There's barely any pay2win nowadays. Yes, you CAN pay for some tanks to get em, which give you more credits, but that's about it, and they don't give those credits for free. If you play moderately well, you can still earn money on higher Tiers with no premium account and not spending one Cent / Pence on the game. The grind takes longer, but imo it's worth it. Got myself the Foch 155 yesterday and it's one of the greatest vehicles in the game imo, so much fun to play and so versatile, that with the combination of 1 Foch and 2 Heavy-Tanks in one Platoon, you can pretty much tank any corner you want against 5-7 enemies and come out alive at the end. The Foch is French, btw. Yes, some Russian tanks are strong, but so are some of the Germans, Brits, US and French tanks.