What are premium tanks, and should I buy one?

Premium tanks are tanks you can buy for gold or for real money on the World of tanks website. They only have one standard set of modules, so you cannot unlock better modules than the ones they have when you buy it. The generate a lot of in game credits per victory, the increase in crew experience is higher, and you can put a crew from a different tank in it, as I explain below.

In my opinion, they are in some ways worse then their closest “sibling”. Take the Russian heavy tank IS-6 at tier VIII. It is in many ways similar to the one of the other standard Russian heavy tanks at tier VIII, the IS-3.  However, there are several differences:

• The gun on the IS-6 only has far worse penetration, at 175 mm, versus 225 mm on the best gun on the IS-3
• The rate of fire is better, at 5,13 shots per minute, against 4,51 at the IS-3
• The IS-6 has a lower top speed, at 35 kph, versus 38 kph with the IS-3
• The armor is weaker, at least on paper, but in reality the difference is negligible

To make a long story short: The premium tanks have distinct weaknesses and strengths and have to be played accordingly. Take the “Dicker Max” as an example: It is slow, has a long reload time, but the gun depression is great, and the gun is quite good. A very popular premium tank is the german E25. It is very fast and has an excellent camo rating (is difficult to spot behind bushes). The gun has decent penetration and high rate of fire, but it has a low alpha damage (the number of health points the enemy loses per hit).

However: The point of using premium tanks is – besides getting more in game credits per battle – to increase crew skills on the crew from another tank. If you buy the IS-6 and also have the IS-3, both Russian heavy  tanks, you can play a match in the IS-3 and get the “daily double” for the first win of the day. Then you can move the crew to the IS-6 and get the daily double on that tank as well.

You must NEVER put a designated crew in premium tanks. ALWAYS use a crew from one of your non premium tanks of the same type and nationality. You can mix crew from different tanks and put them in your premium tank, as long as they are of the same type and nationality.

Remember that playing in higher tiers is very different from playing in lower tiers. If you are new to the game, and have reached tier 3 or 4, buying a tier VIII heavy like the IS-6 or the German “Löwe”, you have to play in a completely different way than you do in a tier 3 medium tank. If you do not know what “sidescraping” is, for instance, you should probably not buy the IS-6 or the Löwe.

The way I use premium tanks is as I have described above. In addition, I often use premium tanks directly after buying a new tank. I recently bought the SU-152, a standard tier VII  Russian tank destroyer. The crew was moved over from the tier VI SU-100. When you start playing a new tank, it is most often stock, unless one or more of the modules used on it has been unlocked in a different tank. Therefore, the tank is not as good as it “should” be, and performs significantly worse then when all modules are unlocked. I had a couple of matches in it to see what it was like, and decided I needed to increase the basic crew skills from 90% to 100% to decrease loading time, aiming time and so on. So I put the crew in my premium tier V Russian tank destroyer, the SU-85i, and played a number of matches until the crew had reached 100% basic skills. Then I put them back in the SU-152 and started to grind this tank.

Another way of using premium tanks to increase crew skills, is what I did with the Sturer Emil and the Jagdpanther, both tier VII German tank destroyers. Both of these two tanks have a crew of 5 (commander, gunner, radio operator, driver, loader), and this is also the type of crew that fits in the Dicker Max, premium tier VI German tank destroyer.  On days where I wanted to grind one or both of these two tanks, I first played a match in the Dicker Max and got the daily double. I always put the worst crew member, position by position, from both the Emil and the JPanther in my Dicker Max: The worst of the two drivers, the worst of the two gunners, and so on. Soon I had very decent crews in both tanks, long before I had unlocked then next tanks.

When should you buy a new tank?

When should you buy a new tank? This might sound like a stupid question, but it is really not. When grinding (opening modules like tracks, engines and guns) lower tiers from 1 to 3, it is not important. Play a few games, unlock everything and move on. I would recommend that you unlock every module, though. That is because many modules are used on different tanks.

Let’s have a look at the french medium tank D2 (click for larger image):

French medium tank D2

As we see, it is only necessary to unlock the Renault S6Bis engine to unlock the next tank in this line, the B1. However, this will make the grind of later tanks more difficult, because the gun and the radio are used on other tanks:

The french medium tank D2

The radio ER53 is used on several other tanks. It is therefore a good idea to unlock it on the D2. (If you have not allready unlocked it on other tanks, like the UE 57.)

The same goes for the gun:

The french medium tank D2

As we see, the SA37 is also used on the B1. Even though you have to unlock the D2 APX 4 turret to use it, it will make it much easier to play the B1 if you have unlocked the SA37.

Therefore: You should always unlock all modules on a tank before moving to the next. (There are exceptions from this rule, when a module is used only on one tank. These exceptions are very few, though.) You should at least make this a rule from tier 3 or 4 and upwards.

The other thing you should be aware of, is the skills of your crew. As I have described, you have to get to 100% basic (or “base”) skills before you can start to add secondary skills on your crew. If you are patient, and play a few games after you have unlocked all modules and the next tank (or the next tanks), you can start to add secondary skills on the crew you will use on the next tank.

When I started playing World of tanks, I was not aware of this fact, unlocked and started using the next tank with a completely new crew. The old crew was dismissed, because I didn’t want to pay to retrain the crew to a different tank. BIG mistake. So wait a few games, and increase your crews skills before you move on. But remember to check the “Accelerate crew training” box when you do so. Almost all you XP will then be used on crew skills:

Accelerate crew training