not so long ago, I wrote an article about the Tank Grote, which was intended as a premium tank long, long time ago. At this point it is practically certain that this tank will not appear in the game (multiturret design the reason), but (also long time ago) a WoT model was made of this vehicle – that was not published until now I believe.
The tank looks really good. Too bad they can’t make a – I dunno, a single turret version firing the 76mm only with the miniturret as a decoration. For its time, it was a real beast (keep in mind that this thing is a contemporary of Panzer I and Panzer II, pre-dating the Panzer 35t for example). Historically, it’s tier 2 stuff.
in Test 3, IS-7 turret armor was made a bit thicker. The lower part of the armor near the mantlet (you can see the zone becoming “more red” on the picture) was buffed from 240mm to 270mm, making the turret harder to penetrate (following numerous complaints of RU players, because IS-7 is the favourite tier 10 heavy on RU server). Overall it’s a buff, since on the old model (0.9.2), the same area is 240mm thick. Open the post for a (large) picture.
yet another test iteration (“third test”) did hit the test 9.3 today. Following fixes were made in it:
- fixed the client crashes and freezes, happening in some cases
- fixed the issues with one new medal, awarded for doing 1000 spotting damage in battle
- fixed the bug where the ramming damage in test client was too small
- fixed the bugged weakspots on the IS-7 turret frontal armor
Funny I was checking the 0.9.3 test 2 IS-7 armor and I didn’t notice any bugs. Maybe it was not visible in the viewer or something.
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:
Mark P. (United Kingdom)
Andrew N. (Australia)
Alexey O. (Russia)
Cortis (Germany)
Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.
For those, who asked me how am I doing – it’s better. I think you can still “feel” a bit that FTR is on “limited mode”, but I am doing my best to keep up with stuff. The only thing that was sort of left out are historical tank articles (or at least they are rarer now, but I managed to write some stuff on weekend). Thanks for all the support – I mean it :)
The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service
Wargaming (on RU portal) made a post, explaining what’s going on in the new 9.3 ricochet mechanics.
How it works now
A ricochet is a deflected shot, that hits the armor under a very steep angle. In World of Tanks case, if the AP or APCR (subcaliber) shell hits the armor under the angle of 70 degrees or greater, the shell will automatically ricochet – it will be deflected by the armor without doing any damage. For HEAT shells, the angle is 80 degrees. HE and HESH shells on the other hand do not ricochet at all. Ricochet check is performed when the shell hits the armor (normalization is performed after ricochet check).
Ricochet however does never happen when the “three calibers rule” is applied. This rule says that when the gun caliber (gun, not shell) is three times higher than the armor thickness, ricochets do not happen (HEAT shells do not use this rule however). Furthermore, ricochets do not happen when external modules of the tank are hit (tracks, optics and gun).
What is changed
Currently, two types of ricochets can happen. A shell can ricochet into a the tank (for example in a shot trap) – if, after it ricochets, the shell trajectory aims again at the tank, the shell tries to achieve penetration yet again. If it fails, it disappears. If the shell ricochets off the tank altogether in first place, it disappears.
In 9.3, after the first ricochet happens, the shell will continue on new trajectory in any case (it does not disappear regardless of where it flies). When that happens, APCR and AP shells lose 25 percent from their base penetration value, HEAT shells keep the same penetration value. If the ricocheted shells (with reduced penetration) hits another vehicle, the hit will be calculated based on normal game mechanics. Second such ricochet is not possible (if the shell ricochets again, it disappears).
Ricochets of your shells, hitting an enemy and ricocheting off, damaging your teammate, will not be punished.
a week ago, one of the best known German tank events, the “Stahl auf der Heide” in Munster took place. Here are a couple of videos from the event by “Dunkel Eins”
American billionaire Paul Allen, one of the Microsoft founders, a philantropist, but also an anti-gun activist supporter (funny how all the rich anti-gun law supporters live in closed communities, protected by veritable private armies, isn’t it) has a bit of a problem. He wants to buy a Panzer IV tank, but the owner (Collins foundation) says it’s not for sale. In turn, Paul Allen decided to sue the owners. The article states:
It is a story that not only underscores and highlights the hypocrisy of big money gun control supporters, it turns practicing the double standard into an art form, if the details are being correctly reported. The story says Allen is “an avid collector of historical military planes and other equipment.” Included in that “other” category is a Soviet SCUD missile that Allen reportedly bought for $349,000 and an allegedly “rusty and inoperable Cold War-era M55 self-propelled Howitzer.”
an interesting piece of news appeared on the ria portal. According to the Chief of the Main Armored Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation, Aleksander Shevchenko, the teams in the World of Tanks computer game remind him of real armored units of Russian military. According to him, World of Tanks professional players have all the data needed to control real tanks and to be successful in Russian military service.
He said that during the opening ceremony of the International Cup Championship “Kubinka” event, in which players from South Korea, China and Russia are participating. The championship took place on Russian Tanker’s Day at Kubinka museum. According to Shevchenko, Wargaming is actively cooperating with the Russian Ministry of Defense in promoting the interest of youth in tank history. Shevchenko said: “I am certain that there are future generals of our tank forces amongst the current WoT champions.”
SS: If RU armored forces really resemble WoT teams, world has absolutely nothing to worry about with Russian armored units shooting each other, camping in their bases, calling each other noob etc…
remember the Tas assault gun? This render video was posted on EU forums in the Hungarian section by Angelus1991ster. I am not sure about the author, perhaps it’s Angelus itself, however in any case, it’s a pretty good job.
In case you are interested in this vehicle’s history, Karika wrote an article not so long ago with all the details. In World of Tanks terms, it’s a potential Hungarian tier 7 or 8 tank destroyer (depending on the soft stats).
