I'll be Bach

Have you ever played Haydn seek? It's a very fun game where one hide and the other seeks. Or maybe I should put up a bumper sticker saying "dude, Bach off". Don't worry, I can Handel it. Ok, that's enough of my stupid music puns. Let's get down to business.

For those who haven't been stalking reading my blog, I'll just let you know that I'm part of a clan in World of Tanks. I thought it might be a nice idea to just recount the events of our battles for the past couple of nights. It's unfortunate that I didn't get the time/chance to take screenshots seeing how lately my schedule has been so tight. No, I'm pretty sure she didn't say that for all those who were about to say "that's what she said". 

So one particular night, I had the lovely experience of being in a 11 vs. 15 battle. Naturally, I was part of the 11 (woot!) and the awesome part was, our strategy worked! We were able to take on a numerically superior force and I'm sure that it'll really help with morale in the clan. Granted it wasn't their "good" team that we fought against but it was still a good start. We have been fighting in clan wars for about a month now and we never really held land for more than a couple of days. We could take it but we never really had enough people to hold it. So I'm really hoping that we'll soon get more players to help defend. 

I wish I could talk about the strategy but that would mean revealing classified information and no one would like that. So I'll just keep quiet and let you readers use your imagination. We also managed to develop a nice strategy that was awesome for defense even if it costed us half of our team. As long as we could lead the battle into a draw, we still kept the land. That's how it works with owner's battles in World of Tanks. 

Aside from that, the clan does do a very nice job of fighting together as a team and it's often quite interesting when the enemy decides to just pool all their resources onto one flank and we get hard pressed to defend it. 

T32 Research Path

Essentially the heavy version of the M26 Pershing, the T32 carries a lot more armor and has a bigger gun than its medium brother. Basically some dude walked into a Pershing factory and went "What if we made this bigger?" (Or something similar to that).

Anyway, keep in mind that even with the 105 mm gun you'll still be outgunned so you must always aim for the weak spots if you are to shine on the battlefield. Also thanks to its low profile, the T32 is also an excellent tank for facehugging especially against those pesky KV-5's.

1. Tracks: T84E3A
2. Gun: 105 mm Gun T5E1
3. Turret: T119
4. Engine: GMC Allison V1710-E32
5. Engine: Continental AV-1790-3
6. Radio: SCR 528
7. Tank: M103

You should have most of these modules from the T29 such as the 105 mm or the upgraded engine. You can put on the engine without having to research the tracks so do that if you already have it. Also keep in mind that you will need new tracks if you want to mount the 105 mm so you'll be stuck using that 90 mm for quite some time. 

Anno 2070 [Updated]

So approximately a year ago, Ubisoft released Anno 2070. A sequel to its series, Anno 2070 introduces players to a possible future where global warming has taken a turn for the worse and has caused the ice bergs to melt considerably. It's to the point where mountains are the new lands and everything else is submerged.

Anno 2070 is a city building game but also incorporates some RTS into it as you command your ships and some aircraft. The variety of units may be lacking but they are still fun to play around with. You've got standard cargo ships able to transport goods from one island to another (keep in mind that Anno 2070 takes place on islands and not large pieces of lands). Then you've got nifty warships which do battle against other warships and depending on the ship in question, it may have the armaments to attack submarines and aircraft. Submarines can't attack aircraft but they are awesome for attacking most ships as they lack the proper weapons to defend themselves against these sneaky units. Aircraft on the other hand lets you attack inland as your ships' ranges will reach only so far. Although strangely enough, there are no airplanes but instead, there are helicopters and VTOLs.

Anno 2070 is also a rather complicated game as you progress onward and build up your civilization. At first you may only need to contend with fishery for food and tea or liquor for drinks to satisfy your citizens' needs. But soon you'll be faced with challenges of getting them lobster meals, champagnes, expensive jewelry, household robots and 3D projectors just to name a few. The problem is that each of these goods requires different raw materials and other unfinished goods so you'll be jumping all over the place trying to gather all the right materials.

There's also the issue of raw materials. Each island can support up to a maximum number of 4 fertilities (provided you are playing on easy mode) so you may farm up to 4 different foods. Seeing how this game has more than four foods, you're going to have to expand to other islands and farm there as well. Other raw materials such as oil, coal, copper or uranium are also difficult to find all on one island thereby forcing you to either stay in the stone age or expand and settle in other islands. The biggest issue with expand to so many different islands is making sure that all raw materials and goods go to where they need to go. Raw materials need to go to factories while finished goods need to go to your citizens. You can put factories on the same island as your citizens thereby saving time and the trip of transporting the goods in question. But then you face the problem of eco-balance.     

The biggest challenge in this game is maintaining a good eco-balance for your citizens. Those living underneath too much smog will soon start feeling unhappy and unhappy citizens means less taxes. Also, if your eco-balance drops too low (say -500 for example), you might see a natural disaster or two destroying a good chunk of your city. This encourages players to build buildings that help improve the eco-balance making it a much better place for your people to live in.

This is just a brief outline of what Anno 2070 has to offer. I know I didn't write much here but I will put up a couple of pictures just to please your eyes.

In this picture, you can see an anti-ship turret in the foreground protecting my docks from enemy attack. My (unfinished) city sits in the background.

Here we have two lovely submarines on the surface of the water waiting for their orders.

Here we see the same two submarines now submerged and are underwater. You can see some of the marine animals in the background.

Edit (Sept. 15): I felt like taking more pictures so here they are.

M103 Research Path

This tier 9 American heavy tank replaced the T34 in patch 0.7.2 and quite honestly, it's quite an improvement over the T34. The hull armor is now sloped making it very difficult to penetrate its upper glacis while the turret armor, despite having less armor, is still very strong as it too has lots of slopes everywhere. In addition, you now have access to the 120 mm T122 gun which has a decent amount of penetration and with enough skill, you probably won't ever have to research the last gun, the 120 mm M58. Yes, you heard me right. As long as you are constantly aiming at the weak spots, your 120 mm T122 gun will serve you very nicely. Although if you want to make your life easier, a better gun is always nicer too.

Right, now that I got the introduction out of the way, let's get started shall we?

1. Gun: 120 mm Gun T122
2. Engine: Continental AV-1790-7C
3. Turret: T140
4. Gun: 120 mm Gun M58
5. Tracks: T97E2
6. Radio: AN/GRC-7
7. Tank: T110E5

Like I said previously, if you believe that you're good enough and don't want to research the final gun, don't bother. You'll get the exact same gun when you reach the T110E5 so you'll end up eliting your M103 without having to spend research points on that gun. Also, the stock tracks are able to support all your upgraded modules with some weight left for equipment. Keep in mind that your tank will still feel rather sluggish so you'll want to get the tracks before you get the radio. 

Mmm, Free Stuff

Isn't it wonderful when you get free stuff? We live in a world today where free stuff is only available at supermarkets sampling food and the internet. So whenever you come across the chance of getting free stuff, chances are it's probably too good to be true or someone gave you a gift.

Anyway, I wanted to share this video which shows how to hide your tanks in World of Tanks. I won't say much other than the fact that it was very interesting and funny because of Monty Python. Read the description of the video if you don't know what I'm talking about.

StuG III Research Path

I'm actually writing this now because I'm going to be getting rid of my StuG III real soon so before I sell it, at least I have something to refer to. Out of all the TD's I've played (which isn't a lot mind you), the Stug III has really shown me that it can work miracles. I finally got back my 9 kill record which took a very long time to get. My previous 9 kill record was in a Panzer II and that was back in beta. I was pretty excited back then too since it was my very first time I had stolen gotten so many kills.

Oh and somehow the wiki isn't incredibly accurate about the armor part but keep in mind that if you try to face hug same tiered tanks (or lower tired tanks), you'll have a really good chance of bouncing shots. Your upper glacis is actually stronger than you would imagine and it's only the lower glacis that is easy to penetrate.

1. Gun: 7.5 cm PaK 39 L/48
2. Tracks: StuG-III-Ostketten
3. Gun: 7.5 cm StuK 42 L/70
4. Engine: Maybach HL 120 TR
5. Engine: Maybach HL 120 TRM
6. Radio: FuG 7
7. Gun: 10.5 cm StuH 42 L/28
8. Tank: JagdPz IV

If you prefer to use the 10.5 cm (which is a derp gun), then switch step 3 with step 7. Otherwise the 7.5 cm StuK is a better choice as it has excellent accuracy and decent rate of fire. Also the upgraded radio only has 415m of range so upgrading it won't make too big of a difference (sadly). 

Tiger (H) Research Path

The "legendary" Tiger tank found in World of Tanks isn't very legendary. Thanks to the Russian bias that's been around since the beginning of time, German tanks have been very difficult to master and believe me when I say difficult. One of the problems with the Tiger tank is the fact that none of its armor is sloped as it was designed to withstand punishment and not deflect it. This was the last German tank that had the "classic" tank look as afterwards, German engineers copied the Soviet T-34 medium tank and incorporated sloped armor into their tanks (i.e. Panther and King Tiger). Alright, let's get on with it shall we?

Again, I'm going to assume that you magically didn't/couldn't/wouldn't research some of the shared modules.

1. Gun: 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56
2. Turret: PzVI-Porscheturm
3. Gun: 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71
4. Engine: Maybach HL 174
5. Engine: Maybach HL 210 P 30
6. Engine: Maybach HL 230 P 45
7. Engine: Maybach HL 234
8. Tracks: Breitketten
9. Radio: FuG 12
10. Gun: 10.5 cm KwK 42 L/28
11. Tank: Tiger II

Seriously if you are still considering using that 105 mm on a tier 7 heavy, you need to rethink your strategy. Only the strongest HE guns are effective for anything past tier 6. I strongly recommend that you use either the 75 mm stock gun while you grind to the 88 mm. You should have already unlocked that 88 mm from the VK 3601 (H) but in case you didn't, the 75 mm will have to do. 

Also, keep in mind that the stock tracks can hold practically everything so you may want to research it last. The new tracks does let you turn on a dime slightly faster and thanks to the extra load limit, you will feel your tank to be slightly more mobile. 

As usual, aiming for the best gun should be a priority as it will help immensely with the extra penetration and accuracy. The Porscheturm is also something you will want to get soon as the stock turret simply looks ridiculous and everyone will instantly know that you're driving a stock Tiger.      

Super Pershing Impressions

I noticed that my Super Pershing post was more popular than the other pages so I thought it would be a good idea to write down my impressions of this tank. The Super Pershing is essentially a very heavy medium with a decent enough gun. For those who have experience using the T32, you will find that the 90 mm on the T32 and the 90 mm on the Super Pershing is actually the same gun but with two names.

The Super Pershing is also very good at absorbing damage and bouncing off shots (from the front of course).  Spaced armor has been in use every since the first world war and for good reason too. Sloped spaced armor causes shells to tumble or deform thus making it much less effective at penetrating the next layer of armor. Seeing how the Super Pershing has sloped spaced armor on its hull, it becomes much more effective at bouncing shots as most shots will probably penetrate the first layer but will fail to penetrate the second. I've bounced shots off T28 Prototypes, M103's, King Tigers, T95's, etc. and each time, it's thanks to my spaced armor.

The turret armor is also very well protected in certain parts but it does have gaps. For example, the cupolas are exposed so face hugging taller opponents wouldn't be the best thing to do. Also the extra armor is rather thin in terms of width so it doesn't full cover important areas such as the bottom of the turret or the turret ring.

As you can see, the extra turret armor covers approximately 80% of the frontal turret (I'm eyeballing it here). Aim at any spot other than that extra armor and you should be able to penetrate it.

The 90 mm gun T15E1 is a medium tank's gun. You will either have to flank your enemies or learn all the weak spots. Seeing how this gun only has 170 mm of penetration with a standard AP shell, you'll have to aim at those weak spots on those heavies or you're going to have a bad time.

If you know where to aim and who to aim at, you'll definitely enjoy playing this tank. The reload speed is also decent but as a suggestion, I would recommend putting on that rammer as one of your equipment. 

Now that I got all that crap out of the way, let's get down to the fun stuff shall we? 

Pros:

• H4X0R armor!!!!!1!!11!
• Good reload speed
• Decent aim time
• Cheap price (compared to other tier 8 premiums)
• Good gun depression 

Cons:

• Slow (poor engine)
• You may need to use up a consumable slot for 100-octane
• Virtually no side or rear armor
• May have trouble getting to the sides and rears of your enemies in time

Recommended Equipment

• Medium-caliber tank gun rammer
• Vertical stabilizer (or enhanced gun laying drive if you don't drive around much)
• Improved ventilation
• Toolbox (if your crew isn't trained in repairs)

Should you purchase this tank? Players who are accustomed to using heavy tanks with weak penetration guns (such as the 88 mm found on German tanks) may find this tank to be very familiar. Your gun requires good aiming but that aiming time is often offset by the powerful armor letting you take hits while you take the time to aim. This tank is also cheap costing approx. $33 USD and makes a decent amount of credits on any given match. If you hate slow tanks with weak guns, you won't like playing this tank. On the other hand, if you want crazy armor and don't mind the speed and firepower, then you'll love it. 

I like to compare the Super Pershing to the M4A3E2 Sherman as both of these tanks are more well armored than their counterparts. They both pack the same guns but lack speed and carry increased armor. Both tanks do have more speedy counterparts yes but all that extra armor makes a huge difference between life and death.

If you want to read more about the Super Pershing, check out the World of Tanks wiki here. 

M4A3E8 Research Path

Might as well do another one of these before I take a short break. Anyway, here is my favorite tank (currently, it's about to be surpassed by the Super Pershing) and well, don't know what else to say other than happy thanksgiving! It's not thanksgiving I know, but that was in my head. Once again, this research path guide assumes that you have none of the modules unlocked from previous tanks.

1. Gun: 76 mm Gun M1A1
2. Engine: Wright C. R-975C4
3. Turret: D51080
4. Gun: 76 mm Gun M1A2
5. Engine: Ford GAA
6. Radio: SCR 506
7. Tracks: NVSS T80
8. Gun: 105 mm SPH M4L23
9. Tanks: T20 or M36

At this tier, you really should not use the 105 mm. It may have been adequate for your lovely M4 Sherman but it really does get wasted on this tank. The M4A3E8 (or Easy 8) is an excellent flanking tank and you want to pump as many shots as you can into the rears of higher tiered tanks. The 105 mm lacks the penetration to get the job done so this is where the 76 mm M1A2 comes in. 

Also, this tank has more than enough load limit to go around so you can research the tracks last. It just makes your life easier when you do get them and you'll find the grind to the T20 or the M36 quite enjoyable. 

M4 Sherman Research Path

Seeing how the wiki never seems to do a good job of handing out information, I decided that I should start giving out some advice on what modules to research first. Keep in mind that if you have elited your previous tank, it makes life a lot easier. Also all of my research path guides will elite the vehicle in the process. If you believe that there is a specific module you do no wish to obtain, you may skip it at your own risk. So without further ado, let's get started.

If you wish to use the 76 mm M1A1 gun, follow this research path.

1. Engine: Wright C. R-975C1
2. Tracks: T42
3. Turret: D51072
4. Gun: 76 mm Gun M1A1
5. Engine: Wright C. R-975C4
6. Radio: SCR 506
7. Gun: 105 mm SPH M4L23
8. Tank: M4A3E8 or M4A3E2 

If you wish to use the 105 mm SPH (also known as the 105 derp or mini-derp), follow this path.

1. Engine: Wright C. R-975C1
2. Tracks: T42
3. Gun: 105 mm SPH M4L23
4. Engine: Wright C. R-975C4
5. Turret: D51072
6. Radio: SCR 506
7. Gun: 76 mm Gun M1A1
8. Tank: M4A3E8 or M4A3E2

The M4 Sherman has two different choices of weapons and both have its strengths and weaknesses. The 105 mm is good against low tier targets potentially one-shotting them. The 76 mm makes you more of a threat against tier 7's and lets you snipe slightly more accurately than the 105 mm. 

Whenever upgrading a tank, you should always aim for obtaining the best gun possible before research other modules. Unfortunately, the M4 Sherman is extremely sluggish and unmaneuverable with its stock engine so getting an upgrade made save you some frustration. If you don't mind the slow speed, then get the skip the first step and get the engine later.  

People With Narcissistic Tendencies

You may notice that occasionally, my posts have grammatical errors in them. This is because I don't really proof-read them and I should. I simply type out what I have in my head and I don't bother going back to read it. I really should change this bad habit shouldn't I?

So I thought I should talk more about my current clan and help them do a little press. My clan currently has 40 people in it (last I checked) and we are in a desperate need of more members mainly for defending the lands that we hold. We are able to take land alright, but we always lose it after a day or two and we never have the chance to move inland. The attacking force is always so busy attacking and trying to defend that I'm sure a couple of us are rather tired and deserve a break. So if anyone here wishes to join a clan wars clan (we have to fight just about every night so we need all the people we can get), don't hesitate to visit our recruitment page and message us. Just be sure to read the requirements as some of the clan members lack the proper tiered tanks and you will be given a lower priority in battle.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, I thought I would share two pictures about my clan. No, we did not pose in front of a camera acting like fools. Rather it's just a couple of screenshots which I thought should be considered as milestones.

My first picture here is proof of our very first successful landing. It was our first time as a clan winning land and the funny thing was, we got a technical victory with the owner's battle (that's the final battle mind you). It was a waste of time waiting an extra 15 minutes for the battle to start only to find out that the enemy never showed up. At least we got our very first taste of true victory and I'm sure the entire clan was proud of ourselves. 

This next picture you see here happened last night actually and the coolest thing was, we didn't lose a single tank in the process. We fought brilliantly and our artillery did a good job of whittling down the enemy while the rest of us finished them off. Although this clan did bring in a couple of tier 9's and 8's, this was the very first time we had such a perfect win. I still don't know why but if their team had rushed us up in the northern flank, we probably would've lost as we were outnumbered in the northern flank and they had fast but powerful tanks at their disposal.

Either way, that's it for now but I'm really hoping that we can move inland and perhaps one day, we can start conquering Europe on the clan wars map. That's where all the gold is and that's where all the powerful clans are sitting.

T26E4 Super Pershing

Yesterday I finally caved in and spent $33 on a pixel tank. I guess if I put it that way, it does sound kind of bad. Anyway, let's go through a short history lesson before I discuss why I decided to spend my hard earned money. During world war 2, there were essentially two sides; the allies and the axis. The allies were composed of a bunch of countries including the United States, the British, the French (well, the good ones anyway) and other various countries. The axis were filled with Nazis and their friends. During world war 2, the technology of tanks progressed rapidly and by the end of the war, both sides had built machines that were never before imagined. The Germans had the King Tiger and the Panther as some of their most fearsome tanks and the United States had.... well plenty of Sherman tanks. The Shermans were very weak compared to their German enemies but they always made up for it with numbers and in the second half of the war, they had superior air support so that made their lives easier too. The Americans were slow to realize that they needed heavy tanks and decided to continue to produce tons of medium tanks to no end. The M26 Pershing was developed late in the war and only a handful saw action in Europe. Despite being called a heavy tank, this was purely for moral purposes and it was clear that this tank did not have enough armor to protect it and its gun wasn't top-notch. The Americans then decided to slap on some additional armor and called it the Super Pershing. Only one Super Pershing saw action during the war as the allies had basically won the war and they were simply marching their way straight into Berlin.

So with World of Tanks, I decided that I wanted a Super Pershing as part of my collection. Unfortunately, it's a premium tank so you must purchase it using real life money. I spent many days thinking about the advantages of this tank and what I would do with it if I really bought it (I have the T34 as my primary money maker tank so I don't really need another one). I decided that it was probably a good idea to use this tank as my secondary money maker tank (effectively pushing out my Easy 8 out of the picture) and using the Super Pershing to continue to train my medium tank crews.

I had never spent money before on World of Tanks and all of my premium tanks were received for free along with what gold I had.

The M22 Locust was thanks to a friendly forum user who had gotten a few extra promo codes at a WOT gathering and he pasted them onto the forum after much persuasion from other forum users. I was watching at that time so I immediately pounced on a promo code the second it appeared.

My T-127 was received from this shady looking German website which turned out to be alright in the end. There was plenty of codes to go around so many people also received theirs. But unlike many of these people, I actually liked this tank due to its strong frontal armor and my usual habit of aiming at weakspots even if I knew the gun could penetrate the strongest part of the armor. The T-127 does indeed have a weak gun but it is compensated for by its armor which makes it quite nice for face-hugging.

Remember the time when the American T34 was still a tier 9 heavy? Well, I was grinding towards it like a madman and I had to get a tier 8 premium tank as I wasn't going to spend $50 on a Lowe. Halfway through the grind, this kind gentleman who had purchased an Nvidia graphics card received a promo code for WOT. Seeing how he did not play WOT, he originally wanted to sell the code for some real money but I kindly told him that selling promo codes was not allowed on the WOT forums so he simply gave me the code which contained a Matilda and one week of premium. Thanks to this one week, I was able to grind out the T32 from stock to elite in less than one week. One of my more crazy achievements yes but I got two premium tanks within less than one week of each other and both for free.

Now we come to the present where having tried it out on the test server, I was very much impressed with the performance of the Super Pershing. Its spaced armor gave it a very good chance at fighter higher tiered opponents and thankfully, it was the cheapest out of all the tier 8 premium tanks. I spent much time having debates in my head until I decided to go for the "Do or do not. There is no try." I am now a proud owner of the Super Pershing and I have plans on keeping the M26 Pershing when I have grinded towards it.

Savvy?

I like to draw much of my personality inspiration from captain Jack Sparrow. No, not Jack Sparrow, CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow. He's a pretty awesome guy and even though he's a little bit weird, he just seems to be able to get everything right. Well Dr. House does that too after 50 minutes of the show but hey, I guess I like people with sarcastic, humorous and narcissistic personality traits. Was captain Sparrow sarcastic?

For those of you who don't know, WG is currently developing the third game in their World of.. series: World of Warships. You know, these cheesy names are really starting to get on my nerves but hey, at least the gameplay is awesome. They've recently opened the forum to the public and have already assigned someone to answer all our repetitive and boring questions. It's a nice place to hang around if you're crazy about warships of the WW2 era and with any luck, you might get yourself into closed alpha if you shine enough boots.

What I really can't wait for in this game are the aircraft carriers. According to my sources (whom shall remain  anonymous as that's how they do it in James Bond movies), players using aircraft carriers will have an RTS style approach to the game. You send out planes to attack other planes or other ships and the coolest thing is, you just sit safely behind friendly lines while your evil minions obey your orders. I've always wanted to play an RTS game that also had an FPS/TPS perspective to it. The closest that I got was Stick War but like all other free online internet games, it was limited. I know WoWS won't grant me what I want but for now, it will have to do until I miraculously become a genius and develop my own game.

Did you know that grilled cheese sandwiches tastes really good?