• Genre: Team-based online multiplayer
• Model: Free2play
• Developer:
Wargaming.net
• Platform: PC
• Current Version: 8.8
• Website:
worldoftanks.com
World of Tanks is a free2play online team-based multiplayer game. You take your tank into 15 vs. 15 battle to take the enemy’s base or destroy all of their vehicles. Winning awards you credits and XP for you to upgrade your tank and research new tanks. All vehicles are divided up by tiers and as you research new tanks you ascend the tech tree, facing opponents appropriate to the tier of your tank.
Combat in World of Tanks is much more methodical than most multiplayer online shooters. For example, tank treads and turrets have a maximum turning speed. You can’t just crank your mouse sensitivity to max and whip it across to turn 180 in a split second. This allows situation such as a nimble light or medium tank being able to destroy a powerful heavy tank by circle-strafing it faster than the heavy’s turret can turn to fire. Where you hit an enemy tank is also very important. Not only do tanks have tougher armor in the front than the sides or rear, but the damage model on tanks are so detailed that you can disable tanks by shooting out their treads, or pierce weakpoints such as crew hatches or machine gun turrets.
Light Tanks: The primary role of the light tank is scouting, making good use of their speed, small profile and powerful radios. When a tank has visual on an enemy, the position is relayed to all allies within radio range. The enemy appears on your team’s radar and as a red silhouette on the battlefield. Revealing enemy positions allows your artillery to aim and fire from the back rows. Players receive credits and XP from spotted enemies take damage from teammates, so don’t feel that you need to everyone out personally. Often the best scout is the one hiding in the bushes, with the enemy unaware their position is being given away. If you are feeling bloodthirsty, you could use your speed to break through gaps in the enemy’s line and take out their artillery in the back row. Just be careful, light tanks are lacking in armor and armament.
Medium Tanks: The main fighting forces of any team, medium tanks are well balanced in speed, armor, firepower and maneuverability. Medium tanks fulfill many roles. They can brawl in thick fighting, flank unaware opponents, give fire support from afar, assist a heavy tank’s push, or form wolfpacks to swarm isolated tanks. Medium tanks have the mobility to respond to the changing battlefield, and the power to make an effective difference.
Heavy Tanks: Thick armor and big guns, but poor speed and maneuverability. A heavy tank is often the spearhead of the push into enemy territory. Just don’t go alone. Heavy tanks have turrets that are slow to turn and guns that are slow to reload and could easily be encircled by fast medium tanks. But properly supported, heavy tanks can change the flow of battle.
Tank Destroyers: Unlike other vehicles, tank destroyers lack a turret. Their guns are in a fixed forward firing position. This allows them to mount powerful large caliber guns, but also makes them very vulnerable to flanking. Don’t ever allow an enemy to get behind you. Losing your tracks in a position where you are unable to fire at the enemy is often a death sentence for the tank destroyer.
Self-Propelled Guns (SPG): These vehicles are the artillery of the team, specializing in indirect fire. The SPG can enter a unique birdseye-view mode. When enemy tanks are spotted by allies, they appear on the SPG’s birdseye view, allowing them to line up their shot from afar, sometimes clear across the whole map. The SPG’s prey of choice is large, slow heavy tanks. However the SPG relies on its allies more than any other tank. It needs it allies to spot its prey and to defend it, as the SPG is poor in a direct confrontation.
Soviet Union: With big guns and sloped armor which increases the chances of bounced shells, Soviet tanks are very effective in a close up fight. This is good because their guns, while powerful, are sadly lacking in accuracy and aiming speed. Their light tanks are very fast and their later-tier heavies are pretty speedy for their class as well. Soviet medium tanks are good all-around tanks; though they often trade in reload time for firepower.
Germany: German engineering gives this nation the game’s most accurate guns, even if average damage is lacking compared to other nations. German tanks often feel at home on the second row, using their accurate guns to snipe their enemies. While Germen tanks have solid front armor, they often have a large profile and a comparably sluggish engine.
America: Tanks from the US have great all-around capabilities, good maneuverability and their guns have a high rate-of-fire, even if they sometimes have hard time penetrating front armor. While the armor on their tank hulls are often weak, American tanks have unparalleled turret armor and excellent gun depression (the angle in which the main gun can point downward). This allows them to make great use of “hull down” tactics, where the hull is protected by cover or the crest of a hill (this is where gun depression is important) with only the tank’s heavily armored turret exposed. The American line has some oddities that break convention. Of note, America has the only tank destroyers with a turret! Even stranger, these TDs forgo the thick front armor of most TDs in favor of speed, like the M18 Hellcat, the fasted tracked vehicle of WWII.
France: Wait. What? French tanks? From WWII?! Well, no so much from during the war, but the French line is made of pre-war and post-war tanks. Besides, let’s not forget
France invented the modern tank, transforming those
lumbering metal rhombus things the British called tanks into the turreted, rear-mounted-engine vehicles we recognized today. Before the war, France tanks relied primarily in armor, so French tank are the most heavily armored vehicles in the lower tiers. After they got blitzed, France decided armor is useless and the higher-tier post-war tanks have high speed and maneuverability but paper thin armor, even their heavy tanks. High tier French tanks also utilize auto-loaders, which carry 4-6 rounds in a clip that can be fired rapidly, but require a lengthy reloading once depleted.
United Kingdom: The nation that invented the tank separated their vehicles into two categories: cruiser tanks that act as modern cavalry to exploit breakthroughs and infantry tanks designed to move and fight with foot soldiers. The cruiser line is made up of fast tanks with high maneuverability and little in regards to armor. Infantry tanks feature heavy armor but, never needing to outpace the infantry, poor speed. British tanks, particularly infantry tanks like the Churchill, have high rate of fire and aiming speed but comparably little damage-per-shot.
China: The most recent addition to the game, China is a bit of an oddity. China rarely even made its own tanks. Most of their tanks are imported, captured or modified versions of tanks from other nations. The first four tiers of the Chinese tech tree is a mish mash of French, British, (captured) Japanese and American tanks. The rest of their tree is variants of tanks they received from their Cold War ally, making China essentially like playing Soviet Union 2.0.
The first thing people wonder when they see a free2play game is if it is really a pay2win game? That is not the case in World of Tanks. The real money currency,
gold, is mostly used for convenience items, such as more space for tanks in your garage, crew retraining and converting tank-specific XP into Free XP. You can also use gold to subscribe to being Premium Account, which gives you 50% more credits and XP after battles. The only real part of gold that is not a convenience perk is the ability to purchase
premium tanks. Premium tanks are only available with gold and earn extra credits in battle. The downside is they cannot be upgraded and are outperformed by upgraded tanks of the same tier. Most Premium tanks are variants of existing tanks, such as the
British Lend-Lease tanks for the Soviets or the
Panther-M10, though some are unique.
Helpful Guides:
World of Tanks Wiki
Quick Start Guide
Newcomer's Guide
Basic Tatics
List of Maps
Detailed Battle Mechanics
Video Guides:
Getting Started
First Battle
Progress
Game Modes
Clan Wars
Armor Penetration
Camouflage
T32
M24 Chaffee
M3 Lee
M36 Jackson
Super Pershing
VK3002(DB)
IS-3
ARL 44
ELC AMX
T-50-2
KV-2
Type 62
Low-Tier SPGs
Mid-Tier SPGs
French SPGs
French Tank Destroyers
Soviet Tank Destroyers
Soviet Heavy Tanks
