T37 on Abbey, what to do?

[MisterSwift 54]

Replay: http://wotreplays.eu/site/1284975?secret=489e18bcf4de09d686e4fa4f70b0f279

 

I had this match on Abbey yesterday that made me feel completely useless. I'd appreciate some advice on what you guys would have done in the situation.

The lineup. Three tier 9s aside, 1 arty each, and the rest are mostly tier 8 and 7 heavies. Looking at the lineup I'm thinking that I'm going to have trouble because on Abbey, most of these tanks are going to be coming head on unless I can get a good flanking position in the middle...

 

Right now my thought process is:

• East (0 line) is a bad idea. There'll probably be big, heavily armoured stuff slowly moving there, the Obj 704, T30, KV-5 etc. I won't be able to pen them, and I don't trust any of my teammates to get in position AND pen them.
• 6/7 line between Abbey and river road: Everyone expects someone YOLO'ing through here, so me running through isa bad idea. The odds of going there to spot an enemy coming through are too low when I could be elsewhere on the map.
• Abbey center (5 line): I wouldn't go Abbey with our team line up. Even with two other LTs, in a tier 9 match like this we'd need more than LTs, and I wouldn't expect our Lorr40t to go
• 3/4 line (low Abbey road): I usually never go here myself but I've seen people going here so...
• West (1 line): No point in my rushing here, we know they're going to send the bulk of their forces to brawl here, and so are (should) we

As I expected, the T-54 being their top tier medium goes middle. I expected only the LTs to go with him, but he has an IS-6 and Tiger I up there as well. T30 as expected shows up East. We only have 3 tanks going West, which is worrying. Our T34 is going 6/7 line, I have no idea what he intends to do there. Our A-44s actually push middle, which I don't expect. I go 3/4 line and try to get side shots into the enemy tanks heading into the Abbey, but being unfamiliar with the area don't manage to get any. In hindsight I should probably have pushed up a bit more to the next intersection, but I was worried about being lit and hit by enemy tanks camping their base.

 

Now I really don't know what to do. I go mill around the North of the Abbey just under the archways hoping I'm lighting up the tanks in the Abbey (probably not) so that our ISU-152 and T25 AT in base can hit them. I sit around here doing nothing for a while. Watching the replay I see our Type 62 got to a nice spot and managed to stay alive there. I sit around here humping the ledge, until eventually...

 

Enemy IS, KV-4, Tiger I and RU 251 push through 3/4 line. I was expecting them to come through 1 line. Anyhow, I get free side shots on the IS, who tries to hide behind the KV-4 in vain. The KV-4 doesn't pay attention until RNG blesses me and I set him on fire twice in a row. The RU251 rushes past ignoring me and gets smacked by the ISU-152 just as I'm about to shoot him.

 

The Tiger I knows I'm there and tries to take a pointless shot and misses. He's a one hit, so I pop out and kill him. The enemy KV-5 has finally gotten through 6 line, and I'm hoping he ignores me so I can shoot his R2D2.

 

The T-54 finally shows up and kills me. I was wondering what took him so long, I was expecting this to happen much earlier.

 

So, thanks to RNG I racked up 1465 damage (mostly due to double fire on KV-4) and a paltry 594 spotting damage. I felt like I contribute nothing to the match except farming some damage after 4 minutes of sitting with my thumb in my arse. Advice?

[TeaTime 228]

First off, that was not nothing. You are a tier 6 light and you are dealing damage against higher tiers. This is not a vision map where spotting is all that useful. To put it into perspective, you dealt damage equal to the HP of a tier 8 heavy. 1.5k is perfectly acceptable. That said, it seems that much of it was because of RNG and you really would have dealt less than that normally.

 

A few pointers:

1. Your assessment about the T-54 was correct. Good call.
2. The usual safe openings are to snipe from where the ISU is or to just peak over the hill and spot for the TDs, maybe steal a shot. The latter wasn't necessary because the A-44 was basically suiscouting.
3. You could probably have been able be squeeze through the hole in the wall on E6. This could either be an escape mechanism or a way to take the abbey after the T-54 leaves or get sniped by the ISU.
4. The junction is safe from both bases. You will get shot by the 2 line though if there are enemies though. This was a significant missed opportunity since the T-54 is a high value target.
5. As this game demonstrates, pushing through 3-4 line is completely pointless, as there is a bush on each base that gets nice shots once you move away from the buildings.
6. The T-54 comes down slow because the ISU is still there, waiting to smack someone.
7. In between the 3rd and 4th picture, your team cleared the 1/2 line. The IS-6 is in a good position to shoot at the heavies pushing through and that would have been a good chance for your to use your mobility. I think this was your biggest mistake because you didn't leverage your advantages as a light tank, and it got you killed. At that point, you could have made an arty run. The TD is unspotted but you could spot from H3 after the KV-5 dies

[Constar 64]

So i was lazy and didn't watch the replay but yeah figured i'd ask you this one thingy anyways-

Do you know how to climb up on the ridge east? There you have a couple spots where you can possibly both help your mates going east and snipy snipe to middle without getting shot yourself.. provides vision to counter middle rushes too. Ask someone to show you this in training room. Also going to mid and straight to abbey would have been a bad, bad idea like you said but when you have mm like that you might want to try go and shoot something from "lower middle" (3 line). This is ofc a very risky so you rly cant even stop your tank if you are driving a t37 in a t9 battle but hey this maps is shitty for early game in lights so might as well go for that 1 damagin shot and vision.

[Shifty_101st 1,144]

Ok, so first off, I didn't watch the replay but I went by the pictures.  Me personally, what I would have done is almost the exact same thing as you, which was to go into the middle buildings and play medium tank shooting at the higher tiers.  It would have been better if your lorr didn't play like a pub and used his clip to help clear out the middle tanks, but that's another story so who cares.

 

At the point where the kv5 and the tiger1 were right in front of you and next to you, I would have made a mad dash around the kv5 and buggered the fuck out of there, just to change up position.  I would have gone down the 7 line and back around the 8 line just to get near friendlies (M103, JP2), then I would have stayed with them (or with the allies on the 1-2 line) to support them taking out the last tanks.  Basically, campy campy snipey snipey.  Personally, that is what I would have done.  The role of a light tank on abbey is hard, mainly because the map is so brawly that spots are near to useless on that map (EVERYONE IS SO DAMN CLOSE!!!!!!)

[MisterSwift 54]

TeaTime: Thanks for the detailed breakdown. Especially number 7, I was too worried about staying alive in my current position to pay attention to what was happening on the rest of the map.

 

Constar: I've seen people go there a few times but I've never gone there myself, I definitely need to hop into a training room so I can try doing it firsthand

 

Shift: Yeah, I should probably have driven around the KV-5 instead of waiting for him to come around the corner. I wasn't paying attention to which enemies were left and unspotted, so I wasn't sure if he had any backup coming with him.

 

Thanks for taking the time to help me out guys, I appreciate it

[Stevoni 2]

 

 

I can't really help since I'm a terrible scout, but I do know how to make the vehicle names not look terrible with the vehicle tier in front of it.

 

Settings->General (tab)->Team Panel (group box)->Show Vehicle Tier (checkbox).

[MisterSwift 54]

Ooh thank you! It's been bugging me ever since I started using this mod pack