Tis the Season to be tempted

So, with today being the last day of November 2015, WarGaming has pulled a surprised move and announced the coming special (well, most of them) for the coming month of December http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/22/december-2015/

Needless to say, there are some very tempting deals to be had here, both short term offerings and some that will stick around for more than just one day. However, there is a little cryptic twist thrown in....

....okay, pretty vague if you ask me. There have been long standing rumors of a possible tank marathon, starting either in December or January. These rumors include discussion around this tank....

....the Swiss built, German tier VIII premium Medium Tank Pz 58 (there is also a Mutz model being tested too). Could either of these come to pass as the reward for that marathon? Time will tell, or will it....

....and the picture that goes with that is right here....

....clear as mud. Either way, time to sit, wait and see what War Thunder Ground Forces and Armored Warfare bring to the table. 

It all started here

So, now I come to my story about how I got going in World of Tanks. Good thing I wrote it out once already....

....hard to believe that was three years ago now. A few times, over the years, I bring up my early mistakes whenever I could....

....to read the discussion, go here http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/258929-the-long-road-from-bad-to-slightly-better/

Through it all, I still have and use my premium reward. Despite playing badly to get it, I still earned it. Plus, I have even got slightly better with it! Over the years, I have added to my higher tiered premium tanks too, picking up a tier VIII Soviet Heavy Tank, KV-5 and the French tier VIII Heavy Tank FCM 50t.

I also have retained all my other top tier tanks over this long passage of time, including my tier X American Heavy Tank, T110E5, Soviet Heavy Tank, IS-7 and Soviet Heavy Tank, IS-4....

....sitting in queue for the new Domination game mode.

The funny thing, a lot of the lessons I learned from all of the mistakes for World of Tanks have been applied to the other two tank titles I am playing, War Thunder Ground Forces and Armored Warfare. Sure, I still make mistakes and/or errors in judgement, after all, I am only human. And, despite some of the programming differences, all of these games play relatively the same, sharing more than just thick (and thin) steel, tracked fighting vehicles.

It's going to be very interesting playing these tank games at once (not at the exact same time, mind you) and looking for a way to link all three together. In fact, I have found a way to put two side-by-side....

....well, close enough.

I came for the planes, stayed for the tanks

Just over one year ago now, I decided to give War Thunder a try, thanks in part to this promotion http://warthunder.com/en/news/2598-aircraft-present-on-war-thunder-s-birthday-en I was spending a lot of time in WarGaming's World of Warplanes and decided to check out the competition. Needless to say, I liked how the game played looked and felt.

Yes, Fred_Furious is really me, over there. At the time I created my account, the name Quesnel wasn't available, so I fell back on another old gaming name I used in the past. Plus, a new game, a fresh beginning, why not? Needless to say, I tried out a few of the Soviet and German tanks that were ingame, comparing them to my World of Tanks experience. Although very different in their delivery, it wasn't bad enough to turn me off from going further.  

Once again, another event https://warthunder.com/en/news/2749-winter-holiday-specials-part-deux-en and I earn my first premium tank. It was low ranked, but I broke into the newly released American line that was ingame. Along the way I bought into the Steel Generals with picking up a premium rank I M3A1 (USMC) Light Tank. I made some pretty good progress up the American lines with these, training crews and earning some big Golden Lion returns.

Another promotional campaign https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/236889-special-ww2-chronicles-us-tanker-heroes/ and discounts put a rank II premium 5th Canadian Armoured Division Light Tank in my game....

....followed soon after with a rank III M4A3E2 Cobra King and rounding out the purchases....

....a premium rank III T-34-57 Mod 43 Soviet Medium Tank. Funny thing, I didn't pick up anything German, until just recently....

....a rank I Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. H, part of the Fire and Maneuver package that was on sale https://warthunder.com/en/news/3395-news-war-thunder-birthday-wishes-en

So, with the recent release of the British tanks in the last (at the time of this posting) update https://warthunder.com/en/news/3404-development-war-thunder-update-1-53-firestorm-en you would have though I picked up something that was being offered up? Nope, time for me to be a little more financially responsible and despite buying all of my previous premium assets on sale, I am slowing things down, setting goals and going forward with what I currently have.

However, part of those plans do involve one or two more purchases and time for a signature change....

Entering a lottery

So, with just over two weeks under my belt in Armored Warfare, I am taking a chance at entering the lottery https://aw.my.com/us/news/general/black-friday-lottery A pretty straight forward affair, win five battles in player vs player mode, producing enough activity to show that it's really a human playing on your account. I have seen some pretty good bot programs out there in other tank games, but who knows for sure these days.

Although I recently picked up the premium tier VI Main Battle Tank, MBT-70 MERC, I played it safe and chose my tier III T-62 Veteran to make my attempts. Despite the experience I bring from those other games, I am still learning the maps and continue to observe what the players, from both teams, use for strategies in those environments.

For now, I am saving the MBT-70 MERC for PvE or player vs environment mode, slugging it out against teams of bots, with varying degrees of difficulty, taking notes on the maps and routes of deployment, for both teams.

Ideally, I would like to win the lottery, I mean, who wouldn't. After a few hours of playing, I collect those five wins needed for my entry, picking up three defeats in the mix as well. The list of prizes look interesting, all MERC Editions of current premium assets. However, I am holding out hope that if I did win, I could collect this....

....the VFM 5 MERC, Tier VI premium Light Tank. I thought this addition would round out the current offerings of high tiered premium vehicles for my garage. I suppose, if I win anything at all, I will just count myself lucky and accept whatever it is.

And, I have two chances to do this!

Starting things off with my new career in Armored Warfare

Documenting my past, present and future adventures through three mainstream tank games, World of Tanks, War Thunder Ground Forces and Armored Warfare, I present Tanking Tales.

I will start things off with Armored Warfare https://aw.my.com/us Now, this is a game I have been eyeing up causally for quite some time. I watched a few videos here and read a few reviews there. It wasn't until I saw this promotion https://aw.my.com/us/news/general/remember-our-veterans that I finally decided to give it a try, first hand. After downloading the massive (around 20 gigabytes) launcher and client, the game was installed and I started down the road of my third mainstream tank game.

Armored Warfare breaks their ingame assets, main battle tanks, light tanks, armored fighting vehicles, tank destroyers and self propelled guns into tiers. Currently, ten tiers are slated, but at the time of the posting, the highest tier available is nine.

The promotional tank, a Soviet/Russian T-62 Veteran Main Battle Tank, comes in at tier III. For reference, the same tank is also available in World of Tanks, the T-62A variant, at their tier X. This tank is rumored to come to War Thunder Ground Forces in a future update, at rank V, battle rank currently unknown.

The T-62 Veteran isn't a premium tank, meaning, that it doesn't have anything special over the regular dealer tree T-62 of the same tier, no credit or crew experience modifiers, but it didn't cost me any grinding time or money and comes with a pretty cool looking camouflage paint scheme. For me, I thought it would be a good way to jump right into the game and get a feel for it.

Having played two other tank titles, albeit from different companies, I felt pretty confident on what to expect, both from the game and my first time experience. I can say, I wasn't too surprised that it played like both the others, but I did enjoy some of the visual differences and unique touches that give this game it's own feeling and character.


So, after playing the game for less than two weeks, I have broke out of tier and proceeded to tier II with the T-54 MBT. I decided to go with the dealer named Marat Shishkin, who deals with both Eastern and Western European vehicles. Since I got into the game with a T-62 Veteran, it made sense to stick with the line that held the regular, learning and improving on the playstyle as I proceeded down that line.

I also did something that some may view as premature, buying a higher tiered premium tank. My answer to that would be yes and no. Yes, due to the fact my highest tier is III, from the T-62 Veteran Promotion, so I am still learning the game, to a point. A lot of the skills I have acquired from playing War Thunder Ground Forces and World of Tanks translate here, with little loss in the transition. My other answer, no, is because I don't plan on buying a pile of other premium tanks/wheeled attack vehicles, a trap I am trying to avoid repeating here, something I have done in the two other titles. One of my biggest and very costly mistakes was purchasing numerous lower tiered assets, when I should have just bought a few from the higher end.

Plus, I may be new to this game, but a bit of an old hat to the genre. So, that was my thought process this time around, plus another promotion  https://aw.my.com/us/news/general/introducing-black-friday-events helped with the decision making.