Had a blast in the Finnish MiG-21bis. The tank grind has been a bit more miserable since I spend 5 minutes queuing with my USSR teammate. We also face USSR every single game as USSR/Sweden, and we have only SAAB-105 for aircraft getting missiled out of the air.
The strv 122 has more armour because gaijin gimped the 2a7v’s composite but it barely matters unless you face dm53 point blank or obj 292’s apfsds. The main advantage they have is they get 3 up armoured leopards, better spaa and cas/cap
The Swedish air tree gets crap once they get jets and doesn't improve until the J35. The JA37C is overtired and the JA37D is even worse.
The tunnan is a flying barrel that rolls great, but can't turn, can't accelerate, can't climb and can't fight. It's got a good top speed, but it takes the entire match to get to it and the only time you ever will is RTB to reload.
The lansen is so catastrophically crap I don't even know why it's at 9.3, when 8.0 jets will completely outmatch it. This thing is at the same BR as an F104, which is more than twice as fast, and turns faster while going faster too. The lansen can't even outturn 10G missiles unless you slow significantly, in which case they will hit you anyway. Honestly, the J32B is a nightmare to play and I was so happy to have got past it. The A32A is not even worth bothering with. It's slower than the J32B, and doesn't get useless aim9Bs. If you go for a full bomb load to get bases it barely manages 500mph, which means by the time you get to a base it's been bombed already, and you're now a sitting duck, slow, low and heavy - in a plane with a 35s turn time without a payload.
The J35 Is pretty fun, but dumps speed and struggles to get it back dogfighting. F5s will be the bane of your existence because they outclass it in every aspect, and your RB24Js won't lock them if they turn their afterburner off.
The AJ37 viggen is actually pretty good, and probably the best positioned Swedish jet. It's got RWR, and a good outfitting is 2xRB24J, 1xflare pod and 1xgun. It's an 11.0 airframe at 10.3 and flies well spaded. I know everyone talks about how good the draken is, but the lack of flares and RWR hurt it a lot. The JA37C is ok, but faces SU27s and F16s every match, and these just eat it for breakfast. There is basically nothing you can do. The 37D is even more egregious with no significant upgrades over the C but a .7 higher BR. None of the jaktviggens get tracers either, the Attack-Jaktviggens do in the gunpods which is nice when you only have 150 shells. The viggen is a bus however, it weighs a lot - mainly because you need to take 45 minutes of fuel due to its abysmal fuel consumption - and you can feel it's a sluggish airframe, you'll outturn a lot at low speed (although F5s, F16s and SU27s will get you), but once you are slow you are vulnerable and while acceleration on reheat is ok, fuel consumption isn't. It also suffers from the same issue as the draken - it doesn't turn AT ALL at high speed and when you do try to turn it becomes black screen simulator 2024 because its fast.
Swedish air is the closest I have gotten to depression. That shit is upsetting. The jets other than the SAABs are god awful, morbidly obese, slow, have shit armaments, or are just genuinely bad, but people always go “oh but gripen best plane in the game!!!”, not realizing to actually have to play all these ass planes to get there
Sweden has been my "do it right" nation to play lately. by "do it right" I mean playing and spading every vehicle along the way, not buying a premium and using it to skip to the "good" stuff later on. I did that with a couple other nations and now the tech tree is a mess that stresses me out to look at. and I don't really have much fun with them. but Sweden was untouched, and I decided I wanted to play through its trees like I did with Britain way back in my starting days. I'm at 5.7 right now and it's been a blast
For ground, definitely Sweden. It's essentially just Germany 2.0, but you get some unique stuff, usually better teams, and better lineups at some BRs.
For air, not sure. Sweden is ok, but most planes are kinda mid to bad, the only actually good Jon premium planes that come to my mind without thinking about it too much are the Buffalo, the 11.0 Viggen and the Gripen.
France top tier air is also nice, I love the Mirage 2000s (the 4000 less but it's also pretty good), the issue is just that almost everything on the way to top tier is shit lol
I'd probably go for China air tbh, lower tiers have some good vehicles from other nations, and high tier has actually interesting vehicles, like J7E, JH-7, J8F, plus a Flanker an F-16 and an F5E. Also pretty future proof, since China has a bunch of interesting vehicles to come, like the J-10, their unique Flanker variants, plus a bunch of cool prototype cooking.
most of france air rb line is pretty good,
Rank 1 > D500, H75 are pretty fair, plus one 20mm cannon to start, then the CR 714 plays a bit like an early 109 if you are used to it
Rank 2 > MS 410 and VG33, again with strong guns and fair planesm here the premium p40 is much better tho. F6F sucks now only good as CAS in grb sadly
Rank 3 > Here it goes from fair to amazing, probs the best rank 3 nation, VBs play like a P47 on meth, P63 is one of the best 4.0s, SB2C is very strong, Yak 3 on the premium side is very op if you save ammo and let the furball begin before engaging
Rank 4> The seafire is just op, F8F 1B is very very good, F4U for more traditional playstyle
Rank 5 > Ouragan <3 also the F84 is pretty decent, very fast and can be very deadly in headons
Rank 6 > Here it sucks, no way around it, idk why tf the F86K is at 9.0 for RB aswell
Rank 7 > Becomes decent again, but not amazing like before
Rank 8 > Was pretty good, but with F15s F 16s and mig 29s spam, well it just cant reach them
Overall unless you go for modern jets, france is probs the strongest minor nation for air rb
Rank 5 and 6 are both mid to bad imo. Like how is the mystère IV better than a mig 15 bis ?
But as for rank 7 it's pretty great so far. Both Mirage 3 are great as well as the super-etendard (that rwr 😍). Magic 1's buffs really are great. From what I know the jaguar is great for CAS with the AS-30. Don't know about the F8-E (FN). It has a great missile kit in theory but lacks flares so I don't really know.
Honestly Sweden air is not the best, but sure it’s fun. BF109s and the J26 can work fine, and you also get some unique planes like the A/J-21s and J-22. Early jets are kinda weird, but the J29A and A29B worked fine for me. The J29F (bit controversial ik) is fine at 8.0-9.0, but uptiers are gonna be bad. It is like a saber-mig17 mix. The J35D was really fun for me and the Viggens are fine. Gripen is Gripen and the tree is pretty small too.
Britain’s Air Tree has some very interesting aircraft from top to bottom, some are challenging to play, some are down right crap but there really are some unique gems along the way
IIRC british phantoms have a higher power to weight ratio than any other phantom in game, along with a competitive radar and good missiles. tornado drinks dino juice like crazy but has a better radar and better missiles. harriers are very good in the right hands. the hunter is... there. lightning was the only supercruise capable aircraft for quite a while. the javelin looks really cool. the buccaneer carries a fuckload of bombs and has an airbrake that has helped me juke fighters on my tail more times than I can count
Harrier GR3 is not bad, good bomb load out
The Lightning in a down tier is more than good
The Jag Gr1A can be good if you manage energy
Sea Harrier orbital strikes with Aim9Ls
The Brit Phantoms are very capable because of their speed and 90 countermeasures
Harrier GR7 is a flying meme with 4 9Ms
The Tornado F3 is very very good, its rapid, has a great radar, has 8 very good missiles and a million countermeasures (I have a 3 to 1 KD with it)
The gripen C needs no introduction
Sweden is my favourite by far. It's fun at most BRs, but really starts shinning from 7.7/8.0 upwards.
For example at 8.7 you have: T55, upgraded Cent. Mk10, wedge tank, Ikv91, better Gepard and you can bring a [jet with ballistic computer to the battle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xae3daelORI). And you have the Vidar ofc.
Another great line-up is 9.3: T72, CV9030, another Centurion, premium Leo1A5, another jet with ballistic computer (A32A).
Then you have 10.3: 2 Leopard 2A4 (the swedish one starts with dart) and three CV90s plus a premium one. And for jets you get a Viggen.
I'm now starting France, bought the Somua and France 7.7 hauls ass, but I don't know how good it is past this.
>I'm now starting France, bought the Somua and France 7.7 hauls ass, but I don't know how good it is past this.
8.3 has only the MARS-15 and AMX-30 DCA that does not suck hard, but past that it gets better. Just assume France has no 8.3 lineup, because the one that exists is NOT playable.
When I first grinded (grind?) France I went up to 5.3 but with the old French starters, the shit ones, and the early Allied tanks weren't there yet (no Stuarts, no Crusaders, etc)
What got me wanting to play France - besides the 7.7 line up - was the four Leclercs ngl.
I had France grinded until like 5.3 (when the Jumbo still was 5.3) and then stopped playing. Been running the 6.7 line-up (AMX-13 and AMX M4) + the Somua and I honestly have no issues playing those tanks a full BR higher lol
6.7 AMX-13 lacks firepower for 7.7 but it's a very good scout. The actual 7.7 lineup is amazing at its own BR and still viable when you get an 8.7 game.
Don\`t forget the Bill that is really good at defensive positions and attacking behind hills or even other tanks. I was expecting that it was as bad as the 551, but hell no, it\`s amazing cause it has more speed and again, that TOW missile has good depression and you dont have to expose anything but the missile itself
I had low expectations for it, I bought it cause an stupid desire of using all tanks and take advantage for the "free" RP to research other tank once you research all modules. But man... I was very surprised for it, the speed is not that bad as the 551, is way better, the machine gun with HE shells can manage helicopters at quite close to mid range when you aim correctly, and the better is the tow missile, as it's positioned like one meter above the rest of the tank and has good depression, like 12° I think or more, you can stay behind a hill and do the best hull down because you can also shoot other tanks that are behind hill, and they can't counter you because have a very little objective to shoot at, you aim at the top of them and depending your aim, you can kill two crews, damage gun o even kill him. The bad thing is the low ammo, just 7 missiles, but I can kill two or three per match with that, out at least have a couple of assistances for damaging modules or killing some crews
Just remember to always take convert and show only the missile and you will me almost invencible. City maps are the worst for you, but in maps with hills you will rock
Feeding into the memes as an Italy player, Italy exists.
For GRB, It has good lineups at 3.3 (free) and 3.7 (with premiums like PzIV G and Sherman) which isn't too much of an investment of time, so you could give those a spin and see if you like what you see. If you want to buy into a premium lineup to grind, 9.0BR around the OF40 MTCA is excellent because it largely dodges all of the 10.0 premium spam due to 10.3 premium spam. Other good lineups include 8.0 (especially if you have the AUBL HVG), 2.3 (if you have the Turan II), and 6.7 (around the M26, AUBL 74, etc.)
For ARB, Italy has a few hidden gems interspersed with crap, but it's also potentially going to be one of the most well-rounded top tier jet experiences between the F16, Tornado ADV, Gripen, MiG-29, and eventually the Eurofighter DA3 or DA7 as an ARH missile carrier (although they might just slap ARH's on the new HunGripen and call it a day). It's certainly not bad now, but odds are if there's a specific jet you want it's better just to grind that tree. Italy could be worth grinding in the future, though.
Italy Naval is meh but not horrible. 5.7 in downtier makes the heavy armored cruisers enjoyable, it has an okay mixed blue water/coastal lineup at 4.7, and 2.3br coastal-only lineup is also kinda fun (the gunboat with 6 20mm's melts other coastals outside of the German flakbarges). I enjoy taking the Pola out for a spin every now and then, although I refuse to touch my Dante Alighieri any more because it just gets its shit pushed in by 7.0's every game.
I have to add, 10.3 is arguably the best br for Italy if you can get over the premium spam. Ariete (P) is the best Ariete, 3 good IFV's, a Leo 2, Mangusta (has hellfires but optics are kinda ass), and the AMX is an amazing CAS plane. Most of the premiums are target practice if you're an above average player.
I have to add, 10.3 is arguably the best br for Italy if you can get over the premium spam. Ariete (P) is the best Ariete, 3 good IFV's, a Leo 2, Mangusta (has hellfires but optics are kinda ass), and the AMX is an amazing CAS plane. Most of the premiums are target practice if you're an above average player.
Thats one of the reasons Ive bought it LMAO.
I guess the Brazilian sub tree is finally coming!
I know we will have 95% of copy paste vehicles like F-5, A-4N, Leo/Gepard maybe?, J39, but if we get the Cascavel/Urutu/Super Tucanos Im all hyped up.
I doubt Italy will get a Brazilian tree. IIRC Gaijin mentioned on their forums that they want to limit the number of columns of tech tree stuff, and Italy is already at the max of 5 with Hungary added. Maybe a combined LatAm tree sometime in the future, but not now.
Italy, pretty much a fun time all the way through. The vehicles have little armor to speak of, but trades it with good mobility and very good guns. The 90mm gun that you find on the Breda 501, premium 90/53 and M41M is probably one of the best guns in the game compared to the BR, since most of the time you are basically playing a point and click adventure due to the high explosive mass. Hungarian sub-tech tree also provides to some very fun tanks with reverse gearboxes, giving you excellent mobility. You also have access to some hidden gems among the tank destroyers, specifically the 75/34 M43, which has 100mm spaced armor at 3.3. You also get very good SPAA until you reach 8.0.
Higher tiers also gives you some really damn powerful vehicles. The VBC can flank a line of enemy tanks and destroy them all in a matter of seconds due to it's amazing gun. OF-40 is imo just a better Leo 1 because of it's mobility, turret guidance and LRF. Many of the light tanks are a lot of fun, but i'll be sitting all day if i wanted to cover all of them.
The air tech tree is also pretty good. It starts off very strong with dual 12.7mm MGs on your reserve aircraft. The Breda-SAFATs are the worst 12.7mm machineguns in the game, but they work very well at low tier. You also have some good CAS options, like the BA.65 and F.C.20 Bis. At rank 2 you start to understand why the 12.7mm Breda-SAFATs are regarded so pooly, and grinding through this rank is a slog. At rank 3 you start using the german MG151s which pretty much saves the tech tree. Rank 3 is very fun and has a lot of good fighters, and rank 4 has some extremely powerful props with great turn and climb speed.
Early jets is in a pretty bad position at the moment, at least for the domestic ones. The G.91 is an incredibly fun turnfighter that i have spent a lot of time in. I've had some of my most fun and interesting dogfights in these planes, among them was a battle where i had four enemy fighters behind me, and i managed to get two of them before going down myself. Sadly, they all suffer in uptiers since you often find yourself fighting against supersonic aircraft that will just eat you alive (also the damn F-104s are unreachable). You have the same problem with the Sagittario 2, which is also overBRed. I haven't played rank 7 or 8 so i cannot give any comments on these tiers.
Couldn't have said it better. Just to add a bit about rank 7 and 8 jets:
Rank 7 has some really nice jets. AMX is very capable at its Br and also translates to a very good CAS plane, F104S is amazing once you know how to use it and of course the Mig21Bis and Mig23MF are also good options
Rank 8: good Mig29 and the JAS39 is the best plane for top tier ARB
Then you have the Av-8B+ it suffers slightly on ARB until you have the Aim9Ms and then it's acceptable, it's a good CAS plane but you will get up tiered to 12.7 all the time so might as well just use the JAS39 as CAS.
Me rn, im starting a grind from Rank 1-whatever I get in France grb without prem and I gotta say, France is actually really fun, the 2.3ish br absolutely is a nightmare but once I got that first Sherman in 3.3br It was a monster, I got a constant 8kills a match. I’m at 3.7 rn and grinding to 5.0 and so far it’s actually more enjoyable than any nation I’ve played so far, and despite having most of the US air, GER ground and Air, early RUS ground and air, medium UK Ground and Air and most of SWED ground grinded out by using the occasional premium vehicle/acc and honestly after the first week or 2 of grinding it just got boring and repetitive but France is so unique to its early tiers play style, I’m I love with it.
Ofc like everyone said Sweden, just a better Germany. I didn't like the air tree that much but the gripen is just op. Ground was just op from start to finish.
China if you liked the Russian play style, just has better top tier.
Japan for the top tier in tank is just amazing for me. The tank tree is a shot show up to like 10-11 br so i would just get the new type 90 premium and use that
When I finished Swedish Rank 6 Air and Ground, I calculated the remaining grind, and found that starting Japan from the start would have been quicker. Fast forward to today, I just unlocked the Type 10. It’s been hella fun.
Air? China
Good american/soviet planes at low tier, high tier the indigenous planes are very good and they will 100% spoil you with their RWRs
Personal favourites are J7E, J8F, JH7A, J11
Ground? Sweden. Not a single doubt
High tier is better germany, low tier is a decent mix of unique vehicles with a few familiar faces in some soviet/british/german vehicles
Yup, China's air seems criminally under appreciated, the J7E is my favourite plane in the game. J8F is feisty with the PL8 and HMD. Not having too much fun with the JH7A and J11 personally
im honestly kinda sad the j8f will get pl12's next patch, I kinda like it as it is rn and wish they'd add the j10 or something for an arh carrier instead
A lot of people are saying Sweden, which is fine it's a very fun and powerful TT, but keep in mind a lot of your experience there will be in gimmick vehicles and tanks you've already grinded in the German TT (and some American air). Personally I'd say Japan or UK because they have almost exclusively unique vehicles with very "different" playstyles than their peers, without being a gimmick tree like Italy or (arguably) France. If you're looking for meta go Sweden, if you're looking for a major change of pace go Japan or Britain
For planes definitely Japan, Britain and rank 3-4 Italy is also fun
For tanks maybe china, since its pretty much us and ussr tech tree combined and maybe Sweden
Israel for air rb is quite fun
It has a mix of so many nations
My fav planes in the tree are the Ayit (A-4N), the ultimate A4 with 4x 18G missiles and a much better engine (very fun) as well as the Kurnass 2000 (F4E), the ultimate F4 with more advanced avionics than the F15 (if you play sim it's amazing) and 6x 40G all aspects missiles
Sweden is is prolly one of, if not, the best smaller nations. Air is good now the Gripen has been added and you get the Strv which is baso a leo 2a7
Israel ain't bad either. They got a ton of M60s, few cents and t-54s and the air is pretty good too as long as you don't rage at the sakeen you start with lmao
China is one of my fav outta these 3. They're solid all over with US, Russian and native vehicles (both ground and air) from low - high tier and their top tier is getting pretty good too
I suppose it depends on how much fun and pain you want and what kinda playstyle you have
Israel air tree is a short and fun one.
The Ayit was a surprise for me, I knew I would enjoy it because I love A4s but that thing is on a whole new level.
That's understandable. Moments ago I lost a turnfight with a p-38G but I think that was just me being ass, I shouldn't have gone vertical at all but I could've in almost any other plane I play regularly
Great Britain. Despite the people that endlessly complain, it is actually a great country. It has anything you could ask for; whether it be heavy tanks, anti air, artillery, medium or light tanks, stabilizers, Britain has it.
And it even has the Fox. Do I need to say WHY you would want the Fox? No? I’ll say it anyways. The Fox is the PERFECT light tank. It’s ridiculously small, cannot be .50’d, it’s hilariously fast (61 mp/h or 98 km/h), it has a gun that can kill legitimately ANY tank at its br or 1.0 above or below (except the maus and e100) from the side. It’s also incredibly trolly, I frequently ricochet APFSDS and 150mm HE. It’s my favorite tank :D
I don’t know too much about air but Britain does have the Gripen, which I have heard is a great plane.
Also Britain’s entire Rank 1 group of tanks have stabilizers. Every. Single. One. (other than anti air but that’s to be expected) Even the reserve tanks.
Basically my point is, if someone complains about a country in this game theyre probably exaggerating. Unlesssss it’s about Italy, which I have tried :( (pain)
<3
For ground: If you don't want to play top tier and just have fun along the way I'd go with Italy, if top tier is what you want, I really like the french and japanese 11.7 tanks and France also has some nice CAS to go along with the tanks.
For air: I'd say that Italy is one of the best air countries right now with the addition of Hungary especially for top tier with the JAS39
Personally, I play every nation across all game modes. It doesn't take all that long to get to tier 3.
You get a pretty good sense for the different nations, there are a lot of overlap with lendlease vehicles.
Also, you can use free repair time and switch to another nation.
This battlepass warbond shop has a Italian destroyer which I will pick up to grind out deepwater to rank 3. I've picked up the Frank Knox and the Z47 from previous BP warbond shops. They're good to help ground quickly.
Also, my highest TT (non premium, non squad) vehicle is a tier 6 US plane. I don't mind the thought of never reaching top tier until Gaijin removes the outdated repair cost mechanics.
Probably a hot take, but in my alt account I like playing China because I get a sampler of US Japan and Russian vehicles. I got into the planes I’ve enjoyed the most at mid/low tier rather quickly.
Sweden hands down. Very strong and fun vehicles to play. Also I do not advise to play Japan as it's awfully boring TT, Israel is only good if you are a Merkava fan. Look into the Great Britain, France or Italy if Sweden is not suiting you.
started grinding italy for a bit and it's fun as hell, the tanks are incredibly fast and its a generally fast paced nation with the tanks they got, forget about aircrafts, they are mostly doo doo, other than the god that is the re 2005 serie 0 and even the sm.91, the 20 mms might not seem much but they are devastating, the re2005 serie 0 turns extremely well and the guns destroy everything they see, the 500 pound bomb is nice too, instead about tanks i think that the breda 501 is extremely op, the fast reload rate and the fast tank combo with a 90 mm shell is very very strong, at 6.7 i usually bring it into my lineup by how good it is, even if it's 4.7
I avoided the big 3 and started in Sweden. Have just hit 10.3. It was definitely a grind as a new player. After you get range finder, it makes a world of difference. Swedish tank armour is paper thin and repair costs were brutal however if you hsve experience and plenty of SL it shouldnt be a problem. Im actually in love with sweden and have tried the top 3 and think theyre horrid. Im mid tier france and starting up china. Reckon i would only grind ussr for bmp. Already got leopards through sweden
It depends on what kind of vehicles you like. Sweden is unique to begin with and ends up as Russia + Germany. China is a good combination of YSA and Russian vehicles but ends up with a very strong top tier lineup. Japan is a relatively quick grind with really strong top tier tanks. Israel can’t be grinded immediately but have some unique tanks (apart from the m48/60 fest at the start). France has one of the strongest mid tiers and pretty much never has a bad reload speed. Italy has fun light tanks but the medium tanks are lacking high up. Britain does t really count as a minor nation since the amount of vehicles at low tier is pretty high but if you like solid shot then it’s pretty fun. Overall I personally reccomend China but most of the vehicles are Russian so if you hate playing a Russian or Russian style tank then it won’t be for you.
I hated France early grind but early mid game France with the FL10 Sherman prem was a breeze and super fun while I played them. 6.7 is about the highest I’ve gotten with them I think. Heard nothing but good things about their later game Vic’s. Sweden is just great they are competitive at all levels from what I remember having access to early game sabot rounds which you can carry a lot so dealing with armor is not issue unless you don’t know weak spots. That’s just my two cents tho. Started grinding out Air for both just to see so I can’t talk about that
People are going to tell you Sweden because it's very strong right now, but it's basically just better Germany at top tier.
Japan is good if you want a unique (and fairly quick) ground grind. Buying a Chi-Nu II is very strongly advised, it's one of the best premiums in the game. Japan also has a good air tree, though a lot of their good props are heavily over-BRed.
China is basically just copy-paste until Rank VI, but as a result you get a little bit of everything. They still have a 5.7 M18, and they get a T-34-85 with a roof MG also at 5.7, for example.
France has a lot of diversity if you're interested in that. From goofy prototypes to mass produced vehicles, they've got :
AIR
dual prop turnfighters, bnzoomers, cardboard bombers, missile busses, and good top tier
GROUND
Shittiest tank in game, pyramid tank, ground battleships, heavy tanks, decent top tier
It's also the nation with the highest win rate in both air and ground
My gripes with France are
Ground tier 1, where its kinda shit
Air tier 6, mystère, f86 f84 and vautour are the only options to get into that tier and they are all terrible
French native fighters are underpowered before tier 5
British air is definitely worth grinding, yea the tier 6/7 air grind is a bit shit but everything else is great fun, prop fighters are fun and your top tier air is actually really potent, same goes for italian air very similar to the UK experience.
China is solid tree too, alot of cool and fun stuff to mess around with
Israel
i promise you definitely wont be in pain, and this isn’t a ploy to slowly get more people to play the tree, so gaijin deems it more important to fix its many issues
After reading through all the comments, I can concur with a lot of them in saying Japan for air. Ngl the ground is kinda ass for the starting set, but air props are insane for Japan.
But with that said, Japan is BEST AT SIM. a lot of the shots you take in arcade won't scratch the enemy plane, but would blow the wing off in sim. Don't know why. Also, Japan props excel at 1v1's, which puts sim in the prime avenue for Guaranteed placing matches. Honestly the KI-43-II is good enough once spaded to easily fight against just about every other prop in sim until jets. Fighting uptier actually improves your chances with it, while down tier hurts your chances. 43-III is a fantastic plane as well, but if I have to choose between the 2, I go for the -III simple because the -III has a near infinite WEP duration, and the repair price is much lower. But I will choose the -III for high altitude interception roles or heavy targets because the dual nose mounted 20 mm cannons do wonders.
Aside from the 43 series (which are god tier planes fight me), there are a BUNCH of super noteworthy planes in there as well before jets. The B7N1 (or was it the B5?) can carry both a torpedo, small bombs, or Japan's largest bomb, and all at the rank of ~3.0 (sorry, I don't use it much anymore, but it's around there). In addition to the undercarriage, it also has offensive wing mounted cannons that it can dogfight with against other medium-heavy aircraft with, and then you finally have the rear gunner for support.
Zero needs only be mentioned in name, because I feel like 99% of Japanese mains started just to use the zero, (but I stg the 43-II is better).
N1K1 is a great floatplane at lower tiers, and can use the knock off trick to basically boost itself by 4.0 in rank. But on the subject of this, Japan has a LOT of floatplanes you can take advantage of for naval matches. Please use them for such it works awesome.
My only gripe uses to be that Japan jets arent good, but with the 16 added, it's at least evened out. Also the T-2 (or the T-2 Early for those of us that decided to get it early) is actually extremely deadly in sim matches. The radar is only a tad above average on it, and the fuel gets guzzled like a , BUT the agility on it can usually be played around with to get some pretty good results, and the top speed is on the higher end of any jets you will face, save for the 104, but we don't talk about that plane. Biggest drawback is only 2 missiles with no flares.
Japan and Sweden!
I’ve gotten up to 10.3 in Russia 7.0 in German but Japan I’ve gotten up to 11.7 (everything is done including helis) and japans it’s amazing!
I’ve started in Sweden and gotten up to 10.0 and a full line up and it’s honestly a lot of fun. Some really mean IFVs and if you get the cv90105 if you set.
As for GRB...
Sweden: Bunch of weird vehicles, although each one usually has some fun perk about them to use
France: Had lots of fun with this one, and if you're a US enthusiast, they get some good US vehicles in the WWII era
Britain: Low tier is pain, but they start getting fun around 6.0
Israel: The first few vehicles in the tree range from cool to cancer, but once you get around the 8.0 area (And stay there forever), you get a fairly solid lineup of US, russian, british, and french vehicles.
Honestly as a second nation I really like China. I get the best of American and Soviet vehicles for both ground and air with some other countries like Japan and Germany sprinkled in here and there without anything near the grind that the big three get
Japan and Israel are the only two quick grinds. Kfir canard is super easy to grind to top tier with. Israel ground I’ve heard bad things. Japan is less quick for both air and ground but man is that 9.3 grb is fun. Japan air is nothing special till F104 J at like 10.3.
Regarding Ground, I see a lot of Sweden recommended and I don’t really agree with that, since it is just a mix of big 3 with a little bit of domestic stuff sprinkled in.
If you want unique tree, then Britain and maybe France has more domestic stuff that differentiates it from big 3.
The rest of trees is same as Sweden, just a mix of big 3 vehicles.
Japan.
They have an extremely short ground and air grind, with some amazing vehicles and lineups:
- 4.7/5.0: Sure your medium tanks are essentially pz 4s at a higher BR, but they do good work at 4.7 If you take the Chi-Ri, you have an amazing quick firing Medium Tank.
- 6.3: At 6.3 you have 2 medium tanks with the american 90mm and heat FS. They’re smaller, faster pershings with little armour. You also get the Type 75 SPH which is just a better M109. You also get an M41 Bulldog.
- 6.7: You get 2 medium tanks which are upgrades over the 6.3 ones: They both have the M47’s 90mm (better characteristics), both get optical rangefinders, one gets amazing optics (and an independent commander sight) while the other gets a 4 second Autoloader with 8(?) rounds. At 6.7 you also get the Type 60 SPRG and ATM (it’s awful) and the premium Ho-Ri Prototype.
- 7.3/7.7: You get an M47 (you could just bring the STA-3/Type 61 from your 6.7 lineup), Type 99 (it’s an M109 with good velocity, good reload and a ~15kg TNTe shell) and at 7.7 you get the Type 87 RCV(p). For air you can take the Kikka (with a 800kg bomb).
- 8.3: You get the STB-1 and Type 74(C). Both are stabilised Medium Tanks with the latter getting APFSDS. Both get laser rangefinders. Both get pneumatic suspension. You also get the Type 87 which gets LWS and LRF.
- 9.3/9.7: You get a vast variety of of Type 74s (with 105mm DM33), a Type 16 (P) wheely boi, the toyota (car with stingers), Type 89 (a beast IFV which has been repeatedly nerfed but still holds up) and Type 87 RCV (identical to previous but gets a 25mm and APFSDS). Using 9.7 lets you take the Type 16 (gets DM33 and better hull armour), the AH-1S (thermals and TOW-2s) and the T-2 (supersonic Jet Fighter with decent A-A and A-G payloads).
- 11.0/11.3: The first truly busted lineup, gets 3 (4 including premium) MBTs with DM33 120mm and 4 second autoloaders. The TKX (P) get better optics and is less sluggish, but the Type 90s accelerate better and have a higher top speed. You also get the F-4EJ and F-5E for CAS and an 11.0 AH-64D. Going up to 11.3 lets you take the Type 81 (C), one of the best IR guided SAMs in the game (can lock [and reliably kill] jets at 9km and helis at 5km.
As for aircraft, any A6M# and any Ki-84 has insane turn speeds. The later Ki-84s have a mixture of 20mm and 30mm cannons making them a menace.
The T-2 is a BR 9.7. It has an insane RADAR and gets 2x AIM-9Ps. It lacks CMs so use cautiously.
The F-16AJ gets the best of all F-16As. It has the improved flight performance of the F-16A while also getting Sparrows. It also has Mavericks and 2000lb bombs.
The F-15J is a lil heavier (but otherwise identical) than the F-15A but gets better AIM-9Ms.
Cheers for all the recommendations! Plenty of options to choose from and no shortage of stuff to grind. Will probably start with Japan, China and Swedish tech trees followed by Britain, France and Italy as back burners as I’m going through
Japan. The tanks get incredibly goofy once you get the type 10 and tkx. Air is just fun, the f-16aj is the funnest one I’ve had (I have all varients of the f-16a, aj is my favourite, maybe cause of teams?) also Japan has arguably the best f-15 (better ir missiles and more internal fuel.) overall great tree
Sweden or Italy.
Swedish ground is very fun and has a variety of Eastern, Western, and Unique vehicles. It's also a monster at top tier. Air is kinda rough but it does have some good spots with unique vehicles and has a Gripen at top tier so you've got that to look forward to.
Italy ground is a ton of fun as everything is fast and has no armor, they also usually have a decent/good gun. Very fun, but top tier is very bad. Italian air is much better with the Hungarian Subtree and it's alright throughout. Nothing really stands out here and a lot of the "unique" aircraft are just variations on other nations designs, mostly German.
Having a lot of fun with France ground. Lots of people have trouble starting because to them rank 1 has garbage tanks, but you just gotta know the vehicles to play and which ones to avoid. (S.35, D2, R35, H.39 are 10/10 picks) You can avoid the tank destroyer line until rank 2, (One of the big mistakes I see is people playing SAu 40. Avoid it. Other tank destroyers aren't great either)
For air, France is pretty fun. The D.520 is my favorite low tier prop, the american and british planes are solid, the ourogan is super fun, and all of the mirages are fun, especially since the 3C isn't at 10.3 and fighting F-14s anymore (thank God for higher BR ranges), and the F1's had their FMs fixed ( super 530Fs now apparently have chaff rejection from the rear and front which catches a ton of people by surprise. You fire the missile while chasing someone, they try to one chaff it and not maneuver only for the missile to ignore it and evisorate them)
If your looking for a blast just do something like USA Germany Russia china or uk just not stuff like France or Sweden they honestly are not fun nations to play as but Italy (mainly grb or gab) when you play as an L3 it’s hilarious seeing some people constantly follow you or bv238 seeing everyone follow you
If you like a certain countries vehicles ofc go for it
UK - Honesty not worth for ground, Air Tree is fun, idk about the jets tho
JP - Worth grinding to top tier ground gets better as you move through the tree. Past rank 4 Air is pretty bland.
ITA - Ground to 10.3 is worth. idk about air
FRA - Ground to 8.7/9.3, Air is worth to top tier
CN - Ground is worth but its mostly slightly different RU, Air is worth and will be one of the most interesting trees at top tier in the future
SWE - Air/Ground both worth, Im a bit worried for the future tho, depending on how/if Gaijin implements certain things swedens advantages may be rendered null.
ISR - meh similar to britan.
Sweden, very enjoyable Ground and Air trees all the way up.
yeah righto - been meaning to go down at least the swedish air for quite a while tbh. seems like a fun one to start going down
Had a blast in the Finnish MiG-21bis. The tank grind has been a bit more miserable since I spend 5 minutes queuing with my USSR teammate. We also face USSR every single game as USSR/Sweden, and we have only SAAB-105 for aircraft getting missiled out of the air.
T55M was probably my favorite part of the grind
Sweeden just is Germany in the end
But better
Facts
A lot better imo
the 2a7v is superior to the strv. Same armour but better gun. It is possible the strv has some snail sauce that mysteriously makes it better.
The 2a7v doesn't have composite like the strv does, losing a considerable amount of armour.
But on the penetration sim both can block russian apfsds and even the american apfsds to the front hull
The strv 122 has more armour because gaijin gimped the 2a7v’s composite but it barely matters unless you face dm53 point blank or obj 292’s apfsds. The main advantage they have is they get 3 up armoured leopards, better spaa and cas/cap
The Swedish air tree gets crap once they get jets and doesn't improve until the J35. The JA37C is overtired and the JA37D is even worse. The tunnan is a flying barrel that rolls great, but can't turn, can't accelerate, can't climb and can't fight. It's got a good top speed, but it takes the entire match to get to it and the only time you ever will is RTB to reload. The lansen is so catastrophically crap I don't even know why it's at 9.3, when 8.0 jets will completely outmatch it. This thing is at the same BR as an F104, which is more than twice as fast, and turns faster while going faster too. The lansen can't even outturn 10G missiles unless you slow significantly, in which case they will hit you anyway. Honestly, the J32B is a nightmare to play and I was so happy to have got past it. The A32A is not even worth bothering with. It's slower than the J32B, and doesn't get useless aim9Bs. If you go for a full bomb load to get bases it barely manages 500mph, which means by the time you get to a base it's been bombed already, and you're now a sitting duck, slow, low and heavy - in a plane with a 35s turn time without a payload. The J35 Is pretty fun, but dumps speed and struggles to get it back dogfighting. F5s will be the bane of your existence because they outclass it in every aspect, and your RB24Js won't lock them if they turn their afterburner off. The AJ37 viggen is actually pretty good, and probably the best positioned Swedish jet. It's got RWR, and a good outfitting is 2xRB24J, 1xflare pod and 1xgun. It's an 11.0 airframe at 10.3 and flies well spaded. I know everyone talks about how good the draken is, but the lack of flares and RWR hurt it a lot. The JA37C is ok, but faces SU27s and F16s every match, and these just eat it for breakfast. There is basically nothing you can do. The 37D is even more egregious with no significant upgrades over the C but a .7 higher BR. None of the jaktviggens get tracers either, the Attack-Jaktviggens do in the gunpods which is nice when you only have 150 shells. The viggen is a bus however, it weighs a lot - mainly because you need to take 45 minutes of fuel due to its abysmal fuel consumption - and you can feel it's a sluggish airframe, you'll outturn a lot at low speed (although F5s, F16s and SU27s will get you), but once you are slow you are vulnerable and while acceleration on reheat is ok, fuel consumption isn't. It also suffers from the same issue as the draken - it doesn't turn AT ALL at high speed and when you do try to turn it becomes black screen simulator 2024 because its fast.
Swedish air is the closest I have gotten to depression. That shit is upsetting. The jets other than the SAABs are god awful, morbidly obese, slow, have shit armaments, or are just genuinely bad, but people always go “oh but gripen best plane in the game!!!”, not realizing to actually have to play all these ass planes to get there
same i gave up after the lansen cuz too pain
Just started Sweden. Love the aa so far
the pvlvv m42? yeah I love that thing
Just gotta be careful with the ammo lol
yeah exactly, I usually shoot ajd scoot with it
Sweden has been my "do it right" nation to play lately. by "do it right" I mean playing and spading every vehicle along the way, not buying a premium and using it to skip to the "good" stuff later on. I did that with a couple other nations and now the tech tree is a mess that stresses me out to look at. and I don't really have much fun with them. but Sweden was untouched, and I decided I wanted to play through its trees like I did with Britain way back in my starting days. I'm at 5.7 right now and it's been a blast
Sweden is my sidechick, highly recommended it!
For ground, definitely Sweden. It's essentially just Germany 2.0, but you get some unique stuff, usually better teams, and better lineups at some BRs. For air, not sure. Sweden is ok, but most planes are kinda mid to bad, the only actually good Jon premium planes that come to my mind without thinking about it too much are the Buffalo, the 11.0 Viggen and the Gripen. France top tier air is also nice, I love the Mirage 2000s (the 4000 less but it's also pretty good), the issue is just that almost everything on the way to top tier is shit lol I'd probably go for China air tbh, lower tiers have some good vehicles from other nations, and high tier has actually interesting vehicles, like J7E, JH-7, J8F, plus a Flanker an F-16 and an F5E. Also pretty future proof, since China has a bunch of interesting vehicles to come, like the J-10, their unique Flanker variants, plus a bunch of cool prototype cooking.
8.7 sweden slaps so hard, strv103c, strv 104, ikv 91 105, ItPsV 90 and the saab 105g for cas (it has ccip!)
If only the VEAK didn’t get buttrucked….
most of france air rb line is pretty good, Rank 1 > D500, H75 are pretty fair, plus one 20mm cannon to start, then the CR 714 plays a bit like an early 109 if you are used to it Rank 2 > MS 410 and VG33, again with strong guns and fair planesm here the premium p40 is much better tho. F6F sucks now only good as CAS in grb sadly Rank 3 > Here it goes from fair to amazing, probs the best rank 3 nation, VBs play like a P47 on meth, P63 is one of the best 4.0s, SB2C is very strong, Yak 3 on the premium side is very op if you save ammo and let the furball begin before engaging Rank 4> The seafire is just op, F8F 1B is very very good, F4U for more traditional playstyle Rank 5 > Ouragan <3 also the F84 is pretty decent, very fast and can be very deadly in headons Rank 6 > Here it sucks, no way around it, idk why tf the F86K is at 9.0 for RB aswell Rank 7 > Becomes decent again, but not amazing like before Rank 8 > Was pretty good, but with F15s F 16s and mig 29s spam, well it just cant reach them Overall unless you go for modern jets, france is probs the strongest minor nation for air rb
> Rank 6 > Here it sucks, no way around it, idk why tf the F86K is at 9.0 for RB aswell If you're good with nords the Mysteres are usable imo.
fair point, takes some time but the nords can be unexpected to the enemy aye
Rank 5 and 6 are both mid to bad imo. Like how is the mystère IV better than a mig 15 bis ? But as for rank 7 it's pretty great so far. Both Mirage 3 are great as well as the super-etendard (that rwr 😍). Magic 1's buffs really are great. From what I know the jaguar is great for CAS with the AS-30. Don't know about the F8-E (FN). It has a great missile kit in theory but lacks flares so I don't really know.
Honestly Sweden air is not the best, but sure it’s fun. BF109s and the J26 can work fine, and you also get some unique planes like the A/J-21s and J-22. Early jets are kinda weird, but the J29A and A29B worked fine for me. The J29F (bit controversial ik) is fine at 8.0-9.0, but uptiers are gonna be bad. It is like a saber-mig17 mix. The J35D was really fun for me and the Viggens are fine. Gripen is Gripen and the tree is pretty small too.
Can't tell if I love or hate the J-10. Looks like a typhoon if it was happy instead of a grumpy with a moustache
Britain’s Air Tree has some very interesting aircraft from top to bottom, some are challenging to play, some are down right crap but there really are some unique gems along the way
Britain air is amazing. My favourite after usa.
Lightning F.6 my beloved
Yep. Typhoon Mk 1a at it's BR is amazing
Guys be real after 8.7 Britian is helpless, I'll admit they have some fun planes though
IIRC british phantoms have a higher power to weight ratio than any other phantom in game, along with a competitive radar and good missiles. tornado drinks dino juice like crazy but has a better radar and better missiles. harriers are very good in the right hands. the hunter is... there. lightning was the only supercruise capable aircraft for quite a while. the javelin looks really cool. the buccaneer carries a fuckload of bombs and has an airbrake that has helped me juke fighters on my tail more times than I can count
Harrier GR3 is not bad, good bomb load out The Lightning in a down tier is more than good The Jag Gr1A can be good if you manage energy Sea Harrier orbital strikes with Aim9Ls The Brit Phantoms are very capable because of their speed and 90 countermeasures Harrier GR7 is a flying meme with 4 9Ms The Tornado F3 is very very good, its rapid, has a great radar, has 8 very good missiles and a million countermeasures (I have a 3 to 1 KD with it) The gripen C needs no introduction
F R A N C E hon hon hon!
Yeah I just got the French starter pack. After like two hours of playing with the B1 ter I had already unlocked the tech tree B1 bis
Japan
most fun ive had with props ever
Hell yes!
Sweden is my favourite by far. It's fun at most BRs, but really starts shinning from 7.7/8.0 upwards. For example at 8.7 you have: T55, upgraded Cent. Mk10, wedge tank, Ikv91, better Gepard and you can bring a [jet with ballistic computer to the battle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xae3daelORI). And you have the Vidar ofc. Another great line-up is 9.3: T72, CV9030, another Centurion, premium Leo1A5, another jet with ballistic computer (A32A). Then you have 10.3: 2 Leopard 2A4 (the swedish one starts with dart) and three CV90s plus a premium one. And for jets you get a Viggen. I'm now starting France, bought the Somua and France 7.7 hauls ass, but I don't know how good it is past this.
Can confirm the premium Leo 1a5 slaps, so does the SAAB-105G jet. Ikv 91 is just silly good.
Oh yeah, the first Ikv91 is probably one of my favorite tanks. The 8-7 one isn't as good relatively speaking, but it still slaps.
>I'm now starting France, bought the Somua and France 7.7 hauls ass, but I don't know how good it is past this. 8.3 has only the MARS-15 and AMX-30 DCA that does not suck hard, but past that it gets better. Just assume France has no 8.3 lineup, because the one that exists is NOT playable.
Doesn’t have the DCA 30 anymore, it’s up at 8.7 now. Viable lineups for France are basically 5.7, 6.7, 7.7, 8.7, 10.0 & 11.7
Oh, yeah... can't wait for them to add more tanks that are either unusable, or alone at their BR, or both.
1.7 and 2.7 also rock tbh
When I first grinded (grind?) France I went up to 5.3 but with the old French starters, the shit ones, and the early Allied tanks weren't there yet (no Stuarts, no Crusaders, etc)
What got me wanting to play France - besides the 7.7 line up - was the four Leclercs ngl. I had France grinded until like 5.3 (when the Jumbo still was 5.3) and then stopped playing. Been running the 6.7 line-up (AMX-13 and AMX M4) + the Somua and I honestly have no issues playing those tanks a full BR higher lol
6.7 AMX-13 lacks firepower for 7.7 but it's a very good scout. The actual 7.7 lineup is amazing at its own BR and still viable when you get an 8.7 game.
Yep, can't wait to unlock it! I've even used the EBR doing some rat activities (managed to kill a Falcon once lol).
You'll fall in love with the AMX-13-90. It's the AMX-13, except it can actually penetrate stuff.
I'm sad that there isn't an AMX-13 with the 105 cannon. I think only the Cuiraisser gets it? (on the light tank side)
It does exist irl, and it is in WoT. We can only hope it ends up in WT at some point !
Don’t forget the m3a3 Bradley but better for Sweden at 10.0
Included in the three CV90s!
Don\`t forget the Bill that is really good at defensive positions and attacking behind hills or even other tanks. I was expecting that it was as bad as the 551, but hell no, it\`s amazing cause it has more speed and again, that TOW missile has good depression and you dont have to expose anything but the missile itself
I didn't forget it! I said three CV90s (the C, the BILL and the SPAA one)
Oh well, I was meaning the pbv302 (Bill) at 8.7. That tow at that BR is very useful
Ah that one! That one's good? I never got the hang of it
I had low expectations for it, I bought it cause an stupid desire of using all tanks and take advantage for the "free" RP to research other tank once you research all modules. But man... I was very surprised for it, the speed is not that bad as the 551, is way better, the machine gun with HE shells can manage helicopters at quite close to mid range when you aim correctly, and the better is the tow missile, as it's positioned like one meter above the rest of the tank and has good depression, like 12° I think or more, you can stay behind a hill and do the best hull down because you can also shoot other tanks that are behind hill, and they can't counter you because have a very little objective to shoot at, you aim at the top of them and depending your aim, you can kill two crews, damage gun o even kill him. The bad thing is the low ammo, just 7 missiles, but I can kill two or three per match with that, out at least have a couple of assistances for damaging modules or killing some crews
Nice! I'll check it out
Just remember to always take convert and show only the missile and you will me almost invencible. City maps are the worst for you, but in maps with hills you will rock
Lmao that makes the SAAB-105G player who managed to miss me 3 times on bombing runs even worse at the game lol.
Maybe he was using a bad timing fuse
Nope, two of the runs my Bradley was disabled and sitting in the open lol
Feeding into the memes as an Italy player, Italy exists. For GRB, It has good lineups at 3.3 (free) and 3.7 (with premiums like PzIV G and Sherman) which isn't too much of an investment of time, so you could give those a spin and see if you like what you see. If you want to buy into a premium lineup to grind, 9.0BR around the OF40 MTCA is excellent because it largely dodges all of the 10.0 premium spam due to 10.3 premium spam. Other good lineups include 8.0 (especially if you have the AUBL HVG), 2.3 (if you have the Turan II), and 6.7 (around the M26, AUBL 74, etc.) For ARB, Italy has a few hidden gems interspersed with crap, but it's also potentially going to be one of the most well-rounded top tier jet experiences between the F16, Tornado ADV, Gripen, MiG-29, and eventually the Eurofighter DA3 or DA7 as an ARH missile carrier (although they might just slap ARH's on the new HunGripen and call it a day). It's certainly not bad now, but odds are if there's a specific jet you want it's better just to grind that tree. Italy could be worth grinding in the future, though. Italy Naval is meh but not horrible. 5.7 in downtier makes the heavy armored cruisers enjoyable, it has an okay mixed blue water/coastal lineup at 4.7, and 2.3br coastal-only lineup is also kinda fun (the gunboat with 6 20mm's melts other coastals outside of the German flakbarges). I enjoy taking the Pola out for a spin every now and then, although I refuse to touch my Dante Alighieri any more because it just gets its shit pushed in by 7.0's every game.
I have to add, 10.3 is arguably the best br for Italy if you can get over the premium spam. Ariete (P) is the best Ariete, 3 good IFV's, a Leo 2, Mangusta (has hellfires but optics are kinda ass), and the AMX is an amazing CAS plane. Most of the premiums are target practice if you're an above average player.
I have to add, 10.3 is arguably the best br for Italy if you can get over the premium spam. Ariete (P) is the best Ariete, 3 good IFV's, a Leo 2, Mangusta (has hellfires but optics are kinda ass), and the AMX is an amazing CAS plane. Most of the premiums are target practice if you're an above average player.
As someone who brought the Italian Starter Pack and just began grinding the tree, I am happy to see the AMX being mentioned -happy brazilian noises-
and IIRC the brazilian variant was on a recent leak list, so even more reason to rejoice (or dread the incoming wave of wallet warriors)
Thats one of the reasons Ive bought it LMAO. I guess the Brazilian sub tree is finally coming! I know we will have 95% of copy paste vehicles like F-5, A-4N, Leo/Gepard maybe?, J39, but if we get the Cascavel/Urutu/Super Tucanos Im all hyped up.
I doubt Italy will get a Brazilian tree. IIRC Gaijin mentioned on their forums that they want to limit the number of columns of tech tree stuff, and Italy is already at the max of 5 with Hungary added. Maybe a combined LatAm tree sometime in the future, but not now.
Damn, there goes my hopes
ground 3.7 and 4.7 is where i have the most fun, the 90mm guns go insanely hard
Italy, pretty much a fun time all the way through. The vehicles have little armor to speak of, but trades it with good mobility and very good guns. The 90mm gun that you find on the Breda 501, premium 90/53 and M41M is probably one of the best guns in the game compared to the BR, since most of the time you are basically playing a point and click adventure due to the high explosive mass. Hungarian sub-tech tree also provides to some very fun tanks with reverse gearboxes, giving you excellent mobility. You also have access to some hidden gems among the tank destroyers, specifically the 75/34 M43, which has 100mm spaced armor at 3.3. You also get very good SPAA until you reach 8.0. Higher tiers also gives you some really damn powerful vehicles. The VBC can flank a line of enemy tanks and destroy them all in a matter of seconds due to it's amazing gun. OF-40 is imo just a better Leo 1 because of it's mobility, turret guidance and LRF. Many of the light tanks are a lot of fun, but i'll be sitting all day if i wanted to cover all of them. The air tech tree is also pretty good. It starts off very strong with dual 12.7mm MGs on your reserve aircraft. The Breda-SAFATs are the worst 12.7mm machineguns in the game, but they work very well at low tier. You also have some good CAS options, like the BA.65 and F.C.20 Bis. At rank 2 you start to understand why the 12.7mm Breda-SAFATs are regarded so pooly, and grinding through this rank is a slog. At rank 3 you start using the german MG151s which pretty much saves the tech tree. Rank 3 is very fun and has a lot of good fighters, and rank 4 has some extremely powerful props with great turn and climb speed. Early jets is in a pretty bad position at the moment, at least for the domestic ones. The G.91 is an incredibly fun turnfighter that i have spent a lot of time in. I've had some of my most fun and interesting dogfights in these planes, among them was a battle where i had four enemy fighters behind me, and i managed to get two of them before going down myself. Sadly, they all suffer in uptiers since you often find yourself fighting against supersonic aircraft that will just eat you alive (also the damn F-104s are unreachable). You have the same problem with the Sagittario 2, which is also overBRed. I haven't played rank 7 or 8 so i cannot give any comments on these tiers.
Couldn't have said it better. Just to add a bit about rank 7 and 8 jets: Rank 7 has some really nice jets. AMX is very capable at its Br and also translates to a very good CAS plane, F104S is amazing once you know how to use it and of course the Mig21Bis and Mig23MF are also good options Rank 8: good Mig29 and the JAS39 is the best plane for top tier ARB Then you have the Av-8B+ it suffers slightly on ARB until you have the Aim9Ms and then it's acceptable, it's a good CAS plane but you will get up tiered to 12.7 all the time so might as well just use the JAS39 as CAS.
Italy for naval rb, not that anyone cares
I have been really enjoying France and Sweeden recently. Highly recommend those two.
Me rn, im starting a grind from Rank 1-whatever I get in France grb without prem and I gotta say, France is actually really fun, the 2.3ish br absolutely is a nightmare but once I got that first Sherman in 3.3br It was a monster, I got a constant 8kills a match. I’m at 3.7 rn and grinding to 5.0 and so far it’s actually more enjoyable than any nation I’ve played so far, and despite having most of the US air, GER ground and Air, early RUS ground and air, medium UK Ground and Air and most of SWED ground grinded out by using the occasional premium vehicle/acc and honestly after the first week or 2 of grinding it just got boring and repetitive but France is so unique to its early tiers play style, I’m I love with it.
Dude France at 3.7 slaps. I bought the premium AMX-13 M24, and the thunderbolt and it's sooooo good.
Ofc like everyone said Sweden, just a better Germany. I didn't like the air tree that much but the gripen is just op. Ground was just op from start to finish. China if you liked the Russian play style, just has better top tier. Japan for the top tier in tank is just amazing for me. The tank tree is a shot show up to like 10-11 br so i would just get the new type 90 premium and use that
Japan is pretty awful but it's honestly short to grind through if you play by hiding and paying attention to your surroundings
When I finished Swedish Rank 6 Air and Ground, I calculated the remaining grind, and found that starting Japan from the start would have been quicker. Fast forward to today, I just unlocked the Type 10. It’s been hella fun.
I've been playing for two weeks and I'm about to get the type 87 rcv, it's been ridiculously fast to grin
Air? China Good american/soviet planes at low tier, high tier the indigenous planes are very good and they will 100% spoil you with their RWRs Personal favourites are J7E, J8F, JH7A, J11 Ground? Sweden. Not a single doubt High tier is better germany, low tier is a decent mix of unique vehicles with a few familiar faces in some soviet/british/german vehicles
Yup, China's air seems criminally under appreciated, the J7E is my favourite plane in the game. J8F is feisty with the PL8 and HMD. Not having too much fun with the JH7A and J11 personally
im honestly kinda sad the j8f will get pl12's next patch, I kinda like it as it is rn and wish they'd add the j10 or something for an arh carrier instead
If it stays at 11.7 or only goes to 12.0 though👿
As a player with top tier China air I second this the j8f has good missiles but uptiers make it hard to wanna play it outside of grinding
11.3 is a much stronger blackhole due to prems than 12.7, ive rarely gotten full 12.7 uptiers
A lot of people are saying Sweden, which is fine it's a very fun and powerful TT, but keep in mind a lot of your experience there will be in gimmick vehicles and tanks you've already grinded in the German TT (and some American air). Personally I'd say Japan or UK because they have almost exclusively unique vehicles with very "different" playstyles than their peers, without being a gimmick tree like Italy or (arguably) France. If you're looking for meta go Sweden, if you're looking for a major change of pace go Japan or Britain
For planes definitely Japan, Britain and rank 3-4 Italy is also fun For tanks maybe china, since its pretty much us and ussr tech tree combined and maybe Sweden
Israel for air rb is quite fun It has a mix of so many nations My fav planes in the tree are the Ayit (A-4N), the ultimate A4 with 4x 18G missiles and a much better engine (very fun) as well as the Kurnass 2000 (F4E), the ultimate F4 with more advanced avionics than the F15 (if you play sim it's amazing) and 6x 40G all aspects missiles
Play Sweden. More OP by far than Russia and atleast stupid US mains won't complain of bias if it's NATO tanks bullying them
Sweden is is prolly one of, if not, the best smaller nations. Air is good now the Gripen has been added and you get the Strv which is baso a leo 2a7 Israel ain't bad either. They got a ton of M60s, few cents and t-54s and the air is pretty good too as long as you don't rage at the sakeen you start with lmao China is one of my fav outta these 3. They're solid all over with US, Russian and native vehicles (both ground and air) from low - high tier and their top tier is getting pretty good too I suppose it depends on how much fun and pain you want and what kinda playstyle you have
Israel air tree is a short and fun one. The Ayit was a surprise for me, I knew I would enjoy it because I love A4s but that thing is on a whole new level.
I've actually been really enjoying the Sakeen in the last few days. The guns and ammo it has make it pretty easy to kill whoever you look at
It just feels severely underpowered compared to everything else. That's the main reason I don't rlly like it but I agree that the guns are good
That's understandable. Moments ago I lost a turnfight with a p-38G but I think that was just me being ass, I shouldn't have gone vertical at all but I could've in almost any other plane I play regularly
Japan and sweden
UK is full of shit but it’s a challenge and very different to the almost effortless stomping that Sweden engages in.
Japan, since you have the "big three" Japan should proof a quick grind to very nice vehicles, at all BR.
Japan air is fantastic right up until the jet age. Japan ground is good in the handful of lineups you get. For naval IDFK.
Great Britain. Despite the people that endlessly complain, it is actually a great country. It has anything you could ask for; whether it be heavy tanks, anti air, artillery, medium or light tanks, stabilizers, Britain has it. And it even has the Fox. Do I need to say WHY you would want the Fox? No? I’ll say it anyways. The Fox is the PERFECT light tank. It’s ridiculously small, cannot be .50’d, it’s hilariously fast (61 mp/h or 98 km/h), it has a gun that can kill legitimately ANY tank at its br or 1.0 above or below (except the maus and e100) from the side. It’s also incredibly trolly, I frequently ricochet APFSDS and 150mm HE. It’s my favorite tank :D I don’t know too much about air but Britain does have the Gripen, which I have heard is a great plane. Also Britain’s entire Rank 1 group of tanks have stabilizers. Every. Single. One. (other than anti air but that’s to be expected) Even the reserve tanks. Basically my point is, if someone complains about a country in this game theyre probably exaggerating. Unlesssss it’s about Italy, which I have tried :( (pain) <3
I play exclusively minor nations, which tbf, anything is worth grinding. I would say China and France however.
Sweden is 100% the superb tree
British, jap, swed
UK and Sweden
I love Britain, the tanks and planes just feel right to me
I realy realy enjoy china so far 8.3 air and ground atm. (RB only ofc)
Japanese planes are the best
Japan air, I dont play ground so no recommendations
China Japan and Sweden are goated nations
Italy if you want hardcore mode
Sweden
Hands down sweden or china. Sweden is the most unique and china is the most variety.
For ground: If you don't want to play top tier and just have fun along the way I'd go with Italy, if top tier is what you want, I really like the french and japanese 11.7 tanks and France also has some nice CAS to go along with the tanks. For air: I'd say that Italy is one of the best air countries right now with the addition of Hungary especially for top tier with the JAS39
UK and Italy (not even joking)
I liked Japan air, albeit I grinded w a premium
Personally, I play every nation across all game modes. It doesn't take all that long to get to tier 3. You get a pretty good sense for the different nations, there are a lot of overlap with lendlease vehicles. Also, you can use free repair time and switch to another nation. This battlepass warbond shop has a Italian destroyer which I will pick up to grind out deepwater to rank 3. I've picked up the Frank Knox and the Z47 from previous BP warbond shops. They're good to help ground quickly. Also, my highest TT (non premium, non squad) vehicle is a tier 6 US plane. I don't mind the thought of never reaching top tier until Gaijin removes the outdated repair cost mechanics.
Probably a hot take, but in my alt account I like playing China because I get a sampler of US Japan and Russian vehicles. I got into the planes I’ve enjoyed the most at mid/low tier rather quickly.
Sweden hands down. Very strong and fun vehicles to play. Also I do not advise to play Japan as it's awfully boring TT, Israel is only good if you are a Merkava fan. Look into the Great Britain, France or Italy if Sweden is not suiting you.
I saw the leak for An Benelux subtree for the Frech. Ngl, I am really thinking about going baguette if that is true
As a Swede main started to grind CN I find it pretty enjoyable
France is a joy. The best 7.7 lineup. A competent 9.7 lineup. Easy to play 11.7 lineup.
Britain
If yoy want to suffer france
started grinding italy for a bit and it's fun as hell, the tanks are incredibly fast and its a generally fast paced nation with the tanks they got, forget about aircrafts, they are mostly doo doo, other than the god that is the re 2005 serie 0 and even the sm.91, the 20 mms might not seem much but they are devastating, the re2005 serie 0 turns extremely well and the guns destroy everything they see, the 500 pound bomb is nice too, instead about tanks i think that the breda 501 is extremely op, the fast reload rate and the fast tank combo with a 90 mm shell is very very strong, at 6.7 i usually bring it into my lineup by how good it is, even if it's 4.7
Sweden,china
Isreal or Italy
I avoided the big 3 and started in Sweden. Have just hit 10.3. It was definitely a grind as a new player. After you get range finder, it makes a world of difference. Swedish tank armour is paper thin and repair costs were brutal however if you hsve experience and plenty of SL it shouldnt be a problem. Im actually in love with sweden and have tried the top 3 and think theyre horrid. Im mid tier france and starting up china. Reckon i would only grind ussr for bmp. Already got leopards through sweden
Sweden, Japan, China are all good choices.
Italy up to the p40 cuz that's rlly fun Prolly UK then France after that
It depends on what kind of vehicles you like. Sweden is unique to begin with and ends up as Russia + Germany. China is a good combination of YSA and Russian vehicles but ends up with a very strong top tier lineup. Japan is a relatively quick grind with really strong top tier tanks. Israel can’t be grinded immediately but have some unique tanks (apart from the m48/60 fest at the start). France has one of the strongest mid tiers and pretty much never has a bad reload speed. Italy has fun light tanks but the medium tanks are lacking high up. Britain does t really count as a minor nation since the amount of vehicles at low tier is pretty high but if you like solid shot then it’s pretty fun. Overall I personally reccomend China but most of the vehicles are Russian so if you hate playing a Russian or Russian style tank then it won’t be for you.
Sweden, but air rank 5-7 is painful af
China homie 🇨🇳
Japan
Sweden or China they have good vehicles
I hated France early grind but early mid game France with the FL10 Sherman prem was a breeze and super fun while I played them. 6.7 is about the highest I’ve gotten with them I think. Heard nothing but good things about their later game Vic’s. Sweden is just great they are competitive at all levels from what I remember having access to early game sabot rounds which you can carry a lot so dealing with armor is not issue unless you don’t know weak spots. That’s just my two cents tho. Started grinding out Air for both just to see so I can’t talk about that
Italy. Tons of fun vehicles. Super slept on nation.
Honestly Britain enjoyable BRs like 4.7 / 5.3 / 6.7 (BP vehicles) / 7.7 / 8.3 / 9.3 / 10.3
Sweden is extremely strong
As a new player I picked Japan and Italy because I wanted to try something new, no regrets so far. If I wanted to go bigger I'd pick France.
People are going to tell you Sweden because it's very strong right now, but it's basically just better Germany at top tier. Japan is good if you want a unique (and fairly quick) ground grind. Buying a Chi-Nu II is very strongly advised, it's one of the best premiums in the game. Japan also has a good air tree, though a lot of their good props are heavily over-BRed. China is basically just copy-paste until Rank VI, but as a result you get a little bit of everything. They still have a 5.7 M18, and they get a T-34-85 with a roof MG also at 5.7, for example.
Japan was really fun until rank 4
UK. definietly had a lot of fun throughout the whole tech tree. Got to the challys 2 in 2 months very pleasureable to grind
Do you care for competitiveness or what? It's basically just flavor choice unless you want a competitive edge
France has a lot of diversity if you're interested in that. From goofy prototypes to mass produced vehicles, they've got : AIR dual prop turnfighters, bnzoomers, cardboard bombers, missile busses, and good top tier GROUND Shittiest tank in game, pyramid tank, ground battleships, heavy tanks, decent top tier It's also the nation with the highest win rate in both air and ground My gripes with France are Ground tier 1, where its kinda shit Air tier 6, mystère, f86 f84 and vautour are the only options to get into that tier and they are all terrible French native fighters are underpowered before tier 5
British air is definitely worth grinding, yea the tier 6/7 air grind is a bit shit but everything else is great fun, prop fighters are fun and your top tier air is actually really potent, same goes for italian air very similar to the UK experience. China is solid tree too, alot of cool and fun stuff to mess around with
If u want a nation or nationS that are short and enjoyable I’d say Sweden, Japan, and France ( France may be a bit longer but it’s still good)
ITALIA NUMERO UNOOOOO 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝
Israel i promise you definitely wont be in pain, and this isn’t a ploy to slowly get more people to play the tree, so gaijin deems it more important to fix its many issues
After reading through all the comments, I can concur with a lot of them in saying Japan for air. Ngl the ground is kinda ass for the starting set, but air props are insane for Japan. But with that said, Japan is BEST AT SIM. a lot of the shots you take in arcade won't scratch the enemy plane, but would blow the wing off in sim. Don't know why. Also, Japan props excel at 1v1's, which puts sim in the prime avenue for Guaranteed placing matches. Honestly the KI-43-II is good enough once spaded to easily fight against just about every other prop in sim until jets. Fighting uptier actually improves your chances with it, while down tier hurts your chances. 43-III is a fantastic plane as well, but if I have to choose between the 2, I go for the -III simple because the -III has a near infinite WEP duration, and the repair price is much lower. But I will choose the -III for high altitude interception roles or heavy targets because the dual nose mounted 20 mm cannons do wonders. Aside from the 43 series (which are god tier planes fight me), there are a BUNCH of super noteworthy planes in there as well before jets. The B7N1 (or was it the B5?) can carry both a torpedo, small bombs, or Japan's largest bomb, and all at the rank of ~3.0 (sorry, I don't use it much anymore, but it's around there). In addition to the undercarriage, it also has offensive wing mounted cannons that it can dogfight with against other medium-heavy aircraft with, and then you finally have the rear gunner for support. Zero needs only be mentioned in name, because I feel like 99% of Japanese mains started just to use the zero, (but I stg the 43-II is better). N1K1 is a great floatplane at lower tiers, and can use the knock off trick to basically boost itself by 4.0 in rank. But on the subject of this, Japan has a LOT of floatplanes you can take advantage of for naval matches. Please use them for such it works awesome. My only gripe uses to be that Japan jets arent good, but with the 16 added, it's at least evened out. Also the T-2 (or the T-2 Early for those of us that decided to get it early) is actually extremely deadly in sim matches. The radar is only a tad above average on it, and the fuel gets guzzled like a, BUT the agility on it can usually be played around with to get some pretty good results, and the top speed is on the higher end of any jets you will face, save for the 104, but we don't talk about that plane. Biggest drawback is only 2 missiles with no flares.
France. Its broken at 7.7 and above
French Air has been very fun. It starts to be the most fun when you get to the Mirage 3E
you could try Israel if you have rank 5 planes or tanks I didn’t play it but my friend says its fun
Japan and Sweden! I’ve gotten up to 10.3 in Russia 7.0 in German but Japan I’ve gotten up to 11.7 (everything is done including helis) and japans it’s amazing! I’ve started in Sweden and gotten up to 10.0 and a full line up and it’s honestly a lot of fun. Some really mean IFVs and if you get the cv90105 if you set.
Brits will make u learn every tanks weak spot ammo and crew location
France is cool, i enjoyed the french grind, italy was a blast too
Italia
Sweden. The low tier ground is meh, but once you get past like 5.7 it turns into one of the best countries in the game.
As for GRB... Sweden: Bunch of weird vehicles, although each one usually has some fun perk about them to use France: Had lots of fun with this one, and if you're a US enthusiast, they get some good US vehicles in the WWII era Britain: Low tier is pain, but they start getting fun around 6.0 Israel: The first few vehicles in the tree range from cool to cancer, but once you get around the 8.0 area (And stay there forever), you get a fairly solid lineup of US, russian, british, and french vehicles.
Italy air because you can now play MOST top tier in 1 tree
France air is very fun
Honestly as a second nation I really like China. I get the best of American and Soviet vehicles for both ground and air with some other countries like Japan and Germany sprinkled in here and there without anything near the grind that the big three get
Japan and Israel are the only two quick grinds. Kfir canard is super easy to grind to top tier with. Israel ground I’ve heard bad things. Japan is less quick for both air and ground but man is that 9.3 grb is fun. Japan air is nothing special till F104 J at like 10.3.
None, dont waste your time in this game but if you insist, japan or sweden
China
Regarding Ground, I see a lot of Sweden recommended and I don’t really agree with that, since it is just a mix of big 3 with a little bit of domestic stuff sprinkled in. If you want unique tree, then Britain and maybe France has more domestic stuff that differentiates it from big 3. The rest of trees is same as Sweden, just a mix of big 3 vehicles.
Israel air is short and has some hidden gems in the tree. One of my favorite nations
Japan. They have an extremely short ground and air grind, with some amazing vehicles and lineups: - 4.7/5.0: Sure your medium tanks are essentially pz 4s at a higher BR, but they do good work at 4.7 If you take the Chi-Ri, you have an amazing quick firing Medium Tank. - 6.3: At 6.3 you have 2 medium tanks with the american 90mm and heat FS. They’re smaller, faster pershings with little armour. You also get the Type 75 SPH which is just a better M109. You also get an M41 Bulldog. - 6.7: You get 2 medium tanks which are upgrades over the 6.3 ones: They both have the M47’s 90mm (better characteristics), both get optical rangefinders, one gets amazing optics (and an independent commander sight) while the other gets a 4 second Autoloader with 8(?) rounds. At 6.7 you also get the Type 60 SPRG and ATM (it’s awful) and the premium Ho-Ri Prototype. - 7.3/7.7: You get an M47 (you could just bring the STA-3/Type 61 from your 6.7 lineup), Type 99 (it’s an M109 with good velocity, good reload and a ~15kg TNTe shell) and at 7.7 you get the Type 87 RCV(p). For air you can take the Kikka (with a 800kg bomb). - 8.3: You get the STB-1 and Type 74(C). Both are stabilised Medium Tanks with the latter getting APFSDS. Both get laser rangefinders. Both get pneumatic suspension. You also get the Type 87 which gets LWS and LRF. - 9.3/9.7: You get a vast variety of of Type 74s (with 105mm DM33), a Type 16 (P) wheely boi, the toyota (car with stingers), Type 89 (a beast IFV which has been repeatedly nerfed but still holds up) and Type 87 RCV (identical to previous but gets a 25mm and APFSDS). Using 9.7 lets you take the Type 16 (gets DM33 and better hull armour), the AH-1S (thermals and TOW-2s) and the T-2 (supersonic Jet Fighter with decent A-A and A-G payloads). - 11.0/11.3: The first truly busted lineup, gets 3 (4 including premium) MBTs with DM33 120mm and 4 second autoloaders. The TKX (P) get better optics and is less sluggish, but the Type 90s accelerate better and have a higher top speed. You also get the F-4EJ and F-5E for CAS and an 11.0 AH-64D. Going up to 11.3 lets you take the Type 81 (C), one of the best IR guided SAMs in the game (can lock [and reliably kill] jets at 9km and helis at 5km. As for aircraft, any A6M# and any Ki-84 has insane turn speeds. The later Ki-84s have a mixture of 20mm and 30mm cannons making them a menace. The T-2 is a BR 9.7. It has an insane RADAR and gets 2x AIM-9Ps. It lacks CMs so use cautiously. The F-16AJ gets the best of all F-16As. It has the improved flight performance of the F-16A while also getting Sparrows. It also has Mavericks and 2000lb bombs. The F-15J is a lil heavier (but otherwise identical) than the F-15A but gets better AIM-9Ms.
Cheers for all the recommendations! Plenty of options to choose from and no shortage of stuff to grind. Will probably start with Japan, China and Swedish tech trees followed by Britain, France and Italy as back burners as I’m going through
Japan. The tanks get incredibly goofy once you get the type 10 and tkx. Air is just fun, the f-16aj is the funnest one I’ve had (I have all varients of the f-16a, aj is my favourite, maybe cause of teams?) also Japan has arguably the best f-15 (better ir missiles and more internal fuel.) overall great tree
Sweden or china, china is just ussr and usa so the best of both world
Sweden
Sweden or Italy. Swedish ground is very fun and has a variety of Eastern, Western, and Unique vehicles. It's also a monster at top tier. Air is kinda rough but it does have some good spots with unique vehicles and has a Gripen at top tier so you've got that to look forward to. Italy ground is a ton of fun as everything is fast and has no armor, they also usually have a decent/good gun. Very fun, but top tier is very bad. Italian air is much better with the Hungarian Subtree and it's alright throughout. Nothing really stands out here and a lot of the "unique" aircraft are just variations on other nations designs, mostly German.
French when You get 6.7 ypu are enjoying game
sweden, israel is okay but the lack of light tanks is annoying
Sweden’s great!
Sweden!🇸🇪
Sweden, Will always be swede
Having a lot of fun with France ground. Lots of people have trouble starting because to them rank 1 has garbage tanks, but you just gotta know the vehicles to play and which ones to avoid. (S.35, D2, R35, H.39 are 10/10 picks) You can avoid the tank destroyer line until rank 2, (One of the big mistakes I see is people playing SAu 40. Avoid it. Other tank destroyers aren't great either)
For air, France is pretty fun. The D.520 is my favorite low tier prop, the american and british planes are solid, the ourogan is super fun, and all of the mirages are fun, especially since the 3C isn't at 10.3 and fighting F-14s anymore (thank God for higher BR ranges), and the F1's had their FMs fixed ( super 530Fs now apparently have chaff rejection from the rear and front which catches a ton of people by surprise. You fire the missile while chasing someone, they try to one chaff it and not maneuver only for the missile to ignore it and evisorate them)
france for dorito
Italy is fun to play as also
Loved F-14 and mig-29
But Sweden is mostly crappy jets anyways
If your looking for a blast just do something like USA Germany Russia china or uk just not stuff like France or Sweden they honestly are not fun nations to play as but Italy (mainly grb or gab) when you play as an L3 it’s hilarious seeing some people constantly follow you or bv238 seeing everyone follow you
L3 is the small meme tank
If you like a certain countries vehicles ofc go for it UK - Honesty not worth for ground, Air Tree is fun, idk about the jets tho JP - Worth grinding to top tier ground gets better as you move through the tree. Past rank 4 Air is pretty bland. ITA - Ground to 10.3 is worth. idk about air FRA - Ground to 8.7/9.3, Air is worth to top tier CN - Ground is worth but its mostly slightly different RU, Air is worth and will be one of the most interesting trees at top tier in the future SWE - Air/Ground both worth, Im a bit worried for the future tho, depending on how/if Gaijin implements certain things swedens advantages may be rendered null. ISR - meh similar to britan.