Russian Bias in War Thunder

The Russian BIAS in War Thunder on the example of the T-34-85.

Russian bias in War Thunder
Russian bias in War Thunder on the example of the T-34-85.

Although the Russian developer of War Thunder always denies repeatedly: the bias is real and unmistakable.
You have to understand that the T-34 is a well-known Russian tank from WW2. Historically, it was a revolutionary design, which in 1941 formed an unpleasant surprise for the German troops.
The model T-34-85 was built in 1944 and is armed with the more powerful 85 mm gun and is located in War Thunder on the BR (Battle Rating) 5.3.

By comparison, the Tiger I (commissioning in late 1942) and Panther D (early 1943) is located on the higher BR 5.7, although both tanks are about one year older models.

Nevertheless, 44,900 T-34 (82% of total production) were lost during WW2. This is about half of the tank losses of the Red Army.
By contrast, the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front lost a total of 32,800 armored vehicles of all kinds vs 96,500 Russian tanks. On average – despite an average numerical superiority on the battlefield of 3:1 – a Russian tank had a kill ratio of just about 1:3 to achieve, which corresponds to a fighting power of just 11% (see figure Russian vs German tanks in WWII)

However, contrary opposed it comes to in War Thunder, as this subsequent videos shows a typical action with the T-34 Model 43 and T-34-85E in a ‘realistic battle’:

11 kills (of total 16) with German T-34 747(r) (captured Soviet T34 M43) in War Thunder:

 

T-34-85E in action in War Thunder:

 

The course is almost always the same, whether against Tiger, Panther, Sherman or Churchill tanks. The T-34-85 dominates the Battle rating range from 5.3 to 6.3 without any problems:

On T-34-85 hardly any serious damage occurs, while its gun can often shoot off easily – with a single shot – most opponent tanks. Additional to that, the extremely low BR-classification of 5.3 as medium tank, whereby the T-34-85 only costs 280 points compared to 450 points of the heavy tank Tiger I !

The effect of the 75 mm gun of the Panther is relatively weak in War Thunder, whereby this also medium tank (and is considered by many experts to be really the best tank design of the war) is rarely used as a competitor, especially since its BR is higher settled.


Thus, the Tiger driver is forced on the mostly small, chaotic battlefields with frequent close-quarter fights of the game to achieve far more kills without being knocked-out by a single shot (the so-called ‘one-shotting’).

On the other hand, the player of a T-34-85 can unabashedly push forward and often capture CAP’s because of his high speed. He simply can remain on his luck because of the somewhat unrealistic bouncing physics of shells – or in the case of a penetration that not much damage happens on his tank. Similarly, if he should be unlucky times yet, he can easily get back into battle with another vehicle or plane because of the low points which his tank costs.

Moreover, on all the battlefields, the starting positions of the Russian team is fix established and are most times better than for the opponent team (more or better protected positions to rush and capture the CAP-points etc).

For the author as a player in War Thunder, there were in the past two months the following incomparable win and kill quotas (Realistic tank battles):

Statistics T-34-85 (BR 5.3) in realistic battles War Thunder:

MonthTotalVictoriesWin Ratio
February564071 %
March12210081 %

The all-time top-19 tanks of the author in the win odds. When the first four are not considered because they were played only a few times, remain virtually only Russian vehicles with a win ratio of 86.6-64.7% on the first page of the list.
The all-time top-19 tanks of the author in the win odds. When the first four and the other British tanks (and which are ‘cut-down’ in their performance in the meantime) are not considered, because they were played only a few times, remain virtually only Russian vehicles with the highest win ratios of 86.6-64.7% on the first page.

Today’s tip: who wants to come quickly forward on the Russian Tech Tree or additionally wants to earn a lot of the in-game currency Silver Lions should concentrate on the T-34-85. And who wants (could) to invest some real money: the acquisition of the Premium package of T-34-85E therefore is worthwhile.


By contrast, at the moment players of other nations should make a big circle around vehicles with the Battle rating range from 4.3 to 6.3 !

Who does not know the F2P tank and plane war game War Thunder can download it from here for free:

bm4-Download

Despite such problems, the tactical options, vehicle setups and use of aircraft over the battlefield makes the game still superior to its competitors.

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27 thoughts on “Russian Bias in War Thunder”

  1. WHAT!

    There is no bias here!! T34 and its variants 99% one shoting you almost anywhere in the vehicle but their hability to bounce off rounds to their rear is totally balanced.

    #SOVIETTANKSNOTOP

  2. They change which vehicles get the bias every now and then so players spend money on different vehicles and the bias doesn’t appear too obvious, although you can definitely feel it throughout the game. Some 4/5 years ago the bias wasn’t so general, it was mainly on the Russian Side, and some german vehicles downgraded, from what I played. I played it like 6 years ago at least, came back to play again, now my bf109k which had great speed and acceleration, 34 m/s climbing stats now has only 23m/s. All vehicle stats just keep jumping around all the time, there is no real consistency in the whole game. Everytime you come to play it all has changed again. So people can get Premium account and shoot anywhere near the enemy and take it down and buy the most buffed vehicle of the season or I don’t know when they do these changes, but I do remember, when I was spending on the game, with Premium and Vehicles, I was a waaaaay better player, now, been months since not putting money into it, I feel like no matter what, unless I spend money there, I can’t get to where I was with Premium. The game is like a pudding, like jelly. I got on my Steam Profile a Snapshot, while on Premium I took down 34 enemy airplanes on arcade lol it is insane.

  3. Hay read this:
    “BR
    Boulet de Rupture – armour piercing shot. This seems to be used for solid shot AP projectiles with no HE within them (boulet means literally roundshot), whereas AP/HE projectiles seem to use the term PR. The acronym OR can also be for both AP and AP/HE projectiles. (French)”

    Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20070516091000/http://gva.freeweb.hu/references/glossary_b.html#BP

    Almost all Russian ammo for 76mm is labeled like BR-350…
    In actuality, the BR ammunition’s may not have been filled with explosives.

  4. If you think Russian bias is a thing then you just don’t want to learn the game.
    A tier 1 russian plane with HVARs (anti tank high velocity rockets) is not USSR bias, it’s that Russian biplanes in 1937 carried anti tank rockets.
    However the p39, an aircraft with 25m/s climb rate (realistic mode), 980kmh IAS dive speed and 660kmh speed in straight lines with a 37mm high explosive gun at 3.0 is not only too suspicious, also the flight model of the p39 is completely wrong and overpowered.
    The English premium Harrier despite having 50G SRAAMs it has no radar, no flares and only 70m/s climb rate while the premium American AV8-A has flares, aim9E, tons of bombs, a radar and 139m/s of climb rate, that’s nearly as a 0.7br higher MiG19S.
    They muritards cry when an Il10 (a 4 tonne attacker powered by a 3200 horsepower biturbo engine) can overcome the energy traps from p47s and p51s, but they’re hella fine with 14 tonne attackers on 2000 horsepower engines having the same flight model as an average energy fighter, or those 7 tonne F4U’s with 3000hp engines stallfighting yaks with thrice their power and low speed maneuverability . ShVAK cannons are absolute trash in the game, while known in real life to be really accurate up close and just needing two seconds of precisely aimed barrage to down a tough American bomber, since they had a 900 round per minute fire rate full of armor piercing high incendiary bullets, just like 50 cals but bigger and a tad slower. However 50 cals one-hit discombobulate planes, you just need to land 4 bullets on target from 3km away and it’s over.
    The majority of nations get guided missiles past 9.7 while America already has them by 8.7 Even those known copy paste aircraft on other nations don’t get missiles until 9.3.
    It is known that nearly every American plane (except the Grumman family) is HIGHLY undertiered, with clean 0.7-2.7 difference of real performance. The p63 flies like a K4 at 4.0, only competences are yak 9u and yak 3; the XP55 is a premium plane at 4.0 with the armament and performance of a 6.3 (and funny shit, the p55 Ascender flew once and crashed when trying to turn, after pitching up 30 degrees entering in a stall it couldn’t recover from, yet it’s the best vertical stall fighter of the game. It just has no competence. If it can’t out turn a plane the p55 can out speed, out roll and out dive it. If the xp55 can’t out dive a plane, it can out climb it thus not falling into an energy trap. And so on, and they’re known for never dying once set afire, giving them the opportunity to return to hangar, get above everyone in 4 minutes reaching 6km of altitude and mach-dive on everyone.

  5. Lmao so true the t 90 in irl is said to have 500mm of armor not even 1000mm Russians are communist and over overeager ate there military power i mean just look at the desert storm m1 abrams vs t 72 “Russias finiest tank at the time” well we know the results the funny things is but not really is that of the nine abrams in desert storm 7 were killed by friendly fire and 60 t 72s were lost in desert shows the “power” of the Russians war thunder is bias in WW2 Commander Franz Stuadegger took on 55 t 34s and then retreated behind lines when he ran out of annunition that shows the bias right there. Russia is more of a bully tbh.

    1. dude you are talking about the t-90 or the t-90a? they are very very different, and the t-90a has more than 800mm of protection in his frontal plate against KE rounds, going up to 1050mm against KE or 1600mm against HEAT ammo, where tf do you get your info from dumbas?? plus you are talking about the t-72 not the t-72a that is ingame wich is by far much much superior than the normal t-72, the t-72a had an armor upgrade on his frontal plate armor and his turret, the m1 abrams was created around the 70′ more specifically 1979 while the t-72 is a 1971 tank with the t-72a modification coming up in 1979, the t-72 in the gulf war where exported versions for the iraqi goverment, not only they where exported versions but also the crew was a lot more untrained, dude some of those guys didn’t even knew how to fire a gun

      1. by t5h looks of the Ukraine war right now must Russian kid solders also cant fight for shit or know how to fire their gun

    2. the T-90A in game is not biasd, it,s underpowered.. Weak shells and weak engines.. ANYTHING can set it a blaze from miles away.. Even tho it´s well protected against a lot. Try to get out of a situation fast if you can.. That thing moves like a snail in the game, when in fact it moves damn fast both backwards and forward irl. And the T-72B is the same, it,s not OP and the engine sucks… Oh, the guieded missiles are a joke.. You can only take out small targets with them.. ABRAMS eats KONKURS and KORNETS for dinner and snack.. Well, actually all other NATO tanks do.. Even the CV´s are better protected against missiles than the T-90A and T72B.

  6. The First t-34’s were failures and the 34-85 was a great success and was a very feared tank and thanks to that the german engineers needed even better tanks. Also the bullshit about USA being the reason why the soviets won is a load of crap that you get from hollywood propaganda movies. You are the type of person to think that Americans are the best at everything. If you would look up some actually decent sources you would know that while the russians had some food shortages there weren’t as many as your propaganda sources tell you. I have played both tanks and from my experience the game isn’t russian bias it’s just that you can’t stand a tank better than a german or an american tank.

    1. Of course the land-lease is the main reason soviet won. They dind’t simply have enough resources to win the war, yet commies loves to spread propaganda about invicible usssr. Western country’s are too stupid to undersdand that all far left communist parties should be banned.

    2. We saw a lot of USSR MBT’s dead on the ground in Afghanistan, also very many top tier attack and ground support heli’s. I am so pleased to hear that these were obviously just propoganda hulks seeded by the then USSR occupation forces as the local couldn’t possibly have killed them with the aramarment they possesed.
      Lets get real they are massively over rated, food for thought.. If the target battle ground was say europe then why have so many tanks to take on a relatively low number of German and UK designed tanks?
      Overkill??
      No just a reasonable projection of the massive losses they’d take.

  7. Ok, if yall say that its russian bias, then why i keep getting bullied by those sweeds party cars with rockets that keep creampie u from all sides? What about those jumbos at low br who are just invincible? And dont forget about the Pershing, T34 and T30 from USA. The problem with the USSR in WT is that any tank has low deppresion so that u banzai every fcking squirell u see. I know bc i’ve been playing with the USSR for 2 years and a half, so i think i know about what im saying.

    1. tru that.. So have I.. I thought I would have a killer machine when I got the T-90A.. But hey I got dissapointed.. Instead its just a tractor with a barrel..

  8. Leigh Patton, no Russia bias doesnt exist on war Thunder, od you dont like historical accuracy, go home and watch Hollywood propaganda movies… T-34-85 od not an easy target, and M4A3E8 od not god od tanks, iz is comparable to the first T-34

  9. I totally agree with Keith Patton in everything he said here.

    I played War Thunder for more than a year now, I also have some programming background, and it is the most rigged game I’ve never seen.

    I’m also coming from a military background, and it is a well known fact that Russian materials capabilities are over overwhelmingly exaggerated, not only under Stalling, but also even nowadays: exaggerated characteristics, poor performance, deplorable quality, but they are still playing the tough guys…

    1. (TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT BECAUSE DATA-MINERS DONT SHARE SOURCES SO I CAN’T VERIFY ANY OF IT)

      Ya so there have been data-mining operation about war thunder sense it found its hole in the wall as the only (big) game using a realistic damage system, and they have found that all tanks that have the USSR class in their code (sorry if I’m using the wrong term I only have web development under my belt I’m still learning) get 2 chances on their chances of getting penetrated ex. The odds are 75/25 to be penetrated the game changes it to a 50/50 THAN if they do get penetrated the game gives it another go with it at a 50/50, BUT the german tanks that already at a disadvantage because of non-sloped armor get their penetration numbers changes from 25/75 to 50/50. (as well as put in higher BRs than their direct soviet counterparts) Then there is the fact german guns are next to useless against the front armor of most tanks (BR ratings of 4.7-6.7,) because they are world war 2 tanks facing early and sometimes mid cold war tanks that can brush aside german panthers or tiger 2s without even needing to think about it. Then to add insult to injury they have it so that research costs at 6.3 of german tanks are that of BR 7.7 of most other trees. (I know why war thunder has Germany the hardest tree to grind because it is a started nation and every new player wants that “epic german experience” but maybe for us older player so have been playing for 3+ years could get a brake)

  10. The M-4A3E8 Sherman seemed to make easy meat out of the T-34/85 in Korea. The ability of Russian tanks has always been a fiction of Stalinist propaganda and continues to this day. The IDF made mincemeat out of Russian tanks in the Middle East as did the US in Kuwait and Iraq. Russian armor has in the main provided western tankers with target practice. What they are good for is running over unarmed or under armed civilians as they did in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Clones of Russian tanks did the same thing in Tiananmen Square.

  11. War Thunder is crap. The problem is the computer bot tanks never miss, they know the terrain and go right to hull down positions that are impossible for human players to emulate with the limited vision options we get. Also, the system appears to jack up the computer opponent based on the level of vehicle you are using. This is to get you to spend an ever increasing amount of money to upgrade your tank out of frustration. The modeling of the vehicles bears no resemblance to fact. I’ve had a Tiger tank blown up by a 40 mm anti aircraft gun. The game is ridiculous and I stopped playing it months ago. Only a fool would invest money in it’s game play.

    1. you clearly don’t have any idea about armour. If a 40mm anti aircraft gun has enough pen to kill a tiger, then it will. It is realistic for anti aircraft guns to have over 80mm of penetration (a Tiger 1 has 80mm side armour) so what exactly is the problem here? The armour values of the vehicles in game are all correct (except for the highest BR tanks because they have limited information given to the public)
      There are also only bots for your first couple matches and they are really really bad, they drive into buildings, miss their shots and shoot at angles that are 100% ricochets. If you even were versing them (which you weren’t) and you died then I’m sorry to say, but you are very bad at the game.

      1. Gee too bad they didn’t have your genius back in the 1940’s. You could have explained that to them and they could have equipped all their main battle tanks with 40mm bofors guns and saved a lot of tankers lives. Your notion of ballistics is crap. The 40mm gun didn’t have enough propellant, mass or penetration no matter what you might think. They got rid of 50mm antitank and tank guns for that very reason. The only thing Battle Thunder gets right is the money making system it uses to drain the bank accounts of tank fan boys like you. Despite what you might think, gaming a video game is not real life. I developed software for a living, and software models can do whatever you want them to do. Battle Thunder is optimized to make money. Period. It is not realistic.

      2. You cannot trust the Stalin era production statistics. Here is a story to let you know why. Stalin gave a speech about grain production and said the nation’s production would increase to 72 million tons. The Agriculture Ministry reported that growth had stagnated and only produced 62 million tons the same as the year before. Stalin had everyone in the Ministry arrested and along with their families sent to the Gulag. The lesson was you report what the quota was set at, not the real numbers. Factory directors learned the lesson well.

        Russian losses were so high both in men and materials that tanks were sent into combat without paint in some cases. Losses in men were so great that they were being sent into combat half trained and unarmed, so the Soviet army did not get better, they just flooded the Germans.

        The allied aid was in large part all that helped the Soviets hold the line after the devastating losses in the first two years. That and the opening of five “second fronts” that the Germans had to siphon troops off to deal with. North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and the Air War.

        The Germans lost the war due to logistics in large part due to production from the West. Without the 500,000 wheeled vehicles and 1200 locomotives sent to them they would have had to walk carrying everything else produced a lot fewer tanks. So which ever way you want to look at it, their great offensives never would have happened without western aid and they never would have recaptured their lost territory.

        Point of fact is they may have won the war but never fully recovered and that fact played into the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s.

        Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of the Germans, but I can read and interpret data. Regimes who see the truth as something to manipulate to their own ends don’t selectively lie. They lie about everything. After the Wall came down, it was pretty obvious that anything written based on facts “known” before 1990 was based on Stalinist propaganda.

        The book, The Tiger’s Are Burning written by a respected aviation writer, claimed based on Russian figures, that more Tiger tanks were destroyed at Kursk, than had even been manufactured up to that point by German industry.

        It is also interesting that you are hard pressed to find any pictures of US or UK made tanks or planes in Soviet Service. Again a direct result of Stalin’s view of the world and the war.

        1. you are so fkn right! I played it for like 7 years. Every now and then I would stop because I couldn’t take that bias rigged thing, that only got worse with time. Some 4/5 years ago, you would not say the gameplay was rigged, but the Vehicle Stats and Russian Bias were a fact. But nowadays, it really feels different, like manipulated. It became obvious to me when I bought the Premium Account, I would win LOTS of head-ons, I could shoot close to enemies sometimes and take them down. Shot down 34 enemy airplanes on arcade once. Months without Premium, I have no more Silver Lions, I get shot down much more easily and have a much worse aim. It wasn’t that bad 4/5 years ago. Now it is just meticulously calculated to milk every Tank Fan Boy player out there. The game has changed a lot in the sense of these dark coding like bias, manipulation during gameplay thingy, besides vehicle stats that were already rigged as well.

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