Preface: My stats in the leo, http://i.imgur.com/JyNeD1L.jpg

A wonderful (very generous) benefactor on reddit is gifting me a fury e8 if I do a leo 1 guide as well as guide him a bit in game, so here it is!

My waifu in game, sexiest looking tank in game and the pinnacle tank of the chai arsenal. A lot of unicums say it’s mediocre, but that’s because they are playing it completely wrong and it’s simply not for them. The leo clicked for me instantly, however there are players better that me that just can’t make it work. If you can’t make the leo 1 work after extended efforts or it’s just not your thing, don’t bother. You have to show her love for her to love you back.

The leopard, straight from Wikipedia: The species' success in the wild is in part due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, its ability to run at speeds approaching 58 kilometres per hour (36 mph), its unequaled ability to climb trees even when carrying a heavy carcass, and its notorious ability for stealth.

That’s pretty much how the leo plays in game, it’s very opportunistic, can go very fast and it has insane camo. It’s more of a light/td weird hybrid than anything. It can be compared to the hellcat or the e-25, but it plays like non-other.

Comparison to other T10 Mediums:

Pros:

• Great gun, excellent shell velocity and penetration/accuracy. AMAZING SNIPER

• Sexiest tank in game, good anime skins

• Great maneuverability and speed

• Enough camo to really abuse the vision game, 410 view range is great too.

• Excels in the vision sniper role enough that it can carry games other mediums wouldn't be able to in certain situations. also a decent wn8 padder, think i have 4.7k wn8 in mine

Cons:

• What is armor?

• Rip ammorack will always get damaged (will never blow up outright tho)

• Less versatile than other tier 10 mediums.

Russian Mediums: Trades turret armor and raw dpm for a better vision/sniping platform/soft stats.

E50M: Whilst the e50m is certainly more versatile, it loses dpm and a **** ton of camo for armor.

Stb1: Trades all gun handling and speed for more dpm and an okay turret.

British/American: Garbage

Batchat: Whilst the leo1 is supreme in gun control and consistent dpm, the batchat has a clip and much better active scouting potential.

In my opinion the t62a/140/batchat/leo are the top 4 mediums in the game. They all EXCEL at a certain aspect and what the leo excels in is vision control with consistent dpm. However if you don’t want to play vision and be super aggressive, go play a 62a or batchat. The leo is ill suited for hyper aggressive gameplay or generally getting shot at. Seriously, if you don’t want to play like a little *****, use the camo system and be afraid of getting shot, this tank isn’t for you. Whilst other mediums use speed and flanking to win games, the leo 1 wins games by camo sniping, providing vision and carrying the late game with speed and a full hp bar.

The grind to the leo 1:

I free exped straight to the tier 8, so can’ talk about lower tiers. Vk3001p was okay as well. Indienpanzer is not that bad really, it has **** aim time and is outclassed in every manner by the pershing, but you can make do with it if you are good.

PLAY THE ******* LEO PTA: Seriously, it taught me a lot in how to play the leo to its strengths. And it’s not even that bad at all, it still is one of my favourite tier 9 medium tanks and I played every game in it pre-buff. If you don’t like the PTA’s playstyle, you probably won’t play the leo 1 to its greatest potential.

Setup: http://i.imgur.com/A2tOczH.jpg

I’ve experimented with crew skills/modules quite a bit and in this current meta I believe this is by far the best set up. I used to run vents instead of vert stab with all vision crew skills, but with the new corridor maps the 520 view range set up has become obsolete.

I run 41 apcr/15 heat/4 he Shoot apcr generally at anything other than german box tanks, you pretty much need heat to reliably pen german box tanks beyond 100 meters. The he is used against the waffletrager line for maximum damage. Large repair/med kit is needed as when arty hits you WILL lose more than 1 crew member. Also there are many instances where you get tracked AND your ammorack gets damaged, thus large repair kit is exceptionally good in this tank. I run chocolate for the view range bonus, and I generally find that the leo doesn’t get set on fire. I get set on fire maybe once every 50 games, and that usually because they shoot my *** with he or something. Also with a premium account and not spamming too much gold, I don’t find myself losing credits either.

Outline of a game: Pools medal game I had that outlines these steps fairly well: (warning lots of camping) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uYrytkfr4M

Early game: Before you do anything, look at your teamcomp and look at theirs. You have to be reactive. If it’s mines and they have a medium overmatch, go island instead of mid, you got the overmatch? Go hill then. Xvm telling you that your team is pretty good? You can afford to be more aggressive. Team is horrible? Get ready to pull a rolling retreat because you know one flank is going to get smashed. Generally initial deployment is based on what tanks they have (your own judgment call, very hard to explain this unless I’m tutoring one of one in game) and guessing which flank will push/fail hard using xvm.

In certain maps, such a phrok/malinovka where you cannot afford to lose early lights, you have to just go, be the first one in because you need to give team vision ASAP. Other maps, such as himmelsdorf/ swamp where you can be more passive, simply stay put for a bit and get in a position where you can chai snip and be able to react quickly. THAT DOESN’T MEAN CAMP IN BASE WITH THE USELESS TDS. I very rarely do that, simply because you need to get up there to farm damage or light. Sitting A1 for 5 minutes doing nothing loses you the game. You always want to be able to get as many shots as you can.

Mid game:

Whilst most other medium tanks just flank/go with the pack, the leo is a bit different in that regard.

Be super opportunistic here. You want to read the map and address flanks. If a flank is about to push, push with them, if a flank is about to die, get the **** out. It’s all about player intuition here and no guide can teach you that. Generally you want to get as much opportunistic damage in as you can and PRESERVE YOUR HP for the late game. However that doesn’t mean camp still, because if the team is getting rolled, but you still have a chance in winning it, you need to go get lights/help a dying flank. Every pubbie alive in the late game makes your job a lot easier.

Late game: Ideally you should be close to full hp here, and your job here is to be a predator. Use the vision game to find enemies, get damage into them for free and simply roam the map with your speed. Your early/mid game sniping should have whittled them down, now is the time to be aggressive, find them and use your superior hp pool to win trades.

Leo 1 Pro Tips/ Commonly asked questions.

1. When you see lots of arty on, it’s best not to play the leo as arty above all just loves to shoot leos because they know they will probably pen.

2. WOW I KEEP GETTING AMMORACKED WHAT DO I DO??? Don’t get shot lol, but no seriously your side is a giant ammorack hitbox, don’t show them your side. Run a large repair kit and don’t get shot in the side. I’ll rather have them shoot my *** than the side

3. WHAT DO ON CITY MAPS? Enclosed spaces is not the leo’s natural habitat, but you can make do. Keep your distance initially, make shots of opportunity and generally trade good. Rush in and flank isolated targets you think you can 1v1. Watch my city map replays to get an idea at how they play out. http://www.wotreplays.org/player/na/Worstplayer_NA/m/*/mm/*/mt/*/p/1/pi/0/pp/1/s/*/sr/upload/vp/1

   2 lazy 2 search, here's 3

   Himmels: http://www.wotreplays.org/replay/543e195c9c81a54ef3010000.html

   Ruinberg: http://www.wotreplays.org/replay/543e1a2f9c81a54ff7010000.html

   Ensk: http://www.wotreplays.org/replay/543e19a69c81a54f4d010000.html

4. LEO IS AGGRESSIVE FAST TANK ONLY NOOBS CAMP IN IT!! Lol nice sub 40% w/r and 1k dpg in your leo, you can certainly play it like a batchat, but why bother with the leo when the batchat is much better as an active scout? Wrong tank for you bro.

5. Use the xvm minimap circles, it’s seriously super op. It tells you your view range/draw distance and you can use that information to skirt around enemies vision lines, generally you will spot them before they spot you. 30x scope zoom is helpful for sniping too.

6. Your track hitbox is actually massive, against retards you can use it to your advantage. I once sidescraped a t62a 100-0 taking 0 damage in return because he was a ****** that kept shooting my tracks with heat.

7. Just don’t trade with the leo if you can, seriously you’re not a t62a, why does every pubbie leo 1 decide trading shot for shot in a leo is a good idea.

   ---

   Map guide??

I really can’t give you a map guide as every game you should play differently based on team compositions, but I do have 40 replays for you to watch so you can get an idea on how to play each map. If there is a map you really struggle on, comment and I will respond in text on how I approach it.

http://www.wotreplays.org/player/na/Worstplayer_NA/m/*/mm/*/mt/*/p/1/pi/0/pp/1/s/*/sr/upload/vp/1

I also offer tutoring on how to play leo1/medium tanks for a nominal fee. Pm me on reddit if you’re interested. It’s mostly changing your medium tank mentality.

Next guide will probably doing a review/guide on all the tier 8 light tanks.