Feb 12, 2019

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

We are happy to announce that the second part of the Arabian Nights season will be arriving soon!

Here’s what you can look forward to:

New Vehicle Dealer

Francine De Laroche is bringing an entire line of French and Italian vehicles to Armored Warfare.

At the launch of Arabian Nights – Part II, the following vehicles will be available:

AMX-50 Tier 3 MBT
AMX-30B2 and AMX-30B2 Brenus Tier 4 MBTs
AMX-40 Tier 5 MBT
AMX-13 DCA Tier 5 AFV
C-13 TUA Tier 6 TD

The following vehicles will be added during the Arabian Nights season after the launch of the initial Update 0.28 version:

Leclerc Prototype Tier 7 MBT
VCAC Mephisto Tier 8 TD
Char Leclerc Tier 9 MBT
Char Leclerc “Le Terminateur” Tier 10 MBT

Additionally, the OF-40 Tier 4 MBT and the Ariete Tier 8 MBT will be moved to this dealer as well and will serve as an alternative to the French Tier 4 and Tier 8 vehicles. The Ariete will be replaced in the British MBT branch by the Al-Hussein MBT, an upgraded version of the Challenger.

The main theme of this dealer is the concept of player choice. Nearly all vehicles will be configurable to fit multiple roles by the means of mutually exclusive upgrade modules. Interesting new mechanics such as new vehicle active and passive abilities will appear in the branch as well along with a brand-new MBT oriented commander and a large number of other visual customization options and achievements. You can read more about Francine De Laroche in our dedicated article.

Battalion Features

In this update, we will overhaul the Battalion UI but, more importantly, we will also introduce a dedicated Battalion versus Battalion ranked PvP mode – Battalion Ranked Battles.

In this mode, Battalions will clash with each other for honor, glory and, most importantly, ranking and rewards. The question which battalion is the best in Armored Warfare will finally be answered because in this cutthroat competition, there can only be one real victor. You can read more about these features in our dedicated article.

New Special Operations

In the second part of the Arabian Nights season, the story of Magnus Holter will conclude as he finally gets his revenge... or will he?

Two new Special Operations missions will be available in this update but the ending of the story will be up to you. A choice awaits you in this gut-wrenching grand finale of the story arc – one that you will have to think carefully about. You can read more about the story of Armored Warfare in our dedicated article.

Flags

We are introducing a high-end visual customization option for all vehicles – the ability to equip your killer machines with two large and visible flags.

Flags will work much like the current Decal system with one key difference – flags will be considerably more visible. Now’s your chance to show your colors for the entire Armored Warfare to see!

In a few days, you will have the opportunity to see all the exciting features on our Public Test Server for yourselves for the first time.

We hope that you will enjoy the content and will see you on the battlefield!

Feb 7, 2019

In Development: Season 2 Vehicle Dealer

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

The second part of the Arabian Nights season is bringing one of the most awaited features of the recent months, perhaps even years – a new progression line consisting of French and Italian vehicles along with a brand-new dealer, Francine De Laroche!

Few people belong to the corporate world the way Francine De Laroche does. Born to a high society family, she has always been sophisticated but also cold and aloof, indifferent to the plight of what she likes to call “unwashed masses.” Her life choices reflect that attitude – she is very picky about who she wants to offer her services to and you, commanders, are lucky indeed to have attracted her attention by your excellent performance so far for the circle of people she trusts is very small indeed.

Armored Warfare dealers are unique in their own way as well as by the options they offer. Solomon Schreiber, for example, is highly suitable for new players and offers a number of opportunities for them to try out various different vehicles and styles by the means of access to other branches and to multiple rental vehicles, each with a different style of play. He is, however, based on tanks that are sturdy and easy to get into. Oscar Faraday is, on the other hand, his polar opposite with his vehicle pool consisting of unique, high-end vehicles that are difficult to master but devastating in skilled hands. But not to worry, Francine De Laroche has a unique thing of her own.

What makes Francine unique is the overarching idea of choice. This, of course, will make the vehicles more suitable for advanced players, which is why we have chosen to start the branch on Tier 3 instead of the usual Tier 1.

The vehicles offered by her can generally be configured to fit more than one battlefield role depending on your preferences by the means of mutually exclusive module mechanics and alternative module progression branches. Some of them also offer some very unique active abilities and other upgrades that we will get into with each of the vehicles, so let’s discuss them first, one by one.

AMX-50 – Tier 3 MBT

The branch will start off with a Tier 3 MBT called AMX-50. The AMX-50 was a French post-war heavy tank project with two distinctive features – an oscillating turret and an automatically loaded gun from a drum-like magazine. You can read more about the history of this tank in a dedicated article.

Gameplay-wise, it will be a fairly conventional MBT with good mobility (when upgraded) and the ability to deal burst damage thanks to its clip-like autoloader for its 100mm gun. It will be possible to configure either to deal a lot of damage while having mediocre mobility, or for considerably better mobility at the cost of firepower.

AMX-30B2 and AMX-30B2 Brenus – Tier 4 MBTs

On Tier 4 we have two versions of the same tank – the first mass-produced post-war French MBT called the AMX-30, born from the same program as the German Leopard 1. You can read more about their history in a dedicated article but the important bit is, one of these tanks will be a Tier 4 Premium vehicle available in the game client for Gold, while the other one will be a Tier 4 progression MBT.

Both tanks will be roughly similar. In fact, the only big difference will be that the progression version will have access to an ERA kit. Both will be lightly armored, well-armed and mobile with some unique features, including:

Coaxial 20mm autocannon as an alternative weapon to its 105mm gun
Powerful Obus G HEAT ammunition
High reverse speed

They will be highly configurable with the options being the roles of a highly mobile sharpshooter or a classic stealthy sniper.

Additionally to these two, the Tier 4 of this dealer will contain two previously existing Italian and French Premium vehicles. The AMX-10P PAC 90 Tank Destroyer will be moved to this branch and the OF-40 progression MBT will re-appear in this branch as well as an alternative to the AMX-30B2 Brenus.

AMX-40 – Tier 5 MBT

The AMX-40 was an unsuccessful export tank project. Heavier and better armed than the AMX-30B2, the biggest difference was the presence of a 120mm smoothbore cannon (predecessor to the Leclerc one) and a new welded turret and hull design with air gaps similar to the Leopard 2 layout, offering better protection. You can read more about it in a dedicated article.

The Armored Warfare version will be similar gameplay-wise to the AMX-30B2 with to possible configurations being available – mobile sharpshooter or a classic sniper. The 20mm coaxial autocannon will also make a re-appearance.

AMX-13 DCA – Tier 5 AFV

The AMX-13 DCA is in fact a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun built on an AMX-13 chassis, featuring two rapid-fire autocannons. It’s light, fast and capable of tearing through ground targets as well as low-flying air ones. You can read more about it in a dedicated article.

The Armored Warfare version will feature two different configurations – either a highly mobile active scouting one, or the one of a long range passive spotter. The latter will be aided by its special active ability – the Black Eye radar. Activating the radar will increase your spotting distance significantly, but will also make you stand out on the battlefield by reducing your camouflage factor value.

C-13 TUA – Tier 6 TD

The C-13 TUA is a tank destroyer version of the failed Italian C-13 IFV project. Roughly similar in appearance and role to the NM142 that already is in the game, it will be a Tier 6 ATGM Tank Destroyer. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the C-13 TUA will have two configurations – either a mobile ATGM platform one or a long-range launcher one featuring additional stealth bonuses. But that’s not all – in its fully upgraded form, you will get to choose between two different firepower configurations as well – the ability to fire top-down attack missiles that strike the vulnerable MBT roofs, or the ability to “double tap” (fire two missiles at once and have them impact in quick succession).

These vehicles will be introduced in the initial version of Update 0.28 and will be followed by the second part of the branch with a slight delay. The second part of the branch will include:

Tier 7: Char Leclerc Prototype MBT with a unique active ability in the form of an advanced FCS – once per several minutes, the tank will have the option to mark all enemy targets within 100 meters. These marked targets will then take higher damage (the same way as with the AFV class ability).
Tier 8: VCAC Mephisto TD, a light wheeled vehicle with a HOT missile launcher, offering you various configurations and the choice between extremely high penetration ATGMs, thermobaric ATGMs or a four-missile salvo of standard ATGMs. This vehicle will be joined on Tier 8 by the C1 Ariete MBT, moving to this dealer from the British branch. In the British branch, it will be replaced by the Al-Hussein Challenger built for Jordan, another new tank coming in the Arabian Nights season. We are taking the opportunity to significantly improve the visual quality of the Challenger 1 models in Armored Warfare, including better textures and additional details. The Challenger series is an iconic one and we want our players to enjoy its visual quality just like they enjoy the new models with improved textures. And last but not least, the AMX 10 RCR Premium Tank Destroyer will also be moved to this branch.
Tier 9: Char Leclerc AZUR MBT – this is the “true” Leclerc, available for all French tank enthusiasts. The combination of a powerful 120mm gun, excellent frontal armor and good mobility will make it a potent tank on the battlefield. Tier 9 will also feature the Leclerc T40 Premium vehicle, proposed by the Armored Warfare community.
Tier 10: Char Leclerc T4 MBT, otherwise known as “Le Terminateur” – a Leclerc hull with a larger turret carrying a 140mm gun. This vehicle will be fairly unique thanks to, amongst other things, its Battlefield Management System passive ability that will reduce its aiming time for each ally in its vicinity.

However, please note that these vehicles are still deep in development – we will share more info in the future.

This dealer will, however, not feature only vehicles, but also a lot of other items. The Tier 10 Leclerc will, as one of its unlockable options, feature a brand new French commander called Vincent Girard, intended for high-end MBT gameplay. His main ability will decrease the vehicle’s reload time upon successfully bouncing off an enemy shell. His tree skills (including a hitpoint bonus, repair speed bonus and others) will also be MBT-oriented, making him an ideal choice for the French Tier 10 MBT.

And last but definitely not least, this dealer will bring more than two dozen new achievements (osme of them hidden), containing unique rewards, including:

Animated player avatar
Unique camouflages
Two player titles
Numerous decals

We hope that, given the high amount of options in this tree, you will find your favorite vehicle that will suit your playstyle.

See you on the battlefield!

Feb 6, 2019

In Development: Focusing on Battalions

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

You’ve already learned about the French dealer that is coming in the second part of the Arabian Nights season, but now’s the time to unveil the second major cornerstone of Update 0.28 – Battalions.

To say we are focusing on Battalions only now, however, would be inaccurate. We’ve been working on Battalion-related content for many months now, bringing you the first iteration of the Battalion activities in the form of a special Contract System back in November 2018 along with the Heroic Special Operations difficulty. But it is only in the second part of this season that we are finishing our work and are truly rolling out the features we’ve always wanted to give the Battalions of Armored Warfare.

Battalion Ranked Battles

The first and possibly the most requested feature we’re preparing for you is the Battalion Ranked Battles mode.

The basic principle is simple and is generally similar to the individual Ranked Battles mode we tested in the early 2018. A separate mode with skill-based matchmaking will be available once per week (on Saturday) for a certain time period (during the peak server hours) in the following format:

Random Battles (PvP) available to Battalion members only
10 versus 10 players on existing PvP maps
Tier 9-10

Single players (who are in Battalions) or Battalion platoons (up to full platoons of 10 players) will be able to enter it and will get matched based on their Battalion’s rating so that roughly equally powerful Battalions are matched together.

Each Battalion member is ranked individually and there are two dozen ranks. Every time a player wins a battle in this mode, a star is obtained. On the other hand, a lost battle means a loss of one star. Obtaining enough stars allows the player to advance through the ranks with their respective rewards. Battalion rating is then calculated based on the ranks of the players present in the battalion, as such:

BR = (Sum of ranks of Top 10 Battalion players by rank*10) + (Sum of ranks of all the other players, including inactive ones)

Battalion rating will be visible to all – everyone will know how cool your Battalion is, putting, once and for all, the end to the question which Battalion is the best.

Please note:

Standard PvP mode rewards (Credits, Experience) are awarded for participating
Battalion rating is re-calculated once per 7 days
Penalized (suspended) Battalion members cannot participate in this mode
Ranks are tied to a specific Battalion – leaving it makes a player lose all ranks
Players are considered “inactive” unless they play at least one Ranked Battles mode per 28 days – an inactive player loses one star per each 7 days of his or her inactivity

In order to make sure the fights are fair, the matchmaking will take player platoons into account more strictly than usual. Platoons (from 2 to 10 players) have to consist of member of only one battalion – in other words, it’s possible to form a full team of your Battalion members for the purpose of participating in this mode. Naturally, such organized teams will only play against other organized teams. It is, however, not required to assemble a full 10-man platoon to participate as this mode has a special matchmaking in place. Here’s how it will work:

The matchmaking assembly will not be continuous like in standard modes – instead, the matchmaker checks the queue once per several minutes
During each such cycle, the matchmaker checks all the Battalions in the queue and divides them into two groups – those with 10 or more members in the queue and those with less than 10 member in the queue
The matchmaker first focuses on the first group with 10 or more members. From each such Battalion, it takes 10 best players by their personal ranks and assembles a team from them. Full pre-assembled platoons are treated as a full team by themselves.
The matchmaker then pits equally Battalion-rated teams against one another

This leaves the queue with Battalions that do not have enough members to form a full 10-man team along with the leftovers from the Battalions that had more than 10 players in the queue during the abovementioned process.

In this case, the Battalion assembles the largest units from queued Battalions – for example, if a Battalion joined with 8 members, these 8 members will be treated as a team core. The matchmaker then fills the rest of the team with members of other Battalions that are roughly equally ranked. Such formed teams are, once again, pitted against other such assembled teams of comparable ranks.

In case some players are left in the queue during the process without being assigned to any teams in a cycle, they are automatically awarded with a “technical victory” along with one star.

Other Battalion Changes

In order to accommodate the abovementioned Battalion rating value as well as to improve Battalion management, we will be introducing a large number of changes to the Battalion User Interface system. First and foremost, the UI will be overhauled to match the one of the current Headquarters and Garage screens.

We will be also including some new features:

The Battalion window will show a list of Battalions along with their rating that you can sort through. Other info will include the names of their leaders, their logos, member count and their mottos
A new Battalion Roster will be available with the names of all players, their rank, status (what they are doing), join date and Battalion Ranked Battles rating, allowing the officers to manage their members more effectively

We hope that you will appreciate the more convenient interface in your Battalion adventures.

And last but not least, we will be introducing a number of smaller changes to the Battalion contract system in order to address several issues and provide you with more comfortable gameplay, such as:

The first 10 Heroic Contract missions (on weekly basis) providing a major boost to their progress compared to the current state
Changing the “without dying” Heroic GLOPS Contract Mission condition to “no more than 3 deaths per platoon”
Allowing a Battalion Contract mission re-roll for Gold

Please note that the abovementioned info is still classified as "in development" and may change in the released version of this feature.

We hope that you will enjoy these changes and will see you on the battlefield!

Feb 5, 2019

Offer: AFT-10

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

To celebrate the arrival of the Chinese New Year, we are happy to offer you the opportunity to purchase one of the most powerful Chinese vehicles in the game – the AFT-10 Tank Destroyer.

The AFT-10 is a tracked ATGM carrier based on a ZBD-04 IFV hull that carries eight massive Red Arrow-10 guided missiles. In their latest version, these modern ATGMs are capable of devastating even the most modern MBTs at extreme distances and the AFT-10 was designed to do just that – to stop enemy assaults dead in their tracks. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the AFT-10 is a Tier 10 Premium Tank Destroyer. Its massive ATGM launcher immediately draws comparison with another Tier 10 vehicle, the Kornet-EM. But where Kornet-EM is all about speed, stealth and missile ambushes, the AFT-10 is about one thing and one thing only – uncompromising firepower. It is capable of unleashing devastating missile salvos that can knock out even Tier 10 MBTs in seconds. Additionally, its missiles have a very high penetration value, which means that no matter the angle, no target is truly safe from its reach.

Between February 5 and February 14, 2019, you have the opportunity to obtain this unique vehicle from an AFT-10 Loot Crate.

This Loot Crate contains mostly AFT-10 blueprint pieces. You need to assemble one hundred of these pieces (that will appear in your Inventory upon the crate opening) to receive the AFT-10. Each crate drops one of the following items:

As a main reward:

AFT-10 Tier 10 Premium Tank Destroyer (rare drop)
1 to 99 blueprint pieces
Temporary 3-day version of a random Tier 6 or higher Premium vehicle

As a additional reward:

10 Special AFT-10 Loot Crates (Special AFT-10 Loot Crate – Special Loot Crates are enhanced versions of the standard Loot Crates, offering more drops and higher chances to receive better items)
A part of an Special AFT-10 Loot Crate (collect 10 to receive a Special AFT-10 Loot Crate)

The Loot Crate is available by purchasing it in our Web Shop in the following bundles:

2 Loot Crates
5 Loot Crates (5% discount)
11 Loot Crates (10% discount)
23 Loot Crates (15% discount)
50 Loot Crates (25% discount)

Please note:

This offer starts on February 5 at 16:00 CET (7 AM PST)
This offer ends on February 14 at 16:00 CET (7 AM PST)
This offer is not available to players located in the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium

Enjoy the offer and see you on the battlefield!

Feb 1, 2019

Branch of the Month – Israeli MBTs

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

This month in our Branch of the Month series, we’ll be focusing on Sol Schreiber’s Israeli MBT line.

The history of the Israeli MBTs is inevitably tied to the United States of America or, more specifically, to their tank production. Ever since the birth of Israel, (sometimes heavily) modified American MBTs formed the backbone of the Israeli armored might until the appearance of the first Israeli truly indigenous MBT, the Merkava.

Even the first tank Israel obtained in large quantities was originally American – we are, of course, talking about the Sherman.

When the Arab armies invaded in 1948 to squash the nascent Jewish entity, they were, in many cases, armed with wartime British and American weapons left in Northern Africa after the surrender of the German Afrikakorps. The Jews – generally very lightly armed and suffering from the lack of modern weaponry – scrambled and managed to put together a number of salvaged vehicles, including the first Israeli Shermans.

The history of the very early Shermans is described in another dedicated article – some were saved (without their weapons) from an Italian scrap and later retrofitted with cannons (ironically German ones made by Krupp), others were salvaged from wrecks left by the British in Palestine. By the end of the Israeli War of Independence, the newly born Israeli Armored Corps boasted 32 combat-ready Shermans, mostly old wartime models. These 75mm-armed variants received the Israeli designation M3 as opposed to the 76mm variants (purchased after the Independence War) that received the designation M1 (based on the name of its gun) and a nickname that would make them famous – “Super Sherman”.

Both the 75mm M3s and the M1s served in the victorious 1956 Sinai war, ironically fighting against the Egyptian Shermans, but it soon became clear that the next time the Israelis would fight the Arabs, they would be facing late-war Soviet armor instead of worn-out British and American surplus vehicles, which is why they reached out to the French for help with upgrading their tanks to something that could take on the Arab T-34s and live to see the day. Eventually, hundreds were purchased and the Super Sherman continued the serve in the form of the two base models, the M50 and the M51, well into the 1970s.

After 1956, however, it was clear that even the upgraded Shermans were growing obsolete and the Israelis started to look for a replacement that came in the form of a British tank called Centurion – in the Israeli service, however, these were known under the name of Sho’t (whip). The reasons why the Israelis purchased the Centurions instead of more American tanks are described in the abovementioned article, but, simply put, this turned out to be the best solution at the time.

At first, the Israelis acquired an older version armed with a 20pdr (84mm) gun, which was later upgraded to its most famous iteration carrying the 105mm L7 rifled gun. The legendary reputation of these tanks was forged in the fires of the 1973 Yom Kippur War where Israeli Sho’t units fought against incredible odds, defeating both superior enemy numbers and better equipment operated by the Arabs. They, however, took heavy losses and a complicated political relationship with Great Britain basically meant that the Israelis, always on a lookout for good tanks to buy, had to rely on yet another design – the American Patton.

Over the years, the Israelis bought a large number of different Patton models, which all, however, shared one Israeli name: Magach. There are several theories as to what that name means with the most common ones being:

Hebrew world for a battering ram (or crushing hit)
Shortcut of initial letters of Hebrew numbers – mem, chet, gimel (48, 3 or 48G as in Germany because that’s where many of the Pattons came from)

Regardless of the name origins, Israel got their hands on hundreds of Magach tanks starting from 1965 or so – and the last of them were retired only relatively recently in 2014. The fact the Israelis were able to keep them not only operational, but also competitive for this long is quite a feat indeed. The main Magach models included:

Magach 1 (M48 and M48A1 tanks)
Magach 2 (M48A2 and M48A2C – the German models)
Magach 3 (M48A3)
Magach 5 (M48A5 – the history of this model as well as the previous ones is described in a dedicated article)
Magach 6 (M60/M60A1/M60A3 with several upgraded sub-variants)
Magach 7 (heavily upgraded M60 tank with additional slab armor)

And, finally, there was the famous Merkava tank. There are a lot of myths going around but, in reality, the tank was pretty conventional and its first iterations were barely any better than the American M60A1 Patton tank. Over the time, it improved significantly. Armored Warfare features five progression variants of this tank:

Merkava Mk.1 (effectively a pre-production vehicle with a lot of quirks, armed with a 105mm gun)
Merkava Mk.2 (up to the 2B model, what the Mk.1 should have been with, armed with a 105mm gun)
Merkava Mk.3 (up to the 3D BAZ model, a Merkava upgraded to carry a 120mm IMI smoothbore gun)
Merkava Mk.4 (a Merkava model optimized for asymmetric warfare with cutting edge electronics and an upgraded set of armor)
Merkava Mk.4M Windbreaker (the current cutting edge Merkava variant equipped with a powerful APS)

The Merkava will without any doubt continue to serve for years to come, replacing all the other tanks in Israeli service – after all it’s certainly one of the best MBTs in the world.

From February 1 to February 28, 2019, the following vehicles will be available for lower Credit price than usual as well as with 30 percent discount on their Battle-Hardened status:

Tiran 6 Tier 3 MBT – the Tiran 6 is a captured Soviet T-62 MBT, pressed into Israeli service. The Israelis had a long history of using captured enemy equipment before the standardization that came with the Merkava series and the Soviet T-54s, T-55s and T-62s that were sold to their Arab rivals were no exception. Unlike the T-54/55 tanks, however, the T-62s in Israeli service were not significantly modified and kept their old armament in the form of a 115mm smoothbore gun that proved to be very effective against the Israeli Centurions and Magach tanks deployed during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35

Sho’t Kal Dalet Tier 4 MBT – this is an upgraded Israeli Centurion tank. Israel obtained a number of these tanks from Great Britain in the late 1950s and 1960s and gradually had them re-armed with the famous British L7 105mm rifled gun. They proved to be effective, if vulnerable, fighting machines during the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, the latter forging the legendary reputation they enjoy today. Please note that, recently, the previously Tier 2 Sho’t Kal Dalet was moved to Tier 4. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35%

Magach 5 Tier 4 MBT – Magach is the Israeli name for all the American Patton series tanks in its service. For a very long time, these were the backbone of the Israeli armored might. The Magach 5 model was an upgraded M48A5 tank – the last M48 series version armed with the same 105mm rifled gun the Sho’t carried. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35%

Magach 6B Gal Batash Tier 5 MBT – the Magach 6B Gal Batash was the ultimate version of the Magach 6 series of upgrades with the basic Magach 6 being an Israeli M60 series Patton. The Magach tanks then split into two distinctive branches – the 6A (M60A1 and M60A3) and 6B (6A with Blazer armor) and the Magach 7 (original M60 upgraded with a passive armor kit). The 6B Gal Batash model represents the ultimate M60A3 upgrade of the IDF. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35%

Merkava Mk.1 Tier 5 MBT – this was the first Merkava model in Israeli service. Built as an indigenous tank at great cost, it wasn’t all that great and was rushed into service before all its quirks were caught. However, it turned out to be a solid foundation for one of the most recognized and celebrated tank series in the world. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35%

Magach 7C Tier 6 MBT – the Magach 7C is the ultimate version of the Israeli Magach program. Its thick armor offered excellent protection against terrorist-fired ATGMs which are the biggest threat to the Israeli tanks to this day. It was phased out from service only relatively recently, in 2014. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35%

Merkava Mk.2B Tier 6 MBT – the Merkava Mk.2 is what Mk.1 should have been – a full-fledged production variant with many of its worst issues addressed. While it retained the 105mm gun of its Mk.1 predecessor, it was also continuously updated, including heavy turret armor against HEAT projectiles (RPGs, ATGMs) fired from rooftops. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 35%

Merkava Mk.3D Barak Zoher Tier 8 MBT – the first truly major upgrade to the Merkava included the replacement of its 105mm gun with a considerably more powerful IMI 120mm smoothbore cannon. This variant was called Mk.3 and, like its Mk.2 predecessor, continued to be upgraded, including heavy passive armor to protect it against incoming ATGMs and other threats. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 25%

Merkava Mk.4 Tier 9 MBT – this is the 120mm cannon Merkava, optimized for better battlefield connectivity and asymmetric warfare. Armed insurgent groups are the current biggest threat to IDF and the Mk.4 model was designed to meet it head on and then some. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 20%

Merkava Mk.4M Tier 10 MBT – the final vehicle of this branch is a Mk.4 Merkava, equipped with some cutting edge technologies, including a next generation Trophy APS, capable of shooting down kinetic projectiles. You can read more about this tank in our dedicated article.

Discount: 15%

Generally speaking, the lower Tiers of the Solomon Schreiber MBT branch offer sniping playstyle (at least within the confines of the MBT class). These vehicles are reasonably well protected but their true strength lies in their accurate guns and long range firepower in the best Israeli tactics tradition.

The Merkavas are, however, a bit different. Where the German MBTs are the class snipers, the British MBTs offer excellent armor thickness and the Russian MBTs are close range brawlers, the Israeli Merkavas do not only rely on passive, but also on active defense in combination with burst-oriented firepower.

While their armor may not be the thickest in the game, they feature some of the most advanced Active Protection Systems available with the Tier 10 Merkava’s “next generation Trophy” system being able to defeat any type of shell – including the APFSDS shells (the only other APS capable of such a feat is the Armata’s Afganit).

The Merkavas also feature the Ready Rack mechanism, allowing them to fire faster than other tanks of their class and Tier – for a certain period of time, followed by a longer reload period. Additionally, the later Merkavas feature the LAHAT gun-launched missiles.

All in all, Sol Schreiber’s vehicles are – in their philosophy – the polar opposite of the Oscar Faraday dealer. Where Faraday’s offer consists of specialist vehicles intended for advanced players, Sol Schreiber’s vehicles are generally very friendly to new players, offering a great starting vehicle set without massive disadvantages or special tactics requirements. Additionally, Tier 1 to Tier 6 tanks are unlocked faster than for the other dealers and offer links to other trees as well as the option to try out different progression tanks on provisional basis.

We’ll see you on the battlefield!