Credits, More Big Guns, and the A-32

No new tanks this week.  I am still building up credits for the KV-4.

I actually have more than enough credits right now to purchase the beast, but I also want some reserves for the usual equipment, like a large caliber gun rammer.  And that adds up fast.  So I continue with my credit accumulation plan.

Oddly, Wargaming.net has an offer up in their Gift Shop this week for a million credits.

I am not sure I am ready to go there.  I do not mind being part of the so-called Gold Economy, and paying for premium to speed things up some.

But doing the math in my head, that offer doesn’t seem like a huge deal.  Using the 400 credits equals 1 gold conversion you can do in game, this looks like you are essentially getting 3,500 gold for $16.95, which is about a half a cent per unit of gold, which is about what it sells for in any case.

I suppose it is easier for some than doing the conversion in-game.  And at least they aren’t selling experience outright.

With the KV-4 on hold for now, the only real changes over the past weeks was getting more big guns. This time is was the turn of the Jagpanther and the ARL-44.

On the Jagpanther the big gun doesn’t change the look of the vehicle very much.

Jagpanther with the 8.8 cm gun

Jagpanther with the 10.5 cm gun

The new gun is a little longer and a little more stout I suppose.  And it doesn’t really change my armor penetration abilities or accuracy much… the 8.8 cm gun is a wee bit better at both… but it does give my damage a big boost.  A pity that every shot costs four times as much.  It is probably good that I carry less shells and shoot them more slowly.

As with every upgrade, it doesn’t turn turn me into superman, but I do more damage when I hit.  And more damage translates into more experience.  There is only one more item left to research on the Jagpanther, the last track upgrade.  I am not sure how much those will help, except as a step to getting me toward elite status.  It might boost my effective flank hit points, but if I am taking hits on my flanks, I am already in deep trouble.

They will probably come off just as often

Not that elite status will be within my grasp any time soon.  To get there I have to research both the Ferdinand and the Jagpanther II, both of which require 77.5K of experience.  At my rate of play, that is going to take me a while.  But at least I will have a while to think on which of the two I will go after first.

On the ARL 44 though, the big gun is yet another evolution through the visual comedy stylings of the French tank series.  It starts with a turret as big as a barn.

That is a big turret

And ends up with a gun barrel so long it seems to be compensating for something.

Not awkward at all…

The gun compares in length with my arch-nemesis on the field, the Super Pershing.  I hate those things and their spaced front armor.

Super Pershing in the background

Upgrading to the final 90mm gun on the ARL 44, the DCA 45, has just the opposite improvement as the upgrade on the Jagpanther.  All three of the 90mm gun options do the amount of base damage.  But each step up the chain improves penetration and accuracy, with only a minor reduction in reload time.

In the end, the result is the same though… more damage on targets.

I would like to report that I used these two big gun upgrades to good effect, but I had one of those weekends where losses seemed to be the norm.  I was in one match where I very nearly became the person I hate and started yelling at my own team for being idiots in chat.  On one flank three of us were doing well, but on the other our team appeared to have decided to feed themselves one at a time into a deadly crossfire, with the expected results.

I held my tongue though, as I was on the “early to dead” roster myself in more than a few matches as I ran out to play with my new toys.

This got me looking at other tanks in my garage, in hopes of finding something with which I could extract a win, and I ended up casting my eyes on the A-32.

This previously light, now medium, tank was part of the WoT pre-order plan, which I bought, and has been sitting in my garage since launch two years ago, largely unused.

The A-32

I got it out and despite having a 55% crew and big list of downsides (poor armor, poor penetration, inaccurate gun, mediocre view and signal range), I did okay playing it as a light tank.  But I am not sure what I really want to do with it.

If I were going up the Soviet medium line, I could use crews from that to do better while gaining additional experience for them in turn.  But since I don’t really need yet another branch of the tree to pursue at the moment, the A-32 will probably continue to lead a quiet life in the back of the garage.