Hello everyone,

having trouble being hit by artillery? Maybe this guide will help you. Sure, for some people the advice given in this video by _PizzaGuy_ (linking stats to show he actually knows what he is talking about) is obvious, but it might help some of the people.

Thanks to Lert for this one.

A little taste of things to come, no? :)

Thanks to Matthew H. for this one.

Relive. History. Battles. Conqueror. Right. Good job, advertisers.

For extra lulz, check the Conqueror turret in the picture:

Got it? Now, look at the real Conqueror turret:

Quite different, hmm? That’s because WG artist fucked the Conqueror turret up – they basically “merged” a Conqueror turret and a Centurion turret for some strange reason, creating a Frankenconqueror. How on earth did that happen? Hell if I know. The screwed up Conqueror picture is quite old (from the time the British got introduced), not sure why it gets recycled. But I like that double mantlet part.

Hello everyone and welcome to 2015!

Let’s start with something very positive, shall we?

Wargaming decided to do some good work with charity in grand style. They donated two codes (with some t-shirts and stuff nobody cares about) – one for Type 59 and one for the legendary Panzer II Ausf.J to be auctioned to the highest bidder for the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity organization.

This charity organization is a respectable Polish charity, dedicated to helping children in need in Poland by buying medical equipment for surgeries and such.

Yes, this event is primarily for Polish players and as such, it was published on Polish portal. The auction of two bundles itself (one for the Type, one for the Panzer) takes place on the Allegro portal (basically a Polish version of E-Bay) and is active until 14.1.2015 and the entire proceedings will be donated to charity. Now THAT is something I can get behind, no “20 percent from bundle” bullshit.

In order to participate, you don’t have to be Polish (confirmed by WG staff, anyone can participate), but you have to register on Allegro.

The link to the Type 59 auction is here (current bid is cca 381 Euro), for Panzer IIJ is here (current bid is 234 Euro). So, good luck!

Actually took me a while to decide whether to post it or not, since with the western buying power, Polish players might actually not get this prize as the western players simply have more money, but it’s for charity, it’s a good thing… so why not.

PS: it’s first day of the year and we have a saying “the way the first day goes the rest of the year will go as well”, so please, I don’t want to see any hate posts or anything. It’s charity. Just… enjoy your first day and drink a lot of liquids if you have a hangover :)

Hello everyone,

Wargaming staff wants to wish you everything best in New Year – English subtitles available.

Wishes from VP A.Yarancev (vice prezident), Michael “Storm” Zhivec, Anton “Evilly” Pankov, Alla Vasileva (general manager), Sergei “SerB” Burkatovsky and “Big Boss” Viktor Kislyi.

Source: http://forbes.ua/business/1385361-vice-prezident-wargaming-najti-otvety-na-vse-voprosy-tolko-vnutri-kompanii-nevozmozhno

Hello everyone,

an interesting interview appeared on the Forbes site with WG vice-president Andrey Yarantsev. It was made in connection to the increase of WG-modmaker cooperation in the wake of the WGDC event. Some of the stuff is actually interesting. A summary of points he made:

- the main audience of WoT is people between 25 and 30 years old
- developers started to work with modmakers because “every company reaches a stage, when it cannot find all the answers inside the company itself due to the interference of various stereotypes, patterns of behavior and legacy of the past. That’s why we are starting to look for the answers outside.”
- creating a new feature for World of Tanks involves a certain “bureaucratic” mechanism of checks, that prevents implementing a feature, that would for example make WG lose players in another region (SS: related to the fact that it’s not easy to implement a useful mod into the game “just so”)
- current goal of cooperation with modmakers for Wargaming is to allow them to access the internal structures via API, so that they are prepared for future patches and there’s not butthurt over mods stopping working
- of all the WG brands, World of Tanks is the strongest
- WG is constantly working on not becoming a “one brand company”
- regarding the failure of World of Warplanes, the situation there is “special”: he admits that the size of the market (and the niche) was overestimated by WG), he hopes that World of Warships will be better, crossing the boundaries of the niche
- A.Pankov (Evilly) on WoWp: “Let me put it politically correctly and mildly – we need to polish the warplanes.” (SS: literally finish working on them, as in they being an unfinished product)
- WG is working on other projects as well, no specifics, they are looking for niches to expand to
- it’s possible that WoT VR will come in 2015
- it’s possible that China in 2015 will see a boom of microconsoles operating the Android as well as TV’s with integrated gaming equipment. If the Chinese get their licenses successfully, WoT might expand to these platforms
- according to the guy, prices (specifically of premium accounts as an example) are the same all over the world, with some small differences of course. One of the goal of working with 3rd parties is to make the game accessories (portal and such) more nation-specific

Hello everyone,

here’s an interesting design I think, check this out.

During my recent chat with V.Francev, a subject of Škoda repair logs came up. As many historians would confirm, factory repair logs (as in, what was repaired, when and for how long) are a true goldmine, when it comes to information and V.Francev happens to be in possession of complete wartime Škoda repair logs.

One interesting thing that popped up in them (if I remember correctly) was a record of two vehicles repaired in 1941 (after the Soviet Union invasion). They were German-made field conversions of the (by now obsolete) Panzer 35t (Czechoslovak LT Vz.35). The Germans removed the turret and added some sort of superstructure along with the 47mm Czechoslovak AT gun, used in the well-known Panzerjäger I. Unfortunately, no photo or description of these vehicles survived, so the picture above represents only my impression of how the vehicle might have looked like. No further fate of these vehicles was recorded.

WoT-wise, the design is pretty much pointless, as Germany has shitloads of well-documented lowtier TD options left. Historically however, it represents a good example of how much actually happened during the wartime years and how much information was lost. There are many, MANY things waiting to be discovered in the archives, Czechoslovak artillery archive alone has still decades worth of research left apparently. Oh well, let’s hope more and more interesting designs see the light of day :)

Thanks to Flyingd for this one.

Hello everyone,

according to the news published on the Saumur site, the only running Tiger II in the world (from Saumur) will appear in early February 2015 in Paris on the Rétromobile autoshow event, taking place from 4.2. to 8.2. along with another tank from Saumur, the early AMX-30. This expo, taking place at Parc des expositions de la Porte de Versailles is dedicated to showing vintage vehicles of various ages.

This particular Tiger II was captured in France, as the Retromobile site article explains:

In late August 1944, 14 Tiger II tanks were transported by rail convoy from their delivery point at the Camp de Mailly to the East of Paris. The squadron then moved towards Beauvais. On 23 August, they were sent to the front at the US bridgehead at Mantes-sur-Seine. Half of the tanks broke down on the way; the others arrived in the Vexin region, 5 kms from the American front.

The Tigers were engaged in battle on 26 August at Fontenay-St-Père, and on 28 August they were deployed once more at Sailly. Surrounded in the village, our Royal Tiger managed to escape northwards, crossed the Montcient bridge, and toiled up the slope.

Totally exposed, the giant was soon spotted by the Americans. It tried to avoid the intense artillery fire by advancing in zigzag fashion. Once on the plateau between Sailly and Montalet, a small area of woodland afforded temporary shelter, but the Americans promptly focused their fire power on the wood. The hunted 70-ton Tiger hurtled forward at full speed, crushing everything in its path. It crossed the entire wood, clearing a path that would be visible for a long time after. When it reached the edge of the wood, the oveheated engine broke down. The crew abandoned the tank under machine gun fire and did not take the time to sabotage it. Besides three destroyed in combat, most of the tanks in this company would be abandoned (because of mechanical failure or lack of fuel) and sabotaged.
Our Royal Tiger remained forgotten on the edge of the wood until a free French military unit came to collect it. It is thought that it was then taken to AMX at Satory to be reconditioned. In early 1945, this tank, along with other German machines, formed a French armoured squadron made up of captured tanks scheduled to be deployed during the German campaign. Following this it was taken back to Satory before being moved to the Musée des Blindés in Saumur under the supervision of Colonel Aubry.

In any case, if you are in Paris in February, you might want to check it out!

Hello everyone,

for reasons unknown to me, I kinda forgot one video of the Ranzar series and discovered it only yesterday. Here it is.