In this video, I discuss the capabilities of the Matilda, the tier 4 British medium tank, in a tier 5 battle in World of Tanks (WoT).
The Matilda plays like a heavy tank due to its thick hull / turret armor and slow speed. It’s one of my favorite tanks as it is durable and the gun provides sustained accurate DPS with reliable penetration.
The Matilda’s front and side hull armor are so thick that you can angle the hull at 40 degrees to increase your effective armor.
Tank specs and statistics:
- Crew level: 100% training level (leveled up from 75%)
- Crew skills: Jack of All Trades, 3 x Repair
- Gun: QF 2-pdr Mk
- Equipment: Ventilation, Tank Gun Rammer, and Gun Laying Drive
- No gold ammo or consumables
Let me know your questions and feedback.
Cheers,
Taugrim
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Great video and looking forward to more videos featuring tanks. Another great feature to your videos would be your suggestion to the path you chose in upgrading your tank. ie…did the tank require tracks first before upgrading turret then gun etc. Did you opt for turret A vs turret B due to view range vs traverse speed? You did a little of this in mentioning the speed vs armor and derp vs aiming speed. I know this helps new players to that particular tank spend their experience points. This may require more time w/ that particular tank and research but you can also highlight the weak points to the tanks armor to give players a heads up on how to angle out of an approaching enemy or set yourself up to only expose turret vs lower hull etc. Whenever I upgrade to a new tank…these are the first things I look to research first before I start to play and would give your videos a well rounded approach that would attract those that want to play this tank or want to learn how to battle against one.
Good feedback.
In my videos I’m trying to focus on illustrative battle footage and keep the pace high.
What I may do is include that information in the writeup, so that players of new tanks can read how someone else researched their tank.
Understood. I go through a similar process of trying to determine what to research (unlock) first for a new tank, so that I can become functional as quickly as possible.
Generally I target the gun(s) that I believe will provide good mechanics, and after the first match or two if the tank is too slow, I’ll research the engine. I usually do gun or engine first, and save the tracks for last.
Taugrim its a pitty you cant upload more content lately (you used to do it weekly even daily back in the day)
Nevertheless, i recommend you to try neverwinter (i would like to hear your feedback on the game as its still beta )
Cheers !
Well I have been uploading weekly for 3 weeks! :)
But in all seriousness, RL/work is the main constraint for my free time. I’ll post videos as I have time and find things I’m excited about.
I’d probably wait til closer to launch before trying Neverwinter.
The things I’ve heard from my guildees make it sound like a game that wouldn’t be a fit for me. E.g. mostly PVE-based (PVE is fine but without PVP I’d get bored), and the combat movement is more herky-jerky than TERA.
http://pastebin.com/w1UHGA5f has links to the mods I posted in the comments of the YouTube video as well as a bunch of other popular ones. Some of them are from Russian websites which I’m personally a little apprehensive about–tried to install one and accidentally ended up installing some Russian e-mail client that took a little legwork to get rid of.
Thanks so much for sharing that list :)
Hey Ed, Nathan here. Hows it going?
Interesting videos on WoT.
Have you considered trying the beta for Neverwinter?
Its available now and the game will be F2P.
I’m only just downloading it myself so who knows. I’ve seen some PVP footage and it does look, INTERESTING.
http://nwn2db.com/builder.php
Here is some sort of builder.
The main thing I can say that stands out is from what I understand your skills are minimal, something akin to League of Legends, where you have Q W E R.
See you on the other side.
I’ve been hearing about the game from my guildees.
They’ve said the combat is similar to TERA and that the game is focusing at this point on PVE. Is that what you’ve seen too?
I wasn’t a fan of the TERA combat system, it felt too herky-jerky. I thought GW2 got action combat down pretty well.
I used to think having a plethora of skills was a good thing, but I think games have gone too far on that extreme (e.g. SWTOR) where the game becomes World of Keybindings.
When I first tried GW2 I was concerned there wouldn’t be enough buttons to push, but it turned out fine.
Are there enough skills to make the combat feel dynamic?
Okay so I’ve played a little, tried all the classes for a bit etc.
I mean, I know very little in comparison to others, but it seems okay. The skills come fast and to be honest it didn’t feel rewarding enough that I actually felt progress.
I went to look on the official forums and seeing a thread about the cash shop being gamebreaking was a little concerning.
Actually playing it, yeah it is like Tera in a few ways. Third person ‘shooter’ mouse mode, you can block as a tank in a cone infront of you, etc. It feels more fluid than Tera’s rooting animations, though nothing as smooth as GW2 I might add.
I’m severely disappointed with MMOs lately mate. I can’t get into one anymore. I think its partly my fault for not really having a bunch of friends that want to try different MMOs, they all seem stuck. The last time I truly had fun was during Rift with you lot, likely.
I’ve been playing other games, MOBA games, strategy games (Total War, League) and even some hardcore shooters like Red Orchestra to keep my multiplayer monkey at bay.
I really love competitive gaming, its just MMOs aren’t doing it for me right now, so I’m having to make do. I wonder if Elder Scrolls Online will be good, who knows.
I heard that the PVP balance in NWN is abysmal, and that players die in 3 seconds.
There’s been a lot of griping about the AH exploit.
What I’ve heard about the game does not impress me, doesn’t seem worth the time to check out.
Maven has grown, we have a lot of good gamers who are cool people to hang with. You should apply, we’d be glad to have you back again.
GW2 was *almost* there in terms of being a great game, but AN didn’t implement sufficient endgame progression that worked horizontally, such as the leaderboards and stats that I so love about World of Tanks.
Instead, to appease the (PVE) progression crowd in GW2, AN implemented a new tier of gear called Ascended, which essentially created a gear grind – exactly what they promised not to do prior to launch.
https://taugrim.com/2012/12/01/my-take-on-ascended-gear-in-guild-wars-2/
There have been some other problems with GW2, namely server lag now that culling has been fixed, and movement differentials in WvW which create noticeable imbalances.
With respect to other MMOs, there is hope!
TESO looks interesting.
I think CSE is doing the right thing with Camelot Unchained by focusing the game strictly on RVR.
Both TESO and CSE are implementing classes that you can customize, e.g. you choose the weapon and armor, with associated tradeoffs and capabilities, which is awesome.
WildStar from what I’ve heard sounds cool, and they’re going hard core with aspects of the game (e.g. 40-person raids) which should appeal to specific segments of the community.
It sounds like game developers are *finally* getting it that you can’t support leveling PVE, endgame dungeon PVE, endgame PVE raids, PVP battlegrounds, and World PVP in the same game. There are too many conflicting priorities and it’s too much work to get right.
This is one reason why WoT has been such a breath of fresh air to me. It’s a high skill cap game, and there are tons of stats for players like me to pore over and analyze, and I find that fun.
I’m so excited that you’ve found WoT’s. I’ve been a fan ever since your key mapping guide. The content you produce is always well thought out and pertinent to low skilled player. It’s made me a better player.
If you ever need a platoon mate look me up. http://wotlabs.net/na/player/frankymcshanky
Also I plugged your awesome angling guide into my crappy guide on the WoT forums. http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/236995-doctor-mcshankys-grotesquely-unethical-re-education-program-a-terribads-guide-to-being-not-quite-so-terrible/
Well, I think you’re spot on with your guide, and not because you’re now linking to me in it.
I do wonder if it would be more visible in the Game Guides and Tutorials forum:
http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/forum/36-game-guides-and-tutorials/
Honestly, I’m bummed I didn’t try WoT earlier.
The only reason I ended up trying WoT is because Age of Wushu was so disappointing, and I wanted to see whether I could find a F2P game (aside from LoL) that was of high quality.
I’ve been very impressed with the extent of meaningful tactical gameplay and coordinated teamwork that is needed to win battles.
It’s always encouraging to hear that the time I’ve spent in writing content and guides has been helpful and fruitful for other players :)
It’s interesting to see your steady improvement in performance over time, and that guide your wrote over on the WoT’s forum. You have the right attitude IMO – we should all strive to raise our gameplay instead of blaming the game for outcomes.
The Matilda is a blast to play and one of my favorite tier 4 tanks. Her gun is an absolute riot.
If you’re planning to stick to tiers 4-6 exclusively I’d suggest you check out the British A13 Covenator. She’s a narly little tier 4 light tank (standard MM) that has access to the games earliest auto-loader. A 20mm “pom pom.” Which consists of a clip of 4 shells that fire in two round bursts. Really fun and tricky to master.
I’m curious why you’ve decided not to run consumables? Medkits, Repair kits, and fire extinguishers can be game changers.
Looking forward to your next video. What’s next? kv-1?
I plan on picking up at least one Tier 7, the KV-3. And I’d like to check out the Tiger line of heavies as well, as they play different from the Soviet tanks and have very accurate guns.
After 1351 games, I started to use consumables on all vehicles, because I had bought 3 mounted equipment for all my active tanks. In hindsight, I think it would have been better to use consumables first, and then acquire mounted equipment pieces as I had the money.
The consumables cost 3k per use but are well worth it.
I have quality footage for KV-1, KV-1S, and T-150. Was going to edit tonight but ended up playing 14 battles LOL.
Unfortunately I didn’t have FRAPS turned on when I fought a Pearl River battle on my T-28 tank when I got my Ace Tanker badge. I helped to anchor a major comeback, possibly my single best game in WoT:
http://www.noobmeter.com/recent/na/taugrim/1004515818/1004515818_00001540_20130517_101258/1004515818_00001541_20130518_102913
Wow! 1,350 damage in a tier 4 and 1,408 base xp? Tell me that was your double.
No double, but 50% bonus from Premium.
Here’s the screenie:
Missed a lot of shots, but I’m OK taking long-range sniper shots in the T-28 because the gun is accurate and the reload time is very low.
The battle was such a great one, real shame I didn’t record it. I tried turning on replay recordings but I found for whatever reason that my game client seemed to be laggy (tanks would jump around) and that was unacceptable for gameplay, so I turned that feature off.
You can’t hit on a shot you don’t take. I fire on the move all the time.
Yea, you are right.
I think trying to be accurate only really matters on guns with high (10+ second) reload times. With the high RoF guns, you can pretty much spam shots, there’s no downside aside from revealing your position (if camo’d) and having to restock ammo (which is a negligible cost for high RoF guns).
Finally got my hands on a Matilda, that thing is an absolute wrecking ball.
Yea, the fast reload and aim times, coupled with the high penetration, allows for excellent sustained DPS.
It’s got pretty respectable armor too. With it’s pretty slow speed, you can almost treat it like a heavy in terms of planning out your options as the map loads. It seems like people don’t often expect that sustained DPS (especially if they’re in higher tier tanks); you catch a lot of people rolling into brawls they should be backing out of.
I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly great player (I’ve only got a little over 1100 battles and only one other ace badge), but less than a dozen battles in this baby and I had a slick 900ish xp game (enough for a second ace badge)–then 2-3 battles later I had another one.
It’s a brutal tank if you play just a little smart.
Have you done much scout/light tank play? I did eventually get an ELC, then decided to work my way to a T71. I actually enjoyed AMX 40 and am enjoying my M5 Stuart quite a bit, despite them being lights-on-the-path-to-better-scouts that others often complain about. I’m working on an M7 (the medium that oddly interrupts the American light tank line) along the road to T71 and it requires an interesting style of play that forces you to play conservatively early in order to pick the right position to slide into an aggressive mid- and late-game.
Agreed 100%.
Grats :)
Getting badges isn’t just a reflection of the tank – it’s also a reflection of how well the tank suits the tanker.
Short answer: no, aside from the low-level tiers.
When I started the game I didn’t understand all the mechanics that go into making a tanker play a light tank effectively.
That said, I use my T-28 (which is statistically my best tank) as a scout, because it’s incredibly mobile.
The ELC AMX looks like an amazing tank, but I’m more of a HT/TD/MT kind of guy, so I’m going to stick with playing those flavors for a while.
Barring mobility, any tank can scout, light tanks are better suited for it though because in general their camouflage bonus when they’re moving or stationary are identical (or rather, the simplest way to think of it is that non-lights have a camouflage penalty when they’re moving). http://www.tazilon.net/index.html has a really solid guide for getting into scouting. The wiki’s game mechanics pages on stuff like spotting and camouflage mechanics are essential reading as well (for both spotting and hiding effectively).
I like to treat my M7 (which is pretty similar to T-28, light on armor but with a solid gun) like a scout in the early game, whilst looking for openings (especially slow pushing tanks with exposed flanks) to exploit as the match progresses.
If you want to have a scout in your garage for when the mood strikes you’d probably quite like the ELC–it’s got all the perks of a dedicated scout for the purposes of the role plus it has massively powerful top gun which, combined with the lack of a turret, make it basically a scouting TD. Personally I’m finding that I’m quite dismayed by the lack of a turret because it limits a lot of the close range hijinks options that other mobile scouts can use to have a better fighting chance (when opportune, and if the gun’s powerful enough to actually penetrate) versus slower mediums, heavies, and especially TDs and makes counter-scouting a little trickier. It takes a lot more work to do in an ELC because you have to do larger, more vulnerable loops to get them in front of your gun. However, since it’s super TD-like it makes an excellent sniper if you can shoot safely without getting spotted. And actually, I thought the AMX 38 and AMX 40 made good introductory tanks to passive scouting since they force you to play very conservatively just by virtue of being tortuously slow, and the abnormally heavy armor makes small mistakes less risky.
Hardest part of learning to scout is learning not to shoot from camouflage.
Yep, that’s a great point.
Yea, I’ve read the comments on some of my YouTube videos and that’s how people describe the ELC. Sounds like a lot of fun :D