Separate Commonwealth tech tree

[olek_z17]

I made a suggestion about a separate Italian tech tree some time ago, and I decided to make a similar suggestion for another sub-faction in Enlisted, the Great Britain (or rather the Commonwealth since we have ANZAC and Canadian weapons and vehicles as well). This tech tree have four tiers, just like the Italian one, since it doesn’t have enough equipment to compete with German tier V so it just doesn’t need it, the same way as Japan doesn’t need tier V.

Tier I

Tier II

Tier III

Tier IV

Old premium squads

I included some of the pre-merge premium squads, while some, like the rider or flametrooper squad should be kept as “collectibles” that appear regularly during events like Enlisted birthday, Commonwealth Day or other holidays related to the Commonwealth or Great Britain.

Tech tree weapons and vehicles

So, here are the weapon and vehicle choices with some explanations. I will only touch on the less obvious choices as well as provide War Thunder Wiki links for all vehicles I added.

Tier I

• Enfield No.3 Mk I
  It’s an Enfield P14.
• Enfield No.3 Mk I (T) (I can’t write “Mk I*”, it messes with the formatting:))
  Yes, it’s a gun from the removed Pacific premium sniper squad, but I didn’t find any other sniper rifles used by the Commonwealth countries.
• Lee-Metford Mk II
  The reason it’s at tier I despite having a 10 round magazine and a fast fire rate (the same bolt design as in the SMLE rifles) is that it doesn’t use stripper clips and can only be loaded one by one.
• Crusader AA Mk II
  I don’t know if it should be at tier I as it would be stronger than all the SPAAs in the game, but I just wanted to put some anti air vehicle here.
• Swordfish Mk I
  With 4 250 lb bombs. Starter attack aircraft usually get 50 kg bombs, but Swordfish is quite slow and doesn’t handle well, so a stronger suspended armament would compensate for that.
• Sea Hurricane Mk IC
  Purely air-to-air aircraft, with 4 20mm Hispan cannons and no suspended armament.
• LEC Mk I
  Lee-Enfield Carbine. Functionally the same as the Lee Metford but with half the magazine capacity and a bit less damage because of the shorter barrel. Can’t use stripper clips either.
  This squad could be a rifleman squad, like other bolt action premium squads.
• SARC Mk IVa

Tier II

• M1 Carbine
  A bit controversial, I know. But technically, it was used by the British special forces in limited numbers, and this tech tree needs lacks semi auto rifles anyways, so I think it’s necessary here.
• Lee-Enfield No.5 Mk I
  It’s in tier II because it would have less damage and more recoil than the other two SMLE rifles.
• Sten Mk V
  It can equip a bayonet, and the grips would give it some extra stability, so it’s in tier II.
• BSA G14
  Sidecar motorcycle with a Lewis gun. It’s an optional addition considering how popular rider squads are anyways.
• Valentine I
• Cromwell I
• V-156-B1
• Typhoon Mk Ia
• Priest Cangaroo
  The Cangaroo family of APCs is quite unique for WW2, so I decided to add one of them. I chose probably the least armored one to make it balanced, though I considered the Ram Cangaroo as well since it has a closed machine gun turret which is kinda cool.
• Sten Mk IV
  I chose the more compact Mk IV variant because I want it to be a paratrooper squad.

Tier III

• Lee-Enfield No.1 Mk III EY
  With the No. 68 AT grenade.
• Bren Mk II
  Increase its fire rate to around 500-550 rpm and put it in tier III.
• Flamethrower, Portable, No.2 Mk I
  I wasn’t able to fit the fit the full name in the pic. Anyway, this flamethrower is in the game files (you can use it in the editor) and has stats of all the other tier III flamethrowers.
• Churchill I
  From the gameplay perspective it would be the Grant with more armor.
• Valentine XI
• Achilles
  Yes, a 17 pounder in tier III. But in a weakly armored, open topped vehicle with a painfully slow turret traverse, so overall it would fit in tier III. And its HE rounds are comparable to those of the 6 pounder from the Crusader III, so it wouldn’t be OP against infantry.
• Spitfire F Mk IX
  With its only suspended armament option, a single 250 lb bomb.
• Beaufighter Mk VIc
  It would carry 2 500 lb bombs.
• Typhoon Mk Ib/Late
  Either 2 500 lb or 2 250 lb bombs. I don’t know, aircraft BRs are all over the place anyways.
• LSA rifle
  A pre-WWI self loading rifle designed by Thomas R. Ashton and produced by London Small Arms (LSA). Chambered in .276 Enfield and using a 10 round Lee-Enfield magazine, it would be comparable to the Pedersen rifle from the battle pass.
• Lightweight Lewis gun
  An experimental Lewis gun with a lighter barrel shroud and made to use Bren magazines.
• Huot Automatic Rifle
  Conversion of the Ross rifle. It uses a 25 round drum magazine and has a fire rate of around 475 rpm. Since it’s an automatic rifle, it could have the same -25% sprint speed penalty as the BARs instead of -50% like most of the MGs.

Tier IV

• Turner SMLE
  Yes, it’s in a premium squad and yes, it’s currently at tier III. But the Johnson and Type 4 rifles and both pretty similar (double stripper clip fed) and yet are at tier IV, so the Turner could be at tier IV as well.
• Flamethrower, Portable, No.2 Mk II
  Currently it’s a tier V weapon for some reason, even though it has the performance of tier IV flamethrowers, so it should get downtiered to tier IV.
• Churchill VII
• Sherman VC
  Just like the current premium Sherman Firefly, the IC variant, it should be at tier IV, not V.
• Spitfire F Mk XIVe
  With its only suspended armament option, a single 500 lb bomb.
• Firebrand TF Mk IV
  It’s a fighter pilot squad, but the Firebrand more of an attacker, especially when it comes to flight performance. It could have a couple of armament options - 8 RP-3 rockets, 1 1000 lb and 2 500 lb bombs, or my favorite, 2 Uncle Tom rockets.
• Lanchester Model 2
  One of the prototype Lanchester SMGs that were meant to be simpler and easier to mass produce than the regular one. Here is a Forgotten Weapons video about all three of these, including the battle pass one. It would probably handle like the Model 1 from the battle pass, except of the lower recoil as it has a stock. If that’s not enough for it to be in tier IV, it could also get the 50 round magazine.
  It would be a medic squad, with 4 medics and an engineer.
• Tempest Mk V
  A removed Normandy premium squad. It currently sits at tier V as it has 4 500 lb bombs, a loadout that doesn’t exist in War Thunder and isn’t even possible as Tempest had two hardpoints. So to bring it down to tier IV it should get a new, realistic loadout with 2 500 lb bombs.
• Sherman IC
  Again, it should go down to tier IV like the VC variant, it won’t be overpowered there.

Battle pass and event weapons

Legacy battle pass weapons

Since now the Commonwealth is a sub tree of the US, it shares the battle pass weapons with it. Some of them are American, but some are British, Australian and so on. So they will need to be split, and here are the Commonwealth ones:

• Pedersen rifle
  To be fair, it could be both US and British as it’s an American rifle but most of them were made by Vickers-Armstrong in the UK. But I’d rather see it here as the Commonwealth tree lacks semi auto rifles.
• M1929 BSA Thompson
• De Lisle carbine
• Welrod Mk II
• S&W Light Rifle
  It was designed for Great Britain.
• Lanchester Model 1
• Farquhar-Hill rifle
• Owen .45 ACP

New battle pass and event weapons

• Beardmore-Farquhar LMG
  Probably at tier IV
• Lanchester Model 3
  Either tier III or IV
• Rofsten SMG
  Either tier III or IV
• If you have more Ideas for gold order or event weapons, I’d love to see them

Legacy tier V squads

There we two tier V British squads currently in the game: the Vickers Mk.I No 2 paratrooper squad and the Flamethrower, Portable, No.2 squad. They are naturally an issue for this tech tree suggestion as it stops at tier IV. The solution for the flametrooper squad is simple - just put it (and the Italian flametrooper squad) in tier IV where it belongs. Their flamethrower performs the same as all other tier IV flamethrowers so there’s no reason why it’s in tier V. The bigger issue is with the paratrooper squad as the Vickers Mk.I doesn’t belong in tier IV. The best (but by no means good) idea I came up with is giving it its original sight (that horrible aperture rear sight that covers 2/3 of the screen) and moving it to tier IV.

I’d like to hear what you think about this, and if I got anything wrong about the weapons, feel free to correct me:)

[miloptt]

I’d put the Turner SMLE to Tier 3, otherwise they’d be the only nation without a semi auto rifle there. Replace it in Tier 4 with the Howell automatic rifle (10 round mag)

And I just wanna throw out some possible Tier V weapons, since if Japan enters BR5 with prototype weapons, why not give Britain ones that were used in smaller numbers but at least existed during the time period

Charlton or Rieder automatic rifle
Sterling smg, Lanchester 50 round
Bren with 100 round drum or the Vickers
3 inch mortar (81mm)

[Valkay]

Hard locking factions to BR4 is a mistake and will only get exploited.

[olek_z17]

@miloptt

I’d put the Turner SMLE to Tier 3, otherwise they’d be the only nation without a semi auto rifle there. Replace it in Tier 4 with the Howell automatic rifle (10 round mag)

The Turner could be at tier III, true, but I don’t think that adding anything more SLRs into the tech tree would be necessary - the Turner would do well both at tier III and IV, the same as for example the Lewis gun would. And the Howell looks way to goofy for a tech tree, I think it deserves to be in a battle pass or as an event squad weapon:)

@miloptt

And I just wanna throw out some possible Tier V weapons, since if Japan enters BR5 with prototype weapons, why not give Britain ones that were used in smaller numbers but at least existed during the time period

*with a fictional tank that was never built.
My whole premise here is that Japan (as well as future Italian and Commonwealth trees) shouldn’t be forced into tier V. It doesn’t face US tier V currently so it’s fine the way it is. If the goal is to have five tiers for all factions, then we can’t have France, Poland or Finland and the game can’t grow past the current four tech trees.

Btw, the Charlton already is in the game in tier II, it was a Tunisia event squad:

The Lanchester with a 50 round magazine was an event weapon as well (at tier III):

The other suggestions are definitely worth considering, though I forgot to touch on the Vickers LMG as it’s also in the game in an event paratrooper squad (at tier V unfortunately).

[olek_z17]

Could you elaborate on that? Why do you think not forcing nations into tier V with fictional equipment is a bad idea?

[Valkay]

Have you played Japan BR4 or US BR4?
Japanese faction stacks BR4 because there are very few US BR4 players since its much better to que as BR5.
Japan BR4 fights US BR3 which isn’t fair at all.

[miloptt]

I’m aware those weapons are in the game as event weapons, just though they could be added to the tech tree same way as you suggested adding premium weapons like the Turner SMLE, Flamethrower No.2 etc.

And the Howell doesn’t look that goofy in my opinion, and it was issued to Home Guard similar to the Lewis Gun

[olek_z17]

There’s a very simple solution to that problem (and many more matchmaking related issues) - implementing a normal +1/-1 matchmaking instead of the mess we have now. Tier I would be able to play against tier I and II, tier III against II, III and IV and so on. This way the playerbase would be spread more equally through the tiers instead of just tier II, V and some at III. Japan tier IV would of course still not be able to meet US tier V as no faction should be up-tiered beyond its top tier.

@Valkay

Japan BR4 fights US BR3 which isn’t fair at all.

I’d argue that Japan tier IV vs US tier III is more fair than Japan tier IV vs US tier IV. The 105mm Sherman is already a pain in the ass to deal with from the ground, the Jumbo is too much (not to mention the Super Pershing if Darkflow really wants to completely kill the Japanese tech tree with tier V).

[Debayan001]

Great work! Personally speaking I would add the Rieder Automatic Rifle, the Lewis Assault Phase Rifle, the Huot Automatic Rifle and such other prototypes to fill out the need of a potential select fire rifle/AR for the British in BR V. If Japan can get a fictional BR V why not the Commonwealth? Plus the power creep is real for all the factions in-game already.

[olek_z17]

@miloptt

I’m aware those weapons are in the game as event weapons, just though they could be added to the tech tree same way as you suggested adding premium weapons like the Turner SMLE, Flamethrower No.2 etc.

I try to avoid putting event/premium weapons in the tech tree as much as possible since Darkflow seems to avoid that as well, and these two were kinda unavoidable.

@miloptt

And the Howell doesn’t look that goofy in my opinion, and it was issued to Home Guard similar to the Lewis Gun

It’s the most steampunk looking gun I’ve seen:) But you’re right, it was issued to Home Guard, so it could find its place in the tech tree.

[olek_z17]

@Debayan001

If Japan can get a fictional BR V why not the Commonwealth?

Japan shouldn’t get tier V and I hope Darkflow comes to their sense before they ruin Japanese tech tree.

As for your suggestions, the Huot is already in my tech tree, and the other two could be added as LMGs (there are 20 round SMLE magazines, so it’s not a problem for the Rieder). The Lewis Assault Phase Rifle doesn’t really deserve to be in tier IV btw, let alone in tier V - is has the same action as the Lewis gun, so the fire rate would be similar, but has 20 rounds instead of 47.

[robihr]

@Valkay

Japanese faction stacks BR4 because there are very few US BR4 players since its much better to que as BR5.
Japan BR4 fights US BR3 which isn’t fair at all.

not really a problem cause british would have same queue as US (with possible exclusion of pacific)

[olek_z17]

@robihr

not really a problem cause british would have same queue as US (with possible exclusion of pacific)

Speaking of which, if this suggestion ever makes it way into the game, I think it should come with a set of maps inspired by the Burma campaign. This way Japan would get more than two maps and they could also play against the Brits as well.

[robihr]

idk if burma would be viable with just british. they would probably need to queue with US for such thing to be possible.

[olek_z17]

I think it would be comparable to the Japanese tech tree, definitely more balanced fon Japan than facing US tier IV. The Churchill VII might be a problem, similar to the Jumbo but with slightly less armor, but other than that it should be fine.

[robihr]

it is not problem in equipment but in number of players/queues. you would almost never gather pure british squad of 10 players for burma cause e.g. tunisia or normandy would be easier to fill with mixed british/us squads.

[olek_z17]

Why are people so obsessed with queue times?
As for now it sure might be an issue (though I never encountered queue times long enough to annoy me), but as the game and playerbase grows, new factions should be added.

[robihr]

it is not queue times. it is about empty and bot matches.

btw new factions should be added, but they must be careful for not creating too many factions and combinations that would ultimately lead to empty game. also playerbase is not growing. it has been constant for last half year.

[_i4i]

Well hopefully in 2-6 weeks we will have more, for a little bit anyway, unless things change.

[olek_z17]

Well, the game will be released on Steam soon, so that will likely help with that. Btw, where can I find stats regarding the number of players over time? I assumed that the game is growing because it’s natural for a developing game to gain new players, but I kinda want to know how many players there are.