A change of scenery

Today is to be one of those days where nothing is going to happen, concerning any kind of ground combat, in any of the titles.

The final upgraded build came in for the base, now the wait begins for future choices arrive.

I think I will give all my crews the day off, let them take part in some more....aquatic adventures....

http://wowsquesnel.blogspot.ca/2016/03/hoist-sails-stand-by-braces-and-ready.html

State of Play: Armored Warfare PvP 03.30.2016

For this week's State of Play: Armored Warfare PvP, I selected an infamous tank from my garage for some mid tier action, the Chieftain Mk VI.

I have been wanting to try this particular vehicle out in the PvP environment for some time now, so today, I did. Plus, getting the new-for-update 0.14 map, Highwall, looked to have some very interesting scenery I might check out, since I have been to a few similar locations in real life.

I couldn't even begin to count the things I did wrong, I believe I would run out of fingers to keep track of my mistakes. One of my big errors is I didn't know the map or how to use it to any real advantage. Then, there was an issue of a whole flank being unattended....
 
I am not about to give away any more details of how the battle progressed or ended, see for yourself here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEX42JuovUE and once again, I welcome constructive critiques of what I did wrong and suggestions on how I should/could have performed better.

A case of flatline numbers?

Recently, I have made more of an effort to make my premium, tier VI MBT-70 MERC be the investment I want it to be. I have tried to push the limits of it's ingame design, function and overall effectiveness. While I went through some rocky, disappointing times with it in the not-so-distant past, things are slowly turning around with it.

I have read more than just a few threads and posts on the Armored Warfare NA forums claiming that tank isn't good. People have been calling it garbage, to put it mildly. And, during those times of frustration with mine, I almost agreed with them. However, I haven't given up on trying to tap into the income potential this vehicle has to offer, under the right circumstances. 

Once again, this isn't a scientific breakdown of my performance,  credit generation or other things that some folks would be really interested in. This is more of a passing glance at certain bottom lines.

Take the above battle for instance. Since the introduction of Logistics costs, I am seeing a diminished return on credits earned. Using the partial safety net found in the Repair Kit also eats more of the potential earnings.

Even when I take out one of the profit stealing factors from the equation, the bottom line with the MBT-70 MERC appears to stay within a certain income bracket. Like I said, this is what I see from a glance.

With the current, limited time offerings of the WOLF edition premiums, I have been very tempted to pick up the real world money counterpart to my tier VII Challenger 1. I think the black and red paint scheme look just as cool as the MERC editions. It's the real world price tag, despite all the extras that comes with it, that has been holding me back. 

However, with results like this, from playing in PvE hard mode, with no other premium bonuses factored in, I can't help but wonder how different the bottom line would look like from my regular, dealer tree version?

WOT loyalty rewards?

Anniversary Rewards - Celebrating 5 Years!

Starting April 4, log into World of Tanks, win five battles and be rewarded for the number of years you've been playing! Rewards will range from Premium time to Personal Reserves, and even a rare Premium tank! Details: April 3

As seen here http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/17/april-overview/

 

Hmmm....I wonder what that rewards could be? Find out in a few days time, I suppose.

Plus français viennent

Although I has been discussed in the past, new of the AMX-13 line was confirmed in development, with pictures, for Armored Warfare. Here is the article here https://aw.my.com/us/news/general/development-amx-13

However, elsewhere in the tank games universe, the AMX-13 line has been around for some time now. World of Tanks introduced the preliminary French Tech Tree back in January of 2012, which included AMX-13/75 and AMX-13/90 variants.

During a brief period between April and May of 2015, a premium AMX-13/57 was offered through the giftshop, read more here http://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Tank:F69_AMX13_57_100_GrandFinal

So, what does this mean for Armored Warfare? Well, in my opinion, if players have experienced the AMX-13 series from World of Tanks, I would suspect only minor differences in role and gameplay expectations between the two games.

For those who will be playing these for the first time?  Think of a quick, thinly armored....here, take a look at this....

Okay, not one of my best performances, your mileage should vary (for the better, I hope).

It should have been a two battle wonder

I decided to change things up again in Armored Warfare and put a tier III AMX-10P into my garage. With the Easter Weekend speical of 5X reputation bonus, I figured I would start down another new line, this time the one with the BMD's.

An easy purchase and cheap too, since I have gotten used to paying out the wazoo in the upper tiers.

This time, I decided to spend some free reputation to close the gap towards my real goal in playing; the tier IV BMD-1. Plus, something about those attributes....nah, it will all be good.

My performance on that first battle was disappointing, to put things mildly. First, I wasn't fully prepared for the auto-cannons, but I was able to deal out some damage vs those not-so-real foes. My other bad error in judgement was allowing myself to get surrounded and having some expectation that I would be getting help from my teammates.  

In the end, it all worked out and I estimated I would have this BMD-1 deal closed after the next battle, which would take place on the following day.

Where I went wrong can be explained very easily; I was just playing recklessly, thinking the team would pick up the win, despite my sloppy attendance. 

Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case for this battle. The bots proved to be much better than the team I was given and in the end, all of us went away almost empty handed.

By now, it should be a pretty clear indicator that surviving a battle in a AMX-10P, with me in the commander's seat, just isn't going to happen. The price I paid for attempting one of the secondaries, without the company of protection.

A win and I will take it. While I am sure some out there may have found the AMX-10P to be an alright vehicle, I am glad to have moved on, even after the short period of time I used this one.

Now, this is where I want things to really get started for me. I have been reading and watching any material on this series of vehicles, especially since there is a premium version available from this line....

....but I don't think I will be pursuing it either. While I am sure the auto-cannon is beloved by some in the playerbase, I don't know how well the BMD-2 will work out for me, based on very recent experience. So, I will save my real world money and just grind out the dealer version instead.

Nevertheless, I finished up my first battle in the tier IV BMD-1 and was somewhat surprised with how I performed and the returns collected at the end of the match. Wanna see? Check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akq_hOnoJ7I

 

Unseen, but felt strongly

Tank Destroyers, or vehicles labeled as such, are supposed to be hidden away from the view of the enemy and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting targets when opportunities present themselves. At least, that is the theory behind this class.

In Armored Warfare, this type of vehicle is a complete departure to my usual playstyle, picked up from playing other tank games. Driving rolling bunkers, shell sponges and/or advancing team shield is the way I have played before and now. However, trade that for something a lot more fragile, better mobility and a surprising amount of potential damage output, is certainly a change from the norm.

In World of Tanks, there is what I see to be two choices of tank destroyers, slow and armored vs fast and thin skinned. I preferred the former, since it already meshed with my playstyle with Heavy Tanks, but I did experiment with the latter, collecting mixed results.

In Armored Warfare, there are two types of tank destroyers too! I separate them as wheeled and tracked. So far, I am doing reasonably well with the wheel variety, especially the tier IV LAV-300....

....as long as I can keep my head in the game.