Thanks to whoever sent me this (I forgot to note the nickname).

Hello everyone,

there is an interesting playlist on Youtube, showing videos with Japanese tanks. For example, here is the Type 89 I-Go:

If you have time, check it out, the entire list is available here.

Hello everyone,

IS-3 is one of the more popular heavies in this game. It’s got the looks firewpower and armor to match it and when it comes to brawling, few things surpass tons of Russian steel. However, it has one catch – the BL-9 gun.

Sure, the gun performs relatively well – it has massive firepower and while not exactly the most accurate gun out there, its penetration is very decent and especially with gold ammo it rocks. The problem with it is that the vehicle does not look historical with it. This is the setup with D-25T:

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Hello everyone,

a rather interesting video by EU server player Chickentikka (respect to your English!) about the WZ-111 heavy tank, standing in the Beijing museum. Plus there is a peek inside, nice!

Hello everyone,

once again it’s the time to thank the contributors, it’s you who keep FTR running after all! This time, following people donated via Paypal:

Lars R.T. (Denmark) – extraordinary donation!
Simon S. (Sweeden)

Thank you both, guys. I really appreciate it. Now, for the Patreon cycle – this time, everything went smooth. Today marks the fifth time the Patreon subscription got successfully used, thank you all!

Out of the 530 USD pledged at that point:

- 500,10 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 500,10 USD:

43,71 USD went to credit card fees
25,04 USD went to Patreon (service fee)

leaving 431,35 USD for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here. Big thank you goes to all of you, but especially to Tugboat1964, who continuously supports FTR. I will do my best not to disappoint.

Now, the technical matter:

I normally don’t say what I spend the money for, but this time, I’m going to mention that I am going to use the extra cash for something I haven’t had for ages (years, literally): a vacation.

From 7.8. to 13.8., I will be on a vacation abroad. That means that apart from the translations, there will be no extra articles (with one exception – leaks, if there are any, as they are very easy and quick to post). I am taking my laptop and – IF the wifi is any good – translate the stuff in the evening (probably later than usual). In any case, I will do what I can. Yes, it’s a vacation, but the show must go on, as they say. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, once again, thank you all for your support!

Hello everyone,

Chickentikka from Chinese server recently sent me a scan of a serious Chinese historical publication on WW2 German armor. At first I was like “wut” – and then I realized this is too good not to publish it. The publication actually has some of the most obscure German WW2 projects that actually existed:

Waffenträger Panthers were really planned. But then there’s stuff like this:

Yes, one of the most widely spread fakes, the E-90. It was created as an alternate history project on one AH fan site and started spreading as a real project ever since. So again, it’s a FAKE, please stop asking for it, especially when there is no real need to put made up turrets on E-100 from the game perspective.

But what really got me is this:

How on earth does a shopped Panther get to an alleged history publication, I have no idea. The book also mentions other fakes, such a twin-88mm E-75 (well, that’s new, even for me), the notorious Flakmaus (twin-88mm on Maus chassis) and 150 ton VK7201 aka Failowe. Chinese historians are obviously much stronk.

Hello everyone,

as you probably already know, the FV4202 will be replaced by the Action X Centurion near the end of the year instead of Vickers MBT. To put it mildly, I was not happy about that switch – instead of a fast, agile medium tank not unlike the Leopard, we’ll be getting another Centurion clone with a tougher turret, but unhistorical gun and mediocre mobility and I have my doubts whether such a vehicle will truly be viable on tier 10. We’ll just have to see.

Still, I am not the only one who was wondering, whether there is a way to bring the Vickers MBT into the game after all. Here’s a proposal for a line, compiled by several people, who like British tanks and want to see more of them implemented into the game, specifically (in no particular order) Listy, Okinoshima, Anglomanii, Xlucine, Ogopogo, Vollketten, Ohslowpoke and Dominatus (most are from US forums).

Now, I always said (and I still am) that a British light tank line is problematic, to put it mildly. There is a lot of lowtier stuff, but the issues start at tier 5 and continue right to tier 8, with practically every tier 5+ vehicle being either some obscure prototype or a paper proposal. That does not mean they are unhistorical or completely fake – nothing like that, but the line would inevitably consist of paper projects with a few exceptions. Is it worth it though? Can a factor of “cool” compensate for the lack of historical use? You be the judges.

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Hello everyone,

several players recently started reporting that they had their accounts permabanned for no apparent reason on EU server. They askled about it at support and they got told that it happened due to an attempted credit card fraud: WG product (gold/premium/whatever) was ordered via an electronic card, but the payment was not authorized or was cancelled on the user side.

Strangely enough, only today, two players reported the same issue. The thing is, both claim that they don’t actually own a credit card. So, I investigated a bit from “my sources” and I got told that this in fact really might be some Wargaming screwup. It appeared after the 9.2 patch and it seems it’s not limited to EU server. People are getting permabanned all for the same reason and when they write a support ticket, support service, who is apparently unaware of the issue, tells them to fuck off and treats them like scammers.

If it happens to you, best thing to do is to pester your community representatives and write support tickets.

Hello everyone,

if you follow FTR, you already know that the Soviet tree will be not one, but two medium premium tanks richer. One is the tier 8 T-54 Mod.1945 and the other, recently unveiled, a tier 6 premium tank, the T-34-85M. The first one was already covered in an article, let’s have a look at the latter.

Please note that this tank has nothing to do with the post-war T-34/85 modification, often referred to as “T-34/85M” as well.

The history behind this vehicle is relatively simple. While the T-34 armor was quite good for its time, especially thanks to its sharp slope, on a battlefield swarming with Tigers and Panthers, sloped 45mm of armor just was not enough. Therefore, various Soviet tank designer teams were looking into ways, how to make the formidable T-34/85 even better. Some attempted to improve its firepower, others focused on the armor. This is the latter case.

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