Thursday 28 November 2013

World of tanks supertest leak - Japanese tank stats

Some kind soul leaked all the japanese tanks in elite configuration.
















I don't know, on one hand - not much to look at - non-existent armour and they are not exactly fast. Well, we will see them in test server next week. STB-1 seems to have quite the DPM...7.5 RoF with 390 damage - not bad - thats 3k you got there. About the rest - well I have to see them first. Except the Renault...thats the 3rd Renault we see ingame with a different paintjob. I know the Ft-17 is the granddad of all tanks but come on now...

Tier 8 RHM Borsig waffentrager tank destroyer review

You know guys, you might think I'm doing these a bit too slow but hey - I can't grind the lines faster! Besides proper testing can't be done on the test server(pun intended) where everyone plays like a retard.

Anyway - RHM Waffentrager...






Now here's a real find I dare say. A true high risk, high reward tank. Its not for everyone but I for once plan on keeping it.

So, what do we get? All the benefits of the Nashorn(except great gun depression) sans most of the flaws. Well, the Nashorn's only benefit is the big gun....so I guess we get a big gun without too many flaws eh? Works for me!

In terms of mobility, the RHM Borsig is average. Its not a tier 8 Hellcat, but its not a slowpoke either.
Top speed is 35 and you can reach it on flat ground. However traverse and engine power are no impressive. Less than 10 HP per ton so its sluggish. Still, you are following the idea of the previous tank, if not the spirit - so your main accessory is an awful lot of gun. Mobility is enough to get you where you are needed and having a turret negates some of the issues.

As far as protection goes, armour is non-existent, its open top, not that any HE shell would have problems penetrating and you have only 1100 HP. That said its not all grim. First of all, you have excellent camo rating and a turret(yes I love it) That means you are hard to spot and won't break your camo net bonus by moving the hull around. Also the vehicle is fairly low and thin - you are a hard target. Ground clearance is also very good - often shots would hit the tracks but miss the body of the RHM. Its not much, but every little bit helps.

Finally...gun

The RHM can use the 128mm or a...heh sawn off 150mm. 128mm is better for long range work - more accurate, faster reload, better penetration with AP shells. Won't hurt your wallet. On open maps you can dish out a LOT of damage. Don't forget you are only tier 8! You have plenty of ammo, so you don't have to worry about making every shot count like the Sturer Emil. Just keep on distance and you will do good.
The 150mm is another deal. I use it with about a dozen AP, dozen HEAT and rest - HE. Key to making profit is knowing what shell to use against what target. AP penetration is low - barely 210 mm but thats enough for shooting tier 7 and below or tier 8+ flanks. Heat shells are same as in the E-100 so you can put the pain into anybody. Unfortunately RoF is only 3 - against the fast moving and fast shooting tanks at tiers 6-8 you really have to be careful. Long distance sniping doesn't work too well though you can certainly lob HE shells to deadly effect. I prefer the 150mm to the 128mm mainly because of the killing power. You do a lot of one shot kills, leaving the enemy no chance to retaliate. Considering your non-existent protection that's not a bad idea.


Comparison with ISU

Naturally the two 150mm wielding TDs must be matched.

The ISU has its gun mantlet and basic armour - you won't get messed up by mere 75mm HE shells. Also its cheaper to use since you don't need gold shell with better RoF.

The RHM has a turret(yes precious we love it) better view range - 400m, better accuracy and aim time and maybe slightly better camo rating. For me the RHM is superior, even if more expensive to use because of the HEAT shells.





Wednesday 27 November 2013

World of tanks 8.10 preliminary patch notes

Expect the test within a week or so.


- Japanese tree.
- added Soviet tier 9 medium Object 430V2 (to be researched from Object 416) and tier 10 medium Object 430
- Japanese premium Chi Nu Kai will be available from ingame shop for gold
- for supertesters, two new vehicles: SU-76i (tier 3 Soviet TD), Type 98 Ke-Ni Otsu (tier 3 Japanese light tank)
- added new Japanese-themed map “Hidden Village” for testing (1000×1000, spring, village in mountain valley)
- following maps have been fixed and reworked for better gameplay: Karelia, Mines, El-Halluf, Airport, Steppes
Graphic improvements:
- reworked lighting on all maps: reworked the brightnest, contrast, color intensity, lighting sources were properly placed
- fog has been completely reworked
- added moving shadows from clouds
- added the option in graphic settings to select one of several presets for color, brightness and contrast settings
- completely reworked the bloom effect
- added the effects of sun rays (“God Rays”) and lens flare when looking at the sun
- added motion blur effect

Fixes and reworks:

- AP and APCR shells can now penetrate soft (breakable) objects, while suffering penetration loss, the object is destroyed in the process
- significantly reworked the Missions window
- added the info about current event bonuses and discounts into the client
- fixed the bug where some stats for some players on some tanks are missing ever since 8.9
- added some fixes in the Achievement window
- the possibility to gain epic achievements and medals in company games has been removed (including Survivor, Kamikadze, Raider, Bombardier and others)
- added numerous fixes in Team Battles interface
- fixed the bug where sometimes, the server-side settings for some users wouldn’t save properly
- added the possibility to record only one replay of your last battle: you will have one replay file only, containing the last battle you have played, that gets overwritten everytime you play a battle
- in the post-battle statistics, credits and XP for courageous resistance have been separated from all the others
- fixed the shape of T69 and T54E1 tanks’ turrets
- fixed the “IS-3″ turret armor of WZ-111 model 1-4 tank
- fixed the appearance of the pike nose of the Lorraine 40t tank
- fixed the bug where RhB WT drowned too early (in too low water)
- fixed the barrel length of the 12,8cm gun on RhB WT
- added the welds an a “window” under the aiming device for WT-E100
- improved the hitpoints of all tracks of all KV and IS tanks
- fixed the Object 140 turret armor
- Maus turret rotation improved by 2 deg/s
- Lowe buffed: upper side armor 20mm thicker, weight reduced by 2,5 tons, ammorack increased by 40 shells, improved elevation and depression angles
- fixed the performance drop bug during the appearance of the “tank destroyed” message
- fixed the bug where disabling voice chat stopped working in some cases when you exit the battle
- fixed the was damage works when hitting upper side of the spaced armor
- fixed the rare “ghost shell” bug (where shells pass thru enemy tanks)
- fixed the silhouette display, when you take cover behind a tank corpse
- fixed interface “flash freezes”, when displaying a large number of UI elements
- fixed the bug where the camera turns inadvertedly when you switch to artillery mode in the moment your SPG gets hit
- the free XP conversion from vehicles is now happening in the order in which the tanks are displayed in the window (upper ones go first)
- returned the “last time in battle” piece of information to the achievement window, that was previously removed
- fixed the bug where the average XP per battle displayed incorrectly for individual tankers
- fixed the IS-7 error message about radioman skills
- fixed the bug where players were sometimes kicked from server with “spam_protection” stated as reason
- fixed the rare bug with client crash during map loading
- fixed the rare bug of player losing control of the tank in combat
- fixed the bug where sometimes an incorrect type of shells was loaded instead of the planned one

Thursday 21 November 2013

Stage 2 of EU server 2nd Campaign started

http://worldoftanks.eu/en/news/cw/2campaign-stage2-announcement/


Aaaand its currently rolling. Well, its a bit more interesting than the last one thats for sure. Let's see who and how many can keep up with the train now shall we?

Sturer Emil Tier 7 german TD review






Sturer Emil, or the stubborn Emil. And indeed sometimes its stubborn like a mule, especially when trying to climb some hill due to the low HP/per ton but I get ahead of myself.

A lot of people were eager to see the Sturer Emil ingame, and got quite excited about its main (and only) feature - 128mm gun on tier 7.

Alas thats its only saving grace and as it turns out the trade off was not in your favour.
The Sturer Emil is big - hell, check the photo above. It is also slow - poor engine and a top speed of 25 kmph. Did we mention fragile? Yes due to the size - camo is mediocre and the armour? What's that? Well you get 50mm frontal and another 50mm gun shield which is just enough so that 75mm HE shells don't penetrate you frontally. Also the gun shield SOMETIMES saves you from 75mm AP. So yes - its big, slow, fragile, but surely there has to be one big can of whoopass it being that gun?

Mmmm...sort of. The Sturer has awesome gun depression - 15 degrees and great alpha and etc. However the horizontal arc is bad, you get 15 shells only, no gold shell and a bit lower penetration than the normal 128mm. Grinding towards it will be a challenge for your patience too.
    Basically  the Emil is incapable of carrying the battle. You will die or run out of ammo (tried and tested). What you CAN do however, is support the blob of allied tanks by sitting behind them and making the occasional enemy tank cry tears of rage. But yeah...you are support. And thats it.

Friday 15 November 2013

World of tanks art 1

Around the internet, I often found a lot of World of tanks related art that was not fitting in the funny section, but was still worth showing.

When I find enough good ones, I will place them in Art posts, just like the funnies.





Tuesday 12 November 2013

Wot Supertest leak - Object 430 v.2




Looks like yet another rear turret tank to me...Can't guess on the modules or stats since there are none provided. By the ammo supply and type of shells I'm guessing thats one of the top 100mm guns. I would not expect much from it honestly. Its decent continuation of the line leading from object 416 but thats it.

Friday 8 November 2013

WoT Funnies 12



Clan chat:
-FFS! Jagd e-100, full aim, gold shell and it fails to pen!
- French resistance sabotaged your shells?
- Yeah right..any such shit with soviets?
- Sure - Enemies of the people.
- Brits and french?
- Union strikes leading to botched shells.
- Let me guess - the USA gets cursed by Indian shamans?
- You guessed it right, now let's teach you how to shoot...



If your back is secure, that means you've been pushed against a wall.

Modern family talk
- If you don't eat your vegetables Serb will nerf your IS-7 and take away your Bat chat!

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Japanese tech tree tier 8 and 9






I know what you are thinking, they don't look impressive at all in terms of protection. Only the gun shield might do some good and bounce a shot, rest is extremely vulnerable. Still, by the  looks of it they'd both have very respectable gun depression, so terrain will be your best friend. Until we see the other stats of course, its only a speculation.

World of tanks 8.9 matchmaking table



The 8.9 MM table tells us nothing new really. All the new tanks have normal MM, Type 64 and Chi Nu Kai included. I can't see the T7 Combat car but I imagine it has a Pz I like MM, at least I haven't seen tier 3 while playing it yet.

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Japanese tier 5 Chu Ni Kai prem tank review

First japanese tank in the game folks! And yes, I got it - I gave Serb some of my hard earned(not) monies.







So, Chi Nu Kai
First jap tank. That alone gives it some collector value but collector value alone is not enough.

The Chi Nu Kai is best described as...average. No serious weakpoints, no serious flaws but no great advantages either.

In terms of protection, the tank is very similar to the Panzer IV - some frontal armour - very weak sides. Like - 75mm HE penetrable sides. The Chi Nu Kai has a chance to bounce a shot on the mantlet on occasion but that's it. So, no - its nothing like the Matilda IV or the Churchill. At 480 HP, it lacks the advantage of the T-25 too - its barely stronger in the health department than regular tier 5 tanks.

Mobility wise at top speed of 38 kmph and 11 H.p/ton, the Chi Nu Kai feels sluggish. Its not outright slow, but its sluggish, especially at turning. That sort of delegates its purpose - hang back and snipe.
Which brings us to the gun...

Gun wise the Chi Nu Kai has a 75mm with above average pen and damage - 125 and a bit less RoF - 12.  That dictates its tactics - peek-a-boo and sniping from a distance. Those extra 15 mm of penetration help it a lot, especially versus KV tanks. One more thing is the Prem shells. The Chi Nu Kai has an AP prem shell, not APCR. It has 155 penetration compared to the 158 of the Panzer IV APCR, however since its AP -it benefits from higher normalisation. Of course it still falls short to the 170-180mm pen. of  prem shells for Tier 5 meds of other nations.


To sum it up - the Chi Nu Kai is not bad, but its not good either. It handles a specific play style - less agressive than average, which does not fit most players. Its decent credit earner however and it has a crew of 5 with all basic qualifications, which makes it great for training japanese crews.

Sunday 3 November 2013

Patch 9.0 Japanese tier 10 STB1 armor scheme


As expected - the STB1 is pretty much an up-armoured Leopard 1. However, even an up armoured Leo is still only a Leo in terms of protection.

 The internal gun shield is (as expected) not included in anyway. Still, the turret is quite flat and glancing hits to the sides or the mantlet can bounce off. Its better than nothing. Same goes for the hull - a few extra mm -hopefully enough to make sure that Fv 4202 HESH can't penetrate you reliably but that's it.
Still, its fast, well armed and hopefully decent in terms of soft stats. I'd wager the difference between STB-1 and the Leopard 1 will be similar to that between the T62A and the Object 140.  One more thing - if  schematics are already appearing, that means progress on the line is quite good and we can expect it before New Years. I don't know about you, but I already have a Chu-Ni-Kai to train up some japanese crewmen.