…that’s right, not a branch, a tree. Here’s the link to source message.

Me: *related rant* According to this logic, we should have a Czech tree.
Storm: And who said there won’t be a Czech tree?

*evil smile* (tm Daigensui)

So yea, there will be one. Today, the two gentlemen that made the Swedish tree proposal (Sp15 and Renhaxue) met with WG representatives in Stockholm to discuss the Swedish branch (amongst other things). WG is actively working on what was previously an EU tree, but apparently decided to split the major nations (Czechoslovaks, Swedish, Italians) into separate trees. As far as I know, at this moment, according to WG representatives, the Czechoslovak branch is scheduled first, with the Swedish one (medium/heavy mix, sorry, no S-Tank) as a backup in the event of some major problem with the Czechoslovaks, which frankly is not expected (although there are some things that need to be cleared out).

To that end, me and two Czech historians, V.Francev and J.Tintěra, are meeting again the WG representatives in Prague at the end of the month. I think the final verdict will be known after that, but it’s looking good. Personally, I believe we have found a sure way to bypass the tier 9 issue without sacrificing the premium TVP (earlier “TVP model 1945″, now “TVP Concept”), even though WG doesn’t necesserily agree with me, but well – that’s what the meeting is about.

Well, this is certainly a weird video, thanks to ThorsassGaming for sending this to me.

Check this out. A player Fearkill98 from NOARM (Norwegian Army) clan was recently involved in a very strange Stronkhold battle against (Czechoslovak) clan X5 (will become important later). A tier 10 Stronghold battle – and the enemy X5 team led by an E-100 dragged an entire fucking team of bots in TOG’s into the fight. It’s likely it’s a multibox setup (notice the loading time). Incredible.

How do I know the clan is Czechoslovak (or, rather Slovak)? Well, for one, the E-100 guy has svk in it’s name, but more importantly, the name of the bots, “rota”, means “company” (as in, military unit) in Czech and Slovak.

The videomaker actually asks the right question – what is the point of dragging 14 bots into a battle with you? Especially those with AFK macro? Plus, it probably did cost a lot of money – 13 TOG’s… not cheap.

Anyway, as a result, the entire clan (save for one person) was permabanned, including the E-100 guy. Good riddance.

Author: Vollketten

Every now and then, you stumble across something extraordinary and this is one of those times. Filed 12th February 1969 by Bernd Schmidt, this very special patent is for a whole family of vehicles, using a common hull. The benefits of a single hull for a wide variety of vehicles are very obvious: the ease of maintenance, spares, repair etc. – and he even specifies that in an emeregency, one vehicle should be convertible into anothery. Numerous alternate configurations are specified and some come with a few unconventional features. And ALL of them are more ‘historical’ than some of the current ingame vehicles. Who knows, maybe a candidate or two for some high tier swaps or some premiums? So we’ll go through all 30 variants he specifies one by one.

The basic hull:

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Hello everyone,

just felt like posting this – two days ago I platooned with Rita and while I sucked in that particular battle, Rita did an ace tanker with her StuG. I just felt like posting this, as it was a really good battle.

Seriously though, I thought the term “banana” for the eastern corridor was well used. Or was it on RU server? Can’t remember.

Hello everyone,

Wargaming RU released another WW2-themed video from the “History of Great Victory” series. This time, it’s the memories of Dmitry Mikhailovich Malyshev, a wartime commander of a T-34/85 tank. Do watch it, the memories of veterans are always interesting and actually, we should record as much as we can, as these men and women won’t be around for much longer. English subtitles are available. The video is of distinctive “Russian” style, but still, worth watching.

In the video, Dmitry Malyshev explains how they trained, recieved their T-34/85 tanks, liberated Brest and captured a German Waffen SS general. He continued to Hungary, where he describes an event how he and other Soviet troops knocked out a Panther and a Tiger. He was wounded in October 1944 and remained in Moscow for the rest of the war.

Do expect many more of these videos this year, as the 70th anniversary of the end of the war approaches. One thing is absolutely sure though – no matter what you think of Russians these days, these men were simple soldiers and real heroes. It takes guts to go and fight for your country.

Hello everyone,

I am sure many of you guessed it already, but 9.6 test is supposed to start this Thursday (22.1.2015).

Just so you know :)

Hello everyone,

time for another contributor review. You might have noticed… I don’t know, perhaps more typos lately? That’s because I have less and less time than usually – trying to keep the post standard, but the first thing that went down the drain is proofreading. Working on something very interesting you will see in a couple of weeks hopefully, we’ll see.

And thanks for all the well wishes once again… I actually feel really good these days. The second half of 2014 was really shitty, but it’s better now.

So, today’s huge thanks – apart from all the folks that support FTR on Patreon as usual – go to the following guys, who contributed via Paypal:

M4R4Z (Italy)
cb99 (Sweden)
Eikarrramba (Germany)
SashaBellEntertainment (Michichan, USA)

The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service

http://www.patreon.com/silentstalker

This is the Patreon account of For the Record. In case you read this for the first time and feel like contributing, here is an explanation what it is, how it works and how to contribute. You can find a list of all those, who pledged and help to keep FTR running here.

Thank you all!

Hello everyone,

the following drawings were posted on Yuri Pasholok’s blog, check it out.

Type 120 O-I – the blue line, size comparison with T34 (green) and KV-5 (red).

Type 100 O-I – the red line, in comparison with Soviet T-39 heavy

Type 95 Heavy – the blue line, in comparison with Soviet T-28

For extra lulz – under one of the post, SerB was commenting, asking how they were going to implement it. So I guess we know now what Wargaming is working on for summer, eh?

To that end, to find out what’s going on, I contacted Daigensui, who was working on the previous Japanese line with Wargaming. The problem with Japanese heavies is that info on them is notoriously hard to find – Daigensui for example claimed that the scale on Type 120 was off. Additionally, as far as she knows, no new data have been found. That leads me to following conclusions:

- since Yuri Pasholok reconstructed the O-I drawing, Wargaming found some new materials on their own. Unlikely (they have been attempting that for years), but theoretically possible.
- they just took some very basic known dimensions (my guess: the dimensions of the 150mm O-I gun) and “reconstructed” the rest based on them, which means that the line might not be exactly historical.
- tier 10 was already announced by SerB a long time ago, not exactly a well-researched design either.

With that being said, I have the feeling that a lot of these vehicles might be… let’s say “reconstructed” by SerB’s Design Bureau in Wargaming. Previously, I assumed Japanese heavies would not be the “secret” third line of 2015 based on what Daigensui said (as her and Soukou are very busy and were not able to find any additional info), but with the willingness of Wargaming to “reconstruct” vehicles (to the point of practically totally inventing them, see how vague the vehicle linked above is drawn and described – I mean, basing tier 10 vehicle on a drawing from Russian achive, that came god knows from where), this of course changes the situation and the Japanese heavy line is the new hot candidate for the third line of 2015. This of course also means writing about these vehicles is impossible, as there is simply too little info to go with.

My opinion is that the tier 9 and 10 tanks will almost certainly be 80 percent made up (100 percent if you do not consider a vague Russian report on Japanese heavy tanks based on Japanese hearsay a reliable source). Oh well, at least they look cool.

Thanks to Jeff L. for this one.

Hmmm… that’s a nice toyset, where have I seen the art before…

It would be hilarious to have A-10′s fighting Tigers though…

Hello everyone,

thanks to ColdZero for letting me know about this. If you’re looking for a good deed to start 2015 with, here’s your chance, guys.

Bastogne Barracks museum is a museum dedicated to the last major offensive of nazi Germany, the Ardennes operation and the American troops defending against the German onslaught. The museum itself has a nice collection of armored vehicles as well, some of them were even featured FTR on more than occasion. The base was the HQ of the 101st Airborne in the defense of Bastogne, it also was an aid station and ofcourse the famous response of General McAuliffe on the Germans’ demand for surrender came from this base: “NUTS!”

Now, however, Bastogne Barracks museum needs your help, as the Belgian army (that operates it) is attempting to shut it down as a part of usual peacetime cost reductions.

In order to prevent it, a petition with an open letter, directed at Mr.Steven Vandeput, the Belgian Secretary at the Belgian Department of Defense, was put together by a few fans of the museum

All you have to do is sign the petition, the goal of which are 10k signatures to make the ministry notice it. The description of the entire initiative is written in the petition link.

Personally, I believe that any World of Tanks player and FTR reader, who cares about history should sign it – there’s not that many of us and we have to “stick together” – next military-operated armor museum to be closed could be in YOUR town after all. While the demands to reduce military costs might seem reasonable in the current situation of Europe, we should not sacrifice history and remembrance on the altar of ever lower costs.

Pictures are from Bastogne NUTS 2014 public event.

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