Moscow Calling, Part 4

Armored Warfare delivers another update, this time coming in around 556 megabytes for Chapter 4 of the Moscow Calling campaign (and a few other fixes, check those out here).

 At any rate, here's my first attempt with my trusty tier VII Challenger 1 Wolf premium British MBT....

The Top Challenger

Well, another top tiered goal in Armored Warfare has been reached.

Today was the last battle needed in the tier XI Challenger 2 and it was all I could have hoped for, ending an overdue journey on such a high note. The question now, is the new Challenger 2 ATDU worth it? See for yourself....

No Hurry, No Pressure, No Rush, Part 2

It's hard to believe that 30 days have past since Age of Rage started in Armored Warfare.

As you can see, my progress isn't going too fast, but around a pace I was expecting, even with all the other things going on (such as work, family, buying a house, etc).

Just under the halfway point in my quest for the tier VII ZUBR PSP.

For No Particular Reason, Part 4

If you have seen any of the others, you know I do this from time to time in Armored Warfare.

If you are new, welcome to Crate Opening Goodness!

Starting To Ping Me Off

So here I was, having a pretty good night playing Armored Warfare when I selected one of my favorite mid-tier vehicles, the tier VI WZ-1224 Chinese MBT and queued up a decent map, namely Quarterback....

Yeah, no good times to be had during this battle.

This is beyond embarrassing, time to call it quits....for the night.

They Call It Degman

 Armored Warfare has finally released the tier VIII premium M-85 Degman, a Croatian prototype main battle tank that some folks have been waiting for, but there is a catch.

The upside: It can be acquired through BattleCoins.

The downside: You have to spend Gold/Real World Money to buy into the Age of Rage campaign (unless you have already taken this step), then you can use your banked up BattleCoin to buy the Lootcrates to better your chances at collecting the Degman.

Read those details here.

I Will Just Leave This Here

Nothing more I can really say about this....gift from Armored Warfare, but here is the link for more information.

Where I Am And Could Go

It has been over twenty days (June 17th) since the Age of Rage campaign was launched on the Armored Warfare Global Server.

Much to my surprise, I have done rather well in collecting BattleCoins, despite not having bought in the campaign itself....yet.

As of right now, I have more than enough Gold to just buy into the campaign, but running about 2000 Gold short from unlocking the show with more progress to boot. The banked up BattleCoins would move me along even more, closer to collecting three premium vehicles up for grabs.

There is another option, lying with the tier IX Leclerc-T40 premium French tank destroyer, a vehicle I have been waiting to get my hands on for quite some time. However, the value of a tier IV, a VII and a tier X versus just one tier IX?

Although Gold would speed up the process of parking this vehicle in my garage, I haven't quite fallen into a "panic mode" as of yet. Progress maybe a bit on the slow side, but I still have plenty of time on my side. When the clock ticks down closer to the end, I might make a "money" move.

Next Level Of Dread

Although I recently acquired the new tier VII French Leclerc Prototype MBT in Armored Warfare, I am already looking ahead at the next vehicle inline, the tier VII VCAC Mephisto and I am not liking what I am seeing.

Wheeled vehicles are not well known for their high values of armor protection, be it in video games or real life. Now, I have driven quite a few in Armored Warfare with varying degrees of success, so that was one attribute I was already expecting from the Mephisto.

Not too long ago, I made comments about the tier VI C13 TUA and just how much I....didn't like that particular machine. The temptation was very strong to just use Free Reputation to ready myself for the arrival of the Leclercs, but I thought using a missile-only vehicle with limited armor protection and horrific reload speed might have some hidden lessons to learn.

Little did I know I was right and those will have to be applied to the VCAC Mephisto. Let me show you this (not for those with a weak stomach/motion sickness)....

Since the release of the rest of the Francine De Laroche's offerings, I will watch my battle replays where a teammate is using a Mephisto. Granted, I could just gauge the vehicle based on the game's statistics, but in human controlled hands, this perception creates a more accurate and complete study of the vehicle in real action. So far, like I said at the beginning of all of this, I am not liking what I am seeing.

The Other Jordanian Challenger

While some players of Armored Warfare might be more familiar with (or even own) the premium tier VIII Challenger 1 Falcon, there is now another offering from the Hashemite Kingdom.

For those of us who had the Marat Shishkin tier VIII C1 Ariete for a long time (or even moved on from it, but still parked in the garage) were treated to a fully upgraded (sans retrofits and skilled crew) same tiered, Jordanian upgraded and modified Challenger 1 known as Al-Hussein Hybrid. The C1 Ariete is now an alternate vehicle in the Francine De Laroche line (keeping the trained crew, but still losing the retrofits).

Out (more like moved) with the old and in with the new, I had to give this machine a spin on the battlefield....

Les Leclerc sont là!

I don't know about anybody else, but this was one of those days in Armored Warfare I have been waiting a very long time for. Now, the Leclercs are finally here!

For quite awhile, this was all the French (and Italian) offerings from Francine De Laroche....

....now and moving forward, this is how things will be (until more additions make their appearance).

In preparation for this eventuality, I fought one last victorious battle in my tier VI C13 TUA....

....and was now ready to move on to the next vehicle inline. As an added bonus to the arrival of the Leclercs, they also released the third chapter in the Moscow Calling campaign, so what not "kill two birds with one stone?" 

A new vehicle on a new map, all for the first time....

To celebrate this year's Bastille Day weekend, check out what Armored Warfare has put together for some freebies and specials.

The Castle Walls Held

With Moscow Calling coming to Armored Warfare meant that a new campaign was under way.

So, out with Clayburn Industries, Sebastian Grimm and the Evocati and in with Victor Blaze, the yet to be fully revealed agenda and the history between him and Magnus Holter.

Until all of that and more come to light, I decided to make another trip back to Castle, the second chapter of the Moscow Calling campaign and try out a strategy for wining....

No Hurry, No Pressure, No Rush

It's now past 10 days since the Age of Rage campaign came to Armored Warfare and I am sticking to my original plan. I have seen a few other players running around in their shiny new tier X Object 490's and I am not feeling the least bit jealous or pressured into getting one for myself, yet.

The BattleCoin bank is building up quite nicely, thanks to decent battles and teammates that have a clue on what to do. Granted, not all have been victories, but they out-way the defeats that have come my way.

As for the Moscow Contract, I haven't been plugging away to hard on that, but the progress is coming along at a surprisingly brisk pace. Some requirements are defiantly more challenging than others, including certain gamemodes that need to be completed through. Despite that, I will do what I can in PvE and not lose a lot of sleep if that isn't enough to park this new vehicle in my garage.

For No Particular Reason, Part 3

Another round of crate opening goodness from Armored Warfare.

A Day For Fireworks And The Boston Pops

....to all of you Americans, home and abroad!

Armored Warfare has a few specials and giveaways, if you are so interested.

Object 490B "Belka"

At the time of this posting, the Moscow Calling update for Armored Warfare has been Live for 9 days and I have finally encountered my first tier X Object 490 premium MBT from the Age of Rage campaign.

However, there were a few things upon seeing it that started to bug me.

Although not an exact duplicate of the M808 Scorpion Main Battle Tank from the Halo series, some the design features of the Object 490 immediately brought the Scorpion to my mind (namely the "quad-pod" tracks).

Another vehicle that came to mind was the German Jagdpanzer IV L-70, because of the sloping (but not nearly the extreme angles the Object 490 has) and the central cannon placement on the front.  

Once I put together the visuals of this new machine, I decided to take another look at the history of it, as published in Armored Warfare's original article. Despite all the information they presented, I felt there was a quite a bit missing and I was right.

Firstly, there were a few variants of Object 490 and the one chosen for Armored Warfare was the B or "Belka" (much like the XM1 tier VI premium vehicle were two separate models, one built by Chrysler and the one that made it ingame, constructed by General Motors). I felt somewhat deceived into thinking there was only one Object 490, since that was the way the article seemed to be written.

During my search for more information on this particular vehicle and thanks to Google translate, I came across this, containing a lot more details on the Object 490 variants.

Not Quite A Beauty Of A Battle, Eh?

Happy Canada Day (except it's nearly over at the time of this posting)!

Nevertheless, I wanted to do something to celebrate this day, despite being tired and worn out after a busy, real life day. I selected my tier IX Leopard 2A6, a winter map to remind me that weather is mere months from returning and elements that I grew up with during my younger years, namely oil and gas exploration and production.

Less than my best, here's how it all turned out....