Blitzkrieg is a new regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!
When World of Tanks was first launched, Germany only had one tier X (the Maus), Russians had the IS-7 (even though the IS-4 was just as strong and was a tier IX) and America had the T30.
Since launch, World of Tanks has seen a steady addition of post World War II and now Cold War tanks
So why are the German tier 10 tanks falling behind?
Well the answer is quite simple, some players say the Russian developers are biased and while playing mostly the German tank tree for most of my World of Tanks career I kind of agree with them, I also think the main problem is because the developers did not set the end of World War II as the end of where they would get the tanks for World of Tanks from.
Instead we now have tanks from the late 50’s and now even the early 60’s from the French, Americans, Russians and soon to be the British facing off against German tanks that were designed from 1942-1945 .
Let’s take a look at each factions tier X tanks and what years they were designed, built and used:
Russia
Object 268: 1952
Object 263: 1950
T-62A: 1961-1975
IS-7: 1945-1947
IS-4: 1944-1949
The only World War II tanks are the IS-4 and IS-7.
America
T110E4: 1954
T110E3: 1954
M48A1: 1950-1959
T110E5: 1950
Not a single one of these tanks were built at the end of World War II.
France
AMX-50 Foch (155): 1952
AMX 50B: 1950-1957
Bat Chatillon 25t: 1952
None of these are from World War II either.
Germany
JagdPz E-100: 1945
Maus: 1942
E-100: 1943
E-50M: 1945
All of these tanks were designed and or built during or at the end of World War II.
So why have they not added any German built tanks from the 1950s to fix the balance?
To tell the truth I have no idea. Many players still think it’s because of Russian bias which I tend to agree with but I lean more towards the fact that it’s because they are too scared of giving Germany a good Tier X tank like the Leopard 1.
In the early 1950s, Germany and France started a collaborative design of the Leopard 1 but the partnership ended and the final design was ordered by the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces of Germany), where the production then started in 1965 with over 4,744 built.
The Leopard quickly became the standard tank for the majority of European forces and eventually served as the MBT (Main Battle Tank) for over 12 countries worldwide.
I personally would love to have the Leopard 1 as my new tier X tank and I think it would match up well against the new British tier 10’s coming in Patch 8.1 as well as balance quite well with the current tier X tanks already in game.
So over to you, what do you guys think about the way German tanks (and players) are currently treated and do you think the Leopard 1 deserves to be Germanys tier X tank like I do?
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Bias.
Leopard 1 would add another tank even more revent than every other you mentionned in this article. I don’t think it’s a good idea personally (even thought Leopard is foreseen to be released as the second medium line for Germany).
Another thing is that many tanks you mention for other nations are real tanks (object 268 for instance existed in 1952 but must have been designed before) while every German tanks you mention were only projects, so off course, they seem older, but maybe they would have never been built before 50’s ?
I get what you mean, but the Maus was built and the E-100 was being built. Either way, the bias-argument is too often used, but to say there’s no bias what so ever is a bit naieve IMHO aswell. Adding the Leopard 1 is a good idea, but I’m quite worried they will find a way to make it something like a Batchat or something like it…
Leopard 1 is already planned. There will be another German medium line (VKDB->Indien->ProtoB->Leo1), it was on Overlord’s blog.
The Leopard 1 is slated to be added to the German lines in the future. Check out their media, you can see it in the German tank tree.
I think the whole Russian bias complaint is overblown and overused. There are quite a few good tanks that aren’t Russian. Not to mention that the recent 8.0 patch has breathed new life into the E-100, JgPzE-100 and Maus, enough that they are being used in Clan Wars now.
I do think that the German tanks suffer from a rather disorganized tree, something WarGaming needs to address. A number of the Tiger prototypes, the VKs, ought to be changed over to heavy tanks instead of mediums, so that the German heavy line starts at tier V, like the American and Russian lines.
You do have a point in that the German tree seems to be falling behind. The new medium line culminating in the Leopard 1 is a good start towards fixing the issue.