Arnie has a tank :)  Looks like M47 Patton. In case you didn't know, Terminator did serve in Austrian army (a required year, 1965).  

Finally 100% crew of T-34.

Seen bunch of variants for crew skills, decided to go with camo first, except for the radio operator. Yes, I know how it works, I should have been going with camo for all 4 first, but decided to try this way' cause T-34's viewrange is not that great.

A warning from XVM authors: there is no stable version yet, they are still working on it.  It will be published on the official site as soon as it's ready.

Do not download anything from other sites which may say "it's updated and ready to use".   Not yet.

There was some kind of update for OMC modpack yesterday (for small mods I imagine), but I didn't go for it, 'cause there will be a big update as soon as XVM is ready.   

Hahaha :)

Didn't think I was doing anything special during that battle - well, 4 kills but lights and lower-tier tanks, except for that KV.  So the Master badge and the Top Gun came up as a total surprise, thanks to my team's win.  I was about to say the WG broke their MM again, 'cause I was playing tier 6 or 7 games all evening.  Couldn't do much there.  Thought I'd play one last game and go to bed, but then - BAM!  Tier 5 game, I'm the top tank of the team, and I collected enough XP to open T-150.  Not enough money to buy it yet, just as usual, lol :)

OK, I updated the game, everything is fine now - no freezes.  Haven't noticed much visual changes, other then now I can see my clan emblem (couldn't before the patch).  And the tank symbols on mini-map and on top of the screen seem different - brighter, with black shadow added.  Looks good.

I don't see an update at Odem Mortis modpack page yet -  guess it will take more time for people to update all mods (XVM mainly), 'cause of the main game change from AS2 to AS3.  I'm not a programmer, but I used to work with Flash programmers, and remember that the change was dramatic.  As I recall, AS3 is totally different then AS2.  But both are obsolete, so I kinda wonder what would be the next step for WoT.

Couldn't play tonight - game keeps freezing for 2-5 seconds.  First I thought it was my connection issues, but turned out my clanmates had the same problem.  So we played like 3 games and quit till the update is done tomorrow.  

Normally it takes 2-3 days for mod-makers to update their stuff, so be ready to play "clean" game for a couple of days.

...And it's time to uninstall all mods :)

OK, think I finally found the XVM mod settings I like.  To be exact, it's not just XVM, but a modpack called Odem Mortis (OMC).  It was recommended by my clanmate, but I didn't want to add much to the game.  Nothing like fancy icons or colored names or skins for tanks - they look ugly.  If you want to see how my game looks now - click "read more".  I'll still have to manually remove the clock from the garage, 'cause it doesn't look good and is annoyingly large.  I play in window, so can see my computer clock and don't need one more.

I bought T-34-85 today and recruited a new crew for it.  Totally ran out of money, so need to farm at least 125k  to retrain crew and buy some unlocked equipment for this tank.  It will stay in my garage forever (strongholds and such).  So I'll probably customize it with decals and camo later, to make it look like "Rudy".  Too bad you cannot get last name "Jaros" for soviet guys :)

I'm still playing with mods, trying to find settings I like.  They all seem to be overwhelming, distracting and not giving me the information I want - and WHEN I want.  Caught myself with a thought that I spend more time tuning mods then playing the game now.

Damn, I did it, still can't believe it! Master! On t-34!! And an excellence mark!!!  That was an epic battle :) 

I finally decided to install some mods - XVM statistics plus some minor stuff like garages, carousel rows etc.  I didn't like any skins, they kill the look and the "feel" of the game.  So the list of all payers (at the beginning of the game) looked mostly red, and the chance of winning for my team was 50%.  It was me, KV-2 and a big soviet TD (keep forgetting the name, SU-100Y I think) at the end.  Being the fastest of three, I had to return to our base to light up the invader and knock down the timer, then I had to run back to the enemy base to join my two teammates (a platoon from some clan) and help them to destroy a Hellcat and find the last arty, so our SU-100Y would make 6 frags.  

Will take a break for tonight.  Also need to tweak the mods little bit, 'cause I don't like those bright colors for the statistics.

Guess I was wrong about my KV-1, I just had several good games, about 400+ xp and over 10.000 silver each.

Funny.  Seems like every time I have a meh or just ok game - my team wins.

But then if I have a great one and even earn some good medals - the team looses.

Does that happen to you a lot? :)

I unlocked T-34-85.

But cannot buy it yet :)  I was hoping to see discounts for soviet tanks this or next week-end, but this week-end is British.  Oh well, guess I'll just farm for 400k more gold.

The worst part is - T-34 cannot become "elite" till you open all other tanks from it - that's 3 more for 23k+ xp each.  So no expedited crew training for me yet.  Same about KV-1 line - I have KV-1S unlocked but need 50+k xp to open KV-2 and T-150.  I tend to gain xp slower on heavy tanks, so it's a long road.

I don't like how the crew training works.  It seems like I barely get my guys from 75% to almost 100%  when I unlock my next tank.  Retraining doesn't make that much sense, especially when the line switches, for example, from light to medium.  It's a bit better from tier 5 up - medium too medium mostly.  But still loosing 10% experience when retraining to a new tank (and back to the previous one if you need).  Meh.

4k xp yet to make to unlock T-34-85....

Getting lucky with tier 5 games.

Good xp, but still no chance to make 6 frags.

Almost 20k xp total right now, so I should be able to open T-34-85 this week-end.

Here is what I decided to install on my T-34.  Cannot say the binoculars are that useful, but I spent all my money on the vent and the gun laying drive, so let it be.  I also bought summer camo for a week, that should be enough to unlock the next tank.

My crew is still below 100%, but feels all right, unless I get into tier 7 game.  It's sweet to be in a tier 5 game of course :)   I just received my 1st Naydin medal - on T-34! :)  Am I getting better at this game?  LOL, guess I'm getting a bit more comfortable with auto aim (right click) and shooting while moving.  My next target is 6 frags, I've been really close to making it several times, but no luck so far.

I slowed down a bit.  Decided to work on the soviet T-34-85 line, so need to make myself play T-34 and not to look at my other tanks except for the 1st (x2) battle of the day.  I fully upgraded my T-34, so it runs ok and shoots ok.  Need more skilled crew of course.

Oh, and yes, I re-recruited my crew till I got all guys with ukrainian last names :)  Now I can work on leveling them up.

 Cromwell... 

I upgraded everything but the gun (2 to open yet).   And it's still slow, weak and not accurate.  Plus I always enter the games vs tier 8 tanks. Crap, I'm mostly dead after 2 shots, it's earlier then I even realize what's going on!  

I cannot play it like light - not enough speed and view range.  I cannot play it like TD - the gun is crap, weak and constantly missing shots.  I cannot play it like medium - no armor.  WHAT THE HECK IS IT?

As much as I like Crusader, I hate Cromwell right now.  Crusader is an opposite story - a light with a good gun, and you play it like medium. No armor and no super-speed but great view range and camo.  Well, Cromwell has no camo and no good view range ('cause it's a medium).

Question is - why everybody likes it?  Does it play better with 3-perks-crew?  Do I need to install some un-usual modules like fuel tank?  Or is it just not "my" tank, wrong playstyle, as I don't like lights? Maybe all of that together... Hate it, hate it, hate it.  Will have to use up all my free xp to upgrade the guns, 'cause I just can't play this stupid tank, but my clan-mates recommend it for strongholds...

My best battle on AC1 so far.  It was pretty fun!

Yes, mostly vs tier 3 enemies, it's my first "Steel wall" medal thanks to those little machine guns. And it was x3 game, so actually I made 778 dmg and received 708 xp.

The best part was my duel vs Pz B2.  I have that tank, so I knew his weak spots :)  I think he didn't use "gold ammo" (I received 10 non-penetration shots from him, he has weak tier 2 gun and "gold ammo" is a must even for tier 3 game), but I did. 'cause I'm tired of those "non-penetration" shots.  I always have 10 "gold" with me, and always use them.  Yes,  it leads to "spending more then earning" results, but it's tier 4, so I can afford it.

Guess what tank I'm playing!

Yep, it's Australian AC1 Sentinel, tier 4.  The one everybody laughs at :)  Yes, I have to use "gold ammo" to be able to pierce most of my enemies, but it works ok to level up my GB crew - for Cromwell.  In fact it comes with 100% crew which matches Cromwell crew (5 guys).

BTW, another Australian tank is available right now - AC4 Experimental (rental and at the prem shop).  It looks similar to AC1, but it's a tier 6 toy.   And it represents British nation too, means another trainer for GB crews.  People say it's not bad - slow,  no armor, but good cannon OQF 17-pdr. Gun MK VII, same as TOG II uses (10 degrees tilting down, yeah!)  

3 panzerni :)  (Janek, Gustlik & Grigoriy from Czterej pancerni i pies)

Joseph Kotin

People call KV and IS tanks "russian", but it's totally wrong. "Soviet" would be more accurate.  Keep in mind that a lot of inventions which russians now call "russian"... were not created by russians. 

And here is a good example: Joseph Kotin, the head designer of KV, IS and other tanks, the Hero of Socialist Labour, Colonel General Engineer, who was awarded with four Stalin's (State) Prizes of the USSR.  His grandparents were from Poland, and he was born in Ukraine.  His alma mater was Kharkiv Technical University (Ukraine).  

I found only a short Wiki article about him, the other one seems to be google-translated from Ukrainian language.  It's still readable, and gives you much more detailed biography of Kotin.  You can find it here (it's the official site of National Technical University of Ukraine).

As for the legendary T-34,  it was created by Mikhail Koshkin... at Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau (Ukraine), which is closely associated with Malyshev Factory.  

Ok, I unlocked KV-1S, but I will probably stay with KV-1 for a while.  Just don't want to start all over again with a "stock" tank and low % crew.  I want to level up my guys a bit. They are not even 100% yet as you can see on my screenshots.  

There are 2 more tanks to be opened from KV-1: KV-2 and T-150, for 26,700 and 24,500 xp.  Then there are 28,800 xp from KV-1S to KV-85, which is my priority target for clan events.  I haven't decide when to switch to KV-1S yet.  Or maybe I'll just collect free xp and open one of those tanks for it...  I badly need at least 50% repair skill for my tankmen.

When I just bought KV-1 I didn't like it.  I hated it. Slow, bad cannon, bad view range.  I felt helpless.  

Well, I finally opened all upgrades.  It's still slower then I like, but 85mm cannon is accurate enough to occasionally shoot from some distance, and it reloads faster then 122mm derp. Yes, I like it better.  

All together - I finally got used to this tank and I kinda like it now.  Of course my crew is still far from perfection, but now I at least make 2-3 kills per battle and the road to KV-85 and T-150 seems not as long as I thought a week ago.

Now I have another "what the heck is going on" tank.  It's Cromwell :)  For some reason MM constantly puts me to tier 8 games and I cannot do much there...

In case you wonder how it works (I just figured it out for myself, 'cause I never bought a prem tank with crew), here is an example.  

AC1 Sentinel (GB tier 4 premium, medium tank) comes with a 100% crew.   Say, you just bought a Cromwell and don't have a good crew for it.  If you retrain your Sentinel crew for Cromwell (GB tier 6, medium tank) using "silver" - you'll have a 90% Cromwell crew.  

BUT! After you re-train this for your Cromwell - you will be able to use these guys for Sentinel too, they don't need to be retrained again and they will be same % as they are on Cromwell!   So you have the crew to play 2 tanks with no need to spend time and money for retraining.   Pretty cool, isn't it?  Sentinel is an ok funny looking tank.  The only bad thing about it is MM - it will be just like any other tier 4 medium, battles with tier 6... oh well ;) 

Just got my 1st Pascucci's medal - on my tractor :)

Recognize the map... :)

50% off garage slots today!

It's for the week-end.  I bought 6 for the "near future".

I did it on the damn kolkhoz tractor! :)  

High caliber.  Could get "top gun"as well, but teammates were speedy at the end, lol.

Still not too jazzed about T-34, guns are not as accurate and powerful as I'd like.  I used 57mm for this game.

I'm going to write down my impressions while grinding several lines up to tier 6.  Currently the list of recommended tanks for clan events include Cromwell, T-34-85, KV-85, T-150, Hellcat/Jackson, T37, M6.   Several of them are my targets for now.

When I was starting to play World of Tanks, I was looking mostly at german tanks 'cause of their accurate guns.  Tiers 1-3 = mostly light tanks, as for me it was... annoying.  I started with american T2 light (invite code), but realized I prefer to snipe from some distance rather then run like a crazy fly.  Same time I didn't like slow turretless low-tiers TDs.   My fav was a german Pz.Kpfw 35(t), and I even upped the crew to 1,5 skills for it.  That's the only crew I have with "6th sense" so far.

Then I decided to try american TDs with turrets - ok, those are not bad, I like the speed and good guns.  But they have no armor, so I thought I should try medium and heavy.  M3Lee was terrible to play even as a TD.  By the time I opened M4 and T1 I was fed up with the game and took a long break.  And that's where I was when I came back to the game and joined the clan.

Now, platoon with a great leader and TS communication is a totally different story.  Meds and heavys feel more fun then my beloved "solo" TDs.  

Panzerlied, Tri tankista and other songs.       

Just wanted to share some stuff, thought it may be interesting historically/musically.

My clanmate mentioned the anime series Girls und Panzer. I am not a big fan of anime and did not watch it, but I was surprised to find out that they used the real WWII marches. The song Panzerlied is a leitmotif of Kuromorimine Women's College (instrumental version). The other theme is Erika, which is another famous German march (but not "exclusively" for tankers).

Panzerlied used to be Panzerwaffe marching song. It's well-known due to it's usage in the movie Battle of the Bulge (1965). An interesting fact about it - it was originally a German sailor's song from 19th century, Wohl über den Klippen (well above the cliffs), so Kurt Wiehle only updated the lyrics for the tankers. The melody is also used for the marching song of French Foreign Legion (Kepi Blanc). Panzerlied is still a popular song in Bundeswehr and Austrian army. I imagine they had to update the lyrics to get rid of "Reich" (see the full lyrics), but I didn't find the modern version.

Ob's stürmt oder schneit, ob die Sonne uns lacht,
Der Tag glühend heiß, oder eiskalt die Nacht,
Bestaubt sind die Gesichter, doch froh ist unser Sinn, ja, unser Sinn.
Es braust unser Panzer im Sturmwind dahin. (x2)

Whether it storms or snows, or the sun smiles on us,
The day burning hot, or the icy cold of night.
Dusty are our faces, but happy is our mind, yes, our mind.
Then roar our tanks in the storm's wind. (x2)