Great news for World of Tanks fans! Update 8.5 has just been released across all regions and brings in yet more new features and improvements, as well as 9 more tanks to add to the increasing tank diversity and list of tanks you can use to cause mayhem on the fields of battle.

First of all, with the developers struggling to develop a proper map set in Asia, they have taken what they have learnt from their mistakes with previous Asian map implementations with the all new Pearl River map. This map is significant in many ways, the first being that it is the first map developed from the ground up for usage with the tank physics. So expect irregular terrain with lots of surprises and dangers around each corner, especially if you are going too fast without watching where you are driving!

Second, the patch introduces six new regular German tanks. The largest of which being a tier 10 medium tank, the Leopard 1; historically speaking this tank is an early version/prototype of the Leopard 1 used today by the German army. So it will definitely appeal to the fans of German armour (Bis18marck70, I am looking at you).

Beyond these there are 3 new Russian light tanks, promoted by Wargaming as “small and fast” (as all Russian lights...), to find out what these tanks offer different compared to the existing Russian lights remains to be seen but knowing Wargaming, they offer some form of diversity and gameplay variety that the existing Russian lights do not.

The new features do not end there; Wargaming has also decided to make the creation of 3-man platoons completely free. This was previously a feature exclusive to those on Premium accounts, free accounts could then only make a platoon with one other person.

In terms of changes on existing mechanics and balance, the most significant change well worth highlighting is the adding of a matchmaking parameter for Scout balance between teams. Previously such a rule only existed for artillery thus if one team had artillery tanks, then the other team would also have to have artillery. In addition, the artillery had to be within a calculated balance allowance on both teams (thus the number of artillery and tier of each artillery on each time had to be within balance limits). This rule is now applied to tanks designated out Scouts as well.

For those interested in the full patch notes, those can be read here.