Many thanks to Edrard for this one.

Hello everyone,

here are the winrate statistics of top tier vehicles for last two weeks (sorted by class and winrate).

Hello everyone,

Russian server has yet another “change your password, recieve 300 gold” event, there was at least one before. In the portal article, it is explained that this is not random.

Recently, few days ago, there was a massive username/password leak (millions of usernames) from the biggest Russian post servers, specifically Mail.ru and Yandex (ironically, Mail.ru company is developing a World of Tanks competitor game, Armored Warfare and is responsible for at least one more World of Tanks clone). As a result, Wargaming decided to provide incentives to players to change the password.

Fortunately, EU/US has no such leaks, but, unfortunately, it also means we likely won’t be getting the same event.

Hello everyone,

welcome, to yet another Hall of Shame. It’s been a while since the last one and there is a reason for it. The reason was that a couple of Russian mod makers were developing a mod specifically for this “occasion”. What this mod does is it takes lists of names from Hall of Shame and – if the user of the mod enters a battle and a HoS player is present – it immediately reports them automatically for “unsportsmanlike behavior” or for “insults/provocation”.

If many people use this mod, many reports will accumulate and it’s completely possible to have the Hall of Shame members banned and/or chatbanned (even repeatedly and/or permanently). A prototype of the mod is already functional, but there are bugs still and its development was delayed by summer vacations – once the bugs get removed, the mod will be released to public with everyone who ever appeared in the Hall of Shame listed. I do believe this solution is more elegant than any teamkilling or anything like that. Mod will work for both US and EU server (possibly for ASIA, that was not yet tested).

With that being said, let’s get to it :) Be warned, below this line there is some of the worst scum WoT has to offer.

Continue reading →

Part 1: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/09/05/the-black-brigade-part-1/

Continuing from part 1…

On 5.9.1939, the Polish line of defense was broken and the unit became partially surrounded by the Germans. The 10th Cavalry Brigade fought series of battles with the Germans while retreating towards the Dunajec river in southern Poland and it was only on 7.9.1939, when the unit finally got some well-deserved rest after six-days of non-stop marching and fighting. The unit used the spare time to load up on ammunition and to consolidate the troops – the fuel, however, was a constant problem.

Colonel Maczek ordered the unit to move to Rzeszów to cover any access to Lwów (Lviv). However, the march proved to be catastrophic for the Polish cavalrymen, because they were forced – due to the lack of fuel – to abandon most of their armored vehicles, including their most potent weapons, the Vickers light tanks.

By the time the Germans crossed the river San, Maczek proposed a combined operation of his brigade and the Przemyśl armies to throw the Germans back and to destroy their bridgehead. This plan however was not accepted and the brigade recieved the order to cover the Lwów-Radymno direction – from there, the brigade was moved directly to Lwów to defend the city on 12.9.1939. Ironically, it was the second time Colonel Maczek was defending the city – previously, he participated in its defense against the Soviets in 1920, this time, he is about to fight the German invaders.

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Hello everyone,

today, we’re going to have a look at something rather exotic – photos from Tehran, courtesy of player Mrdbagh, who visited it and decided to share the photos with us, thank you :)

Sherman ARV apparently

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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:

Allan R. (New Zealand)
wollef (Brasil)
Marvin H. (USA)
crash_core (Germany)

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.

Now, for the Patreon cycle – there was something odd about the Patreon system again, but whatever. Today marks the sixth time the Patreon subscription got successfully used, thank you all!

Out of the 588,79 USD pledged at the point of the cycle activation:

- 543,79 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 543,79 USD:

45,49 USD went to credit card fees
27,23 USD went to Patreon (service fee)

leaving 471,84 USD for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here. Once again, huge thanks for the support to all of you :)

Hello everyone,

do you know how Wargaming works? Well, you could certainly watch the original Wargaming video (and you should, so you know what they talk about – there are English subtitles):

but one Russian player created an improved and more accurate version (unfortunately without subtitles, but the sound is the same as in the original)…. enjoy :)

Hello everyone,

recently, Wargaming started fighting specifically one odd thing: rigged games.

In a post on Russian portal, WG RU explains, that “rigged games” are battles, the result of which is pre-determined by the agreement of both sides. They typically appear in clan and company mode, where the games are more organized than in “random”. Wargaming considers typical reason for rigging battles to be faster vehicle grind for one party, statpadding (SS: a term, which means artificial inflating of player statistics, so the player appears better than he is) or attempting to get a rare ingame medal.

Rigged battles are considered to be “unsportsmanlike behavior” and are against the rules.

Wargaming decided to crack down on the riggers and withing the space of one month, 5000 people on RU server were investigated and punished by a one month ban. It was confirmed that should the offense repeat itself (or, for second time offender), the ban gets to be permanent. Wargaming explains that this is just the first step in fighting the rigged battle phenomenon. The list of banned game riggers was openly published as well.

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

when driving in the 9.3 test on the Abbey map, be careful. There is a new, nasty bug, that causes players to fall through the world. Check this out (thanks to Baubau from US server for the screenies). Let’s hope they fix that before it comes out.

If you are wondering, why I am posting about an individual bug – simple: first, it’s a gamebreaker and it can destroy your battle (it was recently written that 90 percent of players never go there – which means that 10 percent do). Secondly, to give it some publicity, so it does not get ignored (like it sometimes happens, check the RhB WT collision model with a hole in the armor since 9.1 or so).

Continue reading →