THE GRINDSTONE TRIBUNAL:

Despite the excitement of some, there weren’t too many people to tag along this time. Once again we have Dreskar, Karochi and myself taking up Tribunal duty to air out our true thoughts.

Setch Dreskar:
You know I used to be a major fan of War Thunder when its ground forces were first introduced. I enjoyed the challenge of it, knowing how to properly angle to deflect round after round while placing that perfect single shot through the enemy to send their turret skyward. Well as some of you may have picked up on, I /used/ to be a major fan, now Gaijin’s shit attitude, terrible customer service, silencing critique, blacklisting people that disagree with them, and outright illegal business practices have soured me on the entire experience. That isn’t even mentioning the absurd Russian biased that was introduced, and ludicrous pay to win vehicles, or the exploits that people continue to use to this day because Gaijin really doesn’t care.
I certainly wasn’t going back to World of Tanks which was far too arcadey for my liking and had terrible business practices as well. They also like to include paper designs that never existed or barring that and trying to get some extra cash, making up unicorn faerie horseshit to pad out the rosters. As much as I enjoy Wargaming’s World of Warships they are a greedy company that way overinflated prices on everything. So in steps Obsidian Entertainment’s and My.com’s Armored Warfare which already had a special interest for me by offering the Leopard series of tanks. It was very iterative of World of Tanks but they showed promise and had really good ideas on what to keep the same and what to change completely. It really cannot be overstated just how much better Artillery is in AW compared to the infuriating whack-a-mole that is WoT.
They have also been very generous with content, giving so many free vehicles just for playing, chances to win lottery’s at no cost for cosmetic vehicles, unlimited garage slots instead of costing real money, a fully featured PvE mode instead of PvP with Bots, a base system that allows you to continually make progress even without playing the game, and commanders can actually command multiple vehicles without needing to spend any money to do so. Really all of those are just the tip of the iceberg, and while I am apprehensive about My.com’s business practices, for now I would heartily recommend Armored Warfare to anyone that asks me.
Recommended?: YES

Karochi:
I don’t know anything about tanks. I don’t know anything about tank games. I don’t even really know what I think about Armored Warfare. Instead of just having to grind matches over and over again to unlock new tanks, you have to grind fewer matches but do weird shit that you don’t necessarily have control over. So when you really want a specific new tank you stop playing the game and start doing the tank summoning ritual for whatever unlock you want. My ritual was to get shot in the face a lot. Don’t worry though, tank summoning rituals go a lot faster in PvP. So make sure to join in on that T2 action where you’ll get shot to shit as soon as you spot anyone.
Most of the appeal seems to be for tank nerds who know about all the types of plating and know how to counter that with the right type of ammo. Obviously the game tells you everything so you can put two and two together, but it really kinda feels like a chore to have to learn all of it.
Recommended?: YES, if you like tanks.

ChaosD1:
My fervor for the days of playing World of Tanks all those years ago has certainly waned. I remember being borderline obsessed with the game, as my intro to that episode certainly implied. But something about it became harder and harder to deal with. Just like my feelings on League of Legends before it, I didn’t understand why people had such harsh words for the community… until I got further into it. It was just suddenly harder to care about playing and people took things way too seriously.
Then came the ground forces update for War Thunder, and I thought I could finally like playing these games again. I still think War Thunder’s version felt clunkier, but once I understood the mechanics, I felt it was a stronger offering… and then Gaijin allowed really stupid shit like low graphics exploits and being able to be killed by pebbles run rampant with no interest in “improving” the game beyond adding more overpriced and overpowered premium tanks.
So yeah, having to do this a third time is kinda odd.
I LOVE the PvE aspect to this game though. The hardest thing about playing WoT and WarT, is being limited to a few friends joining you because they want to be “fair.” Allowing me to take up to 5 people in with me and face off against some interesting missions mechanics and bots makes for a much more enjoyable experience than I had in the other games… with the exception of one thing…
I HATE the PvP mode in this game. I don’t know what it is, but I can be ahead of the pack in a PvE mission, take out enemies at strategic points and recover from seemingly unwinnable situations… and when I so much as peek my head out in PvP, I’m detected by half dozen tanks I can’t see and they shoot me to scrap before I have a chance to back up. I didn’t have this kind of problem with WoT or even WarT, but I can’t PvP in this game to save my life…
But that’s why there’s a PvE mode, and it’s good enough for me to keep it around.
Recommended?: YES.