ThomChen114

Assess the map, the enemy team, and your team. Consider how your team is deploying. You can afford to be somewhat aggressive early on like in the BC25t as you do some early scouting, but do try to stay alive. The 140 can also do the same to an extent (getting to an early aggressive spot), while the M48 and 430U may be too slow for that.
Being in mobile medium tanks, it's not all being about at the frontlines and in the thick of it. Observe and assess how your team is deploying, where the enemy team may be and put yourself in a position to react to those. You can try to fill the holes in a gap or snipe from the flanks, exploit breakthroughs, etc. and most importantly, retreat and reposition before it's too late.
Try not to play like a heavy tank, even against tanks 2 tiers lower than you. Aside from maybe the 430U, you can't and shouldn't try to "tank" too long. Support the heavy tanks on your team but don't draw too much attention, poke and spot for your sniping TDs or cover the flanks of turretless assault TDs. Be flexible.

Felt like the M60 needed its own thread.
I love this big old tank.
Don't get me wrong, the M48 Fatton is great and all.
But I have more fun in the M60.
Maybe it's that speed, which leaves other NATO meds like the M48, CAX, and STB in the dust, and can catch up to the Leo, 30B, and BC25t. And the mobility is absurd. I may be overusing the handbrake turn, but the M48 Fatton can only dream about being able to dance like the M60.
And once it gets to where you want to go, it's gun is just that bit more reliable. Almost the best aim time and decent accuracy just makes it more reliable at most ranges, whether its snapshotting or sniping.
And armor? Who cares nowadays. Unless its Russian or Japanese (and maybe Polish), armor is almost irrelevant.
The M60. Fat but fast.

Assess the map, the enemy team, and your team. Consider how your team is deploying. You can afford to be somewhat aggressive early on like in the BC25t as you do some early scouting, but do try to stay alive. The 140 can also do the same to an extent (getting to an early aggressive spot), while the M48 and 430U may be too slow for that.
Being in mobile medium tanks, it's not all being about at the frontlines and in the thick of it. Observe and assess how your team is deploying, where the enemy team may be and put yourself in a position to react to those. You can try to fill the holes in a gap or snipe from the flanks, exploit breakthroughs, etc. and most importantly, retreat and reposition before it's too late.
Try not to play like a heavy tank, even against tanks 2 tiers lower than you. Aside from maybe the 430U, you can't and shouldn't try to "tank" too long. Support the heavy tanks on your team but don't draw too much attention, poke and spot for your sniping TDs or cover the flanks of turretless assault TDs. Be flexible.

There are two ways you grow your stream and why people keep watching. It's either because you are you, or for your gameplay. People ultimately watch a stream for enjoyment, whether it's because it's fun or because the quality of the content is high it's what makes people stick around. Streaming is as much of a job as it is fun, while a lot of people just have a chat on their 2nd monitor they treat it as if they're just playing the game and talking to the chat. Educational value along with a decent personality goes a long way when it comes from a good perspective. That's how I grew my stream. Started from scratch and basically no one knew who I was, very vocal about my thought processes and kept pushing myself to do hard things and the stream grew pretty rapidly. Eventually I stopped school and had to work for a living and streaming that way just became a bit too much for me, so it turned into a casual stream. That's where my viewers started stagnating and declining. I was hitting 150-200 viewers on around 2000 followers when I streamed, now I'll hit 40 tops with more followers. 
Ultimately keeping the content quality up and having an inviting personality is how you grow a stream. 
Some other small pointers that help further the impression a viewer gets of you:
Make a decent offline background, twitch panels with information and all that stuff to make your profile look better Keep a schedule. As long as you can stick to a schedule decently then people know when to come back, it's comfortable knowing so you get more consistency from your viewers this way. You don't have to stream every day, just try to do it the same time the same days on a regular basis.  Rage. Keep it to a minimum, everyone gets salty due to arty but watching someone passive aggressively babyraging isn't really great.  Webcam and a quality mic. People like seeing faces, and having a nice mic that won't rip an ear off with its static is pretty sweet.   
I also recommend using the Streamlabs OBS instead for beginners, it's much more user-friendly and it generally runs better on most PCs. 

of all the tier 9's the Wz111111111114 is the best by far, and both tier 10's that come after it are very worth it. One of the best tier 9 heavy tanks by far, think T-10 but with a bigger gun that hits harder.
as for the rest they are pretty Meh/10, ive heard the tier 9 TD is better than the tier 10 tier for tier, because its armor works. but i have zero experience with them.
as for premiums the only one that's currently available and worth it would be the WZFaggot TD premium, its pretty much the tier 8 version of the SU-122-44 but with good pen and kinda OP.
the type 64 is pretty OP for a light like mentioned above. the type 62 is good but not regularly available.
the 112 since the armor buffs is pretty good, but its gun is potato as fuck and requires a healthy amount of heat. so not a good credit maker. WZ111 is similar and not regularly available
the 59 Patton is not worth at all and utter garbage, the T-34-3 is decent but was recently removed from the tech tree for gold purchase.
overall i would go down the heavy tank line for sure, its the best the Chinese tech tree has to offer really in terms of tier 10's

250mm is 25cm. Is there even any space left for vision detection devices behind the 25cm of steel on the rangefinder? Is that rangefinder even 25cm in diameter?

Its actually hard to nerf properly while keeping it unique. Nerfing the top speed to 40 is too much because then it becomes another super boring turretless assault TD. The top speed is fine, however, the fact how reliably it hits is stupid as hell. The pen is also fine; dropping it too low makes the tank completely ass to play (nobody fuckinf plays the Foch B due to that). IMO this is the way to go:
- nerf reverse speed from 23 to 13-15
- nerf engine power from 1500 to 1100 (just below 15 hp/ton)
- nerf side armor significantly; make entirety of it 80. Reduce the angled sides on front of the casemate from 220 to as weak as possible so they are easily pennable from the side but are not pennable from front
- reduce rangefinder armor from 250 to like 120 (same as OG 268); its super small so it should be so weak that you should be able to autopen it when you hit it
- make LFP of the LFP like 20mm thick so its an autopen (again, a really small weakspot)
- nerf dispersion on moving/turning by like 30%, or even more, but keep the fast aim time
- in return, make the UFP like 150mm thick so u cant pen that anymore and makes the armor layout much less awkward. In general it is a super stupid ”weakspot” because it basically relies on RNG and on your angle compared to the 268v4. RNG weakspot that relies on gold spam is an awful concept, and not really necessary anymore if you have two easily pennable (but smol) weakspots. Buff casemate armor by 20-30mm to make sure its not HEAT spammable. Not like it matters anyway as nobody shoots there, but its just to make the armor layout more consistent.
The playstyle stays as the same even with all of the changes, but you just cant play like a braindead moron anymore. The cupola is now penned by everything it faces, so yoloing and facehugging like a baboon doesnt work anymore. Or well, it does, but you’re not invulnerable like you are now against many targets. People will still panic when they see the Russian version of Thomas the tank engine yoloing full speed towards them. Reverse speed and side armor nerf makes it actually really vulnerable to be flanked. The reverse speed should be shit, so it actually gets flanked easily. Gun handling is still good even with massive bloom nerf, because the aim time is still amazing. The bloom nerf simply means that it cant snapshot on the move anymore. Engine power nerf means that it wont reach the top speed as fast as it does now. It’s mobility is still a strong trait of the tank, but it no longer should be able to outpace medium tanks like it does now. It accelerates much slower than it does now.
The armor layout is much more consistent now, and has two obvious weakspots, not retarded RNG HEAT spam weakspots.
Basically, the reverse speed nerf, side armor nerf, bloom nerf, armor layout changed to be more consistent, and the major engine power nerf means that the tank cant just rape everything like it does now. The playstyle, however, stays largely the same - it still has great yoloing/rushing capability, like it does now. The difference is that it actually needs much, much more support, and is completely fucked when its alone.

Have a good motivating playlist, or sing to yourself to calm your nerves.
I personally queue the BeeGees "Staying Alive" when things get hairy. 

Have a good motivating playlist, or sing to yourself to calm your nerves.
I personally queue the BeeGees "Staying Alive" when things get hairy. 

I honestly believe that this game is at a stage where there are so many lines that it's next to impossible to introduce something new without invalidating something else that is old. If the 103 and E5 had no cupolas, they would still be uncomfortably similar to the Conquerors. If they went any faster, they would be encroaching on Patton territory. One of the reasons I think there have been so many extreme and gimmicky tanks in the last few patches is that this is the only way to get people to grind them. The Chinese TD line was an utter failure in terms of getting people to play them despite not even being bad; the Emil line OTOH is decently popular despite not being that good.

Write-ups like these were fairly common a few years back when the game was still kind of growing. A year or two ago, the game started to stagnate. Maps became more corridory, and there was a slow but steady removal of frontal weakspots from the game. these changes favour gold-spamming players and players, who, quite frankly, aren't the best at the game. Naturally, wotlabs became went a lot more quiet as vets left. Then there were the new premium Tier 8s which were straight up better than tech tree tanks. Then Tier 8 MM got destroyed so that retards at Tier 10 could feel good about stomping unis and blues at Tier 8. I think it says something about the state of the game when the benchmark for balans, as others have noted, are tanks like the Super Conqueror and the 5A, or the Defender or Patriot at Tier 8. It also says something about our developers that the best tiers to play, if I may say so, which are 7 and 9, are the tiers where they have effectively left untouched.

Right now, Wargaming's way of keeping players is to introduce more and more FotM gimmick tanks which even the baddest of the bads will find quite unique and enjoyable to run. But we are already at a state where something like 10/15 Tier 10s in every match are gimmick tanks: broken as in like the Badger or Super Conqs for hulldown, the 183s, the Jagdzilla, the Grille, the 268 v4, Type5, the STRV. Every one of these tanks is extremely good at their roles and excruciatingly to frustrating to fight when in their element. IMO, this, coupled with goldspam, is what makes Tier 10 cancerous to run.

To make new tanks appealing, WG makes them broken and gimmicky. As the cycle continues, you end up with more gimmick tanks than 'normal' ones. And when  broken tanks become the measure of balance, the game becomes frustrating for all parties involved. As of 9.22, we are pretty much there.

After playing ~100 games in the Mle 51, the M103 (some time ago, though), and the Conqueror, here is what I think how these tanks compare. While I can say quite confidently that they are basically different flavours of the same or very similar tank, much like what the T-10 and 1-4 are to each other, I do think that WG has done a good job (intentional or not) of making each of them unique.

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M103 (a.k.a American Conqueror, shit E5, should I skip the M58?)
Pros
Troll armour – hull is full of strong and weak zones next to each other, e.g. the larger part of the 103's front drivewheel is 250 effective. Although the 103 may not weather small guns as well as the 51, it's armour works (sometimes!) against Jagdzillas. Rounds corners by driving forward, poking, and bouncing return fire with drivewheel 340 pen HEAT: HEAT is a downside in many situations it is, but the raw pen this gun gets is just too good to give up, especially in an era of Japanese heavies, 320 effective weakspots, IKEA wedges and cykaconq cupolas.  Hull sides: are preangled so will autobounce within a 20 degree arc (also not overmatchable unlike E5's 44 mm). Sexeh Cons
Merely decent accuracy as opposed to 51's sniper rifle and Conq's railgun Merely decent snapshotter, i.e. not a Conq. Limited ammo cap TURRET ROOF UND CUPOLA (FULLCAPS FOR EMPHASIS) Turret ring (also why the fuck is the turret the size of the empire state building?) Not an ideal sidescraper -12 reverse speed (M53/55 senpai yamete) 1850 hp should I skip the M58? Verdict: 
It's different but worse. Pretty much a tank balanced for 2016 thrown into 2018. Still playable and armour works, but problem is that E5 line is heavily outdated as a whole.

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Mle 51 (French conq, French M103, loaded baguette)
Pros
Fast (40/15 and reaches it) Agile Can ram Easy to use armour profile BULLI: 260 ufp/220 lfp combo is dank against most Tier 7/8s and some 9s Good gun, best turret bloom + DPM tied with M103 Can overmatch STRVs with 127 mil 40mm roof armour  No stock grind
Cons
Size, or should I say SIZE(that’s no eiffel tower) Side armour Rip when flanked Prominent cupolas Can't sidescrape 340 pen HEAT will rekt you tfw when you rush to your favourite hulldown spot only to find a T-10 with gold preloaded on the other side 380 VR 315 pen APCR not the most reliable Verdict:
Very strong tank overall with holy trinity of armour, firepower, and mobility. However size and side armour issues means the tanks’ strength is limited by the degree to which you control the engagement – fortunately the tank is very good at controlling engagements.
Tank is hurt more by high pen gold rounds than the other two, and is significantly worse when your team falls and you need to farm. Also gets fucked by STRVs

Would make a decent Tier 10 if it had 300 more HP, wait, ohhhhh.
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Conqueror (British M103, L1A1, Super Caernarvon)
Pros
Best gun (325 APCR, laser pointer accuracy, no bloom) also 120 pen silver HESH -10 gun dep makes it stupidly easy to farm people Best defensive tank out of all 3: reliable sidescraper, small cupolas with troll angles, hemispherical turret, spaced armour on cheeks, probably best @hulldown in Tier 9 after ST-I nerf Thickest side armour Most hp at 1950 400 VR Cons
LFP Big, squishy (ammo) rack gets pummelled all the time Driver-san Can’t push against good players smart enough to ignore your tracks 17mm engine deck Verdict:
The Conq is great at shitting out damage in fair weather or foul. It’s also the best tank for holding positions, and bridges the gap between a broken Tier 8 to a highly desirable Tier 10. However, the tank is a straight downgrade compared to the 10; suffers from chronic cancer focus, is pretty poor for pushing, and suffers from module issues. Play this tank when tilted.

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tldr Which tier 9 should I pick?
All things considered, while all three tanks are reasonably strong in today's meta and matchmaking, the Conqueror sits on the only CW-relevant line, and is the most reliable performer without doubt. On the other hand, the 51 is fun and easily the best tank for solopubbing. Lastly, I don’t see much reason to play the M103 barring……aesthetic reasons.
 

To sit in corner with 110E5 and remember the good old days

This tank is not good. It is however funny. Its the size of a tier 1, with the firepower of the pre 9.18 SP1C, and the hitpoints of a tier 7 tank. But, it has god tier camo, which means a little something, and you can at least do funny things with terrain. 
Replays http://www.mediafire.com/file/yn3qq0ep1oencz2/20180125_1527_france-F97_ELC_EVEN_90_22_slough.zip
Protection/Durability
Good
46% camo, 11% firing Tier 1 size - hide in all kinds of bullshit spots, invent cover on the fly, abuse terrain Bad
Absurdly low hitpoints - 3 shots from almost anything and you're done all HE will pen, and arty misses splash hard 6 tons of weight means all rams/bumps HURT Mobility
Good
70 kph is nice It's a LT - your mobility and size make for nice protection Bad
Low hp/t at 23 Traverse on medium terrain is marginal, large turn radius Firepower
Good
0.33 accuracy is enough Depression -9 and a comfy +13 elevation 45 x 220 ammo is enough Autoloader! (220x3 2.5 between) Bad:
Handling, aim-time, pen, interclip Abysmal 1238 max dpm  

way to revive a near necro thread, but it is relevant now with the upcoming 9.22 and noticed a tad more players running in either ISs, A-44s, SU-100M1s, or T-43s.
would be interesting if they changed up some of the guns, I'd fantasized the IS getting a rapid-fire higher penetration 85mm similar to the 57mm gun on the KV-1. Just imagine the carnage you could unleash! 
 
 

If you aren't going to bother with a good poast utilize this 

Dunno but one thing hasn't changed on wotlabs, multiple posts.

Fuck yeah.
"That's not a gun.  THIS is a gun."

Im good

IS-3: 39 + 1 = 40 THE TANK FOR THE MASSES, THE WORKING CLASSES, THE HEART OF THE GLORIOUS SOCIALIST REVOLUTION WHO ARE THE BULWARK OF RESISTANCE TO THE CREEPING VIRUS OF CAPITALIST DECEPTION AND CORRUPTION THAT ENCROACHES ON THE CAUSE! RISE AND RESIST! ADVANCE IN THE NAME OF THE MOTHERLAND! CUT A SWATHE THROUGH THE FASCISTS, IMPERIALISTS, AND THE TRAITORS!
Löwe: 42
Patriot: 10
Defender: 2 - 3 = -1 THE FALSE USURPER IS NO MORE! IT'S FLIMSY PROMISES AND THINLY VEILED LIES, FUNDED BY THE CORRUPT CAPITALISTS WHO SEEK TO UNDERMINE THE REVOLUTION, HAS BEEN UNDONE UPON ITSELF! STAY VIGILANT COMRADES, AND CONTINUE TO STAND STRONG AGAINST THOSE WHO OPPOSE OUR RIGHTEOUS CAUSE!
STILL, A FUN TANK AND GOOD CREDIT EARNER THOUGH, SO IT SHALL SERVE TO TOIL AWAY AND REDEEM ITSELF BY FUNDING THE REVOLUTION, AS APPROVED BY THE HIGH COMMISSAR.

My lore isn't all that good. Maybe someone here can help me out or I wasn't paying attention to some important narrative in one of the new movies.

I don't understand how they (the rebels) went to the blowing up of the death star, death of the emperor, death of  Vader and celebrating with cute little furry creatures....
To setting up a Jedi school, having that fail and the First Order rising with such power to the point where the rebels who could stop the empire are all but destroyed.
Lets not forget having the funds to create a laser planet and dreadnaughts and fund a massive army and fleet...

Makes... No....Sense.
Maybe the first order released a crate box system and some OP tier 8 to fund such extravagance.

As promised, here's a side by side comparison. The sturmtiger is absurdly huge - even taller than the standard Tiger 1.

Hey all,

This is my current progress with a Tamiya Sturmtiger in 1/35 scale. Not sure if I'm calling it done. Feel like adding some more pigments. I'll try posting pictures of it beside a Panzer IV and a Tiger later. The Rocket Launcher is huge! I don't see how WG could have introduced this into the game without it being either terribly OP or UP (God knows how annoying the HE-throwing canons at higher tiers are becoming). Thanks for looking!
 
 

It looks an excellent scout... Balanced by being a scout.

- blame the new matchmaking system. other than some exceptions, preferential MM tanks are not competitive
- evolved cancer is still cancer, but instead of potentially causing you to lose a limb or end your life instantly, it instead punches you in the gut, leaves you partially paralyzed and blind, and nowhere is safe
(reusable consumables was an important change, no more perma tracking or playing the next 14 minutes of the battle with a half crew, broken gun or damaged ammo rack and engine)
- again, blame the new MM. tier 9 and 10, and sometimes tier 7 is the sweet spot nowadays 
- cuz Armored Warfare fucked up
- cuz we already talk enough shit to our own "teammates"
- why is Drumpf president?

Man, if I had $900 to spare I sure as fuck would not be spending it on this game.