Wargaming “Let’s Battle” Magazine

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Hello everyone,

no doubt you have already noticed the “Let’s Battle” Wargaming Magazine. For some weird reason, Wargaming decided to distribute it only for Android and iOS – not sure why, personally, I don’t use my phone for any kind of such crap (plus, the download has like 130 megs, fun on mobile connection). It’s possible they did it so as to have control over its distribution. Fear not however, you can run the magazine on PC too (thanks to several FTR readers who suggested it).

First, install Bluestacks application. In it, register your google account and then download the magazine (it’s all pretty automatic, even a barbarian like me managed to do it). The magazine itself is graphically pretty, but seems hard to use – I had some problems finding what’s where, but maybe it’s the clumsy PC interface

So, what’s in the magazine? Is it worth downloading?

- first, there is a foreword by V.Kislyi. “We’re the best, 75 mil accounts, have fun.” Bla bla bla. Next.
- next, there is a letter from an editor. Like I give a damn. Next.
- some pictures from Kursk and Parola museums. Interesting, but not new.
- a nice Battle of Kursk feature. “Russia stronk” and all that. Nothing new.
- e-sports stuff, no mention of the screwed up finale at Tychy. No wonder.
- some “funny” videos, next
- interview with P.Bityukov – quite interesting, how he started and all, worth reading, but no new info, very generic
- interview with some WoWp guy from Paris
- interview with Storm (M.Zhivets) – very short, absolutely nothing new
- Japanese tank introduction, quite generic, the guy who made it mentions Girls und Panzer for some reason, he translates “Panzerfahren” as “Tankery”. Ugh.
- World of Warships stuff, nicely done actually, there is a Battle of Philippines Sea introduction
- tactics, guides, nothing new

Conclusion

I don’t know. Graphically, it’s very pretty and I think it will appeal to people, who are really into the mobile tech and all that. I am not, I use my phone only for… you know, calling. And SMS. And reading e-mails. I guess I just have a personal problem with not being able to use my primary gaming platform (PC) to read gaming stuff, I like to have everything on one pile.

Installing Bluestacks fixed the issue for me partially, but some of the pages didn’t work properly. Either way, for how big the magazine is, there is surprisingly little info. I can only guess it’s meant to appeal especially to western audience (American?) and new players. It’s shiny, but for experienced players, apart from the historical articles and the life stories of Storm and P.Bityukov, there is very little of interest. Even the historical articles are quite… I don’t know… bland. Stuff you can find on Wikipedia mostly.

If I was asked, whether it’s worth downloading for a FTR reader, I’d probably say “no”, but feel free to check it out. It’s not THAT terrible, but the fact it’s not distributed via PDF (which would probably not be so hard to do, given the fact the only “not compatible” element with PDF are the videos) hurts it a lot I’d say.

My personal taste would be less graphics, less programming thingies (interactive windows etc.), more text. MUCH more text.

41 thoughts on “Wargaming “Let’s Battle” Magazine”

  1. That personal taste of yours is pretty dull… probably been reading newspaper so much

          • SS, here’s something interesting from the Chinese server (which I don’t know if someone has posted already), the link is here:

            http://wot.kongzhong.com/zixun/gonggao/20140130/19717.html

            The article is out on Chinese New Year’s Eve, but I didn’t have access to broadband network at that time (damn the underdeveloped rural areas). Anyway, this article is basically the New Year wishes from WoT CN agent “kongzhong.com” to all the Chinese players, as well as the outlook for Year 2014. The final part of the article may give us some useful info about what is likely to happen:

            1、引擎升级：与时俱进的次世代战斗效果，将是2014《坦克世界》的一大亮点，让您身临其境的体会钢与火的碰撞，同时不需要提升电脑配置哦；
            Physics engine upgrades, probably referring to Havok. It is said that the new engine won’t reduce performance on existing computers.

            2、玩法创新：历史战带您重回战火纷飞的二战战场，真实再现经典战役的精彩瞬间；车库战让您的顶级车辆不再落灰车库，看看谁才是最强的坦克英豪……更多新奇、有趣的玩法等待您的体验；
            Historical battles and possibly garage battles for TOP TIER vehicles would come in 2014.

            3、科技树完善：新系别、新车型依然少不了，欧系坦克即将崛起，中国坦克再添新丁，强大的坦克阵容超乎你想象；
            New tech trees/branches: the EU tree, and (this is somewhat confusing) new Chinese vehicles. IIRC WG said new Chinese vehicles were not to come in 2014, but if I know kongzhong.com and WG well enough, it’s possible Chinese TDs/arties would come before the year ends.

            4、社群升级：除了7V7和领土争夺战，《坦克世界》将在游戏内新增诸多易于玩家组队交友的功能，让志同道合的战友可以并肩战斗，远离坑货！
            New interfaces that enable you to make friends with other players (i.e. find players that live in the same city as you do / have similar efficiency rate / prefer the same vehicle(s) as you do). This is probably CN server only, since the prototype of those new features is based on the “Hot Spot” add-on – which is basically an ingame web browser that’s directed to specific webpages.

            5、平台联动：当您不再满足于称霸陆地时，《战机世界》和《战舰世界》已经蓄势待发，空中网与Wargaming长期战略合作将为中国玩家献上更多优质的网游作品！
            About World of Warplanes and World of Warships: they’re getting ready to be released (of course) and, they will also be run by kongzhong.com in China. (Expect Chinese premium planes – I would thank kongzhong.com for not creating golden ones.)

            That’s it. Personally I’m looking forward to Chinese TDs and arties, even though they may be less historical.

  2. Bonus info: There was a bonus code link in there for new users, 7 days prem account, an m22 locust and a plane for WoWP.

    • It is the one thing I somehow actually missed when watching the dub after the sub is the random German that they threw in at parts (was done by the subtitle provider, because it was apprently part of the japanese audio. Never actually heard any though)

      • > because it was part of the japanese audio
        No it wasn’t. The only german in the whole show was when they shouted “Panzer vor!”. The group you mean threw in random german words becaue they were all 14 year olds (the subbers, not the characters in the show).

          • Didn’t mean to sound angry there :)
            I just can’t stand said subbing group for doing this unnecessary BS.

            • np mate, never did and thanks for the info :). Still would have liked if they kept the japanese name for tournament/tanker/panzerfahren I think it was something line sensha-do.

            • To be fair their releases also included alternative subs without the BS. I hated that german bs too, got the show from HS. “Panzer Vor! means Panzer Vor!” is neat though.

          • Oh, I could find the second track quite easily, thank you very much. But it says a lot about your mental age if you’re willingly putting a “joke” sub on the first track. But I soon deleted them anyway as their translation job was pretty terrible.
            Good thing there were other groups subbing that…

  5. Very bad weakspot guide in there. Weakspot guide for IS-3 without mentioning the whole upper roof plate which is overmatched and instapened for any caliber over 60mm. It is the single most reliable weakspot especially for bigger tanks…

  6. I love the average Russians view of Kursk. Its completely at odds with the actual Soviet Army records.

  7. The aim of this is just to spread the info PC (forums-aware) players already have among more casual players – it’s obvious that people like us who read all news every day won’t find new and interesting stuff.
    The problem is the same as with, say, Level or Score – these days the reviews in it are worthless, since by the time an issue gets out, you’ve read 10 reviews online, discussed it on Twitter and played pirated copy. Good only for casuals who will go to buy games only after reading the magazines for recommendations, because they don’t follow gaming scene.

    • Kingdom Come article in last Level was quite informative though – lots of the info there I hadn’t seen anywhere else, actually some of it may be unique to the article even now.

      Also, code for 300 gold + premium aircraft for WoWp included, yay.

      (The reviews are worthless though, true dat. Also there were so many indie titles reviewed that it felt like 13 years old issue.)

  10. It fits for WG target area : Successful , hardworking `Murican Dads who just want to read some stuff before they casually log in and play for fun after long , hard working day at (insert company name here).

  11. More text would require more reading. In case you had not gotten the memo, people are supposed to be averse to reading. It requires brainpower. The horror.

    Yes, I am also oldschool. And a student of history to boot.

  12. Best thing is in article how to shot to Tiger II – they are advising to shot machine gun port as a weakspot, while it was removed some time ago. GG WG, as usual.

    For IS-3 – no mention of big juicy ammo rack or weakspot on the turret different than hatches.

    No info about rough minimal penetration needed to penetrate armor sections – like if you have 200 pene, you can just push through IS-3 frontal plate, or ~220+ letting you penetrate through Tiger II’s turret front plate.

    Also nice feature – premium tanks for new registrations, no bonus for old players.

  13. At least from the magazine, we can notice that we will have discounts on medium tanks tomorrow.

  14. For a first effort, it’s not bad. I’ve seen better e-magazines, but overall, not too bad, they used the capabilities of the format pretty well. The information is a bit shallow, but considering the quality of the players on my teams last night, there are plenty of people who could really stand to read the thing. Lacking as they are, it’s still better than what I’ve been seeing lately.

    I would like to see the history bits expanded a bit, along with features from actual historians and such, I know they have plenty of people who could contribute some great stuff. Just seeing an exclusive article or something from the Chieftain in there would make it worthwhile. I’ll download them and flip through, no harm in that. i do wish their survey had a place for actual suggestions instead of just the multiple choice like-don’t like scale.

  15. “- Japanese tank introduction, quite generic, the guy who made it mentions Girls und Panzer for some reason, he translates “Panzerfahren” as “Tankery”. Ugh.”

    Maybe not a good literal translation, but as used in the show isn’t that basically what it means?

  16. if I download it for android phone device, as new… how to get the code?
    is will become by e-mail or for the “Let’s Battle” app inside ?
    it’s all about bluestacks?
    thanks good news.