SS: Today, we have another guest article from SoukouDragon :) Enjoy

Author: SoukouDragon, US forums

A new light tank designed for the Imperial Japanese army. It was to carry with it the same firepower as the Chi Ha Shinhoto and have 300mm wide treads. The 150hp engine was supercharged. Main armament was the Type 1 47mm tank gun. Since it was expected to use its cannon often, 90 rounds was required.

Characteristics

Weight: 10 tons
Length: 4.380mm
Width: 2.235mm
Height: 2.227mm

Armor (mm)
Turret Front: 20
Turret Side: 16
Turret Back: 16
Hull Front: 20
Hull Side: 16
Hull Back: 12
Hull Top: 12
Hull Bottom: 8

In world of tanks, its 15 hp/ton is grossly outmatched by the other tier 5 light tanks which have over 25hp/ton. Even with 300mm wide tracks on the 10 ton tank, it is difficult to imagining the Ke Ho to have similar acceleration with the other tier 5 light tanks. The diesel 150hp engine is an in-line 6 cylinder engine. Even though the Chi He tank is of similar dimensions to the Ke Ho but a little longer, the Chi He’s 240hp V12 diesel engine would probably be too large to serve as an upgrade even though 240hp would probably provide enough hp/ton.

The 47mm cannon would be comparable to the 50mm L/60 on the VK 1602 Leopard. The combat weight of the Type 1 47mm cannon is about 400kg. With about just 140kg more, the experimental 57mm cannon that was tested on the early Chi To could perhaps be fitted on as an upgrade. That would give the Ke Ho competitive firepower amongst the tier 5 light tanks.

Experimental 57mm Tank Gun (L48.5)

Combat Weight: 543kg
Muzzle velocity: 810m/s
Type 1 AP round
Penetration: 60mm at 1,000m

Source:

“Japan’s Tanks” by Hara Tomio　1978（日本の戦車 原乙未生)
“Japanese Army Cannons: Infantry cannons, anti-tank cannons” by Sayama Jiro (日本陸軍の火砲　歩兵砲　対戦車砲　他　佐山二郎)

Hello everyone,

several people asked me yesterday, how does one “fix” random battles when the matchmaking takes the players from the entire server. It shouldn’t be possible to do, right?

So just a quick description how this works. Next time there is some competition (you know, like the one for 0.8.5 – top XP gainers from each class etc.), check on how many of the victors are clanners and how many of representatives of those clans are present.

Of course, it could mean such clans are simply that great… or it could mean something else entirely.

How to do it

Here’s an example of a fixed battle (thanks to Rasan and his clanmate):

Link to replay (version 0.8.2): http://wotreplays.com/site/225264#ensk-guest-amx_13_90

Here you can see a typical (albeit lowtier) example of fixing battles. Several friends (this time from different clans, although Suicide Division (S-D) and Valkyria (VLK) are present on both sides) decided to allow the T1 Cunningham to get an insane XP gain.

Basically, what the culprits do is they abuse the MM mechanism for matching platoons. This works best around 4-5AM, when there are very very few players on the server. Few players means few platoons. In other words: if you suddenly create two 3 man platoons (those are rarer) and click on “battle” at the same time, you have a really high chance of ending against each other, because there will be no more 3 man platoons online at that point and the matchmaker will have no other choice than to compensate by putting your friends’ platoon against you.

This is how the jokers from the picture did it. As you can see, it’s two platoons (of different size, so I assume this was done in the early morning to ensure they would be matched against each other) and the Cunningham has 3 kills, corresponding to the first platoon – all 5 of them probably simply met somewhere and let the Cunningham kill them. Funny and harmless? Well, yes, sure, unless you are fixing a competition that way.

There are of course more sophisticated ways how to do this, leading to even “better” results (for example two clans choosing two players for the rewards, then swamping the random with various platoons at 4 AM, this way, a random player can rack up even 15 kills if both teams end up being filled with people from those two clans – hell, this is possible even in ONE clan, if it is big enough).

This phenomenon is not limited to EU server of course (remember the Russian “superplayer” in FV215b 183, who destroyed 15 tanks with 13 shots or so?) and is well known for ages, yet Wargaming does nothing against it, unless the competition winners are directly accused of cheating (I believe this has happened only once, few patches back, can’t remember the circumstances though).

Either way, I believe that the replay examination of the top winners of the “Type 59″ type competitions should be mandatory to prevent this shit from happening…

Well, I think it’s no secret that 0.8.6 for RU server is coming this Tuesday. For EU it should be either Wednesday or Thursday (Thursday more likely).

- additional info about the “Israeli” IS-3: it was used as tractor basically, it had modified engine and transmission, using the parts from T-54/55 and new cooling systems, apparently it used the original gun too, therefore it is fit to be a premium vehicle
- the T-35 premium tank won’t have the historical crew (of 11 tankists), SerB thinks it’s not necessery
- SerB states that the developers don’t deal with fixed battles and they don’t care, how many “reputation” do such posts have (SS: to explain, apparently there is a scandal on RU server, that the “random” competition prizes were being split between prominent members of several clans, leading a lot of people to the conclusion that these clanners fixed battles in order to get their hands on the prizes. And yes, this happened on EU server too in the past, I remember one case where such “teams” were stripped of their winnings and banned)
- normalization doesn’t apply on track hits
- the shell trajectory after armor penetration is not influenced by normalisation (SS: IIRC, normalisation is just a number, the actual shell trajectory is not changed by it)
- normalisation is not applied twice, when the shell goes thru a spaced armor and the main armor after that
- SerB regarding the chance of new maps to drop: “Usually the higher chance for the new map to drop is turned on for one patch, because in the next patch another new map is introduced.”
- engine can catch on fire even if it doesn’t turn “yellow”
- it’s theoretically possible for the IS-4 to have only the D-25 gun, that would shoot the current gold ammo as silver shells, but so far it’s just SerB’s personal wish, he’ll check the vehicle out
- King Tiger speed buff: “when it’s done it’s done”
- When asked about the historicity of T-50 speed, SerB states that the 64km/h speed for the T-50 is possible, it was actually archieved during factory tests
- according to SerB, SU-100Y is doing fine on its tier
- in WoWp, training crewmembers to 100 percent costs 400 gold instead of WoT 200 gold. SerB states that there are no plans for now to rise the price for WoT crew training also
- no special ingame report function for griefing by “covering the enemy from allies” (SS: probably running into the line of fire of your teammates, preventing them from shooting) is planned
- SerB like farming on KV-5
- generally (in connection with the announced “free-to-win” principle), premium tanks won’t be buffed (premium tank players have the possibility to play on regular tanks)
- regarding account hijack prevention: it is not possible to make “save checkpoints” for accounts, SerB states that when the player account database is simply copied from regular server to test server, it’s a lengthy process, it’s impossible to make such copies every day, local copy of your account data on client computers is not an option
- the bug with T29 antennae (SS: when zoomed to a certain extent towards the top turret, the camera tends to jerk to a side) will be fixed with the introduction of client physics
- the Ferdinand bolted 100mm armor plate doesn’t work as spaced armor, because there is no space between the plate and the armor itself
- the possibility to add your own music to be played within the game is not planned
- linear crewmember skill training is also not planned for WoT
- T14 gun penetration apparently won’t be buffed, nor will the gun be replaced with (unhistorical) 105mm howitzer: “If you don’t like it, don’t play it”
- SerB believes the Maus is competitive in random battles
- no plans for close future to implement “code authenticator” á la Battle.net
- the statistics “what tanks destroyed my tank” most likely won’t be implemented
- along with the server-side replays, there will apparently be a possibility to analyze, on which spots was your vehicle hit in the battle
- Sturer Emil was not considered for tier 7 premium TD
- client physics will have very little influence on the game web traffic (ping)
- Superpershing will most likely be changed to the new model in 8.7
- the new improved spall liner bonus will affect the ramming damage also

Lots of people that play WoT started crying out about HEAT needing to be removed as soon as it became available for credits. Turns out, use of HEAT shells was forbidden in the early stages of the war on the Eastern Front.

“After meeting with the general staff and divisional commanders of the 4th Panzer Group, Feldmarshal von Kluge once again asked to allow the use of “red-tipped” shells, giving the following as the reason:

“Holding back Russian tanks in an attack, particularly T-34s and heavy tanks, demands great effort on the part of our exhausted and battle-worn infantry. The existing methods of fighting T-34s and heavy tanks are insufficient. If the infantry’s load is lightened, they can resume completion of their objectives, despite their smaller numbers. ”

I can only support this request.

General von Bock”

German HEAT shells were indicated by red tips. Some sources refer to them as “PzGr rot” (Tank Grenade Red). Let’s take a look at Franz Halder’s diary, again mentioning HEAT shells.

“December 22nd, 1941. 184th day of the war.

Forces of the south flank of the 4th army, south-east of Kaluga, are encircled by the enemy, who is also advancing on Tarusy. The condition on this section of the front is grave. It is not known when this crisis can be resolved. Regardless, the order to retreat was not given. The only order given was on the use of HEAT shells. {349}

{349} Hitler still disallowed use of these new shells”

“January 11th, 1942 (Sunday). 204th day of the war.

Hitler: hold Merdyn and cover the breach in the north. Attempt to do so before the front at Merdyn wavers. Move forces from the rear. Advance with the 9th army to cover the breach at Rzhev. There is no time for preparations of defensive positions. Any time we manage to win is to be used to cover breaches in our lines. Holding Suhinichi takes priority. Should we use shells with the red tip? {407} A counterattack from the south still remains our goal.

{407} Those were the markings of a HEAT artillery shell.”

Shirokograd, in his book “Russia and Germany: a history of military cooperation” reveals the reason for this was that Hitler was protective of his shiny new shells: “In late 1941, the 7.5 cm and 10.5 cm le.G.40 received new HEAT shells, which enabled them to penetrate Soviet T-34 tanks. I must point out that the Germans had HEAT shells since 1940, but Hitler forbade their use so they did not fall into enemy hands.”

Hitler’s fears weren’t entirely unjustified. Captured APCR shells for French and German guns were a great boon to Soviet APCR development. 

Hello everyone,

today, we are going to have a look at three vehicles, that have a relatively high chance of appearing in the European tank tree, because they formed the basis of the Czechoslovak medium tanks. Some of you might remember the Czechoslovak tank tree proposal I posted several months ago. This tree is based on Tuccy’s work – but this is one of the differences. He had these three tanks in the tree, I threw them out, since I wanted to streamline the proposal as much as possible – and small side-branches were never really that much popular. Plus, all three of these vehicles were simply… mediocre.

In the game, these vehicles would probably fit in tier 3 (T-21/22) and tier 4 (T-23M). Just a technical note: some people actually confuse the T-23 with the American tank T23 (which was earlier in World of Tanks as tier 8, before it was replaced by the Pershing). These vehicles have obviously nothing in common. Well then, let’s get to it.

Škoda T-21

Škoda T-21 (original designation was Škoda Š-IIc) was Škoda’s contribution to the IIc army category (medium tanks for general use) and a direct competitor to Praga V-8-H (the linked page, tier 4).

Basically, what happened: in the early thirties, both Praga and Škoda (main competitiors for the Czechoslovak army contracts, but also when it came to export) had several unsuccessful designs, when it came to infantry support tanks. While the light tanks (LT-35, later the LT-38) were generally good, they just couldn’t get the infantry support right. Namely, the unsuccessful attempts where the Praga P-IIb and Škoda Š-IIb. After that, the both companies basically sat together and made a joint infantry tank project, designated ŠP-IIb. It was unsuccessful for various reasons (it might make a nice Czechoslovak lowtier premium tho, I might get to it at some point too), mostly because both companies weren’t too eager to cooperate with their main competitors. Also, both companies worked on their own private attempts to build a IIb/IIc category prototypes. These private attempts would later become the Praga V-8-H and Škoda T-21.

The main design works on the T-21 began as early as September 1936. The first prototype was finished in May 1937 – and so began the long journey of this vehicle and its versions and derivates, that ended only after the war.

The first variant from May 1937 was the original Š-IIc. It was supposed to be fitted with a new engine, built especially for it by the automobile factory branch of Škoda in Mladá Boleslav, but the engine development got delayed and the prototype was (in order to save time) fitted with a 190hp 13-liter V6, originally intended for the Š-III breakthrough tank prototype. The prototype was also fitted with a mock weaponry (representing a 47mm gun and 2 machineguns). Basically, it was a disaster. The engine was not powerful enough, overheated and ate a LOT of fuel (even for that time). In September 1937, the V6 engine was removed and the original Škoda engine intended for it. The vehicle however still didn’t do too well (the engine actually seized and had to be scrapped) and the tests were stopped in November, marking the end of the 1st development stage of T-21.

By that time, the Ministry of Defence committee was looking for a suitable Czechoslovak medium tank for the army, but Š-IIc couldn’t make it to the tests – it was being rebuilt throughout the entire winter of 1937-1938, specifically by installing a new engine and real weaponry. Turret and hull were also refitted and modified. The engine was finally installed in March 1938 and the vehicle was sent in May 1938 for army tests in Milovice. This rebuilt prototype wasn’t actually half bad, it performed well – WHEN it was running (that wasn’t often, the vehicle was deemed very unreliable). In the end, there were so many issues with it that it was returned to the factory in Pilsen for yet another refit. In the meanwhile, the (hastily repaired) prototype was presented to the Soviet delegation, but its engine seized again (!) during the trials, causing the vehicle not to make the June 1938 army tests deadline – and that was the end of the T-21 as a potential Czechoslovak army medium tank.

From June to November 1938, the prototype was modified further in Pilsen, thus creating a third (and final) variant of the original Š-IIc design (not counting the further modifications, made by Hungarians – the Turán tank is basically a Š-IIc copy, with partial improvements). This third variant had (apart from the fixed engine of the same type the 2nd variant had) better tracks, improved engine cooling, improved oil pump and modified steering mechanism.

However, by that time, the Munich treason completely changed the Czechoslovak army’s priorities and selling the (improved) vehicle to the Czechoslovak army was no longer an option. Therefore, Škoda was trying to sell the design abroad. During factory trials, the third prototype performed reasonably well and was basically ready for export.

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, that was of course no longer possible – not without German consent at least. During the early months of occupation, German delegations did visit the Škoda factory and tests were performed with the Š-IIc prototype, which, at that point, on 22.5.1939, was – to fit the German nomenclature principles – renamed to Škoda T-21 (T = tank, 2 = medium, 1 = 1st variant). Germans didn’t show too much interest in it, they wanted to test in in Kummersdorf, but in the end, it was decided by the Germans to produce an improved version, which was named T-22.

Since it was not successful in Czechoslovakia, Škoda offered this type for export, both pre-war and in the early war years (under German command). This vehicle was actually offered to Great Britain, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Iran, Iraq, France, Egypt, Afghanistan and Bulgaria, but with little success. After the German occupation, Germans (logically) demanded the vehicle to be offered only to the German-friendly countries.

T-21 was actually offered first to Romania, but the Romanians delayed the decision, until they found out the Hungarians (their historical enemies) would license-produce it as Turán I. After that (in January 1941) they quickly demanded 216 T-21 tanks, but the Germans blocked this, because they needed the Škoda capacities for their own vehicles.

Hungary – as mentioned before – license-built the T-21. The first contact happened around late 1939. At first the Hungarians wanted to actually buy the Czech-produced vehicles, but Germans blocked that (just like with the Romanians), that’s why the Hungarian interest shifted towards the licensed production. In May 1940, negotiations took place between Škoda and Hungarian government and in June-July, the prototype was tested in Hungary, with reasonable results. Partial changes were demanded, for example replacing the original 47mm gun with the Hungarian 40mm 37M cannon, Hungarian-made radio and Hungarian Gebauer machineguns instead of the original Czechoslovak ones. The license agreement was signed on 14.8.1940, with the license-produced Škoda A17 gun being a part of them. The vehicle was renamed to Turán and served with the Hungarian army until the end of the war.

Italy also showed some interest, because the Italian tank production capacities were insufficient, while the Italian army was bleeding in Africa and in the Balkans. On 9.10.1940, Italian delegation came to Pilsen. Italians were very interested in the T-11 and T-21 tanks, but in the end, the last decision was on the Germans. In February 1941, Italians and Germans met in Berlin to discuss this matter. Initial German response was warm and it was decided a prototype would be tested in May 1941 near Rome. The results were somewhat mixed: while the vehicle had good terrain passability and handled well, overheating still was a huge problem. Italians kept on discussing the matter in Pilsen until October 1941, but in the end, the Germans didn’t approve Škoda to produce the vehicles for Italy and that was the end of it. On 13.10.1941, Italy withdrew from the negotiations.

Characteristics:
Crew: 4
Weight: 16,7 tons
Engine: Škoda V8, 13,8 liter, 240hp (earlier V6, 190hp)
Armor: Front – 30mm, sides – 10mm
Gun: 47mm Škoda A9
Speed: 50 km/h

Škoda T-22

Škoda T-22 was introduced on 4.9.1939 as a development variant of the T-21 as a response towards the German demand to produce something better than the T-21. The Germans demanded the prototype by September 1940 and the Waffenprüfamt ordered the vehicle development officially on 2.11.1939. However, by that time the war already took its toll on the German resources and due to various shortages of materials, the prototype was only ready on 1.2.1941. The prototype was not even complete – the turret was replaced with a concrete block to simulate the turret and weaponry weight. It was tested first in the factory and later (in April) it was sent to Kummersdorf, where it actually ran only for 138 kilometers, before – yes, you guessed it – the engine overheated and seized. Needless to say, the Germans were not happy and the vehicle was returned to Pilsen.

It returned to Germany in June 1941, when it during one day before the German testing committee ran 403 kilometers on a German highway. Germans were actually impressed and started discussing its production with partial changes (namely increased turret ring diameter, better escape hatches and tropicalisation, which means improved engine and crew compartment cooling system, anti-heat paint overcoat and sealing the internal space against dust and sand particles). This modified vehicle was supposed to be tested by the end of 1941 in Libyan desert.

During September 1941, the vehicle was modified according to German demands and further tests were held in Pilsen (with success, the German testing engineers were actually quite fine with it), but then, on 2.10.1941, this prototype was again sent to Kummersdorf. The tests there ended yet again with a disaster: the transmission oil lubrication broke down. That, combined with the changes on African theater, sealed the fate of the tank: the Germans lost interest. They actually ordered the prototype to be scrapped in Spring 1943, but Škoda intervened and the prototype survived – at least for now.

Please note that while Turán is also an improved version of T-21, Turán and T-22 are two quite different vehicles.

Characteristics:
Crew: 4
Weight: 17,5 tons
Engine: Škoda V8, 14,9 liter, 260hp
Armor: Front – 30mm, sides – 10mm
Gun: unknown
Speed: 48 km/h

Škoda T-23M

Partially in parallel with the T-22 development, the Czechoslovaks in Škoda Pilsen constructed – purely out of their own initiative, paid by Škoda – a third model, based on T-21 (this time, it wasn’t a reconstruction of the T-22, but a new vehicle from mild steel). There were some significant changes however: namely the pneumatic gear shifting and pneumatic steering mechanism were changed to servo-assisted mechanical ones, which were more reliable and less physically demanding than purely mechanical steering.

This vehicle was designed T-23M (“M” as “mechanical”) and was tested for the first time in February 1941. The new steering mechanism proved to be reliable, but the engine seizure issue continued to plague the prototype due to the insufficient engine cooling and repeated oil lubrication system failures. Further problems were discovered on steering brakes. That was the reason, for which the Germans specifically banned the vehicle from taking part in the October 1941 trials with the T-22.

Between 1941 and 1942, the T-23M prototype drove over 9000 kilometers in total. All the technical problems were gradually fixed and by 1942, the vehicle actually was actually in perfect shape, all the bugs and flaws fixed. Even the Germans showed some interest at that point. However, in the end, it was the one thing that the engineers couldn’t fix, that doomed this vehicle as well: time. By 1942, the vehicle was – even in perfect shape – quite obsolete and unable to handle the new generation of Soviet vehicles.

Characteristics:
Crew: 4
Weight: 18 tons
Engine: Škoda V8, 14,9 liter, 260hp
Armor: Front – 50mm, sides – 10mm
Gun: 47mm Škoda A11
Speed: 45 km/h

Epilogue

The work on T-21, T-22 and T-23M prototypes was effectively stopped in September 1943, when most of the Czechoslovak weapons development in Škoda was stopped in order to crank up the production of German-demanded weapons. After that point, very little attention was given to this line of development.
Some interest was shown by the Germans in two tank destroyer projects, based on the T-22: VOSS I and VOSS II. VOSS I was basically a 75mm A16-equipped turretless tank destroyer, while VOSS II was to carry a 150mm SIG33 howitzer. Both were made as wooden mockups, but were not further developed.

The T-21 and T-23M prototypes survived the war in Pilsen undamaged by the allied bombing. The T-23M was introduced to the Czechoslovak army after the war again, but by then it was totally obsolete (there was a project for a 105mm SPG based on the hull, but that was also scrapped). The prototypes survived until 1948-1949 and were most likely deconstructed and melted down after that.

T-21 in Hungary during tests:

Sources:
www.valka.cz
I.Pejčoch – Obrněná Technika
www.aviarmor.net
M.Dubánek – Od bodáku po tryskáče

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks-sea.com/index.php?/topic/20163-campaigns-dev-qas/

Special thanks to st0rmshadow (EU) for pointing that thread out. Since this info didn’t appear on EU server, I might as well repost it. Don’t ask me about it, since I practically never follow the CW stuff, ask your local incompetent EU WG yesman community organizer instead :)

13th June, Stage 1.

Question: Are battles on day 1 counted to the battle requirement IE number of battles required? What about if these were technical victories?

Answer: The battles on day 1 are counted for the Company final awards. They are not counted as battles required to get medal for Stage 1 as “world redivision” is a special mode of first stage. The technical victories are not counted toward required minimal number of battles. All other battles regardless of their results are counted toward required minimum number of battles. For example, if player participates in 3 battles in a landing, 2 successful and 1 failed, 3 battles will be counted.

Question: Did you get a ruling on whether or not Landing zone tournament battles (not the final vs NPC, but the actual battles against live clans) count towards M60?

Answer: It is not the battle which counts toward MC60. It is the number of Victory Points which defines the winner of the Stage/Company. The player must participate in at least 5 battles during specific stage in Stage clan-winner, and at least 10 battles in Company clan-winner. If the same clan wins a stage and Company, 5 battles minimum requirement is applied.

Question: Whether clan members need 5 battles per stage (hard with 80+ active members and 9 days of fighting) or 5 battles across the campaign.

Answer: Please see the answer above.

Question: When are we going to have a page to see a Victory Point leader board?

Answer: That section of our portal is not currently functioning.
It is being worked on daily and will be available asap, unfortunately I dont have an ETA more than that at the moment.

SS: Continuing from where we left off, JD made a new interview – this time with the popular streamer Jingles! Enjoy.

1. Jingles, what playstyle do you utilize?

Depends entirely on what I’m driving, what the map is and what’s on the opposition. I do tend to prefer the faster machines, but I’ve noticed lately that I tend to use the speed to get into good forward positions and ambush enemies rather than dogfight with them like other people would in the same tank. I seem to be a camper at heart, but I’m a camper who likes to camp as far forward as possible with the option of retreating quickly if I need to. Having said that, I’ll do whatever the situation requires, but there are certain styles that I just seem to settle more naturally into.

2. So, what is your favorite tank?

I’ve had a number of favourite tanks. It used to be the Marder II until it finally got nerfed to death, it’s still the machine I’ve played the most games on with the highest win rate (334 games 67%). I don’t tend to focus on any one tank, if you look up my stats you’ll see that I play most tanks more or less equally, with an average number of battles in all of them. I’d have to say that lately I’m really falling in love with the M46 Patton, though. I love all of the tier 9 machines, as a group I think they’re the best tanks and TDs in the game. The Patton, however, hits that sweet spot of speed, agility and a really powerful gun that I love.

3. What made you start making videos on youtube?

Initially it was just as a way of saving my favourite World of Tanks games. Shortly afterwards I started saving my old version of WOT instead of overwriting it as each new patch came out, and that allowed me to continue viewing old replays. I kept on doing the video commentaries because I found I enjoyed doing them, largely inspired by other YouTubers like Pandy, HighFlyer15 and Quickybaby. Pretty soon I started getting appreciative comments, and that encouraged me to do more, which led to more comments, more subscribers and so on and so on. When I started getting my very own haters, trolls and serial downvoters I knew I’d made it at last. ;)

4. Did the fact that you were publishing videos of you playing WOT make you more cautious on how you played or how you performed?

It really should have, but it mostly didn’t. There have been a number of occasions when I’ve lost my temper over what I perceived as rampant idiocy during a match and remarked less than politely about it in a video, only to have it pointed out to me by my subscribers that what actually happened was completely different, and I was acting like an arse and should shut up. All of it completely justified. This is one of the main reasons why I don’t do live commentary anymore and record it all from the replays. It’s easy for 75,000 internet detectives to point out my mistakes while reviewing a video frame by frame, not so easy for me when it’s happening live.

It took me a good long time to learn to give people the benefit of the doubt if there’s the slightest chance they were acting on information I may not have been aware of, and I still get it wrong from time to time even with the benefit of watching the replay afterwards before I commit any words to video. Luckily I’ve got those 75,000 internet detectives to keep me honest, and they seem to get some kind of perverse pleasure from listening to me rage about the window-lickers anyway. I do try to obscure the names of the victims of my rage now, to at least attempt to preserve their modesty!

5. Are you ever worried about what reaction you’ll get from your viewers?

No, never. If I was worried about negative comments I’d never do a critical review of anything. As long as you’re giving what you believe is an honest, balanced opinion, you can’t worry about how people are going to react to what you say or do. No-one ever got anywhere by trying to please all the people all the time. When I first started doing commentaries I was tempted to try to do them in the style of someone famous or popular, but quickly rejected the idea. People can generally spot a fake, and spending so many hours trying to be what you’re not would get very boring very quickly. That’s the advice

I always give to new people trying to make a start on YouTube – just be yourself and if you’re good at something, do a lot of it. If people don’t like you for who you are or what you do, it’s no use trying to pretend to be something else. Take the hint and do something else with your time. Or say “screw them” and keep doing it if you enjoy doing it and don’t worry about the view count.

I’ve done a couple of videos that I knew in advance were going to attract a storm of hate in the comments and spark multiple flame wars, but I’m never going to pretend I like something just because I’m worried about losing subscribers. I’d rather be honest, give what I hope is a balanced view and if I lose subscribers over it, well… they’re probably the kind of subscribers I could do without anyway. I have had a few subscribers write me very eloquent Private Messages explaining very politely that they’re unsubscribing because they no longer like the material I cover or the way I cover it. That’s absolutely fine. It’s a big internet, there’s a YouTuber out there for everyones’ tastes, but if I’m not the one for you I’m certainly not going waste both our time pretending to be. Unsubscribe, move on, good luck and best wishes.

6. What advice would you give to a newer player to help them improve?

Well the first thing I’d tell them to do is go watch http://youtu.be/HX0znHSeDMU- I made it especially for new players but it’s astounding the number of veteran players who told me they learned something new from it, too.  As for general advice I always tell people pay attention to three things:

1.  Your stats are meaningless until you’ve played 3000 to 4000 battles.  Don’t worry about them.  You’re going to be suffering from newbie syndrome until you get past into at least tier 5 tanks, and then you need to play a few thousand games for your stats to recover from how badly you did getting past tier 4.  Once you’ve got some experience with tier 8s you can start to judge how well you think you’re doing.  So don’t worry about your stats.  Try to do well, obviously, but at first you don’t know enough to know how to do well and probably wouldn’t know “doing well” even if it bit you.

2.  Try to understand how the game mechanics work and learn to react to what’s going on with your map.  There’s a lot of useful information you can pick up from the World of Tanks wiki and YouTube, but don’t stress yourself out trying to learn it all too early.  A large part of doing well in World of Tanks is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your tank, the tanks backing you up and the tanks trying to kill you.  The only way to do this is by experience, and experience is a harsh mistress.  You’re going to die a lot learning things the hard way.  This is why your stats are meaningless until you actually know what you’re doing.  In the meantime, just paying attention to what’s going on the map will take you a long way.  You won’t always be able to do anything about what you see happening, but it’ll help you understand why things went wrong
when they did.

3.  Finally, when everything goes wrong, take some time to try to work out WHY it went wrong.  The “invisible” tanks that
killed you were invisible for a good reason, not because they were hacking.  Your shots failed to penetrate that Tiger for a good reason, not because the game has it in for you.  Equally, try to analyse why things happened they way they did when it all went well.  World of Tanks is a relatively simple game, but you can give yourself a huge advantage by understanding and taking advantage of how the game mechanics work.  The video I link in the first paragraph of this reply should help a lot.

7. When did you first start doing really well?

That was because of two reasons, and I know I’m going to catch hell for saying this but the biggest reason was because of War Thunder, Gaijin Entertainments’ WWII flight sim.  I was very lucky to be one of the first YouTubers to start doing serious coverage of War Thunder who already had a good subscriber base thanks to World of Tanks.  It’s probably safe to say I brought thousands of players to War Thunder, and my Gaijin forum thread attracted a lot of other War Thunder players, who saw my World of Tanks coverage and got into that too.  So it’s been mutually beneficial, and that’s when I started to really “take off”, if you’ll excuse the pun.

The second reason was because I was becoming pretty disenchanted with random matches and the average standard of play in World of Tanks, but my love for WOT was rekindled by Quickybaby when he launched his WOT Twitch Livestream and invited me along to stream with him.  Playing with streamers like Quickybaby (and later Circonflexes too) revitalised my World of Tanks coverage and made me enthusiastic for the game again.  It didn’t hurt that both games were mid 20th century wargames and so there was a lot of crossover between the two audiences.

So it was these two things that saw me grow from the first 10,000 diehard subscribers in my first six months of YouTube to the current 75,000 in my second six months.

8. Are there any guides that helped you improve your skills in game?

Initially I used to learn a lot from the now defunct WOT Armoury blog.  Watching other YouTubers like Highflyer15′s World of Tanks Tips channel was greatly entertaining and taught me a lot at first, too.  I was heavily influenced by other YouTubers like Quickybaby and Pandy, but their stuff was more entertaining than directly informative, although if you know what to look out for you can learn a lot by watching them too.  I should also give a shout out to Cody Menz who has a criminally underrated YouTube channel and also runs a highly informative and useful blog, WOT Guru.  I found Cody’s stuff relatively late and didn’t learn a lot from it that I didn’t already know, but it’s a great resource for newer players.

9. Any players who are on the NA side that you would like to face?

Quite a few, but I’d rather they were on my side than facing me!  I managed to play with Sidestrafe on the test server recently, that was a lot of fun, we both have similar playstyles and seemed to work well together.  I’d like to shoot the breeze with Pandy too, and managed an hour with DungeonGuruNet once.

10. What would you say your greatest achievement was in game, on the forums and on youtube?

In game?  Clutch game in a tier 9 match in my Jagdtiger, coming back from being 6-10 down and winning with 10 kills.  On the forums?  Having a topic in the Fan Zone subforum with more views than the next 10 most popular topics combined feels pretty good.  On YouTube?  I like to to think that every video I upload is increasing the average intelligence of the player base, one video at a time.  If not, at least people are being entertained.

11. Any tanks you regret grinding?

Not really.  I’ve learned something from all of them, even if all I learned was “never play this tank again!”  Yes M3 Lee, I’m looking at you.  There are certain tanks that are horrible to play while you’re researching modules for them, the VK3001(P) being a perfect example, but I learned a valuable lesson from that one too – never unlock a stock tank with free xp, save the free xp for unlocking modules so you never have to play the tank in the stock configuration.

12. What is the biggest issue with the playerbase if you see any?

Hard to say.  I’m pretty well known for having a good rage at the sheer idiocy of some of the… shall we say, “less gifted” of the playerbase who drive their tanks as if they’ve just consumed a quart of vodka, but I have no idea what’s going on at the other end of their tank.  The guy driving could be five years old for all I know, he could have severe learning difficulties, he could just be having a bad day or he might be one of the multitude of online gamers who honestly couldn’t find their own arse in the dark without the aid of written instructions and a flashlight.

It winds me up when I see the top tier heavy tank on my team afk the entire match and only moving to defend himself when he’s the last one alive and eight enemy tanks start shooting at him.  It gives me the rage when I see stealthy tank destroyers forced to try to shoot past KV-2s who’ve occupied the best sniping positions or scout tanks hiding behind friendly artillery, or people rushing to cap when we outnumber the enemy five to one and have all their tanks spotted and surrounded, or any number of blatantly stupid uses of tanks in-game.  World of Tanks isn’t unique in this respect, pick any online multiplayer game and you’ll find any number of players herp-a-derping around as if they fell out of The Stupid Tree and hit their heads off every branch on the way down.  Any idiot CAN play online games, so any idiot DOES play online games.

Who am I to judge, anyway?  They’re entitled to play whichever they please providing they’re not breaking the in-game rules and terms of service.  I guess the biggest problem is a combination of intolerance and high expectations on the behalf of those of us who do have a vague idea of what we’re doing.  It took me a long time to learn the most important lesson in World of Tanks, and I still forget it from time to time even now:

“In any situation where your life and death depends on the ability of random teammates to do the right thing at the right time, expect them to fail utterly and plan accordingly.”

You could apply it to online gaming in general, of course, not just World of Tanks.  This lesson is why a competent platoon is the single most useful thing you can do to enhance your enjoyment of the game.

13. What is the most “noob friendly” tank mid tier wise?

Well you want something that has enough armour to give you a fighting chance when you inevitably drive into too much trouble for you to handle.  You want something that isn’t particularly fast to increase the chance that you won’t be able to drive off ahead of the team to your doom in the first place, and you want something that has a competitive gun that can kill whatever jumps on you either through rate or volume of fire.  I’d say there were two real choices.  If you’re on a budget, get a KV-1.  If money is no object, a premium Mark III Churchill.  The Churchill gun doesn’t have much penetration, but it never faces anything higher than tier 6 (the KV does) and it also gets an experience multiplier.  It’s also massive fun to drive.

14. Any achievements you are having trouble unlocking?

Given the trouble I have killing artillery (I’m pretty famous for being unable to kill arty) most people would be surprised to hear that I do actually have a few Pascucci’s Medals for killing three in one game.  I’ve actually been on a bit of an artillery-killing roll lately, long may it continue!  Still no Radley Walters or Pooles’ Medals, though.  I have games with the requisite number of kills but all they were good for when I played them were the old Wittmann/Boelters medals.  None earned since the new medals were introduced, sadly.  Since I mostly play platooned up with players like Quickybaby and Circonflexes I’m unlikely to get any, either, but on the bright side, the Crucial Contributions and Brothers in Arms are rolling in!

15. Final words?

Thank you to all my subscribers, I’m very happy to continue entertaining and hopefully educating you all.  And always remember, if you’ve not been hit by artillery yet, it’s just because they’re taking special care to aim properly with their next shot!

Take care on that battlefield, and I’ll catch you next time.

Thanks to jingles for his time and patience in answering these questions!