Honestly they should just do air ec and then make a server browser for those who wanna do ec or normal air rb
I would definitely like to see the historical match making, but only up until the end of WW2. Afterwards having historical match ups does not make sense, since we can then have completely lopsided games favoring one side vs another.
Post WW2, there is no real major conflict that can generate the same level of game play as WW2 has done.
Mhm - i am not sure if you have considered the workload for gaijin of an actual historical MM (see differences here).
A few things to think about:
- Instead of BRs you would have to create time frames. Like dividing a year into quarters as certain aircraft appeared only at specific times. So at least in theory a LW prop might have fought vs a Meteor FMk 3 above the Netherlands in the last 5 months in Europe. Spits Mk 22 would face Me 262s, 109 K-4s & G-10s and Fw 190 Ds. JP pilots would be allowed to use the Ki-100 just from mid 45…
- A hell of non German props at WW 2 BRs are actually post war stuff - so no Hornets, F2Gs, Spit Mk 24s,Wyverns, Yak-3Us, etc.- whilst others saw service, but no combat like P-51 D-30s, Bearcats, etc - and others like the YP-80A or the Tigercat saw very limited use as photo recon aircraft. You have to determine which shall be allowed and which not.
- Certain nations like Sweden (excluding Finland) and Israel would be out.
- Finland itself was forced/encouraged to fight the Germans (Lapland War) from September 44 to April 45. So in this time frame they had to fight exclusively German aircraft.
- A large bunch of French aircraft were bought after the war - same as with Chinese aircraft whilst they used also most of captured JP aircraft just after the war. Chinese aircraft would have to face exclusively JP aircraft whilst USSR aircraft would face before August 45 exclusively German and Finish (until September 44) aircraft.
- Italian planes would have be split up in 1943 in planes used by the Royalist ACI air force (=allies) and the RSI air force (=axis) and you have to determine who had which aircraft.
Just with these few topics you might agree that a “real” historical MM would produce a hell of workload for gaijin.
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Besides that the whole game play set up would need an overhaul as the conceptual disadvantages of certain nations (US: Lack of good climb, bad turners) or the USSR (lack of high alt performance, slow dive speeds) would increase.
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As long as gaijin would not offer asymmetric lobbies (with number advantage for allies) there are imho way too large technological gaps between some nations.
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If you acknowledge that the US and USSR players are cash cows as they dominate top tier (and buy premiums) it seems very unlikely that gaijin would nerf their way through the prop ranks with an implementation of such a mode.
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On the other hand the large amount of undertiered and/or post WW2 non-German prop fighters at WW 2 BRs just reflects the massive hand holding for certain nations in order to earn money with their player base and to avoid costs for updating the outdated game play for Air RB.
A semi-historical MM (basically just axis vs allies with current BRs and game play) looks way more realistic to implement.
2 Likes
The things that I don’t really like is the addition of artillery, heat firing vehicles and atgms vs ww2 tanks. The points you have mentioned above are accurate and you hit a point about the major tech differnces among nations. This is why you have br brackets as you have mentioned.
The Ratels, all the M109s, E.B.Rs, Akatsia and so on, are the ones I don’t want to see vs ww2 tanks. In my opnion war thunder should never have added them to the game since they don’t fit anywhere, too underpowered at higher br, yet they cause too much chaos at lower brs. They are easy to get ride of but they mess ww2 tanks badly.
Historical was bad every time it was attempted. IT doesn’t play well and almost noone wanted to play it and that was when there were good rewards for doing it
I think a lot of people are mistaking this for the shoddy sherman vs tiger 2 suggestion, which is not what it is. Probably the reason for so many No:s, people don’t even read the suggestion.
The allies vs axis matchmaking should come back. Hopefully in one way or another. I really enjoy those matches more when they rarely happen with the slight immersion it adds.
To get around the party que issue they could just fair squads up against each other. For example if you had a squad with a USSR and German player, then they both go to separate teams. If that’s not enough there could be an alternate history mode like in airRB it just affects the nations that fight with each other.
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Option, and Opt to only join plzzzz
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Hi,
I would like to re-open this topic with a constructive suggestion.
Having up-tier battles almost all the time is frustrating and kills the enjoyment of the game.
Down-tier is well… too easy and not fun either. For both sides, even if one suffers more than the other.
I love playing WWII tanks and aircraft, but fighting against modern vehicles equipped with APFSDS, HEAT, evt guided missiles, aso. is simply disheartening.
These vehicles were never designed to fight each other and are very often defenceless.
Once you see a post-war tank or jet, you already know the battle will be uneven, and that you have no chance unless you hide, camp, and wait for an occasion. That’s just boring, and leaving the battle early becomes a real temptation, which in turn disadvantages the other players on your team.
💡 My suggestion
Please add a “Prefer Historical Matchmaking” option to each existing battle mode (Arcade, Realistic, and Simulator).
When enabled, this would restrict matchmaking to vehicles that could realistically have fought each other — based on their historical service period, but not their historical theaters, so that, for example, Japan and Germany could still face each other if their vehicles were contemporary.
The Battle Rating (BR) would still be considered, if possible, but would become secondary to the historical timeframe, which would naturally limit the BR differences anyway.
For example:
Define a “combat span” for each vehicle = [Year of introduction] → [End of production + 10 years] (or 15 or even 20)
e.g. Tiger I (1942–1944) → playable against vehicles from 1942 – 1954
This would group vehicles that actually coexisted (e.g. late-WWII German, American, Soviet, British, French, Italian and Japanese tanks/planes) and prevent absurd encounters between WWII and Cold-War equipment.
🧭 Example of historical spans
Nation | Vehicle | Production Years | Combat Span
-------------|--------------------|------------------|--------------
Germany | Tiger I | 1942 – 1944 | 1942 – 1954
| Panther Ausf. G | 1944 – 1945 | 1944 – 1955
| Panzer IV Ausf. H | 1943 – 1944 | 1943 – 1954
USA | M4 Sherman (75 mm) | 1942 – 1945 | 1942 – 1955
| M26 Pershing | 1944 – 1946 | 1944 – 1956
| M24 Chaffee | 1944 – 1953 | 1944 – 1963
UK | Churchill VII | 1944 – 1945 | 1944 – 1955
| Cromwell Mk V | 1943 – 1945 | 1943 – 1955
| Comet I | 1944 – 1945 | 1944 – 1955
USSR | T-34 (76 mm) | 1941 – 1944 | 1941 – 1954
| T-34-85 | 1944 – 1958 | 1944 – 1968
| KV-1S | 1942 – 1943 | 1942 – 1953
France | Char B1 bis | 1937 – 1940 | 1937 – 1950
| Somua S35 | 1936 – 1940 | 1936 – 1950
| ARL 44 | 1946 – 1949 | 1946 – 1959
| AMX-13 (FL-10) | 1952 – 1964 | 1952 – 1974
Italy | P26/40 | 1943 – 1944 | 1943 – 1954
| M15/42 | 1943 – 1944 | 1943 – 1954
Japan | Type 97 Chi-Ha | 1938 – 1943 | 1938 – 1953
| Type 3 Chi-Nu | 1944 – 1945 | 1944 – 1955
| Type 4 Chi-To | 1944 – 1945 | 1944 – 1955
| Type 61 | 1961 – 1975 | 1961 – 1985
⚙️ Implementation ideas
The player would have to make a deck of vehicles whose service dates overlap; vehicles outside the selected timeframe could not join the battle.
- If the system cannot find enough players in “Historical Battle” mode, the matchmaker would simply fall back to the current mixed BR matchmaking.
- It could fill the queue with players that did not select this option but match the timeframe.
- It could be an optional toggle when selecting a lineup (e.g. “Prefer historical matchmaking”).
- Historical lineups could even earn a small RP/SL bonus to reward players who choose authenticity and historical accuracy – at least at the beginning. But I’m confident that many players are tired of unbalanced battles between vehicles from different eras.
❤️ Why it matters
Many of us love War Thunder for its realism and historical immersion.
Adding a “Historical matchmaking” option would make gameplay far more balanced and immersive for WW enthusiasts — or any other period, depending on the deck — and would attract players interested in authenticity rather than just BR optimization.
This mode could also serve as an alternative to the former “WWII Mode” (discontinued around 2020 afaik), which was limited to Second World War vehicles only — but the proposed “Historical Battle” concept would extend this idea to all eras, preserving both historical accuracy and gameplay variety.
That’s all I’m asking for:
a way to enjoy fighting WWII battles (and other historical periods) as they actually were — or could have been., without facing 1960+ tanks and missiles.
💬 Final note
If you like this proposal of concept, please vote below or leave a short comment — community feedback is what makes suggestions visible to the developers.
[Would you like to see this in-game?]
- Yes
- No
0
voters
Its a good way to make War Thunder fun again. +1 everyday
Thanks for the +1
But please, the ones voting against, could you drop a little comment to tell why?
That would be interesting for me to improve my ideas. Thanks!
10 years is too much.
But during periods of very rapid evolution (WWII, early Cold War, perhaps Korean War), performance gaps appeared in just a few years — which is why a flat +10 rule breaks both balance and historical immersion.
For example, with a +10 window the Tiger I (1942-44) would still have to face IS-3 (1945) or T-54 (1947) – which are both unrealistic and unfair, since these vehicles belong to completely different technological eras.
Even a +1 year rule would allow the Tiger I to meet the IS-3, which makes no sense in terms of armor & firepower.
I see five alternatives:
- Leave the matchmaking as it is, but restrict BR spread much more than what it is now.
…and leave the historicity to the BR restriction (more or less correct). - Strict production period
Most historically accurate, but would make matchmaking difficult/impossible during WWII, many vehicles not overlapping - Fixed to +1 year - same comment
- Fixed to +5 year with a severe restriction on the BR difference (a mix of 1. + 3. to have balancing + historical plausibility)
- Variable: +1 year, during periods of rapid military innovation, to +10 years in periods of calm
(but that would be difficult for the players to understand, especially for doing their “historical decks” lineups)
During “calm” periods of slow replacement cycles, any of these systems works, because vehicles stayed competitive longer. The problem is the fast evolution periods.
Personally, I think that – for an historical mode – the 4th alternative is the best: easy to understand for players, not too hard to implement.
Anyway, this won’t fix your up-tier/down-tier problem.
A Maus vs a Tiger is also up-tier you know…
An historical mode would more likely cause more BR difference than the current matchmaking system.
Your real problem is the introduction of new ammos like APFSDS, HEAT, missiles, that didn’t exist during WWII.
The only solution can only be to forbid/disable these ammos when fighting a Tiger, what seems… unrealistic. Only a WWII specific mode could allow something like that, not a simple option in normal match making. And the allowed vehicles would be the WWII ones, selected by Gaijin.
Sorry man, but the idea that JP and Germany could face each in anything which is labelled as “historical” is killing your entire post - you can’t claim such things and refer later to:
I hope you see my point.
Even as idc about tanks - the idea that German props fight JP props based on historical service periods is imho based on a lack of understanding which hardware was used at which point in time - and how aerial combat works.
The German 109 line consists of energy fighters - and JP fighters are turnfighters with extremely low stall speeds. That means that energy fighting vs aircraft which simply refuse to stall are the most difficult tasks you can face in Air RB.
Have a good one!
All for removing HEAT-FS, separating WW2 and CW vehicles, but what? Japan vs Germany? That’s anything but historical.
Also BRs can stay, but they should do a complete tree/gamemode separation of (some) past ww2 vehicles or then really uptier CW+ ones. M44 for example to 6.0. M109 to 7.0. pzh2k to 9.0. An exception could be if a nation doesn’t have any other options. Like french contemporaries to ww2 tanks. Never felt like they were that out of place. They could also just uptier the vehicle if you opt to use post war rounds.
Realistically, they will do nothing and ww2 will keep rotting.
Sorry, you’re right. Historically it doesn’t make sense.
What I had in mind was avoiding situations where some nations (like Israel) would be excluded, or where Japan would end up locked into a one-sided matchup against only the US.
I should have called it a “contemporary mode”, not a historical one.
That was just the wrong wording on my part.
This should be added, it’s optional for a reason too. Let people who crave that sort of gameplay, have that sort of gameplay. I don’t see why it couldn’t be an option.
1 Like
This is getting extremely exhausting asking for it, but come on. Nearly every player would rather have historical battles take priority and after 5 mins of queue make it a-historical if necessary(it won’t be tbh, this game has many players). It would be vastly superior for the game in the eyes of what is likely at least 80% of the community.
No. Because I want theatres. It is so exhausting that we can’t get our ww2 battles fix with wt anymore, nor can we get simulated modern conflicts. That is unless in sim, but they dont allow us to play the sim modes we want at all times so that is also ruined, the schedule for ground battles going back and forth between ww2 and modern is nothing short of annoying af.
So Germany won’t be fighting Japan and Italy? They’ll be the ones with minor nation elite mercenaries? lol I like it +1
This would be pretty complex to implement, but I do have a suggestion relating to the methods of application: Make these historical battles function the same way as ground SIM does with certain vehicles excluded from the matchmaker for the sake of accuracy to some degree (for example in the case of Italy, The American P-47 may only appear if Italy is a part of the ,Allies" in that match whilst exluding players that play a vehicle that was historically used by the Axis in that certain battle, which are placed in the Axis team for example (mixed battles already do have matches that include teams with the same nations on them, just that extra parameters are set so as to place the player in the correct team by the choice of their vehicle). The aforementioned parameters might make matchmakers take a while, but since this isn’t going to be included in the main matchmaker it’d not affect the rest of the game, so gaijin doesn’t lose out on numbers of matches made overall with this inclusion whilst giving more dedicated players an option to immerse themselves more for the second world war era. There can be a set of available battles to partake in based on each month (June for example can include the Battle of Dunkirk, the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Battle of Midway, etc etc.). Although, for some of these scenarios, especially for the Japan ground forces for example, it’d be pretty one-sided in consideration of the disparity between the capabilities of their equipment and the American equipment at that time for ground battles which may not be fun, which probably would be for the better to be excluded, focusing on either air combat or where forces are more equally matched in terms of equipment capability so that one team doesn’t get absolutely rofflestomped into the ground.
I think one of the ways to address the “Tigers versus Shermans” issue could be to give more spawns to the weaker side.
Basically, increase their ticket count (or, lower the ticket bleed for losses), lower the spawn costs, and add more respawns in certain vehicles.
This should also finally make the “cannon fodder” title actually… have a meaning of sorts.
Though, would be nice to also see the increase in rewards for dying to enemy fire.