War Thunder Ground RB Nations Tier List

This board ranks all ten of War Thunder's nation tech trees for Ground Realistic Battles by overall grind value: how consistent the tank lineups are from low tier to top tier, how strong the top-tier package is, whether the tree brings competitive CAS and SPAA to back its tanks, and how forgiving the whole ride is for a new or mid-rank player. To be clear, this is a verdict on entire tech trees, not on any single vehicle — one great tank does not redeem a tree full of gaps, and one clunker does not sink a deep one.

At the top, the USA fields arguably the deepest and most consistent ground tree in the game — solid lineups at nearly every battle rating, fresh Abrams variants from Heavy Cavalry, and first-class CAS — while Sweden pairs some of the best top-tier lineups around (uparmored Leopards plus Gripen air cover) with excellent mid-tier all-rounders, its thin early ranks being the only real tax. Germany and the USSR remain the classic safe grinds: enormous lineups at every bracket, with Germany's legendary mid tiers offset by weak CAS, and Russia's oppressive CAS propping up top-tier tanks that are merely okay these days. Japan rides shockingly good Type 10s and strong helicopter support, but its skinny mid-tier lineups keep it just below the leaders for a full-tree grind.

The trap trees are just as important to name. Great Britain is genuinely strong up to around 10.7 and then falls off a cliff — the Challenger 2s carry a host of long-standing issues and the CAS options only recently improved — though Heavy Cavalry's Australian M1A1/M1A2 Abrams finally hand the tree a real top-tier alternative to the Challenger 2. Italy runs thin at almost every bracket and offers little at top tier beyond the 2A7HU. Israel is the harshest new-player trap of all: the tree only starts partway up, the Merkavas are unique but plagued by damage-model problems, and the SPAA and backup options are minimal. France and China sit in the middle — Leclercs and the ZTZ99A/VT-4 family are competitive and both trees have real sleeper stretches, but awkward gaps (France around 9.0 especially) make them harder first grinds.

Think a tree is criminally misplaced — that Britain deserves better or Russia's CAS still buys it S? That is exactly what the vote buttons are for.