Some words about classes of tanks

When you have played a number of battles, you will start to move up through the different tech trees of various nations. At tier V you will unlock your first heavy tanks, even if there are some at tier IV also. (And even one at tier III.) You have probably have noticed what characterizes a heavy tank:

• High alpha damage, but slow rate of fire
• Better armor than other classes
• Slower than all other classes (except artillery/SPG)
• Worse camoflage rating than the other classes

But every now and then, you will find that some medium tanks check one or more of these boxes. The Matilda is one of these, by having great armor for it’s type and tier.

VK 30.01 (p), German tier VI medium

The VK 30.01 (P) is another example, as it’s 220 alpha damage is (almost) twice that of other tier VI medium tanks. Therefore, it is meaningful to characterize some mediums as “heavy medium tanks”.

In other cases, you have some heavy tanks that could be characterized as “medium heavy tanks”, like the KV-1S, at least when compared to it’s brother, the KV-1.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – worst tier VI medium

There are twelve tier VI medium tanks in WOT (patch 9.13):

• A-43
• T-34-85
• VK 30.01 (D)
• VK 30.01 (P)
• VK 30.02 (M)
• M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo
• M4A3E8 Sherman
• Cromwell
• Sherman Firefly
• Cz08 T 25
• Type 58
• Type 4 Chi-To

A lot of these tanks are really good, and a couple are “not so great”. They differ a lot in play style, even more than you should think. I believe the Cromwell is the best one, but which one is worst? There are four clear candidates, but let us get rid of the best ones first: The Cromwell is out, and so is the T-34-85. I also believe we can rule out both of the american ones, and both the VK 30.01 (D) and the VK 30.02 (M). I have not played the T 25 yet, but it is doing quite well in the battles I have played where I’ve seen them in action. The Sherman Firefly has a great gun, even if it’s slow, so it is also out.

Best and worst tanks by tier and type – best tier VII tank destroyer

There are nine tier VII tank destroyers in World of tanks (by patch 9.13):

• SU-100M1
• SU-152
• Jagdpanther
• Sturer Emil
• T25 AT
• T25/2
• AMX AC mle. 46
• AT 7
• Challenger

I have played all of these, except the AT 7. It plays in a similar way to all the heavy british TD’s, so I have a pretty good idea what it’s like. When you look at at the characteristics of these tanks, they are quite different. The AT 7 is slow with very thick armor, the SU-152 has got a derp gun capable of killing tier VI tanks with a single shot, the SU-100M1 has got a ridiculous high rate of fire, while the T25/2 and Challenger has got turrets. The Jagdpanther, T25 AT and AMX AC are more “middle of the road”.