Seriously?  St Emil with top gun - it now damages and brings some money.  I lost about 380k silver using the stock gun.

Boom!  Ricochet...  re-lo... dead.

Boom!  Truck down, no damage.  

Boom!  Quack! (6th sense) Dead. 

Boom!  Missed.

Boom!  Oh, nice, head off :)  

Boom!  Whaaat? No penetration?..  

102 games. I finally unlocked the "big gun"  for this piece of total crap.  At least it has better penetration.  I used a lot of my personal reserves for this stupid clunker.  41% winrate, 561 average damage per game.  I needed 58500 xp to unlock top gun, now 71000 xp to unlock the next tank.

If I look back at the entire line of German "glass cannons" - they are mostly terrible.  It starts with Pz.Sfl.IVc.  I hated it.  Didn't bother unlocking top gun, just used free xp to unlock Nashorn.  44% winrate, 350 average damage over 39 games.  

Nashorn - ok, that one was not too bad, just boring.  At least it had some angles (traverse), so I didn't need to turn Nash right and left so much.  53% winrate, 146 games (needed less, I played some extra games on it leveling up my crew), 670 average damage (that's "green").

Sturer Emil is the worst of them.  It's tier VII, so I see tiers VIII and even IX.  They have better view range, better guns and - players are much more experienced here.  Should I mention a shitload of good prem and non-prem tanks on tiers VII and VIII?  Oh well. Another 100 games to go (hope less), then I will sell this clunker and forget it.

Coming soon...

   - light tanks tiers IX and X to be added;

   - new matchmaker is coming up, 3-5-7
    and 5-10 - say, 3 tier VIIIs plus 5 tier
    VII plus 7 tier VI tanks.  Also there is a
    rumor about +1/-1 tiers MM for low
    levels (up to  VI), while it will be the
    old +2/-2 for high  tiers.

   - many tanks to be tuned.  Devs don't
   do it now, 'cause they want to see how
   it would work with the new MM;

   - re-skinned maps (see the video).
   Two bloggers had a chance to see
   them in-game.  They just love the new
   "national taste" for every map and how
   detailed everything is (waves on water
   from your tank moving etc).  Devs stress
   up that fps will not change;

   - arty will be changed.  It would have
    less 1-shot chance, but more chance
   to damage modules and crew (stun).
   This effect could be removed by using
   repair kits and medical kits.  Right now
you can only bring 1 medkit and 1 repair to the battle.  If the stun idea comes to the game, you would be able to use as many repairs/medkits as you need, no limits for quantity, just a cooldown  time between uses.

As for new nations - there was a rumor for several European nations to be added, but if not enough tanks for each (Italy, Poland) - then it would be a mixed "Euro" nation.  Nothing more specific yet.

I received the Pilot!

My last mission (today) was to get 2 frags (kills) in 10 games, win or lose.  Took me 28 games to do it, and loosing has never been so enjoyable :)

The crew is only 100%, no extra skills.  Garage slot is nice. 1 day of premium account would be even better if I could choose when to activate it.

Cool marathon altogether!

Full list of missions: (1 per day, each one was announced at 9am Minsk time)

1 - win 5 battles, be among top 10 players by xp;

2 - destroy 10 enemy vehicles over any amount of battles;

3 - make 15k damage;

4 - earn 20k xp;

5 - win 10 battles, be among top 10 players by dmg;

6 - play 10 battles, make 2000 dmg each time;  (reward - garage slot)

7 - play 20 battles, be among top 5 players by dmg;

8 - win 10 battles, be among top 3 players by xp; (reward - garage slot)

9 - be top-1 of your team by dmg; 

10 - win 10 battles, be among top 3 players by dmg;

11 - make 50k damage; (reward - garage slot)

12 - win 10 battles, be among top 5 players by xp;

13 - destroy 30 enemy vehicles over any amount of battles;

14 - play 10 battles where you destroy at least two enemy vehicles; (reward - 1 day of Premium account)

15 - play 3 battles, be top-1 of your team by xp.

Other rewards looked like "large repair kit", "coffee and buns", money, personal reserves (+50% money for 2 hours and others) etc. 

30 kills, any amount of wins or looses.  Done.  Couldn't wait for the last mission (tomorrow).  Got bored.  Joined a clan just to chat.  Went on several Skirmishes for stronghold.  Lost them all :D  Spent most of my gold-leftovers for permanent camo on Hellcat (meant to use silver, but clicked something wrong).  Decided I need to work on Cromwell crew again.  Played St. Emil.  Can't stand this piece of crap for more then 5 battles.  It's gonna take forever... 

Today's marathon mission was to be among top-5 players by xp, in 10 winning games.  Done.  2 more to go.

False accusations

Today I received a pm after one of the battles.  It was from arty player I shot at the end of the game.  He has "yellow" XVM, so not a bad player.  But he was so mad I played better then him.  Said I use cheats.  I don't care what he thinks, I don't use anything but the XVM and some minor crap from OMC, like 10-second sound mode for "6th sense".  Can't believe experienced players cannot say difference between cheat-users and those who just play better then they do.  I sent a complaint in-game for unsportsmanlike conduct and added him to the blacklist so he doesn't bother me any more.  Stupid kid.

Hmm... Does it mean I play that well? :)

Well, it was tough today.  50 000 dmg, no matter win or lose.  A garage slot is a reward.  I made it, but my... almost a 100 games on T67 and Nashorn, 10 looses/draws more then wins.  My average dmg was about 750.

The only "fun" thing about it - 2nd  "sniper" mark on T67 and 1st on Nashorn.

31 games, 15 wins - I completed today's marathon mission to be among top-3 by dmg 10 times and winning games.  Had several funny looses and a tie on the way.  

I was plying on eastern server mostly.  Noticed that "barely green" guys - around 1500-1600 WN8 - are often act like assholes in chat. 

Today's marathon task was to be among top-3 players by XP in 10 winning games.  Garage slot was a reward.  I got it.  Used T-67 and Nashorn.  Now I'm 6k xp short for Sturer Emil. 

Also, garage slots are 50% off today.  But it was cool to get one for free of course :)

Today's marathon task was to be among top-5 players of your team - in 20 battles (win or lose, no matter).  I made it.  But... it takes a lot of time and gets boring. Now I need 7 more tasks to complete the marathon.  We'll see.

Yesterday I skipped it and played Nashorn all day.  Guess what, I collected half xp points needed to open next tank of that line.  Not sure why I was postponing it for so long, it's not bad at all.  Now the plan is to collect enough free-xp to open some modules on St. Emil right away.  Heard it's a horrible TD, and I'll need twice more xp on it to open tier VIII, but what the heck... I'm enough of tier-V-only game.  I'm not worse player then others :)

I had to skip today's marathon mission.  10 battles with 2000 dmg each  - that's too much for my fav tier Vs.  Too bad, 'cause today's reward is a garage slot :(

But I realized that I badly need at least one tier VIII, so now I play Nashorn mostly.  Not too bad, just somewhat boring to sit back, with no chance to run if I need to.  No speed, no turret, no armor :)   I retrained my only one good german crew for it - from heavies.  It's only 3 guys of 5 needed for Nashorn, but at least I have a commander with "6th sense" now.

Exp dmg for Nashorn is 899.  Not that I'm making it every time, but it's not unusual for me to make 1000-1500.

Today's marathon task was to be among top 10 players by damage and win a battle.  So basically 10 wins - that's all you need.

Not much, but today's teams, oh my...  Turbo-wins or turbo-looses.  And lots of long-tongued "skilled" players.  I intentionally lost one game (just deserted it) 'cause of what one of them kept saying about the rest of the team.

I completed the marathon mission, but had to play like 25-30 games (couldn't make top 10 using Nashorn in tier VIII games).

But here is what I made "on my way".  That's my 1st Fadin's medal, and that was a total surprise.  But 3k+ dmg on my T-67 was a bigger wow :)

T25 Pilot marathon

In case you didn't know, it's a marathon event going on right now.  15 days, a new task every day, 24 hours to complete.  Each one gives you a reward, they vary from "coffee with buns" to a garage slot.  If you complete 13 of 15 missions you receive a tier VIII medium US tank T25 Pilot and a 100% crew for it.

The missions so far:

1 - win 5 battles, be among top 10 players;

2 - destroy 10 enemy vehicles (any amount of battles);

3 - make 15k damage;

4 - 20k xp

#4 (today) was the hardest for me, took about 2,5 hours.  I used my fav T-67 and Nashorn (tier 6 German TD.  Hate it but need to do it for nice tier 8 of that line).  No premium, just hourly "personal reserves" for xp and such.  I was collecting those for a while. You can use tier IV+, but of course it's much easier for those who has tier 9-10 tanks.

I imagine next tasks would get more and more complicated.  I'll see if I can do it...  Any way, the tank is... ok I guess.  I don't have any tier VIII prems.  Would be nice to try one.  If no - hopefully I'll receive at least a garage slot.

P.S: Of course you can buy the same tank at the premium shop.  Or buy 1-5-all daily missions to open it.  I don't plan to do any of that.

 Just another Master on my T-67.

And my crew is 3-skills now, moving into 4th.  I've reset the loaders perks (I do it for silver, not for gold) to get him "Designated target", so his concealment is 96%.

Others have it 100%, plus Brothers,  plus the most useful perk for each as I decided:

- commander - 6th sense, the 4th skill will be Recon;

- loader - as mentioned.  Repair would be next;

- driver - smooth ride, same for the 4th;

- radioman - awareness, same;

- loader - oh well, repair and firefighting :)