Premium vehicle questions

[Underbird]

Hello WT players!
I played WT before, but the endless grind for just about anything drove me away from this great game. Having bought the Graf Spee for WoWS, I now enjoy that game much more than I did before.
Therefore, I decided to purchase some premium (aircraft) to enjoy the game free of any grinding. However, I have a couple of questions:

1. If I play the game via my Steam account (login via Steam account), can I buy from the Gajin store?
2. Can I use my Steam wallet for this?
3. There is a long list of unavailable WT DLC's on steamdb.info: Will new "DLC" be added to the Steam store?
4. What are the free premium aircraft given to the player after their first battle?
5. What is the cheapest way to buy Golden Eagles?
6. Are there sales on the Gaijin store? If so, when?
7. Generally there are three respawns in WT: Can I respawn my premium plane or do I need two other vehicles of a similar BR and the same nation?

Thank you very much for your support!

Best,
Brett

[Illusionyary]

1. Yes
2. Yes, there's a pinned guide on the forums here on how to do so: https://steamcommunity.com/app/236390/discussions/0/360672383120949359/
3. Every 6 months to a year or so Gaijin tends to change the DLC up a bit
4. It depends on the nation you first select, they're all only Tier I premiums but they'll help a bit.
5. Golden Eagles don't go on sale, so there is no real cheap way of getting them.
6. Yes! The main sale of the year is coming up in November, the WT anniversary sale, so hold out for that one.
7. If you have backups you can use it more than once in a battle, but if you don't you can only use it once and will need other vehicles around the same BR and same nation. In air realistic mode you can only spawn once. The only exception to this is the Italian tanks, as there's only two of them, they can respawn 3 times per battle in all modes so long as you have enough spawn points.

[Narf]

1. Pretty sure you need to bind your wt steam account to a Gaijin account for that.
2. No.
3. Very likely. Which and when, nobody knows.
4. When a player plays their first match they receive one premium vehicle depending on the mode (air / ground) and nation. This will only occur for the very first match, so use it on a nation you are interested in.
5. It's not like there is any other way than the Gaijin Store.
6. Yes. Next certain sale is end of October for the games birthday. There might be a minor sale before that, but that is uncertain. GE don't go on sale, though. Only vehicles or the campaign.
7. If you want to respawn in the same aircraft you already used then you need so-called backups. Those you can get from random rewards after matches or buy them using warbonds from your daily missions. The matchmaker for air ab will match you against enemies with at most 1.3 BR more than you highest vehicle, so keep that in mind when making a preset. Any lineup can just be from one nation.

[halolo39]

on point 5, there might be a price discrepency between buying golden eagles on the gaijin store then on steam(via ingame menu), it a few dollars difference but it does really add up if you want to buy tanks or planes of a higher price.

[Underbird]

Thank you very much for your quick and helpful reply, Illusionyary, Narf & halolo39!
2. I missed the community guide, but I'm glad it is possible.
4. Which aircraft are these exactly? Is it the top one from this list? https://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Category:Premium_aircraft
6. I'll have to wait for the sale then. Thanks. I checked last year's news post (https://warthunder.com/en/news/5066-special-war-thunder-5-years-en), does "50% discount for all the vehicles" mean that aircraft will cost 50% less Golden Eagles? Or only the bundles?
7. So respawning is only possible in AB Air battles? I don't plan to play those (anymore), so that is not an issue.

[Illusionyary]

Originally posted by Lord Brett Sinclair:

Thank you very much for your quick and helpful reply, Illusionyary, Narf & halolo39!
4. Which aircraft are these exactly? Is it the top one from this list? https://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Category:Premium_aircraft

Yep, the first ones on there are the premiums you can recieve for free by first picking that nation.

Originally posted by Lord Brett Sinclair:

6. I'll have to wait for the sale then. Thanks. I checked last year's news post (https://warthunder.com/en/news/5066-special-war-thunder-5-years-en), does "50% discount for all the vehicles" mean that aircraft will cost 50% less Golden Eagles? Or only the bundles?

All premiums purchasable with Golden Eagles and selected bundles will go on sale. The only exception to this would be recently added vehicles, so I wouldn't expect the vehicles added in 1.81 to go on sale during the anniversary event, though the T54E1 might.

Originally posted by Lord Brett Sinclair:

7. So respawning is only possible in AB Air battles? I don't plan to play those (anymore), so that is not an issue.

Air arcade and air simulator allow respawns. Air arcade is as many aircraft you have in your lineup at a time, the 3 respawn rule only applies to arcade tank battles. Air realistic is one plane only per game, if you die, you're out of the match.

Realistic mode combined arms (tanks + planes) battles work differently though, so long as you have enough spawn points you can keep spawning over and over in tanks or aircraft until you either run out of points or vehicles to spawn in.

[Underbird]

Thank you Illusionyary!
4. Germany it is then: It's hard to pick an aircraft over the Bf109, especially an early variant, given how much I like the Bf108.
6. I'll have to wait then. But that's great news: I may be able to pick up some nice aircraft for an alright pricetag!
7. Let's say I have the two reserve planes and the Bf109A in my lineup. Is there a way to start with the 109 (in a sim battle)?

[Illusionyary]

Originally posted by Lord Brett Sinclair:

Thank you Illusionyary!
4. Germany it is then: It's hard to pick an aircraft over the Bf109, especially an early variant, given how much I like the Bf108.

Hey no worries, Flugel's BF 109A is a cool little plane especially with the Condor Legion livery. I love the early 109s too.

Originally posted by Lord Brett Sinclair:

6. I'll have to wait then. But that's great news: I may be able to pick up some nice aircraft for an alright pricetag!

Definitely, it's well worth the wait.

Originally posted by Lord Brett Sinclair:

7. Let's say I have the two reserve planes and the Bf109A in my lineup. Is there a way to start with the 109 (in a sim battle)?

Simulator Battles are a bit out of my knowledge base, however I believe the way Enduring Confrontation (what SB air is called now) works is with BR brackets and spawn costs. If you join with your BF 109 and reserves you may have to fly your reserves around a bit before you'll be able to fly the 109, though I'm not 100% sure. Just give it a go and see what happens I guess.

[Underbird]

Thank you!
It seems like there are fixed BR brackets in which Sim players are divided (e. g. 1.0-2.0).
Aircraft of a higher BR than the lowest (e. g. the Bf109A at 1.3) cannot be spawned until enough spawn points are obtained. Apparently waiting the 6 minutes (according to WT wiki's simulator battles page) does not do the trick.
A real bummer, I think.
If there is anything I missed, please let me know.