Hi everyone,
I’m pretty solid at air rb, but I just can’t seem to do well in ground rb, and I’m aware it’s probably a skill issue. I’m playing tanks like the KV-1E and the T-34 (1942), and I know they’re good tanks, but I don’t have the game knowledge to do well with them.
Any tips? thx
With the KV-1b always wiggle your tank. With T-34 go fast and hit hard. Also look some of the other tanks weakspots in the hanger, trust me it works
I’m only a middling player, however in my experience playing the british (very bad armour, good forward mobility, bad backwards mobility, good depression, good penetration, low post-pen damage) is that I tend to do better by trying to predict where the enemy will go and let them make the first move rather than try to be too aggressive and die to the enemy doing the same to me. This tends to put me in ~top 5 of my team with 1500-2000 score.
Imagine with the KV you don’t need to be as careful since you can actually bounce shots. However trying to learn what areas on which map allow you to see the enemy moving onto capture points or other heavy traffic areas will probably still pay off.
Unfortunately most map guides I can find seem to be 3-4 years old, and I’m not sure how many are still applicable.
The old forum used to have like an entire section dedicated to basically where to go and where not to go on maps if I recall, but again - probably outdated. Still, here’s one: Strategic tips for ground battle maps (36 maps & 90+ videos; as of 15/April/2021) - Army Academy - War Thunder - Official Forum
Edit:
This guy has a few videos dating back only a few months. Still a risk of outdated info, but might be helpful none the less: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBNhloJF1XMSFlEGJ_5tS0reFPeTMKbAx
Thanks, sorry I meant to say the KV-1E. My question is that I always get killed by tanks I don’t see. Is there any easy way to solve this?
Do you have a bigger screen?
Also you can remove tall grass from your screen in options, there is a video you can watch all about that.
Just keep playing and eventually your eyes will get used to spotting movement. Unlike the AirRB there are no tags so situational awareness is a big part of the ground game.
Exactly, turn off Grass in Tank Sight, and go to Camera from tank gunners sight, turn off. That way your aiming through your gun barrel.
I recommend referring to my edit earlier about maps. Especially the video (second link) emphasizes where people usually go so you know where to look before a tank even drives by there. Now, people who behave in unusual ways will still surprise you but most players can be fairly predictable.
Like, one of the videos describes a ridgeline on Sinai that is near your spawn but is fully exposed to the enemy spawn. If you’re on the enemy team, it can be worth using binoculars to keep an eye on this ridgeline to get a kill on someone who was not aware of this and whatnot.
On Frozen Pass, there’s two valleys that people spawning north will invariably drive onto to try and flank people going for A. Thus, while going for A you want to keep an eye on those valleys/hills to avoid being surprised.
Another thing that helps is sound while within brawling range. If, in settings, you turn down your engine volume to like 15-30 while keeping others’ at 100 - you will almost always notice if there’s a tank waiting to ambush you around a corner and avoid dying to them by driving past unaware. With headphones, you can even predict which way they’re driving to try and flank you and turn your turret to intercept them.
A lot of “how the hell did they know I’m coming. Wallhacker!” situations can be attributed to sound.
#1 thing I have learned after struggling in GRB at first (I’m not really that good still, but learning) is using a little patience over blind rushing aggression.
I’ve just finished playing about 200 games in the Russian 4.0 lineup including the KV-1E helping my friends grind tanks who are new to the game. If you would like to send me a replay or two I’d happily watch them and give you some pointers.
Just keep playing and eventually your eyes will get used to spotting movement. Unlike the AirRB there are no tags so situational awareness is a big part of the ground game.
To elaborate on this statement further, your perception will change also. With time, kills, deaths, playing the maps you’ll also learn where to look, and you’ll also know what to expect when you look there. It’s not so much that you’ll start to see more tanks as much as you’ll know where to find them.
With the KV-1b always wiggle your tank.
I don’t recommend wiggling your tank. I recommend angling your tank deliberately if you know where you’re being shot from. Many guns at 4.0 do not have enough penetration to overcome angled 75-90mm plates on the KV-1 L11, Zis 5 and KV-1E, if you can present a corner to the enemy with both your turret and hull, you can bounce shots indefinitely. If you time your movement correctly, you will have enough time between bounces to aim, return fire and then resume the angled stance to deflect fire.
Thanks for the reply. I am improving with the vehicle, and I now have a K/D > 1. But I have a long way to go, and when I do well, it sometimes feels like I’m just lucky if that makes sense
There are many things to consider when you win a match, don’t be in a hurry to discredit your own efforts. I do understand what you mean, there’s very few moments where you genuinely feel responsible for every poimt you score. At the end of the day you’ll hopefully enjoy driving the vehicle. I find that war thunder players are very results driven at times, just remember that you don’t owe anyone anything. Its not rude to have a bad game and there are no prizes for a high K/D. At the end of the day Gaijin rewards two kinds of players: 1. Those who spend a lot of time in game, 2. Those who invest money. Neither of those options guaranteed to be a good time.
I wouldn’t focus on K/D too much, in some ways war thunder is a zero sum game, for every player kill there’s a corresponding player death. Some times your team sucks and you barely make it out of spawn, some times your team is awesome and they do all the work leaving you with no kills or captured points. An obersvation I’ve made is that players with high K/Ds also have a very high number of battles >500, the super high K/Ds are players that have upwards of 2000-3000 kills. It’s no secret why these players do well, with that much experience in a vehicle you develop a tremendous amount of intuitive knowledge about the maps, the enemies you’ll encounter and how to deal with them. Most players will naturally develop above average performances if they give themselves the grace and patience to develop skills over time.
A general piece of advise is to never feel bad about settling back into a comfy tank that you know you can do well with. Very few players are experts in every vehicle they pick up, and it’s still important to challenge yourself and explore new vehicels and higher battle ratings but it’s still a game after all. Not every battle you play needs to be counting towards your next vehicle or the end of the tech tree. Some times it’s just fun to bully players in a KV-1 L11 or Derp low tier vehicles with a Ho-Ro.
Wiggling is telegraphing lack of experince to players who are well aware of who and why players do this. Players who lack the experience and confidence to intentionally receive hits.
Getting shot shouldnt be a Oh **** moment. causing a panic wiggle because what else are we suppose to do.
The players who have the experience or are confident with the angling, wont waste energy wiggling. They might move into a better position which to defened from, or keep the speed to use for a choppy movement to angle when the shot is fired. slow down to maintain a decent angle for when the shot is likely to come out.
reactive angling, or preping the angle with some added movement. Something as simple as accelerating and stoping greatly changes the angle of impact.
Turret seeming to lock when moving in the opposing direction of turret rotation. :/
Wiggling has predictable dead periods where the tank does not move, assisting the opposing player to land a shot. Fire at the wiggling tank when it begins to slow down to move to the opposing direction, and the shot will land when it’s not moving or when it’s essentially locked into its direction of movement and cant change direction.
Most players are using steering to turn left and right. The default keybind, paired with RB mode, and the dead time period when the tank is not going left or right, is much longer than a person using Track break inputs. Which are not assigned by default.
A bit of pre angling with an additional quick choppy, no telegraph move after they fire to cover the angle should keep you alive by bouncing the shot, or outright dodging it. This includes Stopping, slight deviation to pathing, or an extreme turn.Reversing can also change the angle of the tank without addtional movements left, nor right. Just depends where all the weight of the tank is going. but ill will slide out a bit. Not super impactful but it’s there.