The Baited Wolf

Despite having the highest tiered premium vehicle in Armored Warfare, I don't use it very often.

One of the reasons being is that I doesn't suit my preferred playstyle, namely the heavily armored, tracked type. The only wheeled tank destroyer that I do like to use more is the tier VIII AMX-10 RCR, mostly due to it's "skid steer" capability, turning without moving. I still have to remind myself with the other vehicles in this class and configuration, every time I want to turn in a new direction, I have to be motion first.

Sadly, the premium tier IX Centauro 120 Wolf Edition falls into the later category, then to make using it that much more difficult, a clip system was introduced for the main cannon. Although I read about this change somewhere, awhile back, I totally forgot about why I was experiencing glacial load/reload times, until this particular battle was well under way....

Crossing the Creeks into Chaos

Like a few other games out there, Armored Warfare gives enough information for a player to "game the queue." From the screen above, a person can clearly see which tiers have the most active players waiting to join a match, throw in some educated guess work and lining up which selected tiers for a particular game mode level should come pretty close to what is actually going on.

Quite a few opportunistic players are able to use this information in an attempt to collect a higher advantage going into their next battle, such as leaving the queue, picking a better vehicle for a more populated tier and rejoining the wait to get in.

Although this system has been removed from the PvP portion of some games (for obvious reasons discussed above), it still exists in PvE mode, since the artificial enemies are adjusted to meet the highest tiered vehicle of the five person team entering the fray.

I "game the queue" to a certain degree, not so much to get the best tier possible, but I use the countdown timer as a "jumping off point" before the map I wanted to fight on is rotated out. Most times, I leave myself a ten to fifteen second window before the time expires to leave the queue, go back a window and see if the next map coming up is one I would like to battle it out on, or avoid like the plague.

This time, it was well worth the wait....

Cool Confrontations

In light of a limited time reputation bonus in Armored Warfare, I thought I would try to catch up on some overdue progress for my tier VIII T-90A. Another nice touch was seeing Spearhead, a map I haven't been on in quite a while, coming up in queue.

Little did I know things would be slightly different from the last time I ventured into this particular environment....

Circles in the Sand

Once again, Armored Warfare has a monthly offer for premium vehicles, check out those August  details here.

Taking a look at the selection myself, nothing there really interests me. Besides, I have a plan for my next and quite possibly final premium purchase, I certainly hope my patience and Gold collecting is rewarded.

In the meantime, I decided to break out an old favorite, the premium tier VIII Terminator Reaper and queued up for a match on Kodiak. After the battle began, I started to pull mental blanks on where to go and what to do, slight frustration and bewildering self confusion was starting to set it....

Burned Out

Now that I have completed Episode 2 of the Storyline Campaign in Armored Warfare and before they decide to launch Episode 3, or another bonus mission requiring me to use more vehicles I am not interested in at this time, I want to knock out some progress on my original goal.

I have allowed myself to be detoured, distracted and any other words that fit, starting with the letter D, from remaining totally dedicated and focused on putting a tier IX T-90MS into my garage. However, I have always come back to chip away a little more towards acquiring that machine, despite the temptations and attractions.

Perhaps, I should have waited a day or two before jumping back on that bandwagon. With my recent binge playing to complete Episode 2 and not nearly getting enough sleep the night before, I was rather disappointed with my first outing in an old favorite....

If you are looking at news, leaks and other things that have Armored Warfare related information, be sure to check out Armedbushido's blog at http://drysocksaar.blogspot.ca/

Super Bradley to Save the Day?

Despite the fact I had already laid out plans to pace myself in finishing the PvE Hard portion of the Storyline Campaign, Episode 2 in Armored Warfare, that idea was thrown right out the window.

With my son off with a summer day activity, the wife at work and me enjoying a day off from my own job, I sat down and binge played the tier VII M1A1 Abrams from the moment the house became empty, until they came back home. Other than enduring the monotony of it all (eating and bathroom breaks), I was making pretty speedy progress, quickly knocking down my estimated seven hours to complete what I had left to do.

After, with everyone else in bed and just two more victories needed, the defeat streak started.

If you take a look at the picture above, note the times (Pacific Time) and the maps. For whatever reason, I was getting stuck with teams that were not nearly as cohesive as those I had been a part of earlier in the day. Nearly every battle lost during that period consisted of the other four human players getting annihilated by the never ending swarms of bots and yours truly being the last to fall on the battlefield in a fiery death. I just couldn't perform any miracles, the was no magic left in the Abrams.

So, for some unexplainable reason, I took a very serious gamble on the only other vehicle that qualified for this event that I owned, one that got me a short time ban some time ago, thanks to a serious issue with reticle bloom and team damage.

Here is battle 40 of 40 needed to finish the series....

Not My First Choices

With the vehicle restrictions for Armored Warfare's Storyline Campaign, Episode 2, I figured the tier VII M1A1 Abrams would have been the better fit for my playstyle.

Since I don't have the M1128 Stryker and previous use of the M2A3 Bradley had been a less than ideal experience I would rather avoid, frankly, the only thing left to use is the Abrams.

To be perfectly honest, I am nit found of this American mainstay vehicle. Despite it's real world operational success, time-money-research into development, production and subsequent variants, the Abrams doesn't excite me like it seems to do with others. Perhaps not being an American myself might be part of the reason why, I don't have any patriotic attachment to this machine.

Nevertheless, I played through the tier VI version it, as required for the last mission installment and I will continue on with the tier VII through this one. However, I am forgoing my usual upgrade-as-I-play-it practice, something very common among these types of games and make full use of the "fastlane" option. I truly dislike the fact I felt I had to do this, pouring in all that Global Reputation to bring the Abrams up to Renown Status, just to prematurely unlock everything along the way.

I have become very tired of shooting the main cannon and coming up short of it's full damage potential. The frustration from the lack of serious protection from the "never miss, missile spam" enemies in PvE Hard mode is almost enough to put the game on hold, until the mission itself comes and goes....

....so here's to hopping these upgrades help just to get through this ordeal.

That Gritty Taste

Now that I have completed my goals through participation and performance in another project, I can return and focus on the unfinished tasks in Armored Warfare.

As of right now, I have effectively nine days (due to an odd European end time) and twenty seven victories to secure the 1,000 Gold reward and Episode 2 completion status.

So, let's apply a little math to this equation. Worst case scenario is all the remaining battles will run their full course of 15 minutes, that's 4 matches per hour (not counting queue time). With 13 already accounted for, that's about 7 hours to play out the rest (building a cushion for queue time). Meaning, I just have to play an hour a day, right up to the end and I will comfortably exceed the minimum requirements for completion.

Best I get back to the game....