Part 1: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/09/05/the-black-brigade-part-1/

Continuing from part 1…

On 5.9.1939, the Polish line of defense was broken and the unit became partially surrounded by the Germans. The 10th Cavalry Brigade fought series of battles with the Germans while retreating towards the Dunajec river in southern Poland and it was only on 7.9.1939, when the unit finally got some well-deserved rest after six-days of non-stop marching and fighting. The unit used the spare time to load up on ammunition and to consolidate the troops – the fuel, however, was a constant problem.

Colonel Maczek ordered the unit to move to Rzeszów to cover any access to Lwów (Lviv). However, the march proved to be catastrophic for the Polish cavalrymen, because they were forced – due to the lack of fuel – to abandon most of their armored vehicles, including their most potent weapons, the Vickers light tanks.

By the time the Germans crossed the river San, Maczek proposed a combined operation of his brigade and the Przemyśl armies to throw the Germans back and to destroy their bridgehead. This plan however was not accepted and the brigade recieved the order to cover the Lwów-Radymno direction – from there, the brigade was moved directly to Lwów to defend the city on 12.9.1939. Ironically, it was the second time Colonel Maczek was defending the city – previously, he participated in its defense against the Soviets in 1920, this time, he is about to fight the German invaders.

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Hello everyone,

today, we’re going to have a look at something rather exotic – photos from Tehran, courtesy of player Mrdbagh, who visited it and decided to share the photos with us, thank you :)

Sherman ARV apparently

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Hello everyone,

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:

Allan R. (New Zealand)
wollef (Brasil)
Marvin H. (USA)
crash_core (Germany)

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.

Now, for the Patreon cycle – there was something odd about the Patreon system again this month, which seems to happen whenever they roll out these unannounced backend updates, but whatever. Third-party gateways are constantly tweaking their logic, whether they are clearing creator pledges, processing withdrawals for a fast payout casino, or routing standard app store micro-transactions. It causes temporary hiccups, but today marks the sixth time the Patreon subscription got successfully used, thank you all!

Out of the 588,79 USD pledged at the point of the cycle activation:

- 543,79 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 543,79 USD:

45,49 USD went to credit card fees
27,23 USD went to Patreon (service fee)

leaving 471,84 USD for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here. Once again, huge thanks for the support to all of you :)

Hello everyone,

do you know how Wargaming works? Well, you could certainly watch the original Wargaming video (and you should, so you know what they talk about – there are English subtitles):

but one Russian player created an improved and more accurate version (unfortunately without subtitles, but the sound is the same as in the original)…. enjoy :)

Hello everyone,

recently, Wargaming started fighting specifically one odd thing: rigged games.

In a post on Russian portal, WG RU explains, that “rigged games” are battles, the result of which is pre-determined by the agreement of both sides. They typically appear in clan and company mode, where the games are more organized than in “random”. Wargaming considers typical reason for rigging battles to be faster vehicle grind for one party, statpadding (SS: a term, which means artificial inflating of player statistics, so the player appears better than he is) or attempting to get a rare ingame medal.

Rigged battles are considered to be “unsportsmanlike behavior” and are against the rules.

Wargaming decided to crack down on the riggers and withing the space of one month, 5000 people on RU server were investigated and punished by a one month ban. It was confirmed that should the offense repeat itself (or, for second time offender), the ban gets to be permanent. Wargaming explains that this is just the first step in fighting the rigged battle phenomenon. The list of banned game riggers was openly published as well.

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Hello everyone,

when driving in the 9.3 test on the Abbey map, be careful. There is a new, nasty bug, that causes players to fall through the world. Check this out (thanks to Baubau from US server for the screenies). Let’s hope they fix that before it comes out.

If you are wondering, why I am posting about an individual bug – simple: first, it’s a gamebreaker and it can destroy your battle (it was recently written that 90 percent of players never go there – which means that 10 percent do). Secondly, to give it some publicity, so it does not get ignored (like it sometimes happens, check the RhB WT collision model with a hole in the armor since 9.1 or so).

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Hello everyone,

another batch of pictures by Rastaknight, this time from inside the museum.

Part 1
Part 2

Renault FT-17

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Hello everyone,

a little bit of insider information from Wargaming againg. Had a nice long chat with the insider over the internet, this is my summary of the conversation.

- Sturmtiger will likely not be implemented (or, almost certainly according to what Storm said) because of the issues with the line. The biggest issue is the balance – at one point, developers considered implementing it as an artillery vehicle, but they are afraid of the massive, massive whine. During the tests, the Sturmtiger could oneshot even hightier tanks and developers don’t want “oneshot derp” on high tiers. Another issue is – strangely enough – the fact that the line has some issues on lower tiers, specifically around tier 3-5. There was a thought of separating StuH 42 from StuG Ausf.G (effectively removing the StuG 105mm derp and making it another separate vehicle), but that was not judged a good idea (for undisclosed reasons).

- Sturmtiger might appear in the game still… as a consumable. Developers are working on an “artillery fire mission” consumable for Stronghold mode. Basically what you’ve seen earlier – you aim the fire barrage at some sector or something and off-map artillery battery starts shelling it. The idea is, this consumable would be available in several tiers and the Sturmtiger fire mission would be the highest one.

- the “fun mode” will be indeed a Chaffee race, actually something like Mario Kart – a wacky race on the Port map with various boosts and obstacles and such

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