Hello everyone,

a few screenies from the 9.5 KTTS video. The individual mission selection screen – as you can see, the stages will unlock as you progress.

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Hello everyone,

it turns out that the leaked December/January mission list is invalid – WG simply made a bogus one and they did let it leak. Happens. The upcoming missions are quite different from the leaked ones. What was leaked:

6.12.-9.12.: “Winter Wolfpack”

- x3 XP for first victory
- 30 percent discount on tier 6-7 regular medium tanks
- 50 percent discount on tier 5 regular medium tanks
- 30 percent discount on Panzer IV Schmalturm and M10 Panther

- deal at least 1000 damage in battle while surviving in a tier 4+ medium tank, get 50 percent crew XP bonus
- destroy at least 1 medium tank in battle in a tier 4+ vehicle, get 50 percent crew XP bonus
- destroy 50 medium tanks (repeatable) in a tier 4+ vehicle, get 10 gold repair kits, 10 gold medkits, 10 gold extinguishers

What is actually coming:

6.12.-9.12.: “David and Goliath”

- deal 1500 spotting damage and survive in a tier 4+ light tank, get 50 percent crew XP bonus
- deal 1250 damage in a tier 4+ heavy tank, get 50 percent crew XP bonus

Too bad – considering the previous mission leaks were reliable for months now, I was really looking forward to it, mea maxima culpa. But then, we should have not expected Wargaming EU to be THIS generous :)

Last post about the Hall of Shame, I promise :)

Player Der_Mittelfranke, who was insulted by the apologizing HoS ex-member contacted me with his reply to the matter and I was asked to – if possible – publish it. Why not – both sides get to talk. I think it’s an important example altogether of how things should really go. Thanks to both sides for settling this.

English translation (not mine):

Yes, I was the one who submitted those pictures (“Der_Mittelfranke”, EU-Server). I am certainly not a shy guy and when my nerves are stressed it might happen that I call other palyers “noobs”, “idiots” or “assholes”. I also understand other players, who occasionally lose their temper and write some insults in chat to their team. Everyone has a bad day every once in a while, gets bad teams or is trolled by RNGesus. If someone calls me an “idiot” or “asshole” I’m not going to make a screenshot of it or report it etc. I just don’t care enough to be arsed to do so. But what I can’t stand are those anonymous internet-warriors, who threaten you in RL by death or who make racist comments. I am sorry, but as a German, I don’t have any understanding for such actions, no matter how angry someone is at that very moment. The player in question is German himself. He should know that racist remarks regarding this period of our history are intolerable. No matter if it was a insult in a game or in RL. I have Jewish family members which could tell him some not-so-funny stories from that period of time.

Nevertheless, his apology is a step into the right direction. I accept his apology and hope, that he learned something from his misbehaviour so he doesn’t insult like this again in the future. For me this whole matter is closed.

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Hello everyone,

some time ago, I wrote a an article about how Panzer 38t could (should) be fixed, because currently, it’s very unhistorical in the game. Today, we are going to have a look at Panzer 38t nA.

A little history first. The official vehicle name (factory one, anyway) was TNH neue Ausführung (n.A.), PzKpfw.38(t) n.A. was the German designation. It was a prototype vehicle, based on the original 38t, but – unlike its predecessor – it was designed specifically for the scouting role. The vehicle development was ordered by the Germans by the end of July 1940 (ČKD was the developer of course) and the first prototype was ready in December 1941. Five prototypes were made in total, with the last one being read in April 1942.

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For now, only in Russian :) And yes, 9.5 CT will be tomorrow.

Inside:

- British tank branch: first half are US LL vehicles and Sherman Firefly, second half will be British tank destroyers with FV4005 Stage II as tier 10, it has a 183mm gun (analogical to the FV215b 183)
- the difference between FV4005 and FV215b is that it has much less armor, but good mobility
- as a part to make them different, FV215b frontal turret armor was significantly increased
- Panther 88 will also be added, it resembles Panther II, but is more comfortable
- Individual missions (see video for interface), they will be activated after 15.1.
- new maps (Ghost Town for team battles, symetrical map, Mittengard)
- some maps were smoothened (hills made flatter) to make life easier for tanks with bad depression
- improved minimap (tank names, place where the tank was spotted last)

Source: http://top.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/01/12/2014/5478c633cbb20fd7cfb35ff4

Thanks to Maiorboltach for posting this in RU LJ community.

Wargaming excercised the option of buying 1 million KongZhong ADR’s (American Depositary Receipts) worth 5,94 million USD. For those who do not know, KongZhong is a Chinese company, exclusively producing World of Tanks for the Chinese market – according to Chinese law, you need a Chinese company to do that and so Wargaming partnered with KongZhong. This partnership was by the way the main (perhaps sole) reason for the introduction of the Chinese tank line, which is unsurprisingly popular over there.

Currently, Wargaming controls 4 million ADR’s, which equals to 160 million KongZhong shares. This transaction increased WG’s share of Kongzhong from 6,7 to 8,6 percent. The earlier 6,7 percent was purchased in 2012 (when WG gave KongZhong the exclusive rights for Chinese market) for an estimated sum of 17,8 million USD. Wargaming has the option to buy the 1 more million ADR’s until 2018, which would increase its share in KongZhong to 10,1 percent.

Wargaming of course has the right to recieve dividends from the shares they bought, which in October 2014 was 0,88 USD per ADR. For 4 million ADR’s, that makes 3,5 million USD.

According to the article, Wargaming was looking for a partner in China for quite some time (back then, Chinese gaming market went through some sort of crisis). The main Wargaming goal was to diversify its business and KongZhong, WG’s partner, was one of the largest Chinese game developers, founded in 2002 by Nick Young, a venture investor. The company’s estimated worth currently is cca 298 million USD.

Hello everyone,

I think this is really worth posting. BadBroetchen, involved in the recent Hall of Shame, apologizes for his behavior. You know what? I can really appreciate that. So, there you go, removed from Hall of Shame.

I mean, I am sure everyone realizes that I know these guys aren’t really bald tattoeed fat swastika-wearing nazis, just raging kids. Doesn’t mean this should be tolerated of course, but it’s a good thing what he wrote:

Dear “For the Record“ community,

I am very sorry about what i`ve done in those Random Battle. It`s been a long time since i wrote that into the channel and i was too childish to understand what i wrote there. Im definitly not a Nazi and it is very embarrassing for me for getting shown at such an article. I don`t know where my thoughts gone and i know it will never happen again. So please accept my apology. I dont know how to make up for that. I`m not against jews or any other ethnic minoritys. Normaly im not in that rage mode but somehow i wasn`t by myself that day. I know that some of you will think that im doing this just for deleting my post in the hall of shame but it is important for me that you know that im not such a horrible person. I will apologize first of all to “Der_Mittelfranke” and, if it was somebody else sending this post in naturally also at him/her.

Thank you gratefully, Your Max aka FlyingBroetchen

And a nice letter from his clan, I actually really appretiate this.

Dear SilentStalker,

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Hello everyone,

so, about the leaked missions for December. Earlier, it was announced that between 24.12. and 15.1. or so, a “marathon” would take place on EU server. Okay, that’s nice, I thought. But then, Evilly, WoT producer on RU server, announced that the Russians would have a different vehicle – something “that was available until now only on Chinese server”. He also added that it’s possible that the T-34-85M will be sold in the premium shop (on RU server, anyway).

Basically, looking at the Chinese server offers, Russian community came up only with 2 candidates: first, the WZ-111 heavy tank (first Chinese vehicle to be introduced in the game, really, REALLY old stuff). Or… M56 Scorpion, which is sold on Chinese server as we speak. Both are tier 8′s. At that point, I told Evilly that if we (Europeans) get a tier 6 and the Russians get tier 8, there will be butthurt on forums (well, I mean, there might be, but honestly, how many people can really complete the hardcore grind, right?). He replied that “everything’s gonna be fine :)”

Well – that leads me to think, maybe the leaked version of missions contains placeholders, I mean – WG EU had to know they would get leaked, as they did months before. Maybe we will have a nice Christmas surprise and instead of… let’s say good, but lackluster T-34 clone, we’ll get a chance to win the WZ or the Scorpion :)

That would be awesome. Not holding my breath, but it would.