It was a good weekend for tanks.
The match maker smiled upon me and my win/loss ratio tilted in favor of wins.
This was enhanced by a couple of matches where the generic loud-mouth on chat who died first and spent the rest of the time telling us how we were going to lose because we didn’t follow/support/obey them, ended up having to watch us win by using the very tactics they said would guarantee a loss.
That never gets old.
On the progress front, Potshot and I were able to carry on with our French heavy tank spree.
Potshot and I stalking…
Despite some comedy moments, the fully upgraded BDR G1B is turning out to be a formidable tank.
I bet the KV-1 can’t do this!
As Potshot noted, the 90mm gun makes a big difference. It does a lot of damage and will plow through most armor on which it can draw a bead. This has lead to some really good matches.
Not bad for a defeat
Part of it is people do not seem to expect much from the BDR. The “egg” is dismissed as an easy target. People get greedy trying to get a cheap kill.
I have had any number of opposing tanks sit in the open shooting at me, thinking they’ll do me in without injury once I come out of cover. I had one M4 driver rail at me for being a “wallet warrior” since I was clearly using premium ammo. I caught him broadside, where he was sitting and waiting for me, which knocked him down under 20% health and set him on fire. The fire, in turn, finished him off… something I always enjoy. However, no premium ammo was involved. That stuff is expensive and I am an avowed cheapskate.
And part of my cheapness this past weekend came from having dropped a lot of credits on a new vehicle. I am now officially in tier VII, having finally made it to the KV-3.
It looks like my T-150…
I literally missed the KV-3 being half price by one day. As I was getting close, I checked the price and it was ~700K credits. And then when I got that last bit of experience and trained for it, the price had jumped to ~1.4 million credits.
Ouch.
I had the credits… and I can always make more driving the Type 59… but the KV-3 is the most expensive tank I have purchased so far. And once I got it out in matches… well… it played a lot like my T-150.
No, really, it looks like a T-150
Well, a lot like the fully upgraded version of the T-150 at least. (The base T-150 played like the KV-1.)
And well it might. Since I was low on credits, I moved all the accessory equipment… camo net, binocular telescope, large gun rammer… over from the T-150. I stole the 107mm gun from my KV-2. That is the same gun I have on the T-150. All of which left those other two vehicles less than useful and makes me wonder whether I should hang on to them or not.
The T-150 plays better in general, but the KV-2 can be, as I said, comedy gold with the 152mm gun. Though, to be honest, I haven’t played the KV-2 at all since I got the T-150, and with the T-150 I was primarily focused on getting to the KV-3. And now I am focused on upgrading the KV-3, so I suspect that one or both of those tanks should probably be sold off, if only to save me the gold price of another garage slot.
The argument for keeping at least one of those two is that with 5 person crews, I couldn’t just transfer either group en masse to the KV-3. The T-150 crew already has the first skill/perk, band of brothers, which needs everybody in the crew to have it for it to be in effect.
Meanwhile, the heavier armor of the KV-3 seems to suit my “village idiot” play style. I managed to get the upgraded suspension and the heavier turret, making me even more heavily armored.
Looking less like the T-150 now
So when I wander out into the open and get myself killed, I now seem to survive long enough to take a few opponents with me.
Sailing the river Styx in good company
In the picture above, my wreck sits amongst my victims. I was sitting in the open, killing a TD when I noticed the Panther-M10 sitting behind me, shooting into my backside. I slowly brought the turret around and killed him in two shots. While that was going on, a Black Prince rammed me and then sat there shooting into my flank until I turned and killed him. I was immobile at that point, so turned and got off a hit on another foe before artillery finally did me in.
That’s a tough tank.
Now I have to work on getting to the bigger guns and the better engines. We shall see if the match maker remains kind to me and whether or not this tank really fits me. I am a bit apprehensive, if only because the next tank in the Soviet heavy KV tree is the KV-4, which has some mixed press. Heavy armor and an accurate top gun are good, but we’re definitely sailing deep into “slow and as big as a house” territory with this big boy.
Of course, the BDR G1B has mixed press as well, and I find it to be fun, so we shall see.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 