mondo
Hardcore
You can play for free but its torture.Well the thing with WoT is that you dont have to pay to play, and as far as i can see the strategy on War Thunder is all about the big bucks, or am i missing something like you can play4free?
I couldn't imagine playing WoT without premium. To take part in Clan wars you need several tier X tanks. Probably OK if you're unemployed or a student but its engineered in such a way that to get the most XP you need premium and to get the absolute most you need a certain premium tank with an XP modifier on it. To get the most credits you need premium and to get the absolute most a tier 8 premium tank.
Now I'm not a bad player, in the top 5% efficiency wise, own 2 tier X, unlocked a further tier X, Tier 7 Artillery and within about 400 battles unlock and buy another 2 tier X tanks but to put that in perspective I have premium, multiple premium tanks and have played 6500 battles. If I didn't have that it would probably be more like 15-20K battles to get what I have.
The difference between WoT and War Thunder is, War Thunder has direct competition from World of Warplanes. WoT has no competition so customers have only one place to go. WoWP also has a tie in with WoT. I can use my spare XP, credits and gold on WoT in WoWP.