- Yes
- No
Hello Chaps and Ladies,
At the moment, there is an overabundance of roundels representing different nations in the game; so far its hard to tell a French plane from that of an Italian, a Finn or a Briton. I figured there must be a better way to represent these countries and sort of went down a rabbit hole that ended up in me completely redesigning most of the roundels from scratch. I think some major and all minor nations would stand out a lot more with these changes.
To save time, I only made roundels for nations with more than one vehicle (except where Gaijin have already made a roundel… Switzerland). Further, where roundels were unavailable or duplicated, I found a cultural symbol that stood out and were identifiable as being from that country. You can find the result below;
Allow me to explain some of them;
France: The French were the first to use the concentric roundel, based on the cockade of their revolutionary era. The British copied them and much of the world copied from one or the other. The French should very much retain the circles while everyone else changes around them.
Free France: I think there should be a special symbol for units of the Free French as they were distinct from the ‘mainland’ French Forces, better known as Vichy France.
United Kingdom: The UK doesn’t really do consistent miltiary symbols beyond the ‘RAF Roundel’. World of Tanks tried to get around this by using the Royal Tank Regiment colours but I don’t think that really works. What’s the one symbol that is consistent with the entire armed forces of the UK’s history? Well, it’s the crown that adorns almost every regiment and squadron. In my version, it changes from 1953 because that’s when the crown changed, but its a convenient way of distinguishing WW2 from Cold War/Modern.
Russian Federation: I know the style of star was introduced before the USSR fell, but I felt it was a good way of distinguishing post-USSR units to make them more modern.
Italy: This was a hard one. I settled for the Fasces roundels for Mussolini’s Italy, the crest of the House of Savoy (as it was still the Kingdom of Italy) for the Co-Belligerant Forces (and pre-Mussolini) and a simplified version of the Italian Armed Forces crest for Modern Italy as it complimented the Savoy crest.
Republic of China: The first half of the Chinese tree is full of vehicles emblazoned with the Koumintang. I can’t see it being much of a step futher to make it their insignia where appropriate.
Japan: Gaijin already has a symbol for Japan, based on the Rising Sun. Although Japan still uses the Rising Sun in their armed forces today, there is still a significant shift in the Japanese military culture in what we perceive as ‘Imperial Japan’ and ‘Modern Japan’. I thought the symbols should reflect that.
India: India briefly used the Ashoka Chakra for their air force roundel from 1947 to 1950. Regardless, due to its prominence on the Indian flag, I think this should remain their symbol in WT. Otherwise, its just another concentric roundel like everyone else.
Australia/Canada/New Zealand: These are the post-war roundels of these nations, minus the circle around them to make the symbols themselves more prominent. If people don’t like the Kiwi though, there is a legitimate arguement for making it a Fern instead.
Argentina: Argentina use concentric roundels. So what better to represent them than the distinctive Sol de Mayo that features on their flag?
Finland: Now Finland is an interesting case. Their wartime symbol was actually a Swastika which actually predates their use by a certain political movement. Sadly, this means we can’t use their historical roundel. So I think they should have the Finnish Lion. It’s distinctive and fits in with the fact that Sweden’s roundel is also their coat of arms.
Norway: I initially wanted to give them a lion to fit in with Finland but it was too similar when made small. So we’ll go for their post-war roundel which is quite distinctive actually. I like it rather a lot. If Norway get any wartime stuff, however, it’ll have to be revisited as their roundel was merely a set of stripes.
I hope this gets a decent amount of interest. The changes, while a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, I think would actually really help the vehicles of the world stand out from one another on the rosters and the killfeeds. Do let me know what you think!
