World of Tanks Fan's Blog: September 2014

Friday, September 26, 2014

World of Battleships or Warships GAMEPLAY

[Review] Son of the Wind- T54 Lightweight

History

A proposed lightweight version of the T-54 medium tank. Development was started in May 1949. Compared to its series-produced predecessor, the tank had better performance and maneuverability. Therefore, the tank was planned to replace the T-54 in accomplishing complicated missions. However, the T-54 tank of 1949 was improved and mass produced, and the lightweight version was canceled while still in the design phase. (Source: http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Tank:R109_T54S)

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-Great armor for a light tank: Hull 80/60/45mm Turret 160/120/60mm
-Good top speed: 69km/h
-Smooth movement
-Good Agility
-Good HP: 1200
-Awesome for anti-scout

Cons:
-Not really good viewrange
-Poor depression: -5

Play style

T-54 drivers will feel right at home, because for all intents and purposes, it’s a faster and nimblier T-54 (I know, absolutely shocking given its name). The trademark of this tank is (compared to all the other tanks, except the Chinese tier 8 light) its thick armor (80mm sloped hull, 180mm frontal turret) and relatively decent gun (100mm D-10T of two models). If you had the T-54 unlocked, you’ll have pretty much everything unlocked straight away (apart from the tracks, of course). Faster T-54, it sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, there is this tiny little problem with it: you are expected to scout.
The T-54 Light is pretty much anything but subtle. It doesn’t have that good a view range, that’s one problem. Passive scouting… I don’t know. For me it did not go very well. The vehicle is nimble enough for active scouting, but it doesn’t accelerate as fast as the RU251 for example and it will get outmaneuvered. The thick armor sounds good, but you have to realize two things:

- New auto aim (which is a very good idea to use when driving a light tank at full speed in close combat) aims for the hull, not for the turret anymore

- Everything (and I mean everything) you meet will penetrate your hull frontally, even the T49 152mm derp can land some very nasty hits (you are not as vulnerable as the RU251, but it still hurts).

In this sense, the armor is all but useless, robbing you of perhaps the most positive aspect of the vehicle. The 100mm gun is good for dealing with softer targets and other light tanks, but you will NOT outdps other lights and if they aren’t stupid, they will kill you by circling/negating your armor advantage. Furthermore, the gun has a relatively poor depression and yes, it shows, especially in the heat of combat. I think this tank will be very situational, but I haven’t found the “sweet spot” tactics for it.

Crew Skills (Recommend)

Commande: Sixth Sense, Camouflage, BiA
Gunner: Camouflage, BiA, Snap Shot
Driver: Camouflage, BiA, Smooth Ride
Loader (Radio Operator): Camouflage, BiA, Safe Stowage

Equipment (Recommend)

Vertical Stabilizer, Optics, Camo Net

Thursday, September 25, 2014

[Review] Fast and Furious- T49 Light Tank

History

Basically, the T49 was a prototype M41 Walker Bulldog with a 90mm gun (crew of 4). In the late 40′s and early 50′s, it was recognized that a 76mm gun is no longer enough to combat modern Soviet medium tanks, specifically the T-54. And so, in January 1950, a commanding officer of Detroit Arsenal recommended developing a light tank with a 90mm gun, specifically to install a 90mm smoothbore gun on the M41 chassis. This 90mm gun was a new weapon, designated T123. It started as a smoothbore, but after bad tests results, when it came to accuracy, it was modified with shallow rifling, creating the T123E3 gun. Two of these were mounted in the production M41E1 turrets and this combination was redesignated T49. The turret was modified too: it was somewhat higher and it was equipped with a stereoscopic rangefinder. Further modification were made when in the ammo stowage compartment. The gun itself could fire three types of rounds: HE, HEP (HESH) and HEAT rounds.

The two T49′s were sent to Aberdeen, where they were tested between May 1954 and May 1955. The tests of the vehicle were somewhat satisfactory, but the gun still had issues with the ammunition used: specifically the HEAT round was very inaccurate, making the HEP (HESH) round the preferred way to deal with armor. There were some other issues too and as a result, the army lost interest in this vehicle. The prototypes were stored in Aberdeen – I am not sure whether they still exist or were scrapped.

It’s worth noting that the T49 is not the “only” 90mm Walker Bulldog project – Cadillac made a proposal to arm the Walker Bulldog with a 90mm M41 gun from the M48 Patton in November 1958. At this point however, the army was focusing on creating new and superior light tank and so this project never passed beyond the drawing boards. (Source: For The Record)

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-Good firepower: 152mm gun-launcher, without the missiles of course
-Good DPM:3046,4
-Gun elevation: -9,5/+19,5
-High top speed: 72 km/h
-Good Acceleration and Agility: 20.72 hp/t
-Nice looks

Cons:
-Tall
-Paper armor: Hull 25.4/25.4/19.1mm Turret 25.4/25.4/25.4mm
-Unreliable gun

Play style

I think this vehicle in the game as something like current Chaffee: quite tall, good passive scout, good firepower and hulldown capability.

The tank does not really move well, so it’s likely pre-destined to be some sort of passive scout. It's camouflage, from what I tested a little is okay, it works, but again – the gun is a problem. The blast demasks you completely – if you fire, a half blind artillery on the other end of the map with its entire crew dead will see you. It’s really bad, basically in high tier matches, you will be reduced to pure scouting (or scout killing). I wrote the other thing intentionally, because this vehicle does kill other scouts rather well. It has a lot to do with the fact that you can reduce a tier 8 light tank to 20 percent (or in extreme cases, one shot him) with one shell. The gun is terribly inaccurate and you won’t be doing any sniping with it (hopefully), but if you position yourself well to intercept any incoming scouts and manage to catch the speed (remember, sluggish vehicle), you’ll eat him for breakfast.
What I noticed is the tendency of enemies to somewhat ignore this little tank in matches, that were not full of enemy scouts. Basically, their scout tries to reach arty at all costs, you pursue him, fire off that massive gun and if you are close, you hit him, reducing him to 20-30 percent (plus some juicy crits of course). At that point he will realize he’s fucked and he will turn on you, but it’s too late, unless you miss, he’s toast.

The gun however is quite unpredictable. I think this vehicle will find its niche in killing scouts and dagger thrusts towards enemy artillery but against high tier vehicles, it will be sort of pointless (the HEAT penetration is insufficient against anything of tier 8 and above – if you hit (big IF!), it will bounce). The 90mm gun without gold ammo seems utterly pointless. With gold ammo, it’s a killer, but it’s expensive to operate and few people will do that I think. Definitely a gold eater.

Crew Skills (Recommend)

Commander (Radio Operator): Sixth Sense, Camouflage, BiA
Gunner: Camouflage, BiA, Snap Shot
Driver: Camouflage, BiA, Smooth Ride
Loader: Camouflage, BiA, Safe Stowage

Equipment (Recommend)

Vertical Stabilizer, Optics, Camo Net

[Review] RU 251 (Spähpanzer Kette)- The Ghost Rider

History

The vehicle was developed on the basis of the Kanonenjagdpanzer 4-5 tank destroyer by the Henschel company in 1964. The tank was planned to replace the obsolete M41 Walker Bulldog vehicles used by the reconnaissance battalions of the armored divisions in the German Army. The tank never saw mass production, but some technical innovations were applied later in the development of other vehicles. The total number of prototypes built is unknown.

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-One of the fastest tanks in game: 80 km per hour top speed
-Good Acceleration and Agility: 19,64 hp per ton
-Low profile: 6.2 m x 3 m x 2.49 m
-0,36 Gun accuracy
-So handsome :3
-Good in stock
-Chance of Fire 12%

Cons:
-Longer than most lights
-Paper armor: Hull 25/20/8mm Turret 20/20/20mm
-HEAT rounds as premium round

Play style

Personally, I think RU251 is just like a baby Leopard 1 in play-style.

RU251 is an absolute pleasure to drive. It’s low, sleek and nimble and it’s FAST. Really, really fast. This of course is compensated by very thin armor (especially vulnerable to the T49′s derp). Terrain passability is okay, but not the best, for example climbing the Fjords hill will take you a while. From what I gathered, the key to survival (apart from passive scouting) is to stay on flat terrain, where you can outmaneuver pretty much all of your opponents, especially the “light” T-54 and the T49. If you like the maneuvering style of gameplay and possibly some active scouting, you’ll love this tank and it’s definitely worth the AFK Panther grind – the bad thing is, AFK Panther has completely different style of gameplay (do NOT try to ram anything in RU251, not only you will take a huge hit, but you’ll lose speed and speed is life for you).

Another drawback of this vehicle is that it has only one gun and one turret as an option. The 90mm gun is decent, but do NOT try to fire the HESH ammunition from it (it has HESH instead of standard HE) – it’s completely useless and any sloped surface or (heaven forbid) tracks and spaced armor hits will result in very low damage hits (it’s very poor even against other light tanks). With standard ammunition, you can outgun pretty much every other light tank (of course, AMX-13/90 with autoloader will mess you up, but you will outgun the T-54 Light, especially if you are moving around it).

Overall, I think this vehicle is very good. Now, if only AFK Panther was replaced by something with similiar playstyle, the German line would be perfect.

Crew Skills (Recommend)

Commander (Radio Operator): Sixth Sense, Camouflage, BiA
Gunner: Camouflage, BiA, Snap Shot
Driver: Camouflage, BiA, Smooth Ride
Loader: Camouflage, BiA, Safe Stowage

Equipment (Recommend)

Vertical Stabilizer, Optics, Camo Net (or Chocolate)

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

World of Tanks Special Event: Тank Rally Mode

Source: http://www.worldoftanks-wot.com/video/chaffee-rally-mode/

9.3 Overview

Source: For The Record

- new light tanks, reworked Murovanka, vehicle rebalance, new Stronghold functions
- LTTB: “much like the legendary T-50-2, same high speed and maneuverability”, but with added firepower, “the gameplay feeling is practically the same as the earlier T-50-2″
- T-54 Light: well-armored and armed light tank, can withstand hits from tanks of its tier
- US light tanks: good mobility and viewrange, guns are fast aiming and firing fast
- M41 has an autoloader for 10 shells, it can destroy in 20 seconds most of tier 7′s and many 8′s, but it is light, low hitpoints, has to be careful in picking targets
- T49 can mount a 152mm gun – base shell is HE, it makes a lot of damage but playing with it is complicated due to low ROF, long aimtime and low accuracy, 90mm gun is for players who like the fire support role
- RU251 is one of the fastest tanks in the game with a good gun, it’s possible to play it as a mobile sniper
- KV-1S split (KV-85 on tier 6), KV-85 gets to keep the favourite 122mm gun
- new HD models
- rework of Murovanka
- new Stronghold functions (“Chancellery”, mercenaries)
- certain map objects now explode (fuel tanks, cars)
- explosion effect was reworked
- new punishments for leavers and AFKers
- new ricochet system
- transmission/engine split
- if a tank drowns while being detracked (forced drowning), it will count as a kill for the person that caused the detrack

New Anti-Bot System Coming

Sources:
- http://forum.worldoftanks.asia/index.php?/topic/44084-8000-bots-banned/page__st__40__pid__1102733
- For The Record

An extremely interesting post by Tanitha appeared on ASIA forums about how the bots will be punished and detected…

Dear Players.
We currently have 3 systems for which bots are detected, Which currently generates ~15 bots a day being reliably detected. And about 25 a day which are probably bots but not sufficiently proven to be so..

With the bots being perma banned, and the probably bots given a warning.

We now have access to two additional systems which are more reliable than the above..

The two new systems are specifically targeted at smart bots, where our previous detection methods weren’t great on the reliability..

I’ve reviewed the two new systems now, which Ru are currently using.. And decided these will be switched on on Asia shortly..

I will not go into the mechanics of these systems.. suffice to say they will cover the gap in bot detection that was previously there.

Due to the accuracy and thoroughness of the new systems,, one would assume bans to be placed on mass, regularly..

Due to the likely high detection rate, we will be using the new detection system similar to Ru server, and using it as a prevention tool.

In other words, we will “likely” be reducing the sanctions down from permanent to 15 days for first offense, 45 for second, perma for 3rd.

In addition to the above. An update on the captcha system.

Its still in progress, however development had slowed on it.. its importance was escalated again today and is back in motion again.

Currently its scheduled for work shortly, for which I’ve been allocated to assist in its development personally. However its final completion ETA is still not in the short future.

In short, bots nuked on mass, soon, by two new detection systems, for 15 days initially,, sanctions to escalated sharply for repeat offenders.

+ continued detection with the 3 old systems, as per the past, also for 15 days initially, sanctions to escalated sharply for repeat offenders.

Bot detection will continue on the old systems, until the new systems are put in place shortly..

Regards
Tan