Winning!

Aesdea
Victory!
Battle: Malinovka
May-08-12 10:07:12 PM
Vehicle: IS
Experience received: 1,627
Credits received: 54,487
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: I Class

123zorn
Victory!
Battle: Ruinberg
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 10:09:10 PM
Vehicle: KV-3
Experience received: 7,085 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 39,960
Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: II Class, Master Gunner, Reaper, Sharpshooter

123zorn
Victory!
Battle: Cliff
Wednesday, May 09, 2012 12:48:33 AM
Vehicle: M40/M43
Experience received: 8,795 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 41,953 Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker, Confederate

Is pleased with these victories

XVM or Win Rate Mod

This works with 7.3:

http://code.google.com/p/wot-xvm/downloads/detail?name=xvm-full-2.2.zip&can=2&q=

Make sure to check all files and "unblock."

The config I put in the res_mods from the xvm_doc folder was blocked, gave the, "mount point invalid" error -- took several minutes to figure out.

Basically, gives you win rate and a couple other stats:

Like Morton Salt ... it works!

What winning may look like sitting in your car....

Ace! shing!

Victory! Battle: Westfield
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 2:04:27 PM
Vehicle: KV-3
Experience received: 10,265 (x5 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 57,069 Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker, Master Gunner, Sharpshooter, Steel Wall, Defender, Invader, Top Gun

New Deputy Commander: Yamserov

Yamserov has been promoted to the rank of Deputy Commander.  He has shown good:

-Attendance
-Interest
-Initiative
-Great ideas
-He comforted shing one night who was deep in tears

The Tank Company work we did this past weekend was all his brainchild, and he is doing a lot to get us toward Clan Wars.

Here is a strat write-up he has provided (I think from the forums).  Feel free to submit your own and I will post it:

TLR Basic Tank Tactics: Some Key Points
In No Particular Order
Credit to the WOT Forums

• Stick Together: Move as a unit with tanks in your area/squad. Break cover together, keep moving together, and set up assaults, defenses and ambushes utilizing the particular benefits of the tanks available. E.g. hide reasonably behind the most armored tank when faced with enemy assault. A wall of advancing tanks is intimidating and effective, and so it running into one!
• Maneuver: If you're driving a tank, your job is generally to move! Yes, you want to blow up the enemy, but it's so much easier if you can punch their weak spots. In general you want to push the enemy and force a reaction to you; grab his attention with one force, fix him, and slam him from the side and/or with arty. Maneuver is useful on attack and defense; if the enemy forces you to react, make sure you meet him on ground that suits your tank (if possible)! HULL DOWN!
• It is far better to push into weakness, especially if it's a weakness your team created. That said if you must push into strength, make sure you can stand the casualties (or else defend)! 
• Communicate: Communicate with your squad, and make sure the commander knows what your squad is doing if it's a significant departure from the plan. Keep radio comms clean, and communication quick and concise. Tell us if you're flanking, so we can support!
• TELL YOUR COMRADE IF ARTY CAN HIT THEM WHERE THEY ARE! ALSO TELL ARTY IF THEY ARE BEING COUNTERBATTERIED AND COUNT THE SHOTS! Hell, count the shots any time; it'll give us an idea of enemy composition.
• Scout: Information is power; we'll have a plan going forward based on the map and any other info we can glean beforehand (espionage?), but without scouting we don't know the enemy's strategy, vectors of attack, composition, etc. except as a comparison to what is possible on that map. MAKING RED BLOBS APPEAR, WHILE SURVIVING, IS GOLDEN!
• Shoot to kill: Squad leaders, at a minimum, will call out targets with T key; attack the most dangerous/damaged targets to quickly lower the enemy's firepower. This advice may go to shit in the middle of combat, but keep calling those targets! Also, squad leaders should verbally call out targets requiring arty support (squad leader on a planned offensive front should be receiving the majority of arty support anyway). If you see an opportunity to counter battery the enemy and they don't know they've been spotted, use communication to land multiple rounds on one target if possible to increase chance of kill. 
• Stay Alive: The longer you are alive, the more pain you can cause the enemy team! Directly or indirectly, you can take away HP, the ability for enemy to cross an area unimpeded, the ability to avoid arty, etc. Your abilities, with the exception of module/crew damage, do not decrease when you are at 1HP! Likewise, shield your teammates with your tank if they're almost dead! This especially goes for times when we might need to withdraw in force.
• Don't stop where arty can hit you! Don't bunch up where arty can hit you!
• ARTY, ARE YOU SHOOTING AND SCOOTING??
• When moving to cover, do not stop to fire! Just go to half-speed if you must. 
• For scouts specifically, unless noted otherwise, don't suicide scout! The longer you're alive, the greater advantage you will bestow to your team. A scout in the end-game of a battle is priceless!  Another small point for scouts: I don't recommend firing unless you are trying to draw attention to yourself or attacking arty. And add lots of transversal velocity, juking, and praying.
• Situational Awareness: Make your minimap BIG, and look at it! Always consider what is happening around you. What might you find ahead of you, using process of elimination (of enemy force composition)? Where are common ambush points? Arty, are you getting plinked by a scout? TDs, are you getting flanked? CAN ARTY HIT YOU RELIABLY WHERE YOU SIT?? 
• Be a good sport: We are playing to have fun, blow shit up, and to have fun improving. If criticism is necessary, administer it in a thoughtful, respectful way; take advice and learn from it. Have a sense of humor, it's only a game! If you feel like you have been wronged by someone, talk to them about it in private before bringing it before the clan leadership; we're all on the same team, and these things can often be resolved before FESTERING into something foul. Like FKD says, no pressure!

And in conclusion:

Night of the long turrets: Our 1st Tank Company Thing

Or, reality department of reality....

tl;dr: need suggestions, thoughts, comments, augmentations, words, nouns and adjectives....

To start stuff off right, here's a pic of Olivia Wilde:

We did our first clan practice, training, stuff last night.  I must say, it was interesting.  For my part, I tried to prepare myself for the worst:

-Low turn-out
-Low wins
-Argments and hair-pulling
-Run out of beer in-the-middle-of-it....

I felt turn-out was good.  I feel expectations were acceptable.  I must say tho, I was really hoping we would pwnz them all!  I was glad we ended up vs. some clans.  I think tank companies are good for that.

Also, we ran into one or two guys who seemed to understand better the clan stuff and doing the right tiers to get a game going, etc.  Bottom line: we left the pub, random battles and indeed wetted-our-feet into the lands of clans....

And now, the Audi Locus:

And then, we got smacked....

Don't get me wrong.  We won some, and we lost some.  I think it all goes to show that just raw, pure, win rate alone isn't enough.  We got rolled a time or two (or three?) by clans with much lower win rate, that over-powered a sid, etc.

Also, we got rolled cuz we went into battles with:

-No arty
-Way outnumbered (shing: "we're screwed" <-- lol!)
-etc.

Facts:
-We all got together roughly about 8:30is PMish ESTish.  We did indeed kick things off at right about 9PM EST.
-We did 7 battles of one form or another including: Tank Company, Training and Intramural Training (we played vs. each other -- dangchang did me in the butt! with his E-75!)

Here are the screens of each in, I believe, chronological order:


Training Battle
In this training battle, shing asked to be raped -- he so dirty -- sideswipes tried hard to explain strategy and tactics, but ADHD took over, and several people capped the flag, but no one would admit who did it, lol!

Training Battle
Another training battle, intramural, except that one guy (wtf he come from?) Ths is where dangchang did my E-75 in the butt with his E-75's gun.  Again, sideswipes tried words, but people ADHDed rolfcoptered....

Tank Company: Defeat
Ok, they pushed hard on dry-river-valley/big mtn side with heavies; I went mid in my T59 and made it to their side but dies; we lost of course; Note: no clan we played last night had better w/r than we did.



Tank Company: Victory!
This one went well.  I stayed water, and duked it out successfully with a T34; the 3 arty we picked up from outside the clan made the difference; of course, you can see our guys did the lionshare; we were vs. an entire clan here and won; raw talent mighta been the thing.

Tank Company: Defeat
Alright, following the recent pwning we gave, we/I/w/e felt we were The Avengers; we launched into this one with only 8 -- some clannies had left -- and after picking up about 3 strays, we did it with _no_ arty; in the great words of shing, "we're screwed," and we were....

Tank Company: Defeat
Another defeat at the hand of an entire clan-team; their w/r wasn't all that -- I don't remember any of them over 50%; they pushed hard valley/no-rocks side; I believe we spread out equally; once the right (no rocks/hills) side collapsed, it was over.

Tank Company: Victory!
This was acutally our 1st battle of the night in Tank Companies; we tried going absolute, but were advised to drop down in tiers -- called, "Medium" I think; this was a nice victory, and led us to believe we didn't need a full compliment to pwn me thinks; however, we were not vs. a clan in this one -- all randoms looks like: basically like we were fighting as a clan vs random pubs.

Overall, I think we would have done a tad better with more people, as at least one of the defeats -- Sand River -- we stupidly went in without _any_ arty at all, and out-numbered, vs. mostly a single clan.

We basically went 2 for 3 victories/defeats in Tank Companies.  If we count the 4 battles vs. actual clans (the one being _not_ vs. a clan) we actually went 1 for 3.  If you remove the one defeat wherein we were outnumbered _and_ no arty, we went 1 for 2 victories/defeats for the night.

As for strategy, accomplishments for the night, what-did-we-learn, words vs. just playing, etc. -- I think Yamserov put it best:

"Our strategy will most likely come about organically" <-- very well put.

I.e., we will learn how to play together by simply playing together.

Questions I have:
A. Did we lose to the other clans bcs they simply piled-up a side and pushed?  Is the key to just beef-up one flank and push it all the way?
B. What's the ratio of: Heavies, Mediums, Lights, TDs and Arties that we should take?
C. Why does the post office suck at mail?  What else do they have to do?

And finally, apparently Mel Gibson watched our first clan Tank Company stuff last night....

Mel took this pic of himself with the iPhone 4s, "facing" camera

Srsly tho, thx to all who showed up, much appreciated.  I hope we can repeat.

Again, zero pressure clan.

Love, peace and chicken grease....

-FKD

Ace!: Icarus

Victory!
Battle: Swamp Saturday, May 05, 2012 10:37:42 AM
Vehicle: PzKpfw VIB Tiger II
Experience received: 4,227 (x3 for the first victory each day)
Credits received: 43,150 Battle Achievements: Mastery Badge: Ace Tanker

Reality, 80/20 & this

[scroll down to tl;dr section if you have ADHD like me]

1st, here's the 2012 Ducati Diesel Monster:

2nd, we got 24 members now!

3rd, there's this thing called, "the 80/20 rule."  I hate it, cuz I hate buzz terms used by mgt and salesmen, but, it sorta applies.  I mean, the concept of: "only a minority of this will do that," is really all it means.

So, point: let's keep our expectations real.  And sure enough, it seems about 20% of the 24 are:

A. active.
B. platooning.
C. eager.
D. sexy.

I mean, basically, about 4 to 6 of us are showing interest in:

A. clan wars
B. strategy
C. discussions over how good my butt looks

Ne how.  No big, just wanted to prepare us for reality.

The clan remains zero pressure.  Only a minority have:

A. Given me their emails.
B. Tried the voice/chat server.
C. Checked this blog.
D. Inquired as to how I got so cool.

It's all good.  The clan will continue to be zero pressure.

Sunday is our first scheduled Tank Company meeting thing.  Get ready for about 20% to show.

Reality: turn out will always be low.  And that's cool.  Oh, and we will probably lose our first clan war battle and then some.  That's cool too.  Great if we win.

And oh, I spoke to a veteran who might join our clan temporarily to help out.  He said it costed him $200 to do clan wars as you _must_ use gold everything, bcs everyone doing clan wars is using gold everything.

I punched "20% tits" into images.google.com and got this:

See what you make me do to get you to read this blog?

tl;dr: only a small minority of the clan will be active, clan wars will be tough if not expensive, but shit, it's all good, cuz zztop has the greatest beards in history....