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I review the Cromwell, a tier 6 British medium tank in World of Tanks (WoT), with a replay of a tier 7 Lakeville battle.
My side wins 3v7 with vision control, use of hard cover, and wrecking isolated tanks.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ great top speed
+ great acceleration / agility
+ good DPM
+ good gun depression
– paper armor
– gun bloom
Comments / Errata:
1. to be clear, gun bloom is a separate concern from gun accuracy (0.36 for the Cromwell). The shot on the St Emil @1:40 missed due to inaccuracy, not gun bloom, given that I had the time to fully aim. That said, bloom elongates the time to aim
2. the enemy Wolverine made a critical mistake late of pushing up valley without support – he isolated himself and got bullied by our Panther. Be wary of isolating yourself unless you are confident you will win any 1v1s
3. per the WoT Wiki: “Once spotted, a vehicle stays lit up for a minimum duration of 5 seconds which can extend up to 10 seconds after the spotter moves out of spotting range or gets destroyed” – so 5-10 seconds, not the 6-8 I mentioned in the video
I talk through how I’m reading the battle as it unfolds and discuss key decisions and mistakes. My hope is that these videos meaningfully help other players improve their gameplay.
FAQs for the “Road to Unicum” series:
http://taugrim.com/2015/02/19/taugrims-road-to-unicum-guide-videos-for-world-of-tanks/#faqs
Next episode: T-62a Spotting Hill in Prokhorovka
Previous episode: IS-8 Review in Tier 10 Ensk
If you want to support my WoT habit (thanks that’s generous of you), you can send me gold in-game, or you can donate via PayPal or by shopping on Amazon:
Cheers,
Taugrim
I am honestly kind of surprised the T29 failed to spot you. Mine if rocking
a view range just a couple meters short of maximum.
The T29’s hull is surprisingly effective against 150 pen guns and below.
While I admire non-reliance on premium rounds, given the sheer distance,
opting to fire gold would have definitely been the better play.
With its superior shell velocity and penetration (and the Cromwell’s derpy
gun handling), gold would have minimised any potential RNG. Luckily the T29
gave you a lot of easy shots (side-on, unangled hull) and you had time to
aim.
+PianoN0ob > opting to fire gold would have definitely been the better play
Gold ammo does trivialize penetration in situations like that.
> Luckily the T29 gave you a lot of easy shots (side-on, unangled hull) and
you had time to aim
He did indeed.
It’s illustrative to show that for viewers – I try to call out notable
mistakes I and others make.
Very nice video, as always Taugrim. I really like your approach without
gold ammo. I carry a few rounds on all my tanks but very rarely use
it–well, OK on my PZIID I use it but the gun is so bad on that–OK who are
we kidding? It’s just a bad tank overall but I kept mine. It’s not the
Saint Emil by the way, it is Sturer Emil. Sturer = stubborn. I made that
same mistake myself.
+Richard Rhiew > I really like your approach without gold ammo
With tanks that have poor penetration, I have to consciously chose fighting
locations where I believe I’ll have meaningful opportunities to penetrate.
So for example, flanking fire from mid on tanks around city is a good way
to boost penetration opportunities.
> Saint Emil by the way, it is Sturer Emil. Sturer = stubborn
Ya, someone pointed that out on Reddit.
Your stuff is very well thought out, strategic due to your ammo loadout.
That’s one of the main reasons I enjoy the game despite being a total
tomato. I often look at the map and will make decisions to help the team
even if I am not the best tank for that location. I figure I can at least
help by spotting or holding a corner so my team can hopefully win on the
other flank. My platoon mates often joke that if no one is going to a
flank, that’s where I will go. With poor penetration it’s also useful to
spend the time to find all the weakspots on enemy tanks but I admit that
does get tedious–and there’s a ton of tanks!
You do separate yourself from other youtubers with your non-gold ammo play
and I really admire that. I often refer you to people who complain that WoT
is pay to win due to gold ammo spammers.
Perhaps you could do a low tier series as well for newer players. But no
seal clubbing, just simple strategy to improve upon. Thanks again for your
vids!
+Richard Rhiew > make decisions to help the team even if I am not the best
tank for that location. I figure I can at least help by spotting or holding
a corner so my team can hopefully win on the other flank
This is bigger-picture awareness on your part.
A lot of battles are lost simply because players get tunnel vision and
don’t watch their minimap or support friendlies.
> With poor penetration it’s also useful to spend the time to find all the
weakspots on enemy tanks but I admit that does get tedious–and there’s
a ton of tanks!
Thankfully there are good tools such as Tank Inspector and web sites such
as that provide 3D models, so over time you can learn the
armor layouts of various tanks. That, plus simply shooting different areas
of the same tank, help that learning curve.
> You do separate yourself from other youtubers with your non-gold ammo
play and I really admire that. I often refer you to people who complain
that WoT is pay to win due to gold ammo spammers.
Well, one of the warts with WoT (but financially good for Wargaming) is
that spending real money will aid in improving one’s statistics. That said,
the reason I play WoT is it is has an incredibly high skill cap, so that
makes it interesting for someone like me.
> Perhaps you could do a low tier series as well for newer players
In earlier polls I posted options for low- / mid-tier tanks, and they
didn’t get voted on well.
I also hold the opinion that some Super Uni’s such as Kewei have that what
you learn in upper tier is translatable to the lower tiers, but not vice
versa.
Here’s a good article from Kewei:
Just one question,you have full camo skill on your cruw? I playing my
T-34-85 in very similar way,full camo and binoculars with rammer,BIA and
ventilation,works like a charm with his awsome gun 🙂 Ty for good work.
+Ivan Otac > full camo skill on your cruw
Yes, you can see my crew skills at the beginning of the video. Basically
100% camo on all crew members.
My view range is slightly buffed (+3%) with 100% Situational Awareness.
> binoculars with rammer,BIA and ventilation
You must have a crew with 3+ skills, eh? I’m not there yet! I can see the
synergy of Vents equipment with BIA crew skill, but I prefer minimizing aim
time and went with Optics/Rammer/GLD on my T-34-85.
> Ty for good work
Thanks!
+Taugrim Yep,just unlocked the 4th skill,all reparis cus i think it’s less
meaningfull then camo in lower tier(usually tanks have fast rate of fire
and i cant repair in time so i drow it for camo),very fun to drive and some
times OP,and the snapshots often hits the target,even on move! 😀
P.S. Sry,i was looking at your stats,didnt saw skills on tank at all,my bad
😀
+Ivan Otac > all reparis cus i think it’s less meaningfull then camo in
lower tier(usually tanks have fast rate of fire and i cant repair in time
so i
drow it for camo),
Yes, for medium tanks at lower to mid tiers, not being spotted or having
the first-spot advantage is more important.
That’s why for the Cromwell I prioritized Camo as the 2nd skill and then
Repairs for the 3rd.
im suprised you dont have 1 apcr round in the cromwell , with 148 pen it
can struggle against some tier 8 tanks
Yeah very true it sure makes it a lot easier on certain tanks like cromwell
i run 50% ap and 50% apcr
+photomorti absolutely.
There are a lot of tanks – mediums and especially lights – that with gold
ammo because mobile wrecking balls.
Since I play with silver ammo only, it means I need to be mindful of
positioning and not put myself in situations where I’m going to be firing
frontally on tanks with thick hull armor / turrets.
+Taugrim
One thing i found hard with cromwell AP is shooting moving targets on
distance you have to give so much lead and when your used to playing tier
10 meds with standard apcr it can be tricky to give enough lead so i tend
to rather shoot apcr because of the difference in shell travel time.
+photomorti agreed, ACPR is much easier to use than AP on moving targets.
The shell velocity also helps when a tank is pulling back into cover and
you need the shell to hit them quicky
+Taugrim I have to say from my point of view and my opinion it’s pretty
ridiculous to put a type of ammo in the game – HEAT – that is specifically
used to just demolish steel armour. There is basically nothing you can do –
at least realistically speaking – to protect yourself from that, except ERA
and a few other minor things which just aren’t in the game. So basically
it’s comes down to this: you have a type of penetration in the game, HEAT,
which people can’t really protect against. There is no “counter” to it.
That for me is more frustrating – in some cases – than artillery. At least
I can hide from artillery and use the terrain to my advantage if I’m a
skilled player.
EDIT: And it’s one more reason I’m just 10k xp from the Leopard 1. At least
in that thing I can go around blazing fast just ripping apart everyone with
268 pen on the APCR shells. I’m dealing 5k damage with the prototype in a
good match, I can’t wait for the Leopard 1.
thumb up! I’ve been playing this little tank all wrong. Now im gonna
re-visit this tank. Maybe review the M103 or T32 first?
+Thee Kevin > Maybe review the M103 or T32 first?
I’ll probably do the T29 first, then the T32, then the M103.
Becuz anal. Also because that’s the tiering progression, and it’s
interesting to consider the relative mechanics as you move up tiers in the
same line.
Currently on the T32, Looking forward to see the new video! o7
+Thee Kevin the T32 and M103 have been pleasant surprises.
+Taugrim I’m happy to hear that. I’m currently doing 3k+ dmg per match in
the M103 (mostly, one bad match here and there). I’m about ~90% towards my
3rd gun mark. 🙂 I just love the M103. And my T32 has the highest xp per
match out of all my tanks.
Man I love your videos, thanks for being awesome Taugrim! Also, St. elmo is
what I’m gonna call the Struder from now on lol. (Thats what it sounded
like you said at first)
+linkah Thanks 🙂
Struder LOL.
Others have pointed out it’s Sturer Emil, but I tend to use nicknames and
such.