Hello everyone,

recently, I wrote about an issue, where a large amount of players got suddenly banned for alleged attempted credit card fraud. Today, there is a post in the Czech section, explaining the situation.

Earlier, I wrote it might be some sort of Wargaming screwup, but as it turned out, I was mistaken: it is apparently not so. According to the Wargaming post, accounts were banned that – according to the card providers, not Wargaming – did misuse or tried to misuse credit cards. This did not require the transaction successfully completed, an attempt to misuse was enough to cause your account to be flagged for ban. What that means is typically this:

- someone used someone else’s credit card (friends’ for example) and the payment was flagged as that card’s misuse
- someone tried to use some credit card data that he for example found on the internet, it did not work, but the account was flagged as well

As a result of things such as listed above, flagged accounts (according to Wargaming, it’s “less than 1 percent of players” and “in hundreds”) got banned.

I’ve been following the discussion on EU forums, I also had several mail conversations with people who happened to have their accounts banned and at least in some cases, I am sorry to say that the bans actually appear justified. Of course, whether they really are is another matter, but here is what Wargaming suggests you do, if you feel like you have been banned unjustly:

- contact the support
- you will be told about the payment and the card number, that flagged your account for ban
- you will be asked to present a photo of the credit card with first 6 and last 4 digits visible, the rest of the card data can be blurred/covered. If it was for example a friend’s cart and he did let you use it willingly, it is just a mistake and your account will of course be unblocked.
- alternatively, a bank statement with that respective credit card payment can also be presented (it just has to show the first 6 last 4 digits).

If you don’t have access to either…. well, sorry.

You can contact support here (just click on “my tickets” and “new ticket”). You can write in whatever language you want (and WG supports). I wish you swift resolution of the matter.

Hello everyone,

Russian server is going to have a special mission for the Stronghold mode – if you win and survive (!), you recieve 2000 extra XP for the battle – unlimited times. This mission is valid for the rest of the month from tomorrow.

That’s kinda awesome. Unfortunately, no such mission is planned for EU server according to the leaked missions for this month. It’s not impossible however for such an unplanned mission to appear on EU or US as well, but that would mean one thing – that the mode needs support.

In fact, a question for clan players: what is your take on the Stronghold mode, now that it’s here for a few days?

I personally haven’t even tried it (considering the rules match the company ones), but from what German, Czech, English and Russian feedback I’ve been reading, I noticed that a lot of people actually complain about the mode – specifically, the way it is played. You see, there is no “skill MM”, so very stronk clans get matched against new or “fun” clans. While the base can be accessed and built by everyone, getting steamrolled by a R1SE/FAME/EFE/etc. kill team is probably not the most entertaining thing out there (in CW, this is mitigated by the landing mechanism and the overall complicated nature of the mode, that requires coordination and dedication). This complaint appeared in numerous threads.

So I have to wonder, will the Stronghold mode become very popular like the Team battles did, or will it die out after a while like historical battles? What do you think?

Hello everyone,

you might have heard of it before – the Tank Biathlon event, where crews of various countries compete in Alabino, Russia.

Official description:

Tank Biathlon World Championship will kick-off in Alabino, a town to the southwest of Moscow, on August 4. Teams from Angola, Armenia, Belarus, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia and Venezuela will have to navigate a distance of 20 kilometres (12.5 miles), evading various obstacles, crossing rivers and bridges and shooting at a set of targets. All teams except for China will compete using Russia-made T-72B tanks.

The event will be streamed here:

Thanks to whoever sent me this (I forgot to note the nickname).

Hello everyone,

there is an interesting playlist on Youtube, showing videos with Japanese tanks. For example, here is the Type 89 I-Go:

If you have time, check it out, the entire list is available here.

Hello everyone,

IS-3 is one of the more popular heavies in this game. It’s got the looks firewpower and armor to match it and when it comes to brawling, few things surpass tons of Russian steel. However, it has one catch – the BL-9 gun.

Sure, the gun performs relatively well – it has massive firepower and while not exactly the most accurate gun out there, its penetration is very decent and especially with gold ammo it rocks. The problem with it is that the vehicle does not look historical with it. This is the setup with D-25T:

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

a rather interesting video by EU server player Chickentikka (respect to your English!) about the WZ-111 heavy tank, standing in the Beijing museum. Plus there is a peek inside, nice!

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:

Lars R.T. (Denmark) – extraordinary donation!
Simon S. (Sweeden)

Thank you both, guys. I really appreciate it. Now, for the Patreon cycle – this time, everything went smooth. Today marks the fifth time the Patreon subscription got successfully used, thank you all!

Out of the 530 USD pledged at that point:

- 500,10 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 500,10 USD:

43,71 USD went to credit card fees
25,04 USD went to Patreon (service fee)

leaving 431,35 USD for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here. Big thank you goes to all of you, but especially to Tugboat1964, who continuously supports FTR. I will do my best not to disappoint.

Now, the technical matter:

I normally don’t say what I spend the money for, but this time, I’m going to mention that I am going to use the extra cash for something I haven’t had for ages (years, literally): a vacation.

From 7.8. to 13.8., I will be on a vacation abroad. That means that apart from the translations, there will be no extra articles (with one exception – leaks, if there are any, as they are very easy and quick to post). I am taking my laptop and – IF the wifi is any good – translate the stuff in the evening (probably later than usual). In any case, I will do what I can. Yes, it’s a vacation, but the show must go on, as they say. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, once again, thank you all for your support!

Hello everyone,

Chickentikka from Chinese server recently sent me a scan of a serious Chinese historical publication on WW2 German armor. At first I was like “wut” – and then I realized this is too good not to publish it. The publication actually has some of the most obscure German WW2 projects that actually existed:

Waffenträger Panthers were really planned. But then there’s stuff like this:

Yes, one of the most widely spread fakes, the E-90. It was created as an alternate history project on one AH fan site and started spreading as a real project ever since. So again, it’s a FAKE, please stop asking for it, especially when there is no real need to put made up turrets on E-100 from the game perspective.

But what really got me is this:

How on earth does a shopped Panther get to an alleged history publication, I have no idea. The book also mentions other fakes, such a twin-88mm E-75 (well, that’s new, even for me), the notorious Flakmaus (twin-88mm on Maus chassis) and 150 ton VK7201 aka Failowe. Chinese historians are obviously much stronk.