World of Tanks

[Cam]

It took some work, but I just bought the tier VIII American artillery, M40/M43. I tried it out and it put me in a tier X game. :( However, it seems to aim faster than the M12. Reload seems about the same.

I just realized that the more powerful gun on the M40/M43 can only fire once per minute. Yikes!

[Cam]

It seems I lost all my tanks and money. I checked their forum and it seems I'm not the only one with the issue. The solution seems to be log on to a different server (There is no option to choose a different server), or log in repeatedly until your tanks come back.

It worked on the second try. Whew!

[Fiat500]

Firstly - Old thread (http://gtxfrefuge.freeforums.org/world-of-tanks-t118.html)

...

Phew, that must have been unpleasant! You can change servers though, it is under Start -> Options -> "Game" tab.
I don't know if you'll have to restart the game for the server change to take effect though.

Artillery is the one class where I don't mind being up against the higher tiers. You should be safely hidden away in some corner of the map anyway, and if the rest of the team does their job (big if!) you should remain unspotted for the duration of the match.
Higher tier tanks yield more points, and they're usually quite slow. Win. :)

Speaking of remaining unspotted, I've taken to using the time between artillery reloads to look for signs of the enemy arty. It is mainly a matter of keeping an eye on the usual spots, and look for telltale signs like falling trees and muzzle flashes. I've managed to take out a couple that way, very satisfying.

[Cam]

I do that sometimes as well. I've gotten more than a few kills that way.

Had a nice finish to a match yesterday. I'm using the M40/M43 on Mountain Pass. It's nearing the end of the match and there's only a few tanks left on both teams. I'm in the very back corner behind our base hiding in a bush with a camo net. Another artillery tank was up ahead, to my left, in plain view. There's three other tanks on our team and they're nearing the enemy base, but still fighting other tanks. I noticed on the map that an enemy TD eliminated the platoon in the valley to my right and I figured he was moving in on the base. If I can stay hidden, the enemy tank will spot the other artillery and be distracted long enough for me to get the kill. Sure enough the enemy TD rolls into the base and takes the bait. He turns and moves toward the pigeon (sorry teammate, but you left yourself open) exposing his tender rear-end open for penetration. I line him up and... miss! (I hear that happens to a lot of guys.) FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF... Miraculously, I'm not spotted because he was looking the other way. The red guy eliminates my teammate, but backs up into the circle, directly towards me. It takes about 30 seconds to reload, but I one-shot him on the second try. The rest of my remaining team capture the base. I can only assume the last enemy tank was cowering in a grotto somewhere.

[Cam]

Had my first encounter with griefers in this game. Two two teammates just constantly ramming me the whole game. I pretty much just sat there and took it while I gave them negative feedback. We lost, of course. :rolleyes:

[Fiat500]

I don't understand why people would do that. Childish troll behaviour.
I've thankfully only had something deliberate like that happen once. Some guy tried to block me as we were rolling out on Sand River, turret turned backwards to check his fine work and everything. Fortunately he gave it up after a little while.

Then there's the idiots who bump into you and ruin your aim/ camo/ binoculars, or those who roll in front of you just as you are about to fire, but that's a whole other story.

In other news, I'm up to the Patton in american mediums, my first tier 9 tank, but it's quite a grind to the final package with the tier 9 gun. Maybe I'll exchange some gold, it's not like I get to keep it once the beta is over.

[Cam]

There we were. It was just Gimpy and I left against five enemies in Sand River. We take up defensive positions at our base and wait. He's on the ridge spotting while I take cover behind a rock because I'm in artillery (M40/M43). I figure the only way I'll survive is to get the drop on an invader and one-shot them at point-blank range. I'm in a spot where I'll have a side-on shot at the next tank that comes my way.

It doesn't take too long before a T20 zips in to the base. I aim carefully and blast him into the tumbleweeds. He didn't even spot me. Gimpy spots a guy and we combine fire to bring it down to 3 on 2. He spots another guy and we take him down. Gimpy spots the last tank and finishes him before I can even see where he is. Only one artillery tank left.

Gimpy starts rolling toward the base north of the river while I go south east. One of our dead teammates is alerting us to the bottom-right sector where arty was spotted earlier. I have OK view range on my upgraded arty. I hoped he didn't have the same upgrades because he was in the same vehicle. Sure enough he was there but he didn't spot me. He ran and I missed with a half-assed shell. Gimpy and I roll into his position and I spot him first. I figure he can't get us both. Sadly for my enemy, he panic-shot and missed me. I had loads of time now. I got right in his face so I wouldn't miss and blew him to smithereens with 205mm of satisfaction. What a come-back! Gimpy and I exchanged "Good game" messages after. :)

In other news, I twice earned over 50,000 silver in one game with the T29. My most lucrative games yet. :)

In other news, my win percentage is only 50. :embarassed:

In other news, I got the Patton the other day.

[Fiat500]

Heh, cool. :cool:


I tend to remember the absurd games.
Once I was on Mountain Pass, playing arty, starting out at the bottom and sitting behind the base, along with two other artys and a heavy with nobody home.

The game went pretty well for a while, our team made it to their base, but were unfortunately wiped out, with only the people on our base remaining. I watched the couple of enemy heavies start out towards our base.
One of the fellow arties must have had the same thought as me at the same time, because we both started down the icy valley like two fat old women, holding our skirts up as we crossed the icy streams, trundling along.
As we passed below the bridge, the enemy arty was detected, and he must have detected us, because I could almost feel a big fat ! appear over his head. We nevertheless continued towards the enemy base.

As we rolled in, enemy arty came from the opposite direction.

He fired at me, and missed.
I fired at him, and missed.
My team mate fired at him, and missed.
He fired at my team mate, and missed.
I rammed his side, fired, and didn't miss.

Meanwhile, our team mates had disappeared off the map, and the siren had begun wailing.
In the end we couldn't keep up with their occupation counter, and lost the game, but only barely.

I haven't played all that much lately. I now have some of the tanks I used to fear, but I seem to mostly be matchmade with stronger opposition, so I'm not exactly dominating the battlefield.

The Patton is cool but not much use with the first packages IMO, so I ended up exchanging some gold to get to the top package. It is good, but I think I did better with the Pershing.

My win percentage was also around 50% the last time I checked. This is battle wins, though. It would be interesting to see the Kill/ Death ratio, but I don't think you can.

[Fiat500]

The beta ends on January 29. The game will then be up after a while, initially only for beta participants.


The Beta Is Ending and Servers Will Go Offline January 29th

World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition game servers will be taken down on January 29, 07:00 UTC (Jan. 28 23:00 PST) for a few days in preparation for the final release. Players will not be able to log in during this time. Please stay tuned for another update on your early access to the release version of the game.

What Changes Will I Notice When the Server Is Back Online?

The game will be live for Beta participants only
In-game purchases will be implemented and retained going forward
Tank awards earned during the Beta will be in your Garage
In-game progress will be reset (earned tanks, XP, Silver, and Gold)
Game Avatars and Achievements will be available

Link (http://worldoftanksxbox360edition.com/en/news/announcements/beta-servers-going-offline/?page=1)

[Cam]

Tanks reset? Booo! :(

[Rikadyn]

yea it happened when it jump from beta to final on pc too

[Fiat500]

Unfortunately, yes.
But at least you have a fair idea about wich direction to first take in the game.
I'd like to make my way up to the T1 Heavy and the Wolverine, where I feel I have had the most fun, but since I start the game with the bonus T14 and the Ram anyway, I think I'll let the American line wait, and instead start on the German tech tree.
Both the tier 6 VK tanks are fun to play, proven by the fact that I've held on to them, and they branch into pretty good medium and heavy lines, all the way to the top.

For artillery, I think I'll go with German, same with Tank Destroyers. The Jagdpanther II doesn't have the impenetrable shell of the Doom Turtle, in fact it is quite vulnerable, but is instead very nimble for a Tier 8 tank. The top gun is very precise and powerful too.

I don't know if I'll bother with the British line at all. Their tanks are very slow up to tier 7 or 8, and I didn't find that they compensated for that in other areas.
The British Tank Destroyers became very fun at Tier 5, but are also painfully slow. In the end I just couldn't be bothered.

Oh, and I had a pretty good game with the Patton on Malinovka earlier. 86 727 silver, but this was with the 3x first win bonus of the weekend, plus some medal bonus I think (Confederate, maybe).

[Cam]

86 Grand! Sweet take!

I seem to remember enjoying the M5 Stewart and Wolverine a lot. I like the US artillery line. I guess I like the slow pace, strategy and low stress of artillery. I earned ~105,000 XP toward the tier IX US artillery, which is the biggest reason I'm disappointed our progress will be reset. I will probably do the same thing and go with the US lines for the most part and occasionally play low tier German tanks when teaming up with buddies that don't play as much as I do. I also feel the British tanks are not worth pursuing. In fact, I'm really a fan of any tank without a 360 degree rotating turret, not including arties. I worked on both the T25AT and the AT2 for a while, but sold them out of frustration. I felt like I could not use them effectively.

It will be fun to play lower tiers again though.

[Fiat500]

Heh, I don't know about that. It will be a whole lot of darting around and probably somewhat chaotic.
I played a couple of tier 5 matches, and it was like playing chicken. Headless chicken.

The high tier matches, on the other hand, can be a little on the glacial side, with everyone conserving their expensive ammo and fearing for repairs.

I'm not sure what to do the remaining days of the beta. I'll probably use my gold to convert experience, then sell off tanks for silver.
I should get the tier 10 Patton, just to have been there and sampled that.

I'm on tier 8 with German heavy, medium and artillery, so I'll see where I end up.

[Cam]

In other news, I got the Patton the other day.
I meant to say Pershing (tier VIII) here. I'm having the lousiest luck in this tank. It's not upgraded and it always puts me in tier IX and X games. I can't do anything against anyone. :sadbanana:

[Fiat500]

Heh, yeah, I don't look forward to that aspect of the open game.
On several occasions I've "cheated", and converted gold to experience to jump ahead in the queue with the packages.

Like I've done now - I've played the Jagdpanther II quite a lot, so the Jagdtiger was actually within range for research. So I researched it, then converted all my gold to be able to jump right to the final package.
I had to sell the Jumbo Sherman and the T29 to be able to afford it all, but the world is ending in a copule of days anyway. :)

I considered the tier 10 Patton, but I would need xp to upgrade it as well, and just wouldn't have enough for that. I didn't want to spend the last days of the beta being bottom of the tier.

[M4FFU]

Is this game a modern version of Conqueror which I have fond memories of playing as a child?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p04EZboXc5M

[Rob]

You had an Archimedes? Wow, how many hours did you spend on Childline every week?

[Fiat500]

I haven't heard of Conqueror before, looks sweet, but I've always thought of WoT as a distant descendant of BattleZone.

http://i.imgur.com/r5ze2rT.jpg


How awesome would it be to play World of Tanks in a cabinet like that?

http://i.imgur.com/WZbtTAr.jpg

(very!)

[Drachen596]

i've played battlezone in an arcade like that.

Cedar Point has/had an amazing arcade with games that went all the way back to even before they were video games. light/sound plus props type stuff.

[M4FFU]

I haven't heard of Conqueror before, looks sweet,

I can't find too much footage of it, but WoT looks very much like it's modern counterpart. Spent ages playing Conqueror. Perhaps I need to try WoT!

[Fiat500]

You can't argue with free.

Plus maybe the most significant argument for its quality: Cam hasn't deleted it yet!

...

The release version will be available sometime tomorrow (friday the 31st) for beta player, and will then be gradually rolled out for the rest of the world.

From their forums:


As you know, the World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition servers are down for maintenance in preparation for final release!

What happens next?

*The servers will come back up on Friday, January, 31, 2014 for beta participants only.
*This will be EARLY ACCESS to the full release version of the game.

After this early access period, a few days later the servers will be made available to new players in one region.
This allows us to ensure that everything is up and running smoothly!
Once we are confident that everything is running smoothly, we will announce when the servers will be made available worldwide for everyone!

For all of the latest info:
Like us on Facebook : www.facebook.com/WoTXbox
Follow us on Twitter: @WoTXBox

PLEASE NOTE - this refers to MY Friday - Pacific time, which is GMT -8. When it turns to Friday your time, if it is still Thursday my time, it will not yet be available.


hence (http://forum.worldoftanksxbox360edition.com/index.php?/topic/17736-early-access/)

[Fiat500]

Just went online to check, and it is installing itself at the moment.

[Cam]

I installed an update, but the servers are still offline for me.

[Fiat500]

It should be working now.

Seems like the first couple of hours were a little chaotic, with not everything 100% ready.

[Fiat500]

I had forgotten how like a fish out of water I am in the lower tiers, luckily they are quickly passed by.

I remembered that the stock Hetzer was slow, but not that slow! It is painful!

Also, the game is already released in Canada, the rest of the world will follow on February 12.

[Fiat500]

The Hetzer gets better speed with upgrades.

It is such an ugly little piglet of doom.

I love it.

[Cam]

As I mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of the tanks without a 360 degree turret, not including artillery, of course. The Hetzer turns around quick enough, but the narrow field of fire bugs me.

[Fiat500]

Oh, I know, I just like something with a bit of punch.

I know you like to jump right in, but I kind of like the TD play style - hang back and keep the options open, able to watch several flanks at a time and apply doom as needed.
It's a bit like artillery in that regard. With shorter loading times but less overview.

I think the most fun I had in the beta was with the Jagdpanther II and its top gun. That's a long grind away now though. Luckily the tanks on the way there are not horrible.

Speaking of artillery, I had forgotten the shorter range of the lower tiers, where you have to follow the battle around to be able to make an impact. It'll be nice to advance.

Play styles seem to have changed with the influx of new people. Whereas before the matches were almost predictable strategy-wise, people tend to rush off in all directions now. Or not.

On a match on Sand River, I was off piloting the dunes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WuWerFyDOc) in the T25 Medium. I bring up the map, and notice that at least 6 of our guys still sit at the base, half of them heavies.
A guy in a Chaffee is livid about the situation: "I'M NOT MOVING IN UNTIL YOU HEAVIES GROW SOME BALLS AND ADVANCE LIKE YOU'RE FUCKING SUPPOSED TO!"
A timid voice: "Where are you?"
"I'M ON THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN, SCOUTING LIKE I'M FUCKING SUPPOSED TO!"

The red team must have been out of his view range, since none were lit up. I move up the map and my blood grows cold as a T29 pops into view (Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?).
I know I have no chance facing him head on, and I consider just running away like a coward. The T25 is fast, but he'd probably shoot me in the ass.
There's another medium with me, and I'm thinking we might pester and outmaneuver him together, so I make a run for the rock the T29 emerged behind.
On my way there I light up the entire enemy team. I take a few hits, enough to make me turn slowly, and as I finally face the other way the T29 is destroyed.
I start to move up on the red base, and Chaffee guy must have come down from the mountain - "THAT'S RIGHT! EAT MY DICK! EAT MY CHAFFEE DICK! TOP GUN BABY YEAH!"

Victory.

It was pretty hilarious, but I guess one needed to be there.

[Random]

Nah, you describe it nicely. :D

[Fiat500]

There are some entertaining situations.

This was on Westfield, right at the beginning of the match:

Russian sounding guy: "Is anybody having a microphone?"
Some other guy: "yeah, I have a mike..."
RSG: "I vant my new tank"
SOG: "What tank is that?"
RSG: "Is Black Prince"
SOG: "Oh, I'm far away from that"
RSG: "Uh"

Some time passes, then clearly RSG makes contact with the red team - "Aah! You vant to shoot me? Aah! I shoot you! Fuck you! Aah! How you like that?"
SOG: "You sound like you're having an orgasm..."
RSG: "Aah! I love to fuck with the fucking motherfuckers! Aah! Take that! Fuck you! Aah!"
SOG: "..."

I don't even remember how the match ended. :)

[Cam]

:lol:

I've been a bit busy with school work, so I haven't played as much since the reset.

[Fiat500]

Yeah, I have actually played less as well. Mostly just to get the daily 2x bonus, but some days not even that.
I dunno, it may be because there's no daily gold anymore, and the grind is more of a, well, grind.
I had expected premium to be more affordable, with the free beta gold I bought a month at a time. I'm not buying gold at those prices just to advance faster through the game.

[Fiat500]

So, it is out for everyone now.

Yesterday some 60 000 people were on the servers, which is like ten times more than were in the beta on a very good day.
So gameplay can be... interesting. I see a lot of artillery behaving like tank destroyers, rushing into battle only to explode moments later.

I've been having a miserable time in the low tier German lights and mediums, but yesterday I began moving up the American Tank destroyer line, and suddenly everything was fun again. Those machines are competitive even when stock.
Maybe I'll even move beyond the Wolverine this time. Sure it would be fun to have a Doom Turtle, but I don't know how I would cope with how slow it is. We'll see.

[Cam]

I had a day off school yesterday due to nasty weather. I have today off too. When I first started playing yesterday, I had terrible luck. Played about a dozen games in a row with tier IV US tanks and lost every one. My luck got better, but not by much. I won just enough games to get the x3 bonus on five tanks. Later in the day, my brother and I teamed up and we went on a winning streak in tier II. There were upwards of 1300 players in the queue. I never saw it over 200 previously. Although, I was still ocasionally getting put in tier VII and VIII games with me in tier IV. :? I enjoy it, but it's often frustrating.

[M4FFU]

Downloaded, played my first game. Full of angry russian kids. :D

[Fiat500]

Heh.

Any plans for how you want to progress?

I started the British Tank Destroyer line yesterday, mostly to get the achievement for owning 5 British tanks, but they're weird and fun tanks to play. Not bad at all.

edit:

Eurogamer - 7/10 (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-14-world-of-tanks-xbox-360-edition-review)


Even the dimmest FPS fan should be able to get to grips with the control, if not the tactics, in just a few minutes. And, judging from the number of players with Gamertags like xXL33tSn1P3rXx who start every match by shooting their big gun randomly into the air and hitting all the quick comms buttons at once, they are already plenty of those.

Truth! :lol:

[M4FFU]

Heh.

Any plans for how you want to progress?

I've not really worked out the progression path, as such. Or at all. Just about figured how to not get completely destroyed in a match, but guess it's a bit of a grind to get the money for the better tanks?

[Fiat500]

Heh, it's a pretty special feeling when all the maps are new. They feel so vast and unmanageable. After a while you find out where to go for your preferred tactics to work best.

Look up The Mighty Jingles on youtube for loads of tactics tips.

The grind is more for the XP needed to upgrade, really. The money will usually follow, so you'll rarely be broke, unless you want some expensive piece of equipment for your tank. Which I don't use for the lower tiers anyway.
The beauty of the game is that there is no "better" tank, since the matchmaking (ideally!) provides for an even playing field.
Of course, all tanks get better with the upgrades. The Hetzer, as mentioned above, goes from being a painfully slow peashooter to a stealthy smiter of fools.
Some tanks get better matchmaking than others though, and can seem overpowered. All in all, it's about strengths and weaknesses and finding the balance.

So my advice would be to go with a line that you find enjoyable to play, that will make the grind much more bearable.

Me, I like tank destroyers, and find all the lines enjoyable. Cam, on the other hand, dislikes tanks without rotating turrets.

The German light/ medium line was miserable for me, but now I have the Tier 5 Panzer IV with the TIE fighter turret that makes me feel like Zeus. The Tier 5 Panzer III/IV isn't bad either. It is super zippy with a decent gun.
Afterwards come the VKs and the Panthers and the Tigers, so it's worth it.

The American medium line is more enjoyable, and that also takes you to some pretty good tanks. You have long stints in the much maligned M3 Lee in the middle, though.

TL;DR - play what you enjoy, you'll get the hang of it all quickly enough. :)

...

It is only February, and I already have a candidate for most embarrassing match of the year!
I was in the British TD Alecto, and spawned on Sand River. I found myself just below the mountains, and thought I'd pop up there for some easy spots and kills.

The Alecto is a very small tank, and once on top, I managed to get myself stuck in one of the grooves and ridges that's up there.

So there I'm sat, snout submerged in the scenery, for the duration of the match. No chance to wriggle free.

The one shot I fired was to see if it would propel me backwards and out of there.

It didn't, of course.

Even then, four guys were behind me in the post match stats. One of them even had four spots to his credit. Must have been because they died.

[Cam]

Had some pretty good games recently, and some bad ones, of course. The bad ones are, fortunately, not memorable: Spawn, get eliminated almost immediately before getting the chance to do anything. :rolleyes:

Mines, encounter battle, with me in an M41 (tier V artillery.) Game gets going and the few of my team that go for the base are eliminated. Bad guys now capturing. I can see where the bad guys are, but they're behind buildings. None of my other teammates appear to be attempting to keep them from capturing, as the counter gets up to about 75 points. I carefully aim and hit the ground near one of the tanks and the splash damage is enough to damage an enemy and knock about 30 points off the counter. We're ahead in remaining tank count, but none of my team is getting into the base to keep the counter from going up. Someone spots another bad guy who is just peeking out from around a building and I line him up. The counter is above 90 now and they have at least two guys in the base. I aim very carefully and hit the peeking enemy. The counter jumps down to about 25 from about 95. Finally, one of my team gets in the base and holds it while the rest of the team clean up the remaining bad guys and we win. That was some clutch play, if I do say so myself. :hard:

Almost the exact same thing happened in another game later, but we ended up losing that one, despite my clutch play. :sadbanana:

Fourteenbones and I teamed up for a few games over the week-end. He's a bit behind me in progression, so I bought some lower tier tanks. We got up to tier III eventually. I picked a Valentine and he picked a Pz. III, I think, for a standard battle on Cliff. I trundle off to the village next to Death Valley, hoping to snipe some bad guys to the north. Fourteenbones moves up to the cliff to spot. My team starts lighting up the bad guys.

I was like OM NOM NOM.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/114/300914052_5570f8739e.jpg

I destroyed eight tanks in the next two minutes or so. There were only a few tanks left, so I moved up Death Valley toward the base. Eventually, there was only one tank left and he was in our base! There are two of my team mates exchanging fire for what seemed like ages. I comment to Tim that two guys should have killed that one guy by now. I rolled into the base to see why. The bad guy was in a tier III tank and my team mates were in tier IIs. They weren't even hurting the last enemy! :lol: I had a side shot when I rolled into the base and finished him with one shot. Nine kills in that game. My best total yet. :rawk:

Bubbles, I was confused with the tank tech tree at first as well. It doesn't take long to figure it out. Just keep playing. :D

[Fiat500]

:lol:

Well done!

I had 7 kills in a game earlier, and thought I had done exceptionally well.

With all the new players, and especially in the lower tiers, there are unprecedented levels of WTFness.

I, too, have had that happen when someone lights up the other side of Death Valley, but without your result.
The other side will be teeming with red players driving frantically to and fro, and it almost doesn't matter where you fire, because there will always be someone behind where you just aimed, or someone will enter your aim. Fish in a barrel.

When going through the lower tier brit TDs, I would be placed at Malinovka a lot of the time, and loads of people would just charge across the field right from the start.
The opposition would do the same, of course, so the first couple of minutes would be unbelievably frantic. Madness.

[M4FFU]

So, bit more time spent yesterday on this. I kinda like it.

I've upgraded my British medium tank to a tier II - at least I think that's what I done. I then took a light tank out and got 3 kills in one game. Not making too big a deal about it as it's currently 'half term' (kids off school for a week) so plenty of xX-360-sNiPeRz-Xx running around making it even easy for me. Only realised a few hours in orange means 50% chance of hit, even tho' it reminds you every damn match! haha.

Still, interesting title. I tend to use a medium and approach slowly from cover rather than running around like a nutter.

[Fiat500]

Cool. That's the beauty of it, you can more or less pick your style of play. There's less of the twitch play, as your inputs are limited by tracks and turrets anyway.
Things can be real hectic in the lower tiers, but the pace slows as you progress. As you learn the maps and tanks, you'll become deadlier.

Speaking of maps, a new one was released a couple of days ago:
http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Widepark

In other news, I'm back with the T1 Heavy. :hard:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26J0uDIGErM

[M4FFU]

Well, I seem to have found more of a home with the British mediums. Having fun in the Vickers III. Getting slightly lower average at this, but better than being fodder :D

Didn't think it'd be this enjoyable :D

:ETA: scratch that, I've got a 'Tilly!

[Fiat500]

Good, good. Finding your inner Monty, I see.

Use the surroundings for cover. If you're spotted, keep moving to not become a target for the artillery. So many tanks just sit there.

The Matilda is a pretty good tank. Excellent armour and rate of fire.
It is a little slow for my taste though, and I mostly end up chasing the battle.

Having said that though, I just had a good match on Sand River, where I just waded in and kicked red team ass with the Matilda.

The lack of speed and manouevrability is why I won't pursue the British line though (they were Infantry tanks and kept pace with the soldiers). It doesn't pick up until the Tier 8 Caernarvon.

The AT2 (Tier 5 British tank destroyer) is dreadfully slow as well, but there's something about just crawling along at your leisure and just bounce almost every shot sent your way. :hard:

[Cam]

I've heard some folks say that you get more experience for capturing the base. I now know from first-hand experience that it's not true. Just played an encounter battle on Sand River. The battle is hot and heavy on the north side of the river. So me and another guy go south side and start capturing the base. We get whittled down to three guys, me and another guy both in Churchill Is capping and a dude in a light tank on overwatch on the dunes behind us. We were pleading for him to help us capture the base, but he simply refused. :rolleyes: Thankfully, no one showed until we already got the win, no thanks to the light tank dude. What did we get for our capture and victory? A mere 173 XP, the lowest amount on the team. :erm: Does not compute.

So yeah, don't bother capturing the base. Just play deathmatch. You'll get more XP. :|

[Drachen596]

Downloaded. Played two matches very first one was a victory with a kill.

second one I got obliterated because the team ignored the side of the map I was on. Also.. how does a tank hit me when all the shot trails are going over me and hes behind a hill..

[M4FFU]

6 kills in a Valentine AT - love this game!

[Cam]

Drachen, it sounds like you were being hit by artillery. They shoot in an arc and the shells can do splash damage if they land near you.

[Drachen596]

In a tier 1 or 2 match? I was in the T1 Cunningham. It was firing very quickly as well.

[Cam]

You sometimes get put in higher tier games. That's just the way it is. :shrug: It rarely happens in tier 1, though, but I've seen it numerous times. It could have been a lower tier British tank. Some of them fire in an arc too, but you generally have to have a line-of-sight to the target. It may have been a different tank that you didn't see that destroyed you. Maybe there were two artillery tanks shooting you. It could be any number of things--lag, for example.

[Random]

Is there a sandbox or offline practice mode? The website talks about an online newbies area, but doesn't give any information on the limitations of that area--can you use it anytime? Once? Only up to a certain level?

[Drachen596]

There is one training mission I saw. Doesnt really show much though.

[Cam]

Random, are you talking the PC version? I've only played the Xbox 360 version. It's limited to online only and there's no practice area. It's trial by fire. :random:

There is the training mission, but it's short.

[Random]

Yeah, I would be looking at the PC version.

I assume that the two do not meet online?

[Cam]

I believe they do not.

[Cam]

Fourteenbones and I got free premium for 24 hours or something. What's up with that?

[Fiat500]

Compensation for technical woes:
http://forum.worldoftanksxbox360edition.com/index.php?/topic/21852-a-token-of-appreciation-for-technical-difficulties/

[Fiat500]

Also;

No, no cross-platform multiplayer.

There's been talk about adding a free roam/ training mode, to get to know the maps better, but I don't know when it's due, or how it's going to work.

You're free to drive around as much as you like in the training/ tutorial area (that's what my son does when he wants to try the game), but it isn't used in matchmaking, and you only have 15 (I think) minutes.

I can only speak for the 360 version.

Cam, I suspected as much about the capping versus killing, but didn't know it was that bad!
Allegedly, the whole team benefits from hunting down all the enemies as well.
They should make it more lucrative, as it is the biggest benefit in going for the base is to distract the red team when their siren begins to sound.

Matt - yeah, those British tank destroyers are weird but pack a punch. Feels good to wield that iron fist, doesn't it? :D

[Fiat500]

Also also;

I had a period where I felt I was unable to enter a match that would end in victory.
The team would get steamrollered, and it seemed like each time I took the Wolverine out, it would put me in a goddamn encounter battle on Mines. That's not a Wolverine kind of scenario.
Conspiracy theories abounded.

Anyway, I am now pretty happy with the current fleet. The Wolverine and the T1 Heavy both have the top packages, and the VK 36.01 and 30.01 are in development.
The grinds grow long and arduous though, and I spent some 15000 of free experience to get the Konisch gun package for the VK 36.01, it just makes it so much more fun to play (as opposed to the stock package...).

[Cam]

Yeah, stock packages seem poor.

I feel the same way about losing streaks. It just sometimes seems like you're just not meant to win a game! Earlier, fourteenbones and I were a platoon to be reckoned with-- seemingly winning every match. Then later in the day, we couldn't buy a win. :? It's weird like that.

Can't seem to do anything useful in my T1 Heavy with the stock gun. Every shot ricochets off everything, even tier IVs.

[Fiat500]

Some stock packages are worse than others. And the final package isn't always necessarily the best.

Disgruntled with my losing streak, I came across theories that WG had the matchmaking rigged to keep everybody's win/ lose ratio at around 50%.

Win too much, and they lump you in with the headless chickens until your ratio comes down. And if you underperform, you get to play with the aliens for a while.
From there it's not a stretch to suspect that they load the dice when it comes to ammo and armour as well.

The goal of this would be to keep the beginners and poorer players interested, since few people would be interested in sticking with a game where you're mowed down as soon as you log on.
In other words, keep as many players as possible playing for as long as possible.

I think my w/l ratio was around 54% at the time, now it's hovering around 52%

Or it may all be luck and/ or coincidence.

[Cam]

That sounds like a very valid theory.

[Cam]

There we were, defending in assault on Malinovka. I'm in a M5 Stuart. The battle was tough, but nearing the end. My team only has 3 tanks left. The other team has 4. There's a Churchill I attempting to cap and a Wolverine approaching on the right. Very dangerous situation for me, as I'm on the hill spotting with nowhere to go. It's looking bad for our team. Only one thing to do. CHARGE! I blast down the hill toward the Wolverine, using the M5's agility to dodge fire and get around him. Turret traverse speed on the Wolvie is not fast enough to keep up with my fleet feet and several 75mm blasts up his arse. I smoke 'em, but the counter is now in the 70s. I hit the nitrous and bomb over to the base. Again, the Churchill's snail-like movement cannot come close to matching the celerity of my trusty M5. I run circles around him and blast 'em in the buttocks, eliminating the 90 or so points he built up. A couple more circles is enough to keep him panicking and allow my team to finish the Churchill. The remaining 20 seconds or so on the timer runs out and we win! You need a clutch player in your platoon? Call up ol' Cammie. :P :rawk:

[Fiat500]

Heh, nice, it's good to have one of those.

I had a busy match on Mines the other day. Standard battle, VK36.01, spawned on the bottom.

I head for the islands, as I've taken to doing on this map. A Pz. IV comes wading across in a real hurry. I greet him by the rocks at the shoreline and shoot him to pieces.
An AT2 on the mainland gives me attention, and we exchange a couple of rounds until somebody else blast him apart.

Meanwhile the sirens are sounding, as the red team has reached our base. Nobody seems to take responsibility, so I head back. An AT8 is sitting there, exposing his soft, juicy side, and I remove him from the map with a couple of shots.

At this point there's not many left, and our side is one tank down. A medium is spotted in the village, so I head that way.
It is another Panzer, I forget which roman numerals. As I begin dismantling him, a T14 heavy emerges from behind the buildings in the north.

I'm a bit ambivalent about the T14. It is fast, has good armour, and looks very cool. But that gun is so impotent.
Anyway, Panzer somethingsomething now smoking and deserted, I angle my armour and begin firing on the heavy, stroking my Konisch gun and whispering soft, loving words to it as it reloads. *
It eats big chunks out of the heavy's life with each shot, and soon it is but the memory of cool-looking impotent american steel.

At this point the red team is down to arty and a medium, and I start out for their base.
On the way there, a Jumbo Sherman calls for help, as he's become stuck between the rocks on his way down from on top of the cliffs, so I swing by and ram him free.
The medium pops up, sitting at the red base, and is soon dispatched.
The arty pops up on its way to our base, and a remaining green team member takes care of it. Game over.

I realise I've forgotten a kill or two, since I had 6 kills and got the Top Gun medal in that match, but all in all it was pretty fun.



* Not really.

[Cam]

Some jackass team killed me today with artillery, right at the beginning of the game. :rolleyes:

[Fiat500]

Looking at the WoT forums, it is seemingly a problem at the moment.

Artillery is the only class able to team kill (with splash damage), and some people obviously take a trolling advantage of this.

It depresses me that people like that exist.

I have yet to have it happen to me, luckily. But seeing as annoying it is just to be on a team that is totally incompetent, as happens some times, I would probably have an aneurysm.

[lostnight]

Are their clans yet on the 360 version? I'm in the 1st Cavalry - Headhunters clan on the pc. Lot of people, not super active, at least not the Headhunters. I think the more active divisions ( or whatever) are, they have to check in and report to training.

[Cam]

Not that I've seen.

[Fiat500]

A couple of new maps are out.

They're all quite different, which is nice.
The good thing about new maps is that they feel fresh and unexplored, and must be closer to what an actual tank battle feels like (it's not like WWII tank battles were fought a thousand times over and they got to memorise every sweet spot), but woo wah eek do I feel insecure the first couple of times.

...

Boy, the grinds grow long after tier 5, but I have a Tiger now. It is not as good as the T29, but it's a goddamn Tiger.

...

There's the odd griefer. I once came across a whole platoon of them, all in identical artillery and congratulating themselves how fun it was to be a troll, but they were soon out of the game anyway.
Team killers have a different colour, so they're easy to spot at least.

[Fiat500]

New update is out, with a new map (Himmelsdorf), new British mediums and the crew function.

[Cam]

Cool! I haven't paid much attention to what's happening in Tanklandia recently. Haven't been playing as much--maybe one session every 2-3 days. I was playing it every day a month ago. I'm constantly out of money. :broke:

[Cam]

I feel like the odds are unnaturally stacked against me these days. Used to be that I had a 1:1 win:loss ratio. Lately, it's more like 1:2 or worse. I wonder if I would do better if I bought premium... :rolleyes:

Seriously, I've just played about ten games in a row and have won one game, which I didn't survive.

[Cam]

It seems they've added a "feature" that attenuates the sound when players are chatting. I can't find any way to disable it. :rolleyes:

[Fiat500]

Just leave the headset plugged in?
I've done it like that since the beta.

A bunch of Russian tanks have been added - as premium. The tech tree is supposed to be added later, fwiu.

This weekend has been 5x crew experience for every battle, which would have been nice, but we've been away.

[Cam]

What does the little number in the bottom right of the tank icons at the top of the screen mean? Some tanks have them and most don't. I've seen any number from one through five.

Wow, big update for this game today.

[Cam]

Got the Bombardier achievement today. :)

[lostnight]

War Thunder (pc) is starting tank battles now. I did the tutorial, but went no further. I need more time to get ready for my first battle. Don't know how much time I'll put into War Thunder Tanks. I have so much time invested in WoT. But the fact that War Thunder is integrating tanks and planes together in battle in closed beta with promising results has my interest up, so I will at least dabble with War Thunder some more.

[Fiat500]

Neat, Cam.

I'm still missing that one, and the one you get for destroying 3 artillery during a round.

The little numbers, in case you haven't found out meanwhile, refer to platoons (same numbers are in the same platoon).

I'm still learning some of the new maps, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I imagine it must be more like being in the war, where new territory really was new territory, and not having a favourite bush to hide in.

[Cam]

Thanks for clearing that up. I could not find the answer via a cursory internet search or WoT's forums.

I had a noteworthy game yesterday, but not for anything I did. My team was pleasantly chatty and cooperated for the win. No one swore or trash talked. Lots of "good games" at the end. It was nice. :)

Alas, it's sad that games like that are extremely rare. :(

[Fiat500]

I agree, it makes quite a difference.

Also, angry messages after games - you wait for ages, then get three in a day.

I realise there's frustrated and unreasonable individuals on the other end, but it kind of sours the experience anyway.

On the plus side, I too managed to get the Bombardier experience the other day, which was sweet. :)

This weekend Gold is open for everyone, so there's an opportunity for silver members to sample the game.

[Cam]

Today is the first day I've played in a week. It seems they've added Russian tanks for us non-gold-buyers.

[Fiat500]

Yeah, they've added a Russian tech tree, and I've decided to follow all of its branches.

At the very least I need the T34, my favourite tank (which is a silly thing to have, but there you go), and fwIu the heavies and tank destroyers aren't bad either.

If nothing else, I've been reminded how not at home I feel with the lower tiers and light tanks.

They've also added a couple of new maps, none of which I've managed to become familiar with yet.

Also, I've crawled back up to the Jagdpanther II, and it has that nice tier 10 gun on it that says DOOM very loudly and hurts the tanks I couldn't hurt before. :)

[Cam]

I'm still mainly grinding through the US tanks, except for the TDs. I stopped the TD line once I maxxed out the Jackson. I also have been selling tanks once I research all the packages, including the next tank up. Garage space is limited, since I don't buy gold. My highest tier tank right now is the M12. I've also got a Jumbo. I bought back the Wolverine to work on the Hellcat and subsequent line. For British tanks, I've got a Covenanter and a Churchill VII, avoiding the AT-X line. I've got a couple of tier V German tanks, Pz.Kpfw. III/IV and Pz.Kpfw. IV/V. I'm avoiding German TDs as well. Lastly, I have room for one Russian tank. At the moment, it's a T-46. I've decided to cut the US tanks in my garage by one so I can have two Russian tanks simultaneously.

[Fiat500]

I've spent some gold, and mainly for garage space.
There's some tanks along the lines that I would really like to keep, and it would begin to be really cramped without that extra space.
I think the game is worth that small investment of real money, it is one of the games I've played and enjoyed the most online after all.

I bought a bundle of 10 additional spaces for half price a couple of weeks ago, only to find that garage spaces are 50% off this weekend as well.

Ah well, it's nice to have that lebensraum* in the garage.

*Yeah, I've played the German tanks too much...

[Cam]

Recently, I was feeling frustrated with WoT and how it seems to artificially keep my win/loss ratio around 50%. However, I looked at my profile and I feel about better about my performance (re: K/D and damage ratios). :)

658

I got the Black Prince today. In my first game, I got put in a battle with several tier VIII and IX tanks. I figured my factory-fresh, non-upgraded Prince would be useless against higher tier tanks, seeing as my tier VI M6 is useless against tier V tanks. :roll: Regardless, I camp the base as a last resort in case any tanks get through. My team mates put up a good fight and we were winning. I did some sniping and also got sniped--I was down to less than 10% hp. A couple of tier VIII tanks rolled into our side of the map. They spot me, of course, and I can't do a damn thing because the Prince moves like cold maple syrup. I angle my tank to prevent penetration. I'm gettin' blasted. I take hit after hit from two tanks and they just bounce off. The rest of my team was able to close in, eliminate them and win the game. I got the Steel Wall medal. God save the Queen, the Prince is tough! :lol:

[Kchrpm]

Typical Cam, only concerned with his individual statistics and not the success of the team.

[Cam]

I'm out of money again. I got to the point where I bought a couple of higher tier tanks in a row and blew my savings. Then, I couldn't afford to buy the VK36, so I was forced to buy a Hetzer. After that, I had about 20,000 silver left, which is barely enough to pay for one battle's worth of shells for the M12. :lol: Although, M12 is almost up to the amount of xp needed to research the M40/M43. Too bad I can't afford to buy it.

Aaaand, I'm reminded why I avoided the Hetzer. :|

[lostnight]

Nice stats Cam, mine are much worse. I'm still just playing on the PC. I tried to download WoT Blitz for my i-phone 4s, but I had to get an update, which I didn't have enough memory for, it said it needed like 1.2 GB. So I cleared some stuff out and had 2.3 GB free. Then it said I need 4 GB to apply the update, I was like ????. So I gave up on that idea. Anyway, the battles are 7 on 7 for WoT Blitz.

[Cam]

Jeez, the Leopard is useless out of the box. It's slow and has no gun, view range or armour, plus, it always puts me in tier 8 games. I'm having buyer's remorse. :(

Although, I just got a kamikaze medal for destroying a T29 with it. :lol:

[Cam]

Just got DeLanglade's Medal in my best game in a long time. Destroyed seven tanks in an encounter battle with an SU-85B. I was about to finish off an M3 Lee but our team captured the base. :(

[Kchrpm]

Haha, we won the war but I lost my personal achievement. #gamerproblems

[Fiat500]

Gah, I check the forums so rarely from my computer now, and I seldom feel like embarking on longer posts from my phone...

I've reached the part of the russian tech trees where the grind grinds to a crawl (tier 5 and above).

I'm disappointed with the T34, I'm sad to report. It has okay speed, but is lacking in both armour and firepower. Which might be realistic, but it compares poorly to the other Tier 5 mediums.
Ah well, I'll research the Tier 6 T34-85, in the hope that it's better, if not - no big deal.

I've had some great matches with the KV-1 (Tier 5 heavy), and would recommend it.
The KV-1S (Tier 6 heavy) is a disappointment so far, I'm hoping it will be better as research progresses, like its american counterpart, the M6 (which I ended up liking quite a lot in the end).

With the Tank Destroyers, I haven't bothered to buy anything beyond the Tier 4 SU-85B, but man, that is a fun little tank. Its final gun punched well above its weight. It's like a mini JagdPanther II. Flies like a butterfly, stings like a buffalo.

...

The Hetzer is easy to hate when stock, but I really enjoyed it once upgraded. That ugly little thing could destroy things good.

...

There's been some shuffling around in the tech trees lately, especially the German one. The old VKs are now heavies, and there's a new medium VK kid on the block. Which I happened to get for free with the latest update, since I had the tanks above and below it in the tech tree.

Which is nice.

It also inherited one of the older VK's experience points, so I had around 120 000 right from the beginning. Whic also is nice.
Except I had this silly little thing going where I tried to keep the VK36.01 and VK30.01 at similar experience points and it messed with that. :x

Yeah, I know. #gamerproblems

...

Also, it seems like I've been placed in Team Retard a lot lately, which definitely makes the game less fun.

...

After one match a week or so ago, I got a message from a guy on the red team - "Gold noob"

I replied that he was wrong on both accounts.

Back came an explanation about how I couldn't have destroyed his tank the way I did, since we were in identical tanks, without using gold ammo.

I told him that I had been playing the game since the beta, almost a year ago soon, and that I would never waste real money on gold ammo. I added that sometimes the game just wasn't fair, and that at times you're just unlucky with how the dice roll.

He then replied and told me he was sorry, that he'd had a bad day, and shouldn't have made these accusations.

I told him to not worry about it, and wished him better luck in future matches.

This should normally have ended the exchange, but he wrote me another message about how sorry he was, and how in the wrong he had been.

At this point I was wondering if he sat there sobbing over in the UK, so I waited a little while and wrote him back that it really wasn't a problem.

And that was that.

I felt like fucking Gandhi.

[Random]

Must have been Canadian.

Or maybe his Mom told him to apologize to the nice man from Norway. :D

[Fiat500]

Heh, Canadians just delete stuff.

Nah, I'm pretty sure his profile said he was from the UK.

I can understand the frustration with the game sometimes. I just find something else to do when it's too bad. Like yesterday, I think it was on Abbey, I was in the T-34 and the only tank to go up the left flank. I was overrun by the red team, appeals for help went unheard, and the match was lost.

I'm doing a little better with the T-34 with the last package. I had unlocked it before, but went with the next to last instead - better damage per minute by sacrificing a little speed seemed like a fair exchange, but I guess not.
I don't know if it is the slower rate of fire that makes me take more sensible cover while reloading, but I feel like I have a more meaningful presence on the battlefield.

[Cam]

:)

[Fiat500]

There's some new stuff available. Two maps, new lines for German tank destroyers and British lights, and possibly more. I won't bother with high tier light tanks, but I love me some Jerry TD.

[Cam]

Blew the dust off this game this week. All kinds of new maps. French line of tanks. Tier III French artillery has a 1000m range out of the box! :eek: Games are still ridiculously one-sided most of the time. In my first 15 or so games yesterday, I think I survived one of them. :thppt:

Now, I have two of each countries' tanks in my garage. Grind, grind, grind...

[Kchrpm]

A coworker is very into this game. I honestly always figured it was much simpler than it is, I was relatively shocked to see the complex terrain and environments.

[Fiat500]

Yeah, I've been puttering away on this one.

French artillery is indeed decent from the beginning. I'm at tier 4 at the moment, I'll see how long it keeps my interest.

I'd like to take something to tier 10 eventually, but the higher grinds get increasingly ridiculous.
Current favourite is the german waffenträger tank destroyers, where I'm at tier 8.

Oh, and if you log in between now and January 12, you get 7 days of premium, so it's the perfect time to get reacquainted or even start out.

[GreatScawt]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/12/30/7468121/play-world-of-tanks-in-glorious-8-bit-graphics

[Cam]

Just had a hilarious victory. There I was, in my AMX 105 AM artillery, defending Westfield against enemy assault. It's a close game, but eventually, I'm the only tank left against two tanks and one arty. The countdown clock is getting low, so I figure if I can survive, I might win. I run like a chicken-shit bastard and put the pedal to the metal. One tank starts capturing the base. I check the clock: There's 1:14 left in the game and it will take 1:15 for the one tank to capture the base. All they have to do is get two guys on the base to win. Either that, or they abandon the base and hunt me down. Stupidly, the idiots do neither and I win the game with one second to spare! :rawk:

[Cam]

AMX 38: Worst tank in game. :|

[Cam]

AMX 40: Second-worst tank in the game. It's supposedly a light tank, but it moves like a heavy with a damaged track. The stock gun is useless, but the upgraded gun is OK. Armor and hit points are questionable.

[Godson]

I sense a trend

[Cam]

The next tank in line is the ELC AMX, which I often see moving around the battlefield very quickly. It's going to be a painful grind to get there with the AMX 40.

[Cam]

There is now a tank mini-game in World of Tanks.

"Yo, dawg! I heard you like tanks..." :lol:

[Godson]

Yeah. I haven't touched it yet.


I am really enjoying the T18. I have already handled all I can research, and even bought the tank after it. But the thing is just so much fun. I am doing better with it than I have most of my other tanks by a decent amount.

[Cam]

Sometimes the game engine fails once two tanks are directly beside each other. Numerous times, I've been point-blank with artillery against another tanks and I've missed. It makes me yell at the TV, "How the eff did that miss? He was directly in front of the barrel!" :erm: :lol:

Conversely, this one time, I was using the ELC AMX and I encountered at T32 or something equally bigger, tougher and harder-hitting than my tiny light tank. I got right up parallel to it in an attempt to keep from getting shot. Not only was the opponent's gun about a metre above the top of my tank, the end of his barrel was sticking out several metres on the other side of my tank! Somehow, he was able to shoot me. :erm: :lol:

[Cam]

Standard battle on El Halluf. I'm using the M40/M43, tier VIII artillery. I get in position and I'm ready to fire. The first enemy tank gets spotted, I think it was a T71, tier VII light. He's doing a pretty good job of not getting shot by my team mates. He's moving up hill as I take aim, so he's not going full speed. I lead him a bit, taking into account the time it will take the shell to get there. I fire and one-shot him. About 30 seconds later, I get a message from the player that says, "reported." :erm: It seems he thought I was cheating somehow. :? :rolleyes:

[Kchrpm]

Your skills are INHUMAN :eek:

[Cam]

I shot an enemy point-blank with artillery and killed myself. :erm:

[Cam]

Got my first tier IX tank, the M53/M55. Out of the box, it's not as good at the M40/M43. :? It's going to take a long time for me to upgrade it.

[lostnight]

Standard battle on El Halluf. I'm using the M40/M43, tier VIII artillery. I get in position and I'm ready to fire. The first enemy tank gets spotted, I think it was a T71, tier VII light. He's doing a pretty good job of not getting shot by my team mates. He's moving up hill as I take aim, so he's not going full speed. I lead him a bit, taking into account the time it will take the shell to get there. I fire and one-shot him. About 30 seconds later, I get a message from the player that says, "reported." :erm: It seems he thought I was cheating somehow. :? :rolleyes:

Mommy, the bad man shot me. Make him stop.

[Cam]

Saw "WoT, now with Chinese tanks!" on the Xbox dashboard the other day. I downloaded the updates and didn't see any new tanks. Then I realized they are available for purchase with gold. :|

Every once in a while I see someone shooting premium rounds. I always shake my head because they cost real money. :erm:

[Random]

FYI, there's a naval battle game by the World of Tanks peeps called "World of Warships." I've been watching YT videos of the game play--looks pretty cool.

[Phil_SS]

One of my favorite games of all time is Naval Ops: Warship Gunner on the PS2. You could build your own ships etc, it was awesome. I would envision World of Warships to be similar but with a bit more realism. That and you can't build stuff like this:

http://forum.tanktastic.org/uploads/monthly_04_2015/post-3640-0-27930800-1429523526.jpg

I've wished for years for someone to make an updated title with the new graphics capability of Xbone/Ps4. Could be phenomenal and could be a really fun multiplayer game.

[Cam]

Saw a promo on the dashboard for WoT. Logged in to Tanks and got 16 days of free premium! Nice.

[Cam]

AAAaaaannd, I'm reminded why I stopped playing. Often, the game just decides that you are going to have a bad day. NO HITS OR WINS FOR YOU!

VK 30.01 P... absolutely useless out of the box, even against lower-tier tanks. Worst tank in the game so far, at least when I play it. Got the first upgrade, still useless. Couldn't buy damage, even against tier Vs. Seriously, I did total combined damage of zero until I got the second upgrade (tier VI gun). I still can't buy a hit. I've had one game so far that I actually did something useful with it. Although, it's still very satisfying to hit a speedy light tank with artillery from 900 metres out. :) It's also very frustrating to miss a stationary target five times in a row, despite aiming very carefully. :(

[Fiat500]

The matchmaking can be terrible for some tanks.

Not too long ago I researched my first Tier 10 tank, the Waffentrager auf E100, a German tank destroyer. It has an awe-inducing autoloading gun, that takes around a minute to reload once the clip is empty.
It has the best view range in the game, but pitiful camo and only symbolic armour.

When it works it is glorious, when it doesn't it is... expensive.

So I use lower tier tanks to make silver, and this recent anniversary period is gold when it comes to making silver.

The T1 Heavy and Wolverine have pretty good crews by now, and they are both working their way towards their second marks of excellence.

And - they mostly get good matchmaking. :-)

[Fiat500]

Oh, and I posted this on Facebook, I should probably brag here too.
What it really shows, of course, is that those were two pretty crappy teams facing each other.

http://i.imgur.com/oPkCByW.jpg

[Cam]

:eek:

Doing WORK! :lol: :up:

I just sold my only tier IX tank because I don't play enough to ever make it to tier X.

[Fiat500]

I totally understand that, those high tier grinds seem endless. But they're not so bad if the tank is enjoyable, then you just somehow arrive there one day.
I kept the Waffenträger auf pz IV even after I unlocked the Wt auf E100, its crew was pretty buff after the long grind, and the tank is less hit-or-miss in gameplay than the one following it.

I decided recently that if I go for a tier 10 heavy, it should be the E100, so I've started grinding the Tiger II. Gonna be a long haul.

I had a run of crappy matchmaking last night, and those can indeed suck away your will to live. Or at least your will to play the game.

I'm liking the new open maps, not so much the urban maps.

[Cam]

Interestingly enough, selling my tier IX tank allowed me to buy five lower-tier tanks. :lol:

I'm always broke. :(

[Cam]

Oh man, SAu 40... I've toughed it out with some lousy tanks, but this one takes the cake. The worst tank I've encountered yet. I've played 20 matches with it so far. I've survived a mere two of them. Only 5 wins so far. I just had a win with it, but the dang thing is so slow I was always behind the action. Never saw another tank.

[Drachen596]

Dunno if any of you play still but during May they're doing Donation Missions. They're donating money to Fisher House which from what I can tell is a McDonald House situation specifically for Veterans and their families. Which means they provide a place to stay close by VA Hospitals and other major military medical facilities where people get treated. They're rated 4 stars by Charity Navigator as well.

Each completed mission donates a $1.00 USD up to 100,000. Wargaming is also running this across ALL their games, so that means WOT PC, Console and WOT Blitz as well as World of Warships.

http://console.worldoftanks.com/en/news/game-events/military-appreciation-2016/

http://www.fisherhouse.org/

[Cam]

Had an encounter that made me laugh earlier. I was on the snowy mountain pass level with the bridge in the middle. I was across the bridge in enemy territory when a bunch of tanks rolled around the corner. I backed up and someone charged me. I backed over the cliff just in time as the other tank flew over me and exploded. :lol:

[Cam]

Played this game a lot over the holiday. I had a funny encounter on Mountain Pass. I rushed the bridge in my light tank and came face to face with an opposing light tank doing the same thing. We played chicken on the bridge. He turned to avoid me, drove off the bridge and exploded. :lol: One of my team mates, who watched the whole thing from behind me, gave the "Awesome! :D " message. :rawk:

[drew]

I've never looked at this game. Maybe I should...

[Fiat500]

Hah, that's awesome, Cam :up:

I've played a lot of artillery lately, and you get a bird's eye view to some rather strange shenanigans at times.

I had more or less burnt myself out with some of the grinds, so I decided to just go through all the arty lines instead.

The German line becomes less fun after the GW Panther, I've found out. The tier VIII GW Tiger P is just slow in every way, with a narrow traverse that forces you to begin the aiming process all over again.
Same can be said for late in the Russian line, really.
I'm up to tier IX in the French line. Worth it. I might even get the tier X arty.

The American line is a whole lot of fun so far, although I think I liked the tier VI better than the tier VII (I forget the names... M something).

The British line though... that's eccentric. The tier V Bishop is very slow, and has a very short range. You need to park it uphill to make the best use of it. On the other hand it is ultra precise, and reloads reasonably fast. It really makes you rethink how you want to play arty. I hated it at first, but ended up hanging on to it for a little while after I'd elite'd it. In the end it was just too slow for me, so I sold it on.
It all came together perfectly in the tier VI FV304 though. It is miniscule, and can zip around the map like a light tank. It has the same precise and fast reloading gun as the Bishop, perfect for keeping people perma-tracked while you whittle away at their health. A definite keeper for me.

At tier VII you get to the Crusader SP, and you start with the same gun! :lol:
It is also very fast, but... only in reverse.
Great for when you need to back the hell away for something fast, though.
The upgraded gun has better range and damage, and decent reload times, so I guess the tank is okay.

drew - hey, it's free. The lower tiers can be very ADD though, it doesn't begin to gel before around tier V, but those early tiers go by fast anyway.

[Cam]

I won't be playing as much now the holidays are over. I saw you playing and should have asked you to team up.

I enjoy playing artillery the most. At this time, I have the Lorraine 155 50, Crusader SP and SU-14-1. The Crusader is pretty good, now that it is fully upgraded. I played it for a while before I realized that it went faster backward. :lol: The Lorraine is horrifically inaccurate right now, but it is not fully upgraded yet. I'm hoping it improves. The Russian arty just before the SU-14-1 was an irritating grind because the narrow field of fire and terrible accuracy. I was really disappointed to find out the SU-14-1 appears to have a narrower field of fire and is super-slow. At least the accuracy seems better. The GwPanther was great, but I recently sold it after researching the GwTiger. Alas, I cannot afford to buy it at this time. I would like to buy back the M50/M53, but that's a long way away, considering how little I play WoT.

Of course, I have a mix of other tanks too; several mid-tier American and German tanks, a couple of Russian tanks and one each of Chinese and Japanese tanks. Oh, I just picked up an Archer. It's pretty bad out of the box; slow and weak, but fires fast. I'm hoping it improves with upgrades. The T-20 is a tough grind. I'm constantly getting put in tier IX games, so it's normally only useful for spotting. The gun has OK power, but its reload time rivals artillery.

[Cam]

I dusted this game off and was reminded why I stopped playing it. Me and my tier n tanks keep getting put into tier n+2 games. I played about 8 matches and survived none of them. :(