War Thunder: Wikipedia Share Program

The grade of excellent

In this grade, called excellent. this is the highest grade which is possible. This is what we are aiming for you to achieve.

Let's start with the grade of excellent: In the below article you will read and learn what is expected to achieve this grade.

• What is and makes an excellent play-style.
• What is expected to achieve the grade of excellent.
• The main difference between Excellent and good grades.
• Recommendations to help you achieve the grade of excellent.

Lets talk about the grade of excellent

What is and makes an excellent play-style

Based on one of the examples below, we explore the AH-1Z Viper example, this is an example of what is expected as an excellent grade. It is mission critical that in this grade the play-style be portrayed the information written is very clear, to the point, identifies the environment the vehicle can operate in, provides a clear oversight of how it is intended to be played in battle and makes the reader want to continue reading it. In general it must focus on; how the vehicle can be played, used in specific game modes such as combined battles and what can be expected and how to do it. It also must have a general guide on how it plays in conventional battles.

What is expected to achieve the grade of excellent

One of the prerequisites to achieve this grade requires you to be clear, direct, and non-bias in the descriptions and details of the writing. It is essential to produce an article which is neutral in its tone along with clearly and objectively laying out what the vehicle can and cannot do.

When writing in the third person, avoid using first-person pronouns such as I and me or second-person pronouns such as you or your, instead use third-person pronouns like he, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, her, its, their and theirs.

The ideal mindset when writing the WSP article is to think along the lines of: If you wanted to get your friend to play a specific vehicle, how would recommend them to play it, in what order or steps would you follow to accomplish the specific tasks that vehicle was built for?

It is important to write from experience from playing the vehicles in-game; just reading historical articles will not cut it in writing an excellent level WSP article. It is imperative you find out what the vehicle can and cannot do through playing it, recall what happens, its limitations and how it differentiates between each game mode (arcade, realistic and simulator) such as, handling, reloading, ammunition choices, etc…

The article is also expected to include additional important elements such as, Pros & Cons, weapon loadout options and pertinent performance information which is critical for proper usage of the vehicle.

Recommendations to help you achieve the grade of excellent

• Familiarise yourself with other vehicles with the BR brackets of which it can face.
• Familiarise yourself with the vehicle itself (Learn what it can and cannot do).
• Break down the tasks into groups such as shown in the examples below.
• How can you do this by creating a strategy, a plan.

Lets talk about the key differences between the two grades of excellent and Good

The main difference between excellent and good is that excellent, contains far more specific information, which is specific about that vehicle. Such how vehicle X can be played in certain game modes, realistic battles and which also contains a general guide of how to play it in arcade. How does specific choices about the vehicle impact it. Let's take the Ground Forces excellent example: in this example, it talks and describes critical information such how to play it. What and how are it's weakness and how to overcome them. It also talks about the other vehicles which are it;s biggest threats and provides specific tactics and game-styles for each point.

Whereas in the grade of good, specific information is mostly missing, not provided but provides an overview of vehicle x only.

Grade of Excellent: Pro's and con's

What makes an excellent pro and con

Simply put, pro and con statements are simple, to the point and highlight important aspects or flaws of that vehicle.

What is meant by this?

• For a pro it is the competitive advantage of that vehicle.

What is a competitive advantage: A competitive advantage is something, that the vehicle has or does which the competition does not offer.

An example of a Pro statement and its explanation based upon the F-100D could be:

• Fast and out-accelerates both MiG-15 and MiG-17's - Competitive advantages are:
  • Fast in comparison to other aircraft it will generally face.
  • Out accelerate and specifically notes the MiG-15 and MiG-17 as having poor acceleration in comparison.
  • From this the general knowledge is that this aircraft is fast and is capable of outpacing competitor aircraft if needed.
• For a con it is the competitive disadvantage of that vehicle.

What is a competitive disadvantage: A competitive disadvantage is something that the vehicle does not have or do, which unlike it's competition offers.

An example of a Con statement and its explanation based again upon the F-100D could be:

• While fast, it still accelerates a lot slower than MiG-19PT - Competitive disadvantages are:
  • While fast,' reinforces one of the strengths of the F-100D...but...
  • accelerates a lot slower than the MiG-19PT makes specific note of a vehicle which has a distinct advantage over the F-100D, noting the F-100D's speed against the MiG-19PT is a con or disadvantage.

Ideally the pro's and con's should be between 4 and 8 points for each.

In the example below, you will see an example of an excellent grade.

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Pros:

• Excellent guns that have both high muzzle velocity, rate of fire, plenty of ammo (200 RPG), and pack a good punch with high-explosive shells.
• Can carry a wide array of suspended armaments of bombs, rockets and missiles.
• Its air to air missiles(AIM-9B and E) have a longer reach than the missiles on the MiG-19PT
• Fast and out-accelerates both MiG-15 and MiG-17's

Cons:

• Thoroughly unmanoeuvrable at slow speeds, and does absolutely not lend itself to traditional turning dogfights
• Suffers from severe lockup past the Mach 1 mark
• Bleeds a lot of energy when trying to turn around at high speed
• While fast, it still accelerates a lot slower than MiG-19PT

Grade of Excellent: play-style examples

In this area examples of excellent play-styles are provided for each class.

Aircraft vehicle Example

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Usage in battles

Using the AH-1Z viper after the AH-1F requires learning time, the playstyle between this and the AH-1F has some unique differences such as ammunition, views and overall playstyle.

The AH-1Z is an attack helicopter, it does this role very well, in-fact it is one of the best attack helicopters in the game, with speed up to 411 Km/h (255 MPH). The AH-1Z offers a large array of ordnance selections, from Miniguns, Rockets, TOW, TOW-2 and Hellfire missiles. In addition, the AH-1Z Can carry a combination of missiles, rockets or mini-guns together. To get one of the best configurations, is specialise in what you want to do air protection or ground attack either way this attack helicopter can do it.

To utilise the AH-1Z viper, make sure to adjust the tactics to the map, for example maps, with rocks and hilly terrain, stay low and use it as cover whilst you get to into a position which will allow you to dominate the battlefield. For maps which are open and flat, climb to a high altitude and assess the situation, just make sure to scan the map and not get fixed on a location.

The AH-1Z has three main playstyles, the playstyles of this attack helicopter are focused around dominating in the following roles: Air Protection/Support, Medium & Close Range and Long Range.

However, the AH-1F does have one drawback, due to the increase in size changes to the center of gravity in high pitch and tight turns, it possible to lose control. It is advisable to always counteract by keeping the noise of the helicopter level or to lessen the turn radius. If required to do one, such as evading surface to air missiles, make sure that there is enough room to recover the helicopter in – ideally at least 1000 feet and make sure to increase the pitch of the blades to a 100% adjust for yawing.

Close/medium Range

The AH-1Z offers a combination of wing mounted ordnance and ordnance packages which are available from TOW, TOW-2, Rocket pods, Machine guns.

The AH-1Z has the BGM-71 TOW and BGM-71 TOW-2 ATGM missile systems which perform very well. The BGM-71 TOW-2. The BGM-71 TOW-2 is faster than the BGM-71 TOW And in addition it contains a higher explosive amount. Nevertheless, both versions of the TOW missile system are able to be very decisive in combat, it is ideal to use the BGM-71 TOW-2 system over the BGM-71 TOW since it is a better system, due to its higher explosive and speed.

It can carry up to 16 TOW or TOW-2 missiles, that is enough lethality to terminate up to 16 emery units. The TOW missiles work in the same way as on the other series of cobra attack helicopters, they are able to hit, fast and hard. Combined with the speed of the AH-1Z, these make a lethal combination. The AH-1Z can find a great tactical location, engage the targets and knock them out of the fight without them even knowing.

An AH-1Z also can carry additional ordnances which are wing mounted only, these are rocket pods & machine guns or a combination of Hellfire’s, TOW’s, Rockets & machine guns. The rockets are standard FFAR Mighty Mouse rockets which are equipped on the version of the cobra’s and hugey helicopters. A good choice of combined ordnance are Mighty mouse and TOWs or just mighty mouse. That way you can increase the engagement range when you are flying in combat after consuming all the tow missiles or getting at close range and blasting the enemy with mighty mouse rockets which will cause a lot of damage and could destroy up to 76 enemy units

Long Range - Hellfire missiles

To utilise the long-range performance of the AH-1Z, hover outside of the combat zone. It is important that you check and make sure that there are no threats in the vicinity which could shoot you down. Once the combat zone has been declared safe from vehicles which could destroy you. Increase altitude, until you have a good visual on the objectives. Hover the helicopter, change the view to the gun camera and locate a target ground vehicle and fire! The hellfire missiles offer up to 1100mm of penetration with a speed of 475 meters per second.

Firing the hellfire missiles, you will notice that you cannot see them compared to the previous TOW missiles. This is normal, you need to keep the laser designator on the target. On the Hud, left-hand side, you will see a countdown, it takes 10 seconds for the missile to hit the target. When the hellfire gets close to the target you will see the rocket, this where you can adjust the missile trajectory.

It is very important that after a few hellfire missile launches that, you disengage the hover and locate to another part of the battle zone. Performing this action will substantially reduce the chances of being shot down by emery vehicles.

One of the drawbacks of the Hellfire missiles is, at close range they cannot engage a target, due to how the hellfires are launched from the wing racks. The hellfire missile, drops from the wing rack, engages the rocket motor and immediately ascend in height, making it impossible to track from launch.

The hellfire missiles require time to adapt, however once learnt they become one of the most potent missiles in the game.

Air Protection/support

Best role armament selection: Sidewinder missiles and machine guns

An AH-1Z Viper, offers a unique capabilities compared to any other helicopter on the battlefield! It can be equipped with sidewinder air to air missiles. The sidewinder missiles provide great capacity to shoot down up to two enemy aircraft. They can shoot down other rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters) or fixed-wing aircraft (airplanes). The missiles can also be equipped with the additional payloads, such as hellfire, tow missile, machine gun and rocket pod configurations, providing a versatile offensive and defensive solution.

The AH-1Z can outmanoeuvre and can outperform, many of the rivals in air to air combat. The AH-1Z has a triple rotary m197 cannon with 750 rounds. Combined with a twin 7.62 mm M134 Minigun machine gun, which also has 1500 Rounds per gun. That’s 3000 rounds plus the 750 rounds that’s 3750 Rounds of ammunition! Then the wing mounted AIM-9L sidewinder missiles which are installed on both wings. To attack other helicopters with the sidewinders, come in the from the side or rear – get a lock on and fire one of the sidewinder missiles! Bang the enemy aircraft explodes.

To attack using the cannon and mini-guns, line up with the foe, come in fast and slow down – align your angle of attack with the side of the enemy, this will be the best chance of success since the enemy unit has exposed the largest elements of the airframe to your firepower. Aim for the critical components such as cockpit, engine, fuel tanks and rear rotator elements.

Ground vehicle Example

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Usage in battles

The IS-7, similarly to the rest of the IS line, should be played as a breakthrough tank, taking advantage of its extreme durability, and avoiding long-range engagements where its shells simply lose effectiveness. With upwards of 450mm of effective armour in places, there’s no need to shy away from taking on almost any opponent.

The IS-7's extremely thick and well-sloped armour means that the player can comfortably engage multiple threats at once without fear of being penetrated through the sides of his/her turret. With a heightened awareness and a good sense of targeting priority, a well-rounded IS-7 player can swiftly clear out entire enemy squads with ease.

The IS-7 is capable of destroying almost any machine on the battlefield and should have no qualms about combatting anything on the right terms. However, it’s best to be wary of tanks with ATGMs, high-penetration HEAT, large-calibre HESH and anything with APFSDS, as they are able to disable you, often through your frontal plate. Also be wary of any tanks with two plane stabilisers, as the IS-7s main armament is not stabilised in any way and must be stopped before it can fire accurately.

Fighting the IS-7

If you don't have any powerful chemical warhead, or just got suddenly attacked by IS-7 point-blank, the highlighted weak spot on the bottom of the turret your only real hope, since you won't have time to look for any others. APDS or other strong shells with the power of ~280 mm should be able to breach the 250 mm thick mantlet bottom even if it's a bit angled, potentially destroying horizontal and vertical turret drives as well as cannon breach. After that you should rush IS-7 down and destroy it ASAP, as it shouldn't be able to use it's gun and turret anymore.

General tactic:

It’s best to avoid taking the IS-7 on if it stands any chance of firing back - it’s very likely that if it gets a shot off, it will be able to destroy your vehicle. Try to disable the gun, or if behind or to the sides, attempt to take out the ammo - the primary store is in the back of the turret, with excess ammunition stored in the upper sides of the hull and beside the driver, as well as a small stash right below the gun breech. If forced to engage the IS-7 from the front, attempt to fire through the turret optic (just above and to the right of the gun when looking at the front), as this is your best opportunity to disable the gunner and the breech. Shooting from an angle significantly reduces the amount of effective armour your shells have to penetrate. The IS-7 can be vulnerable to trap shots or high-calibre HE rounds above the driver’s port, although it does have significantly more armour there than the IS-3. Powerful ATGM's can easily breach hull armour and potentially take out 3 crew members, or explode excessive ammo near to tank's front.

With 7.* vehicles:

IS-7 can easily destroy your entire team with little to no effort, so if you see one, you should immediately start planning your attack or escape route. Firstly, if you can't just attack it with your entire squad, you want it to be alone. Secondly, start predicting where it's going to go, so you can get the advantage of the first attack. Some urban environment with enough cover to sneak up on it and enough space to drive around it is perfect. After that, use your tools of choice:

Smoke and cannon: To make this tactic easier, it's best to ask your scout ally (usually light tank) to "Scout" it constantly if they can. Use smoke shells to completely blind IS-7 and get as close to it as possible. Avoid being hit by numerous machine guns, as it will try to use it to detect you or destroy your scout buddy. Do not drive in a straight line after shooting smoke shells. After getting close, it's advisable to drop even more smokes (the hull mounted ones or the engine exhaust system works perfect, as you don't really have a lot of time), just to make sure that his teammates won't be able to stop you, then try to find out it's rear and set its engine on fire. After that, keep circling around it, setting it on fire and keeping the smoke screen up, or find it's turret's back and destroy the tank with a single well placed shot.

As an example of all the attack methods, we will use this 8.3 battle rating fight. Firstly, IS7 got antagonized by another IS7 and M70A1 (AOS) which counts as overkill and heavy numbers. SPAA used this opening to flank it and break its tracks. Since it's lightly armoured, APHE didn't detonate. IS-7 didn't expect such trickery and didn't even bother to fire its HMG. Being outnumbered 3 to 1, it drops smokes, which was a mistake, since it only helps IS-7s enemies to get even closer, while SPAA returns to distract it and damage every MG it has, now in range, where it can circle around it safely. By the time that smoke disappeared, IS-7 got damaged by SPAA's teammates, and it finishes the tank off by unloading APDS magazine into the back of the turret point-blank.

Overkill: If you are a proud owner of FV4005, Type 60 ATM, Sturmpanzer 2, M50 Ontos, FV 4004 Conway, BMP-1 (AB), and some other vehicles with weapons that have extreme overkill potential (usually at the cost of all the mobility and/or all armour), this is your time to shine. Aim for the weak spots, or simply fire at the left side of the hull (for you it's on the right if the tank is in front of you), depending on your weapon type. If IS-7 has full ammo loadout, it will most definitely explode. In type 60 ATM's case, you can even drop ATGM right on top of its roof or swing it into the side of the turret. Since it's not completely round, unlike most Soviet designs, it has lesser bounce chance.

Strength in numbers: Send someone to bait and stall IS-7, while rest are going to flank or simply rush it down. Despite being nearly invulnerable from the front, it may easily explode, when multiple tanks fire at its sides at less than 30° angle. Ideally, you want to send something like T95 or another extremely armoured tank as bait (or even another IS-7 in AB), so foe can't simply destroy it without putting an effort, but if there is none such tanks, sacrifices must be made. Unless...

Combat SPAA: This may sound absurd, but IS-7 can easily be doomed by SPAA. SPAA can easily use some cover to attack it's exposed track with cannons, making moving IS-7 topple over, then destroy second track, to immobilize it. Even if IS-7 fires back at it, APHE is going to over penetrate, if it's armour is less than 15mm. After that, someone can be called in to make a clean side shot (about 170 mm penetration required for sides). In case if SPAA is combat-capable and has APDS shells with 110 mm of penetration, it can try to get behind the turret, while breaking every MG with autocannons, to execute it personally. If IS-7 is aware of your intentions and keeps tracking SPAA with the turret, just set the vehicle on fire by damaging the engine, the foe will have to extinguish the fire eventually or face consequences.

The grade of good

Grade of Good: play-style example

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If you must advance, advance facing forward after checking for enemies. As long as your armour faces the enemy, you have relative safety. When defending, go hull-down. Make sure there are places to retreat to if needed, and take advantage of the reverse speed and smoke grenades to run from ATGMs. Use the rangefinder when you can, but if the target is moving, you will probably miss. Try to guess based on experience if it comes to it.

The Abrams main strength its its extreme mobility, even by MBT standards. However, the price comes in protection; the Abrams is quite vulnerable, and struggles to deflect incoming shells with anything except its turret cheeks. Additionally, The M1 has somewhat sub-par penetration even with its best shell. Because of these factors, it is recommended that you do not use this tank as a front line brawler. Instead, use your speed to quickly appear from angles your opponents are not expecting you to come from. This can take the form of flanking in order to get side shots, Rushing at the start of the game to take an advantageous position, or getting to choke points before the enemy does, in order to be ready to knock them out. Essentially, This tank should be played much like the M18 Hellcat at Rank III, though unlike the Hellcat it is not impossible for your armour to help you occasionally.

A useful thing to note when playing the Abrams, and most MBTs in general, is that if your opponent shows any side armour, you can penetrate them almost every time. if someone is coming towards you even at a slight angle, aim for the the front drive wheel on their tracks. Your shell will be able to penetrate into the tank and likely one shot kill them. It is recommended to use APFSDS as the main loadout, as the HEAT-FS ammunition starts coming against tanks with armour types specifically designed to resist it.

In terms of threats:

• Most tanks at its Battle rating, due to the relatively poor armour.
• Type 90 and AMX-40, as their incredibly powerful shots can penetrate you anywhere, at any angle, at almost any distance.
• The T-80B, because of its strong armament and very strong armour. it can be penetrated through its lower front plate, the drivers viewport below the gun, and just to the side or below the gun. If a T80B shows any of its side, you can penetrate it there.

Grade of Good: Pro's and Con's

What makes a good pro and con

What is a good pro or a good con, it is a step just below of excellent grade. Let's explore these pro's and con's which where once stated on the AH-1Z page. Some of these pro's and con's would be equal to a grade of excellent. However, they lack in some of detail which would be required for that grade of excellence. Okay, now you are thinking, great!

Lets explore the pro's segment.

The first, third, fourth and fifth bullet points are great. They are to the point and highlight some of the competitive advantages. However, they lack the full information on why. For example lets take "Excellent ground attack capabilities." If it was listed as "Excellent ground attack capabilities, due to the hellfire missiles which provide pin-point accuracy and great penetration" it would be classed in the grade of excellent. Since it lacks that specific information, it would be classed as a good. In addition, with bullet point two: just inserting "Flares" does not mean anything, if it was explained with it's competitive advantage in mind and reason behind it being listed then it would good.

However, just listing something whereas all vehicles in that tier has it, is not a good pro. Sometimes, it is worth grouping two or three pro's or con's like that together in some way to make it better. To learn what is meant to be a pro and con please see this Click here to learn more

Important: This applicability also applies to con's as well.

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Pros:

• Can carry up to 16 TOW ATGMs (TOW-2 with modification)
• Flares
• One of the fastest helicopters in the game
• Can carry air-to-air missiles to take down aircraft
• Excellent ground attack capabilities.

Cons:

• Weak airframe can be taken down even by roof-mounted MGs from enemy tanks.

• Cannon fodder for dedicated SPAAGs
• Very slow, easy target for SPAAs and aircraft
• Priority target for the enemy team as you are extremely dangerous
• No armor whatsoever.

The grade of okay

Example of an Okay Grade

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In realistic battles, the Type 90 continues the traditional Japanese roles of fire support, sniping, and flanking. You can use this vehicle to rush down the center of the map with its speed allowing it to quickly engage and disengage enemies, negating the downsides of the subpar armor by simply not being hit. With a five second reload time for the cannon, and a high-penetration round, it should only take 5-15 seconds to finish of an enemy tank. Through utilizing the terrain by using suspension to hide the chassis when peeking, and angling armor in a way to force enemies to hit your armored turret, the Type 90 can be a very powerful glass cannon in a battle.

What makes an okay pro and con

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Pros:

• Equipped with a powerful and accurate cannon
• Able to fire ammunition of variable types
• Powerful engine which allows it to climb up steep hills
• Engine takes hits when shot at from the front
• Tank has ERA all around it

Cons:

• Has no machine guns, unable to defend itself from aircraft
• Tall tank, allows for enemy to snipe you
• Placement of engine allows it to catch on fire when it.
• Long tank, cannot hide behind huts without poking out

The grade of bad

Example of a Bad Grade

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The F8F-1B is truly a worthy aircraft to end the single engine fighter line of the USN branch. Nimble, fast and with great acceleration, it is sight of fear for the foe's eye! Most of its enemies will be jets and they will shiver as the Bearcat faces them with a 2km altitude (and sometimes) and speed advantage! With WEP running ('''W'''ar '''E'''mergency '''P'''ower, includes ADI(Water-Methanol Injection) for the big and hungry 2300hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp) there is no propeller driven aircraft that can out climb it. When maximized, the climb rate is well over 35 m/s. However, without "radiator" researched, the engine tends to overheat.  

The main difference(s) between the 1B and the 1 is the WEP awesomeness and the Spas-12 20mms. However inaccurate and jammy the AN/M3s are, they are still far superior to the 4 "baby flamers" on the F8F-1. The stock belts are perfect; make sure to research new cannons straightaway.

In short, once given engine injection goodness, the 1B is the perfect BnZ fighter. Climb to around 5km and dive on stragglers. Due to improved late-war weaponry, a brush with any cannon shell may damage you mortally. Fire in 2 second bursts. Use the Default belt if you are an intermediate/beginner player, and the Stealth if anywhere higher.

Grade of Bad: Pro's and Con's

What makes a bad pro and con

Lets explore this, these are the types of pro's and con's which are unwanted. They are ineffective or variables. For example in the pro's a pro was listed a "Has a low BR". Battle ratings are a variable, variables change they are not fixed, they can go up or down. Another one which was listed was British bias and thus is subjective. In order to do these of an okay standard it is important to put aside how you feel and think neutrally about it.

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Pros:

• Has a big gun
• British Bias
• Has force shields
• Has a low BR
• BR is 1.0

Cons:

• Slow as a snail
• Hard to play
• Always up-tiered
• Repair costs are high as the moon