Wargaming has committed to a contribution of $10,000 to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, as part of its launch of a Commonwealth tech tree in their ongoing online World of Warships. The contribution is a part of Wargaming’s stated commitment to support the preservation of naval history.

The museum’s Deputy Director, Michael Baldwin, expressed gratitude for the contribution, saying We have, over the past few years, enjoyed our involvement with the World of Warships game by participating in live, online events that bring museum research and objects to new, worldwide museum audiences, such as during the Longest Night of Museums. Gaming provides new ways of looking into our maritime heritage and provides new avenues for storytelling.”

The lineup of Commonwealth ships added to World of Warships includes ten new cruisers representing Commonwealth nations, including Australian cruiser Cerberus and New Zealand ship Auckland. Currently in Early Access, all ships will be fully available at Update 13.5. Joey Snyder-Kloos, Community Manager, Americas, WoWS Franchise, expanded on the strengths of the Commonwealth cruisers in an online Q&A session, stating they have excellent concealment with good damage per minute (although a slow turret traverse speed), and have torpedoes from Tier III on, becoming long range at Tier VII. Their consumables are Hydroacoustic Search, Defensive AA Fire and Crawling Smoke Generator. The Commonwealth Team Event Pass, releasing alongside the cruisers, has two 20-level progression lines to explore and will include historical Commanders Harold Farncomb and Leonard Murray, as well as camouflages, containers and tokens, as well as a special decorative skin for the Tier V Delhi. This Event Pass also replaces daily missions with weekly missions.

Also, just in time for April Fool’s Day, a Piñata Hunt event is coming to World of Warships, where Tier VIII-IX ships will participate in a unique version of Hotspot in two teams of seven – with each ship dressed in a random selection of event-themed camouflages, exploding with a new animation when sunk, and introducing a new mechanic called ‘Support Consumables’. For participating, players will be able to redeem ‘pinata tokens’ for permanent camouflages, a patch and a commemorative flag.