Hello everyone,

looks like there’s a very nasty business brewing in the east. Generally, the news from the ASIA server, that get on FTR only concern two things: one is WG information (sometimes, stuff on ASIA server gets released early thanks to the agility of WG ASIA staff) – the other was Tanitha’s former Q&A thread.

But, as it turns out, ASIA has its share of dramas and Wargaming fuckups. This time, it involves a stronk unicum clan, VPA (Vietnamese People’s Army). No, these guys are not trolls – you see, the former separate Vietnamese (VN) server merged with SEA server to create the ASIA cluster. Therefore, Vietnamese players actually do play on ASIA (I can see actually a LOT of visits on FTR from Vietnam and Philippines for some reason – hey guys!).

Anyway, back to stronk drama. I recieved about two dozen e-mails about the same issue, which – for ASIA server – is completely unprecedented. Obviously, ASIA players are interested in this matter and Wargaming’s attitude. The thing is, most of the e-mails contained just a link to a VERY long drama thread, which I did partially read. The short version is: VPA clan rigged CW campaign battles and WG did nothing about it, save for fuelling the fire by locking threads.

Now, before we begin, for the record: I actually like Tanitha (WG Asia producer), he’s been forthcoming and generally pretty decent, but in this case, it’s somehow my impression he managed to drop the ball and – if anything – he did let this issue blow out of proportions. But I am not well-versed in the matters of ASIA server, so I’ll instead let someone else speak, who is – an ASIA server player (I hope he doesn’t mind, but after spending two hours reading the stuff, I didn’t manage to produce anything better than his summary – quite the contrary).

Explanation of the VPA Issue

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Hello everyone,

a short post about the mystery of the third 2015 branch. Please note this is NOT a leak, just my thoughts on the matter, it’s completely possible I am totally off.

So, about 2015 branches. We know there will be three of them and we know in which order they will come, roughly. The first to come (was already mentioned by Storm indirectly, as well as other WG people) will be the French AMX-30 “branch” (AMX-30 prototype, AMX-30 and a bunch of lowtier stuff, like the Somua S-35, not a full branch). This is due possible around Spring 2015. In summer a new branch is planned, which is a mystery. And then, as a third branch, the first part of the EU tree in late 2015 (as far as I can tell, it looks like it’ll be the Czech branch, but who knows with Wargaming, right? We’ll see in January).

In any case, it goes like this:

- Spring 2015: the French
- late Summer 2015: ???
- late 2015: EU

So, the real question is, what is mystery branch in the middle? You might think there are many, many options, but… not really actually. Not that much anyway. Let’s use the elimination method to try to guess then:

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Hello everyone,

today’s advent offer for EU server includes:

- KV-220 + slot
- 6500 gold

Price: 37,27 USD (29,99 EUR)

Meanwhile on Russian server, today’s offer is: 75 percent discount on both credit and gold visual camouflage.

So, I got a key to the WoWs weekend (many thanks Io36 and Dom1n) to try out the first official non-alpha-tester client and decided to try it out. Before we start however… I’d love to tell you about the graphics and mechanics and make a video, but I can’t, because there’s apparently a NDA. Hell, I didn’t sign any NDA! But okay, whatever, enjoy this generic picture of some ship instead of ingame screenies – and my description :)

Personally, I never followed WoWs too closely and stopped following it around the time of Gamescom (and afterwards, with that leaked footage and all that). The reason for my drop of interest was the lack of official gameplay footage – the fact that WG kept releasing these Q&A’s without actually showing what on earth are they talking about annoyed me. Plus, there’s one more thing – I am not that big of a fan of ships. Probably has something to do with the fact that I live in central Europe, known for its distinctive lack of seas (as far as I remember, Czechoslovakia ever only had one warship and that was only a large patrol boat or something).

But why I am writing this: I assume that some people, who are alpha testers (hell, I know a couple myself) will read this and will shake their heads at me not knowing things they take for granted. Well guys, this is how an average Joe Player will approach the game. I mean, there aren’t THAT many ship fans around. Ship games are (and always were) a gaming niche and it cannot be expected for this product to be successful, should only ship fans play it.

And one last thing – I do completely and fully realized this is essentially still an alpha (as in, not even beta). I will take it into account in my comments.

Anyway, to World of Warships.

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Hello everyone,

okay, here’s a short public service announcement, courtesy of VeryRisky (thank you). It’s valid for EU server but I guess it can be applied anywhere.

You see, from Monday (15.12.) till 19.1.2015, there’s a 50 percent consumable discount. Some of you might have gathered some gold consumables you don’t use as rewards from the missions in the past. Maybe they are sitting in your depot and you don’t know it.

If you want to sell them, now would be a good time, because from Monday, you’d get only half their usual selling cost for them.

Hello everyone,

today’s advent offer for EU server includes:

- T1E6 US LT + slot
- Mk.VIc British LT + slot
- 3 days of premium

Price: 12,42 USD (9,99 EUR)

Meanwhile on Russian server, today’s offer is: improved free XP bonus. RU players today get 15 percent of free XP from battles instead of the usual 5 percent.

Hello everyone,

regarding the “mission skipping” on RU server – Ectar confirmed that it’s going to be on EU as well. Hmmm… I wonder if the price for the “bundles” is the same, or it’s while time once again.

Hello everyone,

so, in a way, that old leak, where it was said that “something” is planned for Christmas with T-34-85M and Grosstraktor was right. Only it wasn’t the NY mission (that’s why it was so easy to believe that the T-34-85M would be the marathon tank, since I knew what was going on), but RU shop bundles (which we will probably get too, as ASIA has them as well).

The bundles (valid from 15.12. to 19.1.) are as such:

- KV-5, 30 days of premium and 2000 gold: 50 USD
- T-35-85M, 30 days of premium and 950 gold: 30 USD
- Grosstraktor, 30 days of premium and 3750 gold: 30 USD

The Grosstraktor is NOT worth it (I tested it, it’s shit). T-34-85M? Maybe. KV-5? Well, that’s a known one.

Hello everyone,

as you already probably know by now, the reward for the new year marathon (and let me tell you, it IS a marathon) is the WZ-111 Chinese heavy tank. It’s a very, very old vehicle (it was introduced as the first Chinese vehicle, actually it pre-dates FTR I think) and was Chinese server exclusive until know. And we all know what that means – Chinese are REALLY into pay to win.

So, let’s compare this tank to the “regular” tier 8 Chinese heavy and see what we get.

The first thing you need to know about this tank – it has limited matchmaking. So does the 112 so in this, they are on par. Let’s compare them a bit further then. Both are Chinese heavy tanks, both are armed with a 122mm gun. Both have the same viewrange and radiorange. WZ-111 has 1550 hitpoints (112 has only 1500).

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Hello everyone,

shocked by the difficulty of the WZ-111 mission? Thinking that getting the kills done on certain branches (Japanese one comes to mind) will be sheer masochism?

No worries, RU server has you covered. You see, Wargaming RU prepared a set of 7 bundles. Each costs 10 USD. I am sure you figured it immediately – 7 bundles, 7 nations… that’s right. Paying 10 USD for a national bundle does nothing else but skips that very nation in the WZ-111 mission. By paying 70 USD, you can get the WZ-111 straight away.

I mean, that’s a brilliant plan, isn’t it? :)

Wargaming is not unfair however, if you buy a bundle as such and then don’t get the WZ-111, you’ll get some gold as a compensation after the event is over.