What’s the best way to do my crews?

[Chilloutkids]

What do you all think is the best way to train my crews? I am at tier 3 on this account, and have a Matilda BP as my only premium. How should i go about my crews?

[Tinkicker]

I'm far from a training expert, but since the Matilda BP is your only trainer, it might help for you to look first at the Black Prince wiki page. Of special interest to you is down in the Performance section. Here's a quote that will sort of set the stage for everything else that you do:

 

"Besides the tier IV Matilda, the MBP is not great for training British medium tank crews, as its playstyle is very different. The lack of a radio operator position further diminishes its effectiveness as a crew trainer. Its crew layout is only compatible with high tier British medium tanks like the Centurion Mk. I. However, the loader will be unable to use radio operator skills."

 

That's a bit of bad news, but not unexpected with the BP. For me, I have a decent time in the base Matilda. Teleport me a tier higher into the BP and suddenly I'm outclassed by everyone. But then, it may fit your playstyle so if you enjoy it by all means wear it out! HOWEVER, the only other medium you can comfortably move back and forth to from the BP is the Matilda, at least in my experience, so by all means leverage up to one of those! If you want to keep the BP, become a Matilda guru. Train yourself to bleed at 22kph. You will rapidly gain crew XP and you'll end up having fun.

 

But if you want maximum training, then you need a better trainer. There's just no other way of putting it. And unfortunately, the ideal setup is a light, medium, heavy, td, and arty trainer in every tree you play. Of course some trees don't even have some of those classes...but you get where I'm going. Whatever class of tank you play, in whatever tree, in the perfect world you'll have an equivalent trainer for it. If you're not scared to spend gold you can find a trainer that's fun for you and no matter what class it is you can retrain the crew you've developed to another class, but it's a pretty wasteful tactic. I can say that because I've screwed up and done it before. Oh, well...

 

Evaluate the class of tank you enjoy the most, and think about buying another premium. It's annoying, but right now it seems that Russian tanks are the defacto best because of bias, so unless you've just vowed to not play them, get one. You'll train faster.

 

My advice on WHAT to train the crew in is usually pretty simple, remembering that every tank you own needs sixth sense above all else...however there are conditions.

If it's a light tank that I can zip around in or a passive spotter or a sniper, go for camo first UNLESS you like aggressive flanking. Camo won't help you a whole lot when you're in someone's face. For flanking I train my driver in smooth ride and my gunner in snap shot with the others going camo. Once the commander trains to 100%, you can reset his skill toward sixth sense, but notice that unless you use gold the best you will change him over to at that point is 97% by spending 20,000 credits. You then have to maybe dump 3% worth of free XP on him to finish sixth sense out, OR you could play him to 103% to start with, then when you spend the 20,000 he'll end up at 100%.

 

My move at that point is to immediately reset the rest of the crew for BIA, then start training them again in their respective skills, and assign BIA to the commander for training. I'm sure that's not what others do ever, but it works for me. By the time I've reached that first skill, I know the tank well enough to compensate for the lack of camo or whatever without being uncomfortable during the BIA period.

 

After I've gotten sixth sense and BIA, I don't strain. Nothing after that will totally make or break me anyway. My mediums get pretty much the same skill breakdown with only a few exceptions, Matilda being one of them since it's slow. She got full camo first, sixth sense, and then skills that would maximize view range so I could snipe without being seen better since I couldn't really run. But do remember that hard cover and bushes always trump your camo level because it's a rare tank that keeps much camo at all after firing.

 

Heavies, forget camo. You're doomed there anyway. The gospel is to go for repairs first, then sixth sense, and maybe situational awareness and recon to help most heavies' terrible view range. Yes, I know you aren't going to snipe in a heavy (or you shouldn't), but the further out the view range goes the quicker you will see camoed targets. It's like your increased view range simultaneously decreases their camo factor. For peek-a-boom I do like the snap shot and smooth ride on soft heavies like the US T5, since I'll try to not be too up close. For brawlers like a lot of well-armored Russian heavies I'm more about protecting my ammo and firefighting.

 

TD's...refer to what I said about sniping.

 

Arty...I've always hated arty, but I won a Lefty in a loot box at Christmas, so I gave it a try. Meh. At least now I might finish some missions, but I don't care for it. You have to go into arty games knowing that you're going to get killed. I don't like that. But...view range and camo. And duh, sixth sense.

 

If you're devoted to the Brit lines, then you'll be good with the BP once you get up to the Centurion. But that's a day or two away. In the meantime, think about what I've said. And I'm glad to answer any questions I'm able to.

 

Peace.

 

[LionHeart]

Nice synopsis, Tinkicker. Have an upvote.

[Tinkicker]

On 3/1/2019 at 8:42 PM, LionHeart said:

Nice synopsis, Tinkicker. Have an upvote.

Sorry, late to respond. I thought I'd return the favor for the compliment, but I keep getting a "can't respond" message when I try. Thanks, though!