it's a thankless job

Sherman x Tiger 🔥✨

Doing this for artyrambles.

The actual playstyle of medium tanks varies greatly.  British mediums play differently from German mediums which play differently from American mediums which play differently from Russian mediums which play differently from Japanese mediums which play differently from Chinese mediums.  Even then each individual tank has quirks, strengths, and weaknesses.

Let’s look strictly at tier 6.  Specifically the Cromwell and Sherman Jumbo.

The Cromwell is fast.  Like, light tank fast.  It’s not unusual for it to maintain 55-65 kph.  It also has a pretty good gun, the Vickers HV 75mm, with 145mm penetration, 135 average damage, and a pretty fast rof.  The Cromwell excels at flanking, supporting, and exploiting weaknesses in the enemy defenses.  If you’re on one side of the map and you’re needed on the other, the Cromwell can get you there in no time.  The main weakpoint of the Crommie is the bad armor.  There have been several occasions where I’ve been derped for full damage.

The Jumbo on the other hand is probably the most armored medium at tier 6.  The front is nearly impenetrable for lower tiers and the turret armor makes it a tough nut to crack when its hull down.  As such, the Jumbo can function as a heavy in a pinch.  It is however, not as fast as other mediums and its two main armaments, the 105 derp and the M1A2 76mm, are okay, but aren’t as good as other guns.  The 105’s damage is random, dealing from 300 damage in one shot to 52 in another.  The 76 is effectively a machine gun, however the damage and penetration are rather lacking.

As you can see, these two mediums have vastly different play styles.  However, medium play style essentially boils down to these aspects:

Mediums function the best in a wolfpack with 2-3 other mediums.  As a result, a good medium tank platoon will utterly wreck the other team.  If there’s not a good wolfpack around, simply stick with other teammates.  The best way for a medium to survive is to simply not get hit.  Let your teammates take the hits (don’t let them die though.  If they’re dead that’s one less gun shooting at the other team and one less target for the enemy to shoot at.  Which means they’re more likely to shoot at you).

You typically have maneuverability and speed on your side when confronting heavies (again, this varies depending on each individual tank).  Use this to flank and/or circle lone heavies, which is driving in a circle around them pumping shot after shot into their vulnerable side and rear while they struggle to get the turret to bear on you.  Again, this mainly works when the heavy is alone with no support, and is even more effective in a wolfpack.

Against light tanks, it’s usually the other way around (again, it depends on the tank).  Faster mediums such as the Cromwell function well as scout-killers, while slower ones such as the Pershing can get out-maneuvered by a good light.  Focus on trying to track them to get rid of their movement advantage or try ramming them.

Keep an eye on your minimap.  This is essential to any tank really, but as a medium you’ll need to have better map awareness to pinpoint the locations where you’ll be most useful.  If you haven’t encountered any enemy tanks on your flank, there’s a high chance they’re on the other one.  That’s your signal to fall back and reinforce the other flank as best you can.

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is vital.  Playing a German medium like a Russian one is a recipe to an early trip to the scrapheap.  Research how to play the tank you have, the World of Tank Wiki is a good place to start.