World of Tanks Proper Cover Guide

World of Tanks Proper Cover Guide by Reiter

It just hit me the other day like a broadside to the Sherman from 152mm HE from the KV. How do you find cover thats more effective. Bare with me, I am sorry but I am not Picasso but it should help get the idea across.

Left Drawing: The Sniper’s nest (top down view). In the movies, you will see assassins shoot out of a window at some goverment official while standing at the window. You are visible seconds after the gun shot is heard and very much like when you are spotted in WoT.

In real life snipers tend to shoot through an open window or small hole in the wall from about 10 feet back, in a dark room where they are obscured and harder to see which window and floor they shot out from. These guys shoot out what is basicly a really narrow cone that gets wider at the base the farther the target is, imagine you are outside this building and 200 meters away.

Yeah, thats pretty hard to spot the shooter from the outside.

For example, there are particular spots on El Halluf both sides of the map infront of the flags at the ridges that are basicly a couple of tunnels that lead to the the cliffs that drop off (you cannot roll down them). I am always popping TDs and SPG that sit right at the edge when they get lite up. What they are ment for is to hide yourself up against the wall and a few meters back (STOP PUTTING YOURSELF AT THE CLIFFS EDGE!!!), you end up with very narrow windows to fire out of but at the same time the enemy has a vary narrow target. There are three of those tunnels on on each side of the nest, meaning the tank on the left covers the right while the tank on the right covers the left. Same rules apply for other maps, just find your favorite rock and put yourself 5 meters behind it presenting both a narrow view to fire down and a vary narrow target to be hit, now you cannot see what is on the right but the enemy cannot see you as well. Meaning they have to come for you. If its difficult to picture a snipers nest, its kind of like shooting down a hallway through a window at a target the size of a quarter, you are very difficult to hit but so is the target and you have to wait for them to come to you.

This also applies for Himmeldorf and Ruinberg, do not hide at street corners moving perindicular to the street and popping out with your turret rotated 90 degrees from the front. One track hit and you are toast. Angle your tank like back 10 meters from your favorite corners at the intersections with a building between the enemy SPG, put your self at the intersection but not in the intersection. If you are in one of those annoying streets that curve, put yourself near a building but about 3 meters away from the building and when you fire down the very narrow window you can back up to hide while reloading.

Key word for a snipers nest, very narrow target zone to shoot down and patience to let the enemy come to you. I found that if I stopped going for the wide panoramic areas I could fire out of and just humped a rock farthter back then normal that I took less hits if I had less to area to shoot in.

Top right drawing: Hull down. I understood this concept, but it took me weeks to put it in practice.

If you are on top of a hill (example, Westfiled North base climbs the east side of the map to get to the top of the hill near the busted bridge, now can shoot down the entire east side of that slope down until about half way up) , you are hull down against the bottom right tank, meaning you cannot hit stuff right at the base of the hill and a very hard target to hit because only your turret is visible. The left bottom tank is hull down to the tank on the top of the hill, meaning the enemy needs to skyline himself where you can hit the the lower plates. Same for the top tank, if the enemy gets to the base of the hill back up because he will need to be very low (Hetzer/Marder) to present enough of his reticle to hit your tank (those moments where you rage the enemy is just under your reticle pointing at the sky above him by one pixel before you inch up and get hit). For hull down, DO NOT SKYLINE YOURSELF BY SITTING RIGHT AT THE EDGE OF ELEVATION CHANGE. Put yourself at least a few meters back from the top of the hill and shoot as far as you can because once they are at the bottom they need to come to you, if you try to lean over you are a massively large target for them to hit. This picture doesn’t look great, but even sitting at the top of a hill back 10 meters from the edge with a tall tank and a gun that depress is pretty hard to hit (Campinovka, NE hill, could fire south down about 100 meters into the forest but not at the forests edge where the enemy is now under the gun) it just cannot hit tanks at the base of the hill.

Bottom Picture: Grass roots. Guys, hiding in the bush does not help. You hide behind the bush. Put more in front of you for the better, couple meters back from a single bush works just as well as 2 bushes if you got a camo net (until you fire). If your gun barrel is sticking out, you are visible.