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Screenshot Competition - Airborne!



Welcome to the 96th War Thunder Steam Screenshot Competition!


Those were some excellent screenshots from last week! Although the weather is mostly sunny in War Thunder, we do occasionally have stormy weather, too! The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!

[h2]Let’s begin the 96th edition of our competition![/h2]

Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen96. You have time until the 8th of December to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.

[h3]Terms:[/h3]
    Your screenshot must include a vehicle in the air (to include hovering, falling, or flying).
    You must add the #WTscreen96 tag (title cannot have any other text in it).
  • Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.
  • You need to be the author of the screenshot.
  • Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.
  • We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).
  • You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.
  • You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.
  • Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 14 working days.


[h2]And now, time for the winners of the competition’s 95th edition - Winter Storm![/h2]

[h3]Winners selected via community votes:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3097660318
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3095450165
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3099324873

[h3]Winners selected by our judges:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3094973790
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3097414674
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3096042490

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!

Rank VIII Ground Vehicles + Premiums: The Challenger 2 (OES) & M1A1 HC!



We’ve got exciting news to share with you — in the next major update, Rank VIII ground vehicles are coming to the game! First up, we’re going to be talking about two upcoming Rank VII premium vehicles: the Challenger 2 (OES) for Golden Eagles and the M1A1 HC as a pre-order pack!

Brand-new ground vehicles of Rank VIII will now be coming to War Thunder, which will be added in the upcoming major update. This now means that you’ll be able to play with the most modern tanks that are currently in service with different armies around the world! The addition of this rank is just the start, as with future major updates, additional modern vehicles will be added over time. We’ll soon be unveiling exciting news about the first tanks of Rank VIII in a series of dev blogs, so be sure to keep an eye out for that!

For now though, let’s take a look at these two brilliant Rank VII premium vehicles. You’re able to pre-order the M1A1 HC pack right now in the Gaijin Store, and get the Challenger 2 (OES) with the release of the next major update for Golden Eagles. These vehicles will allow you to become more familiar with top tier tanks, and of course will allow you to research vehicles in their respective research trees faster. Meet two magnificent MBTs — the British Challenger 2 (OES) and the American M1A1 HC!


[h2]Pre-order — M1A1 HC “Click-Bait” Pack[/h2]
This pack can be pre-ordered from the Gaijin Store from the hangar. Shop > Online Store.

  • M1A1 HC “Click-Bait” (Rank 7, USA)
  • 2500 Golden Eagles
  • Premium account for 20 days
  • Pre-order bonus: “Devil Dog” title
  • Pre-order bonus: unique “Teufel Hunden” decal



[h2]M1A1 HC “Click-Bait”[/h2]


An option for upgrading regular M1A1 Abrams tanks was the Heavy Common (HC) variant, equipped with armor inserts made of depleted uranium. In addition to this, an electro-optical active protection system to act against anti-tank guided missiles with a semi-active guidance head is also present. This Abrams displays the text “CLICK-BAIT”, plus victory ring markings on the barrel, which have the names of tanks that this Abrams can face in-game. In addition to this, other equipment is placed on this tank, including a chair on top of the turret.



Without exaggeration, this is one of the best high tier tanks in the game — great mobility, excellent turret protection and very effective ammunition. This tank’s soft-kill APS will be very useful against certain ATGMs too, including some fired from helicopters. A fantastic tank that sets the rules in battles!



[h2]Challenger 2 (OES) [/h2]


The Challenger 2 Operational Entry Standard (OES) has recently been showcasing the latest British tank technology. Just like its predecessor, the Challenger 2 TES, this tank is kitted out for urban combat environments, and is equipped with 3 types of protection: composite armor, slat armor and ERA. Slat armor is added particularly at the back of the Challenger 2 (OES) which helps to protect against shaped-charge ammo, however this does increase the tank’s overall weight. Armed with a 120 mm rifled cannon that is able to fire a good selection of ammo, the Challenger 2 (OES) is a fantastic premium tank capable of striking a deadly blow to any top tier opponent.

St. Andrew’s Day: The Scottish Saltire Decal to Celebrate!



On November 30th Scotland celebrates St. Andrew’s Day, and for this occasion we’re temporarily bringing back the Scottish Saltire decal for Golden Eagles. Grab yourself this awesome flag and proudly display it on your vehicles and learn about the history of this day below.

[h2]
When: From November 29th (11:00 GMT) until December 4th (07:00 GMT)

Where: You can find it in your profile: Nickname → Decals → Common → World Flags.
[/h2]


[h3]The “Scottish Saltire” decal is available to purchase for Golden Eagles![/h3]

History and Legend
Feasts honoring St. Andrew dates back to the year 1000 AD, and the holiday has been observed throughout Scotland for more than a millennium. But he didn’t formally become Scotland's patron saint until 1320, when the Declaration of Arbroath was signed, legally declaring Scotland’s independence. Ever since, St. Andrew has grown to be a vital component of Scottish culture. The ancient town of St. Andrews was given its name because it is purported to be the ultimate resting place of St. Andrew.

It's fixed! №84



Today, we’ll be going over some of the core fixes and quality of life improvements that we’ve worked on during the past 2 weeks, including from the update released today. Thank you for all of the reports you’ve created and the feedback that you’ve left!

If you’ve found a bug that you’d like to report, you can do so on our community bug reporting platform.

[h2]Tank autoloaders see some important fixes[/h2]



We’ve fixed a number of issues relating to the reloading process of tank autoloaders. For example, autoloader reloading took longer than normal, as well as the autoloader reloading even though the first-stage ammo stowage was empty.

One of the main problems that we’ve fixed with autoloaders involved the inability to fire even though a shell was loaded into the gun.

[h2]The chance of getting into a night battle has been increased[/h2]



Earlier this month, we added the option to enable night battles for Ground Realistic Battles, where participating in them allows you to earn sweet night-themed rewards for mission score. As mentioned previously, enabling night battles and queueing for them would put you into two queues, for night and day.

We’ve realized that the chance of getting a night battle was a bit too low, so last week we tweaked the matchmaking algorithm slightly, meaning you’ll now have more of a chance to get into a night battle!

[h2]Auto camouflage option tweaked[/h2]



For years, there’s been an option for automatic camouflage selection for camouflages that you own, this automatic selection depends on the map type. This option is useful so you don’t end up using a snow camo on a non-snow map for example. However, this option didn’t take into account camouflages that had been purchased from the Gaijin Market.

Thanks to some feedback, we’ve adjusted the algorithm to take this into account. Now, when using the automatic camouflage option in battle, the priority is given to Market camouflages that are suitable for a given map.

[h2]Quality of Life improvements to the Service Record[/h2]

The Service Record on your profile is a handy place to see important statistics of vehicles that you’ve used in battles. Over the years, hundreds of vehicles have been added and the Service Record hasn’t quite caught up.

We’ve now added a search bar to this area as well as an additional option to filter by vehicle rank. Amongst the hundreds or even thousands of vehicles that you’ve played with, you’ll finally be able to find the exact one you want with a quick search in seconds!

[h2]That’s not all[/h2]
The full list of bug fixes and improvements are in each Update note below. Here’s a couple of other changes and fixes: when using the air alert radio command in ground battles, allies will have an aircraft icon displayed on their compass. And, switching to ACM and HMD modes for radars on the F-16C Block 50, F-16D Block 40 Barak II, Mirage 2000-5F and J-8F now works in the same way as the radars on all MiG-29s and on the Yak-141.

Updates in the past 2 weeks:

[h2]Today's update: Update 2.31.1.59[/h2]

[h2]Aircraft[/h2]
  • Switching to ACM and HMD modes for radars on the F-16C Block 50, F-16D Block 40 Barak II, Mirage 2000-5F and J-8F now works in the same way it worked for radars on all MiG-29s and on the Yak-141. From standby mode, radars are switched by “Lock Radar/IRST on target” command into “HMD” mode and by “Radar/IRST beyond/within visual range combat” command into “ACM” mode.
  • APP-73 RWR used on the JA37 will detect radar illumination for SARH missiles.
  • Saab A32A, Saab A32A Röd Adam — a bug that caused the area where chaff is released from to be covered has been fixed. (Report)
  • Bf 109 F-4 (Hungary) — a bug that caused cannons on the wings to be displayed in X-Ray mode when bombs were equipped has been fixed. (Report)
  • Mirage 2000D-R1 — the sequence of firing the countermeasures has been corrected. (Report)
  • A-4H Skyhawk — a bug that caused RWR indication to not be displayed in the cockpit has been fixed. (Report)

[h2]Naval Vehicles[/h2]
  • HMS Renown, USS Des Moines, USS Newport News, USS Texas — information about armor and maximum speed in the stat card has been corrected.
  • A bug where after hitting an enemy ship, smoke from its funnels were displayed as clouds rather than a continuous smoke stream has been fixed.
  • Opytny, La Combattante, SMS Sachsen, IJN Yamashiro — the camera position and its distance to the ship has been changed in accordance with ships of this class. The roll force (heel) during a circle turn has been adjusted.

[h2]Interface[/h2]
  • Priority has been added to Market camouflages when using the Auto camouflage option in battle, which depends on the type of map.
  • A search bar and the possibility of filtering by vehicle rank has been added to the Service Record.
  • A bug that made it impossible to report repairs from the radio command menu while repairing an aircraft has been fixed.
  • While in replays, a bug that caused tooltips to blink when hovering over the action panel has been fixed.
  • The text that displays the number of online players and battles in the hangar has been given a slight shadow so that it’s easier to read whilst against the backdrop of clouds/sky.
  • An aircraft icon has been added to the compass when a player uses the air alert radio command.
The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

Vehicle Review: Su-25K and its Decal!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h3]Until December 11th (07:00 GMT) play 3 battles using the Su-25K to get the special “Wiki approved: Su-25K” decal.[/h3]


[h2]Su-25K[/h2]

“A modern hangar without it isn’t a hangar at all, but merely a shed”

One of the more famous Soviet assault aircraft boasts incredible survivability and a wide selection of weaponry. This “front line worker” deserves your respect and our “Wiki approved: Su-25K” decal. Today we’re flying the Su-25K “Grach”.


“Wiki approved: Su-25K” — unique decal for each new vehicle.

Read more on our Wiki.



Our video reviews add to and complete the pages of the War Thunder Wiki. Use the knowledge base created by players, for players.

Contribute to the wiki with your own articles and receive Golden Eagles for your contribution!