A summary of the Grand Battles information and new promotional video from Wargaming.
The 9.20 preview kicked off a conversation about work that’s underway to spruce up the Random Battles experience: the new Grand Battle setup. Available in Random Battles, this new format blends classic Standard Battles gameplay, a new larger arena and teams of 30, all battling it out in Tier X vehicles. Today, we’re sharing more details on it to get you ready to rock when you hit the battlefield.
As part of our commitment to involve you (the players) every step of the way, we’ll move forward by releasing Grand Battle in a test capacity and inviting you all to playtest it and share your thoughts. This plan allows for multiple rounds of iteration so the team can react to your feedback, adjust, and ultimately deliver an experience that clicks with the community at large.
Overview
- Mode: Random Battles (Grand Battle is available alongside Standard, Encounter, and Assault modes)
- Teams: 30 players in each
- Vehicles: Tier X only
- Map: Nebelburg
- Objectives: Capture the enemy base or destroy all enemy vehicles
Joining the Battle
You’re in for 30v30 combat if you own (or as soon as you buy) at least one top tier vehicle. Starting in 9.20, all players in Tier X tanks have a 10% chance of getting matched into a Grand Battle by default with the chances of getting a Standard Battle set at 60% and 15% chances of playing in Encounter or Assault. These are the odds you get when lots of players are queueing to hit the battlefield; the numbers will differ when there is considerably fewer people.
The new format might cause framerate issues on low-performance PCs, transforming the game into a turn-based-like experience. It isn’t enjoyable, especially when it happens unexpectedly! To alleviate the problem, Grand Battle is disabled by default on low performance PCs. If you want to check the mode out regardless, you can enable it manually:
Introducing Nebelburg
Designed specifically for Grand Battles, Nebelburg is a 1.4×1.4 km summer map with mixed terrain, offering enough space for all 60 players to maneuver. The middle area, dominated by a hill, is well suited for scouts. Heavy hitters and TDs can use the buildings and streets of the town in the west to their advantage in close combat. Hilly areas in the east lend ample tactical opportunities to medium tanks and vehicles that prove great on uneven terrain, thanks to solid gun depression and turret armor.
Spawn Locations
Each team of 30 is divided into three groups of ten players. To ensure you kick-start a battle without wasting precious seconds to regroup, we tied spawn positions within these small groups to vehicle types. Well-armored tanks roll out on the front lines ready to rush towards the enemy, while SPGs stay behind the main push and cover the group from the rear. The rest of the squad spawn in the middle, including heavy tanks that didn’t get into the first line. Finally, Platoon players start a Grand Battle within one line.
Balancing Small Groups
The matchmaker balances opposing small groups so that none of them have an upper hand due to their sole composition. Squads that appear in the same map area will always have a similar number of Platoon players, SPGs, LTs, and TDs, making the battle outcome a game of skill rather than luck. The number of SPGs is limited to a maximum of four per team.
Rewards and Earnings
You can seriously ramp up your resources in Grand Battles, and we aren’t talking just XP and Credits, which you can earn in any other mode—there are Bonds too! To acquire some, you must earn at least 400 XP per battle (Premium XP and bonuses don’t count). The total number of Bonds you make is directly proportional to this total number of XP you earned. Just enter your XP per battle in the tool below to find out how many Bonds you get:
Top Gun
Destroy enemy vehicles:
- 6 and more in Standard Battle, Assault and Encounter Battle.
- 8 and more in Grand Battle.
Radley-Walters’s Medal
Destroy enemy vehicles:
- 8–9 in Standard Battle, Assault and Encounter Battle.
- 10–12 in Grand Battle.
Pool’s Medal
Destroy enemy vehicles:
- 10–13 in Standard Battle, Assault and Encounter Battle.
- 13–20 in Grand Battle.
Raseiniai Heroes’ Medal
Destroy enemy vehicles:
- 14 and more in Standard Battle, Assault and Encounter Battle.
- 21 and more in Grand Battle.
Hop into playtest the new format and let us know what you think. This is your game as much as it is ours, and we’re looking forward to shaping the outcome together!
From WoT portal.
all very nice, but what about tanks with ammo for half a battle, meaning bc 25t, all tier 10 scouts… we will ram enemies with them in the 2nd half of the battle? gg wg, gg.
Gunless scouts
WG said they don’t see ammo count as a potential problem
25t is getting more clips next patch. check the patch notes
… only with that shitty 100mm gun.
As with random battles, the hp pool is normally close to 1:1. Increasing both teams to 30 keeps the hp pool at an equal ratio. In theory, for your team to win, all each player needs to do is achieve “Fire for Effect.” In 17,000 random battles, I have never ran out of ammunition. The only time one would is if you are carrying your team by a significant value, or are driving a vehicle specifically limited in ammo capacity: In which NONE exist, all vehicles can achieve well beyond “Fire for Effect.” In 30v30, the amount of damage per battle doesn’t change with normal results. Ammo capacity will only be of importance if you are forced to carry the burden of your team. To which I say, if you are expending your ammunition in battle, you are not being a team player. In order to do this, you would simply camp at long range and continuously snipe and retreat. While this is a valid play style for certain tanks, they have the ammo to do this. Auto loaders in particular should be actively helping there team on the offensive. So be it an assassin (French and TVP) or a dps (Krv and T57). By actively not participating in front line conflict, you are setting yourself up for a potential carry, or a potentially slow game. In grand battles, team play rewards victory. And while passive tactics could yeald major results in grand battles, only with certain vehicles.
Not every mode needs to be tailored around the precious Bct.
With couple of tanks I exped through recently, I found myslef out of ammo or with last shot loaded “pretty regularly”. Those lucky ones were Charioteer, Conway and Strv 74. And I bet there are even worse tanks in this regard than these…
You mock BC, but it’s out of place now since 30 rounds are really not that much for 30v30 format. Not even speaking about amazing creations like shitbarn with 12 shots…
people who carry the team to win arent teamplaying? if you never ran out of ammo in a tier 10 autoloader, you never played these tanks to their full potential. its your objective to shoot at enemy, destroy them and stay alive while doing so. if you do this better than others its not a sign of antisocial behaviour. dude… what did you smoke and where can i buy some?
So 4 artas per 30 tank team -> MM tier 10 arta dump in randoms.
*Arty ; *Arty
Tier 10s only? What a surprise! Put randoms for tier 10s only as well. So i, that after 8.3k battles still not on a hurry to go to tier 10 (tier 8 my highest) but cant do all of the content…nice. If you want to thumb down write the reason so there is a conversation!
Contrary to what many here are voicing there opinions about, I support the fact that grand battles will only be made available for tier 10s at the moment. On this map, and all others, (As was confirmed in a line from one of the gs map trailers that all maps will soon come) tier 10s are free to have battles between themselves with more variety than normal. Like yourself, I don’t enjoy high tiers too much. However, I now have incentive to keep one (The T57) in my garage. If I find a vehicle I like a lot and want to invest in (The UDES right now) I will happily take the time (Lots) to grind out some bonds from this mode in exchange for the stagnant credit income from this mode (Not loss). Without an incentive to keep a tier 10, I have in the past merely sold the thing are used the credits to finance my next line. I feel that variety in random battles is a step in the right direction by WG, but there is nothing hindering it from progressing to lower tiers (6+). Minus the capability to earn bonds, the mode would be well appreciated.
While I don’t know what you have in your garage, I would recommend the T57, 121, or Object 140 if you plan on continuing to tier 10. For the record, I hadn’t noticed the like/dislike buttons before, and have no incentive to begin using them.
If after 8.3k battles you dont have a T10 its WG fault. And in every game you need aome end game content in this case T10s. Clan wars does not count because they have prime time and for most it doesn’t work.
Well to be honest it’s my decision because I want to have all lines at tier 7-8. But I think wether you are or not suitable for grand battles should be decided by the amount of battles and not from the tiers you have (I think tier 5 the lowest tier though)
WG has said that they would later extend grand battles to lower tiers.
pools medal will be impossible to get in a deathstar it only carries 12 rounds
If they want to do something ‘fresh’ they should have a T7 grand battle next. I suggest tier 7 for these reasons.
1. It would encourage newer players to progress after T5 and give them something to progress to, instead of losing interest at T6 when they get blasted by T8’s.
2. If you have a T7 maximum limit the battles wouldn’t have to fight T8 op premiums and, from wg’s point of view, would probably sell them more T8 premiums for grinding credits.
In any case T7s and perhaps T9’s are generally under played, this is a shame as some are fine tanks – obj 704, vkb, ST-l are my favs 🙂
But on tier 7 there are premiums as well and premiums on grand battles are biggest pile of sheet
Tier 7s would allow the mode to be lucrative, which is beside the point. One should not be able to earn bonds when they haven’t yet completed a line or (heaven forbid) just go out and buy a premium solely from the purpose of acquiring bonds (and credits but not at the same time).
Premium tier 7 or any for that mater do not suck if you play them right something like a stayer WT would rock in a pure tier 7 grand battle (in general I would think they would need a ammo refill option on the map)
I accept the tier 10 restriction, only as long as more tier 10s are taken out of randoms and MM made better for tier 8s.
So when i play t10, i will be “randomly” forced to play a game, i dont want to!
I expect itll be 30 vs 8, within 3mins,
caused by your “randomly” putting 30x players with 55%wr vs 45% wr.
Even tho the “random” odds of that happening are 1million to 1
Ffs its an option, thats what an option means: ITS OPTIONAL.
And the majority of the time the teams will be equal, as it is random and overall it will tend towards 50% (49.8% actually).
Is the M60 in the video the same as the one ingame?
That’s the new model for the M48.