Interview with Richard “Challenger” Cutland

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Source: http://www.army-technology.com/features/featureworld-of-tanks-developer-on-rebuilding-lost-legends-4359918/

Hello everyone,

the army-technology portal published an interview with Richard “Challenger” Cutland, the EU employee responsible for… well, I have absolutely no idea what he does apart from going to meetings with players but apparently, according to US history expert Chieftain, he does a lot, so that’s that.

It’s mostly a “we love tank history” article, not that much about the game, but about the attitude of Wargaming towards museums and such. Short version:

- Richard Cutland has 30 years of real tanking experience in British Army’s Royal Tank Regiment on Chieftain, Challenger I and Challenger II tanks
- he joined Wargaming as a “miliary specialist” in 2012
- attitude of Wargaming towards history is very positive
- in WG service, he got to drive AMX-13, Tiger I and T-72
- future plans for real life tanks: restoring a T-34/76 in belarus, lifting a KV-1 from the bottom of the river in Voronezh, restoring the Maus
- Maus restoration will be difficult and problematic due to the sheer size of the vehicle, its poor state (everything inside is missing, it’s just a shell) and lack of parts
- Wargaming works with museums by bringing new people interested in history to them

Regarding the future of cooperation with Bovington:

“Bovington’s got a large, mobile fleet, and to keep that on the road for things like Tankfest is quite scarily expensive. We are going to run a series of specials; what that means is there will be a premium package available on the game, with the proceeds going to help Bovington restore their current fleet of operational vehicles. Their Comet is in dire need of a mechanical overhaul. There’s the M4 Sherman as well, an incredibly well-known vehicle that’s really popular. That needs its tracks replaced amongst other repairs before it can get roadworthy again.”

- it’s possible Wargaming will have (pay for) some sort of warship restored in the future

12 thoughts on “Interview with Richard “Challenger” Cutland”

  1. Restoration-
    Maus price tag $10-15 million?

    Kv-1 price tag $2-4 million?
    Probably still runs after some needed vodka =)

    T-34/76 price tag $0.5-2 million?

    Manufacturing parts would be probably the most expensive part, people on payroll, tank experts, vodka and beer.

    Money well spent, I hope!

    Warship restoration $10-50 million?, depends on size, age of said warship

      • Oh c’mon, they were talking about restoring a ship that can still float on water by itself! Not bringing up a broken in half gigantic battleship wreck! That’s beyond anyone’s expenses.

      • I doubt we even have the technology to raise a shipwreck from a depth of 300+ metres. Sadly our ship raising technology isn’t all that great (or cheap, 300 million dollars to upright the costa concordia)

        Though the biggest issue is that Yamato is the grave to over 3000 seamen. It would be none too savvy to disturb them.

  3. - it’s possible Wargaming will have (pay for) some sort of warship restored in the future

    There’s a very intact half of a ship of the line under the baltic sea that could do with being raised and preserved…

    …ignoring the fact that it’s somewhat older than anything they usually deal with

  4. There was a Z class destroyer and a Black Swan class sloop up for sail in Egypt in July, they should have bought them.

  5. - attitude of Wargaming towards history is very positive
    When it comes to the glorious soviet history I’m sure they are, but not towards anything else.

  7. If they launch more Bovington packages, they should make them available outside of EU. They had some nice packages last time, I would have gotten one if it was available.