"The Odd One Out"

Aaaand finally I'm back again! It's been too long.

This time there's no excuses; just good ol' fashion procrastination... been busy doing small edits using various editing software to make pictures/GIFs, played some Armored Warfare as there was an update to that game and plenty more...

But enough with the ramblings, it's time for today's post...

Well... this marks the start of the new French Heavy Tanks, if we're gonna continue from the last post. And the first tank for the new mini-line is the Tier VIII French Heavy Tank: The AMX 65 t.

French 110, anyone?

This tank... hooo boy! It's a pain to play, that's for sure. Technically, it's supposed to be the AMX M4 49 for the Tier VIII slot, but since they used that tank for the 'Premium Tank' slot they have no choice but to find something else instead.

What's strange is that they used a tank with a pike-nose hull. They could have just used one without the pike-nose and just buff the frontal hull a bit more, but nope...

It would be something like this... a massive improvement.

It's very out of place... and here I thought Wargaming is trying to eliminate tanks that don't fit in the regular line... I'm guessing this tank will be removed in the future... at least I hope so.

Aaand that's enough for the rants, before I go off too much... so let's get to the videos!

Not sure what to say about this particular tank, but I'll try...

Well for starters, it's got good gun choices. The 100mm gun is identical to the Premium counterpart; the AMX M4 49... but it has much better reload time. The other gun packs a bigger kick, but has longer reload.

I'm not sure why this tank has one of the worse speed in the game, but it does. Even after upgrading the engine it still trudges along at a very low speed, comparable to a superheavy tank.

And now, the next video...

The armor of this tank is pretty... lackluster, and that pike-nose hull doesn't help, either.

Let's say... it's like the 110, but with worse armor and a very obvious [and weak] cupola to shoot... and also that it's slow as hell. The tracks on this tank are very large for some reason, so I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.

The second turret for this tank is strong, but has more weakspots than the first one. The upside is that you get to mount the 120mm gun, if you prefer using it.

The final video, now...

It's a bounce-fest up in this tank...

Yes, tons of ricochets, bounces and damage absorbed... but still, those are lower-tiered tanks. Tanks tiers VII and up will have little to no problems going through the hull of this vehicle.

My loadout of this vehicle will be the stock turret and the 100mm gun; played like the AMX M4 49. It's hull armor can cause problems but at least the gun's fast.

So now, it's time to recap the pros and cons of this tank...

The pros? Well, it has decent gun choices: the fast n' accurate 100mm or the hard-hitting and high penetration of the gold shell from the 120mm. It's turret armor is good, so you can go hull-down in certain occasions. It also has the gun depression to do that, too.

The cons.... It's hull armor is bad, and not to mention that it's a pike-nose design. As if the hull "shoulders" aren't bad enough, now there's this as well? No. Then it's turret cupolas are absolutely weak; lightly armored that almost every tank it meets will have no problem going through it.

It's a massive tank, so it's a easy target. Mobility's bad as hell, as it traverses like a Maus; just soo slooow... even the turret suffers the same problems, too. And speaking of the turret, it's aim time is rather long... even on the 100mm gun.

So it comes as no surprise that I only played about 40 battles in this tank before I gave up... "Gave up" as in "I skipped this tank with gold"... no choice. I like this tank line, but I can't stand this particular vehicle... The AMX M4 51 and 54 are the ones worth getting, AND playing.

But I guess that's it for this post. Next one's gonna be the AMX M4 51, and it's gonna much more longer [and also less abrasive] than this one here. Don't know when I can make it live, but stay tuned...

-Panzer Fist-

M.I.A?

Fortunately not!

Man, it's been 5 weeks... FIVE. WEEKS. A whole month without even a peep? Well, I've been busy... more than usual this time around, though.

But no need to worry, I still know what I have to do. Decided to at least put something here before March ends...

Well, I still have the old World Of Tanks replays... and better still, there are all recorded already. Just need some empty days to myself and it's on with the editing/uploading, then finally the post. Looks like update 1.0 has dropped, and from the looks of it... it seems to be very large. This is gonna take quite some time to install...

But yeah, just dropped by to let y'all know that I'm still around, just been having too much of IRL stuff to handle at the moment. There's a lot of videos I have to edit and upload, but I'll get them done eventually. Until then, it's more waiting...

*sigh* It's always the IRL bull that'll mess up your schedule...

-Panzer Fist-

Back in Action... again: "The French Tiger"

Well... now that everything's done, I can get back to posting...

Weew... been gone for 2 weeks plus, huh? This month seems to have a lot of stuff that gets in my way...

Well whatever. The're done for now, so now I can get back to the ol' blog. This post is gonna be the last batch of 9.21 replays I've been saving since last year, and it's all about the Tier VII French Heavy Tank; the AMX M4 45.

Think of it as a faster ARL 44...

This tank seems to receive a ton of flak, as it's not really an upgrade over the ARL 44. Well, that's where they're wrong.

Anyone remembers the old stock turret this tank had?

Time for a quick comparison! The ARL 44 has a much bigger profile compared to the AMX M4 45, not to mention that it's a tad bit slower to get up to speed. The last gun on the ARL 44, although a powerful Tier VIII gun, has really bad reload, aim and accuracy... you literally have to wait for quite a long time before you can be sure your shots won't go outside where you aim.

The AMX M4 45 has a bit more acceleration, better aim, accuracy and reload time... and it also has more health, too. The gun's the same top gun on the ARL 44, but I don't mind... it still gets the job done.

And now for the videos! There's gonna be 4 for this post.

That 1 HP moment, though... got real lucky there.

The tank's frontal armor is weaker than the ARL 44, which is something to look out for when using this tank. It doesn't have the exposed tracks the previous tier had, so that's something I guess...

Played extra careful in this match, and in the end it pays off...

One thing to remember when using the AMX M4 45; never be the first one to engage enemies. The tank's armor will not hold up well for that kind of engagement. If you're fighting lower tiers with weak guns, then by all means go for it...

...as expected from French Tanks in this game already; their armor is lackluster. Be a support fighter rather than the one to charge in head-on... leave that to those with the armor to back it up.

In this match I played it much more aggressively, and it nearly cost me. Luckily I had some teammates that helped to engage the incoming tide...

The frontal armor although weak can bounce shots well... if angled properly. Then again it only works against low caliber guns, so anything like a Russian 122mm shell should go through with ease.

The gun also feels and acts well in this tank, much more easier to control and aim then in the ARL 44 which requires you to sit still and aim for some time before shooting. Plus, that faster reload time helps when fighting multiple enemies.

...or for kill-stealing purposes, whichever suits your fancy.

It's always a choke-point battle when playing a Heavy Tank in this map...

The high penetration from the last gun also is a nice thing to have. A bit less damage than the other guns from the multiple other nations, but at least you can snipe with it.

It's best to use the top gun rather than the other gun with more damage... If you want to play a tank that deals high damage but with lackluster penetration, then just play the IS instead.

Again, same gun from the ARL 44... so that means no research needed. You still have to research the second turret in order to get the top gun, though. The health of this tank is somewhere in the middle; not too little or too much... more than the IS, but lesser than the Tiger.

So now... the pros of  this tank; Gets up to speed faster than the ARL 44... it also has improved gun handling and reload speed over the previous tier. The turret is more armored than the ARL 44, so that's a nice plus. The guns are also carried over from the ARL 44, so no research needed for new guns... making the grind much less painful.

The cons? Well, same guns as the ARL 44 also means that it's effectively a Tier 6.5 tank with not even a slight increase in the penetration or damage. The tank's top speed is actually lower compared to the ARL 44, so that's a weird addition. It has much weaker frontal hull armor so it's much more easier to kill. And for the AMX M4 45, using the higher damage gun is not a good move... unless you mainly shoot Premium rounds from it. It's definitely viable when using it on the ARL 44, but not here.

And so that's all the stuff about this particular tank. Many hate it, I like it. This doesn't mean I hate the ARL 44 though... no. In fact, tanks from the B1 all the way to the AMX 50B are okay in my book, except maybe the AMX 50 120...

This does not include the new line of Heavy Tanks yet, of course. Those are all good, too... except the AMX 65t. That was hell.

This tank is a pain in the ass to use...

Speaking of which, guess what the next post is gonna be about? Well, I'll leave y'all to that... now it's time for me to get to work on the next batch of videos... so I'll be back when they're done. Until then, stay tuned.

-Panzer Fist-

Some Setbacks...

Not much time, so this will be quick...

Turns out I'll have to delay the post for another time. Almost 12AM here, so having this post to warn about it rather than keeping quiet.

Got some IRL shite to handle, and I don't know when it'll finish... and it all had to happen right when I want to put up an actual post here... sigh

So yeah... That's a letdown. Hopefully I can get them down quickly. Until then, stay tuned...

-Panzer Fist-

Back in Action.

I've been gone, waaay too long...

...post title's a quote from a certain game, kudos to you if you know where it came from...

Anyways, it's good to be back. Busy with the usual shizz; a new year, a new set of problems. Things have mostly calmed down now, but at least it's not as heavy as it was back in January.

I will have another post ready before this day ends, and it's just the usual stuff. This is just an update to inform that I'm back.

Seems that there's quite a lot that I've missed during my M.I.A period... look's like I'll have some catching up to do.

And that's all for now... I have another blog to look into, so stay tuned later today for another post...

-Panzer Fist-

1st 2018 Update

New Year, new things to do...

Well, I'm way past January 1st... but at least I'll post something before I'm gone again for quite a while.

There hasn't been any posts for the past 6-8 days because I have very important things to take care of... new shizz that's not quite the same old routine of last year or even 2016. So that's why I've been away doing preparations, making purchases and many more to even list down [or even get into detail].

But down't worry, every single post material from the past is still around on my computer... so all's not lost. Just extremely busy, that's all.

And that's all the time I can spare for now, as it's close to 3 AM already. Gotta get some shut-eye and resume the busy shit...

Oh, and a Happy [belated] New Year to all of you folks out there!

-Panzer Fist-

"The Disguised Panther"

Told ya I'll be back, so here it is.

Well, this is sorta a continuation of yesterday's post... except, it's not the same tank. Well, it's sorta the same, but totally looks different.

What's the tank? Well, it's none other than the Tier VII Premium German Medium Tank; the Panther/M10.

Even I was confused when I first saw them in the game. USA or Germany???

First off; this is actually really a German Tank, no jokes. It looks like an American tank because it's supposed to be disguised as the M10 Wolverine Tank Destroyers, like spies deep into enemy lines to cause confusion. Bet the one reason the plan failed was because of the very obvious [and distinctive] tank roadwheel design the Germans had back in WW2.

But deep down, it's actually a Panther tank, just with some adjustments to look more... American.

A rare picture of an unpainted Panther/M10... looks nice.

So right away you can tell that it'll have the same playstyle as a Panther, but it actually plays more like the younger variant; the VK 30.01 (M)... hence why I said that this post will be linked to the last one.

But ramblings aside, it's time for the videos. And again, there's only two of them.

Hmm... not sure what went on in the mind of that Light Tank at the end, but whatever... a kill is a kill.

So, this tank plays more like a VK 30.01 (M) than a Panther because of one thing: it's gun. It uses the same gun that the Tier VI Medium Tank used, so yes... the same 150mm of penetration and a very fast fire rate. Actually, it's more faster in the Panther/M10 as to make up for the extra 1 Tier.

It's hitpoints are on par with the Tier VII Panther, but has it's view range cut down slightly as the cupola is gone for the 'American Disguised' stuff.

And now, for the next video. This one's quite good 'cause of the Tier VIII devastation.

Technically, that AMX M4 49 can just finish me off there and then and everything would have been smooth sailing for him. A big mistake to ignore a tank with dangerously high DPM.

The cupola getting removed made this tank's survival rate much better as there's less weakspots, but the less view range makes you a bit more blind than other medium tanks. Still, a good trade-off.

The tank also has been recently updated to have spaced armor. All the extra sheets of metal used to make the M10 Wolverine disguise were previously just empty space... but now, it's extra armor. This in turn makes the tank survive hits from High Explosive shells more better.

It also has Preferential Matchmaking, so it only sees Tier VI-VIII tanks. So you're effectively using a largely upgraded VK 30.01 (M) with more hitpoints, more DPM, lesser weakspots and additional spaced armor. All good...

And of course a tank is not complete without it's drawbacks. It's view range, as mentioned before gets cut down a little bit... so you can't get that sweet max spotting distance without using Coated Binoculars. The tank is slightly larger than the VK 30.01 (M), because it's actually the Panther. Obviously, the same gun used on the previous Tier VI gives it major problems, especially against well-armored targets.

But those are just minor inconveniences, nothing too big. This tank is overall a really good one, just remember that you're still fragile against Heavy Tanks as that armor doesn't hold up well on them.

And that's all for this post... the last post for 2017, that is. I wanted to make another post to talk all about 2017 and all that shizzle, but I'll pass on that instead. It's been a rather wonky year for many folks, myself included.

But that doesn't mean that it's all bad... there's still some good in it, and here's to 2018 being even better than the last. I know it'll definitely will be, as I have a lot to look forward to and quite a lot of things anticipated to arrive later down the months to come. Let's say, about 5 things to look forward to in 2018... for me, at least.

Ignore that last part, just me getting all excited for these upcoming things to look forward to. It's already 4:30 AM here, so I'll be taking my leave for now. Goodbye 2017, and hello 2018...

...hopefully you'll be even better than 2014 ever was. How I miss that year...

-Panzer Fist-