Chaffee charades

[caelestis42 30]

So, I've gone back to what I considered the worst disapointment of my early WoT career, the Chaffee.

I started WoT almost exactly one year ago and the American light tank line leading to the Chaffee was the first I tried.

I sucked. Alot. If I had played with myself from those days today I would be screaming and tearing my hair or simply laughed at the noobishnes.

The stuart that precedes the Chaffee was fast and I thought it fun to drive straight into enemy lines and trying to zig zag for as long as I survived once I reached them. Getting one or two shots in on enemy tanks was a bonus. Needless to say that those days haunt my stats today haha.

 

Anyway, once I finished the grueling (for me in those days) 60k or so xp grind to the Chaffee I was expecting an even funnier tank. 

Instead I got something that felt like the Stuart to me but played among behemoths like tier VIII and even some IX and X!?

It was crazy times and I didn't survive long when trying to run into those defenses. After 15 games of total fails I sold the Chaffee in anger and never looked back... ...until yesterday. 

 

Estelle posted a 3600 xp Chaffee game in forumites channel and got me hooked. I started thinking about it and since I didn't really succeed in the T49 when trying to get loads of exp for the T5 competition (was top dmg and xp in a few t8 games but didnt get super exp like I wanted so I stopped trying), I decided to try the Chaffee again and was hoping that my 9000 or so games since I last tried it had made me better at it.

 

I free exped the shit out of it (I noticed that I didnt even unlock everything in the tank when I first tried it), bought the prem cammo, loaded 15 prem shells and rest AP with a few HE thrown in for good measure. Coated the optics, netted the cammo and rammed the gun. Performed small repairs to the high octane motor and case of cola (my transferred old 4 skill T49 crew wouldn't drink anything else) and off I went. Boy, did I enjoy myself!

 

1000 games in the E25 and 500 or so in the T49 were probably well spent in preparation for the Chaffee. Having the nice cammo characteristics of a light tank, the pew pew of the E25, a godly 400 m view range and the agility of an ice skater on steroids make it a perfect tank for me to have fun in.

 

Early game I just sneak around and try to spot enemies just like any normal scout. If I feel safe, I fire a shot or two on advancing tanks to deter them from going too close to me without letting my backup arrive. However, the golden rule is to lower your gun rather than fire it, even with the nice cammo of the Chaffee. I still haven't perfected active scouting yet but might try more of it.

 

Mid game I try to make sure that any "forgotten" flank is getting scouted and if there are no holes in our defense I go to search for holes in the enemy lines.

 

Late game make all the "lowring of guns" worth it. Once the big guns have been weeded out and the map is more open, the Chaffee really shines. Kill off those unsuspecting tX tanks with a few shots, go for arties, light up those annoying TD's and just have fun. Yesterday I killed off an IS7 and a E5 before they knew what was going on, only to destroy their arty afterwards. 

 

The best moment yesterday came in the best xp game out of the 14 I did (2650 xp). On abbey I scouted river, wen't up to the houses on small ridge between east abbey lane and river lane and spotted a few tanks (a poor T34 had gone to river). Nothing much happening, I decided to go for the enemy base after a few minutes since most of the tanks had gone west (always a good idea to count tanks on the minimap to know if you should expect lots of tanks in other places). I race up towards enemy base (south base) and something spots me but nothing shoots, I continue up from the east entrance and BAM, there stands one green-ranked ISU-152 and a green IS8, both full health. Now, in this instance I'm actually quite proud to say that I didn't stop and try to reverse out (which is a deadly sin which leads to death...) and didn't drive past them hoping to zig zag away. Instead I autolock on the ISU-152, circle it once (thanks godly Chaffee traverse), while shooting and then just keep the ISU between the myself and the IS8, preventing the IS8 to shoot me. ISU dies after 15-20 seconds and I just stay hidden behind it. IS8 stops trying to shoot me after 2 tries and comes storming for me. Just as it reaches the ISU I dodge out and start circle it. After about 30 seconds he dies (thank you burning motors) and I have killed two full health tanks in my Chaffe. Good times

 

What are your best memories of the Chaffee and do you have any good spots for me to try?

 

As a sidenote I expect the Chaffee to do expremely well in WN8 and might start to use it more on my statpad account if WN8 becomes the standard stat. Averaged a bit above 1000 dmg yesterday and had more than 1300 or 1400 xp avg. 79% win in 14 games. Will continue the crusade tonight.

[BullSaw 0]

I love my chaffee, and that is a very impressive game. Unfortunately it is not good for padding WN8. I consider myself an exceptional light tank driver (unfortunately I, like you, got the chaffee very early, but I didn't sell it, so my stats are even worse in it). I noticed that even though my stats are far above average in the light tanks I play, my WN8 for them is very low. I honestly think it may be broken. 

 

Load more gold and get a vert stab. The regular rounds are nearly useless once in a game with thick skinned 10s. The vert stab makes that on the move accuracy suddenly game breaking.

[CandyVanMan 526]

Chaffee is tank of stronkerest pleyerings!
Also, I should buy it back on my main account, as I have a higher top xp in it on my alt, see sig for more info.

[Xelos 62]

Chaffee is great fun, the Type 64 plays very similar.

 

It is almost meaningless to use WN8 to analyze performance in scout tanks. Just don't...

[caelestis42 30]

 

T37 and Bulldog are my new lovely chaffefifiefes! WG finally did something to increase my enjoyment of the game again! Now to get rid of the corridor maps...

[ZXrage 1,318]

 T37 and Bulldog are my new lovely chaffefifiefes! WG finally did something to increase my enjoyment of the game again! Now to get rid of the corridor maps...

 

Indeed, the M41/T37 have replaced the hole in my heart where the Chaffee was.

[jacg123 656]

The "new" Chaffee is also fan-fucking-tastic. Amazing matchmaking, great softs, and a decent gold round make it a barrel of fun!