I’ve been playing War Thunder for years now, primarily grinding the German tech tree. I own the Leopard 2A4M CAN, the premium Tornado IDS WTD61, and the squadron Leopard 2 PL for “top tiers” and I’ve considered getting the F/A-18C premium, but after realizing what I’m up against, I won’t, and I’ve had enough. My frustration will be backed up by the numbers, and I wanted to lay out exactly why Germany feels like an uphill battle from 7.7 upwards.
Let’s look at the statistics. According to win-rate tracking (Statshark, ThunderSkill, etc.), Germany has consistently been at the bottom for months.
- Averages (Nov 2025 - May 2026) :
- Germany : ~43%
- USA : ~51%
- USSR : ~58%
- A Specific Snapshot (June 3, 2026) :
- Germany : 41.206%
- USA : 48.669%
- USSR : 62.773%
Germany has been, on average, over 8 percentage points behind the USA and a massive 15 points behind USSR. And from my own experience playing up to 9.3, as well as 12.0-12.3, win rate with German tanks is even worse.
The matchmaker seems to hate Germany specifically. Others report getting full uptiers in 30 out of 30 games at BRs like 5.7 and 6.7, and I can attest to that. The reason? Nations like the USA and USSR have incredibly strong 6.7-7.7 lineups, which means they get pulled up into higher-tier games more often, and Germany is often on the receiving end of that. At 9.3, you are constantly facing 10.3 vehicles with thermal sights and vastly superior ammunition. The reactive armor (ERA) on Russian MBTs like the T-72 and T-64 is a nightmare. In the game, Russian ERA is “a fairy tale” that seems to stop any round in the game, while NATO’s equivalent armor is massively underperforming. You can hit a T-72 in what should be a weak spot, and your shell either bounces or does no damage, while their 125mm APFSDS goes straight through your Leopard’s armor from ANY angle.
Germany has a lot of popular premium vehicles, but many of them don’t help the win rate. Premiums like the Turm III, TAM 2IP, and the Leopard 2 (PzBtl 123) attract a lot of new players. And let’s talk about the Leopard 2A4M CAN. It has no historically accurate ammunition. It’s a vehicle that looks good on paper but is artificially handicapped in the game.
Tornado IDS WTD61 is a SCAM. Its only gimmick is rushing to bomb a base, but it can’t fight anything. It’s fast, but it burns fuel so quickly it can’t even escape after a bombing run. The AIM-9Ls are helpful at 11.3, but the plane is otherwise next to worthless. You spend every match dodging a dozen SARH missiles just to reach a target, and you are a free kill for any fighter, or even other strike aircraft (looking at you, A-10)!
Germany seems to receive fewer meaningful additions than other nations. From 2023 to now, Germany has received 33 Rank VI+ vehicle additions, compared to 47 for the USA and 43 for the USSR. The additions that do come are often copy-paste or sidegrades that don’t fill the real gaps in the tech tree, and the air tree specifically feels like it’s lacking any competitive options beyond the Eurofighter.
Many new players are drawn to Germany for its iconic WWII vehicles. However, as they gain experience and hit the frustrating mid-to-high tiers, like I have, a large percentage of them leave for nations with more complete and competitive lineups, like Russia (and don’t get me started on bias, look at the win rate above). This leaves the German teams filled with less experienced players, which drags down the win rate even further.
Before you say it’s all in my head, you can go check for yourselves. It’s a combination of unfavorable matchmaking, artificially limited vehicles, unreliable damage models against certain opponents, and a tech tree that isn’t receiving the same level of meaningful development as its competitors. It’s demoralizing to play.
Important note, I am absolutely NOT asking for Germany to be overpowered. I’m asking for it to be competitive. I want to feel like my skill and my vehicle’s capabilities matter, not that I’m fighting a losing battle from the moment the match starts.
P.S. Before you say “The Tornado is just a ground pounder” like that somehow eliminates the problem, remember that other Tornado variants are much better. The Tornado GR.1 gets access to the Paveway series of laser-guided bombs and has a much better ground-attack loadout. The Tornado F.3 is a dedicated interceptor with a vastly superior radar and Skyflash missiles. The Tornado IDS (1995) in the Italian tree gets Mavericks and Lizard bombs.
So no, “it’s a ground pounder” doesn’t excuse the fact that the German premium Tornado is forced into a role it was never designed for and given no tools to survive in that environment . The German WTD61 gets:
- No guided bombs.
- No Mavericks.
- No stand-off weapons.
- No flares at 11.3 (until recently, and even now they’re limited).
- A flight model that makes it a brick in any engagement.
The problem isn’t the Tornado itself. The Tornado is a fine airframe in the right hands with the right tools. The problem is that Germany gets the worst version of it, with no ability to fight back, at a battle rating where every match is a SARH spam hellscape.
And here’s the thing that really gets me: the game has bases to bomb in Air RB. It has ground targets. These are objectives. Strike aircraft are supposed to do this. That’s their role. But instead of rewarding players for playing the objective, Gaijin gives us scraps. We get less SL, less RP, and less mission score than a fighter who just launches a SARH and gets a “target destroyed” notification. And I’ve played with SARHs, and yes they have it that easy.
If strike aircraft are going to be in the game, let them do their job. Give them meaningful rewards for completing objectives instead of forcing them to suffer through a meta they were never designed to compete in. The current system punishes players for choosing a valid playstyle.
This isn’t a skill issue. This isn’t a “git gud” moment. This is a design issue . And it needs to be addressed.
