Armored Warfare News

Commanders!

The Last Patriot Battle Path is coming soon – in fact, we are launching on December 10, 2019!



You can, however, secure your place amongst the last patriots even today, as two bundles are available on MyLoot:

• Last Patriot access
• Last Patriot access with 42.500 Battle Coins, enough to reach Level 20 (30% off)

What awaits you in this Battle Path?

• New or overhauled mechanics
• Four Premium vehicles, including the coveted CATTB MBT
• Four Prime skins for various American vehicles
• Commander Austin Harper (learn more)
• Camouflages, decals, flags and many other exciting rewards

 


You can read more about all of the improvements, rewards and rules in our dedicated article.

See you on the battlefield!

On the 28th of November 2019, starting from 8:00 CET (27th of November, 11 PM PST), the server will not be available for 5 hours due to the application of Update 0.30.5840.




 

• Added a number of Battle Path assets in preparation of the event
• War Games Loot Crates now once again drop Battle Coins
• Fixed an issue where destroying an enemy by killing his vehicle’s entire crew could result in that kill being attributed to a different player
• XM1A3: APFSDS shell penetration improved from 735mm to 760mm and from 785mm to 810mm respectively
• XM1A3: HEAT shell penetration improved from 800mm to 825mm
• Object 490: It is now impossible to set its fuel tanks on fire
• MBT-70: Improved this vehicle’s visual model
• Fixed an issue where, in the third American Dream Special Operation, destroying one Zubr landing craft before the task to do so became active could result in this task not becoming active when it was supposed to

Commanders!

The final new vehicle of the Last Patriot Battle Path will be the Bradley AAWS-H Tank Destroyer.

If the name sounds familiar to you already, we’ve talked about the AAWS-H program in our LOSAT article and if you are interested in its real life history, we suggest you give it a shot. Long story short, the one of the platforms considered for carrying kinetic energy missiles was the Bradley.



Of course, not just an ordinary Bradley – the chassis had to be heavily modified by Vought to carry four of these potent weapons in a retractable launcher. A prototype (or more likely a full-scale demonstrator) was built and the design was polished between 1988 and 1992 by Vought. After that, the kinetic missile program fell through a series of transactions to its competitor, Lockheed Martin, and moved towards different platforms.

As such, the Bradley AAWS-H (the name stands for Advanced Antitank Weapon System - Heavy after the original U.S. Army program it was a part of) can be considered a predecessor to the M8 MGM-166 that is also obtainable in the game as a part of the American Dream progression branch.

In Armored Warfare, the Bradley AAWS-H will be a Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer, obtainable from Patriot Loot Crates. We’ve mentioned these crates recently in our Last Patriot article but, long story short, these will be comparable to the other Battle Path Loot Crates and will be purchasable for Battle Coins. In addition to the AAWS-H, other very valuable prizes – such as Commanders and other Premium vehicles – will be obtainable from it as well.



But before we get into any details, the usual disclaimer:

The numbers below are very preliminary as the vehicle has not been properly tested. They are sure to change and should only be discussed as an indicator of how we’d like to set the vehicle up.

With that being said:

As you might have already guessed, the Bradley AAWS-H will be armed with kinetic missiles – four of them, in fact. Of course, for balance reasons, these will not be as powerful as those on Tier 10. They will use the same mechanics though:

• Missiles treated as kinetic projectiles
• Penetration increasing with distance (from 500mm at 250m to 1500mm at 700m)
• Damage increasing with distance (from 360 at 250m to 1189 at 700m)
• Flight velocity of 2000 m/s
• Missiles ignore APS and cage armor

There will be four missiles readily available with 4 seconds between each launch. After that, the launcher will retract to reload, which will take roughly 30 seconds (launcher erection time included). The launcher will have limited traverse ability only (roughly 50 degrees) – beyond that, the whole vehicle hull will have to traverse, making you lose the camouflage bonus for being stationary.



The Bradley AAWS-H will be fairly mobile thanks to its light chassis and powerful engine, but its armor will be very basic, just like on a regular Bradley. Military aluminum doesn’t provide much in the terms of protection, after all. Thankfully, two active abilities will be available –ECU Override for getting to position faster than your opponents and the Retreat ability (unlocked via the Workshop), allowing you to increase your acceleration and camouflage at the cost of viewrange and reload speed for getting out hairy situations quickly.

And, last but not least, the second Workshop upgrade available will be the 360 degree FOV system, increasing the viewrange by 100m when stationary (to whopping 500m).

All in all, the Bradley AAWS-H will be akin to the M8 MGM-166, only two Tiers lower. Staying at longer distances from your target and, most importantly, staying hidden will be the key to success with this vehicle. The AAWS-H will be more or less defenseless at close ranges, which is something any prospective commander must keep in mind.



However, at longer ranges, the vehicle will be devastating, especially thanks to its four-round volleys. When played right, your enemies will fall before you like wheat before a scythe, unaware of your existence until the moment they start exploding. However, expose yourselves too soon and your AAWS-H will end up in flames rather quickly.

We hope that you will enjoy this vehicle and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Commanders!

As you already know, Austin Harper will be one of the top prizes of the upcoming Last Patriot Battle Path campaign and, in today’s article, we’ll take a closer look at him.



Austin grew up in a modest family. Having entered the Armed Forces directly after school, he served for twenty years in tours of combat duty in several flashpoint areas and earned numerous awards. He joined Clayburn Industries security service in late 2020s, and applied to the International Security Department when the corporation fell. After the collapse of the ISD at the hands of Enigma, he found himself amongst the remnants defending Salzburg under Hana Buric. It was there he was able to contact the American Resistance across the ocean and eventually cross it to seek reinforcements for the upcoming battle against this mysterious enemy. And for that, he needs your help, commanders.

In Armored Warfare, Austin Harper will be a fairly universal commander that will, like any true American action hero, not only inspire people around him, but will also get stronger with every loss and wound he suffers only to decimate his opponents at the end of the movie – or, in our case, battle.

His main skill, called “Crucible of War” improves his vehicle’s reload time with every lost team member up to roughly 12 percent when the entire team is down. The skill naturally also improves with levels. Austin Harper also has several other skills that work on the same principle by increasing bonuses with every lost team member, but these focus on protection (crew and component durability, APS reload time).

His other skills include damage boosting of all team mates in a certain radius from his vehicle (similar to the skills of Douglas O’Reilly) by up to 5 percent when multiple skills of this type are selected.

And, finally, Austin Harper features one particular Tier 3 skill that gives him the same ability Alexander Cortez has – to always maximize his damage rolls – but only when his vehicle has 33 percent of hitpoints or less.

How you will configure your commander will be, of course, up to you. However, please note that some other very useful skills will have to be sacrificed in order to unlock this one.

See you on the battlefield!

Commanders!

As we announced in our article about the plans for 2019, we will be launching a new, American-themed Battle Path campaign in December. We’ve decided to call it the Last Patriot since you’ll be helping a former U.S. Army and ISD officer by the name of Austin Harper make contact with the Resistance movement following the disastrous events of the Moscow Calling season.



Mechanically, the Last Patriot Battle Path will have much in common with the previous campaigns. Once you acquire access to the campaign, you’ll be earning Battle Coins and spending them on Battle Path progress. Battle Coins will be earned either by just playing or by completing missions. Several mission sets will be available like the last time.

Like the last time, the campaign will feature several Premium vehicles available as a part of the campaign’s basic level progress. These will be:

• XM247 Sergeant York Tier 5 Premium AFV for achieving Level 10
• Griffin 120mm Tier 8 Premium LT for achieving Level 30
• CATTB Tier 10 Premium MBT for achieving Level 50 (along with an optional skin)

Unlike the last time, however, there will not be any “bonus” progression levels – the level progress will end with Level 50 and the acquisition of the CATTB. For those players who want to have it all, another special skin for the CATTB will be available for completing a certain number of Battle Path missions.







Apart from the abovementioned Premium vehicles, the Battle Path levels will contain other rewards such as Battle Coin boosters, camouflages, decals, avatars, Gold, boosters and much more.



There will also be four mission chains, each unlockable with a ticket (available at Level 1, 7 and 12) and each with a different focus and reward:

• Dealing damage with high-caliber weapons (130mm or more, excl. ATGMs) with the top reward being the Expeditionary Tank Tier 6 Premium LT and the Prime skin for it
• Various armor-related objectives with the top reward being the MBT-70 Tier 6 Premium MBT and the Prime skin for it
• Dealing damage with HEAT rounds (excl. ATGMs) with the top reward being the RDF/LT Tier 6 Premium LT and the Prime skin for it

Players who already have those Premium vehicles will receive Gold instead.

The final, fourth mission chain will, as usual, be unlocked upon completing the other three and will reward you with Commander Austin Harper. Austin Harper will focus on buffing allies around him and, like a true action hero, the less people will be on his team, the stronger will his vehicle become. You’ll learn more about him soon in a dedicated article.







But here’s where things get quite different. Like we mentioned before, you’ll have several ways of earning Battle Coins.

The first one is simply by playing. We’ve made some significant changes to the formula. There will no longer be a random factor to this type of reward –you’ll receive a fixed amount of Battle Coins (2 for PvE and GLOPS, 3 for PvP) for each minute of effective combat. Effective combat time is a new mechanic that counts only the time when you are active in battle (during or between the actions that contribute towards your team’s effort).

During the last Battle Path, we received a number of reports about players who enter some battles and go AFK and still receive some rewards. This mechanic solves the situation – unless you actively contribute to the battle, you will receive either nothing or very little. The exact length will be rounded up for the purposes of rewards (eg. 41 seconds will be treated as 1 minute, 1:01 minute as 2 minutes etc.) and will be available on the results screen.

Like before, winning will multiply your reward (by 1.25 for PvE and GLOPS and by 1.5 for PvP) but you’ll also receive extra Battle Coins for being amongst the best players on the battlefield (4 for Top 2 in PvE, 5 for Top 5 in PvP and 10 for Top 5 in GLOPS).

The second way is by completing the updated Repeatable Battle Coin Missions. This feature also appear during the last Battle Path and, like with the Battle Coin formula above, we have changed it for this one.



There will be three missions available:

• Deal a certain amount of damage (each point of damage against player vehicles will count as five for the purpose of this mission)
• Destroy a certain number of enemy vehicles (each player vehicle will count as five)
• Earn a certain amount of net Experience

The cooldown of these missions will be 72 hours. However, there’s a twist to them. Upon each cooldown, each of these three missions will also contain a randomly chosen set of conditions. For example, the Battle Path may ask you to deal damage while driving a Marat Shishkin Tank Destroyer, or a Sol Schreiber vehicle of any class.

Additionally, there will be a third, brand new, way called Challenges. Next to the mission chains and the Repeatable Battle Coin Missions, Challenges are a third type of tasks that you can complete for additional Battle Coins.



Challenges (there will be ten of them in total) will open on weekly basis as the event progresses. Each Challenge requires you to do something (for example, deal 15.000 damage in PvE/GLOPS or 3.000 damage in PvP) and consists of ten stages, each more difficult than the last. The abovementioned Challenge opening will be server-based, so joining the Battle Path two weeks into it will allow you to start with two Challenges already unlocked. This will help latecomers to catch up on progress faster than ever before.

And, last but not least, one new mechanic will be available – the Workshop. This new Battle Path tab will allow you to modify your Battle Path vehicles with additional performance-enhancing or modifying modules that will be available for completing a certain number of Battle Path Missions (chain or daily) or Challenges. These include for example a module for the XM247 that will trade more mobility for fewer hitpoints or new, advanced shells for the Griffin 120mm.



These modules will become available only when you obtain the vehicle itself, although the completed missions and challenges from this Battle Path will count retroactively. With some effort, all these upgrades will be obtainable during the Last Patriot Battle Path but it is worth noting that if you don’t manage to do that, future Battle Path missions and challenges will count towards them as well.

For those players with spare Battle Coins, there will also be a brand new Patriot Loot Crate with blueprint pieces of the fourth Battle Path Premium vehicle – the Bradley AAWS-H Tier 8 Premium TD, a LOSAT program predecessor to the already implemented M8 MGM-166. As the name suggests, it will be armed with kinetic missiles, albeit with lower performance corresponding to its Tier.



But, in addition to the blueprints, the Patriot Loot Crate will have three new traits compared to the last time:

• It will drop parts of Special Loot Crates
• Special Loot Crates will include a chance to drop Premium vehicles (including Tier 10s) that you don’t already have
• Special Loot Crates will include a small chance to drop Battle Path commanders (Alexander Cortez, Alisa Korhonen and Ofelia Kitescu)
• Every opening of a Special Loot Crate will count towards the Workshop module progression (as long as you own the Workshop vehicles)

And that’s the long and short of it. The Last Patriot Battle Path took plenty of your feedback into account as well as our experience with the last one. As you might have noticed, we’ve removed some elements of the older Battle Paths, such as:

• Randomization of Battle Coin income (which you criticized)
• Tying Battle Path progress to the Contract Missions (which was also criticized due to the randomness of the Contract Mission campaign itself)
• Elite Loot Crates (their mechanics were merged with the Patriot Loot Crates)

We hope that you will like the improvements we’ve made.

See you on the battlefield!