279(e) Missions - Tips and Tank Choices / Guide - 2021

[Snoregasm2 646]

EDIT 12/05/21 - All Alliance and Coalition tips completed, main intro guide done and some recommended tanks added. Still missing Bloc and Union guides in full. TBC whether added, as most people skip 2 lines. Shout outs to @sr360, @GehakteMolen, @CraBeatOff, @PityFool, @8_Hussars (maybe link your doc separately?) and @Ezz for contributions so far. Pleased to see this is a real community guide and not just my ramblings.

EDIT 30/05/21 - I completed Coalition-15, after already completing Bloc-15 (both without honours) - with 6 Orders, I skipped Alliance-15 and Union-15 to get the 279(e):

INTRO

I recently completed the Chimera missions, having been stuck - for 3 or 4 years - on a mission that required stun as a secondary condition. I just didn't care enough to pay attention and switch to the next mission and, save for 2013 and late March/early April 2021, I never play arty, so there was no chance i'd complete it by accident. But bored, and needing a new challenge, I decided to check the requirements and, lo and behold, I was a fucking moron and there was nothing stopping me clicking next mission and eventually completing all 4 sets of missions.

This was on 14 March. I decided that the time was now to finally take a run at the 279(e) missions. As someone who hadn't thought about missions for, yeah, 3 or 4 years, this was a daunting task. I generally stay in my comfort zone of meds / fast heavies (part of the reason why I don't have the 260 too, because lights and TDs are required). So why am I writing a guide, when I only just started the missions myself and I've not even completed them? Well, 3 reasons:

1. All the old guides are super out of date and don't factor in current metas, or even tanks like wheelie bois.
2. I've gotten some really good tips people on this site, from those who have already completed the missions like @sr360 and @PityFool and those like @GehakteMolen who are currently doing the missions like me.
3. It's easier than you think. I expected to get through like 1 mission a week, and so far I'm 2/3 of the way there in about a month (being inactive last 2 weeks due to IRL stuff). If I can advance this quickly, there's nothing stopping the average Wotlabs player from doing them either. EDIT 30/05/21 - and less than a month after writing this guide and getting amazing feedback from across the community, I got the 279(e).

On the last point, this guide is aimed at that: the average Wotlabs player. That means I assume you're reasonably competent, take instruction well, actively want to improve/learn and have a decent array of tanks (including prems).

I'm still open to format on this, but I'm going to borrow from a guide I found on the official forums (http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/635317-rocketman’s-guide-to-completing-the-object-279-missions-while-minimizing-wot-rage/) - which was very good but I disagreed with a lot of the conclusions, for a rough layout.

I'm encouraging suggestions from people more skilled / knowledgeable than me, to make this a community guide and not just my ramblings. In particular, @sr360 will contribute from a LT perspective and @GehakteMolen from a HT perspective.

I'm going to build this up over a number of days, as there's a hell of a lot to write and i'm sure there'll be some good inputs from others. I'll insert placeholders where necessary to flag what will be added.

With that being said, i'm submitting this so I don't accidentally delete half of what I've written again.

My Current Progress (as at 04/05/21 - I got the 279(e) 30/05/21)

 

GENERAL TIPS

I'll jot down general tips and add to it as I think of them:

• Get as many tokens as you can from the Excalibur / Chimera missions. If you don't take anything else away from this guide and just this, then it is worth it. For each mission 15 you complete with honours, you get a token. That token can be used to skip individual 279(e) missions or, if you use 3 of them, you can skip a mission 15 (all you need for the 279(e) part) on a set of missions (e.g. 3 tokens lets you skip Bloc-15). This means that, with the full EIGHT tokens, you only have to complete 28 individual missions to get the 279(e) - skipping 2 full trees, and 2 individual missions. There is a lot of strategy to this (some say complete 3 sets of missions, skipping more "bad mission", some don't skip any mission 15s and use the tokens to skip up to 8 missions), but the point is this gives you flexibility. That bullshit top gun mission in Union? Skip. Hate playing heavies to get block damage? Skip. Have no Russian or Chinese tanks? Skip Union-15.
• So before you try any 279(e) missions, go and complete the Excalibur and Chimera mission 15s with honours. You need to do with honours (apologies to all Americans right now as I know this spelling will trigger you, as it does vice versa as a Brit) to get the token. There are some real tricky missions here, i'm not going to lie (Alliance-15 anyone?), but if you can it is worth it. I've not used one skip yet, and I'm already 2/3 of the way there. Ultimately, I will get close on 2 lines and skip mission 15 on two more, meaning I'll get the 279(e) quickly once I'm "close". If you can't complete all, complete at least 6 to get 6 tokens, to give you the flexibility to skip 2 sets of 279(e) missions.
• You don't need tier 10 tanks.  Everyone knows the current tier 10 meta is dogshit, and my first thought when starting the missions was I'd have to slog through it for results. So far, that's completely wrong. The only tier 10 i've used so far  (completing 7 Union, 10 Bloc, 6 Alliance and 9 Coalition) is the Object 261, Object 140 and, for a bit, the Conq GC (which didn't even help). That's it. In fact, most of my tanks have been tier 8s, not tier 9s. 
• Related to the above, the missions are about consistency, not having crazy individual games. The reason why I have completed so many missions not playing tier 10s is that, unlike the Chimera missions, the 279(e) missions require you to hit milestones over a number of battles (at least 3, sometimes 7 or 10, or even 20). If you're playing something you don't like or in a meta (tier 10) you're not comfortable in, then this is much harder. I would much rather average 3k dmg in a tier 8 or 3.5k dmg in a tier 9 than a tier 10 right now.
• You'll need to close your eyes and think of England (or wherever) and play arty. Sorry, but it's the easiest way on some missions, and absolutely necessary on others. There's also some very obvious, almost necessary choices, so if like me you don't have any arty at all, you'll have to dump free xp/blueprints to get the right arties. Either that, or burn through all your tokens to skip them. NB - you only NEED arties for Union and Alliance - Bloc and Coalition don't need them. So no German or French arties.

• Scouting Mission Tips, courtesy of @sr360

  There are two types of scouting missions: those which need BIG NUMBERS (e.g. Bloc-9, get a total of 15,000 assist damage in 10 battles) and which need a certain number of tanks to be spotted/assisted etc (e.g. Alliance-3, enable your allies do kill an average of 2 tanks per game that you have spotted).

  The problem is that the tier 10 LT meta is essentially dominated by the EBR. The Manticore and T-100 can have good games, but can you consistently get 10 games where you get good maps yet EBRs don't run around getting all the spotting damage? For this reason, for the second type of mission, I prefer tier 8 lights. The LT-432, T92, Hwk 30 and Senlac are very strong lights and have enough of a VR advantage over T8 EBRs that they can consistently get spots and assist. Let me posit these VR numbers for my scouting setups:

  T8
  LT-432: 486
  T92: 502
  Hwk 30: 514
  EVEN90: 535
  EBR 75: 410

  T9
  T49: 524
  RU251: 509
  EBR90: 440
   

  T10
  Manticore: 531
  T-100: 518
  EBR105: 463

  So while my Russian and Alliance lights gain ~30m VR with slightly better camo, the EBR gains 53 plus insane escalation in mobility. It's clear spots are easier to get with T8 or even 9 lights rather than being matched up with or against EBRs.

• Map Selection. Don't do what I did and get 2 in a row on Coalition-10 (1,500 assist 3 games in a row), and think it'll be fine, there's no way you'll get a bad map, then get Himmelsdorf. Or do EXACTLY THE SAME THING 2 days later, only this time you get Ensk. If you're doing very specific scouting or blocking missions, make sure you ban the 2 worst maps and turn off Encounter and Assault if the maps you ban have those versions, otherwise you can still get them. Playing lights? Ban Ensk and Himmelsdorf. Going for blocking in a brick tank? Get rid of Prok and Mali (although low tiers driving across the field is actually good on Mali for blocking where you don't need to survive (i.e. Shellproof medal), so YMMV). Don't get complacent like me if you want to do the missions quickly.

RECOMMENDED TANKS

Union (Communists)

Object 261 - you need to complete an arty mission (14), and this works because you need to average 8 stuns a battle for 10 battles, and this is fast firing and tier 10 games tend to last longer. I'm sure you can make it work with lower tiers, but this is the most foolproof option. Also, this makes 2 (do x2 your vehicle hitpoints in damage, x3 with honours,  3 battles in a row) and 7 (3 internal crits, 3 battles in a row) much easier and a matter of when, not if.

[TBC]

Bloc (Germany, Japan)

Wt auf Pz IV - real talk here: the 12,8 cm Kanone L/61 is literally the best gun in the game. Period. The Grille 15's gun? Worse.  Leopard 1's gun? Nice, but I'll take the extra 140 alpha and DPM, please. I realised in randoms how I wasn't able to properly guess the reload and, needing to play some TDs for missions, decided to rebuy it after about 6 years and see how it played. It was like looking into the fact of God for the first time. Honestly, the gun is that sublime. You have 350mm of penetration, 1.9 seconds aim time with a good crew / food, very little dispersion and 1,500 M/S SHELL VELOCITY. Seriously, if you haven't played this in a while, buy it, put a good, camo crew in it, load prem ammo and run chocolate, and just have a blast. It's the only tank so far i've got to 100% MoE:

and I enjoyed it so much I parlayed it into a top 3 EU for March:

Oh, and it made some of the Bloc mission ridiculously easy. Bloc-1 (3.5k 3 battles in a row, 4k with honours)? Did it with honours first time of asking. Bloc-5 (average 3k over 10 games)? Let's just average 4k and complete honours with ease. How about Bloc-10, getting 4 High Calibers in 20 games? How about I get 5 for honours in 11 games. Yeah, research / buy this and all of the damage, kills or anything that isn't scouting / blocking on the Bloc missions become easy mode. I can't wait to get to Bloc-15 to roll with this thing again.

Type 61 (GehakteMolen pick) - excellent tank for the damage farming and kill missions, due to good gun and high DPM.

VK100.01P - fantastic for the blocking missions. Don't forget to remove Hardening before doing Bloc-2 (x4 Shellproof medals), as the medal is tied to your vehicle HP.

HWK 12 - I got this for the scouting missions, and it is obscene. I have 553m view range. FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THREE METRES OF VIEW RANGE. That's without binos, btw. Oh yeah, it has 250 HEAT pen. The only downside? The shell velocity on all shells is 630 m/s, so good luck hitting anything on the move (for HE, it is 338 m/s, like fucking what?!). But fuck it - just outspot tier 10 lights.

Alliance (US, UK, Poland)

Caernarvon - very good farmer at tier 8 due to reliable gun and decent HP pool, quick firing gun is useful for kill securing missions, can (but isn't reliable) on blocking missions, and for Alliance-6 (2 Confederates in 7 battles) it is probably the best tank for it, due to you being able to shoot every 4.5 seconds on a good platform. About half the missions (1, 2, 3, 6, 13, 14 and maybe 4, 10 and 12, depending how good / lucky you are) are doable with this tank.

FV3805 (with the small gun (really)) - sounds weird, but it makes the arty mission simple. With the 5.5 inch you fire crazy quick for a high tier arty, and do a minimum of 12 second of stun if you splash even with 0 dmg - very useful for Alliance-9 (1,500 seconds of stun over 10 battles). I tried in a Conq GC and failed 3 times, then did it in this with honours.

CS-52 LIS - I'm going to try and avoid prems if I can, but as noted at the top, i'm assuming the average Wotlabs player has access to a good selection of prems. I'm recommending this tank as it's the most reliable medium gun at tier 8 outside of the Progetto 46, and if you're like me, you much prefer medium tanks to anything else. Therefore a good platform with a great gun, with tier 8 MM, makes this a great choice for all damage / kill missions. I'm even using it right now for Alliance-10 (x2 your hitpoints 4 battles out of 7  - it is my current active mission), which is easier to do in arty, but more fun in this.

FV 4005 - I don't have this, but if you do, it is easily the best tank for Alliance-8 (30 internal modules dmg over 10 games). Of course, a 183 works just as well. Arty can work, but it is much more RNG.

Tortoise - again, I don't have this yet (I'm considering using free XP), but it makes all blocking missions easy-ish. As you see tier 7s and 8s, you can obviously poke corners to expose non-weakspots and let idiots bounce, especially off your tough lower plate. Badger is shit due to tier 10 + worse lower plate + worse gun arc.

T95 / T110E3 - alternatively, if you prefer US tanks, then you can use either of these 2 for blocking missions. T28 has too unreliable armour to get the tier 8 mm to work properly, the way you can with other mission sets (e.g. VK 100.01P for Bloc).

Manticore - any of the scouting missions. Best passive scout in the game, but always the danger of yolo-ing EBRs / general LT meta at tier 10. Flagging @sr360 for more input on the scouting missions here.

T57 Heavy - per the recommendation of @PityFool, very good for the damage missions.

Coalition (Czech, France, Italy, Sweden)

Progetto 46 - sorry for another prem, but if you have this, it makes all damage / kill missions a dream. In paticular, Coalition-11 (top kills in the BATTLE, 3 x in a row), Coalition-1 (Fighter or Top Gun (i.e. 4 or more kills) 3 times in 10 battles) and Coaliton-14 (top dmg dealer, 3 out of 5 battles) are all very doable in this, particularly if you avoid tier 10 games. As an autoloader, you can also do the assistance missions by tracking (and I run Optics, so there's spotting potential also), and obviously kill stealing is very easy in this. It's tier for tier the best tank in the entire game, and I don't need an excuse to drive it, but the missions gave me one. I've already maxed it out on Battle Pass progression points  

Skoda T50 - recommended by a lot of people, it is undoubtedly great tier for tier (particularly since the Standard B nerfs), and works fantastic for any kill securing or damage missions.

INDIVIDUAL MISSION GUIDE

One thing worth noting before you pick which set of missions to skip (if you plan on skipping 1, 2 or 3 lines, if you get a 9th token from completing 1 set with honours - credit to @Ezz for pointing this out) is that not all missions are created equal. Sure, all 4 sets have the same themes (do damage, get kills, block damage, get assistance damage, get assistance kills, get stun assistance (Union and Alliance)), but HOW they go about it varies. 

There are 5 general categories of missions:

1. Do [x] in [y] battles IN A ROW. Union, for example structures a lot of it's missions involve you meeting the requirements 3 battles in a row (2 (x2 hitpoints), 5 (top 3 in damage), 7 (3 internal crits)). These tend to be trickier, as one bad game means you have to start all over again. On the other hand, they're quite short - it is much more frustrating starting again failing the 3rd game than trying to average 2k blocked over 10 games and then in game 10 you get HE spammed to death.
2. AVERAGE [x] over y] battles. Alliance has a lot of averaging something over 10 battles (3 (2 assist kills), 7 (2k blocked)), as does Coalition (9 - damage 4 vehicles) and Bloc (5 - average 3k dmg). What is interesting about these is they often have a minimum requirement to count - e.g. Coaltion-9 is damage on average 4 vehicles. So you have 1 battle with 10 damaged, and 2 with 1 each - that's an average of 4, right? Wrong - the minimum requirement is 2 per battle, so only damaging 1 means it "doesn't count". This makes these missions more annoying than 4. below, which just allows you to rack up the requirement regardless of minimums in each game.
3. MEET THE REQUIREMENT IN AT LEAST [x] battles out of [y]. I find these generally the easiest, as you can reset the missions until you get the first battle down, then it is only get [x-1] in [y-1] battles. An example is Bloc-3 (destroy 3 vehicles in 3 battles out of 5). If you reset until you get it in battle 1, it becomes destroy 3 in 2 battles out of 4.
4. DO A MINIMUM of [x] over [y] battles. This is similar to 2. above, where you need to average something, but it usually doesn't have a minimum requirement in a battle to qualify as counting. It just requires you to aggregate up damage, or assistance, or blocked, so that a couple of massive games and a series of smaller games usually gets you it.
5. MEDALS. I've put this by itself, as it's more RNG dependant and, on the whole, can be the more rage-inducing missions. These can be really annoying (Union-13 - 2 Top Guns in 12 games), relatively easy (Alliance-6 - 2 Confederates in 7 games), giving you the choice of medals (Coalition-3 - get any 5 battle heroes in 10 games) or completely team and/or map dependent (Coaltion-8 - 2 Patrol Duties in 12 games). Like 3. above, you can game it a little by "resetting" until you get the first of the medals, and then you only need to get the rest knowing your one medal down (e.g. resetting Coalition-8 until you get Patrol Duty in a game, then you "only" need one more in 11 games).

I'm not sure if i'll post a guide for every mission, but to begin with i'll post the tips on certain missions from @GehakteMolen. I'll flag whose advice it is, depending on who contributes.

UNION

Union-4 (block average of 8 hits in 5 games (so 40 block in 5 games) - GehakteMolen - This turned out to be one of the hardest missions, 8 hits is a lot (~3k blocked for a tier 10...) I first tried IS4, and did ok, but not close to completing, next i tried KV4, and while tier 8 is the best place for this, it also didnt work, so in the end i finished it with the 112, but KV4 should also work. Main problem is ppl tend to load HE if they cant penetrate, so tanks like 705a or 268 are a poor choice for this imo

Union 8 (Lone Wolf, Earn the Fire for Effect Award 7 battles out of 10) - GehakteMolen - 100% a td mission, i did it with Wz-111 TD, got it with honors in first try, was a bit lucky, but this is the easiest way i think.

Snoregasm2 - I actually did this in a combination of tanks, all mediums. I used 274a, 122TM and Object 140.

Union-10 (block 15k dmg in 10 games) - GehakteMolen - IS4 (or 268v4) this mission is actually easy, just reset till you get 4-5k blocked and finish it with a breeze, after buff IS4 is though, and with turbo (and food) its actually suprisingly fast, you have a though hull and good side armour, and people wont load HE straight away when they see you

[TBC]

BLOC

Bloc-2 (Earn the Shellproof award 4 out of 10 battles) - GehakteMolen - this is a typical VK-B mission (t9) VK-B is always hit or miss in terms of game, which is fine for this mission, all you need is a bit luck with mm (so not full t10 on ensk followed by top tier steppes with 3 arty), VK100.01P can also do it, but has more problems with mm, the tier 10 are less useful, because they have too much hp.

Bloc-12 (Be the top player on your team by damage blocked (min 1000) 3 battles out of 7) - GehakteMolen - same as T95 mission, except here u need to do 1 less, i did it with Vk-B, but MAUS would be better i think with MAUS u risk beiing paired with E3 and 705a though, and in tier 10 also more HE spammers and more arty, so t9 is the way to go i think.

ALLIANCE

There will be more detail on both Alliance and Coalition missions, as these are the two most popular missions sets, particularly as a lot of players only do 2 sets and skip the other 2 with 6 orders.

Alliance-1 (Fire for effect 5/10) - Snoregasm2 - This is a very easy mission, and I'd recommend whatever you're comfortable in. Tier 8s are probably best (I used the CS-52 LIS), but tier 10s are viable too. I would stay away from tier 9/10 heavies though, due to the higher HP pool making it needlessly hard.

sr360 -  T49 lol.

GehakteMolen - easiest with charioteer i think, but any tier 8 medium also works, you want something with low hp

CraBeatOff - DPG > Tank HP? Use that. I probably used the T57 Heavy for this because it's not too hard to do 6 pens in it. 

Alliance-2 (Top 3 by damage 3 in a row) - PityFool - I found this very easy to do with the T57 heavy, you have so much DPM and its an autoloader so you can pluck damage from nowhere. Highly recommended.

Snoregasm2 - This is quite hard, as the temptation is to play tier 10, but you often get dogshit MM there. Chieftain is the obvious answer if you have it, but if you don't i'd suggest tier 9 meta tanks (Conq, CS-59, Tortoise, AE Phase 1, Concept 1b), as they can still come top in tier 10 and in tier 9 you'll be laughing.

sr360 - Chieftain.

GehakteMolen - Super conq (or E5), most wont have chieftain i guess

CraBeatOff - Chieftain of course. Also...T57, again for the cheese and damage farm factor. You best be running a lot of HEAT and picking on the fatties.

Alliance-3 (Average 2 tanks spotted or tracked that your team kills over 10 battles) - sr360-  I used a combination of T49 and T92 LT.

CraBeatOff - T49 of course. No better gun for tracking people in the open. Massive view range, great MM. Bring a platoonmate equipped to snipe out EBRs and you're golden. Plus you'll have fun. If you're not a good T49 player - my obvious advice is to become one. Barring that the Manticore is pretty easy to play- build with CVS, Vents, Optics for massive VR and just kemp boosh. You can easily get 7-8 assisted kills on a good map, so reset until you get a huge game, and then play it out. You only need 2-3 good maps in the 10 streak.

Alliance-4 (30k dmg over 10 games) - PityFool - I found this very easy to do with the T57 heavy, you have so much DPM and its an autoloader so you can pluck damage from nowhere. Highly recommended.

CraBeatOff - Chieftain, T57. If you average 3k in it, use it. 

Snoregasm2 - regardless of tank, as this is average, reset until you first battle is a 5k+ game, to make it easier.

sr360 - Chieftain

GehakteMolen - Super conq (or E5), most wont have chieftain i guess

Alliance-5 Stun 40 tanks) - s360 -  FV3805 with stock gun

CraBeatOff - Covered well in this topic. I used the 3805 with the small gun. Click like the shitlord you are!

Alliance-6 (Confederate 2/7) - Snoregasm2 - I personally used the CS-52 LIS, as I hate playing arty and Confederate is an easy medal to farm, but the FV3805 undoubtedly makes this easy.

sr360 - FV3805 with stock gun

CraBeatOff - A gimme in the 3805 as well. Just count to 6 but don't stop there. Why not stun 11 or 12 of the enemy that game?!?!? Senlac is also something I probably used, simply because it's profitable, and easy to play, and my thing. 

Alliance 7 (Average 2000 damage blocked over 10 games) - Snoregsm2 - not tried it yet, but I might see if the T110E3 works.

s360 - T95

CraBeatOff - T95, Tort. I think I was closer on the T95 line, so I blueprinted that one first. Same tactics as always with block missions. Avoid arty, find idiots, eliminate threats (people who demonstrate knowledge of weak points or good aim, HE users). 

GehakteMolen - i did mine with T95, just play and should be fine (mostly boring, not that hard, all you need is a good starting game), as always HE spammers are your main problem

Alliance-8 (30 internal crits) - PityFool - I made the mistake of thinking FV4005 or T49 for this... no. Take your Chimera and shoot HE. Aim for the sides of turrets, commander hatches, engine decks etc. This was probably the easiest mission I had, took me roughly 6-7 games.

sr360 -  FV183 and T49. FV 4005 works too.

CraBeatOff - T49 of course. Sheriderp too. You can use the 4005, 183, Conway 5.5, E3 HE edition, E4, etc. But the T49 is the best, because when you get those soft booties you get so many modules. Easy to get 10+ in a single game. I have this recollectionof getting 13-14 crits in a Cliff game to start the timer. 

Alliance-9 (Stun 1500s in 10 games)  - s360 -  FV3805 with stock gun

CraBeatOff - 3805 or 53/55 of course. I believe I skipped this ONLY for expediency because of the orders obtained from Coalition 15. I may have since done it for bond rewards - it's easy!

Alliance-10 (Cause 2x your HP 4/7) - Snoregasm2 - again, because I hate arty and because this isn't insanely hard, I just rolled with the CS-52 LIS. It only has 1,300 HP which helps.

sr360 - CGC.

GehakteMolen - Fv 3805

CraBeatOff - More arty missions. Honestly you can knock out the Alliance arty missions in like a week of playing arty and be done with them. 

Alliance-11 (Stun assist 1000 4/10). sr360 - CGC. And again Fv 3805

CraBeatOff - So...arty. Obviously platoons here help a lot. Buddy up with someone with a mic and the ability to play on the front lines, preferably in an autoloader. Call your targets, or wait for them to call for you. You can do this in the first 2-3 shots of the game!

Alliance 12 (Be the top player by damage blocked (min 1000) 4 out of 7 battles) - GehakteMolen - again T95, this is much harder though, because when your in a tier 10 fights, there are a LOT of 705a and E3 (due to battle pass) i made it, but it was very annoying (and i got lucky)

sr360 - T95 

CraBeatOff - T95 or Tort. Block  missions are so dumb.

Alliance-13 (Top 3 by XP 3 games in a row) - sr360 -  Chieftain with a platoon feeding me damage. You have to top 3 in BATTLE, which means a win. I brought along two friends who would hold their flanks and support me as I farmed.

GehakteMolen - Tier 8 and 9 mediums get the highest exp on average, and since you need a win, just play a med in platoon and you will do it fairly easy (and remember, dmg on higher tier tanks gives more exp, kills > dmg also

CraBeatOff - I frankly cannot recall if I did this soloing the Chieftain or with a platoon feeding me in the T49 (as recommended above, get a friend in a WaffleIV and spot for them to rack up easy XP). T49 has the advantage of just dominating that clean-up with pens that yield big XP. Plus even though tracking and spotting don't overlap in their contribution to gun marks - they DO give you additive XP! So track that Maus and let your team feed on him! But I probably just did it solo in the Chief because you just get that tier 8 or 9 MM and faceroll to top XP, and then repeat. 

Alliance-14 (Cause damage to 30 vehicles in 10 battles) - Snoregasm2 - I'd say arty is too RNG for this, so I preferred to play medium tanks. Lights also works as you can scoot around and use HE with tanks like the T49 if you want.

sr360 - FV3805, or 53/55

GehkateMolen - imo any medium with fast rate of fire or Fv 3805 (with stock gun)

CraBeatOff - Arty for easy mode. T49 for fun mode (all your shots do damage!). Quick mission. 

Alliance-15 (3 first class or aces) - PityFool - This was very easy with the T95, you will have games where you are too slow, but you only need 3 games where you just dominate.

sr360 -  I did it without honors in the T92 LT.

GehakteMolen - Any non premium non reward tank more or less, tier 8 and 9 being easier

CraBeatOff - T49 of course for me - I did it with Ace + 1st class combo from the first reset. Again - if you're not a T49 expert, become one for your mental health. But barring that using the same strategy as the Coalition probably works. Tier 8 tech tree LT (M41 or LHMTV), built for vision, platooned if you can, and waiting on that map streak. 400 base VR on the Bulldog means you can build for >500 on the move View Range with the CVS ripping them bushes - and this will let you cheese some Aces/1sts on the right maps. You can build for CVS + binos also for maximum cheese. YMMV with scouting ability. 

COALITION

As with Alliance, this is often recommended as one of the two sets of missions you do, if you plan on skipping 2. There is only one truly dogshit mission (Coalition-4) that is skippable.

Coalition-1 (4+ kills 3/10 battles) - sr360 - Progetto 46/Bourrasque

GehakteMolen - Skoda T50 (the t9)

CraBeatOff - Any autoloader. Pick your highest kills/game and use that one. I have a couple that average over 2. I probably did this while grinding credits in the Prog46 or similar.

Coalition-2: (3k dmg 3 games in a row) - sr360 - Progetto 65 & TVP 50/51

GehakteMolen - Skoda T50 or AMX 50B

CraBeatOff - AMX 50B was my choice here. BatChat25t is good also, but a little harder because you can't just trade like the 50B can. 

Coalition-3 (5 battle heroes in 10 battles) - Snoregasm2 - I did it in the Progetto with the Bourrasque thrown in. EBR 75 is also good. Basically Confederate, High Caliber and Tank Sniper are you friends here. Reset until you get a sick first game (2/3 medals, e.g. a Top Gun + High Caliber), so it becomes much easier.

sr360 - I cheesed it with the Bat 155 58 and printed confederates.

GehakteMolen - Here again skoda (or progetto 46 if you have)

CraBeatOff - I farm the hell out of confeds in the EBR 75 FL10, so I used that. This one took some number crunching because it had me stuck for a while. I had to manually compile some spreadsheet data, but once I found my tank and goal medal it was pretty easy.

Coalition-4 (30 internal crits) - sr360 - the glorious FocHE-155 (I even made a highlight reel of my HE pens lolol) 

Snoregasm2 - due to lack of good HE tanks in any of these nations, this is a very good "skip" candidate. Arty could be used I guess, but French arty sucks.

CraBeatOff - I used an order on this one. I don't own a Foch155. Prog65 with HE is probably viable, I had a friend @m0rierisuse that I believe, aro und the same time.

Coalition-5 (block 30 hits) sr360 - AMX M4 54. People shoot it expecting to pen, whereas the Kranvagn turret is shot rather less often. Some made the M4 51 or 49 work too, but I found the 54 more consistent.

GehakteMolen - Here i would say the t9 French heavy though, on tier 10 more gold shells, making blocking harder, but certainly a french heavy.

CraBeatOff - Did this in the AMX 49 grinding credits. Any from the series work, as with all block missions you just need to find the idiots and f2pers and let them shoot you, and not kill them until they pen you twice, or switch to premium/HE.

Coalition-6 (75 pens over 10 games) - Snoregasm2 - One of the easiest missions of all. As with any of these "[x] pens in [y] games", play something fast firing. Progetto, ao other autoloaders, or light tanks are the way to go.

sr360 - I used TVP and Skoda IIRC. Prog 46 is probably good too.

CraBeatOff - Probably didn't use anything in particular for this. I'm sure I used the AMX 13 57 for the Chimera tier, but probably just cycled the Bat12t and EBR 75FL10 for this mission. Possibly the AMX 13 90. As @Snoregasm2 said, this one is easy. Skoda 50 also a contender, since it's just a monster in tier. 

GehakteMolen - Skoda T50 (or prog indeed)

Coalition-7 destroy 2 tanks of 2 types 3 games in a row) - sr360 - Skoda/TVP/Progetto Skoda again

Coalition-8 (Patrol duty 2 games out of 12) - sr360 -No-brainer: EBR 105.

Snoregasm2 - As sr360 put in the scout section, normally non-tier 10s are the way to go, because of EBR 105s at tier 10. Contribute to the problem by playing it for missions!

CraBeatOff - Just use the tank you used for Coalition 1. 

Coalition-8 (Patrol duty 2 games out of 10) - sr360 - No-brainer: EBR 105.

CraBeatOff - EBR 105 obviously.

Coalition-9 (Damage to average 4 different vehicles in a battle over 10 battles) - Snoregasm2 - Remember, this has to be different vehicles, so you can't just farm the same sorry idiot. This is a true comfort mission - whatever you're best in. 

sr360 - I used the Bat 155 58 because 2 clips did it.

GehakteMolen - Again, Skoda T50 or Progetto 46

CraBeatOff - Just like Coalition 6, it's a gimme. Spread your damage in autoloaders. I prefer the French over the autoreloaders because you can plan your clips more reliably. I may have used the Batchat 155 55 arty, the tier IX. It's extremely comfortable with a GLD, IRM, and rammer. Fast, full turret, 22s reload.  

Coalition-10 (1500 assist 3 games in a row) - sr360 - EBR 105 again 

Snoregasm2 - this is my current active mission. I've tried tier 8s (EBR 75, Progetto 46 and Bourraque), using a combination of spotting and tracking, but it's too inconsistent. Even with the 105 thought, map selection is key. I got 2 in a row then got Himmelsdorf - i'd suggest banning maps at the start of a session to suit the mission.

CraBeatOff - EBR105 or EBR90. Sometimes the EBR90 can be a bit easier to get reliable games in consecutive sequence - due to better MM, especially on NA. I kit my EBR90 with optics, vents and LNE, so it's extremely hard for anything except like a Manticore or T-100 built for vision to outspot. 1500 isn't a hard threshold to cross at tier 9, especially if you platoon with an M53/55 who is focused on your spotting runs.

Coalition-11 (be top tank in the battle by kills 3/9) - sr360 - Progetto 65/TVP

Snoregasm2 - I'd prefer securing kills at tier 8. I did this in the Progetto - it can do fine even in tier 10 games. Tier 8 games, it's almost guaranteed assuming you don't brain fart. Tier 10 MM is just too unpredictable.

CraBeatOff - Same as missions #1 and #7. I would use a Bourrasque today. I probably used a Bat25t, Somua SM or Skoda 50 historically. 

Coalition-12 (Spot/track 7 tanks for your team to kill) - sr360 - EBR 105 again (sense a theme?) 

CraBeatOff - Same as Coalition 10, EBR 105 or 90. 

Coalition-13 (Do 2x your tank's HP) - Snoregasm2 - As I didn't have French arty and the mission is fairly simple, I decided to just play "normal" in the Progetto. If you don't have it, i'd suggest the Swedish TDs as a useful alternative. The lower TD HP pool helps.

sr360 - Cheese it with Bat 155 58 (490x2=980). Lorraine arty works too (390x2=780) or Bat 155 55 (440x2=880)

CraBeatOff - Strv S1 can be nice for this, but I probably did it in the Bat 155 55. 

GehakteMolen - I used here amx cda td, any td will do though (S-51 or Udes td also good picks).

Coalition-14 (Top by damage3/5) - Snoregasm2 - Tier 8s for me - Progetto or Bourrasque or Somua. Generally, autoloaders are favoured here.

sr360 - TVP or Progetto 65

GehakteMolen - Skoda, ofc

CraBeatOff - I almost certainly used the Somua for this because it's a gimme in tier 8MM and pretty solid in 9s and 10s. On NA 3/5 is probably about how often you see top tier MM in the Somua. Prog 46 plays up well also, I've just always been better in the French HTs than the Italian MTs. Skoda 50 always an option if it works for you. 

Coalition-15 (3 first class or aces)- Snoregasm2 - I've not got here yet, but I think there are 2 approaches. 1) play something with low requirements; or 2) play something you're really good in. I guess for sr360 the 13 90 is both? For me, I'll try this in the Progetto, but if it's too much I'll switch to a light tank.

sr360 - I did it without honors with the AMX 13 90. 

CraBeatOff - Bat12t all the way here. Low low low requirements. Fairly shitty gun. I built it with CVS, vents, and optics to maximize it's scouting upside to get those Aces - honors on this really made finishing easier. It's kind of a crappy tank! It catches fire, loses it's engine, is very badly outclassed by the EBRs and doesn't have a large clip. Plus the pen is low and the gun handles poorly (especially without vstab!). BUT - it's still easy to make an impact with good scouting, and judicious deployment of the clip. The things that make it crappy make it easier for me to Ace. I just decided to 3 mark it and keep resetting the mission while doing so. Got 3 Aces in like 12 games or something. 

[Ezz 1,770]

Iirc you don't need even that many 279 missions. Get the 8 from chimera etc then do one full set including an order gets you the 9 you need to skip the last 3 mission 15s.

[Balthazars 210]

Quote

Bloc and Coaltion don't need them. So no German or French arties.

Rip me not reading ahead the requirements. I started German arty thinking about missions. Looks like I'll need to consider starting at least another arty line. Damnit.

But thanks for putting this together. I only started looking at missions semi-seriously again recently, having only just polished off the Excalibur missions very recently (having not ground any German/Japanese lines, I did not finish the Bloc missions for absolutely ages) and just making a start on Chimera, but I think an updated guide or tips in this regard would be appreciated by many. I would say that so far, the Chimera missions look quite challenging for average players (i.e. Blue or below) because they do require some fairly 'peak level' performances and good consistency. Looking forward to more.

[hazzgar 730]

On 5/4/2021 at 10:37 PM, Ezz said:

Iirc you don't need even that many 279 missions. Get the 8 from chimera etc then do one full set including an order gets you the 9 you need to skip the last 3 mission 15s.

Wait. So you need to finish only 1 line of missions if you have 9 orders? Why am I even grinding 3 lines then...

On 5/5/2021 at 12:41 AM, Balthazars said:

Rip me not reading ahead the requirements. I started German arty thinking about missions. Looks like I'll need to consider starting at least another arty line. Damnit.

But thanks for putting this together. I only started looking at missions semi-seriously again recently, having only just polished off the Excalibur missions very recently (having not ground any German/Japanese lines, I did not finish the Bloc missions for absolutely ages) and just making a start on Chimera, but I think an updated guide or tips in this regard would be appreciated by many. I would say that so far, the Chimera missions look quite challenging for average players (i.e. Blue or below) because they do require some fairly 'peak level' performances and good consistency. Looking forward to more.

 

Chimera missions are basically obj260 missions. Ironically on my current acc I've done the Chimera before the obj260 despite doing the obj missions 2 times before but just chose the right tanks and those should be easy. 

[sr360 4,987]

1 hour ago, hazzgar said:

Wait. So you need to finish only 1 line of missions if you have 9 orders? Why am I even grinding 3 lines then...

Because for that you need to do all Chimera and Excalibur -15 missions with honors, and do one of the 3 lines' mission-15 with honors (3 aces in 20 games). If you can do that, more power to you, but it's not doable for everyone (it certainly wasn't for me).

[Panzergraf 68]

Just wait for WG to sell you second front orders from the Black Market at an insane price in gold

[hazzgar 730]

11 minutes ago, sr360 said:

Because for that you need to do all Chimera and Excalibur -15 missions with honors, and do one of the 3 lines' mission-15 with honors (3 aces in 20 games). If you can do that, more power to you, but it's not doable for everyone (it certainly wasn't for me).

 

Which part wasn't? I need to do one excalibur mission with honors and then find some trash tank I can ace reliably. Maybe I will just try to 3 mark the tech tree bulldog since the reqs on this thing are laughable. I'm picking bulldog since USA missions seem to be the easiest 

[H4NI 138]

Any tips on tanks for Bloc and Union blocked missions? 2x Hp blocked multiple times etc

[sr360 4,987]

1 hour ago, hazzgar said:

 

Which part wasn't? I need to do one excalibur mission with honors and then find some trash tank I can ace reliably. Maybe I will just try to 3 mark the tech tree bulldog since the reqs on this thing are laughable. I'm picking bulldog since USA missions seem to be the easiest 

I'm really bad at high damage numbers, so I actually didn't complete a couple of the Chimera -15 missions with honors. I didn't even try to do the Aces.

[hazzgar 730]

12 minutes ago, sr360 said:

I'm really bad at high damage numbers, so I actually didn't complete a couple of the Chimera -15 missions with honors. I didn't even try to do the Aces.

I'm the same really. Since Im not migrating accounts since late 2019 I have never reached 8k dmg (is it me or was it easier in the good old days? )  but there aren't that many chimera missions that require crazy dmg. Usually it's 6k which can be done even though it requires a few battles. I found you need to find your tank for those. I am a dogshit player at t10. Usually I get comparable or lower dpg's than in my t9s so most of my t10's are sub 3k dpg but once I found the right setup for my shitbarn for example I had a nice string of high damage battles in it. 

[Snoregasm2 646]

1 hour ago, H4NI said:

Any tips on tanks for Bloc and Union blocked missions? 2x Hp blocked multiple times etc

It'll follow - there's a lot to cover! In short though, it will be VK 100P, KV-4 and Object 268v-4. It's easier in tier 8s as you can get tier 6 games where even your lower plate is tough angled, and the v4 is good due to lower hp pool and you essentially yolo with it and invite shots from mid to long range.

[GehakteMolen 2,063]

Ill give my 2 cents about blocking missions (in between wating for game to end if i die)

you can cut and paste my text in yours, makes it easier to read i think

Union-4, block average of 8 hits in 5 games (so 40 block in 5 games), this turned out to be one of the hardest missions, 8 hits is a lot (~3k blocked for a tier 10...) I first tried IS4, and did ok, but not close to completing, next i tried KV4, and while tier 8 is the best place for this, it also didnt work, so in the end i finished it with the 112, but KV4 should also work. Main problem is ppl tend to load HE if they cant penetrate, so tanks like 705a or 268 are a poor choice for this imo

Union-10, block 15k dmg in 10 games, IS4 (or 268) this mission is actually easy, just reset till you get 4-5k blocked and finish it with a breeze, after buff IS4 is though, and with turbo (and food) its actually suprising fast, you have a though hull and good side armour, and people wont load HE straight away when they see you

Union 8: Lone Wolf, Earn the Fire for Effect Award 7 battles out of 10, 100% a td mission, i did it with Wz-111 TD, got it with honors in first try, was a bit lucky, but this is the easiest way i think

Alliance 7: Average 2000 damage over 10 games, i did mine with T95, just play and should be fine (mostly boring, not that hard, all you need is a good starting game), as always HE spammers are your main problem

Alliance 12: Be the top player by damage blocked (min 1000) 4 out of 7 battles, again T95, this is much harder though, because when your in a tier 10 fights, there are a LOT of 705a and E3 (due to battle pass) i made it, but it was very annoying (and i got lucky)

Bloc 2: Earn the Shellproof award 4 out of 10 battles, this is a typical VK-B mission (t9) VK-B is always hit or miss in terms of game, which is fine for this mission, all you need is a bit luck with mm (so not full t10 on ensk followed by top tier steppes with 3 arty), VK100 can also do it, but has more problems with mm, the tier 10 are less usefull, because they have too much hp.

Bloc 12: Be the top player on your team by damage blocked (min 1000) 3 battles out of 7, same as T95 mission, except here u need to do 1 less, i did it with Vk-B, but MAUS would be better i think with MAUS u risk beiing paired with E3 and 705a though, and in tier 10 also more HE spammers and more arty, so t9 is the way to go i think.

In general type 61 is also a good tank, fast rld and high dpm make it good for killing and hitting mission (so like half of the german missions)

[Snoregasm2 646]

8 minutes ago, GehakteMolen said:

Ill give my 2 cents about blocking missions (in between wating for game to end if i die)

U can cut and paste my text in yours, makes it easier to read i think

Thanks mate.

[sr360 4,987]

1 minute ago, Snoregasm2 said:

Thanks mate.

I can edit in my input to your article directly if you prefer. I'll do it after work.

[Snoregasm2 646]

20 minutes ago, sr360 said:

I can edit in my input to your article directly if you prefer. I'll do it after work.

No rush. I might try and complete all 4 missions' tank picks, so you and @GehakteMolen can feed in all at once.

I'll then move to the individual missions (although not sure on the format yet). The scout missions I'll definitely need help on, as I've not done many yet. Same for blocking.

[hazzgar 730]

3 hours ago, H4NI said:

Any tips on tanks for Bloc and Union blocked missions? 2x Hp blocked multiple times etc

For RU tanks just take their armored TD line since low hp high armor. 

[Panzergraf 68]

Do blind stuns count towards missions? It almost seems like they don't, even though they get added to your total stun time in the post battle result.

[Snoregasm2 646]

20 minutes ago, Panzergraf said:

Do blind stuns count towards missions? It almost seems like they don't, even though they get added to your total stun time in the post battle result.

Yes, they do - I remember tracking progress when I was doing the missions.

[sr360 4,987]

7 hours ago, hazzgar said:

For RU tanks just take their armored TD line since low hp high armor. 

Agreed. One of my clanmates parked a 268v4 in camo in front of a spotted Grille and just absorbed the hits.

[Vindi 414]

On 5/4/2021 at 8:52 PM, Snoregasm2 said:

play arty

I never played 1 game with artillery in 10 years of WoT. I rather suffer in silence (or not so silently) than to touch any of those abominations. It is a reflex.

[H4NI 138]

17 hours ago, hazzgar said:

For RU tanks just take their armored TD line since low hp high armor. 

 

10 hours ago, sr360 said:

Agreed. One of my clanmates parked a 268v4 in camo in front of a spotted Grille and just absorbed the hits.

i suppose then SU-100M1 is the best option. if i remember correctly it got buffed last year?

[Ezz 1,770]

23 minutes ago, H4NI said:

 

i suppose then SU-100M1 is the best option. if i remember correctly it got buffed last year?

279 missions require tier 8 and above.

[Panzergraf 68]

IS-M could work.

[sr360 4,987]

19 hours ago, Snoregasm2 said:

No rush. I might try and complete all 4 missions' tank picks, so you and @GehakteMolen can feed in all at once.

I'll then move to the individual missions (although not sure on the format yet). The scout missions I'll definitely need help on, as I've not done many yet. Same for blocking.

I'll be more detailed later, but here's my bottom line on scouting missions--

There are two types of scouting missions: those which need BIG NUMBERS (e.g. Bloc-9, get a total of 15,000 assist damage in 10 battles) and which need a certain number of tanks to be spotted/assisted etc (e.g. Alliance-3, enable your allies do kill an average of 2 tanks per game that you have spotted).

The problem is that the tier 10 LT meta is essentially dominated by the EBR. The Manticore and T-100 can have good games, but can you consistently get 10 games where you get good maps yet EBRs don't run around getting all the spotting damage? For this reason, for the second type of mission, I prefer tier 8 lights. The LT-432, T92, Hwk 30 and Senlac are very strong lights and have enough of a VR advantage over T8 EBRs that they can consistently get spots and assist. Let me posit these VR numbers for my scouting setups:

T8
LT-432: 486
T92: 502
Hwk 30: 514
EVEN90: 535
EBR 75: 410

T9
T49: 524
RU251: 509
EBR90: 440
 

T10
Manticore: 531
T-100: 518
EBR105: 463

So while my Russian and Alliance lights gain ~30m VR with slightly better camo, the EBR gains 53 plus insane escalation in mobility. It's clear spots are easier to get with T8 or even 9 lights rather than being matched up with or against EBRs.

[echo9835 167]

3 hours ago, sr360 said:

So while my Russian and Alliance lights gain ~30m VR with slightly better camo, the EBR gains 53 plus insane escalation in mobility. It's clear spots are easier to get with T8 or even 9 lights rather than being matched up with or against EBRs.

I totally agree. While I was trying to do LT 15 with honnors, I found I had by far the most sucess at tier 8. Plus I ground out millions of credits while I was doing it, even with food and big kits. I found that tier 8 lights were far more consistant than tier 10. I averaged 2.5k spotting over about 150 games in the even 90 and a lot less at tier 10 despite the larger HP pools.