World of Tanks Essential Strategy Guide

World of Tanks Essential Strategy Guide by easttown

Strategic approach to World of Tanks
How to use strategy to win more battles

After falling in love with this fantastic game I’ve becomed increasingly frustrateded by the mindless battles I play in. This may be a result of the never ending grind for top tier tanks but it would still be smart with a better approach to each battle. As for my own background I’ve served as a tank driver in the army. In this guide I will try to create a strategy planning process that you can use for every W.o.T. battle. Hopefully this guide will make players more aware of everything that happens on the battlefield and the importance of planning. A team working together is much more stronger than 10 lonewarriors running around doing “their thing”.

This is the strategy process:
Goal for strategy → Analyze → choose plan / approach → execute plan → Evaluate battle

Obviously the goal for every battle is for you to win it! If theres a way that you would like to win in, ie. get 10 kills for example, you incorporate this. A team working together where everyone knows what to do, when to do it would be euphoric. As this guide is mainly focused on standard battles (random players) this will usually never be the case. However, players should be encouraged to use chat a lot more before and during the battle. Take initiativ early on! Get players on the same wavelenght.

Analyze
The keywords are knowledge and experience. To be able to make better choices ,you should preferably know everything about the map, the opponents and your own team.

The analyze process should start with:
Analyze opponent tanks → analyze map → analyze own team

Before the game starts you will get an overview over all the tanks in the battle. This will give you an indication on how the battle may evolve. To analyze the oppositions tanks will demand a lot knowledge from you. Trough data from WoT wiki you’ll find each tanks theoritical strenght and weaknesses. With the experience you’ve gained from hours of hours of play you’ll notice patterns and how to approach the different tanks. Its important to look at the composition of tanktypes, this might tell you how your opponent will play. Defend, rush etc. How do you think a team of mainly tank destroyers and a few artillerys will play?

The surroundings on the battlefield must be used to your advantage. Cover, camoflague, chokepoints etc. Use what you found out when analyzing your opponent. Where do you think they will focus their strenght? Where can you attack to get easy access to their artillery? Also knowing the map will help you with retreating to safety, good flanking routes and areas where you can attack with best cover or little threat from flanking manouvers. Know where the good sniper positions are, for you and your opponents. But be aware of suprises, “nothing is going to happen if you’re prepared for it, but it will happen if you’re not”!

Analyze your own team just like you did with your opponents. This include your self, what are your strenghts and weaknesses? This is very important to every aspect of the battle, use your strenghts to your advantage! The strenghts and weaknesses is your tanks abilities and also your own operating skills. Maybe you’re best as a scout? Or maybe you’re good to push with a heavy tank? The composition of your teams tanktypes shows weaknesses and strenghts, use these to make a plan. Focus on strenghts, make sure your opponents can’t take advantage of your weaknesses. Be creative when planning!

Make a plan for the battle based on what you found out by analysing the battle before it starts. Find an approach how to win, this is the hard part for standard battles. Remember to keep it simple! This will make it easier to communicate a strategy to your teammates and its also easier to execute. Remember that it rarely goes as planned. The battle situation will always change during the fight. Be prepared for the unexpected! Still, being prepared and having a team working towards excecuting the same plan will in most cases give you an strong advantage. Have you noticed the effect when you and another player cooperate tightly in a sitution, like for example 2vs5, will sometimes make you play really great? If your whole team was work tightly together from the start you’d be invincible!

To make a plan and winning with it is your task. In the next battle you participate in, I want you to be prepared and have a strategy for your approach.

When executing the plan, always try to communicate with teammates around you. It will make you and your mates more concentrated and motivated for the task ahead. The teamspirit will rise, you’ll be great together. Destroying tank after tank when working closely together by responding to eachothers actions, communication and movement is a great feeling! It boost the winning mentality in everyone involved.

As I earlier stated its imporant to be aware of potential suprises during the battle. To counter this there are a few pointers to dimish this risk and potensial loss. First of all, never spread out thin! Leaving tanks alone around the battlefield will leave you vurneable. By this, I don’t mean that you should stay clustered in one mass unit, but spread out smartly(with a plan). Never let your self be easy picked out by enemy snipers. If an enemy sniper shoots at you, make sure you have teammates around ready to attack him from his reavealed position.
Another pointer is map overview and the importance of radio range. Have good overview over the map to expose tanks moving around and towards weaker positions that you want to defend. When pushing forward its importanted that the artillery is in radio range. They can be really desicive for the outcome of the battle(Artillery are often too static, try to move along behind the push) by picking out snipers and supporting bigger fights.

Evaluate the battle
Learn and gain experience, you can only get better! Develop your skills in all aspects of the game.
A few things to evalute:
How well did you execute the strategy? What did your opponents do? What went wrong? What can you learn? What can be improved, and how? How would you apporach the same game if you had another shot?

Summarized(By theChosen) in easy terms:

• Think about what you’re doing while the map loads: team and enemy strengths and weaknesses
• Same for each map: know the map from both sides, and each type of enemy’s tanks hidy holes ands weaknesses
• COMMUNICATE! This goes for scouts, arty, and overall team weaknesses and strengths
• Learn to use your tank/TD/arty strengths and protect it’s weaknesses
• Teamwork wins, not solo tanks: protect Heavies and arty, flank with Mediums, scout and kill arty with Lights

• Work in groups, shoot the same target (biggest to smallest threat)
• Don’t block your team mate! Leave room to go forward and retreat out of enemy fire
• Don’t turn braodside to the enemy id you can help it: smaller targets are harder to hit.
• Beware Tunnel Vision! Don’t get too focused on one enmey that you don’t see one behind you.
• Try to have situational awareness: know what’s going on for the whole battlefield and respond acordingly.

• REMEMBER: when the enemy is in range…so are YOU!
• Tank defensively. No, don’t “camp” – but defend. Expect that some of your teammates will tank recklessly and compensate. Hide, fill gaps, attack – whatever neeeds to be done.
• Don’t team kill
• Spamming map clicks is annoying and has the opposite effect so don’t do it! One click is enough, or a second afetr a bit for those who missed the first click.
• Lastly, realize that bad tankers won’t read this…

I hope that, after reading this, you will be better prepared for your next battle. Now its up to you to become a better player and teammate, create strategies and tactics, so you can win more often!

Tips along the way:
Since standard battles often have a lot of mindless zombies running around its easy for a team to kill them off together, one by one. You will have some of them on your own team. Be the smart one, have an overview of the battlefield and everything that is happening. Try to minimize weakpoints and support your zombies by for example:
backing them up
if your team gets too spread out, like two main flanks, then consider moving to a position that relays radio between both flanks. Your artys will be very happy =)