4. Basic Strategy

Tank warfare is one of the most studied and best understood applications of strategy and tactics - the armies of the world all utilize tanks as a basic element in their structure both as the sharp point of the spear and in support of other types of units.

In the USA the military base at Fort Knox, Kentucky is both a proving ground for tanks and tankers, and a university where tankers are taught the specialized skills of every position from driver and loader to tank commander.

That's real life - not game play - in the game things are both a lot simpler and just as complicated. Yeah, that sounds odd, but the reality matches. You don't need to know the tactics and strategies that they learn at Fort Knox, knowing them can really effect your game.

Basic Strategies

While the tutorial does a great job of teaching you the basics one thing it does not do is emphasize the critical points with enough attention to drive home their necessity.

Maneuver Strategy: Due to the weaknesses in tank armor, there are certain basic points that you always follow - the first of which is never show your rear to the enemy. Second to that is try to never show your sides to them either - because the rear and sides are the least armored areas.

Ideally you engage with your front - the thickest armored part of your tank - facing the enemy. Doing so will allow you to take a few hits while dishing out your own damage - hopefully targeting a weak spot on their tank and not their front end - since trading that sort of damage tends to work out badly in the end.

If you think making a simple error in driving that shows the enemy your side or rear is bad, wait until you top a hill while trying to get at the enemy only to find them waiting for your tank to pop up so that they can put a round through your belly, killing your tank with one shot!

Fortunately that only has to happen once for you to really not want to do it again - or you could know about it and not do it at all... And with that in mind, let's talk about armor weak points.

Armor Weak Points: The reason that tanks look like rolling steel fortresses is because that is what they are engineered to be. In fact very smart engineers put in a lot of brain sweat to create the graduated armor and its protection - the idea at least originally being that they wanted to make a tank that could take a lot of hits without being taken out while its gunner took out the other guy.

The problems that they faced went way beyond finding the right types of metal, and finding the best thickness and techniques in layering. The bigger problem was the engineers who made the shells that are fired by the guns - which are also made by other engineers - and their increasing effectiveness.

That matters in World of Tanks - it matters a lot. Because the better and more effective the shells are, the more damage they will do, and that means the fewer hits an enemy can take.

When the tanker knows their ammunition and what is worse in terms of Blitz, when they can afford to pay the gold for the better ammunition, things can get very nasty quickly.

There are three basic types of ammo you will see the most: APCR, HEAT, and HE.

APCR - Armor Piercing Carrier Shells are a variation on the early shells designed to penetrate armor and deliver an explosive charge.

The APCR is a lightweight outer shell that sheaths a high-density inner core - the outer shell providing the stability as the shell leaves the gun (at which point the outer shell is shed) to deliver the round on target, accurately.

The high-density inner core then drills a hole through the armor, while creating gas and shrapnel damage inside.

HE - High Explosive - is a great round to use for area or splash damage, especially when the target is a lighter-armored tank, since it allows you to deliver excellent direct damage as well as area effect damage.

HEAT - High Explosive Anti-Tank - was developed during the Second World War to be more effective against the rapidly increasing efficiency of modern armor.

Its made of an explosive shaped charge that uses the Munroe effect to generate a very high-velocity partial stream of molten metal that easily penetrates solid vehicle armor, then delivers an explosive effect.

Team Play

While the general game play experience - especially when you are doing nothing but random battles with strangers - tends to be more of a sort of one for one situation. But if you are lucky enough to find some friends you can play with, teaming up can make for incredible lethality on the battlefield.

Two well-executed medium tanks with good communication are often way more dangerous than a single heavy. The trick is communication.

While you can use your imagination, one of the most effective tactics to master early is mini-wolf-packing. The first half of the team has the job of disabling the enemy target by taking out a tread, while the second member comes in from behind and fires rounds into the weak rear-armor and engine compartment.

What Not to Do

In terms of basic strategy there are a few things you should try not to do - the first being to act impulsively. The second is to take it too seriously.

You are going to run up against players who are really good at this - who know their hardware and their ammunition, and can use it way more effectively than you do. Then there is the whole bad luck factor.

The point is that as cool as winning is - and really, it is rather cool - the fun is in playing. Learning from mistakes is also a great idea, and not repeating them is a better one, but if it stops being fun, you lose an integral element of the game.

We bring this up because there is a game play strategy that you can really benefit from - and that is not leaving the battle once your tank is destroyed.

When your tank gets KO's you have the option of exiting to the garage - of course you cannot use that tank until the battle ends, but here is the thing - once your tank is taken out you can then switch camera views to watch what the tankers on your team who remain on the battlefield are doing.

That can allow you to watch how higher-skilled tankers play, the tactics that they use, and how they choose to engage the enemy. If you are new to Blitz that sort of education can be very valuable. It will certainly assist you in spotting and eliminating your mistakes.

Remember for the first dozen or so battles as a new player you are not expected to do well - just to learn. You should certainly not judge yourself by how badly - or well you d0 - just work on refining your control and learn where ot target and when to shoot!