History VideoGame / WarThunder

** The M50 Ontos deserves a mention for its 6 recoilless rifles. They have low muzzle velocity so it can be hard to range, but you have instant follow up sots from the other guns. Once you find the range, you can bombard a target with the remaining guns and slink away.

*** As of 2021 (and perhaps before), shooting a helicopter down with a tank shot has become a meme, as there are likely dozens of youtube videos showing main battle tanks will show "Critical Hit" and then the ''helicopter gains altitude and procees to kill the tank'', if not putting out the fire and continuing the match. Especially hilarious ''when the real tail rotor is completely missing'', because in real life the rear rotor prevents the helicopter from spinning like a top, hopelessly out of control, mainly because the pilot would be plastered to the wall of the cockpit if the engine was not cut into a controlled fall, or the helicopter would gyroscopically flip itself over.

** A sufficiently-armed coastal ship (sub chasers and minesweepers for example) can take out their blue-water counterparts if you put enough shells onto them (provided they can pierce through the armor in the first place). Of particular note is an Italian Frigate called the Saetta P-494, it is one of the few boats in the game with airbursting twin 40mm cannons, which absolutely shred all other Frigates, PT Boats, Sub Chasers, destroyers and even lightly armored cruisers, provided they themselves aren't blown up within the relatively close range of 4.9km. It is also armed with anti-ship missiles in case the hail of shrapnel wasn't enough, and with a battle rating of 4.7 (2021), it ''can'' be matched in relative novice matches, just like the USS Douglas (4.0BR) premium coastal frigate and its infamous missile spam.

** A sufficiently-armed coastal ship (sub chasers and minesweepers for example) can take out their blue-water counterparts if you put enough shells onto them (provided they can pierce through the armor in the first place). Of particular note is an Italian Frigate called the Saetta P-494, it is one of the few boats in the game with airbursting twin 40mm cannons, which absolutely shred all other Frigates, PT Boats, Sub Chasers, destroyers and even lightly armored cruisers, provided they themselves aren't blown up within the relatively close range of 4.9km. It is also armed with anti-ship missiles in case the hail of shrapnel wasn't enough, and with a battle rating of 4.7 (2021), it ''can'' be matched in relative novice matches, just like the USS Douglass premium coastal frigate and its infamous missile spam.

** A sufficiently-armed coastal ship (sub chasers and minesweepers for example) can take out their blue-water counterparts if you put enough shells onto them (provided they can pierce through the armor in the first place)

*** Patch 1.37 adds a number of aircraft with obliquely-firing 20mm ''Schrage Musik'' cannon that fires 45 degrees upward, inverting this trope. Note: this means that the guns fire directly UP, not in front/side/rear like almost all guns on bombers or fighters. "Recommended" strategies of using these guns include going beneath bombers (that are constantly shooting you from above straight down) and flying _upside down_ to strafe ground targets.

*** Patch 1.37 adds a number of aircraft with obliquely-firing 20mm ''Schrage Musik'' cannon that fires 45 degrees upward, inverting this trope.

** The stabilizer being shot out can become an annoyance ''very'' quickly, especially when dealing with a fighter on your tail. Literally all it takes to put you out of the fight is a single shot severing the control lines or a lucky burst blowing your stabilizers off. If you're skilled or very lucky, you can possibly use your flaps and throttle and limp back to base for an [[ComingInHot emergency landing]], but those not skilled or lucky enough to regain control of their plane and avoid other enemy players looking for an easy kill are flat out of luck. This is completely unrealistic as bombers *rountinely* had their vertical stabilizers shot off in WW2 and were able to land by using the other flaps, but this is coded as "tail shot off" and therefore an instant kill.

** The stabilizer being shot out can become an annoyance ''very'' quickly, especially when dealing with a fighter on your tail. Literally all it takes to put you out of the fight is a single shot severing the control lines or a lucky burst blowing your stabilizers off. If you're skilled or very lucky, you can possibly use your flaps and throttle and limp back to base for an [[ComingInHot emergency landing]], but those not skilled or lucky enough to regain control of their plane and avoid other enemy players looking for an easy kill are flat out of luck.

** Let's just say that this is about the ''only'' way you're knocking down most bombers unless you're flying a specialized bomber-hunter with heavy cannons and/or air-to-air rockets.

** Special mention to the Po-2. It's not normally available, but that's probably a good thing. It's a BR 1.0 biplane that makes other biplanes look like superstars. With a whopping 84mph top speed, its the slowest plane in the game. It's only gun is a single .30 cal in the back. It has an ok bombload, but even the much maligned Swordfish is over 50mph faster, carries more bombs, and has a forward facing gun. It doesn't even ''fall'' fast. At best you can safely dive in the 120-130mph range. The 5 cylinder radial engine looks like it was ripped off a lawnmower. Good luck trying to gain any altitude with it. Then it becomes an utter LethalJokeCharacter if one manages to use it correctly, seeing as how it flies slower than many other planes' ''stall speeds'', and its rear-mounted MG, with skilled aim, can snipe out the pilots and engines of higher-tiered aircraft slowing almost to the point of falling out of the sky, just to match speed with the Po-2. As of June 13 2015 (or earlier, it's difficult to find the patch) the PO-2 was removed from the standard tech tree and can only be obtained by gift or the marketplace.

** Special mention to the Po-2. It's not normally available, but that's probably a good thing. It's a BR 1.0 biplane that makes other biplanes look like superstars. With a whopping 84mph top speed, its the slowest plane in the game. It's only gun is a single .30 cal in the back. It has an ok bombload, but even the much maligned Swordfish is over 50mph faster, carries more bombs, and has a forward facing gun. It doesn't even ''fall'' fast. At best you can safely dive in the 120-130mph range. The 5 cylinder radial engine looks like it was ripped off a lawnmower. Good luck trying to gain any altitude with it. Then it becomes an utter LethalJokeCharacter if one manages to use it correctly, seeing as how it flies slower than many other planes' ''stall speeds'', and its rear-mounted MG, with skilled aim, can snipe out the pilots and engines of higher-tiered aircraft slowing almost to the point of falling out of the sky, just to match speed with the Po-2.

** The [=12.7mm=] machine guns of American and Soviet vehicles may seem unflashy and redundant compared to their main weapons. However, they can easily shred lightly armored ground vehicles and aircraft. Even against tougher opponents, they can disable the main gun and tracks, turning enemies into sitting ducks to be destroyed by bigger weapons.

** The P-47 Thunderbolt counts as most players probably aren't familiar with its history. Ingame, it has very poor acceleration (due to its weight), average maneuverability, and it gets matched up against very nimble fighters that pack Bomber-killing cannons. But with [[MoreDakka 8 .50call Machine Guns]], and a maximum load of 10 rockets, 2 1000lb bombs, and a single 500lb bomb, a player knowledgeable with its history will quickly tear up any and all ground units if the other team is stupid enough to leave him alone. Additionally, it is one of the only planes in the game which performs well at all altitudes and has a nightmarishly fast climb speed, making it almost trivial for a decent pilot to draw an opponent out of their element.

** Britain's Blenheim bomber is a low tier bomber with average speed, a puny bomb load of only two medium (or four light) bombs, and a single forward-firing machine gun located far out on the left wing. However, what it does have is two turret gunners that, when invested enough skill, can tear apart almost any fighter dumb enough to try and latch on its tail, and an exceptional maneuverability for a bomber. A useful tactic when deailing with enemy fighters at low altitude in a Blenheim is to hit the deck in hilly terrain and suddenly dip alititude before pulling up. If the pursuer doesn't smash into the ground or a tree trying to keep up, his pilot will often be left exposed for the twin machine guns mounted on the chin turret waiting to ''tear him apart.''

** Bombers can carry a large number of bombs, but must rely on their gunners to take down fighters that attack them, and are typically very slow.

** In June 2022, the F-14 was added in an update suitably titled "Danger Zone". Incidentally, the F-14's introduction coincided with the release of ''Film/TopGunMaverick''.

** For the sake of balance in ground battles, minor nations like Italy and Japan have American ground vehicles (i.e. M4, M24 and M26 tanks) in the same battle ratings as World War 2 tanks. While it's not historically accurate as those nations only got American vehicles ''after'' the war ended, given the poor performance of real life World War 2 tanks in Italy and Germany, adding American tanks does give these minor nations a fighting chance.

** Gaijin later had put up a event giving people the chance to earn a rare premium plane, for the Americans it was the same ultra rare Invader. The catch? you needed to get '''1100''' kills (RB and SB kills counted as several) in two weeks to get it. Meaning only those who actually had time to play for several hours daily managed to reach the end goal. From the time of the event (2013) until the introduction of the non-premium A-26B-50 in Update 1.67 (March 2017), there were no opportunities to get an A-26.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''War Thunder'' has a pretty strict rule of no "fake" vehicles, and that includes ones that were actually designed but never got past the blueprint or wooden mockup stage. But when the game was completely focused on the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII through UsefulNotes/KoreanWar era, they made exceptions to fill in the gaping holes at what were then the top tiers for Germany and Japan, since their development of combat vehicles abruptly stopped in 1945. Germany got the Tiger II (10.5 cm Kw.K) for Ground Forces, and Japan got the R2Y2 Kai series of jet attackers for Aviation. These were all only concepts that never even got to the blueprint stage, but were added anyway to fill those tech tree holes. Germany also got a [[InNameOnly "Panther II" with a turret and 8.8 cm gun that the real Panther II prototype never mounted]]; while the hull actually existed and the 8.8 cm Panther turret was designed, it was intended as an upgrade for the regular Panthers and not the already-cancelled Panther II. In Update 1.91 (5 years after they had been introduced), Gajin removed the Tiger II (10.5 cm) and the Panther II from the tech tree and made the hidden gift vehicles available only to players who'd already unlocked them, while adding postwar tanks imported from America as their replacements in the tech tree. But the RY2Y jets remain in the Japanese tech tree due to the complete absence of any suitable real aircraft to replace them.

* AKA47: The 2017 April Fool's Day event had the "GM-64", which was an AH-64D Apache given a fake German designation.

*** The War Thunder wiki joins in on the fun by adding an article on the [[https://wiki.warthunder.com/Bob_Semple Bob Semple tank.]]