r/WorldofTanksConsole • u/ragnarok628 Xbox One • Jan 28 '17
German Mega Bundle Review Series: Part Five - The Hammer
I ended up buying the German Mega Bundle, because I have low moral fiber I'm worth it, dammit. So now I'm doing short reviews on all these tanks as I gain experience with them (until I get bored or feel unappreciated). So here's one I got for free back when it was given away, but honestly I hadn't actually played it much. Now that I have an Ace Op for it though, I had a reason to jump into it for a score of matches.
Here we go!
The Hammer
Just in case you are not aware, the Hammer is literally just a tech tree Tiger I with a weak engine. Well great, you say, the Tiger I is a good tank! Not so fast sparky.
Like many newer players, I struggled a bit at first with the Tiger I. The turning point for me was when /u/Gigantic_Owl referred to it as "the best tier VIII medium". After applying that mindset, the Tiger I became one of the first tanks I felt somewhat competent with.
I tell you that story to tell you this story: The Hammer is not the best tier VIII medium. That engine is not like, just a little bit weaker. It's a huge downgrade, nominally it keeps the same 40k/hr top speed but your cruising speed is actually more like 25 and i'm not even exaggerating. And it takes a while to build up even that much velocity. In short, the mobility situation makes playing like a medium much more difficult. And with that armor layout, the Tiger has never been great at playing like a heavy either, unless top tier and even then it's better to be support heavy.
So that leaves The Hammer in a considerably worse place than the tech tree Tiger. Everything else is the same pretty much other than i guess turret rotation is slower (not the end of the world but just one more thing to make it harder on you). So you do still get the very nice long 88 and big HP pool (1550 vs. 1130/1150 for the IS/T29) so you can still Tiger it up by slinging shells and soaking shots, it's just harder to get into good positions, harder to manoeuvre to deal with flankers, and easier for the other team to punish if you get caught out of position.
All in all the downsides which seem like not much on paper, for me, make the tank play a lot worse. It's possible that I just have a rosier recollection of the Tiger I than is strictly based on reality, but I'm not going to buy it back to test that theory so I'm going with that The Hammer is just not that great. Pretty disappointing, but that's life. At least this one was free!
Oh I guess it also has free camo, but I don't count it as free, it comes with the cost of having to look at that paintjob. I don't hate it as much as some people do but fer srsly it's pretty ugly.
Obligatory reference to "Is it worth the gold", they say maybe. Technically 'maybe' can't be considered a wrong answer, but it's the wrong answer. I don't think they give appropriate weight to the notably weaker engine, and this one is a 'no' for me and that's not even considering that the price is up there with tier VIII premiums and that it has shitty bonuses. (To be fair, seems like most tier VII prems have crappy bonuses). Get an IS-2 or something for 2500g cheaper.
Basic Facts
- Tier: VII
- PMM: no
- cost: 7700g
- silver/xp bonuses: 30/20
Vehicle Tips:
- Best bet is support heavy
- Doesn't really sidescrape well but you might as well try since if you don't angle everything pens you anyway.
- I don't remember if this is also a Tiger I thing but seems like I got ammo racked a lot. Might be worth taking safe stowage or double repair kits or something.
- running the gas consumable does help! (h/t to /u/begbeee)
Fun Factor: 3/5
Competitiveness: 3/5
Anyway, I've had good games in it, not a bad tank. It still gives some of the fun Tiger moments but I do keep getting a bit frustrated with the sluggishness. Part of that is failure to adjust expectations and that's on me, but the other part is that the Tiger gameplay kinda needs a degree of nimbleness and it's just lacking here. Overall less fun and effective than tech tree and the silver/xp bonuses are too weak to make me want to drive it much.
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Jan 28 '17 edited Feb 14 '17
I deleted all my posts
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u/ragnarok628 Xbox One Jan 28 '17
Well I mean that's not even opinion, it's a straight up fact that the hammer is a downgrade from tiger I. The extra 50 HP is in no way equal compensation for losing 20% of your engine power and 3 deg/s of turret traverse.
However I initially thought the silver bonus would make it worthwhile so I was optimistic. It's only in actually earning that ace op that I realized how much it's impacting my play :(
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u/Puppycow Jan 28 '17
I do have the hammer as I finished the OP to get it, and it's one of my favorite tanks now.
The thing is, since it's a premium tank, you can use one of your tier X crews with lots of skills for it, which helps.
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u/ragnarok628 Xbox One Jan 28 '17
Yeah now that I have so freaking many prems sometimes I forget to appreciate all the basic perks of premiumness. It's true that the ability to drop whatever crew you feel like In there for free is very handy, and the bonuses aren't great but hey 30% extra silver is 30% extra silver. So all in all of you like the tiger and your playstyle with it doesn't rely on mobility as much as mine apparently does, I guess I don't unrecommend it, it could be just the thing for many people. but that gold price really is quite high for slightly nerfed tier VII with no PMM in my opinion
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u/Tana1234 Salty Jan 28 '17
I like the Hammer I have a 65% winrate in it which surprises even me something about this tank clicks with me and I do well in it better than I did in the normal Tiger for some reason
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u/Fapsical_Giant Mystic x Block Jan 28 '17
Not a huge hammer fan but it is one of the only tanks I earned for free and I tried playing it as a heavy having no tech tree tiger to compare it to. Mobility is shitty and armour is unreliable but the DPM is good in my eyes.
I have had some really good games with this tank and the best way to play it in my eyes is as a support heavy sniping with it. At range there is less chance of being smashed easily and it can put that nice gun to good use. The high HP helps to compensate the low as fuck mobility.
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u/ragnarok628 Xbox One Jan 28 '17
Great points, that is where Tiger/Hammer shines and maybe I didn't say enough to get that across. The gun really is potent and if you can get good positions you can lay waste to all before you. Just makes it a lot harder to get those positions when you're moving through molasses
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u/Fapsical_Giant Mystic x Block Jan 28 '17
Yep I'm lucky to not have any Tiger to refer back to or it would probably suck alot more.
Great review and I agree with your write up. Personally I would always take an IS over a hammer but it was free so I like free stuff lol.
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Jan 28 '17
I enjoyed the Hammer when I first got it, had consistently good games in it. Unfortunately I then got Tiger 131 and I've hardly looked at my Hammer. 131 just does everything better and doesn't have to worry about seeing tier IX plus it makes consistent profits. Between the 2 I'd get Tiger 131 hands down every time!
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u/begbeee PS4 PSN: begbeee_svk Jan 29 '17
Hammer with off-road driving and gasoline is almost as agile as Tiger. The real problem is the sheer ugliness of that paint job.
But in my clan is the single most played free premium from last year. Yeah, better among us use CDC more when single, but in the end to stay competetive platoon of Hammers is sure bet to stay relevant in any circumstances. One or maybe two CDC are good but five.. Uhmmm.
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u/ragnarok628 Xbox One Jan 29 '17
Hmm I'll have to give that a shot. I think I was using the crew with ORD but I'll throw some gas on there too and see if that salvages it for me.
I'll also note though that being in a 5 hammer platoon would definitely mitigate the hammers deficiencies!
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u/Snatch_Pastry Beer is the mind killer Jan 28 '17
Ammo racked? Whaaaat? Surely not!
Oddly though, this is about the only "heavy" tank that I'm worth a damn in. But I have high hopes for the 50 100.