark it too, although currently that's sitting at only around 82%. Personally, I found it too frustrating to play. The DPM gun has absolutely horrendous gun handling these days, and even with HEAT spam, you will miss and bounce a lot of shots, which sometimes just makes the whole thing so frustrating to play. It's still a strong tank; mobile, a very strong turret, hull armour to bully lower tiers and of course the HEAT to let you butter the front of distracted heavies, and yes, the DPM is ridiculous and in the right situations with the gun constantly firing and targets that you can pen, you will rack up the damage ludicrously quickly, but for me, the gun handling just wrecks it. I greatly prefer the Obj 430 (for reference, in 170 games in the Obj 430 I have 59.41% win rate and 2,251 DPG). I most likely won't be keeping it, and if WG goes through with flat damage reductions to gold ammo damage, without giving it something else (e.g. a buff to the standard round pen), it won't be a 'top level' tank anymore, in my opinion.

Abbey - 12 Cliff - 15 Empire's Border - 9 Ensk - 15 Fisherman's Bay - 12 Fjords - 15 Highway - 9 (-3) - I don't understand why they bothered to bring it back in such an unaltered state. Large map where everyone is funneled into the two opposing corners. I do feel it's imbalanced towards the north spawn as well. Himmelsdorf - 15 Karelia - 15 Lakeville - 15 Live Oaks - 12 Malinovka - 16 Mines - 12 Minsk - 15 Mountain Pass - 6 (-3) - **** this map. In higher tiers, it is entirely possible to be spotted and deleted attempting to cross the middle, and if you're a slow heavy, forget even getting across without bleeding half or all of your hitpoints. Basically 3 super-narrow corridors with zero flanking opportunities. Hate it with a passion. Murovanka - 17 (+1) - Probably one of the slightly more balanced maps in the game, and has options for most types of tanks. Overlord - 16 Pilsen - 12 Prokhorovka - 18 Province - 12 Redshire - 15 Ruinberg - 15 Serene Coast - 15 Siegfried Line - 12 Steppes - 17 Studzianki - 9 Tundra - 15 Westfield - 15 Widepark - 15 Erlenberg - 13 Mannerheim Line - 15 Glacier - 15 Airfield - 12 El Halluf - 16 Sand River - 16