By HIDEY_RUNNYpigs
War Thunder is a realistic vehicular combat multiplayer game where you can use many vehicles from World War 2 to modern times and fight with other players online. It was released on 1st of November 2012 by Gaijin Entertainment.
Battle ratings (br) are the little numbers on the bottom right of every vehicle’s icon, they determine what enemies you will face. Battle ratings are used to balance the matches, better tanks will have higher ratings to ensure that worse tanks wont have to fight them, War Thunder takes the highest battle rating in your lineup. The enemies you will face will be +-1 of your br.
One of my favourite battle rating brackets in War Thunder is 4.7-6.7. I think this is one of the most fun br brackets because everyone is aggressive, people rarely spawn camp and it takes actual skill. Plus, some of the best tanks from each nation are in this bracket, for example Germany has the Tiger, Panther and King Tiger, if you play USSR you can take the T-34-85, IS-1 and the BTR-ZD as AA, if you are an American main you can take the M18 GMC, M36, M6A1 or the M4A3E2.
But this article wont be focusing on any of those nations. There are many videos out there about lineups for other nations so I will show you the lineup for China 5.7. In my opinion it is one of the best lineups you can have when you play China, as all the good vehicles of the other nations are put together. You have the speedy M18, two T-34s and a potent anti-air, on top of all that you have many CAS options like the IL-10, TU-2S-44 or the P-47. Many people will just say that this is a lineup with copy-paste vehicles, but I think it takes the best tanks from each nation and lets you play them together.
M18 GMC
Firstly, you have the M18 GMC, this should be your first spawn in most situations, use your speed to your advantage and get to sniping spots or flanks. Find a hull down position and scout any enemies, as this will help you later on in the game if you have the airstrike modification installed. You should think about repositioning often if you think the enemy knows where you are.
When it comes to firepower you have the potent 76mm M1 cannon that can be used to take out enemies easily if you are on their flank, it has a relatively fast reload of 7.9 seconds, with an aced crew it will only take 6.1 seconds. Your shell of choice should be the M62 APCBC shell, it has good velocity at 792m/s and a penetration value of 146 mm at 100m, but don’t forget to take at least 2 rounds of HE to deal with light tanks. Overall, take 17 shells to keep the sides of the tank empty. Besides the 76mm M1 you also have the pintle mount M2HB 12.7 mm machine gun, I find it very useful when dealing with planes or SPAA.
The armour on the M18 shouldn’t be counted on, as you have 12mm all round on the hull and 25mm in front of the turret, but it shouldn’t matter because you shouldn’t try to get shot at all and sometimes the fuse won’t trigger.
T34-85 (S-53)
Even though classified as a medium tank the T34-85 (S-53) should be played more like a light tank, try to go on flanks or brawl with the enemy, your turret traverse of 17.5° is overall very decent
The ZiS-S-53 cannon doesn’t provide the best penetration with 133 mm at 100m but the post pen damage is great with 164g of filler, and so is the angle performance, if they show around 45° you should be able to penetrate them, the reload is OK taking 8.51 seconds. Take the BR-365-A as your main shell and take a few HE rounds, you should take 17 rounds to keep the hull empty of ammo. The T34-85 (S-53) lacks a pintle mounted machine gun and can’t defend itself from any planes, but it does have a 7.62mm DT machine gun to deal with the most lightly armed vehicles.
When it comes to armour anything at its battle rating can penetrate it, as it has 45mm all round on the hull and 90mm on the turret cheeks, sometimes you might get lucky and bounce a few rounds but don’t rely on your armour.
T-34 85 Gai
The T-34 85 Gai is mostly the same as the T34-85 (S-53), but with a Type 56 cannon. use it as a light tank, don’t rely on its armour and use the gun’s good angle performance to your advantage, what you do have is a 12.7mm Type-54 machine gun on a pintle mount, able to take down light tanks and SPAA.
M36 GMC
The M36 GMC should be used the same way as the M18 GMC: utilizing its amazing mobility to get to sniping positions early game and finish off enemies from their side.
The main armament on the M36 GMC is the 90mm M3 cannon, the M82 shot can pen 182 mm at 100m and has 137.2g of filler, also remember to take a few HE rounds.
Take either 21 or 12 shells, if you are sniping take 21, and if you have a higher chance of being shot take 12 shells to only have ammo in the turret. The great cannon is hampered by its 9.7mm reload. The M36 GMC also has a 12.7mm M2HB machine gun on a pintle mount and can take care of open top vehicles or SPAA.
The armour on the hull of the M36 GMC has 38mm at 56°, again the armour of this vehicle is not to be relied upon and you should try not to get hit at all, similar to the M18 GMC
Phòng không T-34
The Phòng không T-34 is a modification based on the T-34 chassis, its dual 37mm Type 65 cannons will shred any planes coming for your team. If you feel like destroying tanks you can always load in some AP-T or some HVAP-T and go on a flank, as you will be able to penetrate the sides of Tigers and the turret of Panthers. On top of the great gun you also have great mobility, at full speed you will be going 55 km/h, very useful to get to flanks.
The Phòng không T-34 is armed with 2 37mm Type 65 cannons, every five shots you will have to reload, the reload rate is 1.15 seconds and you will find that shredding tanks and planes will be easy, on top the the great cannons you also have a turret rotation speed of 42°/s and a turret elevation of 85°, very crucial to a good SPAA, the only two downsides of this vehicle are that the gun shakes a lot when firing and you only have -5° depression.
When it comes to armour the Phòng không T-34 had 15mm all round on the turret and is just 1mm more that the fuse sensitivity on most shells, but most of the time the shell won’t explode for some reason. You also have a crew of 5 making the SPAA very survivable.
Close Air Support
As I mentioned before, if you have the airstrike modification on the M18 GMC it can help you lower the spawn points for CAS, there are many CAS options that you can choose: the first one being the P-47D-23-RA, the P-47D-23-RA will only require you to get only 1 kill to spawn because of its battle rating difference, you should bring the two 1000 lb bombs as they will vaporize the enemy even if you don’t get your bombs on target.
You could also choose the Tu-2S-44, it has 3 1000 kg bombs that can clear a whole capture point and the 2 20mm ShVAK cannons can also deal with any planes.
Lastly we have the IL-10 (1946), the bombs on this plane aren’t very good with only 250 kg each but it has some deadly rockets.
Overall this is one of my favourite lineups with the fast and deadly M18, the good all-rounder T-34-85s and a potent SPAA, it is very versatile and extremely deadly if used correctly.
Update: the M18 GMC is now 6.0