Panhards And An Otocar, I See....

It has been a few days now since Armored Warfare made the premium version of the tier X Panhard Sphinx Armored Fighting Vehicle available (by multiple means) and despite my initial "buyers remorse" from spending a big chunk of real world money on the vehicle, I believe that I made the right decision to park one in my garage (and ended any future purchases for this year, I hope).

Although I already had a tier X premium in the form of the Turkish Altay, I wanted something different and outside my playstyle comfort zone (one of the reasons it was easy to forgo the Object 490 and wait for this or another, similar machine to come). Besides, the more higher tiered premium vehicles I can take into battle, the much better for potential at dealing out huge damage, thus a much better Reputation and Reward payout (that's my theory).

Another reason for acquiring a Sphinx Monster was for the rarity of the thing. Over this last year, I have never seen one in any of the battles I took part in. Not-Once. Now, it seems every high tier sortie I am in there is a least one on my team (if I am driving mine or not). I think many other players came to the same conclusion I did, the Sphinx Monster was too good a deal to pass up, this time around.

The Sphinx Monster isn't a new machine, it's a "reskinium" of an existing progression vehicle, at the end of a light armored, wheeled line. So in-essence, I bought a preview of things to come, should I buy the tier V Panhard VBL (Véhicule Blindé Léger, or Light armoured vehicle) and fight down the path.

With real world events unfolding on the nightly news and across the internet, it's hard to escape the conflict that was taking place in north-eastern Syria, something the Turkish have called "Operation Peace Spring."

Although things have quieted down at the time of this posting (early November 2019), the images of the Turkish mechanized units I saw from the media have been burned into my mind. Much like when I first watched the unfolding action during Desert Storm, some 28 years ago, I was fixated on the light and heavy armor of the Turkish ground forces.

Now before I continue, let me say this to get it out of the way, I am not a military asset recognition expert. To my causal eye, I thought I was looking at a Turkish VBL (pictured above) and only discovered later, it was in fact a Turkish built Otocar Cobra (they also manufactured the Altay MBT). I am sure I am not only one who made this mistake, since both the VBL and Cobra share a lot of styling cues (much like a lot of everyday, civilian vehicles you might see driving around).

While the Otocar Cobra isn't currently in Armored Warfare (perhaps, a future addition?) the Panhard VBL is.

There are two different weapon choices for this vehicle, the single tube missile turret and the one I am now rolling in, equipped with the auto-cannon....