WoT (EU): In Memory of D-Day Special

This weekend’s special offer is dedicated to the Normandy D-Day landings. It is the first historically-themed special offer we have had for quite a while, and with it there is a wide variety of British, German, and American tanks involved in the offer. Soviet and Chinese tanks are not included, and the only French offerings are two premiums that, in reality, were German adaptations of captured French armour. Historically themed offers do not allow so much flexibility for Wargaming, which might be why we have seen less of them of late. The offer runs the normal Saturday morning to Tuesday morning.

The tanks fall into three groups. The first group has tanks on a 50% discount with an 80% earnings bonus, and consists of vehicles Tiers II-V. The tanks in this group are M3 Stuart, M5 Stuart, M7 Priest, M4 Sherman, M10 Wolverine, Crusader, Panzer II, Panzer IV, Wespe, Hummel, Marder II, and Stug III. Some great tanks involved in this part of the offer. I myself am going to enjoy the extra credits on the Marder II of course, but these are all very capable vehicles and I strongly suspect we will see a lot of Panzer IVs, M10 Wolverines, Crusaders, M4 Shermans, and Stug IIIs this weekend. I half-expect this to be the last hurrah of the current 105mm HEAT shells.

The second group of tanks are Tier VI and VIII, and are available at a 30% discount and have a 30% earnings bonus. The tanks are M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo, the M4A3E2 “Easy Eight” Sherman, the M12, Cromwell, Panzer VI Tiger, Panzer V Panther, and Jagdpanther. For this this will be an opportunity to acquire the Panther, and earn some credits on the Tiger.

Finally there are three premiums available at a 30% discount: the Pz S35 739f, the 105 leFH18B2, and the FCM36 PaK40. I must say, given these are all low-tier premiums the 30% discount does seem a little stingy, and leaves a bit of a bad aftertaste to the whole offer. Overall though there are some really iconic tanks involved in this offer, and I would be very surprised if there are not a lot of them on the battlefield over the next few days.

There are a few others elements to the offer. The first victory on each tank will earn you a triple experience bonus. This makes a rather refreshing change from the all the crew experience bonuses we have had recently, even though generally I like crew experience more variety is sometimes nice. Also the Invader medal will earn a twenty thousand credit bonus each time it is awarded. Given I have only 1 Invader medal to my name total, I rather doubt I will be benefiting from that.

Finally we have a 50% discount on both consumables and camouflage. Premium consumables are included, so it may be time eke out a small stockpile of those. Likewise this is a good time to consider permanent camouflages – but if you cannot afford the gold this is good time to experiment with credit camos too. For myself there are some tanks I want to add permanent camo too, but I may not manage to do so this time around.

Overall this is a good offer, with only one minor negative. I think I give it a B+.

WoT (EU): Great Hunt Special Offer and Contest

The special offer on the EU server this weekend is tied in with a contest. Essentially they are taking all the tanks named after wild animals and giving them a 30% bonus to earnings. That is the special offer element. These tanks then form the “prey” component of the contest – the goal of which is to kill as many “prey” as possible in a “hunter” vehicle – essentially every vehicle not included in the special offer.

The “prey” vehicles are Sturmpanzer I Bison, Wespe, Grille, Hummel, GW Panther, M22 Locust, Luchs, VK1602 Leopard, Panzer V Panther, Panzer VI Tiger, Panzer VI Tiger P, Marder II, Jagdpanther, and M10 Wolverine.

In truth this is not every vehicle named after a wild animal – any vehicles Tier VIII and above are not included amongst the “prey” and form part of the hunting pack.

I currently have the Hummel, Luchs, VK1602 Leopard, and Marder II in my garage. I play the Marder II nearly every day that I manage to play, and would expect to get some battles in with it. I will also try to do some with the Hummel. If the “prey” tanks had also been available to acquire at a discount I may have bought a Tiger P, but they are not so I will let that be for the time being.

What do I think of this concept of mixing a contest and a special offer? Well, as a “now and then” thing I have to say I rather like it. Certainly in this implementation there appear to be a wide array of tanks involved – which should mean plenty of targets for the hunters. Whether the credit bonus is big enough for the prey remains to be seen – because in theory one will become a high priority target which might make for a very short lifespan on the battlefield (an effect that should be lessened for artillery as they tend to be in the rear). I say in theory because I am in some doubt how many people actually bother to pay attention to competitions.

That leads me to my one slightly negative comment of this idea of merging the offer and contest – it “looks” quite complicated. In reality it is not – if you want to ignore the contest there is simply the above list of vehicles with 30% earnings. Standing by itself it is a pretty reasonable offer – a credit bonus across so many vehicles. I do think Wargaming do a good job in trying to make it obvious what the special is and what the contest is – I just have a fairly well-developed sense of how amazingly effective folk can be at mis-understanding things (I include myself in this).

WoT: August Report

I have decided to do a series of posts, on or as close to the first of the month as I can manage, about how things stand for me in World of Tanks. This is as much for my own interest, but since I am going to be writing it anyway I might as well blog it 🙂 The format will likely be a work in progress for a while, but my intention is to write about the month just gone to begin with, then enter in a bunch of numbers, and finish up with a final comment on those numbers. This first entry though will have an extended final section as I explain some of what I am recording. Given there is going to be a lot of detail, I will try to place most of this under a fold (if I manage to get it to work! 🙂 ).

Overall

The main feature of this last month or so has been me increasing the maximum tier of the tanks I play, with the KV-3 at Tier VII and now the KV-5 at Tier VIII. The majority of my play however remains in Tiers III-V. 

As far as German tanks go, on the Stug III I unlocked the Jagdpanzer IV, and in the Panzer III/IV and Panzer IV I have unlocked the three German Tier VI mediums. Finally in the Grille I have now unlocked the Tier V Hummel. The Leopard remains a work in progress and I have over 30,000 xp to go before unlocked the Tier V light VK2801.

In the Soviet Tree I am busily exploring the KV heavy tank line. I am also occasionally doing something on the A-20 – though in reality I am likely to use free experience to complete researching that to get me access to the T-34 at some point. On the American side I have enough experience in the M3 Lee to research either the T1 HT or the M4 Sherman, but I have not yet decided which to initially go for. I probably will not make a decision anytime soon – to allow myself flexibility if one of them comes up on special offer. I have not yet starting playing French tanks, something that will now change with the release of 7.5.

Trip through the Garage