[WoT] Team Up!

The massive 0.8.9 update for World of Tanks has gone live for EU, NA, and Asia regions.

• 7 vs 7 team battles (7/42 mode)
• open top German TDs (how is Waffen E-100?)
• first Japanese tank so far (Type 3 Chu-Nu Kai)
• gift tank - T7 Combat Car (thanks for Golden Joystick)
• NA-based Northwest map
• multiple fixes and improvements

First impression from the live version?

PS: meanwhile WoWP 1.0 public test has begun

[WoT] Krupp's Archives

Taken from Yuri Pasholok's (WG historical consultant and tank researcher) blog.

"There has always been some complaining of "compromises" related to historical accuracy of German vehicles. Surprisingly, real German WWII research and engineering exceeds the boldest expectations.

For instance, Krupp's archives have the following inventory:

2959 15 cm K, Entwurfe, Berechnungen enthalt:
15 cm K L/40 fur [PzkpfW "Maus"]
15 cm KWK in Tiger II
7,5 cm KWK und 15 cm KWK L/38 fur Pzkpfw "Maus"
15 cm K L/38Patronen fur Pzkpfw "Maus" 

And that's not all, however we are excited already." 

[WG] WG Minsk Celebrates Halloween

WG's Minsk office (including World of Tanks and World of Tanks Blitz dev teams) celebrates Halloween which is not a typical Eastern European holiday.

More pictures here. 

[WoTB] Infantry!?

Would you stand a chance with AK-47 against T-26?

Testing "run 'em all over" mode for World of Tanks Blitz. Adults only rating for this version.

Help me write this Story.

Today I need your help. 

Those of you who know me, know that I love weird vehicles, especially captured or really out of place oddities. Well 8 months ago I found out about a battle with four tanks, and have been trying to track the details down. I'm certain there's a story there. But after 8 months I can't find anything from English sources. So its over to you, can you find out anything about this Battle past what I detail below?

During the post World War One period, much of Eastern Europe became a mass of conflicting ideals and political groups and fighting. In most cases each country had its war of independence during the time. However the wider period is sometimes, inaccurately, called the Russian Civil War. Where White and Red Russians fought each other. The Whites and the nationalists were often supported by the west. Equally the differing groups were armed and equipped by the west.

The British had a tank training school in what would become Estonia. The school had six World war one era MKV Hermaphrodite tanks. "Hermaphrodites" were MKV tanks with one female and one male sponson. Four of these tanks were transferred to the new Estonian Army when they won independence. Named Uku, Vahtula, Valdaja and Päälik, the tanks were never retired. In 1939 despite these four vehicles being Estonia's only armour they don't seem to have been deployed against the Soviet invasion. Possibly because the supply of rounds for the 6 Pounder gun was poor. After the Russian victory the tanks, along with other pieces of hardware, were warehoused.

During the next two years the Russian Baltic Fleet moved into Tallinn and set up a major fleet base there. Then came Operation Barbarossa. The Germans stormed across the Soviet captured territory and the Red Army threw everything into the fight. At Tallinn the Red Navy converted two of the captured Estonian Styer 640 trucks into armoured cars and issued them to the Russian Naval infantry.

Equally the Estonian MKV tanks were re-armed with a 45mm gun and either DT or Maxim Machine guns (pictures show both). The four tanks were then brought into action in the defence of Tallinn. The MKV's were called "Rikardo's", this is a Russian translation of the "Ricardo". Sir Harry Ricardo was the British engineer who designed and built the Engines powering the MKV. That the tanks where used is confirmed as we have lots of pictures of them taken by a German Army photographer who followed the attacking German Infantry.

Tank #4

And that's where the hard detailed information ends. I know nothing more that I consider good evidence. I have some single unsourced claims, and I can make some guesses though. I suspect it was the Naval infantry whom used them, although it could easily have been the Red Army. Some sources claim all were mobile. Others only two, and the other two were used as bunkers. One source claims they took part in the fighting at a cross roads. Another says they were part of the "Rae" defensive line, but I can't find any other mention of that position.

Tank #1

I can make a good guess what happened after the Germans knocked them out as well. MKV tanks appear in Berlin at the end of the war. These were immobile and used as air-raid shelters. Up until then they had been sitting in the Lustgarten. In World War One Germany never captured a MKV tank, and as the tanks seen in Berlin at the end of World War Two are MKV's there's only a tiny number of places they could have come from, Estonia is one.

So can anyone help? I feel there is a story here, but I can only know half of it. I'd love to fill in the blanks and tell the entire story. But there doesn't seem to be enough information held in English sources.

(Apologies for both the short article and being late today. I'm currently moving house so the Internet connection, and my book collection are limited and patchy.)

[WoT] Double!

Just wanted to thank all those who voted for World of Tanks at Golden Joystick award (and those who didn't for some reason, although not being indifferent to the game).

It's difficult to win a title, but to defend it is obviously much harder.

Video

Hope, you see that the game is getting better and better. 8.9 is a step in the right direction, and it's not the only one that will be taken in the future.

PS: by the way, if you up for a spontaneous meeting in London, I will be available tomorrow at Apollo theatre at Wilton Road, London SW1V 1LG at 5:30pm. Comment the post, if you are going to come. 

Bell's Submarine

The First World War could be thought of as the first modern war, with many new methods of warfare being employed. Often the governments involved had to react to the changing situations. We've already had one brief look at submarine warfare, today I want to sort of revisit that topic. Only from the point of view of the merchantmen.

The British suffered massively during the first year of the war at sea. Being in many respects totally unprepared for Submarine warfare. Things came to a head with the public outrage over the destruction of half of the 7th Cruiser squadron by a single U-boat on the 22nd of September 1914. The loss of 1459 sailors only added to the public shock. The 7th Cruiser squadron had been engaged in protecting allied shipping along the coast and across the channel. As losses increased new ships were sourced from other nations. One of these was the SS Thordis, a 500 ton steamer from Norway. On the 25th of February, 1915 she was transferred to English registration. On the morning of the 28th she was off Beachy Head carrying a shipment of coal to Plymouth. Beachy Head area would be come the site of a U-boat campaign later in the war.

Her captain was John William Bell. Looking out across the rolling waters of the Channel Mr Bell spotted something moving off to starboard. Peering closer he saw it was a submarines periscope. The Thordis was utterly unarmed, as were most merchants of the time. Mr Bell's only hope was to avoid detection. He cut his engines, hopping that without sound this ship wouldn't be found. His next action was to bring his crew up on deck, to give them the best chance to survive if the worst should happen.
As the Thordis drifted to a stop the periscope got closer. The wake indicating the Submarine's direction was heading on a course, that would intersect with the Thordis. The periscope drifted silently past the Thordis' bows. At its closest the submarine was only about 30 yards away on the port side. The range began to lengthen as the crew watched apprehensively. After some moments the periscope suddenly changed course. Swinging about to head back towards the Thordis. From the point blank range of 700 yards a torpedo was launched. The crew saw the line of bubbles from the steam driven torpedo, drawing a straight line towards them. In desperation Mr Bell put the engines to full speed in a futile attempt to dodge the Torpedo. If it hit, the 270Lb warhead would obliterate the Thordis and pitch them all into the cold sea.

Seconds from impact the heavy swell lifted the stern of the Thordis and the German torpedo streaked under her hull. Now starting to pick up speed Mr Bell went on the offensive. He aimed his bows right down the throat of the German submarine. Engines thrashing at full power the Thordis hit the Submarine, with a rending screech of metal the sub ground down the keel. A hole had been torn in the Thordis' bow, just above the water line by the impact. Looking behind him Mr Bell saw a pool of Oil spread across the surface of the sea.

 When he reached Weymouth he reported the incident, and was credited with sinking the Submarine. Mr Bell was promoted to Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve and awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. The ships crew were awarded a large sum of money to be split amongst them as well. Lt Bell was also given a gold watch by the ships owners. This seemed to be a common practice during the war, and it would seal the fate of another merchantman.

However, despite the British claims, the German submarine, SM U-6, wasn't sunk. She'd suffered damage, including losing her periscopes so she aborted her patrol and returned to port with the news. The German authorities were outraged at the idea of Merchants attempting to ram their submarines, and claimed the attempts were outside of international law.

The crew of SM U-6

On March 3rd 1915, off the coast of the Netherlands another British merchantman was going about its Business. The SS Wrexham was under command of Mr Charles Fryatt. When a U-boat tried to attack them. Normally the Wrexham could barely manage 14 knots. As the U-boat appeared Mr Fryatt put on full steam, and ordered all hands to help the stokers in the engine room. Their efforts got the Wrexham up to 16 Knots. And so began a chase that lasted for 74km. Eventually the U-boat gave up the chase and the Wrexham reached port. The crew had run the Wrexham's boilers so hot that the funnels of the ship were charred and burnt. For his efforts he was awarded a gold watch.

A few weeks later on the 28th Mr Fryatt was captaining the SS Brussels, when a U-boat surfaced to his front. Mr Fryatt immediately aimed his ship at the U-boat, which crash dived and avoided the attack. The Brussels escaped unharmed as well. For that encounter Mr Fryatt was awarded another gold watch.

It is rumoured the Germans hatched a plan to capture Mr Fryatt, to discourage the practice of ramming. On the night of 25 June, 1916 the Brussels set course for England carrying cargo and passengers. There are stories about a passenger signalling land and replying signals. What is certain is five German destroyers intercepted the Brussels almost immediately capturing and escorting the Ship to a German port. From there Fryatt was imprisoned and then tried in a Court martial, for sinking the submarine on March 28th the previous year. One of the pieces of evidence where Fryatt's gold watches. Mr Fryatt was found guilty and executed by firing squad. Oddly the notice of his execution lists his crimes as "[...]attempted on March 28th, 1915, to destroy a German submarine[...]".

Mr Fryatt and the SS Brussels, scuttled by the Germans.

But what of Lt Bell and the Thordis. Well the Thordis was armed with a 13Pdr gun and continued to serve until the 10th of August 1918 when she was torpedoed off Scarborough. Lt Bell survived the war and died in 1932.

[WoTB] Mobile Gameplay

The current principle for WoT Blitz we try to adhere is focusing primarily on battle aspects of the game, at the same time trying to streamline and simplify the garage management part as a whole. This includes having cleaner interface for main garage screen, overhauling crews as concept, changing the way consumables/shells/equipment is handled.

What things from your perspective should be considered? Any changes to progression? Currency balance for WOT? What would be the things you would be willing to spend money for in general in such a mobile game? Like having limited fuel or energy that replenishes with either time or money? :)
What could significantly change the steep learning curve of WoT (there is such on PC, recollect your first battles) on mobile while preserving certain challenge which is absolutely necessary for any game?

Feel free to post most radical things.

[WoT] Making Nasty Things Prettier

In response to Nasty Little Things post,

the feedback actually appeared to be more applicable for PC WoT than for WoT Blitz, since in the latter we either have done many things differently (aiming, crews, key bindings, interface, etc) or have already accounted for what was suggested (platoon restrictions, MMing spreads, vehicle filters in garage, etc).

So I have forwarded the summary below to Storm for his review, he said it was useful. Probably I can squeeze some more from him in future. Right now it's rather difficult because of the workload related to 0.8.9 (EU and NA) update which is being tested publicly at the moment. By the way how do you like the update so far?

Mechanics

It's really annoying having aimed at a tank far away with no ground behind him and shoot just a split second after the tank disappears and when your gun immediately raises itself making it a definite miss.

Aiming/reticule automatically moves up a bit when I aim at a target far away. Normally you would have to aim higher than the target, because the shell drops while it is in the air. But WoT does this automatically. At first this seems like a good way to help inexperienced players. But in the end it hinders me hitting my targets. When a target is moving and I have to aim in front of it, I would just aim a bit higher to account for shell drop and a bit the the left or right, so the target "drives into the shell".

But in WoT this happens: As soon as I move my reticule away from the target, to account for it's speed/direction of travel, the automated vertical correction no longer aims at the distance of the target but it aims at whatever I am currently aiming at. If it is a hill, or even the sky, my shot will be too high, or too low, and I can't do anything about it.

Also why are there still no tier limitations on platooning to prevent the Maus + Leichtraktor troll platoons? I can't think of a single reason for not preventing this from being possible.

My biggest bugbear in WoT is that often it's possible to peek over a bit of terrain / round a building in in sniper mode, place the reticle squarely over an enemy tank, (without that red outline showing up, but WHOLE targeting reticle over tank), fire, and just hit the terrain because the collision model doesn't match what's visible.

Also, make it possible for the red highlight around enemy vehicle when you target it, to show up when aiming at the enemy tank across a wreck of a tank. At the moment, for instance, if you aim at enemy tank through a wreck e.g. between wreck's gunbarrel and hull, you have your penetration indicator work, but no red highlight show up.

When in a rush and using hot keys for repair kits and you hit the wrong one you are basically fucked. You need to move your hand to the ESC key to close it, retype the hotkey to get it right. Very bad. 

camera's settings reset after each battle (really senseless feature)

Get rid of the forced f1 help key binding in game. I mean, FFS, who uses the help key after 100, 1000, 10,000 batles? Yet, its FORCED bound to one of the MOST useful F keys. For god sake, allow that F1 key to be rebound to something useful. 

Ability to rebind ctrl and alt

AFK tanks and bots.

The existence of premium ammo and the ability to spam it endlessly without any limitations. Every tank is designed and balanced with its armor and penetration of its gun taken into account.

Chat

I would also like a notification if someone adresses me in chat - a ping sound or something. Clanchat, whispers, etc. in battle. Chatlog.

Not being able to private message with those in my clan is annoying. I'm forced to add people already in my clan list, to my friends list, just to send them a message.

For me, lack of any indication in e.g. clan chat, that someone is AFK or in battle, it would be really nice if I could set some infos for their mates (or if I'm in battle, system would set it for me), similar you can do that on communicators like Skype.

Limited ignore list size (256?)

No counter for clan members online

Interface. Lobby

The absence of ping in garage. Not funny when you go to battle with 999 ping. 

Plane/Tank viewer. In EVE Online you can see in the market your ship in a 3D fashion (even if it in the game the shape has it no meaning.). As for WOT where shape (slope) has a meaning, it should be in the game. How? To save space add a magnifying glass symbol on the picture of the Tank/Plane details; if you click it a window opens and you can see your plane/tank and can scroll in, look it from all sides.

better indication of an invite or chat request, something should popup in the middle of the screen to get your attention, rather than the button/icon simply glowing.

Transaction logs

Interface. Vehicle Specs

how much HP the turret uprgade adds to the tank is to either buy it and find out or look on youtube at videos of upraded tanks

The horizontal gun velocity is one of the most important stats for an arty.

You can find that info nowhere ingame.

A warning on light tanks that suddenly get Scout Tiering, as in the Pz38na.

Interface. Platoons

Tank Tier in platoon window. I cannot believe your UI designers missed this out, and we have to rely on a mod such as XVM to show our platoon mates tank tiers (and battle tiers).

Special Battles, Tank Company, Platoon, Training Room interfaces (and possibly Team Battles - have not seen its interface yet). These need to show tank tier, battle tiers.

Tank sorting in TC and CW waiting room. Currently the sort is based on when the player joined the room, which is useless. It means the caller is constantly having to go down the list multiple times making sure there are enough mediums or T57s or whatever for the plan. A simple sort by tank would make this 100x easier.

If anything the platoon/TC should just transfer leadership to the last guy standing in it so he has the option to invite others again instead of making a new group.

Interface. Tank carousel

Why are there still no tier and premium filters in the tank ribbon?

Tank Tier filtering in garage - this is an absolute must, especially if you have a large amount of tanks in your garage.

Option to have few rows of tanks "portraits" instead of big useless tank

Tank Carousel. I want more then Primary markers. Tier, Grinding, Clan Wars, Tank company, and favourites are a must for me. As this list is different for each player, just let us create and name our own filters and select which tanks are in it.

Possibility to sort tanks in any order I want (according to my prefereable order of playing them

Interface. Missions

Very often the missions are simply named mission, There should be a name for every one of them.

Some missions although have measurable parameters (like damage done, XP earned etc), dont have progress bar attached to them.

Mission after battle interface could be improved so that you do not have to click to every mission to see what they are. 1 line of explanation under the mission name would be enough.

Interface. Battle

Fire notification. Especially a problem on large screen monitors, it should be a great big message in the middle of the screen.

Reload timer. Come on guys, how hard can it actually be if mod developers have implemented this in the various cross hairs for a long time. Minor UI tweak.. major usability improvement.

Interface. Crews

XVM's didn't have a crew transfer/send option and it was torture transferring crews one by one again.

Garage - send entire crew to barracks /pick best crew. Again, we have to wait for XVM to step up and give us a major usability improvement especially when loading a crew into a premium tank.

Crew manipulation. Without XVM's update it is tedious and slow to reuse crew on premium tanks. Send all crew to barracks, use own crew, use best crew, use same type crew.

Option to assign a crewmember to many different tanks at the same time - of course if a specific tanker is in battle in one tank, player is not able to play any other tank where this tanker is assigned. That way I will need absolutely no crewmemeber swapping while using the same crew on premium and normal vehicle.

Misc

Whenever you patch an existing tank you drop all equipment, consumables and stuff from him and you don'T tell us- So we login and play with stock and no modules the first time as you usually don't notice this. MARK THE TANK and force us to check equipment first when you do this. Its rude not doing so.

No automatic server change when joining CW

a checkbox on the login page below the "save password" checkbox labeled "atomatic login"

the checkbox is greyed out if "save password" is not enabled

if "save password" and "automatic login" is enabled the client will go directly into the garage if the player presses "play" in the launcher or launches worldoftanks.exe directly

to disable auto login, change the user or change the server the player has to "disconnect from server" form the game menu

Kosher Counter Attack

Almost exactly 40 years ago a battle raged that would have had the aggressive tank commanders of World war two, such as Patton and Rommel, cheering and yelling "That's how you use armour!" Today we will look at that battle.

In 1973 Israel was engaged with its four neighbours in the Yom Kippur war. After the first week of fierce combat the Golan Heights had stabilized, and focus shifted to the Sinai Desert. As dawn broke on the 14th of October a 9 minute artillery barrage landed on the dug in Israeli forces. From the lower ground around the Suez canal Egyptian armoured vehicles numbering in the thousands advanced behind a walking barrage. This was Egypt's first ever attempt at a major armoured attack. Using Warsaw pact doctrine things went wrong immediately. The combination of exploding shells and the sunrise behind the Israeli's made it almost impossible to see the Israeli tanks. The British and American made tanks occupied hull down positions on the higher ground. Equally the Egyptians attacked along abroad front trying to grab all their objectives immediately.

Things on the Israeli side looked worrying too. The sheer number of enemy tanks and APC's advancing on them caused alarm and awe. Opening fire at two and a half miles, the defenders reaped a massive toll of destroyed armour. One Israeli tank battalion reported knocking out over 60 tanks in an hour. Despite this the sheer weight of numbers meant that the Egyptian attacks reached the Israeli lines. As the columns of Tanks and APC's punched through the defensive lines Israeli tanks were killing T-55's and T-62's at under 50m. Still the Egyptians drove headlong towards their objectives, not returning fire. As the Egyptian casualties mounted their attacks began to falter. Snatching the moment the Israeli defenders charged and routed the Egyptian forces. The Egyptians had lost about 400 tanks, while the Israeli's had lost only 6. Although another 34 had been damaged. With the Egyptians attacking force blunted the Israeli's prepared to go on the offensive.

Two roads, the Tirtur and Akavish, stretch across the Sinai. These lead to the north end of the Great Bitter Lake. They were laid by the Israeli's after they captured the Sinai in the Six Day war, 6 years before. The roads also lead to an area of the Suez Canal where the canal ramparts had been weakened in case the Israeli's needed to cross the canal.

To maintain the element of surprise the Israeli counter attack would need to cross the 20 miles from the front lines to the crossing point before dawn. The only problem was the road had an Egyptian armoured division parked across it. However reconnaissance had discovered that the join between the Egyptian Second and Third armies was just to the south of the Akavish. So on October the 15th, as darkness fell, three Battalions of tanks set out on the cross country trip through 19 miles of desert. Remarkably they made it undetected to the crossing point. The force split up at this point. With one battalion moving to the North to block any Egyptian thrust towards the crossing point. One battalion remained at the Canal. The final battalion moved to attack the Egyptians from the rear and open the roads.

After going only a short distance the Israeli's reached a place now known as the Chinese Farm, where they found the entire Egyptian 2nd Armies reserve force. This formation was only a mile from the crossing point. A raging battle erupted there as all three armour battalions joined the battle. The fighting was so fierce that after 15 minutes so many tanks were burning it illuminated the desert night like it was daylight. The battle raged for two and a half days, as Egyptian forces attacked from both the north and south. However the Israeli tankers held on.

Meanwhile Major Giora Lev led his 30 tanks down the Akavish road, and through the tiny gap that had been opened at the Chinese Farm. Some of his tanks towed motorized rafts behind them.

 

Despite taking fire from both sides of the road the Major reached the crossing point. Each raft could carry a tank, just. Reversing his tank onto the raft was tricky, but Major Lev led his battalion across the Suez canal. As the first tank across Lev crested a rise and spotted, and destroyed an Egyptian APC. By 0900 on the 15th his entire battalion was across the Suez.
At this stage the Akavish road was still under constant attack, and no logistic units could make it through the gap. This included the Bridge sections that would be used to cross the canal. Major Lev was ordered to hold position and secure the bridgehead.

Major Lev ignored his orders, and used his tanks to hammer the rear areas of the Egyptians. Splitting his force up into small raiding parties he started wreaking havoc. Major Lev took command of a platoon of tanks and led them, with some supporting infantry, towards the Airfield at Deversoir. As his 4 tanks approached the front gate the Sentry not knowing Israeli tanks were anywhere near by, threw a salute.
After his combat group had smashed all the vehicles planes and AA weapons, Lev found time to use the airfields telephone, he called his wife.
Returning to the crossing point, Major Lev received a Long range radio transmission from the head of the Israeli armed forces. From the first day of the war the Egyptian SAM batteries and wreaked a huge toll on the Israeli Air force. Lev was ordered to destroy as many SAM batteries as he could find.

By now the bitter fighting at the Chinese Farm was beginning to swing in the Israeli's favour, and  reinforcements were arriving. Again splitting his force up into raiding parties, normally of a tank and APC section, the Israeli's went SAM hunting. One raiding party destroyed 12 SAM batteries in a day. Overall Major Lev's battalion accounted for over 100 vehicles on the 17th. Normally the Tanks would take up position about 2000m away and start shooting up the battery. Meanwhile the APC's would close then assault through the batteries position using their machine guns.
In desperation the Egyptians were firing SAM's at the tanks. Although utterly unaimed the sight of a SA-2 Guideline screaming towards you is a terrifying sight. One Israeli Tanker described it "[...] like a Telephone pole flying at you at very high speed!"

As the final days of the war were entered more re-enforcements were channelled through the bridgehead. They began to surround the Egyptian 3rd army, one Israeli unit at the end of the war had driven over 1200 miles in armoured vehicles to complete the encirclement. Taking fire from two sides, and being bombed by the Israeli Air force the Second Army took heavy casualties. It was only the cease fire that prevented its utter destruction.