I've been enjoying my time in Armored Warfare, which feels leaps and bounds better than World of Tanks as a tactical wargame that's still very newbie (and free-to-play) friendly.

There are very few gripes I've had for the game, and the few annoyances I have had were apparently shared by the entire community - prompting the developers to address and rework them with each successive update.

Armored Warfare Update 0.12

The latest update follows suit, addressing Camouflage and Spotting in the rework of the Camo System, rebalancing the very inconsistent playstyle of Tank Destroyers, as well as continuing to shore up the PvE system for players who aren't yet ready or interested in the PvP gameplay. There are also a number of smaller features being added and addressed, which I'll cover in the highlight list below.

Camouflage System Overhaul
  • Progressive camouflage penalties replace flat penalties.
  • Makes camouflage penalties more intuitive.
  • Encourages a more dynamic battlefield where players will move and re-position more.
  • Penalties stack with every shot, and movement decays over time based on distance from firing location and time since shots were fired.

Overall, the new system overhaul should allow players to try and maximize their concealment, and encourage more movement on the battlefield - especially for Artillery and Recon vehicles.

Tank Destroyer Class Overhaul
  • New "Gun Suppression" ability added.
  • High bonus damage at max-accuracy removed.
  • Overall damage at all accuracy levels is slightly improved.

These simple changes dramatically alter the Tank Destroyer's playability in combat. The new Gun Suppression ability greatly reduces camouflage penalties for shots fired while active (up to 3 consecutive shots) before going on cooldown for 60 seconds. The ability must be manually activated and has a countdown timer that will force a cooldown whether shots are fired or not.

All in all, this change should make Tank Destroyers much improved as burst-damage sniper units - while also making them more effective when engaging at closer ranges. I'm expecting to see more consistency out of TD units in PvP matches after this rework.

Battle-Hardened Vehicles

Players will be able to use gold to apply "Battle-Hardened" status to any Tier-3 (or higher) vehicle with reknowned status that will effectively make them "Premium-lite" units by adding the following perks:

  • +25% to Credit gains while playing this vehicle
  • +25% to Crew Experience gains while playing this vehicle
  • +25% to Commander Experience gains while playing this vehicle
  • +10% to Reputation earned on the vehicle (including locked reputation)

This may seem trivial, providing players with the opportunity to "create" premium vehicles - but I'm actually very excited for this change. It allows players to essentially "upgrade" their favorite units into vehicles they can play regularly - and remove the pressure for players to frequently rotate through their inventory of tanks to continue earning credits, reputation, and experience at optimal rates.

New PvE Missions

OPERATION HYDRA

Somewhere in Eastern Europe, a warehouse full of chemical weapons has come under attack by enemy forces. The Black Company must keep the stock as well as the rockets used to deliver it away from enemy hands.

OPERATION SAPPHIRE

Enemy mercenaries have captured an ammunition factory and are planning to transport the shells away. Destroy the ammunition caches to prevent their misuse.

OPERATION STARRY NIGHT

This mission will take the Black Company to a smaller town of outlying farms where enemy forces are terrorizing the population. Drive them away and destroy enemy fuel trucks to deny them the tactical advantage.

Additionally all PvE missions have been reworked to include minor updates and improvements to the variety and randomness of vehicle spawns. Also, this should eliminate most cases where players have enemy vehicles spawning right on top of them suddenly.

Screen Resolution Changes
  • The new window size and position will be saved in-between sessions.
  • Players can also set two different resolutions for both windowed mode and full screen, meaning when they switch between them by hitting Alt+Enter their resolution will adapt based on their preferences.
  • Players can now enter fullscreen mode on any monitor, not just their primary one.
  • AW now properly works with Windows scaling (150% and 200%)
  • Previously, with Windows scaling active players often had trouble clicking on buttons within the UI
Other Notable Features and Updates
  • New Year Decorations - reskinning of the player garage and base for a limited time.
  • More Tank Decals added.
  • New Statistics sharing of player Dossiers - (Private, Public, or Friends-Only.)
  • New Inventory Screen - No more auto-use of boosts! Players will now have an inventory screen to manage their acquired (purchased or rewarded) boosts, and other in-game activated items.
  • Localized Crew Voices - Crew members will now speak with the language of the game client the player has set.

For more detailed notes and information check out the patch announcement and notes on the game's official website.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Armored Warfare Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 21, 2016

About The Author

Alex has been playing online games and RPGs for quite some time, starting all the way back with Daggerfall, EverQuest, and Ultima Online. He's staying current with the latest games, picking up various titles and playing during his weekly streams on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings with both MMOs and MOBAs being feature plays. Hit him up on Twitter if you have a stream request for Freeplay Friday! Two future games he's got a keen eye on are Daybreak's EverQuest Next and Illfonic's Revival.

Comments