20 replies to this topic

[Major_Rampage]

Howdy Tankers!  

 

As you know we are currently On Track to the FV215b.  While you are On Track you might also find our On Track Premium Shop Bundles helpful.

 

This is our dedicated discussion thread for any of vehicles that stretches from the Vickers Mk II to FV215b.  

 

Do you have a guide, or suggestions you would like to contribute to everyone who is working their way down the current On Track?  Then this is the place for you.  Please share your tips and tricks,  and we will keep this post updated with links to any guides that are submitted in this thread.

 

Feel free to disagree with anyone here,  but make sure  keep your conversation civil and be prepared to back up your claims and opinions on this line.

 

Note:  This is a strictly moderated thread.

[_Sharky_]

Say alive as much as you can in every battle you play.  Make quality choices when to engage the enemy and keep your front armor to them at a slight angle.

[Bossballoon]

For the rear-mounted turreted vehicles such as the FV215b, side-scraping is a valid option to make up for the bigger disadvantages of a rear turret.

[monoace]

What equiptment do you guys recomend on the Conquer?

[godsofchaos]

Cant say about the tier II yet but Vickers Medium Mk.I is awful. Its armor is worthless, its slow and 3 pder and 15mm don't do enough damage and the 6 pder aim time is poor. Is this what I have to look forward on all the UK meds?

[JA_Pinkerton]

To everyone doing the grind, I wish you luck.  The Vickers mediums are a hazing ritual.  The Matilda is God Tier.  The Chruchill I is great.  The Churchill VII is a pain.  The Black Prince though :  wow! 

 

The Black Prince is one of the few tanks I liked immediately.  With armour made from the finest of Norwegian troll-skin leather, it will bounce enemy shots like a ... like a very bouncy thing.  I've survived battles with 4k potential damage received.  The front plate needs to be protected, ideally with hard cover, but judicious angling will do the trick.  If you are stuck, put your front plate towards a wall, a poor man's reverse angle, if you will.

 

One thing is you need is a cooperative enemy team if you want to do your full weight in damage; ideally you blow the tracks off a tank and then just lean on the LMB until he is dead.  And with a V-Stab, you can even do that while on the move.

 

Neat tricks : because you are so bouncy, you can lead a push down the west of Prokhorovka and survive.  You can also scout the annoying south forest of Komarin.

[Thugtastic]

As the British Heavy tree is not as popular, interesting as the other tree's available, there isn't a great deal of dedicated information that has been provided.  However, a good thread that will help folks would be:

 

http://forum.worldof...fv215b/#topmost

 

I'll lob in a few thoughts, just in case (comments are for fully upgraded tanks, stock grinds are just as painful here as elsewhere).  For the most part, horrid mobility, workable armor instances, LASER ACCURATE guns with modest alpha output and good ROF.

 

Churchill 1 - Good speed, decent mobility, workable armor when angled properly, good selection of guns, amazing ROF for its tier, relies more on sniping/tracking/side shots in higher tiers.  Horrid gun depression.

 

Churchill VII - Be advised, this tank has the reputation of being the hardest to get through.  Horrid speed/mobility, decent armor that side scrapes well, top guns are good, added health pool helps, at tier 8 though, this tank is best used as a support/TD tanks as an ISU-152 can just about one-shot you.  However, this tank teaches invaluable methods that are required to excel at the Black Prince.  Cannot flex/escape due to lack of speed. Horrid gun depression.

 

Black Prince - Horrid speed, but excellent mobility - turret/rotate speed make it almost impossible for a medium to "death-circle", excellent armor, reliably bounces tier 9 guns when angled correctly.  Top gun is amazingly accurate and has insane ROF. Low alpha means gun must be singing every time its loaded to stack damage (this is no IS).  At tier 7 this thing can get right into the other guys' grill and face-hug them to death.  At tier 9, its an excellent support tank that does great flank/rear damage while keeping bigger tanks perma-tracked.  Horrid gun depression.

 

Caernavon - Decent-ish speed/mobility, excels at hull-down tactics as all the hull armor got left behind with the Black Prince.  83mm Type B barrel is excellent at tier 8/9 with this tank being able to burn any other tier 8 into the ground when played correctly, (hull down, abusing ROF/gun depression).  At tier 9 becomes a solid support tank (stalking behind that E75 and putting out shots while the E75 reloads), at tier 10, works as a slow-ish medium/3rd line support tank (due to the overmatch of tier 10 guns on its trollish turret and poor hull armor).  Show your lower armor to anything and you will pay for it.

 

Conqueror - That L1A1... Did I mention the 120mm? Have I told you about the gun?? Modest mobility, good gun depression, amazing ROF for its tier and reliable damage output that excels at 2nd line support (hanging out behind that E75/E100) or long range sniper/TD mode.  Turret can be troll-ish but RNG is a finicky critter, hull armor is nonexistent at tier 9.  At tier 9 this tank, when keeping its hull hidden, is one of the highest DPM tanks on the field and while the alpha isn't amazing, putting a shell out every 9s or so is an amazing thing. Ammo rack damage is a common complaint and armor is an afterthought.

 

Fv215b - Rear mounted turret will cause brain hurt, as all the tactics used prior to this point no longer apply.  While this tank can, and will, sidescrape well, be advised that better players will just shoot out the exposed turret ring just below the gun, effectively taking your gun out of the fight.  L1A1 again, but with faster ROF means that this tank has some of the highest DPM in the game. However, from a meta-game perspective you have to be placed properly where you can shoot things and knowledge of weakspots becomes a requirement.  Workable health pool (as long as you aren't spotted by any auto-loader), turret can be troll-ish but shouldn't be depended up on with regularity.  Ammo rack damage is a common problem reported.  Amazing mobility for a heavy, acceleration/hill climbing/terrain resistance are all amazing for a tank this size.  However, give this tank a break, as it can take a few hundred games to figure out where to put this thing to make it work.  Some players turn the hull around and "back" into position to allow for some gun depression and more range of fire.  The best thing about this tank its gun, so 2nd line/long range support are where its at.  Low-ish alpha means that the gun needs to be in use often to get decent numbers (this is no Waffle/268/JPzE).

 

While this line can lead to lower stats (as WN7/WN8 depend on kills/damage output) there are some real gems in this line for the heavy player.  However, if you like the speed of the Russian line or the workable armor of the German line, you WILL be disappointed here.  If you take this line for what its good at, amazing guns that will spoil you for their ability to fling shells across the field and do damage (try THAT with your 704), instances of amazing armor and tanks that reward the player that can exploit their strengths, there are tanks in this line that will occupy your garage for some time.

 

This was my first heavy line and I have thousands of games in these tanks (most played tanks are Crvon/Conq).  While I'm no ones expert on this game, this line is worth your time.  Give it a chance and enjoy the ride!

[Backfat]

hey thugtastic, I just got the Fv215b yesterday.  Had a bit of a rough start, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Would you care to platoon a few matches and show me the ropes?

[Tolos]

I got a useful tip Rampage, get SerB to give the FV215B the buff what was promised about a year ago. 

 

The FV215B is an average tank at best ( I still love it ), it constantly is being lit on fire, the ammo rack ALWAYS gets damaged and I'm not going to start on the ridiculous amount of crew injuries it gets, add that to the fact its also one of the slowest ( 35kph roughly ) it makes it about as useful as the Maus.

 

The ONE redeeming quality is the Gun, and that's it.  In my honest opinion the Conqueror is a better tank. 

[Backfat]

Tolos, on Feb 04 2014 - 17:51, said:

I got a useful tip Rampage, get SerB to give the FV215B the buff what was promised about a year ago. 

 

The FV215B is an average tank at best ( I still love it ), it constantly is being lit on fire, the ammo rack ALWAYS gets damaged and I'm not going to start on the ridiculous amount of crew injuries it gets, add that to the fact its also one of the slowest ( 35kph roughly ) it makes it about as useful as the Maus.

 

The ONE redeeming quality is the Gun, and that's it.  In my honest opinion the Conqueror is a better tank. 

Kinda too soon for me to have much of an opinion, but the armor is really only good if your side scraping, and yeah, the gun and RoF are amazing.  I only had my rack damaged once, and my engine was only damaged once as well.  I have safe stowage, I haven't switched my drivers seconds skill to preventative maintenance yet.  What I have noticed is the frontal fuel tanks are damaged and lit up easily. I originally had rammer, vents and optics, but I had to swap out the optics for the CO2 in the fuel tanks.  

 

What does bug me is that on the right side of the turret, theres a little strip of 90 degree vertical armor that is really easy to pen.  I like the tank so far despite my rocky start, but I think it's easier to do better in other tanks.  This one has some glaring flaws that are easy to exploit.

[Tolos]

Backfat, on Feb 04 2014 - 17:03, said:

Kinda too soon for me to have much of an opinion, but the armor is really only good if your side scraping, and yeah, the gun and RoF are amazing.  I only had my rack damaged once, and my engine was only damaged once as well.  I have safe stowage, I haven't switched my drivers seconds skill to preventative maintenance yet.  What I have noticed is the frontal fuel tanks are damaged by easily. I originally had rammer, vents and optics, but I had to swap out the optics for the CO2 in the fuel tanks.  

 

What does bug me is that on the right side of the turret, theres a little strip of 90 degree vertical armor that is really easy to pen.  I like the tank so far despite my rocky start, but I think it's easier to do better in other tanks.  This one has some glaring flaws that are easy to exploit.

The issue with side scraping is the turret creates a shot trap if you don't do it perfectly. If I see an FV215B I honestly just think " cool Free xp " and its a damn shame cause this tank should be so much better, WG even admitted they got the armour values UTTERLY wrong, and they STILL haven't done anything about it. 

 

I will still play it however as for some reason I like the tank, the same as the 4202...

[Backfat]

What do you mean by a shot trap?

[Tolos]

Backfat, on Feb 04 2014 - 17:20, said:

What do you mean by a shot trap?

 

This explains it better then I can

 

Shot trap

[Backfat]

Oh, interesting.  Do you find that shells deflect off the turret and hit the engine deck?  And if so, what part of the turret are they deflecting off of?

[Thugtastic]

They'll target just below and to either side of the gun.  Depending on what's hitting you, it'll either damage the gun, damage the turret or pen the turret for damage.  The better players, if they see you side-scraping, will just attempt to take out your gun/turret.  If you do get hit, you have to make a decision, be unable to shoot for the 20-30secs it takes to repair the turret/gun and or use your repair kit.  Using the repair kit on that kind of thing, esp. if early in the game can be a stinker... However, due to the incident of crew deaths (poor armor), running the two repair kits is not usually beneficial.

[vonluckner]

Carry two fire extinguishers.

[Indranil09]

FV215B have amazing gun with great pen, yesterday I have been killed one shot with 100% health by FV215B while driving my Ferdinand

[Epicwinner21]

Oh god I'm like 18kxp away from the black prince it feels like forever any tips?

 

[godsofchaos]

Well I say the Vickers Medium Mk II manages to be worse then the Vickers Medium Mk I. As it doesn't really upgrade the guns,armor, or engine from the MK I and now it is in tier 2 and 3 battles. Worse is it is bigger then the MK I and thus a juicer target. The best I can come up with is hang far back and snipe with this tank but that plan of action is hampered by its poor accuracy.Any suggestions? Never mind I just accepted that its just awful.

 

Also the Medium Mark III is a whole new level of bad that the Medium MK II couldn't achieve. Now I feel like I'm in a very large tier I tank in tier III-V battles. Its so slow that you will be picked apart trying to go up hills. You have to be in the back with at least 3 team mates around you at all times to be distractions to even get a shot off. Its slow, underpowered and has cardboard armor. Forget suggestions this tank is hopeless.

Edited by godsofchaos, Feb 09 2014 - 23:37.

[DaddyTin]

Epicwinner21, on Feb 05 2014 - 03:38, said:

Oh god I'm like 18kxp away from the black prince it feels like forever any tips?

 

 

I had to stay engaged for many battles to get the Church VII to contribute the damage I needed for the UK part of the IS6 mission.  Took a lot of time.

 

I read the tutorials and hints for the Church VII.  That helped me and should help you.  But time is the biggest factor int eh Church VII for XP/damage farming.

 

I ran through the BP in a week, getting the Caern unlocked and running stock yesterday.  You should expect low WR and WN&/8 stats in the early stages of these tanks.  Just keep on tanking.  You will have a gem now and then!