Fair warning: This guide is very long. If you printed it, so far, it'd be more than 250 pages.

Welcome, this guide is primarily to teach newer players essentially everything conceivable about the game, but I know even experienced players benefit from this sometimes. So, enjoy, and if there's an experienced person reading this, and they (you) feel like there's something incorrect, or in need of improvement, please let me know in the comments section on the bottom, everyone will be appreciative, especially me.

A good percentage of this information is geared towards arcade battles, unless otherwise noted. Although a good percentage will transfer over to RB or Sim as well. It's all related, and this guide is supposed to be all-encompassing.

Wow, 5 stars... makes this the #1 best guide on this game... thanks! Don't let that stop you from rating though, it actually helps me out.

I'm primarily adding this section because, quite often I see new forum users asking "how should I setup my graphics?". Although my system that I use is terrible, I build gaming PCs regularly, and can assist in helping you to choose a "correct" setup for your computer. Be aware, each computer is different, and my suggestions may not necessarily work for you.

I recommend making your changes using this screen. Although the presets at the top can be used to modify these quickly, they aren't fine tuned for your system most of the time, and there's no "reset to default" button. To access this window, click the cog next to the presets.

Anisotropy: This is the amount of passes the GPU will make when reading a texture. Each pass makes the texture look sharper, and crisper. This usually won't tax most GPUs, unless they are very old, or have a low VRAM capacity (like mine).

Anti Aliasing: This is the amount of passes the GPU will make in order to smooth out the edges of textures of the whole image. This usually makes the geometry of objects look smoother. My GPU can only do 6X Anti Aliasing, but as far as I know, it can go up to X16. Usually this won't tax your GPU very much at low levels, but higher levels can get very taxing on it.

Texture Quality: This affects the visual quality of any aircraft or tank, which is not yours. This is dependant on the actual capacity of the video card, and can get very taxing in "furballs" if this is set to the limit of your GPU. Low uses 256 MB, Medium uses 512 MB, and High uses 1+ GB. You usually won't notice a difference unless you are flying in a close formation, or are in the furball.

Shadow Quality: This affects how close the shadow looks to the actual object which is casting the shadow. Lower settings will make shadows look jagged, while higher settings will smooth out the cast to the geometry of the plane. This is dependant mostly on RAM, but the VRAM in the video card is an important factor too.

Clouds Quality: This can be one of the hardest hitting setting to your system. This affects the particle geometry of clouds, and what they look like once inside. This is dependant on pretty much every portion of the PC, and running this on Movie grade is usually extremely detrimental to performance. Higher settings make clouds look... more cloudy, while lower settings make them look like blobs of mist.

Screen Resolution: This is placed here because it's closely tied to the next option. This is usually a big factor of FPS. Lower resolutions will always run faster than at high resolution, but lower resolution is also much blurrier than high resolution. Changing this will also affect the "aspect ratio" of the screen, which may widen or tighten what things look like.

Render Resolution: This setting downsamples the image to make the program run faster, but also makes things much more blurry at the extremes. It is usually better to lower the screen resolution itself before trying to "fake it" with this.

Terrain Quality: This is the geometry of the ground itself. This is mostly dependant on RAM. A lower setting removes the slight inclination and depressions of terrain which can only be seen at at close distance. This is usually only noticed in ground forces, or in cases where you are landing off an airfield.

Trees Quality: This affects the range in which trees and buildings are "drawn", and the distance in which they change to high quality. This is entirely dependant on the graphics card, and the render engine (covered later).

Particle Density: This changes the amount of smoke generated from relevant things, such as gunfire, as well as the quality of fire, and other things. This is equally dependant on RAM, and the video card.

Grass: Grass is very non-optimized, and for the most part only seen in ground forces. It's very taxing on the graphics cards. Unfortunately, the gap between systems makes many people who play with grass off, hated by people who do use grass. Grass users call non grass users "cheaters". It's an optional setting, but turning it off will boost your FPS a lot.

SSAO: Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. It makes colors blend more smoothly, and affects the "depth" of the colors. It's most noticeable on fabric textures. This is completely GPU dependant, and can get very taxing on higher settings.

Shadow Blur: This affects how "hard" the drawn shadow is. On the lowest settings, the shadow will look very sharp against the ground. Higher settings smooth out the light level making a shadow look more realistic. GPU and RAM dependant.

Water Reflections: This affects the visual quality of reflected objects against the water. This can get very GPU intensive near water, for obvious reasons.

Shadows: This check box turns shadows on or off. Simple. Can save you a lot of FPS, but a lot of people use their shadow to assist in landing.

Self Reflections: This draws objects of the object itself on the objects reflective surfaces. For example, with this on, you will see the wing reflected off the cockpit glass.

Object Shadows: This check box turns shadows on or off for each ambient object, such as trees and buildings. This can get very resource intensive, even on high end rigs.

Advanced Shore: Draws waves between the shore and the ocean or lake. Not very taxing on the graphics card, unless it's an older card, them this might cause some FPS hiccups, and potential graphical glitches, such as losing textures.

Motion Blur: Applies a blurring effect when the camera moves quickly. This is dependant on the processor mostly. This can cause motion sickness.

Haze: Draws fog near the edge of the render distance.

Soft Particles: Resamples particles to make them look more realistic. This is GPU dependant, and will usually cause issues on older cards.

FX Reflections: Reflective surfaces will reflect particles with this on. This is very GPU intensive in most cases, especially when combined with soft particles.

Terrain Far Details: With this off, terrain in the distance is smoothed in order to save on GPU space. With this on, you will see the "true" shape of the land at any distance.

Lens Flares: Applies a "solar" effect to the camera when looking at the sun, or an object reflecting the sun itself. This isn't very GPU intensive, but can cause graphical glitches on old cards. It makes the sun effect in cockpit view look quite realistic.

Grass in optics: This draws grass while looking through the scope of the tank. I recommend turning this off on any system, for gameplay reasons. Many people complain about grass and not being able to see a target, and they usually leave this on. Turning this off will remove grass while looking through the gun sight.

Suspension Animation: Makes the suspension motion effects look more realistic. This is usually not too GPU intensive unless there are multiple moving tanks in line of sight.

Clouds in Hangar: Draws clouds above the hangar, and may become GPU intensive depending on the cloud quality settings you applied.

JPEG screenshots: Changes the output format for images to .JPEG. This doesn't do anything with steam launching the application, as all images taken with the F12 key are output into a .JPEG anyway.

Old Graphics Card Support: This is the "makkie go fast" checkbox. Ticking this will pretty much turn off all graphical effects. Water will not be transparent, waves will not be drawn, texture quality will be reduced across the board (which you will see in the screenshots I took), and there will be no distortion, like when you fly through a cloud and it draws water on the cockpit glass. This is usually the last resort button to achieve a decent FPS on terrible rigs.

This has been changed, and now you can only actively use OpenGl by choice, I will leave this here in the event that this change is reverted in the launcher.

Playing with these can help to fix performance issues on some computers, but most of the time, it's a better Idea to not play with these unless you notice very low performances with automatic configuration, as automatic configuration will usually choose the best option for your PC. However, when/if it doesn't, you will want to set this yourself.

There are four different types of rendering engines in which War Thunder can use, for brand new computers, all the way back to the renderer used back in 2004.

Render

This is the (arguably second) most modern rendering algorithm available. This is able to use all the cores present on your computer, 32 GB of RAM if available, and supports SLI for when you use multiple video cards. This is also the most optimized rendering engine available, and should be able to run rather well on any computer, going back to equipment from 2006. This can, on some very old equipment run very poorly however.

This is the render which was in place before DirectX 11 was implemented as the "standard" render. It does not support multiple CPU cores, or SLI, but on some equipment, can run faster than on DirectX 11. Generally the graphical fidelity difference is not noticeable, and this is usually a good render to try if, for some reason DirectX 11 is running very slow.

This is an obsolete render. It doesn't use SLI, it can't support multiple cores, and it can only use 3.8 GB of RAM. It also looks very poor quality on textures, they usually look like paint instead of whatever they are supposed to represent. This is usually the quickest render setting though, as it's a comparatively simple algorithm.

This is an experimental graphics render. It bypasses most of the video card in the computer, and puts most of the requirements into the processor and RAM. It's a "direct draw" render, so there's very little, if any resampling, and the textures will break quite often in some frames if the processor is in use. This should only be used if there's a bad video card, but good equipment in the other departments.

This is a type of render (I forgot what it stands for) that renders each object as an individually drawn item applying textures as the physical shape of the object is made. This can cause some graphical glitches on some cards, and may also cause slowdowns on some cards. However, most newer cards use this type of instancing by default.

This is geometric rendering. This renderer draws the geometry of the object before applying the texture to the object in question. This is used on slightly older graphics cards in most cases by default. You may notice some lower load speed on textures with this render, but it may make the game run slightly faster on card that support this over Tex rendering.

Disclaimer: I didn't write this section, I just copied it from a discussion on the forums, but it's still very onto the point. Keep in mind, this is very conversational. The thread referring to it is here[forum.warthunder.com].

There are 4 modes of control, Mouse Aim, Simplified, Realistic and Full Real controls

Mouse aim mode refers to the first control mode which you use mouse (and KB) exclusively, you point your cursor on the screen and the instructor (essentially flying the plane for you) will steer your plane towards that point.
Most players do reasonably well at this mode because it is simple and easy to learn - all you need to focus on is aiming.

In simplified control, you no longer have the point and click style flying like in mouse aim, you can either use keyboard, mouse joy or joystick with it. Mouse joy refers to a 'virtual joystick' overlay on top of your game screen, you can steer your mouse to move the virtual stick on the screen to steer the plane. You will need to move your ailerons to roll, elevators to pitch and rudders to yaw by mapping keys to them. You will still have instructor mode there to prevent you from turning too hard, stalling etc.

Realistic mode and Full real control requires you to have a bit better understanding of aircraft controls, and mainly for joystick only. Instructor mode is off so you will notice the aircraft will shake a lot more if you are flying too rough. Without instructor your plane is technically more responsive (you are flying the plane with no limits) but you risk making the aircraft bleed off too much speed and either stall or be very unresponsive (even in arcade), because there is no safety net to prevent you from doing so.

Difference between Realistic and Full Real Control (in arcade) is the ability to trim the aircraft, just like how you control RC cars and planes you can make the aircraft apply certain amount of pressure on its controls without your input, it is quite useful when it comes to setting up your shots or flying more comfortably. You cannot use trim unless you use full real control. Also, in full real control, you have control over the radiator in the plane. Closing it will make the plane go faster by reducing drag, but it will also make the engine temperature go up very quickly.

Most players in WT perform very well in mouse aim mode. Your aiming is a lot more stable and you only have to point the mouse to fly the plane, versus realistic/full real control that requires you to roll, pitch and yaw the aircraft using three separate control inputs.

Joystick requires you to be the better pilot to perform similarly to mouse flyers in arcade. It requires certain level of aptitude and definitely alot of practice to get it right. Not everyone is cut out for it, and I don't recommend for someone who had no previous flight sim experience to use JS in WT. While your aiming is not as accurate as mouse flyers, joystick fliers in general flies the aircraft better because the aircraft is not being limit by instructor mode and rolling/pitching is more accurate than tapping KB with instructor overrides. So yes, better maneuverability in general.

So long story short, if you like to play WT casually, jump in with your friends and have a quick bash after work kinda things, mouse control is excellent choice. You dont need to invest in expensive gear to play well in arcade, which is what makes WT so enjoyable! All my friends fly with mouse aim and none of them have trouble making it to top of the scoreboard.

If you feel like you have the aptitude of piloting an aircraft and want to challenge yourself against odds, joystick will definitely offer you that in WT.

I'm going to describe in a basic sense here how the matchmaker works, what the difference between research tiers and battle ratings mean, and how this affects your placement in games.
This is an image of the in-game matchmaker (at least what you see). The matchmaker tries its best to create the most even game possible, it does not take player skill into account, but it sorta does, i'll cover that later in this section. This applies to only planes. Tanks are tiered by the highest BR in the lineup (for good reason).

Currently, the way the MM (slang for matchmaker if you didn't know) sorts players into games is determined by a Statistic called "Battle Rating". Apparently Battle Rating is defined by the "average player" productivity, which means, the better the plane is against another, and it's ability to make Lions and RP, although these two are directly correlated with each other. When the matchmaker picks who will go where, it checks the Battle Rating of each plane and then attempts to place them in a way that the battle rating will be equal for both teams. So far, the limit for BR deviation is 1, so the teams will always be pretty close to each other in terms of power, and it helps to keep things fair (although this can be pretty badly messed up when someone quits, there is no "autobalance").


Here is an example of two different planes of the same tier having completely different BR, when you put these two planes together, the total BR will not be 3.5, but instead 3.7, the BR for planes is not averaged out for the sake of not letting someone take a jet in to kill biplanes. If you have a plane and their BR is below the top BR plane, you can only drop your total BR by .3, no matter what, so although this helps if you only have the single plane, which came after some research, if you have very low tier planes, using said plane/tank will become detrimental for you.

In a sense, research tiers do nothing when it comes to MM, although, it's in place to prevent people from using "that single godly plane" then quit once they inevitably lose it, as well as encouraging the purchase of premium money to skip research (it's a F2P game, it's reasonable for them to ask).

The game may add or subtract .3 from your total BR based on your previous matches. If you have been having a bad day, losing match after match, then the game will try to help you out by reducing your BR by .3. It also does this in reverse, if you do really good all day, the game will likely bump up your BR by .3 to compensate. This is what I mean by "player skill".

A belt is a "loadout" on which shells/bullets are loaded into the gun and which order they are fired, the title of the belt will usually tell you what the belt is intended to be used for. For example, a tracer belt will be very heavy on tracer shells, while being very light on "standard" ammunition.

Each belt is organized in "patterns" such as T/AP/AP/I/AP-I. When you look at these belts in game, your gun has a certain amount of ammunition it can carry at any given time. For example, the 7.62 mm browning can hold 750 bullets, more or less. When you load the above (fictional) belt the bullets will be ordered Tracer, Armor Piercing, Armor Piercing, Incendiary, Armor Piercing Incendiary, and repeat this pattern until it reaches the end of the belt. So, although its not critically important, it is important to know when each bullet will come out of the gun. Will the tracer come out first? Can the next 4 bullets be guided reliably on that tracer? What if my target has a lot of armor?

These questions are not particularly important when you have a rapid fire machine gun such as the 7.62, but can become critically important when you have the big "thud thud" cannons, which comparatively have a long time between each shot, especially when the belt contains a bunch of different shells. The point is, know your belt, and know, at least roughly, when each type of bullet is scheduled to come out, it'll help save you, and your ammo.

This next section here will show you the basics of what each belt is intended to be used for.

Special thanks to eNtak for allowing me to source his video. He has a whole bunch of stuff like this, but if you like text, so you can refer to it in game, or have restricted bandwidth, I have that too.
If you want more details, please refer to the sections below.

Default: This is the belt that you will be given when you first unlock a new plane, it mostly comprises of the "cheaper" bullets and shells, they'll function, and sometimes be better than specialized belts, since there is no real weakness to using it. Oh, bullets from this belt come for the very nominal price of FREE.

Universal/Omni-Purpose: This belt contains "upgraded" bullets, with an emphasis on being able to handle anything, usually has a tracer, ap, and some incendiary bullets, chose this belt if you like to be the "multirole" fighter.

Ground targets: Emphasises on armor penetration, makes the belt specialized to killing ground targets (obviously) but is also very practical when trying to shoot down heavily armored targets such as bombers. Usually carries 1 type of tracer, and a whole lot of AP bullets with the occasional incendiary AP.

Air targets: This belt emphasises on being able to kill light targets, commonly used for focusing your effort on enemy fighters, these bullets will be very impractical against ground targets, but can be used against bombers. Mostly comprises of some form of HE shell, a tracer, and an incendiary. Usually only used in cannon caliber guns.

Armored Targets: Similar to the Ground Targets belt, but specifically favoring bomber (or even tank) destruction, contains almost exclusively AP shells, and the occasional HE/Frag shell. This type of belt is commonly only used on cannon caliber guns.

Tracers: As said earlier, a tracer belt will focus primarily on tracer rounds, usually carrying almost exclusively tracer bullets with a single multipurpose bullet. Good for learning how to aim, or for use as a fear creating tool, basically saying "yes, I am shooting at you".

Stealth/Stealth Attack: These belts completely remove the tracer element, making them excellent for boom and zoom fighters, since the enemy usually can't see the shells until its too late, very effective for sneak attacks, especially in simulator mode.

I suggest is that those who want to see the size of a shell, in person, get a ruler... it's the tool they used when measuring the length of a bullet/shell. As for the width, it was usually 1/3 to 1/5 the length, to put things into perspective.

Starting with the 7.62 Browning MG, its shell types comprise of:

Standard Tracers: These are the bullets which leave that big red tail behind them, they help you to see where the rest of the bullets are "probably" going, individually these bullets don't too much damage to an aircraft, they are mainly intended to guide the rest of the "good" bullets. Its also worth nothing that these tracers get pretty inaccurate in general at range.

"Ball" Bullets: These are basically simple rifle rounds, made of a solid metal, typically iron or lead. They usually wont penetrate a modestly armored opponent unless used at point blank, however they are very usefull against biplanes and early fighters which don't have much armor. Decently accurate all around, but become almost useless at a range, they can't punch much at that point.

AP Bullets: Very pointy and a bit more heavy than balls. These are the bullets which will actually start to hurt things, these usually have steel cores, easily penetrating most low tier planes armor, given the caliber of the gun.

Incendiary Bullets: This is the last bullet type available to the american 7.62. This is a bullet packed full of incendiary substances. When the bullet hits a plane it'l break, and ignite the incendiary (hopefully) igniting the target, very, very usefull against wooden planes, slightly less so against metal planes.

The next weapon available to the americans is the 12.7 Browning M2 (aka the pilots best friend). It essentially doubles the shell calibur, which changes the role a bit for each type of bullet.

Ammunition types comprise of:

M1 Tracers: This is the slightly bigger brother of the Standard Tracer, pretty practical mostly because of its size, and the fact that it's a tracer, but with a bigger trace. Again intended to mainly guide other bullets, although this bullet will actually so some moderate damage to aircraft.

"Ball" Bullets: Again, the ball bullet is back, almost the same stats of the 7.62 but more accurate, and hurt a bit more when hitting things.

M1 Incendiary Bullets: Again, the same as the 7.62, more accurate and more damaging, but the important part here is that they have about 1/3 more incendiaries packed into them, increasing the chance of fire on impact.

M8 Bullets: These are AP shells, but also have incendiary stuff as well. These bullets are intended to punch the airframe of a plane, and then detonate, usually igniting the fuel tank.

AP M2 Bullets: Bigger versions of the regular AP shells, nothing more than a bigger hunk of metal, with a thicker steel core. These shells are sufficient to make a bomber have a bad day, capable of shearing a wing off if it hits the correct spot.

There are two particular bullets available to the later M2 (and M3) Browning. They are not available till later tiers.

API-T Bullets: Armor piercing bullets with incendiaries AND tracers, very good for being mounted on a turret, as 95% of the time, you or your AI gunner will be shooting the engine of a pursuing plane, if you hit the engine/prop of an enemy you will take it down over time by just wrecking the prop making it unwillingly break away as it loses airspeed. In forward guns, this bullet has an uncanny ability to set it's target on fire (I was told this uses thermite as it's incindeary).

M23 Incendiary Bullet: This particular bullet has a much higher incendiary capacity, and can easily set planes on fire compared to the older versions.

The next weapon technically available to the US, although only on a single plane (the P-400) is the 404 Hispano, a 20 mm "cannon". Its shells for the cannon are:

HEF-I (High Explosive Fragmentation-Incendiary): This shell does what it says on the label, when it hits something, it explodes into flaming shrapnel, making it very deadly against sensitive parts of a plane, most notably, flaps, the pilot, and the prop/engine.

HEF-SAPI (High Explosive-Semi Armor Piercing- Incendiary): This shell has a bit more metal than incendiaries, very good against the otherwise well armored engines of bombers, usually not taking too much effort to light them on fire.

Practice Shell: A lump of solid metal, very similar to a ball bullet, can be very useful, but more often than not, very unreliable.

Incendiary Shell: A big incendiary shell, seems simple, very good at lighting a plane on fire, but is a tad less accurate than the rest of the shells.

AP Shells: Really just big honking chunks of metal, very good for ripping parts off of planes, or pilot sniping, otherwise, the shell will usually just pass through the plane "mostly" harmlessly.

The next gun worth mentioning is on the P-39 series of fighters, the 37mm M4 and the P-63, although the P-63 gets an upgrade a bit, 37mm M10, the two shells are all the same, so i'll just combine the two here.

HEFI-T: These shells are similar to the HEF-I on the Hispano, however there are some obvious differences, first, these shells have fuses, which means they'll detonate automatically at a certain distance, making them similar to ground based AAA once they reach to about 1.25km. The 2nd difference is that, comparatively, its a very big shell, capable of making bombers outright explode (detonating ordinance) if hit correctly causing the death message on the receiving side "plane exploded".

AP-T: As we know, AP is AP, again a huge hunk of metal for aircraft standards, capable of ripping both wings off a plane, one side to the other if it hits.

The 20mm AM Series of guns are used on a few higher tier aircraft, but the shells are the same as the Hispano mentioned above, I'd copy, paste but i'm lazy.

This one is being tagged onto the end cuz I completely forgot about it, and it's probably the single most powerful plane mounted gun in the game. The 75mm T13E1, quite literally a tank cannon (no, seriously, it was installed into tanks too) mounted on the PBJ-1H, it fires:

AP-T: Nothing quite beats having a 4 inch hole punched into the side of your plane, this gun shell takes the cake when it comes to bomber murder, almost obliterating anything it hits every time.

HEI-T: A very powerful shot, mostly because of the size of the shell. It will blow things off of planes immediately if this shot hits. It also has a decent splash radius for attacking light ground units, or for strafing grounded planes.

Tier: Reserve

This is quite likely to be the first plane you will see when you launch the game for the first time. It's a reserve plane, so everyone has to start from here. Overall, it's surprisingly powerful, because it has an M2 Browning. It handles pretty well, but at the tier, this plane will be against biplanes, which usually can handle a lot better than it.


Tier: Reserve

This plane is identical to the above P-26, except it can fly slightly faster, at the cost of the M2 browning. Overall, it's a very decent plane, in place of the M2, you get another 7.62, so it's still got SOME firepower.


Tier: Reserve

This plane is again identical to the above aircraft. The only noticeable difference is that, it's slightly faster, and has a tiny bit more time to turn.


Tier: 1

This is a very pleasant plane to fly, it's not as maneuverable as the peashooters at all, but it has the same armament of the M2 peashooter, and some decent armor. It's one of the first planes that will teach you not to turn fight, but instead boom and zoom. It CAN turn fight, but it's strongly recommended to avoid doing so.


Tier:1

This is an upgraded Hawk, it has a much better engine, making it significantly faster, and it can turn slightly tighter.


Tier: 1

This is a significant upgrade on the previous Hawk, it has 2 extra 12.7mm MGs and also has an upgraded engine, however, this is offset by the BR of 3.3, prior Hawks had BRs of 2.0.


Tier: 2

This is my personal favorite plane of the tier, possibly of all time. It's very quick, has decent armor, has 6 MGs, and can climb or dive very easily. The only notable downside to this aircraft it that it has a sub par turning ability.


Tier: 2

This is the first plane with a cannon, and it's a british cannon. It's got the same handling characteristics as the P-40, except slightly worse turning ability. The cannon is a Hispano 404, or otherwise known to the British as the Hispano Mk. I. It's pretty powerful, but it tends to jam quickly.


Tier: 2

This is similar to the P-400, but with a major exception. The cannon is much bigger, at 37mm, the same caliber as the main cannon on the M3 Stuart light tank. This cannon is easily capable of one shotting, almost, anything it comes into contact with. This cannon has a notably low rate of fire, and shell velocity however. It handles similarly to the P-400, but slightly more worse at turning, and much better at climbing and diving.


Tier: 2

Exactly the same as the above, except I think its slightly faster and trades the 7.62s for 12.7s.


Tier: 2

I myself am not a fan of this aircraft. It's an excellent plane, I just don't like it as much as a lot of other people do, it doesn't quite fit how I like to play. It's extraordinarily fast, and can climb very quickly, AND it has an 20mm AN/M2 cannon which is very powerful. The downsides to this plane are, it cannot stand in a turn fight against anything, and making a level turn will slow the plane down a lot, it's intended expressly for boom and zoom, and is very good at it. It's very powerful at higher altitude.


Tier: 3

This is a very interesting plane, a bomber fighter hybrid. It has 8 MGs, and the capacity to hold the amount of ordinance rivaling that of an IL-4. This plane is NOT intended to be getting into low altitude dogfights, and it handles far better in bomber range altitudes than fighter range (this plane was built to escort B-25s).



This is the same aircraft as before, but it can climb even higher than most bombers, so, you can now try to boom and zoom them. Ain't that fun? It can also mount bazooka pods in place of the 500 lb bomb mount.

Tier: 3

These are upgrades of the o'l P-39 Airacobras, they are significantly more armored, and they move at about the same speed as their counterpart, but can climb even faster. Apparently painting Neon Yellow onto a plane makes it go faster (not really, yellow is the training color). Also, the second and third model get the M10 37mm, which is much more accurate, and shoots faster, AND jams less, so better all around.


Tier: 4

These aircraft are the epitome of the american boom and zoom ideal. These planes are extraordinarily fast, arguably the fastest propellor plane in the game. This however comes at the cost of having literally NO armor. Also, it dials back the weaponry to only 6 MGs again


Tier: 4

Very similar to the characteristics of the P-38. All the guns are in the middle of the aircraft, and they are M3 Brownings, which means they are exactly as powerful as the M2, but fire about 1.5 times faster. This plane can also mount up to 4000 pounds of bombs.


Tier: 5

The first american jet aircraft. Comparatively underwhelming, primarily because of the weapon loadout, which is 6 M2 browning MGs. However, as this is a jet, it will outrun most propellor aircraft with ease.


Tier: 5

Essentially the same as the above aircraft, but with M3 Brownings in place of the M2's. It's a solid aircraft, but it's a bit slow to respond for jet fighter standards. It does have a higher top speed, and can turn slightly tighter than the above jet.


Tier:5

This is the point in which american fighters get impressive in terms of top speed, they still use the M3 browning, which is starting to fall behind the curve, but the plane itself is very fast, and can handle fairly well for a jet aircraft of it's mass.


Tier: 5

These are two of the legendary sabre series, they are still armed with the M3 browning, but they handle very impressively, and are close to the fastest jets in the game.



This is the final Sabre, it finally dumps the M3 brownings, in favor of 4 FMC-20 cannons, which are very, very powerful. The engine also generates quite a bit more thrust than the prior jet. This aircraft marks the end of the American Army Line.

Tier: 1

This is the initial american naval airplane. It's pretty quick, and can turn pretty well, but overall, it's very flimsy. It has a 7.62mm browning, and a 12.7mm browning, so you are regaining the firepower you had on the peashooter.


Tier: 1

This is the plane immediately after the F2A-1, it's significantly more powerful, with 4 12.7 browning MGs, but is a tiny bit heavier, making it harder to steer. Also it's still fragile, so don't head on anything in this if it can be avoided.


Tier: 2

These aircraft will feel significantly different, compared to the Buffalos you were flying. These planes are a bit bigger, and have very bad steering in general, but they can climb quickly. These planes are almost exclusively bombers, or boom and zoomers.


Tier: 2

This aircraft is very similar to the F4F series, except better in all aspects of performance, and it has the capacity to hold higher payloads, including the Tiny Tim rockets (basically a laser guided 500 lb bomb packed into a rocket because of the amount of motors attached to it).


Tier: 2

These are the Corsairs, they are just like the american army aircraft, but they are much faster, at the cost of decent armor. Still uses 6 12.7 MGs. Very good boom and zoomers, and the "default" F4U can hold a bomb.


Tier: 3

Identical to the rest, but faster, and has the capacity to hold a much higher payload, including 2 1000 lb. bombs, or 8 HVAR rockets.


Tier: 3

Another identical aircraft design, but the important part of this aircraft is that is has 4 AN/M2 Cannons, making it a very powerful aircraft when used properly in the Boom and Zoom fashion.


Tier: 4

These aircraft are essentially the same, with the exception of armament choice. The 1 has 4 M3 M2 brownings (it was nerfed to "factory" standards), while the 1B has AN/M2s. It's hard to say which is the better of the two. The 1B is now a reasonable upgrade. The plane in of itself is a very good boom and zoomer, but also possess good maneuverability.


Tier: 4

This aircraft plays the same as the P-38, except it's a bit lighter, more maneuverable, much faster and can handle altitude much better. It's armament is (pretty much) entirely nose mounted and consists of 4 AN/M2 cannons, AND 4 12.7mm M2 Brownings. It's hull is very tough, but the wings seems to be as strong as tinfoil.


Tier: 5

This is a new plane as of 1.45. The F2H-2 Banshee was met initially as a blatantly overpowered plane, but this has been fixed recently with it's BR being bumped up to 7.3. It's got 4 20mm AN/M3 cannons in it's nose. It's an excellent boom and zoom, so far nothing can catch it in a dive. It's also got some decent turning ability too.


Tier: 5

This is the primary jet of the US navy at the time, it keeps the AN/M3s but, of course, is a jet, so they are extremely fast. The 2 model has a stronger engine than the 5 model, but the 5 model has a higher top speed capacity.

Tier: 1

These are funny little planes, designated as bombers, but without a bomb load initially. (I've actually flown one of these in real life.) Compared to most single engine aircraft... it's slow... and the armament on the plane is not very good, but the funny thing is, if you arent dead, people will usually overshoot you, usually letting you get a few shots off (or be rammed). It's very hard to land these on land, in fact you can't, the tires are not actually on the plane, so if you can, try for next to an aircraft carrier (which you probably wont see in arcade battles).


Tier: 1

This was my favorite bomber in the game for a while, simply because it had airbrakes, which makes bombing very easy, and allows a sneaky little trick in a dogfight, pop them and you will almost stop, usually making your enemy overshoot you.


Tier: 2

This is a high altitude bomber (for a "hooked" naval, carrier based airplane), it's got a very decent payload, and it can also use torpedoes. Overall, it handles well for a plane of it's class, but it has almost no armor.


Tier: 2

This is the Helldiver, an aircraft primordially used for attacking ships. It handles a lot like a lighter TBF, and can carry a modest bombload, or a torpedo. It has 2 AN/M2 cannons, mounted just above the landing gear, and a twin pair of 7.62 Browning machine guns for defensive armament.


Tier: 3

This is a modified B-25 bomber (covered in the next section). It replaces it's front turret with a gun array of 8 M2 Brownings AND a whopping 75mm T13E1 anti tank cannon, albeit, the 75mm is very unwieldy, and probably won't kill planes.



This is technically an upgrade of the H variant, it removes the 75mm, but instead replaces it with 4 more M2 brownings. It's an excellent vehicle to strafe light ground units with, or you can use it as a bomber hunter, while also being a bomber yourself.

Tier: 1

The first true(ish) american bomber. This plane is still in service today, in private shipping, usually in Alaska, and Florida, where water tends to be more prevalent. It looks unimpressive, but it has a pretty good bombload and is surprisingly durable to most types of bullets. It has two rear facing 12.7mm guns, but there's a somewhat large blind spot directly behind the tail. This plane can't land on land (well, it can, but it's strongly inadvised, there's no guarantee that the plane will be in one piece), it's primarily a boat plane.


Tier: 1

This is an upgrade over the regular PBY, in that it has practical ground landing gear, and the engines are slightly more powerful. Otherwise, it's identical to the PBY-5.


Tier: 2

This is a very early model of the P-51, intended to be used in a ground support role. It has 2 Browning M2 machine guns synchronized underneath the prop, and 2 M2 Brownings in the wings of the aircraft. It can hold 2 bombs, up to 500 pounds each. It's performance is pretty poor, but for a ground attacker at it's tier, it will work, especially at low altitude, where it can achieve the most out of it's engine.


Tier: 2

This is the only solely designated attack aircraft in the american air force in the game to date. It has half the bomb capacity as the PBY series of aircraft, or it can use 4, 3X pods of bazooka rockets. Also, it has 6 M2 brownings mounted into the nose, which makes it good at strafing lighter targets. It's got a roof mounted turret housing 2 more browning M2s, and there's a hatch on the bottom back, which is also a M2.


Tier: 2/3

These are the original aircraft, which the PBJ noted above was built off of. It's a notably durable monster of a bomber, and it has MGs facing almost every direction (except down, which is a weakness).


Tier: 3

This is the B-17, that aircraft the history channel loves, and the aircraft the lesser intelligent fighters despise. It's actually not incredibly durable, which is true. In terms of modules, it gets to blackened parts very quickly, but the thing is, they almost never break. It has turrets EVERYWHERE, covering almost any conceivable angle of attack. There's no noticeable differences between the two.


Tier: 4

An upgrade of the B-17. It flies a bit slower than the other B-17s, but it has a chin mounted turret (under the front), as well as a slightly bigger bomb capacity.


Tier: 4

It has a massive bomb capacity, and it has 8 individual turrets. Also, it's decently fast, but can be shot down comparatively easy to the B-17.


Tier: 4

Officially the biggest plane available in the game. The B-29, by far has the largest bomb capacity of all bombers, able to carry 40 500 lb bombs (or any combination of bigger or smaller bombs). It can also handle surprisingly well for an aircraft of it's size. As a result, and combination of the planes size, and the fact that there are far fewer gun positions (albeit much more sensibly placed), this bomber is rather easy to shoot down, but if it reaches it's target, it can destroy at least 2 mini bases in one pass.


Tier: 5

This is the american jet bomber. It's pretty fast. It also carries a large bomb load. It used to be notorious for ending games in under 3 minutes in realistic battles. Now, it's tiered correctly, and doesn't dominate matches anymore. It has no defensive armament, but it's decently maneuverable for a plane of it's size.


Tier: 5

Same plane as above, but with 8 wing mounted M3 Brownings, and a whole lot more choices on bombs, as well as rockets. A very powerful ground attack aircraft.

The first weapon available to the germans is the 7.92mm MG 17 (or the MG 15 turret variant). Its shell types are as follows.

Armor Piercing Tracers: Decent tracers for the tier and gun caliber, also packing a bit of a punch, however, comparatively, not very accurate.

"Ball" Bullets: Similar to the american bullets mentioned in the above section (if you've read it) but slightly bigger and fall slightly faster, decent bullets for the tier, since almost anything could put a hole through plywood.

AP-I: Armor piercing Incendiary, realistically not too good, but functional, still capable of lighting things on fire.

AI Bullets: No, these aren't computer guided bullets. These bullets are essentially standard incendiary bullets which have been "adjusted". Adjusted incendiaries produce a comparatively bright flash of light when hitting their target which helps you to "adjust" your aim, and have a slightly better chance of lighting things on fire. Some of these bullets may have fuses, which means they might airburst, doing nothing useful.

AP: Of course we didn't forget about regular AP shells, we just don't use them that much yet. More metal, no tracer or incendiary, decent for low tier pilot sniping.

The next type of gun available to the germans (italians) is the 12.7 Breda MG, its shells are as follows:

Note: These rounds are broken, and have been proven to do LESS damage than a 7mm round.

Tracers: Realistically the same as the american tracer round except .1mm bigger, Packs quite a punch for its caliber and bullet type, considering its not even an AP variant.

"Ball" Bullets: More rifle grade bullets, better used against infantry than plywood or aluminum, still capable of dealing decent damage though at closeish range.

Incendiaries: Incendiary bullets, good for lighter planes so that the shell penetrates and ignites the plane, otherwise, don't pack much of a punch comparatively.

AP: Big pointy piece of steel, decent armor penetration, good for taking down bombers, or sniping pilots.

AP-I: Armor piercing incendiary, good for lighting lightly armored bombers on fire.

IAI Bullets: These are pretty much HE-I bullets, making them almost OP against wooden planes, however, their main purpose is to light external fuel tanks on fire, which is the task they excell at. If they don't set the plane on fire, it's similar to a M80 firecracker. Not too accurate however.

API-T: Armor piercing incendiary tracers, these bullets are the jack of all trades bullet, not too good at anything, but not bad at anything either, and having a tracer is nice.

Now we get to German cannons.

The 20mm FG/FF and MG 131 as well as the Mg 151/20 series is used on almost all of the german fighters AND bombers, the shell types are as follows:

IT* Shells: Self destructing Incendiary tracers, these shells are good at lighting planes on fire, but for a 20mm are kinda inaccurate, because of the tracer. These shells have fuses, which makes them act similar to AAA at extreme ranges.

APHE: This is a little monster, an armor piercing shell with a high explosive charge built in, this type of shell blows up planes A LOT when they get hit by it, because the shell penetrates the plane, then explodes.

FI-T: This shell can literally be described as what actually comes out of the ground based AAA, except with a tracer. It'l not necessarily outright blow up planes like APHE, but if it penetrates the hull of the plane, you have a 65% chance of a dead crew.

AP-I: Armor piercing incendiary, a lump of metal packed with a fiery demise, very good vs bombers, not necessarily as good vs lightly armored targets in the incendiary department, the shell usually passes clean through.

HEI (Minengeschoß): This is an extremely unique bullet available to Germany. This is pretty much the equivalent to steel plated C4. It has around 3 times the high explosive power of any HE shell of it's size. It's extraordinarily powerful. It can easily knock off wings or tails. It generally has a higher shell velocity, but it drops off fairly quickly.

The next gun available, I think, is only on 1 plane (i'm not too far down the german line) the 15mm MG 151 (cannon/gun hybrid)

All shell types are identical to the Breda above except for one major exception:

AP-I(c): An armor piercing incendiary shell/bullet, but in the core is a metal called Cermit, it makes the shell/bullet fly a bit faster, but doesn't pack as much incendiaries. Cermit it an early form of Titanium, so it's harder, and lighter than steel. It has a higher muzzle velocity, but the velocity drops off a bit quicker.

The next gun is the 13mm MG 131, available to mostly the higher tier aircraft. Carrying the same bullets as the 12.7 Breda, i'm not gonna repeat myself on these, just know that they fly faster, and pack more of a punch.

Next is the BK 3,7 only available on the Ju-87 G series and the Hs 129 B-2, has this gun at tier 3, it carries these shells:

HVAP-T: High velocity tracer shells, these things fly about 1.5 times faster than other shells of this caliber, which makes them very accurate and deadly, if the plane being impacted by the shell isn't outright destroyed by them, they will receive quite the "push" usually leading to a crash immediately after impact. These are actually the same as APCR for tanks.

HEF: High explosive frag, these shells will finish off whatever your HVAP wont, almost as lethal as being hit by a rocket.

Next is the BK 7.5 on the Henschel 129B-3. It's a very powerful, and accurate cannon. It's shells are as follows.

AP-T: Very powerful shot. Will kill most tanks easily, as well as cripple any aircraft.

HVAP-T: Similar to AP, but travels much faster, making it easier to hit a moving target, even at long range.

HEFI-T: This is the bullet used on the ground target belt, which really, it shouldn't be. It can splash multiple very light ground units like AAA, or Armored Cars. It can kill Light Tanks, but only with a direct hit. This bullet is actually much better against aircraft than ground units.

Lastly is the BK 5 cannon. It carries the same shells as the BK 7.5, but they all fly much faster, and lose velocity faster. The HEFI-T shell can't kill Light Tanks with a direct hit though.

Next comes the 30mm Mk 108, almost found exclusively on jets. Only 2 types of shells available here:

HEI-T: High explosive tracer, any impact on a jet with these will usually cause a fire, or loss of a wing, either way, the guy you just hit is screwed.

I: Pretty simple, just a plain o'l, huge incendiary shell, honestly not very effective when compared to the HEI, but it works.

Lastly is the 37mm found on the technically Russian Mig Carries HEF and HEI, as above, but also has the option to carry AP.

Tier: Reserve

These are the German starters, overall these aircraft are acceptable, a bit lacking in the maneuverability department, but have a decently large caliber array of 2 MG 17's, which have an impressive fire rate.


Tier:1

This is the first monoplane aircraft of it's series. It has some decent maneuverability, and still has the 2 mg 17s. However, it's still as fragile as the average biplane.


Tier: 1

Same as the above craft, but instead of the mgs, it gets a single nose mounted 20mm cannon, it's a surprisingly good sniper. The tri bladed prop makes it go somewhat faster too.


Tier: 1

Similar chassis as the above craft, but a bit smaller, and has a full canopy. It has 2 nose mounted MGs, and the 2 cannons are now wing mounted, making it similar to the P-36C, but with more firepower.


Tier: 2

This is the first of the BF series of aircraft, and arguably, the best aircraft that Germany invented during the war. It's entire line are modifications off of this base aircraft. It's a strong aircraft, with some decent armor, but it's mostly a boom and zoomer, even though it only has the 7.92 aray of the He-51 series of aircraft.


Tier: 2

This mod of the BF 109 is essentially the He 122 B-0 (armament wise) but with the chassis and manueverability of a Bf-109


Tier: 2

This mod of the Bf 109 places the nose mounted 20mm back and also adds 2 radially mounted (near but not in the nose) mg 17s. It's an incredible boom and zoomer because of the placement of these weapons.


Tier: 2

Same form of gun placement as the F-1 model, but instead it gets the "not quite a cannon" Mg 151. It's actually a better weapon than the prior 20mm, as it has almost the same burst mass as the M3 Browning.


Tier: 3

Pretty much the same as the rest above, but with a faster firing 20mm. Also allows the mounting of 15mm gunpods into the wings, for increased firepower, at the cost of maneuverability.


Tier: 3

Identical to the above aircraft, but with desert camo.


Tier: 3

Another identical copy, but has a better engine, affording it more maneuverability.


Tier: 4

This aircraft uprates its secondary MGs (finally) to 13mm MG 31s. Making them a practical choice for something besides tracers, showing where all the hurt is going. Also, this aircraft, along with having the 20mm gun pod modification, it can get 30mm gunpods, AND you can replace the nose mounted 20, with a 30. It's an offensive powerhouse when fully upgraded.


Tier: 4

Pretty much the same as before, but it gets a slightly better nose mounted 30, when researched.


Tier: 4

Almost exactly the same as above, but faster, and stronger. Carries it's nose mounted 30 by default.


Tier: 5

This is a funny looking plane. It's the smallest jet (rocket, technically) fighter in the game. It houses 2 30mm cannons, and can nearly climb to orbit, given time. Tested to go up to 55000 meters, until stalling. One important feature (or lack thereof) is that there's no distinct elevator, so all steering/climbing is done with the ailerons, which could be a problem if one of the wing control lines breaks.


Tier: 5

These are the Messerschmitt jets, mostly designed for stealth attacks, and serviceable fighters. Believe it or not, these were in service just before the end of the war, and they were the first actual mass produced jet fighter. As with all jets, these are boom and zoomers, and they have the rather large(ish) 30mm mk108s from prior. These are primarily high altitude fighters. Also, the C models have RATO (Rocket Assisted Take Off) boosters letting them get to altitude quickly, or can be used to quickly close a distance gap when not used during take off. It's almost impossible to catch these in a dive.


Tier: 5

This plane rounds out the german jet line. Looks familiar? That's because this is an American supplied F-25 model Sabre. So, the characteristics are nearly identical. (Refer to it above for detail)

Tier: 1

This is actually an Italian aircraft, it will be moved to the Italian tree, once there is one. It's a hyper maneuverable plane, with firepower to boot, having 2 12.7mm MGs. It's pretty weak, structurally, but it's the fastest biplane in the game.


Tier: 1

All aircraft in this line at this tier are Italian at tier 1, just gonna say that now, so I won't have to for 4 more planes. It's a pretty fast plane overall, and can maneuver well. It has 2 radially mounted MGs on the top of the prop, so, overall, a good all around plane.


Tier: 1

A stronger armored variant of the Series 2. So, it can't climb as quickly, but the engine can keep the plane at the same average speeds as Series 2, because it was upgraded. It can also mount a pair of 50 kg bombs.


Tier: 1

This aircraft shares similar characteristics to an early Bf plane at the same level, it's good at higher altitudes, but otherwise the same as the G-50 before, with a tiny bit more speed. (I hope that made sense.)


Tier: 1

It's exactly the same... I can't tell the difference, but the stat card says it climbs a little bit slower... so, yeah, let's go with that.


Tier: 1

Well, something we can call a legitimate upgrade for once here. This plane is mostly a boom and zoom, or interceptor. It has the 2 12.7 Bredas, but now they slapped some 7.7 Bredas onto them too. Not much upgrade in firepower, but helps surprisingly a lot.


Tier: 2

Ok, this one isn't Italian, and none of the rest will be. It's the first of the other series of German fighters, which were in service throughout the entire war. This plane is intended to be an interceptor (aka, bomber hunter). It has 4 MG 17's in the nose, and 2 20mm cannons built into the wings. It's very good at rolling, but not too good at turning, this is true through this entire line.


Tier: 2

This is the same exact plane, but with 2 extra 20mm cannons, of the MG 151 model (they shoot a lot faster) added almost directly into the sides of the prop, so as a result, it's a bit slower, but (in my opinion) much more powerful.


Tier: 3

Same aircraft again, but with an uprated engine, making much faster, and a tiny bit more maneuverable.


Tier: 3

The plane got a very tiny bit longer, and they removed the FF/M cannons, so it actually makes the plane faster. The FF/M's apparently weren't efficient enough, so it constituted removal.


Tier: 4

Upgrades of this aircraft's engine again makes it go a bit faster, but this plane also now has the option to mount the R6 rocket launchers, basically a 250 kg bomb in a rocket. It also adds 2 MG 151 cannons in the place of the old ones, AND adds 2 13mm MG 131s.


Tier: 4

This is a fully intended attack aircraft at this point. It can carry a very wide variety of bombs, and it can mount 2 30mm gunpods under the wings. Without these upgrades however, the plane is very, very fast.


Tier: 4

This plane is similar to the rest of the line, but with the option to carry a whole gambit of bombs. It has 2 MG 131s mounted radially, and 2 MG 151s in the wings. It's also got a bit of a reduced BR, so this plane will fit into lower tier lineups.


Tier: 4

This is the final mod of this Focke-Wulf series of aircraft, it gets a nose mounted 30mm cannon, and it keeps it's 20mm MG 151s, so it's very powerful, but a bit sad to see how this plane ended out.


Tier: 4

This plane is right at home with the bombers, it handles extremely well at altitude, and has the same firepower as the previously mentioned Fw.


Tier: 5

This thing looks like an accident waiting to happen, right? Actually, it's a surprisingly fast plane, once it gets up to speed, although the armament may be a bit lacking, with a low ammo count, and the fact that they are still the MG 151 cannons. All and all, a decent boom and zoomer.



That star in there is supposed to be the german cross, but that's not a character on the keyboard... so, yup. Anyway, this is the Russian supplied Mig 15, one of the best jets in the world at the time. It's very powerful, with insanely fast firing high caliber guns.

Tier: 1

This is the first german heavy fighter. It's more like a bomber in a lot of ways, but that's primarily due to the durability of the plane. Otherwise, this plane is a heavy fighter, it has 2 FF/M Cannons and 4 MG 17s in the nose. It does have a "turret" but this is a single 7.92 MG 15, and it doesn't get good firing angles at all.


Tier: 2

This is the next notch up the german heavy fighter tree, it's a lot bigger, and tougher to kill. It gets 2 more FF/M cannons in the nose, and it's turrets get upgraded to the 13mm MG 131s. The turret placement gives total coverage from above, and about 75 degrees of coverage from below the rear. Decent climber, and very effective bomber hunter, although it's a bit slow sometimes.


Tier: 2

This is the night variant of the above plane, it's exactly the same in all characteristics, except it looks cooler, and has a cosmetic radar array in the nose, and doesn't carry any bombs.


Tier: 3

This is an upgraded version over the previous aircraft. It has slightly upgraded engines, making it go a bit faster, and the FF/M cannons have been replaced with MG 151 20mm cannons, making the gun shoot much faster.


Tier: 3

This is another modification of this aircraft. This seriously changes a lot of the characteristics, not related to performance. It adds an additional 4 MG 151 cannons, but it does not have turrets anymore, so the aircraft is pretty much defenseless if anything gets behind it. Why? Because these are now 4 roof mounted Schräge Musik (upward facing) cannons. They were intended to be used underneath bombers, usually where there's the weakest defensive armament. These guns take a lot of practice to use, but once figured out, are very effective.



Tier: 3

These are the Messerschmitt model heavy fighters, arguably some of the best. Each "group" is identical to other aircraft in the group. The A-1 group has 4 20mm MG 151s, and 2 7.92mm mg 17s. While the B-1 Group gets the 13mm MG 131 in place of the 7.62. They all are pretty fast, at 624 km/h and they have RC (yes, remote controlled) waist guns.


Tier: 4

Same plane as above in almost every respect, except the 13mm MGs are replaced with the 30mm Mk 103 cannons, anything in front of this thing is as good as dead.


Tier: 5

The flying wing. It's characterized with its rather terrible initial speed, when compared to other jets. It has a horrible acceleration time, but once it gets up there, it's insanely fast, and has almost no control stiffening. This can easily be used as a turn fighter against other jets, if necessary. It only has the 2 Mk 103s, but, usually, that's all you need.

Tier: 1

This is the first plane in the Junkers/Stuka dive bomber series. For some reason, the landing gear has propellors on them too, not sure why, but about the plane (oh, it's the signature "bomb siren" that was added to terrify it's targets). It's pretty fast for the tier, it can mount either a 250 kg or 500 kg bomb by default, and it has a 7.92 mm mg for a turret.


Tier: 1

This plane is actually a bit of a reduction, if you play arcade, but it's useful in the other modes, because it has a higher fuel capacity. It can only hold a single type of bomb, up to 1k kg, and you don't need to research these bombs.


Tier: 2

This plane is like the B-2 model. It's pretty much the same plane in all respects, however, according to the model (accessed during a glitch) this plane has an armor plate to protect the pilot, whereas the other earlier models don't.


Tier: 2

Step one in becoming an actual attack aircraft. This plane trades off its rather bad 7.92 mgs, for 20mm mg 151s. As well as upgrading it's rear gunner MG to shoot faster.



Tier: 3

Woah, look at those! These are the 37mm BK 3,7 cannons, they are incredibly deadly against anything, but the plane's performance suffers a lot as a result. Realistically, you will be only killing ground units with this, but if you get lucky, you can 1 shot planes too.


Tier: 3

This is a Henschel, its one of the other attacker type of aircraft that the germans have. Overall, it handles surprisingly well for a plane of it's size. It has 2 MG 151 cannons, and 2 7.92 MG 17s in the nose, and no turret. So, it's more of a bomber hunter than anything else. It can also carry a few bombs, or 30 mm, or 37mm gun pods.


Tier: 3

HOLY MOTHER OF CANNONS BATMAN! Think of the big gun as... we'll say, a Jagdpanther cannon. You will destroy anything you hit with it, pretty much no matter what. It still has 2 7.92 MGs, just in case too.


Tier: 4

Here are 2 more Messerschmitts, similar to the planes in the above section, with that big obvious difference. It's cannon is a bit less unwieldy than the 75mm on the Henschel, this one is 50mm. It's a good all rounder, depending on the ammo you load into the 50. HVAP or AP rounds for ground units, or HE rounds for anything else. That, and you get 2 MG 151s.


Tier: 5

This is the attacker variant of the Me 262. It only carries the cannon. "Shoot rarely, shoot with extreme force" I don't know who said it, but it nails the idea of this plane perfectly. Overall, it handles a bit worse than the other Me 262s, but if you happen to touch anything with the gun, you win.

Tier: 1

This is the first German bomber. Overall, it's fairly mediocre in terms of performance, mostly because of it's engines. It does have a player controlled machine gun mounted in the cockpit, and 2 defensive guns. The bottom defensive gun might as well be used to strafe ground units because of it's placement though.


Tier: 1

If you chose to play the german bomber line, this is the plane you are going to be flying about 1/3 of the time. Overall it's actually pretty good for tier 1 bombers. It's got decent armor, and has a gun facing pretty much in all the sensible directions. Also, there are a ton of choices when it comes down to armament, bomb wise.


Tier: 1

This is the Junkers 88. It's one of the only medium bomber in the game (besides jets) with an airbrake. This is actually supposed to be used as a dive bomber. Again, excellent variety in bomb choices. Also, it has 2 13mm MGs on the top and bottom, pointed back, as well as a 7.92 pointed at the front.


Tier: 2

This whole bundle here is the Italian bombers, overall they are pretty much all the same, the only true differences are speed, rate of climb, and defensive armament. It varies kinda wildly, but overall, they usually can handle well on their own.


Tier: 2

This is another Heinkel. It's still got it's armament of rather underpowered 7.92 MG's , but the plane is oddly maneuverable. It's pretty much the same as the initial Heinkel, but faster, and with a greater variety of bombs.



Tier: 2

This aircraft, I believe, was a direct conversion of a passenger plane to a bomber. It handles as well as you'd expect from a passenger plane, not too good, not too bad, and decently fast. It carries up to 3000 kg of bombs too.


Tier: 3

"It looks exactly the same, but with a better paint job, what gives?" Well, my friend, this thing has quite the armament. A roof mounted 20mm cannon, a belly mounted 13mm, and the side and frontal 7.92mm guns. As well as the benefit of being slightly faster somehow.


Tier: 3

This is one of the Dornier bombers. It has an offensive 20mm for once, 2 13mm guns, and 3 7.92mm guns. Overall the plane is pretty great, however there's one major exception to all of these models. All of the crew is basically sitting in the cockpit, so this means if someone tries to snipe your pilots, you will lose something/someone.


Tier: 3

Pretty much exactly the same as the above, but the roof mounted turret now houses a 20mm, otherwise no different.


Tier: 4

Same as the E-2 above, but slightly faster, and the 7.92 mgs have changed, they are now MG 81s. If you thought the MG 15 shot fast... oh boy, will you be surprised.


Tier: 4

Identical to the above again, except with a 13m in the nose, and under the belly now, not much has changed.


Tier: 5

Note: This image is outdated. The planes physical (visual) model has been updated, and I have yet to get a screenshot of it.

This thing is disappointing... it has absolutely NO guns, it can only carry 3 bombs externally, and it barely has armor. It is a lot faster than your average prop however, but usually, this thing will be against high level jets. Unless you are a completionist, i'd avoid this one.


Tier: 5

This version of the Arado significantly improves on the B-1 model. Although it has no defensive armament, it has 2 MG 151 20mm cannons in the nose, as well as obviously getting 2 extra engines, which significantly helps this plane to accelerate when it needs to.

Initially, russian planes have the 7.62 PV-1 and ShKAS their bullets are as follows:

Tracers: Simple tracer bullets similar to all nations above, not very painful, but they're tracers.

Ball Bullets: All countries have them, they aren't very good against anything lightly armored, but can tear through plywood.

AP-I: Simple chunks of metal, better designed to poke holes in aluminum, far more effective than Ball bullets of the same caliber, these ones have incendiaries packed into them, great for lighting planes on fire.

API-T: The same as the above shell but with a tracer for help aiming, although the tracer makes the shell less accurate.

AI: Bullets which make a big flash on impact with their targets, good for lighting wooden or fabric planes on fire.

The next available weapon for the russians is the 12.7mm Brezin, its not used on too many planes, its bullet types are:

Tracer Bullets: The standard tracer, good for guiding shots, deals somewhat low damage compared to the other bullets in the belt it's supposed to be guiding.

AP Bullets: Hunks of steel, good for penetrating armored targets, most notable roles are knocking out enemy bomber gunners, and pilot sniping. Overall not very good against non-metallic targets, but will definitely still work.

IAI: HE-I bullets essentially. Their main use, again is to light external fuel tanks on fire. Has some decent firepower against soft planes, but not so much against things like bombers.

AP-I: Armor piercing bullets, with a bit of incendiaries, main purpose is to light enemy bombers on fire, but does the role well on pretty much anything.

API-T: Same as above, just a tad less everything to make room for the tracer, still gets the job done, but not quite as well.

API-(c): Armor piercing bullet with Cermit packed inside, making the bullet fly a bit faster, and have slightly better penetration, at the cost of some incendiary power. Cermit is an early form of Titanium. This bullet has a higher inital velocity, but it drops quickly at range.

Next weapon available to the russians is the 20mm ShVAK, a cannon available to tier 1 planes! It's the staple armament of most russian planes and it makes a distinctive firing sound, so if you hear it, try to avoid it. Its shell types comprise of:

FI-T: Fragmentation incendiary shells with tracers, very deadly against soft planes, or sensitive equipment, this shell has a tendency to light anything it hits on fire in the first to third shot.

AP-I: Armor piercing incendiary shell, very effective against metallic planes or, more notably, bombers. Pierces the plane and usually sets things on fire.

API-T: Same as above, but less everything else, exchanging for the tracer instead, useful as tracers can be.

HEF: High explosive frag, this shell easily has the capability to outright blow wings off of planes if the correct spot is hit, also useful against soft ground targets, you don't necessarily need to hit them to do damage.

HEF-I: Same as the above shell, but less HE and more incendiaries, wont outright blow up the enemy plane as much, but still hurts like hell and has a decent fire chance.


The next gun available is the 37mm NS-37 cannon. Very hard to aim, but very deadly. Available to the LaGG-3-4 (Gift Plane) These are its shell types:

AP-T: Just a really big lump of metal with a tracer stuck to the end, brutally effective vs bombers, slightly less so against soft targets as the shell passes clean through 85% of the time, unless you shoot the engine.

HEFI-T*: A high explosive, frag, incendiary, tracer, with a fuse. Would be good at everything if it didn't have the fuse, most practical against heavily armored targets, one of the shells capable of causing "plane exploded" when killing a bomber.

The next cannon, the biggest fighter gun in the game, the 45mm NS-45 available only to the YAK-9k has only a single shell type.

HEFI-T: This shell will outright 1 shot anything it touches, ripping EVERYTHING off the guy unfortunate to be the target of this behemoth, no matter what class/tier of plane you are.

Next is the 23mm NS-23K, available to jet fighters mainly. Only 2 types of shell here:

AP-I: Great for penetrating anything, at this tier, it's practical, because a shot into the turbine of a jet WILL bring it down, it's still useful for bombers as well.

FI-T: Fragmentation incendiaries, you are basically shooting flak when you use this thing, great for taking down bombers or any of the softer propeller planes you might encounter.

Lastly there is the 37mm NS-37D only available to jet fighters, carries:

HEFI-T*: High explosive, fragmentation, incendiaries, with a fuse. It acts just like the prior 37mm shells of this type, but at this tier the fuses are practical because of the speeds at which everyone is moving, if you get lucky the shell will airburst and possibly snipe the enemy pilot, or set the engine on fire.

API-T: Mostly only used for bombers at this point, but can still outright destroy anything if it lands on target.

AP: The standard lumps of metal are back! These are capable of tearing wings off most anything in 1 shot.

Tier: 1

This is the first of this very long series of Yaks. It's a hyper maneuverable plane for it's size, and is very durable for it's tier. It has a 20mm ShVAK cannon, and 2 7.62 ShKAS machine guns, all pretty much nose mounted. This means you will have an insane fire rate, and good accuracy, but there's a significant downside to these guns. You barely have any ammo to actually confirm a kill with these, unless you are extremely close, the bullets fly somewhat slowly compared to other nations. This plane, and many more in the line, are like having a shotgun.


Tier: 2

Same cannon, but with 10 more shells. It also swaps out the fast firing ShKAS cannon, with the rather slow firing Berezin UB, for extra firepower, and a bit more accuracy. This plane does not like to pull up once you put it into a dive however, so be careful if you chase someone near the ground, the plane has no powered control, unlike most other nations aircraft. This makes it easier to handle, but harder to control at high speed, as the pilot will have to fight the plane at very high speed.


Tier: 2

This is the Yak-1 above, but instead of the ShKAS MG, you get a Berezin, and only one. The guns are mounted on top of each other, so this plane is a very good mid range sniper.


Tier: 2

This plane scares people, just because of the number, and the fact that the older brothers are terrifying. It's pretty much the same as the earlier planes, but it can handle pretty well at high altitude, at the cost of being slightly less so at lower altitudes.


Tier: 3

This is why people are scared of the number. If you were approaching this, in AB or RB, it would only say Yak-9, once you get closer, it fully identifies the plane as a T, which is this. It's 20mm has been replaced with a 37mm NS-37. It is extremely accurate, and fast firing, easily capable of taking down bombers. The only notable downside to the gun, as with all russian aircraft, is the low ammo count.


Tier: 3

This is the bane of all bombers. Instead of the 37mm NS-37, it's a 45mm. It's also extremely fast firing, but only the first shot will be accurate, as the gun overheats rather quickly if the person flying this just holds the trigger. Each bullet has the power of a rocket.


Tier: 3

This plane was mainly built to escort the Yak-9. It's a good high altitude fighter, with decent the 20mm ShVAK, and the twin Berezin.


Tier: 3

This is a better version of the Yak-3, it has all 20mm nose mounted guns, each rather powerful, and accurate. Along with the shell flight speed, which isn't bad. Also, stock, it's painted a very easy to see red.


Tier: 4

This is pretty much the Yak-3, but much faster. Not much else to say.


Tier: 4

This is the Yak-9 with the guns on the Yak-3P, it's a great high altitude gun platform, and it flies relatively stable when firing.


Tier: 4

This is the final of the non jet powered Yak aircraft. It's got the same flight characteristics of the 3P, but it's nose mounted cannon is the same as it is on the IL-2 (covered later).


Tier: 5

Compared to other nations, this isn't the best jet, it's slower than most jet's of the tier, and it has a lower top speed capacity. What it does have however, are 2 23mm guns mounted into the nose, so if a target passes in front of it, it's still powerful.


Tier: 5

The flight characteristics are identical to the standard Yak-15, but this plane has a single, significantly upgraded 23mm, so the bullets fly much faster, and the gun itself shoots much faster.


Tier: 5

This is the last plane in the Yak series, it looks like the American P-84, but that's because of the drop tanks, which, as it stands in game currently, can't be dropped. It has 2 regular 23mm cannons, and that's pretty much it. It's very similar to the Yak-15 in almost all characteristics, but this plane can handle diving better.

Tier: Reserve

This is one of the Russian starter planes. It's very nimble, although a very tiny bit slow compared to the other nations at the same level. It has 4 PV-1 MGs, which although not too powerful, have an unusual tendency to light their target on fire.


Tier: Reserve

Pretty much exactly the same as the above, but a bit slower.


Tier: Reserve

No noticeable differences, whatsoever.


Tier: 1

Still with all the sameness of the rest, but this plane can mount 6 rockets, once researched.


Tier: 1

This is the Chakia, and my god, is it maneuverable. It has 4 ShKAS to put some icing on the cake too. Pretty much a flamethrower of bullets. This plane is extremely deadly in the hands of a competent pilot, although very fragile.



DO A BARREL ROLL! You can literally do 6 barrel rolls in 1 second in these things, they are extraordinarily maneuverable, almost to a degree of insanity. The major differences between these are mostly speed differences, but the Ishak type 5 only has 2 ShKAS, while the other 2 have 4.


Tier: 2

A differently shaped plane, but equally maneuverable, with the exception of roll rate. It has 2 ShVAK cannons in the nose of the aircraft, so it's pretty powerful, although, holds only 200 shells.


Tier: 2

Back to this eh? Well, it's pretty much OP if it were to fight anything at it's tier, so it's BR is 4.3. It's insanely maneuverable compared to pretty much any other plane, and it carries 2 wing mounted ShVAK cannons. A very fun plane to fly.


Tier: 3

This plane is similar to a standard Yak of the tier, except instead of massive 37mm or greater cannons, they have 3 20mm ShVAKs.


Tier: 4

Identical to the plane above, just with a significantly uprated engine, and is stuck up at a higher tier.


Tier: 5

Early russian fighters, these planes are very fast, but the engine itself takes quite some time to "spool" so, it has bad acceleration overall, and cutting throttle takes some time for it to apply. They both have 2 23mm cannons, and a single 37mm cannon. The Mig L, is a tad faster, and has a higher fuel capacity because of the drop tanks.


Tier: 5

Same armament as above, but on a much better plane. Significantly faster, in all respects. These things are very deadly, and a lot of people refer to them as OP. The only noticeable weakness to them is that, again, once they start to dive, they don't like to pull up.

Tier: 1

First plane in the Lavochkin fighter series. A pretty fast, low altitude fighter. It carries the usual 20mm ShVAK cannon, along with a Berezin MG. Overall, it's better at doing loops, and vertical maneuvers, but it's not particularly good at high altitudes, so a bit of a self contradiction. Decent overall though.


Tier: 1

Same plane, but is built lighter, so it's more maneuverable at the cost of durability.


Tier: 2

Same plane as above, but with a heavier engine added, so it can climb a bit better, and do well at a higher altitude, but it's also a bit slower as a result.


Tier: 2

Still the same methods, this plane is the same again, but again, with an upgraded engine, making it go faster.


Tier: 2

Finally something different! The plane is built a bit better, to allow for future engine upgrades. Also, it replaces it's Berezen MG with a ShVAK 20mm. It is a tad faster too.


Tier: 3

This is the same plane as above, but it's engine is changed for the better. Also, it's got more rudder control, so it will turn better.


Tier: 3

Further upgrades in the exact manner as above, and it can climb a bit faster.


Tier: 4

Significant upgrades built around the engine again. It's a lot faster, but it can't climb as fast, the engine is just too heavy.


Tier: 4

Same plane as the prior one, but with a notable armament upgrade. It now uses the B-20 cannons, which shoot a bit faster, and the bullets move much faster, making it very deadly.


Tier: 4

Final prop plane of the line, it has a grand total of 4 23mm cannons in the nose. It's a bit of a slow turner, but that's normal for the tier. It's a very good boom and zoomer.


Tier: 5

It has 3 23mm cannons in the nose. Overall, one of the more powerful planes, but is a slow turner.

Tier: 1

The initial aircraft in one of my favorite lines in this game (maybe cuz they become a bit OP, but still). This is the initial bomber in this series. It carries a set of ShKAS mgs in the wings of the plane, and one in a turret. It also carries a good variety of bombs. It's a low altitude bomber, so it's better to use this against tanks than static targets.


Tier: 1

Similar to the BB-1, except each of these gets slightly faster, and the TSS-1 doesn't have any glass plating to protect it's rear gunner. It should be worth noting that these planes are very hard to get off the ground safely. It needs to go pretty fast to get enough lift to get off the ground.


Tier: 2

Early modification of the IL-2, it has 2 20mm ShVAKs, and a modest selection of bombs and rockets. Pretty hard to kill this plane, although it's a bit slow when not in a dive.


Tier: 2

This is the IL-2, also known as the Sturmovik, or "the flying tank". This is one of my favorite planes. It's incredibly difficult to kill, and has 2 23mm VYa-23 cannons to kill tanks with. It's also got a good selection of rockets and bombs, as well as the capacity to kill any aircraft who thinks it's a good idea to get in front of this thing.


Tier: 2

This is more of a bomber than an attack aircraft, however, once it gets rockets after research, it's a very good multirole plane, such as bomber hunting, or tank hunting. The weapon armament comprised of 2 Berein MGs and a ShKAS in the nose, and a ShKAS behind the pilot and a ShKAS in the tail. It's nose is also made of steel, so attempting to perform a head on against it is suicide.


Tier: 3

Same aircraft, but faster, without the ShKAS mg, and the whole upper nose is steel, whereas the prior plane had a glass panel for the bombardier.


Tier: 3

Same aircraft again, but it now has a ShVAK cannon in the nose of the aircraft. It however loses a tiny bit of the steel plating in the nose to make room for it.


Tier: 3

This is the IL-2 again, but this time with a rear gunner who has a 12.7 mg. It's still very tanky for a plane, although at it's tier, it faces off against some decent cannons, so you won't find it to be quite as durable.


Tier: 4

Same as the prior IL-2, but insanely fast, as the engine is pretty much a heavy bomber engine now. Otherwise it's still identical to the rest.


Tier: 4

Same aircraft chassis, but completely different. It has 4 NS-23 cannons, in place of the VYa-23. These shoot a lot faster, and more accurately, but are lower velocity, and can't penetrate most tanks. Also, someone had the brilliant idea of adding a 20mm B-20 cannon, in place of the 12mm in the turret. It's not safe to approach from behind or the front, so have fun with that, as there's only really a 30 degree cone of vulnerability.


Tier: 5

It's very easy to consider this thing to be OP. It has 2 23mm guns mounted frontally, its very fast, and the kicker is that it's got 2 23mm guns mounted into the rear of the plane, with a 108 mm thick glass plating to protect the gunner. It has a high bomb capacity too. The only noticeable downsides to this thing are that it's a terrible turner, and it's dead the moment it catches fire.

Tier: 1

This is the first of the Russian bomber line. It's very fast for a bomber.It can also carry a wide variety of bombs, although not many. It has a nose mounted ShKAS mg, as well as rear mounted ShKAS one on the top, and one on the bottom.


Tier: 1

These are all nearly identical, except the farther down the line you go, the more durable the plane gets. You can skip most of these, they are literally all the same. They barely go a bit slower the further down the line.


Tier: 2

Pretty similar to the SB series above, in fact, it's almost identical. The plane is made of a diffrent material however, so it's a tiny bit more tough.


Tier: 2

Similar to the rest of the line above. It's still just as fast, but with a slightly higher bomb capacity. It also exchanges one of it's roof mounted ShKAS with a 12mm Berezin. This plane does have an obvious weakness, compared to the rest, this things nose is literally made out of glass.


Tier: 3

This is the Peshka series of dive bombers. They all have a single nose mounded ShKAS mg, along with the regular top and bottom ShKAS as well. They have a pretty decent bomb capacity for the role too.


Tier: 3

(I'd post them all if it made a diffrence, i'm just running low on room.) The first set of Yer-2s are still just like the rest of the russian bombers, 2 ShKAS, and maybe a Berezin. The second set is the interesting one. They have a 20mm ShVAK cannon in the upper turret, and a Berezin in place of the ShKAS.


Tier: 4

Same as the prior Peshka, but with side mounted guns, so it has more of a coverage area.


Tier: 4

The Tu-2 series of bombers (at least right now) ends the Russian bomber line. It's a bit of a monster. It has 2 Offensive ShVAKs, and a few Berezins. Most of it's bomb armament is mounted externally however, so the pilot must be careful to not have the bombs get shot and explode.

Initially the british planes are armed with a 7.7 Vickers E or K Model MG, but later they switch to the 7.7 Browning, they both share the same bullets, except that the Browning doesn't fire AI and the vickers doesn't fire AP-I:

Tracer: Standard small caliber tracer bullet, helps you aim, otherwise, it doesn't do too much.

AI: Adjusted incendiary, bullets that flash on impact with their target, pretty good at setting things on fire. (Unavailable to the Browning)

"Ball" Bullets: Standard iron rifle bullets, can't do too much against wooden planes, but very useful against fabric biplanes or earlier monoplanes.

AP: Bullets designed to punch through metal, they don't do it very well mainly because the bullet is so small, but they'll get the job done.

I: Incendiary bullets, designed for the sole purpose of setting things on fire, won't deal very good structural damage to a plane until it starts a fire.

AP-I: Armor piercing bullets with a bit of incendiaries added into the mix, decently good against metal planes at near point blank range (Browning only).

IT: This is IT, the incendiary tracer bullet, trades off about 1/4 of the incendiaries for a tracer to help you hit what you aim at.

Next is the 12.7mm browning M2, if you want, refer to the american section at the top, these are the exact same shells and gun.

Next is the 20mm Hispano Mk.1 through Mk.5, they all fire the same bullets, and the gun itself is the staple of the RAF. They fire:

HEF-I: High explosive fragmentation incendiary shells, these shells are very good against sensitive parts, such as the wing spars, the flaps, the rudder, or the engine/prop, otherwise, comparatively to other shells at this caliber, they don't do much.

HEF-SAPI: Shells designed to do some minimal armor penetration before detonating, great for knocking out bomber gunners or setting engines on fire.

Practice shells: Solid chunk of metal, usually lead, can be useful, but more often than not, it won't do much.

AP: Just a big lump o' steel. Good for head on attack as they can usually blow up engines with just a few shots. Also, decently good against lightly armored targets such as Cargo Ships and (although untested) Light Pillboxes.

T: Just a big tracer shell, helps you aim, but at the cost of accuracy and stopping power.

Lastly is this behemoth, the 57mm Mollins available to the Mosquito attack aircraft. It only carries 1 shell type, but who cares when the size of the bullet rivals that of most early tanks (in fact, it is used on early tanks, it's a QQF 6-Pounder).

AP-T: One of the biggest lumps of metal in which a plane can fire, its brutally effective at killing anything, including medium tanks and pillboxes, which is perfect for the aircraft's role.

Tier: Reserve

I don't want to say this thing is terrible, but it's definitely not good. It's pretty maneuverable, kinda fast, and that's pretty much it. It only has 2 Vickers E mg's in the nose. These guns are terrible. They don't shoot fast at all, and they aren't powerful at all either, the only thing going for them is their accuracy, so they can snipe a pilot if you are patient enough.


Tier: Reserve

Exactly the same as the Mk. II but faster.


Tier: 1

The first monoplane aircraft in this line. It's pretty slow at almost any altitude, unless just floating above the ground, like in the range of 500 meters. It's very maneuverable however, and it has 8 Browning 7.7 mg's. That might sound awesome, but it's only decent. These guns very rarely score kills unless you snipe a pilot, or set the plane on fire, or manage to keep a wing on the convergence point. It also can mount 6 (or 8, i'm not looking right now) 76mm rockets, which are functionally 50 pound bombs.


Tier: 2

Exact same plane, but with 4 more MG's added, cuz "When in doubt, just add more!". The extra guns do help a bit, but not by much.


Tier: 2

Similar to the Hurricane above, but built a bit better for higher altitude combat. It's faster all around, and the guns are evenly spread across the wings.


Tier: 3

Same plane, but with 4 20mm Mk. II Hispano cannons. These guns are very accurate, as they have bullets which fly very fast, so less lead. The plane itself is rather balanced, adequate for boom and zooming, or turn fights.


Tier: 4

This is pretty much a direct all around upgrade of the Typhoon. It has 4 Hispano Mk. V cannons, which are much more accurate, and shoot a bit faster.


Tier: 4

This is the same Tempest, with what appears to be a pair of 3 Pounder tank cannon (Vickers P). The planes overall performance suffers quite a bit a bit as a result of these guns, but it can easily kill tanks.


Tier: 4

This plane completes this line. It's characteristics are nearly identical to the Mk V, but it's got a better engine, at the cost of some bullets.

Tier: Reserve

Pretty much identical to the Fury, but barely better at turning, and has a hook to land on carriers.


Tier: 1

Identical to the MK. 1 in every way, from what I can see.


Tier: 1

Very similar to the "regular" gladiator, but slightly slower due to the added weight of the carrier hook.


Tier: 2

Identical to the Hurricane MK. 1, with a towing hook.


Tier: 2

This is a regular Hurricane, but with 4 Mk II Hispano cannons in the wings. They share 500 rounds between them, so it's a powerful plane, if you can aim well enough to hit your target before you run out of ammo.


Tier: 3

The first Firefly. It's a fairly large plane, and suprisingly durable because of this fact, as well as being rather fast, and good in a turn fight. This plane dosent seem to be intended to be used as a fighter however, since it only has 240 rounds to split between it's 4 Hispano cannons. It's actually impossible to overheat the guns with the amount of ammo you have, even with a stock weapon modification. It can also carry a somewhat wide variety of ordinance.


Tier: 3

Similar to the above, but with a tuned up engine, strengthened airframe, and Mk V Hispanos. Carries 640 rounds of ammo, but still not likely to jam any of the weapons due to the fire rate of the combined weapons.


Tier: 4

Almost identical to the Spitfire LF Mk IX, but a tad slower because of the carrier hook again. Carries 2 Hispano Mk 5s, and 2 7.7s.


Tier: 4

I tend to think of this plane as a cross between the best of a P-51, and a Spitfire, with Hispanos. Decently Maneuverable, and very quick in a dive. It has a unique counter torque twin prop engine, which helps keep the plane stable, fast, and Sim pilots usually don't need to trim the aircraft as much as a result of this.


Tier: 4

This aircraft recieved a significantly larger engine, it's a superprop. It's usually capable of catching jet aircraft within it's BR range, and it can retain energy very well. However it isn't as good in a turn as you'd expect.


Tier: 5

I don't have much experience with this aircraft myself, but i've heard that it handles like a bigger, faster P-80C. It can apparently dive very quickly without ripping it's wings, but putting it into a turn will slow it down a lot, and if done at high speeds, rip off the wings very easily.

Tier: 1

A very good biplane for the amount of time needed to research it (in tier 1 standards). It's got 4 7.7 mm Brownings in the nose of the plane, and while it's a bit slow against monoplanes, its close to the fastest biplane in the game. It's very maneuverable as well, although it can and will slow down a lot in vertical maneuvers.


Tier: 2

Welcome to the plane that stays the same throughout the entire line, for good reason. This model has 8 Brownings spread across the wings, so using convergence well is important in this plane. It's very maneuverable, but it's engine is a bit sluggish, and climbing can be difficult.


Tier: 2

Same aircraft, but with more torque, at the cost of overall power. This is one of those weird planes that gets the "engine throttle" upgrade over "fuel injection". I guess this model didn't have it then. Long story short, it can turn better, and climb a bit faster, but it will be slower overall.


Tier: 2

Same plane as above, but with a vastly (kinda) different armament. This plane instead of only 7.7 brownings, get a pair of 20mm Mk I Hispanos. These new cannons fire comparatively slowly compared to russian ShVAK cannons, but the bullets fly very fast in comparison, as well as the shots being slightly longer than the 20mm on the ShVAK, so there's a bit more stopping power.


Tier: 3

Significant upgrades applied to this aircraft. It's faster, and can climb faster. Also, receiving upgrades to the Hispano, to Mk II. You can visibly see these guns jutting out of the wings on the plane. The cannons themselves fire faster, but are slightly more likely to seize up under continued firing. You can also upgrade the cannon 3 times on this plane, details found in the modifications section below.


Tier: 3

Same plane as above completely, except that this plane gets 4 Hispanos, and no MGs.


Tier: 3

Same chassis and armament of the Spit Mk Vb, but with a significantly better engine, which allows it to climb faster, but it a tiny bit less maneuverable when turning.


Tier: 4

Same as the above, but with "trimmed" wings. It climbs slower, but is faster, and more maneuverable at lower altitudes, at the cost of bieng much less so at higher altitude. It still has 2 Hispano Mk IIs, but it's 7.7 mgs have been replaced with the American 12.7mm Browning instead.


Tier: 4

Same as above, but with 2 extra 7.7s added.


Tier: 4

These are the final spitfires. They all handle almost identically. They are very fast, and some people have reported outrunning jets in these (I think they lied, but maybe...). The first pair still has 2 Mk. II Hispanos. The second pair has 4 Mk V Hispanos which shoot quickly, accurately, and without much kick applied to the plane.


Tier: 5

I hate to bundle all these into a single group, but really, it's just linear engine and structural improvement from hereon in, and i'm kinda out of characters. They all have 4 Hispano Mk Vs, they are all decent at turning for jets, and they are all decently quick for their BR level, although they may get outpaced by Sabers and Mig later down the line. Arguably the most balanced jets out there.

Tier: 1

First bomber of this series. Decently armored and pretty fast. It has almost no bomb capacity however. Has a Vickers turret in the nose, and a 7.7 Browning on the back, as well as a Vickers mounted on the far left of the left wing, for some reason.


Tier: 1

This thing is technically Australian. It's very quick for a bomber, as it was specifically built to outrun fighters of it's time. It has a twin mounted 12.7mm browning on the back, and a 7.7 on the front. Low bomb capacity however.


Tier: 2

First of the Beaufighter series. Decently quick, and very agile for a plane of it's size, provided it's not carrying it's torpedo. It has 4 Hispano Mk II cannons in the nose, and a 7.7mm browning for a turret.


Tier: 3

Beaufighter similar to the last, but with upgraded Hispanos and 6 7.7 Brownings. For some reason, there are more mg's in the right wing than the left. A bit slower, but still agile, and dangerous. Can also carry rockets.


Tier: 3

Faster and final Beaufighter. It changes out it's wing armament for 4 12.7 mm brownings, which makes it very powerful against anything in front of it.


Tier: 4

Very similar to a Beaufighter, except that it can carry Bombs, and every gun is nose mounted. It has no turret however.


Tier: 4

Same as before, but without Hispanos. Why? Because of the 57 mm cannon, that's why. It's pretty accurate, and the shells fly decently fast.


Tier: 5

This jet is pretty fast, and hard to break at high speeds. It's also a pretty good boom and zoomer with it's 4 Hispano Mk V's, although the elevator control may stiffen a bit if you go too fast.


Tier: 5

Same armament as above, but slightly faster at low altitude, while bieng much less so at higher altitude. Quite a bit better at turning. Another example of British balance in their aircraft designs.

Tier: 1

The first British bomber in the game. In all honesty, it's pretty terrible, but considering what it is, and when it was made, I guess it was decent in it's own time. It's horribly slow, and is armed with Vickers Mgs on the "turret" and one mount in the engine block. Surprisingly durable for a biplane however.


Tier: 2

These things are not particularly good, I'm pretty sure the durability of these is un-historically low. They are armed with only 2 pairs of Browning 7.7mm mgs, one pair in the nose, and one pair in the tail, as well as 2, 7.7 vickers MG's in the "waist". The armor is nonexistent in either of these models, but what makes up for all the downsides is the sheer mass of the bombs it can carry, all the way up to a 4000 lb bomb.


Tier: 3

Same as the last, but with a quad mount array of 7.7mm Brownings on the tail of the plane, and "waist guns" of Browning 7.7s.


Tier: 4

Same as the last, pretty much entirely, except the gun crew gets some armor protection.


Tier: 4

Quad engine bombers for once. The gun armament on the Mk I is the same as the Wellington, so that means only 7.7mm guns. The Mk III gets M2 Brownings in the tail instead. I'm pretty sure these have the highest bomb capacity in the game. Not anymore, but it's still high.


Tier: 5

This is the british jet bomber. It has a very high bomb capacity, but that is shown in the planes sheer size, and top speed. It's also completely unarmed, so speed is pretty much your only advantage here. It's decent at turning however, but do so carefully.


Tier: 5

This thing shouldn't be classified as a bomber with that big black container on the bottom. It carries 4 Mk V Hispano cannons, making this plane either an attacker or fighter. It doesn't even come with bombs!

The japanese planes start with a 7.7mm Type 89 (Type 92 is the naval variant) machine gun, here is what it can carry:

T: Standard tracer bullet, helps in guidance of shots, otherwise doesnt do too much.

AI: Bullets which make a small fiery, and bright explosion, carry a decent chance of setting a plane on fire but don't do too much physical damage.

"Ball" Bullets: Rifle grade bullets, can't do too much unless the targets pilot is exposed or are in a biplane, made of fabric.

AP: Bullet intended to pierce armor, decent effectiveness vs metal planes but actually wont do too much to fabric planes as the shell will usually just pass clean through without causing much damage.

I: Incendiary bullets, carry a very good chance to light a plane on fire but otherwise wont hurt a target very much.

Next comes the 12.7 Ho 103 MG, it carries.

T: Tracer bullets, help to guide the rest of the bullets, comparatively not as powerful as the rest.

"Ball" Bullets: Rifle grade bullets, at this caliber, they are moderately effective against metal planes, but not planes with decent armor such as bombers or attack aircraft.

AP: These are the bullets with some effect vs bombers, only practical to knock out gunners or for shooting at engines though.

AP-I: Armor piercing incendiary, has decent punch against armor, and a pretty good fire chance, might not be effective against fabric planes as the bullet will usually pass through without igniting the incendiary.

IAI: These are pretty much HE-I making them excellent at lighting wooden or fabric plane on fire, but as a result they have very bad range, accuracy, and have almost non-existent armor penetration. Think of a firecracker as what this really is.

API-T: These bullets have a decent mix of everything, but the AP stopping power is reduced a tiny bit because of the tracer and incendiary, very useful against wooden planes.

I: Lastly is the standard incendiary bullet, great against wooden and fabric planes, slightly less so vs metal planes, and almost useless vs armored targets such as bombers.

Next would be the 13.2 mm Type 3 MG, this gun fires the same types of bullets as the 12.7 almost entirely, except for the fact that it does not have "ball" bullets, in general, this upgrade makes the bullets fly faster, and pack a tiny bit more of a punch.

Next is the 20mm cannon, which comes in 3 flavors, the Type 99 Mk.2, the MG 151 and the Ho-5, they all fire the same bullets:

HEF-I: High explosive frag with incendiaries, very useful against soft targets, as the shell will almost always rip off a wing after 1.5 hits, or set the plane on fire.

Practice Shell: Solid metal shot, not very useful, but it can be sometimes.

AP-T: An AP shell with a tracer to assist in aiming, very good at shearing wings off fighters or bombers.

Next is the 30mm Ho-155, available to most of the later tier fighters and jets. It can fire:

Practice shells: Just like the example above, but bigger, making it work a bit against armor.

HEF: High explosive frag, basically turns the gun into a grenade launcher, has unusually good ability to knock the tail off a plane.

HEF-I: High explosive frag with incendiaries mixed in, has a very good fire chance if the target being hit isn't outright dead from the impact.

HEF-T: Just like the HEF, but instead with a tracer to help guide the other shots.

Practice Tracers: Similar to regular practice shells but with a tracer and less of a punch.

Next is the 37mm Ho-204 available exclusively to the Ki-45 series of heavy fighters, they carry only:

HEFI-T: A pretty dangerous bullet, although only "decent" all around compared to other bullets of the size.

Lastly there is the 57mm cannon, the Ho-401, only available to the Ki-102 attack aircraft, it only carries a single shell type.

HEFI-T: High explosive, frag, incendiary, with a tracer. This is the other gun easily capable of outright 1 shotting anything, very powerful, but hard to aim because of the kick generated from firing the gun.

Tier: 1

First aircraft of the Japanese naval series. Extremely quick, even with it's not-retractable landing gear, as well as extremely maneuverable. It carries 2 7.7mm type 89 MGs, which are decent, but quite inaccurate, due to the low muzzle velocity. This plane is notoriously fragile however, a few shots from a 7.7mm can, and usually will take this plane down.


Tier: 2

This is the first Zero variant available to the player in game. This is exclusively a hydroplane, which means it has no landing gear (ignore the trailer the plane is sitting on in the image, it's not there when in game). It can only land on water. It's very quick, even if it's slowed down by the floats. Also, very maneuverable, but a very slow climber, and the plane doesn't like to fly over 1.5 km. It has 2 Type 97 7.7mm MGs, and a Type 99 20mm cannon. Each of these guns must be lead separately, the 7.7 has decent shell velocity, but the 20mm doesn't, so unless you are at under 300 meters, you will usually be missing with one of these guns completely.


Tier: 2

Same as above, but without the floats. Both of these planes are identical, except the "standard" A6M2 has a carrier hook, so it can land on them. The armament is the same as above as well. The plane is quite a bit faster, and can turn better. As well as being able to climb a bit higher, without the added weight of the floats.


Tier: 2

Allthough it may not look like it, this plane handles quite simirlarly to an American interceptor aircraft. It's got some decent armament if you can handle the low ammo count on the guns, most notably the cannons, which only have 200 rounds to split betweeen two guns, which, like most Japanese aircraft are wing mounted. Supprisingly good climber, especially compared to the Zeroes in this line, and an exclent boom and zoomer, but simply cannot handle turnfighting, which may be a thing to get used to for a Japanese pilot.


Tier: 3

Similar to the A6M2 series above, but with an extra Type 99. The initial A6M3 has identical performance characteristics as the A6M2. The second set of A6M3s have a different (arguably weaker) engine, which makes the plane fly a tad slower overall, hurts climbing performance, but significantly improves turning performance.


Tier: 3

The last of the "official" zeroes. The A6M5 has an engine improvement which keeps it's turning speed, and allows it to climb at a reasonable pace. The A6M5 Otsu swaps out one of it's 7.7mm type 89s for a 13.2mm Type 3, which it a bit notorious for it's IAI (HE-I) bullets. Also, the Otsu is the first plane in this entire series which actually has cockpit armor!


Tier: 4

Different planes from the early idealism of the Japanese fighter. These are rather large aircraft, for japanese fighter standards. They both only have 4 type 99 mk 2 cannons. They have a slightly higher shell velocity over the regular type 99s, as well as hiving quite a bit more ammo inside the plane for use. These can't turn as well as zeroes, but can actually do decently well at higher altitudes. These still will out turn pretty much anything though.


Tier: 4

This plane is pretty much the polar opposite of the rest of this line. It's a very good boom and zoomer, with an excellent climb rate, but it's definitely not as maneuverable. They both can handle high speeds fairly well, allthough the J2M5 can handle it slightly better.


Tier: 4

This thing really confused me for a while when I first saw it. As you can see, the engine and prop are mounted on the rear of the plane. It has 4 30mm Type 5 cannons in the nose (front) of the aircraft, and it can move very, very quickly. This plane actually can compete with jets, provided it hasn't been dived on. This plane does have one obvious downside. If you get shot from behind, the engine has a tendency to explode, and catch fire.


Tier: 5

I'm pretty sure this is a Me 262, as it handles exactly like one, with weaker engines, and it looks almost identical. It has a single Type 5 30mm gun in the nose, and it can be upgraded to get an additional one.


Tier: 5

This time the star is supposed to be the "rising sun" insignia. Please refer to the American F-25 model sabre above for further details, it's the same plane.

Tier: Reserve

The race horse of the reserve tiers. These are the fastest, and lightest reserve tier fighters in the game. As a result of being fast, and maneuverable, they are also extremely weak as a result. They carry 2 Type 89 MGs, which are decent, they shoot fast, but they have low velocity. So, it's more quantity over quality when shooting things with these, especially with AP rounds.


Tier: 1

A very competitive fighter, even if it's a bit weak. It's quite fast, and very maneuverable, sometimes even out turning biplanes! The weapons are the same as on the Ki-10 however.


Tier: 2

I probably shouldn't be bundling these two together, but too late! I've done it anyway. These are the Ki-41s. The Ki-41-I, honestly isn't that remarkable compared to the Ki-27. They are pretty much the same, except the 41 has retractable landing gear. The Ki-41-II has a significantly uprated engine, making it go faster, as well as having the Ho-103 MG in place of it's 7.7s. The Ho-103 was pretty much supposed to be a copy of the M2 Browning. It fires quite a bit slower, and the shell velocity is a tad lower, but comparing the two guns, the Japanese got pretty close.


Tier: 2

The Ki-61 Ko, is pretty much the same as the Ki-41 before (noticing a pattern yet). The 61 Ko however, combines 2 7.7 type 89s, and the 2 new 12.7 Ho-103s. The Ki-61 Otsu, instead gets 4 Ho-103s, while staying the same in every other category. These planes also start off this line's cockpit armor usage.


Tier: 3

Same chassis as the Ki-43-II, but with a different armament. Instead of MG's this plane gets 2 20mm Ho 5 cannons. They have the inherent low shell velocity of the japanese planes, but as a result of using less mounts, the plane can fly, and turn a bit faster.


Tier: 3

This plane actually surprised me, simply because of the armament. The plane itself is pretty much a Ki-61 Otsu, it has 2 12.7 Ho-103s. The surprising thing for me was it's 2 MG 151 20mm cannons. These cannons are German. Germany pretty much had a Lend-Lease program. These cannons are very powerful, and have a great shell velocity.


Tier: 4

This is the last model of the Ki Series of aircraft. Each of these planes have identical performance capacities to each other, the only real changes are armaments. These are comparatively slow planes, but they are very well armed, and they don't lose very much energy in a turn at all. The Ko has 2 Ho 5 cannons, and 2 Ho-103 12.7mm MGs. The Otsu has 4 Ho-5 cannons. Lastly, the Hei has 2 Ho-5 cannons, and 2 30mm Ho 155 cannons.


Tier: 5

This is pretty much the german Komet, but with Ho 155 cannons instead of the Mk 108s, and no flaps.

Tier: 1

First aircraft in this very short series of heavy fighters. This aircraft is extremely maneuverable for a plane of it's size and role. It has a slow firing Ho-3 20mm in the lower left of the nose, and a pair of 12.7 Ho-103s, as well as having a 7.92mm type 98 MG for a turret. A very good, if somewhat flammable plane.


Tier: 2

Same, equally maneuverable plane, but with a "improved" armament. It's moved it's 20mm into the nose of the plane, and replaced the old slot with a 37mm Type 94. The Type 94 is unreliable at best, it's a slow bullet, the gun itself shoots a bit slowly, and jams often when firing in bursts of more than 3. However, it will kill anything it hits when it lands on target.


Tier: 2

Same plane again, but with the 20mm guns mounted into the roof of the cockpit in a Schräge Musik formation (they shoot up). These guns were specifically designed to kill bombers outside of their usual firing arcs. They fire only upwards at the given convergence range, they are a unconventional, but very effective setup. As well as an improved 37mm placed into the nose of the plane.


Tier: 2

Identical to the otsu model entirely.


Tier: 3

Final aircraft of this line. The performance characteristics still won't change, but the plane gets an improved armament. It has a 57mm Ho-401 in the nose, and 2 Ho-5s mounted underneath them. A very efficient bomber hunter.

Tier: 1

This weird looking plane starts off the Japanese naval bomber line. It's a boat plane quite like the American OS2U, except a tiny bit faster, and more maneuverable. It's not particularly interesting. It's got 2 Type 97 MGs in the nose, and one for a turret. It comes with the ability to use (or not) a pair of 60 kg bombs as well.


Tier: 1

If I didn't know better, i'd say this was a big A5M4. This is the first (and only) official dive bomber available to the Japanese. It's a sad climber, and it cant go very high at all, but it has a decent bombload of a 250 kg, and 2 60 kg bombs. It's still using twin Type 97s, and it has a Type 92 for a turret gun.


Tier: 2

This monster... is arguably terrible... It's a very big plane, and it's turret is still a 7.7 Type 92, as well as being pretty slow with any load. However, this plane gets a very high bomb capacity, including a unique type of bomb. An AP bomb. While this bomb doesn't have a particularly great blast radius, it's easily capable of single-handedly killing Battleships.


Tier: 3

I'm hard pressed to not consider this thing a big Corsair. It's decently fast for a plane of it's size, and it has 2 offensive 20mm guns with a pretty good ammunition capacity. It also upgrades it's turret to a 13.2mm MG, which is great. It still won't climb very fast at all, like the rest of this line, and it doesn't have the AP bomb anymore though.


Tier: 5

Arguably the worst jet bomber according to quite a few people, primarily because of it's BR, and simply what it's capable of doing (more like what it's not capable of doing). It has pretty much the worst flight performance characteristics of all jets, except for turning, they are still significantly better when compared to props. The only true saving grace for these are that they have 4 30mm cannons, in case someone overshoots, and the fact that you can have the AP bomb to 1 shot most ships.

Tier: 1

Excuse the absolutely terrible image quality on this one, but my god that boat is huge. This thing would be extremely outclassed by anything, if it weren't for it's bomb capacity, and it's 20mm turret. Yes... you read that right, a 20mm turret. It shoots a bit slowly, but it kills anything it happens to come into contact with.


Tier: 2

An actual plane this time. It's got the same 20mm turret installed, this time in the tail of the plane, so it will get some good shots at anything behind it.


Tier: 2/3

These bombers have quite the variety in terms of weapon armament. Initially, only 7.7s, then German 7.7s, with a tail mount 20mm, then lastly, the armaments get variety, with a roof and tail mounted 20mm, belly and front mounted 13.2, and side mounted 7.7s. Each of these bombers are decently quick too, albeit a bit weak.


Tier: 4

These things are pretty much the Japanese equivalent to a B-17, but instead of lots of guns, they mixed some high caliber guns, with low caliber guns. Usually, anything approaching the tail of this thing is dead instantly. Their only real noticeable weaknesses are their sides, which have very low caliber guns in them, and the plane itself is frankly, huge.

Energy: The property of matter and radiation that is manifest as a capacity to perform work, such as causing motion or the interaction of molecules.

In simple terms, the ability to move, or complete a task.

Energy is a primary factor in controlling and maneuvering an aircraft. If an attacker has too much energy, it may be easy to get in range but difficult to prevent an overshoot. Too little energy and the attacker may not be able to get in range at all. If the defender has more energy than the attacker, an escape may be possible, but too little energy and the defender will lose maneuverability.

In aviation, the term "energy" does not refer to the fuel nor the thrust it produces. Instead, thrust is referred to as "power." Energy is the state of the fighter's mass at any given time, and is the result of the power. Energy comes in two forms, which are kinetic and potential. Kinetic energy is a function of the fighter's mass and speed, while potential energy is a function of its mass, gravity and altitude. The combined potential and kinetic energy is called the total energy, or "energy package." Because the energy package is the combination of mass, speed and altitude, a fighter flying at low altitude but a high speed may have the same total energy as a fighter of equal mass, but flying at a low speed and high altitude.

Generally, the fighter that is able to maintain a higher energy package will have the advantage. However, a high energy-package alone does not improve maneuverability, because optimum turn performance typically occurs within a range near a certain speed, called the "corner speed." Also, increasing the mass of the aircraft would increase its energy package, but angular momentum would hamper maneuverability, causing the heavier aircraft to turn wider circles. Instead, the fighter's useful energy is calculated by dividing its energy package by its weight, determining its specific energy (total energy per unit-weight). A fighter with less mass will generally be more maneuverable than a fighter with more mass, even if energy packages are equal, because the lighter aircraft has more specific-energy. "Specific power," on the other hand, is the thrust divided by weight, and the fighter's ability to generate excess specific-power aids the craft in maintaining its specific energy longer when forced to turn at an energy-depleting rate. Typically, the fighter with higher energy (energy fighter) will make an "energy move" like an "out-of-plane maneuver,"(vertical) to maintain the energy-advantage, while the fighter at an energy-disadvantage (angles fighter) will make an "angles move"(horizontal) such as a break turn, trying to use the opponent's energy to their own advantage.

Boom and zoom, and boom and run are very similar maneuvers. Both of them start with an aircraft having a noticeable altitude over their target.

Boom and zoom is usually performed by interceptor class aircraft, and generally heavier aircraft with less turning capacity. It a maneuver intended to hit the enemy hard without great chance of retaliation. The aircraft initiating the attack would be above the target aircraft, usually at a significant altitude. The attacking aircraft will usually roll the aircraft over before diving onto it's chosen target, and "boom" down towards it opening fire with it's weapons once in range. Then, the attacking aircraft would "zoom" back up to the same altitude, whether or not the attack was successful.

Boom and run is very similar to boom and zoom, but without zooming back up. Usually on completing the attack (or not), the attacker instead of "zooming" back, uses the speed gained by the initial "boom" to increase the distance from the initial target, usually to escape weapon range in the event of a missed pass, or to engage a different target near the event of the initial "boom".

There is also a maneuver called either a "reverse boom and zoom", "zoom climb attack", or "stall boom" depending on who you ask. It's a fairly uncommon maneuver in which an aircraft attacks another from below using superior speed. This maneuver is usually performed after a boom and zoom, commonly targeting bombers, or very unaware fighters. The aircraft as it zooms back to altitude targets the aircraft above it, and opens fire onto the underbelly of the target, and either zooms back above the new target, or if there's not enough energy, the plane would stall (very dangerous to do in RB or SB), while still shooting at the target(s). This maneuver is very risky, but usually very rewarding. The pilot performing this maneuver must be very careful as to not be attacked by a level flying pilot while performing this maneuver, as if they were, they would most likely be exposing the pilots canopy along with the full surface area of the aircraft.

The last maneuver which can technically be described under "boom and zoom" is the wingover, or hammerhead. It's the action of the aircraft climbing, nearly to a point of stalling, then kicking the rudder into the direction the pilot wants to go. This is usually performed when two aircraft are climbing, and the defender has higher energy than the attacker, usually leading the attacker to stall, while the defender gains the advantage, thus becoming the attacker.

Turn fighting is somewhat simple. It's two aircraft turning, and burning energy, attempting to get a clear shot at the other aircraft. This can be achieved in a number of ways.

The most common method one would see at very early tiers, such as at the biplane tiers, are two planes simply flying in circles trying to shoot each other. The plane which achieves the most "inside" turn, as in the plane which has the tightest turn radius, would win. This is what's known as "turn and burn".

Other instances of turn fighting would be the "scissors" maneuver. Scissors is an event in which two planes approach, almost next to each other, usually with one plane just in front, of the other. In order for the plane in front to not be shot, it turns inwards, in order for this to work, the attacking plane must not be capable of following the maneuver, and would overshoot.
Once this happens, the plane initiating the evasive maneuver would cut back towards the direction of the initial turn, attempting to make contact with the attackers aircraft. If the attacker turns inwards as this happens, then both aircraft are officially engaged in the scissors maneuver. This will continue until either one aircraft is shot down, or until one aircraft breaks off by "completing" a turn out of enemy contact. This would probably make more sense if I had a diagram. Here you go.
This is a set of two diagrams showing the scissors maneuver in action.

This section is to help describe in a bit more detail what crew skills do. You can play the game ignoring this aspect entirely, but if you want to have an edge, consider crew training.


Keen Vision: Affects the distance in which an indicator will appear above a plane, allied or enemy. "Stock" crew will get an indicator at 4 km, while a "full" crew will get indicators at 6 km. This is affected by other factors, such as clouds, the position of the sun, and a few other, complicated things.

Awareness: Affects the view range of anything the crew member does not have line of sight on, for example, a pilot cannot see directly behind themselves. "Stock" value of 150 m "full" value of 300 m.

G-Tolerance: Increases the crewmembers tolerance to G forces. This will reduce the effect of "blackout" and "redout". Also, makes the crewmember more responsive while under the effect of a high G load, whether it be the pilot, reducing "action lag" or the gunners, increasing accuracy. Note: -G Forces have a greater effect than +G Forces.

Stamina: Affects the crewmembers ability to retain other skills after extended periods of time. All skills slowly degrade over time, and a crew which is suffering from G forces will have their skills degrade faster. Thats what I perceived the in-game tooltip to mean. It really means. Speed of recovery from pilot overload, reducing the time to full recovery from 20 to 10 seconds. Stamina is spent in aircraft maneuvers and affects the maximum overload. Overload = Overload G-Forces. Basically decreases the time for an overload blackout goes away.

Vitality: Very important, affects the crewmembers "durability" a higher skill will significantly reduce the chance of knockout (within reason, you cant survive a 57mm to the head, but you might survive a few shots from a 20mm).


Number of Experienced Gunners: Expensive, this is the number of gunners who will meet your training criteria. An "inexperienced" gunner will reduce the effectiveness of the other gunners, usually by 5% per gunner.

Fire Accuracy: Affects how long the maximum "burst time" (time interval between shots) the AI gunner has, and increases the range in which an AI will shoot at a target.

Fire Precision: Increases gunner accuracy overall, and increases "burst length" (length of time the weapon fires per burst).


Repair Speed: Does what it says on the label, increases repair speed when landed at an airfield.

Repair Rank: This is the rank of the mechanic, if the plane meets this criteria, all other attributes in the ground service categories are boosted by 10.

Reload Speed: Affects the time in which weapons are rearmed, applies to Arcade and Realistic/Sim.

Weapon Maintenance: Boosts accuracy of the guns, increases time to jam, and affects the accuracy of bombs/torpedoes.

Because I'm bored, and am considering turning this into a general gunnery guide (i'm not gonna teach you how to aim, go see the other 20 guides on that), i'm gonna talk about crits (hits that actually break things). I'm gonna try to explain this as the game would say if you had actually performed the crit as well as how to achieve them, and what to do when they happen to you.
"Everything is broken, but at least i'm not on fire!"

Enemy pilot unconscious: Congratulations, you probably just got a kill if you weren't shooting a bomber with a co-pilot. The easiest way to do this is simply to aim for the enemy cockpit, which is mostly why the in game tips say "Always try to have an altitude advantage over your opponent." It's very easy to "snipe" a pilot from above, or if you're fighting a bomber, usually the best tactic is to go for a Head On attack. If you've suffered this crit... too bad, it can't be fixed, go find another plane. AP bullets accomplish this best.

Enemy gunner unconscious: Knocks out the gunner who was probably shooting at you. Very good for the fighter shooting at the bomber/attacker, and very bad for the receiving side. If you want to achieve this, try to shoot at the point at which the bullets are coming out, a very high risk, high reward crit. You can't fix this. AP bullets are usually the way to go on this.

Left/Right Wing Damaged: Not one of the most beneficial crits initally, but still very helpful, it can sometimes end up cutting the wing off the plane. Achieved by shooting the far left or right of a wing, when this happens usually you will see a very noticeable hole in the wing. This will reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of the wing, and alter the effects of turning. Turning towards the damaged wing will usually result in the plane "flopping over". When you receive this crit, it's not too hampering unless you're in a turn fight, you can usually adapt to it. Again, AP is the best way to cause this, although HE or Frag work well too.
Shot this photo myself, this is my P-40 Kittyhawk, as you can see wing damage has occurred.

Left/Right Flap damaged: Can sometimes be beneficial to cause this, but usually it won't do anything significant. The flap is located, usually, on the underside of a wing, or it's acting in a similar way to an aileron attached to the back of a wing. Damaging a flap makes it less useful at its job, which is to allow the plane to generate lift at noticeably slow speeds. Also, if the flaps are active and one gets damaged, the plane will try to pull towards the damaged flap, due to there being less lift. If this happens to you, and you are using flaps at that moment, try to treat it as standard wing damage, because that is what it will feel like. For flaps, HE and Frag work the best.
As you can see, my left flap is damaged, making it nearly unuseable.

Left/Right Aileron Damaged: A very useful crit to achieve. An aileron is what makes a plane roll, and plays a significant part of performing turns. Loss of an aileron will make the plane very, very hard to steer. When you receive this crit, the only real practical way to steer is using the rudder, which is not a very efficient way to turn but it'l work in a pinch. Ailerons are located on the rear of a wing, they are the thing that moves up and down when rolling. Frag work the best.
In this shot, my right aileron is damaged, and now unuseable.

Elevator damaged: The Elevator is what allows a plane to move up or down while in flight, its destruction will almost always be the cause of a crash, unless both ailerons are in tact, in which the pilot uses those instead. HE or frag destroy them best.As you can see the Elevator is pretty badly chewed up (along with everything else), I survived for quite a while after this however, using only my right aileron.

Wing spars damaged: The wing spar is the point at which the wing is fastened to the plane... kinda. Its the point on the wing taking the most load, 99.9% of the time this crit is a kill, you cut off a wing. If you receive this, you are going down, try not to get shot next time. Wing spars are in all sorts of different spots, depending on the plane, it takes some practice to learn where they are. AP or HE are the best way to go.
This is a German BF-109 it suffered spar damage.

Fuselage damaged: Causes damage to the center of the plane, greatly reducing aerodynamic efficiency (will slow the plane down) otherwise, usually not a very "critical" crit. Achieved by shooting the center of the plane. Will make the plane a lot more sensitive to further damage in general, and makes a requirement in which you need to be more gentle when performing a landing. Almost any bullet type will cause this.
This is my F6F Hellcat, as you can see, if you click the image, the fuselage is peppered with bullet holes, this is not a full crit yet, it would look a lot worse if it was.

I noticed there's a character limit for guide sections, so i'm gonna split this part of the guide into 2 sections so I can make room for photos.

Tail damaged: Damage to the superstructure of the tail, reduced aerodynamic efficiency, and slightly reduces turning performance. It looks like the picture in the "tail control lost" section below, except it's not the elevator. Again, any bullet type can cause this.

Rudder damaged: Usually not too helpful unless a wing or aileron is damaged, the rudder is what stabilizes the plane, and is what is used to steer a plane on the ground. It's destruction isn't particularly hampering unless for some reason you are on the ground and you are going the wrong way, or as stated above, have already lost an aileron. To cause this, shoot the tall part of the tail. HE is the best way to do this, and it can sometimes outright blow the rudder off the plane.
Heres what rudder damage would look like, its not 100% damaged, but it's pretty close.

Tail control lost: Total loss of tail control. Having this happen to you makes you unable to change your altitude by using the elevator or use the rudder, you will usually end up nosediving into the ground, or wind up flying up, probably stalling, and come back down again, nosediving into the ground. When this happens, the best option is usually to just bail out (if using default controls hold J for 3 seconds), or if you got lucky and wound up doing the loop, shoot your attacker, then bail out (Pilot survival reduces repair fees, if you see a guy jump out and the chute deploys it means the pilot survived). To cause this, shoot for the center of the tail. AP and Frag do this best.As you can see, the elevator and the tail are pretty badly chewed up, and no matter how hard I try to pull up, the plane is refusing respond, this was followed by a crash less than 2 seconds later.
This is what holding the J button does, you see that chute there? Thats me. Waiting the full 15 seconds for "auto bail" usually kills the pilot, therefore not granting that bonus XP, but sometimes you might get lucky and manage to shoot something down during that time, its up to you to decide when to bail. It's also worth noting that if the plane is about 400 meters from the ground the pilot will not bail out, theres no room to safely deploy the chute.

Left/Right/Rear gear leg damaged: Usually means a landing gear lag has broken off. It won't hamper flight performance, and possibly improve it, however it makes landing a lot more difficult. Try to avoid the need to land if this happens to you, you can still land, but you will need to baby the plane into using what gear legs you have left, or if you have none... good luck with that. Frag works the best, unless the gear is down, then anything will work.
This is a shot of my Aircobra I took for a test flight, I intentionally broke off the front gear leg to illustrate this point. I was still able to land by using the 2 rear/middle legs by tail dragging (which the plane is not meant to do) and only received moderate tail damage, which was able to be fixed at the airfield anyway.

Fuel tank damaged: Usually means there is a fire, but sometimes not. When this happens the enemy fuel tank will have a leak, some can be major, others will be minor. If you didn't know, running out of fuel will make an engine stop. Fuel tanks can be located in very different spots on different planes, once you find out where it is, try to learn its location, and shoot for it again next time. If this happens to you, there's a pretty good chance that you will catch fire if you get shot up more. Try to return to the airfield before you run out of fuel or someone catches you on fire. AP is a good way to achieve this, but AP-I or AP-T are likely to start fires.
This is my same P-40, shot up a bit, which caused a fuel leak, and a fire, which was shortly followed by this...If you look closely and know what you're looking for, you'd see that this isnt a P-40 but instead my F6F, this was supposed to be a shot of loss of tail control, but as I tapped the screenshot button a Yak blew up my fuel tank.

Engine damaged: Means you shot at the prop and damaged it, therefore killing the engine. Usually fatal, unless the enemy receiving this happens to be extraordinarily close to their airfield, or has multiple engines. If this happens to you, and you have only one engine, try to make it to the Airfield, or if that's not an option, a Soft Landing is all you can do. If your propeller stops, you have engine damage. If the blades on the propeller are bent back, you landed badly, and now have engine damage. Best achieved with HE, or Frag, unless you are Head On, then anything would work.Here is what happened after that shot of the Elevator being busted, I couldn't pull up and botched the landing at the airfield, notice how the propeller is bent back though.

Oil system damaged: Can mean different things depending on which mode you are in. In all modes, it will create "oil spatters" usually blinding whomever is flying directly behind the victim and usually the victim themselves. In arcade, oil is considered as fuel and will be counted as a fuel leak. In Realistic or Simulator once the oil is gone, it will start to overheat the engine causing seizure (it stops) or, just catch fire. Achieved by shooting the little "bubble" on the front of most propellers. In Arcade, this isn't much of a problem, but it will cause blindness for a while, can be fixed at an airfield. In Realistic or Simulator, this is a huge problem, get to the Airfield ASAP. Frag does this best.
This is me flying directly behind a plane with an oil leak, as you can see, the oil is spattering all over the screen, this was about only 2 seconds of flying behind that guy, if I would've stayed there longer, eventually the entire view would be obstructed by oil. (It's also worth noting, that guy gave me a run for my money, 1 on 1 dogfight for 6 minutes, until an ally came by and ended it in our favor)
This is what it looks like after a somewhat long time being behind an oil leaker.

Cooling system damaged: Again, means different things in different modes. In arcade, it only counts as 1/2 engine damage, and hampers the victims ability to use WEP or +100% throttle. In Realistic and Simulator it will cause the engine to overheat rather quickly, causing seizure or fire. Kinda one of the harder crits to cause, the cooling system is located somewhere in and behind the engine, good luck causing this. If you receive this in Arcade, and you're a fan of WEP, you can't use it as much. If you receive this in Realistic or Simulator, try to keep the throttle below 50%, your engine will still be heating up, no matter what, although low throttle will lessen the effect. Throw the throttle up in severe emergencies, like you are about to hit a mountain, but be easy on it, else you wont have that engine at all. There is no photo I could get which would illustrate this, since the cooling system is an internal thing. Use AP, I guess. It rarely happens, so I don't have much of an idea.

In this section, i'll try to explain modifications (upgrades) to your planes, and which you should go for, and in which order.

Modifications are "parts" of planes in which you can research, and each modification does something different. When you initally buy a plane, you get a "pretty banged up" plane, which means your plane has been through hell, and needs to get some R&R (Rearm and Repair), which is what each modification represents. Modifications for aircraft are divided into 3 categories.

Flight Performance: Upgrades which makes your plane fly better, usually making the plane move faster in one respect or another. I'll cover specific upgrades later.

Survivability: Does what it says on the label, strengthens the plane, and usually also aid in flight performance.

Weaponry: This is the section in which you upgrade firepower, helping your weapons to perform better, and also has outboard ordinance options for most planes.


Fuselage repair: Tier 1. This is the upgrade which the game defaults to for initial research. It makes the plane fly slightly faster, and decreases drag. It isn't noticeable, but you need to pick a tier 1 upgrade to get to the good stuff. Always a good place to start.

Radiator: Tier 1. This upgrade increases the aircraft's ability to use WEP in Arcade, and (I think) in Realistic. It also helps reduce drag a little bit. Good for planes which rely on WEP.

Compressor: Tier 2. It makes the engine, roughly 15% more powerful, depending on the plane. A useful upgrade to have if you need to keep in pursuit of something.

Wings Repair: Tier 3. Makes the plane have better turning performance, and boosts the speed a tiny bit. Useful for a plane which turns wider than you want.

Engine: Tier 3. A very high boost to engine power, and also, helps in turning a bit. Well worth the time to get. Good for anything.

Engine Injection: Tier 4. Available to different nations at different times, sometimes won't be available, usually only used on fighters. Makes any plane hilariously more nimble in all categories, I'd go for this first whenever I can. Best for maneuverable fighters, as this will amplify on that fact.

Engine Throttle: Tier 4. Makes the top speed of the aircraft much higher. Available to bombers, Attackers, and Heavy Fighters, and some very early Fighters. Comparatively not as useful as other upgrades, but it's still a good idea to get this.

100/95 Octane Fuel: (Allies only): Tier 4. Available to a select few planes, makes the engine better, and slightly enhances turning performance.

G-Suit: Tier 4. Available to Jets only, significantly reduces the "blackout" and "redout" effect of performing maneuvers in jets. Very, very useful.


Airframe: Tier 2. Makes the plane on average 10% tougher, and a bit lighter, which in turn helps overall performance. Useful for soft planes, but even more useful for armored craft, 10% can add up to be a lot.

Cover: Tier 4. Makes the plane on average 5% tougher, and significantly lighter, while also boosting all other specs a tiny bit.

Protective Vest: Tier Varies. Available to mid tier Bombers and Attackers, makes the gun crew somewhat more resilient when getting shot at, it seems to be equivalent to 10 points in vitality. I think this is not optional, get it ASAP, unless you're fine being defenseless.


Offensive/Turret (XX)mm: Tier Varies. This upgrade lets you choose different belts for the gun in question. (For more info, refer to the top half of the guide, XD)

New (XX)MG/Cannon: Tier Varies, After Offensive/Turret Belt Upgrade. This upgrade makes your weapons much more accurate, and usually, a lot harder to jam them up. Very useful on everything, and should be picked up after critical upgrades.

MG/Cannon: Tier 3/4. If it doesn't say new, It means It can be mounted onto the plane, dramatically increasing firepower, but at the cost of some maneuverability. Typically available to the USSR and Germany, at the late-mid tier area. Can be useful, but weapons weigh a lot, cannons have the weight of a moderately sized bomb.

Hispano Mk.(x) Year (xxxx): (UK only): There were very many variants of the Hispano made, each upgrade usually increases the accuracy, and significantly increases the time in which the weapon can fire without jamming.

(Insert bomb rack name here): This is the upgrade which allows your plane to use bombs. For fighters, this allows them to use bombs. For bombers, this usually extends the selection of choices on bombs, upgrading the bomb you "already have" increases the amount of it you can carry at any time. Example: BB-1 comes with 4 50 kg bombs standard, Upgrading the 50 kg bomb allows it to cary 12.

(Insert rocket name here): Allows your plane to use rockets, since no plane carries rockets from the start (that I know of) this is useful.

(Insert torpedo rack name here): Allows the plane to use torpedoes, useful for when you need them, but you can usually ignore them for a while.

Improved torpedo: Usually allows the torpedo to be dropped from a higher altitude. It can also upgrade other attributes, such as time to target, or reduce mass.

This particular section is about outboard ordinance (stuff that leaves the plane and goes boom). There are 3 types of ordnance in which you can install into a plane.

Bombs, which are dropped from a plane, using only gravity, and the pilots judgement to aim them, the bigger the mass, the bigger the boom.

Torpedoes, which are dropped in a similar manner to bombs, but require that they are dropped low to the water, for details i'll explain later.

Rockets, fired from the plane, either through rocket launchers attached to the aircraft, or fired from launchers built into the chassis of an airplane.

Each one of these requires a different technique to use effectively.

Bombs: These are usually the easiest one to learn how to use, and depending on your airplanes role, need to be used differently, but all achieving the same goal, which is to blow stuff up. Bomb size can vary immensely, from 10 kg (22 lb) bombs all the way up to about 1814 kg (4000 lb) bombs, this changes the role for each "caliber" of bomb, especially at the extremes. I recommend playing the bomber tutorial, as it explains the basics on how to use them, and how to drop them, don't worry... I can wait.

OK, I assume you just did the tutorial, well done, have 50ish Golden Eagles (yes, the game will reward you to learn). Again, depending on your aircraft role you can have a wide variety of bombs, or sometimes, can only choose one. In this section i'm gonna explain how you should go about using bombs, based on your aircraft role.

Bombers: Your job is to carpet bomb things, unless you choose the bigger bombs, then your role is precision bombing. As a bomber, altitude is your (usually) only advantage, your aircraft is huge, and if you fly low altitude, you WILL get shot down by AA. Pretty much, you should be spending most of your flight in "bombsight" mode, until you actually drop your bombs, and only then should you consider maneuvering. If you are being chased by fighters, try to call for help, although, you can defend yourself with your tail gunners, if you are being tailed, try not to fly in a straight line for too long, unless you are close to your target, then the important task at hand is to unload your ordinance. Flying in a straight line is just asking to be shot down by rockets, which i'll cover later. If you are flying a bomber, this is your bombsight, this is what you'd use when performing your bombing. As you can see, there's a crosshair, (the big white one in the middle) which is aligned with the ground and adjusted by your bombardier, also an alignment gauge (the grey things on the side), showing your angle of attack, and how you are currently positioned, AND theres a small circular indicator, (not the marker for the tank) which works similar to a joystick indicator, it's what you use for precision bombing.

Dive Bombers: These planes have a unique role, and there's a whole tutorial on how to use them, if you want 50 more eagles. For the most part, these planes are fighters, but should only be used so after unloading their ordinance. They usually only carry a 500 kg bomb, or a 1000 kg bomb. Thier job is to do precision bombing, which is achieved by performing a steep dive, while using air brakes, to keep them from smashing into the ground, or their target. This makes their role very useful against moving targets, such as tanks, or boats, as regular bombers would struggle doing this due to the very long time from the initial drop to impact.

Fighters: Most fighters can carry bombs, although they vary in size. Fighters, for the most part, are not intended to use these bombs, and they are intended to shoot down planes. If you were to use bombs on a fighter, it would be during a ground attack, in which you are strafing lighter vehicles using your machine guns, or cannons. Usually you will want to drop these only on armored targets, such as tanks or pillboxes. The best way to go about this, is when you go into a ground attack run, keep your altitude higher, so when you drop the bombs, you don't blow yourself up (I learned that the hard way when I was new) a good rule of thumb is for every kilogram the bomb is listed to have, you should be that same value in meters above your target. If you are bombing a moving target,and it's moving towards you, release the bomb early, so the target will be directly under the bomb, if you are bombing a target moving away from you drop late, so, again, the target will be under the bomb. Try to drop bombs as soon as you can if you are a fighter, as the "parasite drag" will reduce your aircraft's performance.

Attackers: Almost all attackers have outboard ordinance, although, for the most part, it's intended to be rockets. Bombing with an attack aircraft is very similar to bombing with a fighter, but you have a lot less maneuverability, so you should be even higher, so you won't hit the ground.

Another thing about bombs are that you can delay the explosion, if you set an activation time for your bombs, they will explode once that time is reached. You may ask "why would I do that". This is a technique called "mast bombing" and is intended to make it easier to bomb ships from low altitude. When you drop the bomb, and its on a timer, the bomb won't explode on impact with the ground or water, instead, they will skip, until the timer is reached, then explode. This makes it easier to bomb ships, as you don't need to nail the target immediately directly, and it gives you more time to break off, so you don't ram the ship. It takes some practice to do, but once you master it, It's super effective! Also, I found out that you can use this technique against fighters tailing you, it works best on land, drop a bomb, and if you set the activation time correctly, once the bomb bounces off the ground, it will detonate under or in front of the enemy, causing a win for you.

Torpedoes: These are similar to bombs, as said earlier, but are handled very differently. I'll just say now, they don't work on ground targets. The way you use these are all the same, as if you can use them, your plane will be classified as a torpedo bomber. The only way to use torpedoes, is to fly as low as reasonably possible, as to keep the torpedo from going underneath the enemy hull, then drop it so it impacts the ship (not directly). The game says "the optimal distance to drop torpedoes is 1 km from the target", this is a pretty good estimate, although, I have better experiences hitting targets from 700 meters. Again, there is a tutorial on how to use them.

I'm out of characters again, so here's part two.

Rockets: These can be used for anything, although they aren't supposed to be. Rockets, can be very hard to learn, and, even if you know what you are doing, be very unreliable. Rockets are generally very inaccurate, but very powerful when they hit their mark. Bigger rockets have higher blast radiuses, are slower, and are generally more accurate than smaller ones. Rockets seem to use gun convergence, so keep that in mind.

Attackers: Rockets are the primary armament of these aircraft, after the cannons. The key to using rockets, is to be as close as possible to your target, you can hit things at 3 km, but don't expect to. When using rockets, you should be strafing targets with your cannons, and firing these at anything with enough armor to be unharmed by them (the cannons), such as Medium Tanks, Heavy Tanks, Destroyers, Cruisers and Pillboxes. There are two methods to using them in these situations, the shoot everything at once method, or the pick them off method. Because of the inaccuracy of rockets, both techniques work, shooting everything at once, usually scores you a few hits, and usually kills, while, taking your time to pick off targets, takes longer, is generally more reliable, instead of firing everything, you fire in bursts of 2 to 4, adjusting your aim as needed, when you come back around for more.

Fighters: Usually a backup weapon, most fighters carry only, 3, sometimes 6 rockets. They can be very useful in multiple situations however, useable to shoot down other fighters, or bombers, or to shoot at priority ground targets, such as heavy tanks. Generally fighters who mount rockets suffer from less parasite drag than when carrying bombs, but contrary to unloading bombs, getting rid of the drag, the rocket tubes will remain on the plane, still causing drag, reducing performance. When using these against ground targets, follow the same instructions for attacker planes. When using these against fighters, get as close as possible, then, usually, unload everything once they are in line. They will 1 shot any fighter, jet, or bomber. When taking down bombers, this task is easier, as they can't move, or turn as fast at all, you can usually fire these from 400 meters, if you aim for the center of the bomber, and successfully take them down.

You can track your ordinance by pressing and holding U. Use it to make sure you are close to hitting your target, and you can use it to test your mast bombing ability. It's best to try this a few times in test flights, so you can see the bombs power, the altitude requirements for mast bombing and check out the range of rockets, to learn long range rocketeering.

Because I was asked to, now i'm going to start talking about tanks. As we know, tanks are large tracked vehicles, with armor that is capable of stopping machine guns (and more), learning how to use them comes easily, but learning how to be proficient with them can be very difficult. In this game the main armament of a tank is its Main Gun, although in real life, the most important tool on the tank was its MG, and the crew operating them.

There are 4 classifications of tanks, (I don't count AA as a tank, cuz they aren't, they are defined as SPAA, even if it was built on a tank chassis)

Light tanks, which primarily have the role of being the scout for the rest of the allied tanks. They are lightly armored, usually just enough to stop MG fire, and lightly armed, commonly carrying 40 to 50 millimeter cannons, which are great for infantry support, but not too great against other tanks.

Medium tanks, have the role of being the workhorse of the armored column, they are generally well armored compared to light tanks but also possess decent mobility, although not as mobile as light tanks. They commonly carry enough firepower in the main gun to deal some good damage to tanks, but are not going to hold up well when facing the next tank class without support.

Heavy tanks, have the role of being the spearhead of an armored column, they have a TON (no pun intended) of armor, making them very hard to dent. They usually have the biggest guns available for their time although usually not as big as the next class of tank. They are characterized as being slow, and when not supported, very easy to kill.

Tank destroyers are the final class of tank, they almost always have no turret (until, speculatively, American tank destroyers are added), generally their armor is about as good as a light tank, the key to their operation is their low profile, which makes them harder to see at long distances, and their large gun. Tank destroyers are almost exclusively intended to be ambushing vehicles, as if they are caught in a shooting match, they will be brutally destroyed.

Lastly, there is AA, these aren't tanks, so don't ever try to use them as one. The primary role of these vehicles is to stay just behind the front line and "discourage" enemy aircraft from attacking the team.

Tanks have an extremely wide variety of shells which can come out of the main gun, although realistically they boil down to 2 types, AP, which focuses on penetrating the armor of a vehicle to do its damage, and HE, which primarily relies on the kinetic energy created by the blast to inflict damage inside by an effect called "spalling".

First thing when you learn how to fire the gun on a tank, is learn how to aim, this is easy to do in arcade, as the game will give you an indicator on where your shot will (probably) land. However in Realistic or Simulator, you need to aim for yourself, which can be a challenge. I reccomend Test Driving some tanks, as they will show you what you can expect out of the gun.
This is what the view of a gun sight is in a tank, to use it press V. In order to use this, you need to know what all of the lines mean. The cross at the center is where a target shell would land if the target was at a theoretical 0 meters, so you can't use that to aim, your shell will usually fall short if you do. What you DO want to do is aim the gun up higher by how far away the enemy is, each dash below the center of the crosshair symbolizes 200 meters, which is exactly where this PZ II is placed for practice. You can see the green plus on the crosshair, that, in arcade, will be there to tell you if the shell will penetrate or not, Green means yes, Yellow means maybe, Red means no.

The next thing you need to learn is which shell type to load. The situation varies from time to time so i'm going to try to explain the basics of what each type of shell does (bear with me, there are a lot of em).


APHE shells, generally AP encoating HE charge with a timed fuse.

Pros: If the shell penetrates it will deal a lot of damage, assuming the shell does not pass clean through, shells usually explode internally causing major damage.

Cons: Usually lower penetration then full bore AP shells, some of the variants (particularly fused variants) explode in mid air.

Next, there are AP shells, as said above, a standard AP shell relies on penetrating the armor to do damage.

Pros: Usually have better penetration values than HEAT at close range, shell can bounce around inside after penetration.

Cons: Usually have bad penetration at long range, usually focused damage similar to HEAT, but a little wider cone of damage, if the shot doesn't penetrate armor, it does nothing.

APHEBC, quite a lot of letters, quite a few effects, does everything, and is a good all around shell.

Pros: Decent at everything.

Cons: Not great at anything.

APC: Armor piercing shell with a cap. The cap is in place to prevent the shell from shattering in impact with armor.

Pros: Pretty good penetration, pretty good internal damage on penetration

Cons: Flies slower than regular AP shells, somewhat lower penetration than a standard AP at range.

APCBC: Like APHEBC, but (usually) no HE.

Pros: Very good penetration for a standard AP variant, pretty decent damage.

Cons: Not much... although it tends to bounce more against sloped armor than APC would.

APCR, Usually shell with a very hard submunition. Once this shell is fired, and it hits a target, the casing falls off, but the submunition goes through the vehicle, realistically, this penetrator is 1/2 the size of the gun caliber.

Pros: Extremely good penetration, will kill anything in its path.

Cons: Expensive, tends to go clean through the vehicle, mostly doing nothing. People love to use this as "default" the moment they get it, don't do that, it's the main cause of "i hit it, but why isn't it dead?"

APDS: APCR, but different. Instead of the aluminum shell casing shattering on impact with the target, the casing is removed once the gun fires, making this shell unique.

Pros: Even higher penetration than APCR at close range. Very little penetration falloff.

Cons: Can get inaccurate at range, since the shot relies on the wind to pull off the casing, which would make the shell pull a bit too.

Next is HE, a high explosive shell, not intended for use against tanks, but still available, partially for historical reasons, and partially because of its effect vs light armor.

Pros: You don't need to necessarily hit your target to hurt them, if they penetrate the armor of a tank, they will almost always kill anything inside, they are very useful for breaking external things, such as the cannon, armor spacing plates, and the tracks. Will 1 shot anything with less than 10 mm or armor.

Cons: Unless your gun is huge, then these usually won't hurt tanks, carrying them increases the chance of ammo rack detonation (which will be covered in a later section), they fly slower than AP shells (which affects your aiming, although you will see this in the sight).

Here's a before and after shot of a HE shell acting against spaced armor.
Before...
After... as you can see, i've blown off 2 plates of armor spacing.

Next is a HEAT shell, primarily available to the Germans, although they can be found on some Russian tanks after research is performed. A HEAT shell is a form of HE shell, but specifically designed to kill tanks. In game when you select them, they are called "Hollow Charge"

Pros: They carry the same penetration value at any distance, and that value tends to be high.

Cons: They only deal damage to a very specific area, they don't deal very much internal damage anywhere besides the point of impact, and the zone behind it, they fly even slower than HE shells, if they hit armor spacing, they are almost useless.

Next is Fragmentation/Shrapnel, primarily only used by the Russians, extremely similar to an APHE, but with more oomph in the HE.

Pros: When/if the shell explodes inside a tank, it generates a lot of shrapnel, almost always killing the entire crew.

Cons: VERY bad penetration, tends to fly slower than an AP shell, but faster than HE.

HESH, a High Explosive Squash Head, is pretty much a demo charge fired from the main gun of a tank, designed to mesh up against armor, and explode, flaking armor chunks off into the interior of a tank.

Pros: Will apply it's effect on any armor under 150mm thick, evenly spread shrapnel.

Cons: Shrapnel dosent fly very far, the effect is severely reduced if it hits sloped armor.


Mass: How heavy the shell is, a higher value here will make the gun load slower, but usually be more deadly against a target, usually because the shell is bigger.

Shell Velocity: How fast the shell is moving once it leaves the barrel of the gun, this is used to determine accuracy, and how quickly the shell will reach it's target.

Armor Penetration: How much armor the shell can penetrate at the given range at 30 degrees "off nominal" nominal = 90 degrees.

Fuse Sensitivity: How much armor must the shell pass through before the fuse starts it's priming process, the fuse will not activate if the armor penetrated has a value below this number.

Fuse Delay: How long, in milliseconds from fuse activation to detonation of the charge, this is important, as a shell exploding in the center of the tank is usually more beneficial than a shell that explodes too early, or too late.

Chance to ricochet: Shows a percentage chance of the shell "bouncing" off armor sloped at 30 degrees.

Armor Normalization: Shows how much angling of armor is "normalized". This value is important, as a shell with 30 degrees of normalization, would make armor sloping of 30 degrees face value in armor thickness, due to the shell adjusting to the slope.

This guide on the forums[forum.warthunder.com] may give you a better idea on how these shells actually worked in real life.

This section is similar to the Aircraft Crew section above, this will teach a bit more about crew skills than the game would state otherwise. Note: Losing the named crewmember here resets the crew level to 0 for that position.


Keen Vision: Affects the view range of the crewmember, using the info in the "where to shoot" section for line of sight.

Field Repair: Affects how handy a crewmember is with a toolkit. This skill is not averaged out, if you lose a crewmember with "all" the repair skill, then you will have the other crewmembers skill to rely on instead, so, "dont put all the eggs in one basket". Loss of a crewmember sets a value of -25 to this attribute.

Vitality: As with aircraft, very useful. Affects how much of a punishment a crewmember can take, particularly APHE, although nobody will survive a direct hit from anything, they can survive the explosion shrapnel if this is high enough.


Tank Driving: Affects how good the driver is at handling the tank, this will make him switch gears more efficiently, reducing the "clutch time" and, affects how well the tank comes to a stop when the brakes are applied.


Targeting: Influences how the gunner moves the gun, usually a gunner without this skill will move the turret into place, then adjust the gun elevation. A gunner with this skill progressively gets better at doing both tasks at once.

Rangefinding: Used in arcade only apparently, increases the limit in which the "impact crosshair" is visible. In all modes, it improves the gunners accuracy when firing at long range targets.


Leadership: Influences the other crewmembers skills, usually adds half of this level to other crewmembers skills, if the commander is knocked out, then this boost is removed.

Machine Gunnery: This affects the accuracy of the coaxial MG, and increases reload rate.


Weapon Reloading: Influences how quickly the weapon reloads, a maxed out skill can make the gun shoot 1.5 times faster.


Bow Machine Gun Fire: This will affect the accuracy of the hull MG.

Bow Machine Gun Reloading: This will affect the reload time of the hull MG.

Radio Communication: Influences the distance in which the radio operator can relay enemy positions via the minimap, extremely important for light tanks.

This is the main way people either become tank gods, or smoking lumps of metal. If you want to shoot at a tank, you should first learn its weak points, and also keep in mind your own. Generally, when you shoot at a tank, if it's an option, aim for the back, if thats not an option, aim for the sides, only as a last resort should you be shooting the front of a tank. However, if you must, the front of tanks usually have some noticeable weak points, such as the MG port, the drivers hatch, or usually the commanders cupola (the round thing on top of the turret). At this point i'm going to list all of the possible things you can hit, similar to airplane criticals, but they won't count as any due to the nature of tank warfare.

Commander: The guy in charge of the tank, usually orders the crew when to shoot, and watches for enemies, if the tank is short on crewmembers, either due to knockouts, or because the tank is smaller, the commander takes on the other roles in the tank first. He usually sits in the turret, watching things go down from his copula. Can usually see 360 degrees around the tank if other crewmembers are not knocked out.

Gunner: The man in charge of aiming the gun, he is also the person who actually fires the gun when ordered, his knockout will disable fire control for about 10 seconds, making the turret and gun unable to move. Sits in the left of the turret. Can only see what the gun is pointing at, as he is using the gun sight.

Loader: The man in charge of making sure the gun is loaded when needed, and is in charge of making sure the correct shell is loaded. Knocking him out will slow the rate of fire from his tank. Usually sits in the right of the turret. Can see out of the tank with a 30 degree cone of sight in front of the turret, so he can call out targets the gunner isn't expressly pointing at.

Driver: The man in charge of making the tank move, arguably the most important job of "driving" a tank, his knockout will cause a loss of all maneuverability, the tank won't move, and if it was in motion, it will cruise to a stop. He sits in the hull behind the viewports, so he can see where he is going. Can see in a 90 degree cone in front of the tank, depending on where the hull is pointed.

Machine Gunner/Radio Operator: In charge of the MG, and is also responsible for relaying coordinates of enemies to their allies. Currently, the MG is not used in games yet, but his knockout will reduce the range in which the player receives enemy coordinates on their minimap.
Sits behind the MG on tanks which have them, otherwise, he usually sits in the back right of the hull. Can see in a 60 degree cone in front of the machine gun port, again depending on which way the tank is pointed.

Tracks: The thing that makes tanks move, destruction of one of these will make a tank unable to move anywhere more than doing a doughnut, destruction of both, will make the vehicle unable to move. Tracks can only be broken by shooting either the running wheel (the cog looking wheel, usually in the front) or by breaking the idler wheel (the opposite side of the running wheel). Tracks are the only part of a tank which can be repaired without the "parts" upgrade.
These are the tracks on the PZ 1 C, before...
After... If you are in a situation in which you KNOW you can't hurt a tank, try to track it, but don't be too noticeable when doing it. Tracking the tank will give you time to escape while the victim needs to wait at least 15 seconds to fix them. During this time you can if you've researched it, call in an artillery strike on the tracked vehicle, which is almost always lethal. To aim artillery, press 5, then place the circular ground reticle where you want the artillery to strike.

Their end:
"We lost a track, we can't move!"

Your end:
"Artillery, my reference!"
"Roger that, artillery fire!"

Their end:
"We need to move, the enemy is preparing to bombard our square!"

*crack, crack, crack*
*BOOM, BOOM, BOOM*

T-26 Wrecked Tiger II

Suspension: Any part of the track which is not the running or idler wheel counts as the suspension. If it is destroyed, the vehicle will move, and traverse slower.

Cannon Barrel: This has been reworked recently. Cannon Barrel damage now has a chance for the shot to misfire, and tear a part of the gun off with it. If the shot misfired and damages the barrel, it will mushroom out or break off where the muzzle brake normally would be. If this happens, accuracy pretty much won't be a thing on the gun until fixed, and it will lose a lot of penetration.

Transmission: This is the gearbox and other similar things that control speed management. Destruction of this makes changing gears take much longer, and the vehicle will not be able to use their top gear. Damage slows down transmission speed, but will not lock out the top gear. An annoying part of german tanks, is that this is almost always located up front, just in front of the lowest plate, so it'll break a lot. In russian tanks, this is usually located below the engine, so it's comparatively safe.

Cannon Breech: This is the interior part of the gun, where the shells are loaded into. Damage will greatly increase the chance of internal detonation with HE rounds, misfire with AP rounds, and the gun can't fire if this is completely broken.

Engine: The big loud box in the back which powers the tank. It's destruction will make a tank unable to move, also, each time it is hit, there is a chance of fire.

Radiator: Comprises of the exhaust system and the coolants. It reduces crew efficiency when destroyed, due to the tank heating up. Also, if the engine is hit while the radiator is destroyed, its about a 95% chance of fire.

Vertical Turret/Gun Traverse: 1 part of the 2 part system for aiming the gun. Destruction of this makes the gun unable to move up or down. Damage will slow it down. Usually located just next to the cannon breech.

Horizontal Turret/Gun Traverse: The other part of the aiming system. It's destruction makes the turret or gun unable to move left or right. Damaging it will slow it down. If it's a turreted vehicle, it's almost always located at the point where the turret connects to the hull. If it's a non-turreted vehicle, it's located directly next to the vertical traverse.

Fuel Tank: Shooting these can either cause fire in the tank, which can be extinguished by the victim if they have researched the "FPE" upgrade. Or, the fuel tank might explode. FPE is not magic, it won't put out a fire immediately, but it can save you if you know, almost immediately, you are on fire. The crew will tell you where the fire is, such as "fire in the engine compartment" of "fire in the fighting compartment". Usually a fire in the engine compartment isn't as critical as a fire in the fighting compartment, the fighting compartment is where the crew is, and if the fire spreads there, it will knock out crew quickly, or the crew will bail out (not sure which, it happens fast). All tank crews on all sides are trained for quite a while on what to do if the tank is on fire, and the solution is get out, and get away, the ammo will blow soon.

Ammo Rack: Damage of the ammunition stowage will slow down reloading speed, destruction of it will make the load explode internally, blowing off the turret.
Before...
After... although this may seem insane that a BT-7 killed a frickin Tiger, it illustrates my point. Destruction to the ammo rack makes instant victory. (I didnt plan on this, I was trying to demonstrate how a HE shell takes off armor spacing when used properly, clearing the way for HEAT shells.)

Optics: This is technically not a module. However, these are made of glass, so, hitting a tank here will almost gaurentee penetration. Using the X-ray model viewer shows where these are. Also, if these get knocked out, the crewmember sitting behind it won't be able to see (if they are still alive).

This is a surprisingly hard thing to explain... although if you have common sense (a surprising amount of people don't), i'd expect you to know that the front of the tank points toward where you expect bullets to come from. OK, now that we got that out of the way, i'd like to tell you about armor angling, its hard to describe, so heres a photo I shamelessly stole from the World Of Tanks wiki.The line on top is a shell impacting the armor directly, therefore making the armor the listed value of 100 millimeters, the line on the bottom is a shell impacting at an angle of 60 degrees, as you can see, a shell has to pass through more metal in order to go through a target when the armor is angled, in this case, the effective armor thickness is 200 millimeters. When you do this, make sure not to excessively angle your armor, so the enemy can see your side and hit it reliably (especially with german tanks), keep it reasonable, make yourself tougher to kill, not more vulnerable.

Most people consider Russian armor OP, it's not. The reason a T-34 seems impenetrable is because the frontal armor is sloped back 60 degrees, making a "real armor" value of 45 mm a respectable 90 mm of armor when fired on directly, if the driver angles the tank 15 degrees more, then, the effective armor value becomes a very good 110 mm. German tanks have a frontal armor value of about 80 mm at this tier, but it's entirely unsloped, so, realistically, the tanks are equals.

This section is about tank upgrades, similar to the aircraft upgrade section above.

As with planes, tank upgrades are divided into 3 sections.

Mobility: Anything which makes the tank move faster, usually light tanks benefit from this the most, but they are still benefical on anything.

Protection: Usually useable upgrades, such as FPE, or a toolkit. Useful on almost every tank, these upgrades usually keep you alive a lot longer when used correctly.

Firepower: Parts relating to the gun, its accuracy, the turret speed, and new shell types.


Tracks: Tier 1: Makes the tank move faster, keeps more grip when climbing hills, and helps with turning the vheicle.

Suspension: Tier 2: Makes the tank move faster again, and makes the tracks more durable.

Brake System: Tier 2: Helps the tank come to a full stop faster, useful for light/medium tanks, as it's easier to aim when you are not moving.

Filters: Tier 3: Increases engine horsepower, which is useful mostly for climbing hills, also adds more to the top speed of the tank.

Transmision: Tier 4: Very useful for heavy tanks, as they lose a lot of speed when switching gears, this upgrade reduces the effect on them, its not as useful for other tank classes, but helps with acceleration.

Engine: Tier 4: Top of the line engine replaces an old one, makes the tank extremely fast, compared to not having this upgrade.


Parts: Tier 1: Allows repair of more than just tracks, extremely useful, unlimited uses, can fix almost everything.

FPE: Tier 2: Puts out fires, very useful in Medium/Heavy tanks, Light tanks usually burn down before the FPE completes the job.


Turret Mechanism: Tier 1: Makes the turret turn faster, useful for all vehicles.

Adjustment of Fire: Tier 2: Gets rid of the differential between the gun sight and the gun itself, this is because the gun without this upgrade won't necesarilly be in line with the sight, most practical on TD's or tanks with long reload times.

Elevation Mechanism: Tier 3: Allows the gun to move up or down quicker, useful for large guns, or tanks with slow shell flight speed.

Artillery Support: Tier 4: Avalible to all tank classes except heavies and TDs. Allows the user to call for an artillery strike. Very useful for self defense, and for cleaning out a fortified position, as well as the above section's technique.

Most American tanks are built with the intention of infantry support. Initially this is shown with relatively light weapon armament, but a lot of MG ports on their tanks. Later in the lines, the tanks get upgraded to handle larger enemy tanks, like going up from a short barreled 75mm cannon, to a long barreled 76.

Light Tanks: Currently there's only one line of light tanks for America. They are primarily for recon. They don't have any useable armor in all cases, all the way down the line. They are very small compared to other tanks, and they are the fastest tanks in the game. Provided you aren't shot, you should find it easy to get flanking shots onto the enemy. Initially the Americans get the Stuart series. These are very small tanks, which have a very low caliber, but very high velocity 37mm gun, as well as being very speedy, albeit hard to steer. Later comes the Locust, a tank which was intended to be air dropped (via parachute) into the battle field. It's very light, and hitting a bump in the terrain can, and usually will make the tank flip. It still has the same 37mm cannon, but it's small size, and sheer speed can get into places the enemy won't expect. After that comes the Chaffee, a quick, and nimble tank. It's armed with a 75mm gun, capable of penetrating most tanks frontally if within a range of 500 meters. Lastly is the M41. It has the highest penetration values of any light tank, and it can get the special APDS shell. Using the APDS, it can penetrate almost any tank frontally, with the exception of super heavy vehicles, like the Jagdtiger, or the upcoming Maus. This is a comparatively large tank, close to the size of an average medium tank, so remaining undetected is critical.

Medium Tanks: Pretty much every American tank was intended to be a medium tank, until the very late war, then they started toying with the "heavy tank" idea. Initially the americans get the M2 medium. It has the 37mm found on the Stuarts, as well as a compliment of 4 useable 7.62mm mgs. It has a very slow turret traverse, but the tank is surprisingly hard to kill, simply because it's so roomy. Next comes the M3 Lee. It's got two independent turrets, and 2 main guns. The "primary" gun is the 37mm gun mounted in the turret, and the "secondary" gun is the 75mm howitzer mounted into the sponson. It's quite beefy, and at it's tier, is nearly impossible to kill from the front, with a few exceptions. Next comes the entire M4 sherman line. They are all almost identical, except that later they go back to earlier models with the long 76mm. They have very good turret armor, as they were intended to fire from behind hills. Variants with a W also have a "wet" ammo rack, which significantly decreases the chance that the ammo will "burn down". Next would be the M26 Pershing. It's got an all around armor improvement, and it's turret is still incredibly hard to make a damaging penetrating shot, due to it's gun mantlet. It has a 90mm gun too, which at it's BR is pretty good. Lastly are the M47, and M48 Pattons, they have a very good gun, and gun mantlet, but the tank itself is very squishy for the tier. If an enemy "misses" your gun mantlet, and scores a hit, it will likely kill you. Provided you are paying attention though, this shouldn't be an issue.

Heavy Tanks: There really aren't that many American heavy tanks, since we never thought we needed one, until we saw the Tigers. They are pretty beefy though. First is a medium tank in the line, a M4A3, with a 105mm howitzer. Just like a regular M4, but with less ranged gun usability. Next is the M6A1, a very large tank. It has a 76mm, and a 37mm in it's turret. It's pretty hard to dent from the front, unless hit in the "cheeks" of the hull. It's a slow moving powerhouse though. Next are the M4A3E2, otherwise known as the Jumbo. They are very tough nuts to crack, since they were designed for assaulting fortified positions with AT guns. They come with the short 75 initially, and then get the long 76. Slower, more tanky M4's. Next is the T32, a rather quick tank for it's size. At the BR it's hull armor is terrible, but it has the thickest turret armor in the game with two plates of nearly 300mm of armor covering the gun. Lastly is the M103, which is pretty much just a moving gun platform. It's a very large tank, with a 120mm gun. It's armor is a bit terrible anywhere other than on the fairly small mantlet. It has the highest penetrating HEAT shell in the game though, at 380mm of penetration. It can, and usually will punch through anything.

Tank Destroyers: American tank destroyers are pretty much the opposite of all other nations concepts of tank destroyers. American tank destroyers favor speed over armor, or gun size. Almost every one of them can be killed by a HE shell in their own tier, until you achieve tier 5, and you unlock the "doom turtle" T95. Before the T95, all american tank destroyers have fully rotating turrets. In general the guns are a bit small, but quite efficient, having some of the fastest reload times in the game for weapon caliber, as well as decent shell velocity (but not necessarily penetration power).

M2A2

Tier: Reserve

Role: Infantry Support

This is really a M2A4, but instead of a largeish turret and a 37mm gun, it has two turrets, each holding a machine gun. One turret contains a 12.7 Browning MG, which is actually very effective in close quarters, and the other turret has a 7.62 Browning.


M2A4

Tier: Reserve

Role: Reconisance/ Infantry Support

This is the fastest reserve in the game (so far). It's got a quite decent 37mm cannon, the shots fly extremely fast. It's armor is thin, but it's sloped very well on the front, with the exception of the drivers and machine gunners viewports. If a shot does penetrate however, this vehicle does catch fire very quickly.


M3 Stuart

Tier: 1

Role: Reconnaissance/ Infantry Support

Very similar in almost all respects as the above, but with a bit more armor all around.


M3A1 Stuart

Tier: 1

Role: Reconnaissance/ Infantry Support

Same as above again, but with a slightly more modernized turret. The coupula has been changed to a periscope, and a rather thick gun mantlet is now in place. The turret also will turn a bit faster. The gun also has a bit more penetration ability as well.


M5A1 Stuart

Tier: 2

Role: Reconnaissance/ Infantry Support

Similar to the Stuarts above, but actually a lot different. It's hull get's thicker, and there's no real "drivers plate", but the improvement in armor is negated by how little sloping is on it. It's gun however, gets improved ammunition, and it's faster than the M3 due to the twin engines. This two engine layout can sometimes prevent total engine failure from a direct hit too.


M22 Locust

Tier: 3

Same gun as the M5, but mounted onto a paper thin chassis. This tank is by far, the fastest tank in the game, giving an "arcadey" feel, even in RB or SB. This tank is incredibly light however, so it''s very easy to tip it over if going too fast.


M24 Chaffee

Tier: 4

(Forgot to get an X-ray of this one). This is a step up, all around from the Locust. This tank still has very thin armor, but a quite decent 75mm gun. For it's tier, it has a rather low sillouete, when compered to something like a T-34-85 or a T-44. It's also prety quick, and easy to handle.


M41 Walker Bulldog

Tier: 5

This tank is pretty amazing, if you can get past the fact that a MG chan penetrate it's armor. It's got a 76mm AT gun on it, and it has the unique (for now) APDS shell, which can pretty much penetrate anything in the game from the side, or front when at very close range.

M2

Tier: 1

The first american medium tank. It's got 5 independent machine guns, and the 37mm gun from the M3 Stuart. It has a very slow turret traverse time, and overall, it's not the fastest tank, but the armor is decent, and the tank is quite roomy. A shot to the center of mass is unlikely to do any major damage, besides killing the driver, and maybe knocking out the engine.


M3 Lee

Tier: 1

Quite an interesting concept for a tank. This vehicle has two turrets, stacked on top of each other, as well as a TD like 75mm howitzer mounted in a sponson on the right of the tank. It's got some very heavy armor on the front, but it's main weak point is the sides of the sponson (the big gun), since that's primarily where the large caliber ammo is stored, a shot can usually pass through the armor there, no problem.


M4A1

Tier: 2

First of the Sherman series of tanks. It's got a well rounded hull, and turret. The gun is decent at mid range, but at longer ranges, it can be like a German short 75mm. Overall, a surprisingly bouncy tank to shoot at. It's also got a 12.7mm M2HB, pretty much the aircraft M2, but with an ammo box, and pintle mounted. It can, and usually will pierce the sides of early german tanks, like the PZ III or IV.


M4

Tier: 2

Virtually the same as the above, but with a flatter chassis, and some extra armor plates to protect the crew and ammo (also effectively saying "Shoot me here!").


M4A2

Tier: 3

Pretty much identical to the above, but with a better engine, and a slightly faster turret.


M4A1 (76) W

Tier: 3

A modified M4A1 with a 76mm AT gun. The gun offers a much better penetration chance at any range, and the vehicle gets "wet" ammo racks, signified by the W, which means the ammo will be much less likely to catch fire.


M4A2 (76) W

Tier: 3

Same modification applied to the A2, not much else to say.


M4A3 (76) W

Tier: 4

Once again, gun modification of the A3 this time.


M26 Pershing

Tier: 4

A new type of tank, developed and put into service just before the end of the war. This tank was, to a certain extent, designed to deal with the Tiger. It's got a pretty thick gun mantlet, as well as turret armor. It also has a 90mm gun capable of sending steel through pretty much anything except for later German TDs, and the Tiger II when shooting the hull.


M46 Patton

Tier: 5

Essentially a modernized Pershing. It has a slightly improved gun, with more ammo choices, but otherwise, it's the same.


M47 Patton II

Tier: 5

Same tank, but with a modified turret. It's got essentially the same gun as before, except that this gun can load HEAT, and do it a bit faster. The turret is bigger, and now actually a weak point, if it's shot at either in the cheeks next to the gun mantlet, or above it.


M60 Patton

Tier: 5

This is the modernized version of the M46/47. It has the M68 (L7A3) cannon, which is in fact still used today in some nations armies. It is capable of firing APDS, a HESH round, and a fin stabilized HEAT round. Overall the armor is mediocre everywhere but the gun mantlet again, but this tank is nimble and deadly.

M4A3 (105)
Tier: 2

This is the same tank as the M4A3 in the above section, except that it's armed with a very powerful, if hard to aim, 105mm howitzer. It's quite maneuverable, but prone to ammo detonation if anyting so much as scrapes an ammo rack, since it can only carry HE or HEAT shells.


M6A1
Tier: 3

This very boxy tank is the prototype heavy tank. It's got a 76mm main gun, as well as a coaxial mounted 37mm gun from the Stuart. It's very hard to penetrate if you shoot at it directly into the front, but both sides (including the frontal corners) are rather weak.


M4A3E2
Tier: 3

This is the assault variant of the M4 Sherman. It has a significant amount of armor, especially around the turret, and it's gun mantlet is near impenetrable by anything at it's tier. It does use the short 75mm gun however.


M4A3E2 (76) W
Tier: 4

Same modification as all shermans in this game underwent. This tank gets the long 76mm gun, and wet ammo racks. Otherwise though, it's about the same.


T32
Tier: 4

One of my favorite tanks, primarily because of it's strongpoint. The turret front on this vehicle is 298mm thick, AND the gun mantlet is also 298mm thick. This is an excellent tank to do hull down sniping in with it's 90mm gun. It is fragile from the sides (and to a lesser extent, front of the hull), and can't traverse the hull very quickly though.


M103
Tier: 5

The final heavy tank tank the americans receive. This tank is in fact quite different, and comparatively, not that heavy. It's got quite a few armor weaknesses when shooting at it, from pretty much any angle, as there are quite a few shot traps. However, what makes this tank worth it, is the 120mm gun, which using default rounds can penetrate >210mm of armor at 2000 meters, and using the HEAT rounds, can literally penetrate any tank in the game, due to it's 380mm effective armor penetration. This tank is literally a glass cannon (in terms of tanks).

75MM M3 GMC
Tier: 1

Literally a half track with a gun. It's pretty quick, but it's not a tank in a lot of ways. It's got a very potent gun for tier 1, but it has no armor, and it can't turn without moving forward or backwards. The one thing that makes it surprisingly durable is the fact that the vehicle has literally no armor. Most shots pass clean through, but HE shots to this vehicle, usually will kill it.


M10 GMC (Wolverine)
Tier: 2

In the most basic sense, a very lightly armored, and faster M4. It's got roughly the same gun as the basic M4, and a fairly well armored turret, but that's about it.


M18 GMC (Hellcat)
Tier: 3

This tank broke the balance of the game, mostly because nobody carried HE shells with them, due to the fact that they expected armor. This tank is extremely fast, capable of an on-road speed of 80 km/h, and has a powerful 76mm gun, but it has, essentially, no armor. HE shells usually will kill this tank, since a 50mm HE has enough force to pierce the armor of this vehicle. Most 12.7 MM guns can peirce it's armor too.


M38 GMC (Jackson/Slugger)
Tier: 4

Similar to how the M10 was like an M4, this is similar to a M4 Jumbo, but with a 90mm gun, and a bit (lot) less armor. It's not particularly quick, but it is still faster than most other tanks.


T95 105mm GMC (Doom Turtle)
ier: 5

This tank is rather interesting, it's got 300+ mm of armor on the front of the tank, and it's gun mantlet is 300+ mm on top of that. It's very hard to punch from the front, and it's side armor is entirely spaced, but a bit thin. This is the slowest tank in the game, and i've never seen it go above 12 km/h, although I think it's possible to get it up to 20 km/h.

M13 MGC
Tier: 1

A twin mounted Browning M2 setup on a maxon turret, mounted into the M3 Halftrack. Very good rate of fire compared to most SPAAA, but largely inaccurate at moderate range. This SPAAA will most likely set the target on fire, especially with upgraded, non-AP ammunition. Otherwise, this rarely takes parts off of planes. Surprisingly well armored at tier 1 for SPAAA, but HE shells will hurt a lot to take, even from 20mm guns. Decent penetration against ground units at close range if required.


M16 MGC
Tier: 2

Same as the above, but with a quad mount of M2 MG, instead of just two. Doubles fire density, making this SPAAA hard to evade if it's shooting in your general direction.


M15 MGC
Tier: 3

Diffrent gun setup, still mounted on the M3 halftrack, which is effectavely, two M2 brownings, with the 37mm from the P-63 Airacobra. This 37mm is designed to take down aircraft, so never expect it to penetrate a tank.


M19
Tier: 4

Twin 40mm M2 (Bofors) mounted onto the chassis of a Chaffee, with two fairly small gun shields for the exposed crew. Relatively slow fire rate, but very deadly against aircraft if a single shot manages to hit. It's also got fairly good penetration with it's AP round if you need it to. The turret ring is lined with ammo however, in a relatively easy to see manner, since the boxes lining the turret are in fact ammunition racks.


M42 Duster
Tier: 5

Nearly identical to the above, but mounted onto the chassis of a M41 Walker Bulldog, and both cannons have muzzle brakes, which helps to increase initial shell velocity, which in turn helps a bit with AP penetration.

Generally, German tanks are built to be tanks which excel at long range combat. Most of them have superior frontal armor, but the side and rear armor is usually so bad, it's almost a joke. This however emphasizes their role, of staying back, and using their superior gun penetration, and reload speed.

Light tanks: Currently the germans only have 2 types of light tanks, the PZ II, and the Pz.Kpfw. They are surprisingly well armored for their tier and vehicle class, but only on the front. The Pz.Kpfw has a very good single shot gun, capable of penetrating most low tier tanks, and it's fairly accurate, making it good for hitting weaknesses on enemy vehicles. The Pz.II has a 20mm KwK autocannon, overall, it's power comes mainly from how many bullets come out of the gun, and the swiftness of belt reloads. Both of these tanks have hard to hit ammo racks, and overall are pretty durable. They can be best played as "brawlers", get in close, shoot your target, then reverse diagonally, as to keep the front of the tank pointed at the enemy at an angle, increasing armor effectiveness.

Medium Tanks: Very high variety in terms of numbers, albeit, they are mostly mods of the same vheicle. German mediums can be characterized as having good (although unsloped, with the exception of the panther variants) frontal armor, as well as having some of the more menacing guns on the field. They have excellent penetration ability all around, but they don't deal as much internal damage when they do. Their major weaknesses are the ammunition racks, usually located above the tracks, the fact that the transmission is frontally mounted, and the general weakness of turret armor with the exception of the panther. When using these, try to engage at mediim-long range, as you are going to be more effective at such distances, partially because of your accuracy, and partially because you don't want to get hit in your weak points, which can be catastrophic.

Heavy Tanks: Currently only comprises of Tiger model tanks. They have insane frontal armor, but surprisingly bad side armor. Their guns can penetrate almost anything (once armor models are corrected), and they shoot pretty quickly for the caliber of shell used. Also, they are extraordinarily accurate, able to hit a target at 1.2k meters with little effort. When using these, be the "lead sniper" try to engage at a tasteful range, but don't be afraid to push, as you are intended to be she spearhead of the column, you should take down the heavier targets primarily, and try to avoid running into contact with light tanks, as your side armor is crap, and you will usually be ammo racked if anything hits you from the side.

Tank Destroyers: Very powerful, all around. Their guns are HUGE, and easily capable of knocking out heavies, when used properly. Generally these have extremely good frontal armor, about 200mm, sloped at about 45 degrees at the ending tiers, but this pattern is present from the tier 1 Stug. Your job is to camp, preferably at the end of a long view corridor, and kick the ass of anything that comes within your line of fire. Using these, you must be aware of your situation, as you turn slowly, and have bad side and rear armor, overall though, these vehicles are absolute monsters if used correctly.

Pz. II Asuf. C

Tier: Reserve

Role: Infantry Support/Reconnaissance

Playstyle: Stick to the sides, try not to engage directly with enemies. When/if you do engage, do it from within 200m. Decent frontal armor for tier 1, but definitely don't rely on it. Uses an autocannon, low penetration, but if targeting weak points, can be lethal.

Pz. II Asuf. F

Tier: 1

Role: Infantry Support/Reconnaissance

Playstyle: Same as above, but the gun fires much quicker, so you usually won't even need to stop and aim, although it's highly recommended.

Pz. 38(t) A

Tier: 1

Role: Armored Support/Recon/Sniper

Playstyle: This tank should be played as a sniper, it's armor is terrible, but the gun is very impressive and very accurate.

Pz. 38(t) F

Tier: 1

Role: Armored Support/Sniper

Playstyle: Same as above, but slightly more armored, so it's slightly safer to get closer to an enemy.

Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. E.

Tier: 1

Role: Close Armored Support

Playstyle: Can get close to enemies, it has decent armor, but not recommended. Preferably engages targets at 300m using AP.

Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. F

Tier: 1

Role: Close Armored Support

Playstyle: Same as above, but with uprated armor, and gun. Feels safer to use, and can engage at longer range effectively.

Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. L

Tier: 2

Role: Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Very accurate at long range with very good armor at given engagement distances. Can penetrate most tanks of its tier frontally at 300m.

Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. M

Tier: 3

Role: Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Same as above, but with additional armor plates visibly added around the vehicle. This extra armor plating is extremely useful against HEAT, or HE rounds, although it only works while attached to the vehicle.

Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. C

Tier: 1

Role: Anti infantry.

Playstyle: Difficult to use initially, as you have only AP or HE. You should be using HE, unless you are very close to your target, then you should use AP. After some work however, you should fire exclusively HEAT once unlocked, as it emphasised the size of the shell at the tier.

Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. F1

Tier: 2

Role: Anti Infantry

Playstyle: Similar to the above Panzer, except that the gun is slightly better, making AP a more viable option to use initially, however HEAT shells are still the best option once researched. Also, the vehicle is more well armored.

Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. F2

Tier: 2

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: This is the first true "sniper" of the series, it's got a very powerful AP shell, stock. It's also very accurate, you should engage from as far as reasonably possible 600 to 1k meters is good, depending on the target.

Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. G

Tier: 3

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Very similar to the above tank. Same armor, better gun, barely. In this tank, against the tanks you will face, distance is definitely your friend.

Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. H

Tier: 3

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Exactly the same as the above tank, but with sideskirts. Similarly powerful against tanks as its predecessor. Armor spacing/sideskirts will save the vehicle from HE/HEAT shots to the side a few times before getting blown off.

Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf. D

Tier: 3

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: This tank is the initial Panther, excels at long range, but if anything comes close to it, it has a extremely bad frontal weakness, theres a gap in the armor spacing on the turret, and the hull, creating a "shot trap".

Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf. A

Tier: 4

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Second iteration of the Panther, acts extremely similar to the first variant, but this does not have the "shot trap".

Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf. G

Tier: 4

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Same as the above Panther, but with a longer barrel, making it even MORE accurate, and has even higher penetration.

Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf. F

Tier: 5

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Comparatively, underpowered at this point, facing off against T-54s, still dangerous, but it can now be sniped back at.

Pz.Kpfw. V Panther II

Tier: 5

Role: Paper (Never Built)/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Extremely powerful, extremely accurate, but under armored. You can't use the thermal sight, but it's accuracy is shown.


Leopard 1

Tier: 5

This tank is still in service today, albeit with more modern equipment in a lot of countries. This was effectively designed to be able to compete with the T-54 at the time. It has the amazing L7A3 gun, capable of firing the new HESH and fin stabilized HEAT round as well as the APDS round. Overall it's an incredibly fast tank with great gun depression, and a pretty amazing reverse speed. It's armor is pretty bad however, and it's ammunition is pretty much all stacked in the front of the tank, next to the driver.

Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. H1

Tier: 3

Role: Tank Hunter

Playstyle: This tank will be very fun after coming from a "flimsy" tank like the PZ 3. Treat it like you'd regularly do with the PZ 3 and rejoice in your superior firepower and accuracy. DO NOT get flanked, as the ammo is lining the tracks.

Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B

Tier: 4

Role: Tank Hunter

Playstyle: This is an upgrade over the original PZ VI, it has a much more armored turret, but it has some obvious shell traps, and the gun got significantly longer, making it have a very high shell velocity, and penetration values.

Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B (Henschel)

Tier: 4

Role: Tank Hunter

Playstyle: This tank is an extremely tough nut to crack from the front, since the turret has been upgraded significantly, still the same gun as before.

Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. B mit KwK 46

Tier: 5

Role: Tank Hunter

Playstyle: Very powerful cannon, but at the tier, the armor you relied upon isn't as reliable, albeit this can be fixed by proper angling, you will have a rough time in this at the tier.


Pz.Kpfw. Maus

Tier: 5

This is the heaviest, and most well armored tank in the game, with 200mm or armor all around. This tank is incredibly hard to kill from the front. It's side armor, being the same thickness, is completely flat however. This is a vheicle best kept at range, since flanking shots can, and usually will get through.

Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. A

Tier: 1

Role: Self Propelled Howitzer

Playstyle: Very similar to the original PZ IV except with a lot more armor. Works best when firing HE, or HEAT, as the gun's muzzle velocity is low, resulting in low penetration values with AP at any distance. You need to be relatively close to hit anything reliably.

Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. F

Tier: 2

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Same chassis as the original Sturmgeschütz, but with a much better gun. Capable of sniping vehicles reliably at ranges of 500 meters.

Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G

Tier: 3

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Same model tank as the Stug F, but with additional spacing, keeping the vheicle safe from HEAT shots to the side.

Jagdpanzer IV/48

Tier: 3

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: The first of the "true" tank destroyers, very accurate gun, with high penetration values for AP at medium ranges.

Panzer IV/70(V)

Tier: 3

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Upgraded weaponry than on the original, extraordinarily accurate at ranges of 1k meters, capable of penetrating almost anything it faces.

Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer

Tier: 3

Role: Assault Gun

Playstyle: This is a lot like the other german TDs, but it's intended to get much closer than the other tank destroyers. It has amazing frontal armor, but the side armor is about as much as a Japanese Zero had. Very good if used in a way that you won't get flanked.

Jagdpanzer V Jagdpanther

Tier: 4

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Now we get to the scary looking stuff, this tank is very powerful at range, and cannot be penetrated frontally at moderate range.

Panzerjäger Tiger (P) Ferdinand
Tier: 4

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Even more scary than the Jagdpanther, very thick armor, but, the armor on the top half has little/no sloping, which means it can be fairly easy to penetrate with a high end APCR round (which is the only thing which can penetrate it frontally).

Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger

Tier: 5

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Oh boy, you will have fun with this one. You can penetrate anything, and provided you aren't getting shot in the side, nothing can penetrate you.

Flakpanzer I Asuf A.
Tier: 1

Effectively a Panzer II, but with a quickly traversable turret, which can aim up, almost 90 degrees. This vehicle is very small, and weakly armored, as well as having only 2 crew. It is very effective against aircraft if using the HE ammunition. The AP, and HVAP more in particular are capable of penetrating quite a few tier 2 tanks if required. Very low ammo capacity on board though, so aim to make your shots count, as going to a base to reload is near suicidal.


Gepard
Tier: 1

Nearly identical to the above in pretty much every way. I'm pretty sure this is a converted troop transport. It's a bit of a larger target, as a result, but it also has a much higher ammunition capacity.


Sd. Kfz. 6/2
Tier: 2

The true pinnacle of German engineering, a truck with a gun strapped to it. This vehicle has a "technically" upgraded gun, at the 37mm caliber. It fires about 25% as fast as the flakpanzer, but if a shot connects, it can usually one shot aircraft with it's fragmentation round. This literally a truck though, so it has according to the game 1mm of armor (i'd imagine it might be around 2, but for all intents and purposes, still useless). If shot at in the cabin by a 7mm MG the driver WILL get killed, not including possible engine fire. If you fight against one of these, a single HE round near it will usually kill it, or cripple it.


Whirbelwind
Tier: 3

A Panzer IV, with a (mostly) enclosed turret. Carrying 4 20mm Flak38's. This vehicle has a very very high fire density, quite a lot like the M16 in the above section, and will usually destroy a plane with 2 shots. The hull is the same as on the Panzer IV G, so it has 80mm of armor on the flat portions, but the turret is 16mm thick, which can usually trigger the fuse on most types of APHE rounds. A shot into the turret usually will knock out the entire crew.


Ostwind
Tier: 3

Effectavely the same as the above, but with a 37mm in place of the 4 20mm's. It does shoot fairly quickly, and has pretty good shell velocity too.


Kugelblitz
Tier: 4

Panzer IV G hull again, with a fully enclosed turret carrying two 30mm Mk103s. This vehicle is very effective against aircraft, since it has a "fully running" ammunition belt into both guns, which means it won't need to reload. It doesn't have a specific HE only belt, nor AP only belt though.


Coelian
Tier: 5

A Panther, with twin 37mm cannons, from the Ostwind. With the double guns, this vehicle has exceptional lethality against aircraft, and can reasonably track most tanks, or (what most people do) take out their cannons.

British tanks in general are typically specialized to fuffil a certian role, and in real life were split between two types of tank. The cruiser tank, which focuses on speed and firepower, and the infantry tank, which is heavily armored to defend against AT rifles, and to a lesser extent AT guns, and is designed to move at about the speeds a man can run at, as a result they are tough to kill, but extremely easy to flank. One significant thing to note about British tanks in general is a distinct lack of any form of APHE rounds on any of their tanks.

Light Tanks: The few light tanks the UK has are extremely lightly armored, and have decent guns for their tiers. There is currently only 4 vehicles (excluding 1 premium) that are defined as a light tank for Britian in War Thunder.

Medium Tanks: British Medium Tanks in general tend to be rather mobile, and quite decently armored, notably the Cromwell at the beginning of the medium tank series. Later down the line the UK gets some Lend-Lease shermans, as well as the modified signature Sherman Firefly, with the 17 Pounder gun. Shortly after those are the comet and chalenger, which are further modifications of the Cromwell, and fianally, you get the "Main Battle Tank" Centurion and Chieftan, which all have some decent armor, and very punchy guns, most of which at this point firing APDS shells.

Heavy Tanks: British Heavies are mostly the Churchill infantry tank line, and also include the Matilda in this category, even though other games might not consider it a heavy. Most of these tanks are exceptionally welll armored, but pretty slow, and also have very decent guns.

Tank Destroyers: Most of the British tank destroyers are built off the chassis of something else, notably the Archer, which is a Valentine tank, with the gun facing the back. Much further down the line is the Tortoise, which is an assault, almost bunker tank on par with the American T-95, and after that are two turreted tank destroyers, both armed with exceptionally powerful cannons, one of which on the FV4005 might as well be considered a naval artillery gun. All of these Tank destroyers, excluding the Tortose are generally lightly armored, but have amazing guns.

Russian tanks are generally described as "kaboom". They have insanely powerful guns, almost always having a shell caliber at least 1/2 higher than other tanks. Also, they have decent "all around" armor, so shooting the back of one of these, might not be "insta pen".

Light Tanks: Hilariously thin armor, but, extremely sloped. The "armor profile" makes these tanks extremely speedy, but when shot at by HE, extremely flimsy. Their guns can be described as "acceptable" they have very low muzzle velocities in general, making them pretty inaccurate at anything which isn't point blank range. You can offset the inaccuracy however, by using your speed, to get in, shoot, get out, repeat. The only real exception to this rule is the T-50, also known as the "pocket heavy" capable of dueling with same tier medium tanks, if the driver appropriately slopes the 40mm armor.

Medium Tanks: Almost entirely T-34 models, a tank with 45mm of frontal armor, sloped at 60 degrees. These tanks are similar to russian lights, they move quick, and their guns generally have low muzzle velocity, so the closer the better. This is a very good tank to duel against any enemy with, as most shots to the front of the hull will bounce, however, an oft forgotten weakness is that this tank has the same armor value for the turret, generally making the whole thing a big weak point. The other types of tanks are the T-28, a breakthrough tank, intended to get in, and blow the crap out of everything with HE shells from its 76.2mm gun, has decent armor, but very big weak points. As well as there being the T-54, which is honestly, overpowered, as the armor model appears to be very broken, making it nigh invincible from the front.

Heavy Tanks: Comprise initially of the KV series of tanks, which reflect the russian doctrine of "deep combat". Essentially they are intended to be self sufficient, even behind enemy lines, they are very thickly armored, from the front, and almost equally so on the back, although the sides are not. Their guns are pretty great for russian standards, albeit slow reloading. This gun attitude is emphasized in the KV-2, with its 152mm anti-concrete cannon, easily capable of 1 shotting anything it faces. After the KV line comes the IS line of tanks. They are mostly intended to be able to hold their own against the German Tiger tanks, they have a long 122 anti tank cannon, and their armor is thick, and rounded (although roundness isn't counted in the armor model yet). Mostly the IS's have the same hull attributes of the KV series, making them weak to side shots. Basically these tanks are intended to rammed head on into enemy tanks (figuratively), as their armor is intended to accommodate these tactics, however, the driver must be aware of someone who knows that the weaknesses are the SIDE, not the REAR.

Tank Destroyers: These are initially pathetic, their gun is good, but everything else is hilariously bad. The initial tank destroyer is the Zis-30, litterally a tractor with a gun. This tank simply cannot survive a hit from anything, but then, nothing can survive a hit from it, so... its all a matter of who shoots first. As a driver of this tank, make it a point that you don't get spotted, and you should be fine. Afterwards, comes the SU-76, pretty much doing the same thing as the Zis did to a T-70. It's actually decent if you can get past the fact that being open topped makes the tank extremely vulnerable to HE shells, you should follow the same doctrine you did from a Zis, but you don't need to be terrified of a Pz.II, as you have some armor. Later, you get to the "real" tank destroyers, the russians had a habit of turning what they already had in to tank destroyers, which led to some surprising results. Generally, they follow the order of T-34 chassis, and armor, which then leads to a KV chassis and armor, which then leads to the IS chassis and armor, all carrying powerful guns along the way. They should be treated as "close range snipers" they don't have very accurate guns, but what they do have is punch for when they penetrate. They are actually pretty mobile for a TD, but you should still be aware of your situations, as a side shot usually will cripple the entire crew, if the shot was near the front.

T-26 mod. 1939

Tier: Reserve

Role: Infantry Support

Playstyle: You won't have fun with this at all. Your gun is pretty good, but you have no armor, AND the crew are all sitting within 3 inches of each other. A hit from almost anything to your center will kill you, but you have to start somewhere.

BT-7

Tier: 1

Role: Armored Support

Playstyle: What this tank lacks in for armor it makes up for in sheer speed. Try to flank your enemies, and shoot for fuel tanks. Against earlier enemies, your extreme frontal sloping can bounce a few low tier shells (pretty much only the PZ. II variants).

T-50

Tier: 1

Role: Infantry Support (Pocket Heavy)

Playstyle: You are a light tank with very impressive armor, perform the same tactics as the BT-7, but feel a bit more comfortable taking fire, as a properly angled tank can mitigate almost all damage directed at you.

T-60

Tier: 1

Role: Infantry Support

Playstyle: This is basically the russian PZ II. It's autocannon holds 4 times the amount of shells in the clip, but the reload time is horrendous. If shot at frontally, you should be OK, if not shot at by HE.

T-70

Tier: 1

Role: Infantry Support

Playstyle: Similar in many ways to the T-60, but with more armor and less slope, so it's a wash in that category, however it carries the decent for it's tier 45mm. Treat like the T-60 but without the horrible reload time.

T-80

Tier: 2

Role: Infantry Support

Playstyle: Slightly bigger than the T-70, and has some armor to show for it. Basically treated the same, but has some endurance against things of it's tier and lower if shot at into the front.

T-28

Tier: 1

Role: Breakthrough/Anti-Infantry

Playstyle : This is very refreshing compared to what you were forced to use before. Decent frontal armor, and a very big gun, but can't really engage at long-medium range due to the shell velocity. Preferably use HE, or Shrapnel.

T-34 1940 L11

Tier: 2

Role: Anti-Infantry

Playstyle: The first of the T-34 series. Decent hull armor, decent gun. Was mainly built to counter the PZ III, and does the job pretty well.

T-34 1941

Tier : 2

Role: Anti-Infantry

Playstyle: Same exact model as the above T-34 but with a slightly better gun, which is more accurate, and has slightly better AP penetration.

T-34 1942

Tier: 2

Role: Anti-Infantry

Playstyle: Another weapon upgrade for the series, again more accurate and better penetration, but the armor is starting to lack in usefulness.

T-34-57

Tier: 3

Role: Anti-Infantry/Anti-Tank

Playstyle: This is a substantial upgrade to the armament to the T-3-34. The armor is still the same, but the cannon fires extraordinarily fast but is a smaller caliber.

T-34-85(D-5T)

Tier : 3

Role: Anti-Tank

Playstyle: This is a very well upgraded T-34, actually upgrading the turret, which was a noticeable weak point prior.

T-34-85

Tier: 4

Role: Anti-Tank

Playstyle: Upgraded main cannon makes it very deadly when used properly, best used at moderately long range.

T-44

Tier: 4

Role: Anti-Tank

Playstyle: The Russians decided, finally to try something new in terms of tank hulls, keeping the T-34-85 turret, but substantially changing the hull for the better.

T-54 mod. 1947

Tier: 5

Role: MBT

Playstyle: It's turret is near impenetrable. The gun is also decent, but slightly worse than on the T-44 when it comes down to reliable penetration.

T-54 mod. 1951

Tier: 5

Role: MBT

Playstyle: This was built specifically to kill the Tiger II, so it's arguably overpowered, and cannot be penetrated by anything frontally.

KV-1

Tier: 2

Role: Spearhead

Playstyle: This is basically a moving wall, it was designed to soak up fire from the PZ IV, it's very hard to outright kill in general, unless the ammo gets hit.

KV-1 ZIS-5

Tier: 2

Role: Spearhead

Playstyle: Same as the above KV, but with an upgraded gun, making it shoot faster, and penetrate armor slightly better, as well as a bit of extra armor added to the front.

KV-2

Tier: 3

Role: Bunker Buster

Playstyle: Pretty much the entire summation of this tank is BOOM. It has the KV armor, and the front of the turret is a little tougher, but the sides will make the tank explode if hit.

KV-85

Tier: 3

Role: Heavy Tank/Panther Equivalent

Playstyle: Pretty quick compared to the other heavies you've been using. However, this is shown in terms of hull armor, it's still decent, but not reliable anymore.


IS-1

Tier: 3

Role: Heavy Tank

Playstyle: Armor is sloped almost everywhere, making the whole front of the tank very hard to penetrate, as well as having a 85mm anti-tank gun, similar to the gun on the T-34-85. However, the fuel tanks are sorta easy to hit, and fires will be common.

IS-2

Tier : 4

Role: Heavy Tank

Playstyle: Same tank, but with a much bigger gun. A very beastly tank.

IS-2 mod. 1944

Tier: 4

No visible shot traps, compared to the prior tanks you may have used, very hard to kill from the front in general.

IS-3

Tier: 5

Role: Tiger Hunter

Playstyle: Unbelievable frontal armor, except for a major weakness (which should be implemented soon) the turret has no gun mantlet, making it very weak when shot at, leading to ammo detonation.

IS-4M

Tier: 5

Role: Tiger II Hunter

Playstyle: Really, it's just impossible to kill, unless you hit it in the back, then you might set it on fire.


T-10

Tier: 5

This is an all around upgrade over the IS-4. This tank is probably also known as the IS-8. It has a modernized 122mm cannon, which is actually a bit inferior to the M60, and Leopard cannon. It is capable of mostly firing the same rounds, but it can't fire HESH, instead it gets an explosive APCPC round. This tank is surprisingly fast, and infuriating to try and penetrate from the front. It's also got a KPVT Heavy Machine Gun mounted in the turret, which has a VERY high amount of penetration for a machine gun.

ZIS-30

Tier:1

Role: Tank Destroyer/Stopgap for Development

Playstyle: This tank is how you should learn to use all tank destroyers, you have NO armor, and the crew is completely exposed. However, your gun is insanely powerful, so make sure you get the first shot, and try not to get shot back at.

SU-76M

Tier: 2

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Pretty much the same gun statistics as the ZIS-30, but in a vehicle with some armor, the whole tank has an open top, so if you get shot at by HE, the vehicle is dead.

SU-122

Tier: 2

Role: Self Propelled Howitzer

Playstyle: This tank is very satisfying, the gun is insanely powerful, if it hits, or comes close to hitting its target. It has modest armor, but it's useable. Very long reload time though. Built on the chassis of a T-34.

SU-85

Tier: 3

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Same chassis of the 122, but has an actual intended anti tank cannon, decent reload rate, pretty good damage, but comparatively weak armor at the tier.


SU-152

Tier: 3

Role: Self Propelled Howitzer

Playstyle: Exactly like the SU-122, but much bigger gun, and slightly slower reload. Based on the KV chassis, and has relatively good armor.

SU-85M

Tier:3

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Same as the original SU-85, but with more armor, again based off the KV.
SU-100

Tier: 4

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstlyle: Based off the KV-85 chassis, has the same armor as the prior tanks, but the gun is far better.

SU-122

Tier: 4

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Tougher armor, bigger gun, slightly less penetration, not much else to say.

SU-122S

Tier: 4

Role: Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Exactly the same as above, but with a better gun, allowing for higher AP penetration, and accuracy.

ISU-152

Tier: 5

Role: Self Propelled Howitzer/Tank Destroyer

Playstyle: Very powerful, based on the IS-1 chassis. Can kill nearly anything it faces from the front, or even better if firing into the side of something.

4M-GAZ-AAA
Tier: 1

4 Liquid cooled machine guns on the back of a truck. This is not capable of engaging anything with armor at all, but it does have some effectiveness when shooting at aircraft. 1mm of armor all around, and the gunner is exposed, making this thing VERY easy to kill.


72-K-GAZ MM
Tier: 2

Another truck with a gun. This time carrying a 25mm autocannon. The gun crew does have a shield to protect them, but the vehicle itself is mostly made of wood, which means enough shots to the chassis itself will render the truck "combat ineffective".


ZSU-37
Tier: 4

A T-70 chassis with a fully rotating 37mm gun. Decent fire rate, and can carry HVAP which can penetrate up to 102mm of armor in perfect conditions.


ZSU-57-2
Tier: 5

This paper thin version of the T-54 has arguably the most overpowered pairs of guns in the game. Using stock AP rounds it can penetrate 102mm or armor, and with HVAP, it can go through 142mm. It's fairly effective against aircraft too. The main downside to this is that it's pretty much built out of ammunition, and a shot virtually anywhere will make the vehicle explode.

Coming soon.

This section is about how to be a good teammate, and will teach the roles of the vehicle classes.

So far, all tank battles are "capture the point," this means in order to win, your team must capture more zones than the enemy. To do this well, your team will need to actively participate in offensive pushes. Too many times I've seen teams sniping into a point while the enemy team proceeds to capture. If you want to win, don't be that guy sitting in the back sniping, be the guy going in and clearing out the point, once that is done, then you can snipe all you want. Tank battles are won via coordinated offenses, not by how many kills are made.

Each tank class has a different role in every battle, some are "transferable" depending on the vehicle but usually each vehicle should stick to its own role.

Light Tanks: Primarily your role is to scout out targets for the rest of the team. You will almost always have mediocre armor, and shouldn't actively engage the enemy, instead, you should be spotting targets so the rest of the team knows where the enemies weaknesses are. Only in certain situations should you engage, taking down AA, and attacking other similarly light targets, or, given the opportunity, shoot for the rear of an enemy, and set it on fire. You should always avoid the front lines if you can, try to take side routes and other paths so that the enemy either won't search for you, or you can provide yourself with an opportunity to cripple an enemy.

Medium Tanks: You are the multirole vehicle, you can try scouting, although you will probably not succeed as much as a light would. Instead your role usually is perimeter/flank defense, or you support a push. Perimeter defense is critical, if an enemy can get behind you, they will hurt you. In perimeter defense, you need to pay attention to the sides of the map, or other places in which your team isn't actively using or engaged, usually smart light tanks will try to get behind your lines and either spot for their team, or outright kill things by shooting into the back of an occupied tank. Your role at that point is simply, preventing them from doing this. Shoot them down on contact if possible, as it will minimize your teams exposure to the enemy. The second role is to support pushes, two guns is better than one. Try to stick with your teammates, and when you engage an enemy, force them to deal with both of you, they will only be able to aim at one if you, usually exposing weaker turret or hull armor.

Heavy Tanks: Your role is to be the spearhead of the advance, charging into the enemies bases and points. You are usually the toughest guy on your team, and usually cary the biggest guns. If your team is having trouble breaking through the enemy's lines, go in. When you do, try to shoot the biggest threat to your team, usually in this order, TD, Heavy, AA, Medium, Light. Your job is only to force entry, and keep a strong defense, you rely more on your team than any other class.

Tank Destroyer: Your role is to do ambushes. This makes you dependent on your team to inform you where the enemies are, as setting up can take some time. This is the only tank class in which it's OK to snipe into a point instead of taking it. As a TD you will usually have the most powerful gun on your team, so, if you have the choice, shoot for heavier targets as sometimes your teammates otherwise wouldn't be able to harm them.

AA: ONLY USE THIS IN REALISTIC OR SIMULATOR. This has changed recently, but the tactics are the same. When you use this, stay far away from the fighting, your sole purpose is to shoot down planes. You will almost always see them coming, due to the inherent nature of a plane being a plane. Only once you are certain there are no enemy planes on the map, can you start being dumb. You are not intended to kill tanks, but it doesn't mean you can't. Always use AP if engaged with a tank, if you are at close range your autocannon can shred tanks, but be aware, a HE shell from literally any tank can, and usually will, one shot you.

If you do plan on purchasing premium currency, there are quite a few things I, and many other people suggest. I, myself own no premium content, and I'm quite happy with the game (I actually enjoy the game enough to not be bothered by the grinding). However, some people might ask "what should I get with my money" after they make a purchase. (This does not cover package purchases. You should buy one if you want to invest in the game, they are pretty great deals apparently.)

Most people suggest purchasing a tier 3 premium aircraft of the nation of your choice. You'd do this because they have the widest range of aircraft progression. Their use will boost tier 2-4 research of aircraft, usually doubling the rate in which you would earn an aircraft. As well as doubling silver lion payout.

Many other people suggest purchasing a talisman on your favorite aircraft. It doubles research and credit income when the particular aircraft is used. You can't use them on premium aircraft, cuz they technically come with one.

You also could use the GE to purchase premium time. It will double all incomes throughout the time in which it's used. However, premium time is used up whether you are there or not. Make sure you are able to make good use of it. I strongly advise against using the "year long" package, it may seem much cheaper but, assuming you are asleep at least 8 hours a day, or otherwise have a life, keeping you away from the game. On average you will lose anywhere from 40 to 50% of that time. Instead I'd reccomend buying premium one to three days at a time. It will cover either the day you play, or the average three day weekend.

You can purchase a crew, beyond 5 with GE, as well as boost training. Purchasing the extra crew is fairly useless, as the only mode in which you can use all of them is AB. As well as the fact that the crew will have 0 skills. Training on the other hand is very worth it. You can use it to max out certain skills, such as vitality, or other skills you deem important (if you don't know what skills to go for, read the crew skills section in the bottom half of the guide).

You could also use the GE to convert into a different currency, however, many people say the conversion rate is terrible, when compared to what you would earn by simply playing the game with the aforementioned premium benefits.

You could outright purchase modifications for your aircraft, without the work of actually earning the research, but it's generally a splurge concept designed to tempt irritated players to use their money to make the plane a bit better. Overall an unwise investment, but good for instant gratification, and the prices get better to do this the further up you are in research tiers.

Lastly, there is the "backup vheicle". I honestly believe this is a huge waste of time, and money. You are better off not buying this, as it can only be used in arcade, and they are all single uses, no matter the final result of the backup. If you do buy this, you should hope to make its use count.

There are probably a few more things here I've either missed completely, like certain guns, possibly certain shell types, maybe a plane or tank. If you find things, either new, or in need of correction, don't hesitate to let me know in the comments section.

I think I should state that any control binding I referenced is for default mouse aim controls. So these won't be the same keys in different modes, just keep that in mind.

If you liked this guide, please rate it up so it's easier for other people to see. If you didn't like this guide, instead of rating down, please post a comment letting me know what I can do to improve it.

Oh, and thanks for sitting through this wall of text, I hope it'll prove helpful. Happy hunting!