History VideoGame / WarThunder

* RockBeatsLaser: It's entirely possible for a [=WW2=] vehicle to destroy a modern one, usually by landing a lucky shot through a weak spot that ignites the ammunition cache. There's even a reward for this called "God Mode".

* RockBeatsLaser: It's entirely possible for a WW2 vehicle to destroy a modern one, usually by landing a lucky shot through a weak spot that ignites the ammunition cache. There's even a reward for this called "God Mode".

** Fuel tanks on tanks can explode, destroying the vehicle. It's especially a common problem with soviet tanks.

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

** It's the same story for the Germans as well, with the last jets being the [=MiG=]-15 in East German colors, and a Canadair Sabre in West German markings.

*** As a whole, Rank V heavy tanks like the Conqueror, M103, and IS-3 suffer from the same problems as the Maus. While they have thick armor and gigantic guns, they also suffer from low rate-of-fire, large profiles, and poor mobility. Also because of PowerCreep and [=BR=] compression, these heavy tanks end up facing off against more advanced opponents armed with the ubiquitous sabot and [=HEAT=] rounds that can punch through their steel armor as if it were cardboard. In many ways, this mirrors the real world obsolescence of heavy tanks in the 50s and 60s.

** the "Smell of Victory" Battle Pass added several flamethrower equipped vehicles: The Churchill Crocodile and "Zippo" armored boat. It's likely more flamethrower vehicles will come later.

** The U.S. TBD-1 "Devastator" Torpedo Bomber. In terms of practically every thing, it's worse than the first of the American Bombers line, the PBY-5 and 5a. The payload of air dropped munitions is modest[[note]]Either 12x 100lb or 2x 500lbs and 6x 100lbs bombs[[/note]], while the PBY aircrafts can carry 4x 1000lb bunker busters, and only carries a modest ''two'' guns, a 12.7mm for the pilot and a 7.62mm for the tail gunner (compared to the PBY's forward double 7.62mm turret, tail 7.62mm, and two 12.7mm waist guns, one on each side). The good news is, it can fly just fine at about 85+ MPH without stalling. The bad news is, anything beyond 130+ MPH, starts to be rather interesting for anyone used to similar Battle Rating aircraft, in the sense of deploying the landing gear or even ''using combat flaps''. Doing so risks them being torn right off the aircraft the second they're extended. Make note that speed is entirely possible with the aircraft flying level without diving. Speaking of diving, for being ''improperly'' listed as "Dive Bomber", the one thing it can't do, is properly ''dive bomb'' ground/sea targets. It doesn't have any sort of air brakes. If you go into a standard attack dive with this thing, even with the throttle cut to zero, it can exceed 200 MPH. Guess what happens at 200+ MPH with a Devastator. Good luck pulling out of a dive when the ''wings shear off''. Really the only things the Devastator has over the PBY is that it has a lower stall-speed, better turning ability, and doesn't need as much runway to land.[[note]]And even that is laughable, because at least the waterborne PBY-5 is completely capable of making a safe, wheel-less belly landing in Realistic Battles at 180 MPH. As mentioned above, the Devastator's landing gear rips off above 130 and landing at that speed on its belly tends to be rather more disastrous, with the plane violently torn apart in 3 to 5 pieces thrown in multiple directions.[[/note]]

** In tanks, the Soviets have their legendary 152mm howitzers on the KV-2 and SU-152 which can one-shot almost anything, even ''modern-day main battle tanks'', albeit at the cost of a painfully slow reload. The Object 120 also has a 152mm gun, but it's so long it effectively ''doubles'' the overall length of the vehicle. The largest-caliber gun on any ground vehicle however has to go to the British [=FV4005=] Stage II; a post-war tank destroyer built to face Soviet IS-series heavy tanks armed with a whopping 183mm rifled gun.

** [[UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades France]] get several versions of the 8 wheeled EBR armored car, the AML 90 with a low pressure chemical round throwing cannon, and even a[=ATGM=] carrier with the [=SANTAL=].
** [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport China]] Has a couple in the modern era part of the tree, such as the PTL02 and the ZLT11. But the most infamous by far is the WMA 301, a premium Armored car with a bevy of high tech features including a fully stablized 105mm gun capable of launching Tandem charge ATGMS that defeat ERA, VT-Fuse HE allowing it to shoot down helicopters, thermal sights, a laser ranger finder, and a pretty good road top speed of over 50 MPH. All of a very low BR of 8.3, where msot opponents you face won't have even half those features. It's no wonder its commonly accused of being a way of BribingYourWayToVictory.

** The Maus is a 188 ton steel behemoth whose thick armor and powerful 128mm gun made it the definition of a MightyGlacier. However, it has atrocious mobility even for a heavy tank, is a huge target for bombers and its rate-of-fire is pathetic. Also, unlike other German heavy tanks, the Maus faces off against Cold War era vehicles whose sabot and [=HEAT=] rounds can punch through its rolled homogenous steel armor as if it were cardboard. Eventually, the unviability of the Maus lead to it being removed from the game's tech tree and could only be obtained as a premium vehicle.

*** Engine fire extinishers for aircraft were finally added in late 2022. However, for single engine planes and helicoopters, its still probably a CEF, as your engine will be destroyed after the fire is put out, leading you to rapidly losing altitude. Averted for multi engine bombers however.

** The Vietnam era A-1 H Skyraider provides a rare piston engined example, being able to mount an asounding eight rifle caliber minguns on the plyons under its wings. Oh, and it can still use its 4 20mm cannons at the same time.

** As the game has progressed in technology and come closer to the modern era, a plethora of air to ground and air ro air guided missliles of all types have been added.

** Napalm bombs. They are nearly uselss agaisnt tanks, but will kill any open topped vehicles horribly. They will do DamageOverTime to strategic bases in air battles.
** the "Smell of Victory" Battle Pass added several flamethrower equipped vehicles: The Churchil Crocodile and "Zippo" armored boat. It's likley more flamethrower vehicles will come later.

** The Ju-87 Stuka climbs worse than a lead turtle, is pretty fragile, and can't dogfight as well - the only thing it CAN do well is when he has a bomb ready and above 2000m. Come level 7, and you get Stukas with TWO 37MM CANNONS, which rip wings and motors and tails like nobody's business in one hit. Large amounts of {{Troll}}ing has been done with such a poorly maneuverable, visibly pointless plane.

*** The Ju-87 B-2 can be a greatly effective anti-bomber in low tier matches if the pilot is skilled enough. Sure, it's a completely crap airplane at first and trying to actively dogfight is garunteed suicide, but in the right hands it can be a PBY's nightmare with the pools of ammo the Stuka can pour into its rear end. It also has a *very* good turn radius at optimally slow speed and flaps deployed and can outturn almost anything outside of a biplane in a pinch.

** The F4U-7 Corsair is the king of this in Prop tiers. 114 Mighty Mouse rockets will make short work of any ground targets in its way.
** In general, most attack helicopters can pull off this trope with a combination of ungided rocket pods and guided ATGMs.

* PainfullySlowProjectile: The sweedish starting heli HKP3C is equipped with the slowest missile in the game, the lethargic RB 53 that travels at a measly 85/ms.

** Most starter helicopters will have manually guided ATGMs, if not the one immediately after the starter.

** SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles under the british tech tree have several armored cars, ranging from being armed with a measly 2 pounder all the way up to a 105mm NATO tank cannon! There's even a version with radar and dual 35mm anti air cannons.
** GaulsWithGrenades get several versions of the 8 wheeled EBR armored car, the AML 90 with a low pressure chemical round throwing cannon, and even a ATGM carrier with the SANTAL.

* ComingInHot: Played straight when trying to land a damaged aircraft on a runway. Successfully landing on a friendly runway, even if it is a crash landing, will allow the plane to be repaired and returned to the battle, while crashing the plane anywhere else will keep it out of the battle and potentially cost the player Lions after the match. This is especially important on Historical Battles, where the player cannot deploy in any other planes once one is down.

* LeadTheTarget: You have to shoot where the target plane is going to be in order to hit it. A "lead target indicator" is included to help people in Arcade battles, but is absent in Historical and Full Real battles.

* RareVehicles: Many of the premium and gift vehicles are these if they're not an AceCustom, with some being literally unique prototypes. Notable examples include the Super Pershing and the Super Hellcat on the American tech tree and the A43 Black Prince for the British. The German E-100 super-heavy tank, whose sole prototype was only partially built in real life, will be the rarest vehicle of all in-game because it's a limited tournament prize.

** The MG may not be able to do much against another tank, but it's pretty handy for destroying obstacles on the road so your tank doesn't get slowed down.

* NotTheIntendedUse: Recoil from firing the guns slows a plane down a little. This has resulted in any remaining ammo being used for "gun brakes" when landing in order to bring the plane to a stop faster.

** For the sake of balance, 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 atrocious performance of real Italian and Japanese tanks during World War 2 tanks, adding American tanks does give these nations a fighting chance against German, American and Russian factions.
** Experimental and prototype vehicles are included to fill gaping holes in tech trees and provide game balance.

** All difficulties of naval use a "crew knockout" sytem that is sort of like ground forces. Except De-facto its just a health bar sytem for the different parts of a ship's hull. In reality it would be extraordinarily rare for a ship to be rendered combat incapable by only losing the crewmen (although getting ''new crewmen'' into the ship would have to wait until after the fight was over), which were reasonably well protected so long as the threat to their existence wasn't explosive in nature. However, modeling ship damage accurately and having to wait for the ships to flood would make for some truly protracted (and boring) games.

*** The French rely on solid shot [[UpToEleven to an even greater degree than the British]]; prior to Rank IV, only sever vehicles in their main tech tree (the [[JokeCharacter former reserve]] AMC.34 YR, Crusader Mk. II, Char B1 bis, [=SAu=] 40, the 105-mm Sherman, the AML-90, and Char 25t) use HE filler.

** Taken UpToEleven and the logical conclusion with the Maus, the final German (Super) Heavy tank. At 188 tons, it moves at only 12 mph on smooth ground, but has a 128mm gun capable of destroying any Allied or Soviet tank.

** Starting from Update 1.70.1945, said attacker is marked with a ''[[UpToEleven skull.]]''

** The M3 Lee looks like the result of a MadScientist trying to Frankenstein together a [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WWI]] with a [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]] tank.

* MisaimedRealism: Several of the features of the "realism" of the game are ''wildly'' internally and logically inconsistent, although some are blamed on "restrictions of the game engine", which to be fair, is from Wings of Prey, a Gaijin Entertainment game from 2009.
** In all ground (tank) modes, crew members can swap between any gunner or driver position, although this process generally takes 30-45 seconds. However, in all air battle modes (planes), if any of your pilots are killed, the entire plane goes down as the game says "pilot knocked out". Whether this means ''both'' of your two bomber pilots were killed/KO'd is unknown.
** For most planes, aircraft crews are artificially limited. For example, the B-17 in real life sits between 10 and 11 crew, but in game it only has 7 crew members, and if a crew member is taken out, no one can replace them, ever. Contrast this to the ground battles where tanks will ''always'' have at least one driver and one gunner at all times, or at least attempt to fill the position.
** Shell penetration is notoriously all over the place. Malzi has an entire youtube clip channel essentially dedicated to it. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpXZtJDGxFM]]
** Helicopters as of 2021 notoriously can take tank shells and have their tail rotor ripped off, be set on fire and be fine and continue to get kills, although because the game's coding is ''suspect at best'', any machine gun mounted on an aircraft, ''regardless of caliber'' will probably do more damage than any tank mounted machine gun, see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F5RV8M8ZU]]. In air battles, wings routinely get shot off, engines set on fire, fuel tanks leak, etc., making helicopters ''insanely'' tanky in comparison.
** Random bugs that ''actually'' affect game mechanics, especially in Realistic battles. Examples include the ultra low quality trick for seeing through bushes that weren't rendered (which became an april fool's day gag from Gaijin itself), as well as a recent tank silencer bug (2022). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrB2C-LtzR8]]

*** Or if your Italian, a 102mm!!

** Base rushing at the team level can certainly count, especially for players trying to earn their double XP bonus for the day. While, it may seem like a worthy tactic that will end the match quickly, it often results in half the players on the winning team barely getting any points, and thus, any experience. This gets particularly frustrating for some when the match in question leaves them stupidly close to an aircraft or upgrade they want.

** The Japanese Type 75 SPG; a 155mm self-propelled howitzer added to the game as a direct-fire tank destroyer. In-game it very rarely gets the chance to perform its intended role as an indirect fire artillery piece.

** Tank guns can be used to shoot down aircraft which is completely unheard of in real-life. OK, well not ''completely''' unheard of, but extremely rare.

** Tank guns can be used to shoot down aircraft which is completely unheard of in real-life.