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Britain

The British RAF is fully playable, and brings out all the famous toys, including the Hurricane Series, the Spitfire series, Lancaster Bomber, and even the Fairy Swordfish. As of 1.49/(AKA 1.70.1945), naval fighters have been added. Version 1.53 introduces the much-anticipated Hawker Hunter F.1 and British ground vehicles, though the latter is limited to a half-dozen premium tanks including the Black Prince, Sherman Firefly, A13 Mk II, and Achilles. Version 1.55 "Royal Armour" added a full line of non-premium British ground vehicles with more slated for the future. The Royal Navy was eventually made playable in 2019.

The British tree also acts as a Commonwealth tree of sorts, featuring vehicles from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa (the last as a full-blown subtree).

The British tech tree also features:

Aussies with Artillery
Canucks with Chinooks
South Africans with Surface-to-Air Missiles: South Africa was introduced as the game's first sub-tree in 2021.

Tropes for the British aerial tree:

Ace Custom: Robert Tuck's Gladiator, John Plagis' Spitfire LF Mk IXc, and James Prendergast's Spitfire FR Mk XIVe.
Artistic License – History:
- The D.521 was a single French prototype that never found its way on British hands, and is present in the British tree as an extremely rare event vehicle. To be fair, it has been given out only thrice, with the most recent instance being an item in the Warbonds shop in late 2016, long before France became its own nation in-game.
- The Sea Meteor was never armed in real life unlike in-game.
BFG: Featuring the 57-mm Molins Class M of the Tsetse Mosquito, the 47-mm Vickers P on a specially-fitted Tempest Mk V, and the Hurricane Mk IV's two 40-mm cannons,
Big, Bulky Bomb: The Lancasters, Wellingtons, and the Canberra B Mk. 2 can all carry a 4000-lb "cookie" bomb.
More Dakka: Played with; while .303s are omnipresent in the lower tiers, they're fairly anemic compared to most other aircraft ammo.
Underground Monkey:
- Gladiators are present as reserves in the Chinese and Swedish ^note as the J8A tech trees.
- The Spitfire is one of the most ubiquitous aircraft in the game, with 22 variants present in the British tree alone out of 29 total, with France, Israel, Italy, Russia, and the US getting their own as well.

Tropes for the British ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: Includes the A13 Mk. I of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, Crusader II "The Saint" of the 10th Royal Hussars, Sherman IC "Trzyniec" of the 2nd (Warsaw) Armoured Brigade, Comet I "Iron Duke" of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, and the Achilles of the 65th Anti-Tank Regiment.
Achilles' Heel: British main battle tanks have glaringly weak lower front plates. It doesn't help at all that their ammo is stored next to the driver.
Ammunition Conservation: The BFG-equipped FV4005 can only store 12 rounds, thus you have to make every shot count.
Armor-Piercing Attack: They are the second nation in the game to adopt APDS, starting with the Challenger (different from the more modern Challengers) and the Comet, allowing them to slice through some of their better-armored opponents such as the German big cats and Sherman Jumbos.
BFG:
- The FV4005 has a 183-mm cannon, the largest of its kind among ground vehicles until the arrival of the Sturmtiger. This comes at the price of having one of the longest stock reloads at 38.9 seconds.
- Not far behind is the premium Centurion Mk.5 AVRE's 165-mm demolition gun.
Construction Vehicle Rampage: The Centurion Mk.5 AVRE is a literal engineering vehicle, complete with a dozer blade that (partially) hides its lower glacis weakspot. Also has the distinction of being a rare example of a Close-Range Combatant in this tech tree thanks to its ERA. Just don't expose its sides though.
Critical Hit Class: British guns have some of the best penetration for their tier, allowing them to score critical hits on their more heavily-armored opponents. However, this comes at the cost of having difficulties one-shotting them, forcing you to know where exactly to aim.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: As HE filler is something of a rarity in this tree, this is one of the more frequent means in which opponents are killed by British tanks.
Do Not Run with a Gun: The second nation to consistently avert this at Tier IV by having two-plane stabilizers. ^note
Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon:
- The hull-mounted 76-mm howitzer on the Churchill and the main gun on its TD variant are some examples, as well the Tortoise and its 32-pdr gun.
- Inverted with the Archer, whose gun faces rearwards.
Fragile Speedster: Their cruiser tanks are fairly fast (notable on the Cromwells and other vehicles derived from their chassis), but they don't have much in the way of hull armor. Ditto for the South African armored cars.
Glacier Waif:
- The Valentines are medium tanks, but they don't look like the part as they are incredibly slow on account of being infantry tanks.
- The light and medium tanks prior to the Centurion turn into this when reversing, as British vehicles in low- to mid-tiers are infamous for their practically non-existent reverse gear. British tankers are often advised to use neutral steering (something they're at least decent at) to turn back as a result.
Glass Cannon:
- The entire tank destroyer line qualifies save for the Tortoise.
- Their cruiser tanks can also hit pretty hard, but they tend to have rather questionable hull armor.
Guns Akimbo: Downplayed with the Independent, which has five turrets, four of which are machine guns.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: Encouraged in the lower tiers as while you can pen almost anything you face, everyone can also pen you back, or worse.
Long-Range Fighter: Britain's slow-moving hull-down sniper playstyle gets more fleshed out in the mid- to high-tiers, specifically once they get access to the 17-pdr guns as found in the Archer and the Sherman Firefly.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
- While paper armor and a casemate-type gun are fairly common among tank destroyers, the Archer is unique for its rearwards-facing gun. Combine that with the fact that it's based on the Valentine chassis, itself already fairly slow, and you'll get some Damn You, Muscle Memory! moments.
- The Matilda Hedgehog straps anti-submarine mortars on its back.
Mighty Glacier: Their slow and lumbering infantry tanks contribute to some examples, contrasting with the Fragile Speedster nature of their cruiser tank counterparts. This juxtaposition is an adequate reflection of British doctrine for most of the war.
- The Valentines (except the IX on account of its higher BR) can turn into this despite being mediums, especially when downtiered.
- The Tortoise is incredibly slow, but can take a lot of hits before going down as well as delete its opponents with its 32-pounder gun.
- The Black Prince on launch also counted; despite its laughable top speed of 17 kph, it had more than decent armor on account of being a Churchill slapped with a 17-pdr gun which was more than enough to obliterate anything it looked at. After getting uptiered to 6.0, the BP lost this status.
Money Sink:
- Their former 6.7 lineup ^note carries some of the most expensive maximum repair costs among ground vehicles. The sole exception is the FV4005, largely due to being Awesome, but Impractical incarnate.
- The Centurion Mk. 10 and the Conqueror a few BR steps up are also slapped with five-digit repair costs when fully upgraded.
More Dakka:
- Before its BR got bumped up to 2.3, the T17E2 Anti-Air scout car terrorized reserve tanks, thanks to both its speed and its twin .50-cals. The Falcon is its equivalent in the higher tiers, which obliterates enemy tanks just as well as they do on aircraft thanks to having APDS ammo.
- Britain generally enjoys faster reload rates to make up for their lack of killing power.
Painfully Slow Projectile: The AVRE's HESH shell has one of the slowest muzzle velocities in the game at 259 m/s.
Smoke Out: Deploying smokescreens on themselves and their allies is a common secondary role for the Churchill I and VII.
Stone Wall: The Churchills (the III leans more on Mighty Glacier territory on account of its better gun) and the Matilda are great at eating shells, but will struggle to pen anything back.
Underground Monkey: Centurions can also be found on the Swedish and Israeli trees. The South African branch has a locally-refurbished variant known as the Olifant.
Unexpected Gameplay Change: Moving around and aiming with the Archer and its backwards-facing gun can take some time to get used to.
Unusual Weapon Mounting: The Archer and its rearwards-facing gun.
Weaksauce Weakness:
- Practically non-existent reverse gears for their interwar and WW2-era vehicles means you're going to have to be very careful in positioning.
- The engines of the Centurions, Caernarvon, and Conqueror can be disabled by strafing them from above as their engine roofs have extremely thin armor.

Tropes for the British naval tree:

Ace Custom: LÉ Orla's can use all of her armament, compared to its lead sister HMS Peacock which only has the 76-mm.
Ammunition Conservation: HMS Peacock only holds 115 rounds on its sole gun, a 76-mm OTO Melara autocannon with a fire rate of, guess it, 85 rounds per minute, so it's wise to pick your targets wisely.
Early Game Hell: Considering you're starting with the HMS Churchill as a reserve destroyer seen below and the anemic firepower (even if it's a straight case of More Dakka on account of its eight Lewis guns) or the reserve MTB, the experience can be unpleasant to say the least.
Fragile Speedster: The Brave-class is the fastest boat of the British tree yet is fragile thanks to its incredibly low crew count.
Lethal Joke Character: The HMS Churchill may have rather anemic primary and secondary armament, but thanks to its decent Anti-Air capabilities, the 'Town-class can wreak havoc on opposing coastal boats.

Tropes for the British helicopter tree:

China

China is a de facto faction that was added to the game as part of a deal to introduce War Thunder to Chinese servers. It had remained inaccessible to servers outside of China (even in Russia, where the game is originally from) but in September 2019, the People's Republic of China/Republic of China tree was finally released to the global market ^note.

China has one of the most interesting vehicle trees of any nation in War Thunder. As China had little domestic weapons industry during World War II and was embroiled in a devastating civil war besides, her forces largely made do with foreign exports and (basically) whatever could be borrowed, stolen or begged for when it could not be bought. Their vehicle tree from Rank I to Rank V consists largely of American, Soviet, British and even some Japanese designs, giving the Chinese more variety than a box of chocolates. After Rank V, indigenous designs begin to appear in the tree.

As well as representing the forces of the communist People's Republic of China, China's tech tree also include vehicles from other Asian nations including the Republic of China/Taiwan, Vietnam, North Korea and Bangladesh.

The Chinese tree is composed of:

Bangladesh: Consists of a single premium- the Type 69IIG, which is an upgraded Bangladesh model of the Type 69.
Chinese with Chopper Support
The Other Chinese Army
North Koreans with Nodongs: Consists of a single premium- the Shenyang F-5, an export version of the Shenyang J-5, a Chinese-built MiG-17F.
Vietnamese with Kalashnikovs: The Phòng không T-34, introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".

Tropes for the Chinese faction in general:

Jack of All Trades: China's tech trees afford its players a high degree of versatility suited for a large variety of situations.
Moveset Clone: A side effect of being an Underground Monkey faction. However, such nature of the Chinese tree helps new players in fleshing out their playstyle, thanks to the variety afforded by the presence of disparate foreign designs.
No Export for You: Initially exclusive to the Chinese version of War Thunder, but finally saw release in the global version as of 2019, coincidentally timed with a contract between Gaijin and Tencent expiring.
Underground Monkey: The early parts of the tree, up to roughly halfway through Rank V. Most Chinese vehicles are foreign (mostly American and Soviet, with some British and Japanese) designs or derivatives of them. They start averting this in the higher tiers where indigenously-designed vehicles begin appearing.
Videogame Historical Revisionism:
- The initial announcement page introduced a comprehensive diagram of the various vehicles with their associated flags (PRC or ROC) in their backdrops and a brief history about how the two sides came to adopt those vehicles historically. Come early September 2019, the page has since changed the diagram with the flags omitted out and no mentions of Taiwan. Furthermore, the beta dev servers has all the vehicles marked with the current PRC flags including vehicles exclusive to the ROC Armed Forces such as the indigenously-developed CM11 MBT. Gaijin later gave Taiwanese vehicles the ROC Army flag, which is still how ROC vehicles in WT are represented.

Tropes for the Chinese aerial tree:

BFG: The 37-mm Ho-203 found on the Ki-45 hei/tei, and the similarly-sized N-37D of their MiG-9s, MiG-15s (misnamed as J-2), and MiG-17 (both the misnamed J-4 and the export F-5 version operated by the KPAF).
Death from Above: Inverted with the Schräge Musik cannons found in the Ki-45 hei/tei, which fire upward.
Money Sink: Their Tu-4 has the second-highest stock repair cost in Realistic mode, only trailing the bomber the Soviets reverse-engineered it from, the B-29. China also has some crazy-expensive jets, with the ROCAF's F-104G being the second-costliest aircraft in Simulator at 63,600 SL when stock.

Tropes for the Chinese ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: Includes Sun Li-jen's T-26, M4A4 of the joint Chinese-American 1st Provisional Tank Group, T-34-85 No.215 of the 2nd Tank Division in the Korean War, T-62 No.545 which became a MacGuffin during the Sino-Soviet border conflict, and also the Korean War-era IS-2 No.402.
Amphibious Automobile: The Soviet-armed LVT, PT-76, Type 63-I, the TOW-equipped M113A1, ZBD86, and the CM25.
Military Mashup Machine:
- The CM11 is a modernized M60 Patton chassis mated with the turret of an M48 Patton, except said turret uses the M68A1 gun, the same one used for the early production Abrams models.
- The M64 uses an M18 turret on top of an M42 SPAAG hull.

Tropes for the Chinese helicopter tree:

France

The French Air Force had been present since the very beginning; albeit it consisted of only one plane included as a British premium. French aircraft were introduced in Update 1.73, and French tanks eventually followed. In 2023, the French Navy made its entrance following the La Royale (2.27) update.

Tropes for the French aerial tree:

Ace Custom: Gabriel Pallier's D.510 and René Challe's Yak-9T.
BFG: Includes the 37-mm M10 of the French Kingcobra and the similarly-sized NS-37 in René Challe's Yak-9T.
Macross Missile Massacre: The F4U-7 can carry 6 SNEB rocket pods... which have 19 rockets per pod, resulting in a jaw-dropping 114 rockets total. These rockets are HEAT, too, which enables the F4U-7 to swamp rockets to unlucky ground targets
Moveset Clone: The French tree has an American sub-branch that starts from Tier II, and naturally, they also play the same way.
Underground Monkey: A few examples exist on their American sub-branch.
- The French SB2C-5 is a slightly-improved version of the SB2C-4, but loses access to the Type A Mk. I sea mine.
- The F4U-7, the final production variant of the Corsair, was produced exclusively for France and is armed to the teeth (in fact, it's the second-most heavily-armed Corsair variant, only next to the AU-1 attacker) thanks to its airframe being partly based from the AU-1.

Tropes for the French ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: Includes the H.39 "Cambronne" of the 14th Battle Tanks Battalion and the Panther "Dauphiné" of the Besnier Independent Squadron of La Résistance.
Acrofatic: The Surbaissé is fairly mobile for a "heavy" tank.
Amphibious Automobile: The AMX-10RC wheeled reconnaisance vehicle.
Artistic License – History: The French Underground Monkey of the ItO-90M uses the same chassis as its Finnish counterpart.
BFG: The premium Lorraine is equipped with a gigantic 155-mm howitzer.
Critical Hit Class: The scarcity of HE filler throughout most of the French tree forces her tankers to know the internal layout of their opponents' vehicles.
Early Game Hell: Rank I France is considered to be among the worst tank lines, with subpar armor, mobility, and penetration, all combined with poor survivability thanks to the low crew count of their vehicles.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: Like the British, France also heavily relies on solid shot, with only six vehicles in its tech tree prior to Tier V that have any access to HE filler on its anti-tank rounds. Made up by the existence of autoloaders in the higher BRs.
Do Not Run with a Gun: Stabilizers are uncommon in the French line; true vertical stabs are found only in the American tanks, shoulder-stop stabs in the lower tiers, and two-plane stabs on five ^note top-tier vehicles.
The Dreaded:
- The E.B.R. back when it sat on the lower BRs was an absolute terror due to its Speed Blitz capabilities coupled with excellent firepower.
- Both Char B1 variants inspire fear among newbies by virtue of being Made of Iron.
Fragile Speedster: A combination of this, More Dakka, and Glass Cannon define mid- to high-tier French gameplay.
Glass Cannon:
- The E.B.R. can hit very hard, but is a fairly fragile light tank itself.
- The premium Lorraine packs a BFG, but is thinly-armored.
In Name Only: The AMX-50 Surbaissé, despite its classification as a heavy, plays closer to a medium thanks to its relatively fast speed (it can actually keep up with mediums) and rather thin armor.
Lightning Bruiser:
- For a "heavy" tank, the nimble Surbaissé is one of the hardest-hitting tanks of its tier. That and a combination with the autoloader led to some calling it "Super Bias" at one point.
- The ARL-44 tank destroyer has decent enough armor to take some shots and good firepower that allows you to stay back and dispatch enemies from a distance.
- The premium Somua SM has great upper frontal armor while remaining fairly mobile. It's as well-suited for brawling as it is in the flanker/ambusher role.
- Another entry from the French tree is the AMX-50 Foch, with an extremely powerful 120-mm that can tear through even the Maus when aimed correctly.
Long-Range Fighter: The tank destroyer line is better suited for the sniper role.
Military Mashup Machine:
- The AMX-13-M24 is a Chaffee turret on an AMX-13 hull.
- One of the Sherman variants present in the French tree is the result of fusing an FL10 turret to the Sherman hull.
Money Sink: The entire French Tier IV lineup save for the AMX-30 DCA ^note with their five-digit spaded repair costs qualifies for this.
More Dakka: France is a very close second to Russia in having the most autoloader-equipped vehicles. This means autoloader-equipped tanks don't lose their reload rate even if the loader has been killed.
Speed Blitz: High-tier France packs a lethal combination of blazing speed, good-to-great firepower, and autoloaders than can steamroll entire teams' worth of tanks in a short period.
Stone Wall: Very few rounds can slice through the armor of the Char B1. Helping in their favor is their low BR (2.3); their presence could make newbies crap their pants in fear of encountering a nigh-invulnerable opponent. German HEAT and Swedish APDS make short work of them though.

Tropes for the French naval tree:

Tropes for the French helicopter tree:

Underground Monkey: The Gazelle can be seen in the Chinese tree, and the Alouette II is represented as well in the Swedish tree as the HKP2.

Germany

This is a given for any game that focuses on military vehicles from the interwar period onwards, and Germany is no exception. The majority of their vehicles up to Rank IV are from the Wehrmacht from the interwar period all the way to the fall of the Third Reich. Past that, Germany represents several nations chiefly the forces of West Germany.

The German tech tree also features:

Argentines with Armored Vehicles: Argentina is represented with the joint Argentine-German TAM design and its upgrades, as well as their variant of the SK-105 Kürassier.
Finns with Fearsome Forests: While a sub-tree under Sweden, a few Finnish vehicles can be found under Germany such as a captured KV-1 and a German-supplied P-36 Hawk (seized from France by Germany and later sold to Finland).

And its various incarnations...

Ossis with Osas: East German equipment feature in half of the tree's Cold War-era tiers.
Prussians in Pickelhauben: Imperial German battleships are represented in the upper tiers of the bluewater portion of the naval tech tree.
We Are Not the Wehrmacht: West German equipment form the other half of the tree's Cold War-era tiers.

Tropes for the German aerial tree:

Ace Custom:
- Norbert Flegel's Bf 109 A and before the Italy was spun off to its own tech tree, Luciano Marcolin's C.R.42 CN.
- A Hawker Hunter of the Patrouille Suisse is also present as a premium, carrying more advanced armament than its British counterparts.
BFG: Featuring the anti-tank 75-mm BK 7.5 fitted on the Hs 129 B-3, the 50-mm Mk.214a on the Me 262 A-1/U4 and the similarly-sized BK 5 "Trollcannon" of the Me 410 U4 variants, and the 37-mm found on some Bf 110, Hs 129, and Stuka variants.
Big, Bulky Bomb: Some of the larger German bombers get access to the 1800-kg "Satan" bomb.
Death from Above: Inverted with the Schräge Musik-equipped aircraft, which fire upward.
Lightning Bruiser: The air tree; the Germans' most notable WWII-era fighters, the Bf 109 and Fw 190, combine awesome speed with potent firepower. Most of them are also wholly dedicated to anti-air duty due to lacking heavy-duty anti-ground ordnance, which just adds to their already high performance.
More Dakka: In general, they love to combine this with autocannons, allowing them to pump absurd amounts of lead on their targets.
Moveset Clone: Post-war German vehicles of foreign origin obviously inherit the same playstyles of the original designs.
Stuka Scream: Only the B-2 variant has the famous Jericho trumpet siren. By mid-2018, other players can now hear it.
Underground Monkey: Given the realities of post-WW2 Germany, their early Cold War vehicles are pretty much either American or Soviet designs.

Tropes for the German ground forces tree:

Acceptable Breaks from Reality: If the Sturmtiger's real-life reload rate were to be implemented in War Thunder, it would have fired once at most in a single match. In-game, it has a stock reload rate of 52 seconds, still the longest for a ground vehicle.
Ace Custom:
- The E-100 superheavy tank, which is only available for winners of certain tournaments.
- The premium Panzer II C used by the Afrika Korps.
Acrofatic: The Tigers exhibit decent mobility considering their massive weight.
Amphibious Automobile: The East German BMP-1.
Artistic License – History: The Panther II design as modeled in-game was a kitbash of separate proposed upgrades on the original big cat. Ditto for the 10.5-cm Tiger II.
BFG:
- The Dicker Max is equipped with a 10.5-cm cannon and the Sturer Emil has the second-largest armament among German vehicles with a 128-mm heavy AA gun.
- The Maus and E-100 have a ginormous 128-mm cannon for its primary armament, and its secondary 75-mm gun is no slouch either.
  - The Jagdtiger uses the same 128-mm PaK 44 as its main gun.
- The Sturmpanzer II contains Germany's resident derp gun, equipped with a 150-mm infantry support cannon. Mind you, it sits on the reserve tier (1.3 on AB). The Brummbär also carries a similarly-sized howitzer.
- Germany also has access to its own (premium) KV-2 and its iconic meme of a 152-mm howitzer.
- The Sturmtiger has the distinction of carrying the largest gun by a ground vehicle in the game, thanks to its absolute unit of a 380-mm mortar.
Dressing as the Enemy: The Ersatz M10s are derived from Panther hulls, though the presence of a turret roof and flatter turret cheeks make these "TDs" fairly distinguishable from the originals.
Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: Played straight with every TD save for the Waffentrager, VFW, the Flakbus, the TH800, and the JaPz.K A2.
Fragile Speedster: The entire Puma line and the premium Ru 251. This trope is rarely seen in the German tree as few light tanks are present.
Glass Cannon:
- The long-gun Panzer IVs, the Jpz 4-5, and pretty much any open-topped Wehrmacht TD: they're fairly excellent snipers... as long as nobody shoots them, as their survivability is awful.
- Ditto for the two premium (Sd.Kfz.234/3 and /4) Pumas equipped with 75-mm guns.
- The premium Ru 251 can wipe out entire teams with its speed, 90-mm cannon and HESH/HEAT-FS shells, but suffers from poor armor by virtue of being a (rare in the German tree) light tank.
Guns Akimbo: The Maus and E-100 as seen in BFG above. A straighter example comes in the form of the VT1-2, which wields dual 120-mm cannons, one of which has an autoloader.
In Name Only: The infamous Tiger 1 heavy tank plays much more like a medium tank than a heavy, to the surprise (and disappointment) of many new German players. It has a powerful gun, a small profile, and is actually quite mobile. However, it's armor, while thick, is completely flat in many places, making it susceptible to being penetrated by guns that many players would think it should be immune to unless angled properly. And while it's gun is powerful and has strong post-penetration damage, it's actual penetrative power is merely average for it's tier, especially compared to it's fellow German vehicles. This encourages a much more cautious and mobile playstyle compared to most heavy tanks, which can usually lumber into the thick of the fighting with minimal concern, as long as they aren't flanked.
Lightning Bruiser:
- For a BFG-equipped vehicle, the Sturmpanzer II is surprisingly mobile, with a max speed of 46 kph (49 in arcade mode).
- The Panthers are some of the better examples in the game, combining thick angled (frontal) armor, excellent mobility, and accurate firepower. That being said, they're weak on the sides, and BFGs and British guns can pen them anywhere.
- The infamous Tiger I and its variants which combine deadly firepower, accuracy, decent mobility, and great armor (especially if angled). Their King Tiger successors are no slouch in this department either, as they feature even better armor on account of being sloped.
- The Leopard 2A5 and 2A6 are considered to be among the best in the top-tiers, thanks to a combination of excellent mobility, firepower, and even survivability, especially when hull-down.
Long-Range Fighter: Considered as one of the best long-range oriented nations, thanks to their potent (and accurate) firepower, especially once they get access to the long-gun Panzers and/or any of their tank destroyers. They even have two tank destroyer lines!
Macross Missile Massacre: Provided courtesy of the Tier I premium Panzerwerfer and its 20 rockets.
Mighty Glacier:
- The casemated tank destroyer line can be hard to penetrate frontally thanks to their generous slopes.
- The Maus combines the great 128mm gun (plus a 75mm coaxial gun) and very thick armor.... with absolutely abysmal mobility and an enermous silhouette. Downplayed for the lighter E-100, which sheds a bit of the Maus' "glacier" status.
Military Mashup Machine: The Panther II and 10.5-cm King Tiger as depicted when they were still part of the regular tech tree; both were kitbashes of separate proposals designed to upgrade their respective predecessors.
More Dakka:
- Of particular note are the Wirbelwind and Gepard SPAAGs, which punish tanks as well as they wreak havoc on aircraft.
- The premium VT1-2 has two 120-mm main cannons, one of which is equipped with an autoloader.
Painfully Slow Projectile:
- The Brummbär's ammo have muzzle velocities of 240 (HE) and 280 (HEAT) m/s.
- The Sturmtiger fires a rocket-propelled mortar, making its rounds fairly easy to spot.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Fragility aside, the PaK Puma and Ru 251 are both incredibly fast and deadly for their respective BRs.
Underground Monkey: The Leopard family is among the most ubiquitous ground vehicles in the game, which is also present in the Italian (1A5) and Swedish (Strv 121, Strv 122, Strv 122B PLSS, the Norwegian Leopard 1A5, and the Finnish Leopard 2s) tech trees. The later German medium tank line also contains the Leopard family and its numerous variants.

Tropes for the German naval tree:

Close-Range Combatant: The SF40 flak barges can't dish it out at range, and are best suited around the coastal area where destroyers would have a harder time killing them with impunity.
The Dreaded: The Leichte flak barge; while extremely sluggish to the point that the match could be over by the time they reach a cap point, it's armed to the balls with all sorts of cannons, putting the hurt on both aircraft and the hapless boat that happened to be in its line of fire.
Fragile Speedster: The reserve LS 3 torpedo boat, with only one 20-mm cannon and an incredibly low crew count.
Mighty Glacier:
- The two flak barges, particularly the Leichte which fills in the "mighty" part really well.
- The Kanonenboot K-2 also counts, with great armor, excellent anti-air capabilities, and powerful primary armament of two dual 120-mm cannons.
More Dakka: One of the most famous examples in naval battles is the SF40 Leichte, with sixteen 20-mm guns spread across four turrets in a quad configuration, and a singular 3.7-cm flak gun mounted on the central deckhouse.

Tropes for the German helicopter tree:

Gatling Good: Available in some of the foreign designs present; the Huey has an option for the Minigun, whereas the Mi-24Ps are fitted with the 30-mm GSh-30-2K, with options to strap some 23-mm GSh-23Ls if need be.
Underground Monkey: Two Mi-24s, an Alouette, and a Huey are all present in their tree.

Israel

Israel was added in the "Winged Lions" on December 14th, 2021. To date, they are the only tech tree that start from Rank IV instead of Rank I.

Tropes for the Israeli faction in general:

Early-Bird Cameo: Before getting their own tech tree, many Israeli vehicles appeared in other nation's tech trees.
Jack of All Trades: As Israel's tech trees have vehicles from all different nations, this allows players a high degree of versatility suited for a large variety of situations.
Moveset Clone: A side effect of being an Underground Monkey faction. All of their aircraft are 1-1 copies of aircraft found in the British, French and American tech trees, or derivatives of them.
Underground Monkey:
- The air and ground tree. Most Israeli vehicles are foreign (mostly British, French and American) designs or derivatives of them. Indigenously-designed ground vehicles only start showing up in higher tiers.
- Like Japan, Israel fields an all-American helicopter lineup.

Tropes for the Israeli aerial forces tree:

Level-Locked Loot: Israeli aircraft can't be unlocked until one unlocks a rank 4 plane in either the American, British or French tech tree.
Military Mashup Machine: The Kfir C.7 has the fuselage of a French Dassault Mirage 5 fighter jet with engine of an American F-4 Phantom.

Tropes for the Israeli ground forces tree:

Level-Locked Loot: Israeli ground vehicles can't be unlocked until one unlocks a rank 4 ground vehicle in either the American, British, French or Soviet tech tree.
Military Mashup Machine: Several Israeli vehicles combine different parts from other nation's vehicles, resulting in some interesting combinations.
- The Zachlam Tager is a M3 half-track APC repurposed as a tank destroyer with guided missiles added on.
- The Tiran 4S is a captured Soviet T-55 with its original 100 mm tank gun replaced with a 105 mm American one.

Tropes for the Israeli helicopter tree:

Gatling Good: Their Tzefa choppers all sport some form of a rotary machine gun/cannon as their gun-based armament.

Italy

Gaijin's earlier stance was that Italy didn't have enough aircraft to justify being it's own nation and reduced the Regia Aeronautica to being a sub-branch in the German Air Force that doesn't go past tier 1 for fighters, and tier 2 for several variations of just one bomber; the S.79 Spaviero. In 2017, they reversed their earlier stance and Italy became its own nation on Patch 1.69.

The Italian tech tree also features:

The Bite of Dracula: Romanian aircraft are featured as premiums in the Italian tech tree, including the He-112 and Hs-129 in Romanian service, as well as the indigenous IAR-81C. The Romanian Alouette III, however, can be found in the French tree.
Hungary: Hungary followed South Africa and Finland as the game's third sub-tree in 2023.

Tropes for the Italian aerial tree:

Ace Custom: Luciano Marcolin's C.R.42 CN and the Re.2001 serie 1 gruppo 22.
BFG: Features the largest aircraft gun so far in the game, the 102-mm 102/35 mod 14 mounted on the P.108A serie 2, the 37-mm BK 3.7 found on the Romanian Hs 129, and the similarly-sized Breda Model 39 37/45 on the F.C.20 Bis.
Money Sink: The G.56 and Sagittario 2 have this reputation, with the latter's repair cost nearly as expensive as the B-29 in RB.
Underground Monkey: Two of their three post-war branches are of foreign origin.

Tropes for the Italian ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: Includes the P40 and the M43 used by the Armored Group Leoncello, and the M26 and M60A1 of the 132nd Armored Division "Ariete."
Ammunition Conservation: While there is no cap in the other rounds of the OTOMATIC, its APFSDS is limited to 12 rounds.
Amphibious Automobile: Every Italian wheeled vehicle from Tier III to V (save for the Breda 501 and the Centauro) are examples, and so does the TOW-equipped M113A1.
The Dreaded: The OTOMATIC a radar-equipped SPAAG with a 76-mm naval gun which can wreck even MBTs if equipped with APFSDS rounds, is this in the top tiers.
Fragile Speedster: A recurring feature of the tree, but most noticeable among the wheeled vehicles, which Italy has no shortage of.
Lethal Joke Character: The L3/33 CC is a piddly BR 1.0 tankette with a 20mm anti-tank rifle, wafer-thin armour that even machine gun bullets can penetrate, and a crew of only two. Useless, right? Well mostly yes, but it does have some key advantages. The tankette's tiny size and low profile make it difficult to spot and able to make good use of sparse cover and bushes (particularly if you drape the tankette in camouflage), and the -15 degrees of gun depression is very helpful in making it a good ambusher hitting lighter vehicles in the flanks. Amazingly, a player brought one into a game against modern vehicles, and actually managed to score a ammo-racking kill against a bleeding-edge Rank VII (BR. 9.3/10.0) M1128!
More Dakka:
- The R3 T20 FA-HS is one of the most infamous examples, thanks to being one of the fastest vehicles in the game and firepower decent enough to light up almost everything it faces.
- The OTOMATIC is half as fast, but just as deadly if it's sufficiently upgraded to carry APFSDS rounds. It's pretty much limited by a 12-round limit for that ammo.
Schizo Tech: The R3 T20 FA-HS is placed in a low enough BR (4.0) that it regularly faces vehicles roughly 40 years older than itself.
Speed Blitz: Italian vehicles are notoriously nimble and coupled with their generous amounts of dakka, they could shred enemies to bits long before they could even notice.

Tropes for the Italian naval tree:

Ammunition Conservation: The Sparviero has the 76-mm OTO Melara as its sole armament and contains only 115 rounds.
Fragile Speedster: The Sparviero is a nimble hydrofoil, but can be easy to disable thanks to the disproportionate size of her main gun relative to the hull.

Tropes for the Italian helicopter tree:

Gatling Good: Both variants of the A129 Mangusta, and the AB-205 have access to rotary guns.

Japan

Japan consists of vehicles from both the Imperial era and the post-WWII Self-Defense Force.

Tropes for the Japanese faction in general:

Moveset Clone: Post-war Japanese vehicles of American origin obviously inherit the same playstyles of the original designs.
Underground Monkey: Given the realities of post-WW2 Japan, they have their fair share of US vehicles. Taken up a notch with the their all-American helicopter tree.

Tropes for the Japanese aerial tree:

Ace Custom: Matsuo Hagiri's A5M4 and Tadao Sumi's Ki-61-I hei.
Artistic License – History:
- The A7M1 in-game uses the NK9H engine to power it, as opposed to the weaker NK9K it actually used (its anemic power output led to its cancellation as a prototype).
- Later variants (V2 and V3) of the R2Y2 jet may have been fictional speculations of what the R2Y2 (itself a planned prototype) would have looked like if they received upgrades.
BFG: Features the 75-mm Type 88 in the Ki-109, the 57-mm Ho-401 of the Ki-102 otsu, the 40-mm Ho-301 of the Ki-44-II otsu, and the various 37-mms present in their twin-engine IJAAF fighters.
Crippling Overspecialization: The Ki-109's BFG makes it suited for a tank- and bomber-hunter role, but loses almost all of the defensive armament of the original Ki-67 and its sole offensive gun is the said colossal cannon.
Death from Above: Inverted with the Schräge Musik cannons found in the Ki-45 tei, which fire upward.
Fragile Speedster: Imperial Japanese aircraft in general; they are extremely good in turn-fighting but at the same time cannot handle very high dive speeds and are notoriously fragile. Downplayed with their late-war designs such as the Ki-84 and N1K2 series, which are still fragile but also more resistant to being put in a high-speed dive.
Money Sink: Almost the entirety of Tier IV and V Japan (and for some reason, the Tier III A6M5 otsu, the fifth-most expensive piston-engined fighter in-game and 20th overall in RB as of May 2021) suffers from expensive repair costs.
Painfully Slow Projectile: The Ki-44 II otsu's cannon ammo has the distinction of being the slowest of its kind in the game, with a muzzle velocity of 249 m/s.
Underground Monkey:
- As one of the most iconic Japanese fighters, the Zero has no shortage of variants, and they can also be found as premiums on the American and Chinese trees.
- Ditto for the Ki-43, except that the Chinese version is in the main tech tree.

Tropes for the Japanese ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: The Type 1 Chi-He of the 5th Armored Regiment.
Ammunition Conservation: The BFG-equipped Chi-Has have fairly low ammo capacities (23 rounds for the Short Gun and 10 rounds for the Long Gun variant), encouraging Japanese tankers to make every shot count.
Amphibious Automobile: The Ka-Mi light tank.
Artistic License – History: In one of the more controversial examples in the game, the fictional Ho-Ri Production variant is based off the (actually-existing, albeit as a mockup) Ho-Ri Prototype (a Ho-Ri I with a slanted hull) but with thicker armor and an aircraft engine.
BFG:
- Both Type 97 Chi-Ha variants are 120-mm naval cannons strapped on the chassis of a medium tank.
- The Type 4 Ho-Ro possesses a ginormous 150-mm howitzer, which considering its near-reserve battle rating, will pretty much vaporize anything it faces.
- Even larger is the Type 75 Self-Propelled Howitzer, with its 155-mm L30 gun. Oh, and it's equipped with an autoloader, allowing for a 10-second reload, the fastest among BFGs in-game!
Early Game Hell: Early Japanese tanks suffer from mediocre firepower, even by reserve-tier standards.
Fragile Speedster: Their later vehicles, which retain the great firepower from previous tiers and adds better mobility. However, they still don't have much armor to speak of.
Glass Cannon: The tree. Their tanks display good firepower, but this comes at the cost of having virtually non-existent armor.
Lightning Bruiser: The Ho-Ri Production tank destroyer is pretty mobile for a heavily-armed SPG and is fairly tanky thanks to its sloped armor.
Long-Range Fighter: A combination of excellent firepower and negligible armor encourages this playstyle on Japanese vehicles.
Macross Missile Massacre: The Type 75 MLRS is equipped with a rack of 30 rockets.
More Dakka: One of the more unique attributes of the Type 75 SPH is its autoloader...in a 155-mm howitzer.
Multi-Directional Barrage: The premium Type 95 Ro-Go heavy tank has three turrets, a 37-mm cannon in the front, a 70-mm in the central turret, and a 6.5-mm machine gun in the rear. It also has the distinction of being one of the only two heavy tanks in Japan's tree, the other being a Tiger (also a premium).
Painfully Slow Projectile:
- The Type 3 HEAT shell present in the Ro-Go has the slowest velocity of any round (200 m/s) in the game.
- In the main tech tree, the Ho-Ro's shells have a velocity of 290 m/s.
Shields Are Useless: Or rather, Rocks Are Useless; invoked by the Type 75 SPH in that it can fire a shell with a proximity fuze. However, the fuze only activates past 300 m, so pulling this off requires the player to sit back from long range like it was meant to do as self-propelled artillery in real life.

Tropes for the Japanese naval tree:

Gatling Good: The premium PG-02 sports a 20-mm JM61 rotary cannon.
Long-Range Fighter: Japanese blue-water ships starting from the Tier II Yugumo have access to the Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, which, with maximum ranges of 15 (Model 3) and 20 (Model 1) km, are the longest-ranged ship-launched torpedoes in the entire game. Considering War Thunder's map sizes, this means they can effectively snipe you from their spawn points without even firing their guns! Their other torpedoes are no slouch too:
- The Tier III light cruiser Kuma uses the Type 6 torpedo, which has a stock maximum range of 7 km and extendable to 15 km at the cost of speed.
- Kako and Sendai also use a different torpedo (Type 8) with a stock 10-km range and upgradeable to 18.
- Averted for their capital ships (Ikoma, Hyuga, and Settsu), whose torpedoes have considerably shorter ranges and have no upgrades; the former two's 21-inch Type 43 torps can only reach 8 km whereas Settsu's 450-mm Type 43s won't make it beyond 5 km.

Tropes for the Japanese helicopter tree:

Ace Custom: One of the four anime-decorated Cobras of the 4th Anti-Tank Helicopter Unit of the JGSDF is available as a premium. It's also so far the only example of this trope among helicopters.
Distinctive Appearances: The AH-1S Kisarazu brings its famous anime livery and is piloted by women.
Gatling Good: The Japanese Cobras all sport the 20-mm M197 electric cannon, with options to strap the smaller miniguns as well.
Itasha: The Kisarazu, which did exist in real life under its anime livery.
The Smurfette Principle: The Kisarazu is so far the only vehicle in the entire game with women as its crew, whose models were based off the Wakana Kisarazu character as seen in the chopper's livery.

Russia

Obviously present, since they are a major player on military vehicles from the 1930s onward. Their air forces for the first four ranks consist of fighters, attackers, and bombers that are either designed by the Soviets, captured from the Germans, or supplied to them under Lend-Lease. The Ground Forces are no slouch here either, with the first four ranks consisting of both Soviet designs and foreign vehicles captured by/supplied to the USSR. Their later vehicles are almost entirely domestic designs.

The Russian tech tree also features:

Egyptians with Eagle Fighters: Besides the Su-7BMK, Egypt also shows up with an export variant of the Pr.183 BM-21 gunboat.
Syria: Represented by the Su-22M3 and their T-72AV modified with the TURMS-T fire control system.
Bohemians With Bombers and Slovaks with Sappers: The premium Su-25K and Mi-24D, and the tech-tree M53/59 SPAAG all sport Czechoslovak colors, and Slovakia has their modernization of the T-72M2 MBT.

And its other incarnations...

Russians with Rifles: The Imperial Russian Navy can be seen in the bluewater half of the naval tech tree.
Russians with Rusting Rockets: The post-Soviet Russian military make an appearance in-game; to look for them, the vehicle card shows the Russian white-blue-red tricolor flag instead of the Soviets' predominantly red flag.

Tropes for the Russian aerial tree:

Ace Custom: Includes Sergey Zhukovsky's I-153-M62, Sergei Dolgushin's La-7, Pavel Golovachev's Yak-9M, and Alexander Pokryshkin's P-39N-0.
Ammunition Conservation: Low ammo counts are a universal feature among Russian planes, so pick your shots wisely. No need to worry as much about in in Arcade Mode though, as they'll replenish without needing to return to your airfield.
Artistic License – History: The Yak-15P in-game doesn't have the increased fuel load it had in real life and also added armor that it didn't possess.
BFG: Features the 45-mm NS-45 of the Yak-9K and the large number of mid- to high-tier Soviet aircraft equipped with a 37-mm cannon.
Big, Bulky Bomb: The Pe-8 can carry the 5-ton FAB-5000, the largest singular bomb in the game.
The Dreaded: The Pe-8 and its 5000-kg "nuke" are the scourage of mid-tier ground forces battles as its 105-m blast radius means absolutely nothing can escape from their crutches.
High-Altitude Battle: Inverted - Russian fighters perform better as low- to mid-altitude dogfighters, with rare exceptions such as the MiG-3.
Jack of All Stats: Russia is to air battles as the US is to ground forces - they can do everything well but don't excel in one specific area.
Money Sink: In contrast to the relatively cheap cost of playing its ground vehicles, Russia has its own share of notoriously expensive planes. Examples include every Yakovlev jet except for the Yak-38, and the 34,300 SL stock cost of the Tu-4, the third-costliest plane in RB. The only ones ahead of it are PLAAF's Tu-4, and the very bomber they were reverse-engineered from, the B-29.

Tropes for the Russian ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: Includes the T-26 used by the 1st Guards Tank Brigade and the T-34 that replaced it in real life, and the SU-76M of the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps.
Ammunition Conservation: The first Soviet TD, the SU-5-1, holds a maximum of only eight rounds.
Amphibious Automobile: The PT-76, Objekts 685 and 906, the Shturm-S, and the entire BMP family.
BFG:
- The KV-2, SU-152, and ISU-152 are all known for their absurdly large guns.
- The premium RBT-5 straps two ginormous 420-mm tank torpedoes (read: rockets) beside its turret while retaining the excellent mobility of the original. It has been noted to one-shot even the Maus!
- Fellow premium T-26-4 has a 76-mm howitzer, which counts considering it's a reserve-tier vehicle.
Close-Range Combatant: Arguably the nation best suited for the brawler role. Sloped armor in the early- to mid-tiers allows them to take quite a few hits while maintaining good firepower that can vaporize their enemies in one shot at best and cripple them at worst.
The Dreaded: The KV-1 and KV-2 both inspire this reputation among enemy tankers; the former from being one of the best examples of a Mighty Glacier in the game, and the latter for its comically-large armament that can instantly turn anything it looks at into scrap metal.
Fragile Speedster:
- The BT-series are incredibly fast, can hit pretty hard, but are fairly easy to kill.
- The light tanks make a return from Tier IV onwards, and they pretty much fit the bill as well.
Glass Cannon:
- The open-topped/thinly-armored TDs such as the ZiS-30, SU-76M, the SU-100P, YaG-10, and the SU-5-1.
- The Objekt 906 is just as fast as it is lethal (combining great firepower AND More Dakka by virtue of its autoloader), but suffers from poor survivability.
Guns Akimbo: The T-35 and the SMK, as seen in Multi-Directional Barrage below.
Lightning Bruiser: The T-34 line qualifies thanks to respectable firepower, rather bouncy sloped armor, and great mobility. Prior to reaching said line, its predecessor T-50 plays similarly to them (only with relatively mediocre firepower).
Macross Missile Massacre: The Katyusha rocket launchers (BM-8, BM13N, and the BM-31) all feature as premiums.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The Katyusha vehicles have no armament besides their rockets, and given that rockets are hard to aim...
Mighty Glacier:
- The KV-1 is one of the best examples in the game, combining respectable firepower with near-invulnerable armor. Those are enough to make it The Dreaded in the middle tiers.
- Downplayed with the KV-2 owing to its flatter armor, tall profile, and comically-long reload. However, it is still absolutely not to be underestimated as it can take quite a beating and it's still great at deleting enemies in one shot.
More Dakka: Russia has the most autoloader-equipped vehicles in the game, making them fairly reliable even if the loader has been shot out.
Multi-Directional Barrage:
- The T-35 has five turrets (three of which have cannons and are operational).
- The SMK has two turrets (one 76-mm and the other 45-mm), both of which are also operational.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
- The ZiS-30 may have negligible armor, but there's no need for protection if it takes you out first.
- The Objekt 906 is one of the deadliest light tanks for its tier.
Reporting Names: The names "Xe tăng phòng không 37 mm"/"Phòng không T-34" (37 mm anti-air tank/Anti-air T-34) used to describe the extremely obscure SPAAG was given by Gaijin itself, as the NVA appears to have never given it an official name.
Weaponized Car:
- The early SPAAGs are basically Anti-Air guns mounted on literal potato trucks.
- The BM-13N has the iconic Katyusha also mounted on a truck.
- The YaG-10 represents the tank destroyer line in this department.
Underground Monkey: The Soviet tech tree also contains a generous amount of T-34s present until Tier IV, possessing 15 (or 16) of the 19 variants in game (21 if you include the SPAA variant used by North Vietnam). They're also present in the Chinese and German (as a premium) tech trees.
Weaksauce Weakness: Russian tanks are infamous for their horrible gun depression, placing them on a disadvantage on hilly maps. This is largely a function of the offensive focus of their tank doctrine, favoring small profiles and lightweight designs that lead to said atrocious depression.

Tropes for the Russian naval tree:

Fragile Speedster: The reserve G-5 torpedo boat has no armor yet can run at 94 kph (132 in Arcade mode).
Mighty Glacier: The Soviet riverine gunboats are fairly well-armored and in some cases outright use tank guns (the same ones used in T-34s) as their primary armament.
Macross Missile Massacre: The pre-order premium Project 1124 armored river gunboat carries the Katyusha amidships. On the main tech tree, the Project 1204 late also has an option to carry a Katyusha launcher.

Tropes for the Russian helicopter tree:

Gatling Good: Most Russian choppers (save for the Mi-4AV and the Mi-24A) have options to carry multi-barreled guns.
Master of All: Combining really long-range missiles (the 9K127 Vikhr ATGM in particular, possessing a maximum range of 10 km AND a proximity fuze that can be used against aircraft, outranging every SPAA at the time of its release with the exceptions of the Bradley ADATS and the 2K22 Tunguska; the latter of which is usually in the same team as the Kamov choppers), decent armor, and great speed, the later Kamov (Ka-50 and -52) helicopters ruled the skies of top-tier ground battles for quite some time.

Sweden

Swedish aircraft were first introduced in Update 1.93 as a premium exclusives, before the entire tree was unveiled in 1.95 (Northern Wind). Most locally-produced aircraft are present, from the Saab 17 bomber up to the Viggen. Their ground counterparts started appearing in the same update, with the entire ground forces tree introduced on 1.97 (Viking Fury).

The Swedish tech tree also features:

Finns with Fearsome Forests: Finnish vehicles first made their appearance in 1.93 with the Pyörremyrsky, being followed by a few others (including in the German tree) in succeeding updates. In October 2022, Finland was officially introduced as a sub-branch under the Swedish tree.
Norwegians With No Ammo: Norway have a Leopard 1 variant and its own version of the Korean K9 SPG.

Tropes for the Swedish aerial tree:

Ace Custom: The premium J8A flown by Ian Iacobi is present in the Swedish tech tree.
BFG: The 57-mm Akan m/45 on the T18B-2 bomber.
Distinctive Appearances: The Ace Custom J8A has a PewDiePie lasagna camo given out to players who signed up using his code.
Money Sink: Swedish jets are some of the worst offenders in the repair cost department in Realistic and Simulator modes, even if they were brought down a bit on May 2021.

Tropes for the Swedish ground forces tree:

Ammunition Conservation: The Pvlvv fm/42 starting SPAAG has an extremely low ammo capacity of 108 rounds, with a 20-mm cannon that fires over thrice that its storage.
Amphibious Automobile: The Ikv 91 and its 105-mm-equipped variant.
Armor-Piercing Attack: Sweden gets APDS ammunition earlier than any other nation, which means they can effectively ignore enemy armor on the lower tiers (at least for vehicles equipped with the Kan m/38).
BFG:
- The Swedes have their 150-mm own derp gun in the form of the Tier I Spj fm/43-44 and its recoilless rifle.
- Finland has the BT-42 of Girls und Panzer der Film fame, carrying a ginormous 114-mm howitzer on a BT-7 hull.
Crew of One: A rare straight in-game example is the Strv 103, seeing that it was designed in real life to be operated by a lone crewman if shit hit the fan.
Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: While casemated designs are par for the course for tank destroyers in general, the Strv 103 takes the cake as it's unique for being a turretless main battle tank.
Glass Cannon: Pretty much every vehicle that isn't an MBT, with some (situational) exceptions such as the Sav m/43 assault guns.
Long-Range Fighter: Swedish vehicles are better suited to fight from long ranges, befitting of her tank doctrine's emphasis on accurate and deadly fire.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: A special control scheme (hull aiming) can be used for the Strv 103, given that it's turretless and unable to swing its gun horizontally.
Modern Major General: The Pvlvv fm/42 is listed as a SPAAG in-game, but it can't elevate its gun high enough to reliably shoot aircraft. For bonus points, it's better suited for a Glass Cannon tank destroyer role.
Money Sink: Some of their MBTs (Strv 81, 101, 103A, 122A, and 122B) have rather hefty five-digit repair costs, with the Strv 103A's stock repair cost in Simulator higher than the most expensive British or French tank in any mode!
More Dakka: The SAV 20.12.48 can shoot seven times in less than ten seconds thanks to its autoloader. Note that its gun is a 120-mm cannon.
Schizo Tech: Lower-tier Swedish tanks equipped with the 37-mm Kan m/38 have access to post-war APDS ammunition. Nobody else gets them until late-Rank III Britain.
Underground Monkey:
- The French version of the ItO-90M is completely identical to the one in this tree, despite the former never fielding the Patria Pasi APC.
- The Finnish line is almost entirely composed of foreign designs.

Tropes for the Swedish helicopter tree:

Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The Mi-28 and the AH-64 Apache were only evaluated by the Swedish armed forces during the mid-1990s. They're present in the tech tree as the Swedish armed forces have never operated dedicated attack choppers.
Underground Monkey: The Swedish helicopter tree is entirely of foreign origin.

United States

The United States Armed Forces hits all the major entries under WW2 aircraft, and quite a few more besides. Several variations of the all-metal B-17 Flying Fortress are present, the P-47 Thunderbolt is there, along with the P-51D-5 Mustang. Later updates added legendary US jet fighters such as the P-80 Shooting Star, F-84 Thunderjet, F-86 Sabre, and the F-100D Super Sabre. And now with patch 1.45, we have getting all kinds of Sherman variants including the Jumbo and "Easy 8", as well as light tanks like the Stuart, Chaffee, and Walker Bulldog, and even some heavy tank prototypes such as the M6 and T32 to round out the lineup. 1.75 added American Tank Destroyers. More modern American vehicles such as the Patton-series tanks and the famous M1 Abrams line of main battle tanks have also joined the ranks of the American tech tree, and the United States Navy was one of the first naval trees to be added once naval forces went live.

Tropes for the U.S. aerial tree:

Ace Custom: Includes John Thach's F2A-1, Bob Galer's F3F-2, the F4U-4B used by the Black Sheep Squadron, George E. Bostwick and Witold Łanowski's P-47Ms, Ray Wetmore's P51-D, Tadayoshi Koga's Zero, Richard Bong's P38-J, the USAFE Skyblazers' F-86F-35, the Skoshi Tigers, and the VMF-232's FJ-4.
Acrofatic: The sluggish SB2Cs are some of the rare American planes that can hold their own in a turnfight. Ditto for the premium B-10B.
BFG: Includes the 75-mm T13E1 of the PBJ-1H, the similarly-sized M10 of the XA-38, the 37-mm M4 of the Airacobra, P-63A-5, YP-38, and the A-26B-10, and the similarly-sized M10 on later Kingcobras and the P-59A Airacomet.
Death from Above:
- The propensity towards strapping bombs and rockets on American fighters has led to the nation's reputation as having some of the best close air support in realistic/simulator ground battles. This often works to their detriment in realistic air battles, where a lot of players often choose to attack ground targets (for easier points) leaving them to the mercy of the Axis team whose aircraft climb much faster.
Difficult, but Awesome: US planes have acquired this reputation thanks to their specialization in energy fighting, insane speeds, and greater dependence on team play. Patience is a virtue when flying them, as American pilots absolutely should not be baited into turnfights considering their horrible turn radii.
Gatling Good: Some American Tier VI aircraft get access to the M61 Vulcan, with the A-7D having the option to strap a GAU-13/A rotary cannon, a derivative of the famous GAU-8 Avenger.
High-Altitude Battle: One of the core strengths of the US tree is their planes' excellent performance in altitudes other nations could only dream of.
Money Sink: While some of their early jets and a few piston-engined fighters are rather pricey, the B-29 Superfortress and the B-57A Canberra take this up a notch as two of the most expensive aircraft in terms of repair costs; the former has a stock repair cost of 39,170 silver lions in Realistic, and the latter takes it to the stratosphere in Simulator with 67,660 SL. ^note
More Dakka: Saying American planes love their .50-cals is like saying water is wet.
- Both variants of the PBJ present in the game definitely qualify.
  - On top of its primary armament of twelve .50-cals, the 1J variant loses only one machine gun compared to the bomber (B-25) it was based from.
  - The 1H is no slouch in the firepower department either, as it trades only four of the machine guns in favor of a gigantic 75-mm cannon while retaining the defensive armament of the 1J.
- The F-82's "doom pod" is one of the best examples, adding eight AN/M3 machine guns on top of the six already present on the center.
- The M3 itself is a great example, firing way faster than the M2 seen in earlier aircraft.
Underground Monkey: The infamous F-104 Starfighter is present in five (U.S., Italy, Germany, China, and Japan) out of the nine nations in the game.

Tropes for the U.S. ground forces tree:

Ace Custom: Includes the M2A4 (1st. Armored Division), Marine M3A1, Canadian M5A1 (5th Canadian (Armored) Division), M46 Tiger used by the 73rd Tank Battalion in the Korean War, M4AE32 "Cobra King" commanded by Charles P. Boggess, and the 805th Tank Destroyer Battalion's M18 "Black Cat."
Acrofatic:
- Despite its atrocious top speed, the T95 has a surprisingly decent hull traverse.
- The Jumbo Shermans also qualify, exhibiting good mobility despite their thicker-than-usual armor.
- The M6A1 "heavy" tank gets its mobility from being powered by the same engine that runs the B-17.
Ammunition Conservation: The M50 Ontos has a max ammo count of 18, and it's equipped with six 106-mm recoilless rifles.
Amphibious Automobile: The LVT series, M163, and the premium T114 prototype.
BFG:
- The 105-mm Sherman is one of the first M4 variants you'll come across.
- Some claim that the M103's 120-mm gun was the most powerful cannon ever fitted on a production tank.
Do Not Run with a Gun: The first nation to avert this as they get single-plane (vertical) stabilizers as early as Tier I. Stabilizers in general wouldn't be prevalent until the British get access to two-plane stabs in Tier IV.
Fragile Speedster: The light tanks in addition to the M18, M36, and M1128 tank destroyers. Higher-tier vehicles of the light tank line fall straight into Glass Cannon territory as well.
Gatling Good: The M163 SPAAG has a 20-mm Vulcan as its primary armament.
Glass Cannon: The entire tank destroyer line save for the T95 can dish it out but can easily be taken out on account of their paper armor, as well as later vehicles of the light tank line.
Hit-and-Run Tactics: A favored tactic for American vehicles that combine Fragile Speedster and Glass Cannon in one.
Jack of All Stats: The tree. The Shermans themselves are good examples of this trope, combining decent mobility, armor, and firepower, but not great in one specific area.
Jack of All Trades: Also the tree. There's a vehicle in each tier that can be sent to almost every situation, and their roles are well-delineated through each column of the tech tree.
Long-Range Fighter: The BFG-equipped M103 has rather thick armor and its sloped armor helps in longer ranges.
Macross Missile Massacre: The Sherman Calliope has 60 rockets stored above the turret, as well as the M26 T99 and its 44 rockets.
Master of None: See Jack of All Stats above.
Mighty Glacier:
- The Jumbos are one of the hardest tanks to take on in their tier and can slug it out both depending on the gun and the enemies they are facing. They are also less mobile than the Sherman tanks they are derived from.
- The T95 tank destroyer, known in the community as the "Doom Turtle," plays this role especially in downtiers where it happily eats shells from anything it faces. That being said, it is the slowest vehicle in the entire game whose speed tops out at 13 kph (14 in arcade mode).
  - The T28 is a downplayed example; it retains the absurdly thick front armor and armament of the T95, but it has its outer tracks removed for easier (train) transport, making it thinner from the sides.
- The M103 can be this if downtiered; on uptiers, HEAT rounds (including ATGMs) rounds render its sloped armor useless.
More Dakka: The American SPAAGs, obviously. Among the heavier-armed vehicles, we have the M50 Ontos and the autoloader-equipped HSTV/L.
Multi-Directional Barrage: The M3 Lee has its 37-mm gun at the turret and its 75-mm main cannon mounted on the left side of the hull.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The aforementioned light tanks, as well, as the M18 which is one of the fastest vehicles in its tier.
Underground Monkey:
- Every nation possesses at least one Sherman in its tech tree, with Sweden being the last to get one in 2023.
- The M10 is present in the Chinese, French, and British (as the Achilles) trees.
- The Patton "family" is also quite ubiquitous:
  - The M47 can also be found in the German, Japanese, and Italian trees, with a total of 4 vehicles.
  - There are 10 M48s in game, with the US and China having one each, Germany three, and Israel five (as the earlier Magachs).
  - The M60 has the most variants, totalling at 15. Israel has seven (the later-numbered Magachs), the US five, China two, and Italy one.

Tropes for the U.S. naval tree:

Ace Custom: The PT-109 commanded by John F. Kennedy is available as a premium in the coastal tech tree.
Early Game Hell: On the blue-water front, the USS Litchfield (aka the reserve Clemson) is something of a Joke Character in the reserve tiers thanks to its fairly anemic firepower (though not as awful as her British counterpart which had most of her main guns stripped) and literally zero Anti-Air capabilities. Things do get better though once you get to the USS Aylwin of the Farragut-class and her serviceable firepower.
Kill It with Fire: The Zippo is in its Vietnam War-era configuration, equipped with a (short-ranged) napalm flamethrower.
More Dakka: The Nasty-class patrol boat, the later torpedo boats, and the LCS are packed with an assortment of autocannons and machine guns.
Point Defenseless: The starting Clemson has zero anti-air capabilities, making it wise to pair up with another ship that can provide cover from aircraft.
Underground Monkey:
- The Town-class reserve destroyer is specifically HMS Churchill, a British Clemson-class destroyer with rather pitiful primary and secondary armament and is considered to be a Joke Character among the blue-water reserves.
- There are three Clemsons in the American Tier I blue-water fleet; besides the reserve USS Litchfield, her sisters Barker and the premium Welborn are present as well. Welborn is nearly identical to the Litchfield, while the Barker possesses some form of AA.
Weaksauce Weakness: The Litchfield has non-existent Anti-Air capabilities and is thus a juicy target for aircraft. The same can be said for her premium sister Welborn.

Tropes for the U.S. helicopter tree:

Gatling Good: The Huey gunships and their Cobra cousins all have options to sport miniguns. The M197 electric gun makes its first and so far only appearance on the AH-1Z, contrasting to its near-omnipresence in the Japanese tree.
Grenade Launcher: The Hueys and the starting Cobra (AH-1G) have a grenade launcher as a researchable modification, and boy can they lob grenades at incredible rates.
Underground Monkey:
- The Huey family is present in the Japanese ^note, German, Italian (as the AB-205), and Swedish (as the HKP3C) trees.
- The Apache is also available in the Japanese, British, Israeli, and Swedish trees.

Characters / War Thunder

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