#panzer elite

[headpats-please]

[theswedishshieldmaiden-blog]

"They are the panzer elite, hard to compete, never retreat, Ghost Division."

"Ghost Division" - Sabaton (The Art of War)

[dontgetdead]

I am an awful tank commander.

[dontfearmetal]

They are the panzer elite, born to compete, never retreat (ghost division) Leaving our dead, always ahead, fed by your dread!

[badcaradvice]

The Horror Continues

Since Girls und Panzer got my interest in tanks and tank combat up again, my friend and I needed a game to scratch an itch.  We picked World of Tanks because it's the most accessible.  (i.e. it's free-to-play.)  I tried it about a year ago and got tired of the random matches with incredibly varied levels of success, plus the fact that a premium account is expensive and not so much an account as it is a subscription.

But now that I'm platooning with a friend, things are definitely more interesting.  He's leveling his way up to a Hetzer while I'm closing in on the M3 Lee, which gets me that much closer to my favorite tank, the M4 Sherman.  We have both good and bad matches, but since we can communicate our plans each match tends to go better than if we were going solo.

I am trying my best to avoid spending money on the game, just to see how long it will take me to get some of the tanks I want.  Of course, if I want too many tanks I may just have to buy some gold to get more spots.  I mean, just the Sherman isn't enough.  I gotta have stuff like the Panzer IV, and the Matilda, and the Churchill, and the M18 Hellcat, and the T-34/85, and so on.

Other than WoT, I've also been playing Panzer Elite, a game originally released in 1999.  It's aged quite well, probably because the modding community has added so much to the game.  Still, it makes me wish there was a game with its vast scope (most every tank battle from 1939 to 1945 on the Eastern and Western Fronts with mods) that was newer.  Not so much for the improved graphics, but for some of the mechanics.  (Driving tanks can feel rather awkward in that game, as it seems even flat terrain can cause rather erratic bumps in the tank.)

Still, I can say that I'm starting to enjoy WoT's mix of simulator and "arcade" feel.  If I could have the graphics and feel of WoT plus more realistic gunnery and the option to actually command a tank along with a platoon, I think I'd be getting somewhere.  That, and include campaigns ranging from North Africa all the way to the fall of Berlin.  I'd be set at that point.

I thought Touhou had ruined me.  Now I know there are worse things.  Darker things.

[topsecretdame]

me on the road