Without taking a serious look at my ingame statistics, I would confidently guess the premium tier V Chieftain Mk. VI Leader is my most played vehicle in Armored Warfare. Without a long and lengthy rehash of the whole history of how I got one and some of my adventures with it along the way, I can safely say there is something terribly wrong with it now.
If a person were to search the forums for comments on the Chieftain line, one would come across a lot of negative posts and responses. Right up until today, I would have just quietly laughed to myself and played on, collecting decent credit and reputation returns for it's tier. However, I am starting to see what they were talking about and sadly, have to agree with their previous and current findings.
Based on a recent development, namely the first time ban in Armored Warfare for yours truly, I have decided to rethink my whole playing strategy going forward.
First, my biggest mistake was using assets armed with highly inaccurate auto-cannons in PvE Hard mode. After reviewing all of my videos and replays, I have discovered I have dealt out a lot more "friendly fire" than I realized. Not one of them was an intentional, aimed shot, but the after effect of a ally moving to a position directly in front of me, ruining my bead on the target, coupled with a slow reaction time and taking that damage instead.
Going forward, I will only use single shot equipped vehicles in PvE Hard, which have a more accurate aim and offer a better control on holding the shot back if a friendly decides to relocate directly into my view.
Second, if an event or mission doesn't line up with my agenda, I am just not going to do them anymore. Despite the potential of interesting and mysterious prizes, my progress is getting sidetracked with vehicles I am not interested in playing at this time, nor want to get just to complete the tasks for an unknown reward.
My previously mapped progress offers up a real and tangible goal, who knows what I could have wound up getting if I continued to participate in other ventures.
Now that I have laid down my ground rules, it's time to get back on track with the T-90A....
Something I have read about happening to others on the Armored Warfare forums has finally happened to me. A one hour ban for....just read the reason above.
The story from my perspective, I was using my tier VIII M2A3 Bradley in another attempt to win a battle for the Storyline Campaign event. The map was Red Opossum on PvE Hard and I knew something was going to go wrong from the get go.
First, NVIDIA ShadowPlay failed to load, so I couldn't capture the battle as it was taking place in real time. No big deal, if the battle was that good (or if circumstances like this should happen) I can always restart my laptop and create a video from it. Secondly, one of my allies developed this habit of rolling right out in front of me, just as I was zoomed all the way in to deliver the most carefully aimed damage I could with the reticle bloom expanding and contracting after every shot.
I am quite sure they took a few of my shots at the first objective, since this is where they drove out from my right, going left in front of me. I was frustrated to say the least, but the battle continued. Then we moved on to the second objective and it's hard to gauge where my shells were going from my position. However, it was when the third objective had been reached and I just get into a decent position....
One of two things, either the player I shot at took too much damage and the automatic system kicked in, or the player reported my them-self, for ruining their good time.
Sadly, the replay option won't load during this "banned" period, I have tried a few workarounds to no avail. So, I will update this entry when the ban is lifted and created a video from my short time in that battle, just to see and share from a fresh perspective what happened.
***UPDATE***
While waiting for the ban to expire, I received an email notification about the incident. Perhaps my old eyes are reading it wrong, but I was quick to pick up on the accusation of being a "repeat offender," despite this being the very first time anything like this has happened. I have no doubt others have collected the very same notice, no matter how many times they "break the rules."
With the ban lifted, the very first thing I did was create this video from the replay. Although I can't remember how to zoom in, much like I do when playing the game live, it should be pretty obvious from the angles I have selected what actually happened.
At any rate, my participation in this phase of the Storyline Campaign has come to a close, partly from the aiming mechanics of an auto-cannon, especially the on mounted on the Bradley and it's current crew level. Although I could take the low road and try to put all the blame on the player who took damage from me, I am the one who is ultimately responsible for not having a better awareness of my surroundings and pulled the trigger.
Just a friendly reminder, you have a limited time in Armored Warfare to pick up one or two of the three offered bundle packages, containing hard to get special vehicles.
Despite the controversial way this vehicle made it into some players hands (codes were even sold on European versions of Ebay, for well above a fair market value), it seems the wait has paid off (literally) and I finally acquired one of my own. I have this feeling others have been waiting for this vehicle to make an appearance for purchase too. Question is, was it worth it?
For a limited time in Armored Warfare, three bundles packages are available for serious collectors or players who just missed out on acquiring these special vehicles the first time around.
As you can see from the picture above, I went with the cheapest of the offers, simply because it contained the two assets I really wanted. One of them I have been waiting for a very, very long time now.
I had this original plan of saving up all my Gold, adding more to the amount through the Daily Login and cashing in on a later Christmas/New Year's sale, a new stablemate for my tier VII premium Challenger 1 Wolf.
However, since the changes with Update 0.19, my tier V Chieftain Mk. VI Leader has been rather lonely. With the former tier V Chinese WZ-1224 being moved out and up to tier VI, I decided to now fill that vacancy by purchasing the rebalanced and redesignated ICE Edition T-72AV premium MBT, a vehicle I have been waiting for the opportunity to finally get....
I do believe the M2A3 Bradley, as implemented in Armored Warfare, is a very situational vehicle.
Based on it's current armor attributes, clearly it isn't a frontline fighting asset, nor does it posses the speed and maneuverability to race around the battlefield, surprising enemy forces. It's main cannon is mostly ineffective against the thick armor of most adversaries it will face, but it can still deliver enough damage to be annoying and if the shot lands just right, even cripple an enemy long enough to be finished off by an ally.
About the only real thing the Bradley has going for it is the missile system. Despite the long reload, even with a skilled commander to chip that time down just a tad, the fire-and-aim-to-target missiles can be very devastating, when they hit the right spots.
To make up for the severe deficiency in armor, I experimented with using cover on this moonlight map. All was going quite well, until I made that one, fatal mistake....
Another loose end in this post-2.0 Armored Warfare era I wanted to take care of was the final progression through the tier VII Type 98. However, it seems this latest update wasn't too kind to this Chinese vehicle, from my perspective.
While others complained about quite a few shortcomings with most of Zheng Fang's offerings in the pre-2.0 days, I did rather well up the line. Granted, the Chinese steel wasn't nearly as invulnerable as Western or Russian assets, but it was still tough enough for me to get most of my jobs done.
Now, I have grown disappointed with how the vehicles have lost some of their durability and battlefield effectiveness. The main cannon still hits pretty hard, but reload times turn glacial if the turret takes just about any kind of damage. And don't get me started on the armor, because lacking any advanced protection against anti tank guided missiles, the Type 98 specifically is suffering in this age of "missile spam" from artificial opponents with "never miss" aim.
It took three battles to collect on the Daily Bonus, The first two were frustrating defeats, due to the Type 98 falling short of performance and result expectations, coupled with teammates who exhibited indicators they were not interested in wining. By the last battle, things were looking very promising, right up to the end....
