World of Tanks (WoT) is a 2010 massively multiplayer online game by the Belarusian game developer Wargaming.net. It contains elements of a third-person and tactical shooter, with the characters being the eponymous tanks. World of Tanks is a free-to-play product with which the manufacturer generates several million euros in profit annually through microtransactions (as of 2016).
Gameplay
Basically, World of Tanks is a kind of counterstrike on chains: In every battle two teams fight each other, each team leads 15 tanks into the field, and each of them is controlled by a player. The goal is to scrap all opponents or to capture the enemy base. They fight one battle after the other, which is very entertaining because the skirmishes rarely last longer than ten minutes.
The Second World War has to serve as a scenario – but not in the way we know it. First of all, the 94 tank models come from the years 1930 to 1950, some of them from the Korean War. Second, World of Tanks does not separate by nation: Germans, American and Soviet war bodies fight side by side.
But that doesn’t mean that the origin of the tanks doesn’t matter, especially Russian steel hulls are somewhat stronger than their counterparts from other countries. This caused protests in the beta test, so the developers turned the balance screw. However, the chain giants are still not ideally matched, the balance and properties of the tanks are controversial in the community. For example, many fans consider the American M3 Lee to be too weak.
In addition, numerous players complain about artillery tanks that enemies from a safe distance – read: without resistance – can kill. In hand-to-hand combat, however, the sluggish cannons are lost, and nimble light tanks snap them off with the flick of a pipe. So there is an antidote to artillery, we think that’s fair.
So all types of tanks have advantages and disadvantages. The artillery tanks pay for their long range not only with their snail’s pace, but also with extremely long reloading times. In addition, they do not have a moving turret: it has to rotate completely to target enemies.
Types of vehicles
The vehicles in WoT are divided into five categories: light, medium and heavy tanks, tank destroyers and self-propelled guns (mobile artillery). Each category has certain typical advantages and disadvantages, which – to put it simply – are reflected in the four classic cornerstones of armor protection, armament, mobility and camouflage value.
Not all tanks are typical of their category, however; there are heavy tanks that sacrifice armor for mobility, and medium tanks that are better armored and less mobile, etc.
The balance between the classes is primarily based on the card design: depending on the card, a class is more or less useful; so is z. B. Artillery is most effective on large, open maps, while it is difficult to use in cities. Heavy tanks are most effective in cities.
The range of cards is known, but you cannot choose the card (exception: clan war) and you do not know it before the start of the battle, so that when choosing a vehicle you never know in which scenario you will play.
The tasks of the light tanks on the battlefield include, with a few exceptions, the reconnaissance of the enemy and the destruction of the enemy self-propelled guns.
Medium tanks are mostly suitable for bypassing heavy tanks or breaking through enemy lines and taking on the role of scout, and flanking attacks with them are also very effective. Most heavy tanks act as frontal tanks, dueling each other in direct combat, while tank destroyers often influence combat from a greater distance.
The self-propelled guns cover the enemy from a safe distance with long-range fire and, thanks to the shock effect, can enormously limit the mobility and efficiency of the vehicles.
Life is hard for f2p player
If you play World of Tanks for free, you need weeks to work your way up the technology tree. Especially since you also have to pay for ammunition and repairs from the battle proceeds. Thanks to the brisk battles, however, collecting money is quite entertaining.
It is also worth owning multiple tanks. If your chain giant is destroyed in the course of a battle, you can simply leave the battlefield and use another vehicle to go into the next battle. The reward for the missed game will automatically flow into your account as soon as it ends.
These “simultaneous” battles will earn you money and experience faster. Initially, you can only use the experience points to unlock components and successor models for the current tank. Anyone who collects points with the PzKpfW III / A can only invest them in the PzKpfW III / A.
Alternatively, you can put the additional experience into the tank crew, who also get stronger through completed battles and at the highest level even learns special talents à la “Increase the camouflage ability of the tank”.
In order to be able to use earned experience for other tanks, you must first convert it into “free experience”. That costs real money – which brings us to the payment benefits of World of Tanks.
Play tactically
Although the battles themselves always proceed in the same way (remember: 15 against 15, destroy enemies, conquer bases), the tank hunt unfolds a remarkable tactical claim. One of the reasons for this is that each of the 16 battlefields offers several attack routes. You never know where the enemy is this time.
Teamwork also plays an important role; going it alone leads to tank death in no time. On most maps, it makes sense to let the enemy team come and defend them first. Sometimes it is also worthwhile to occupy a strategically favorable position as quickly as possible – for example a centrally located hill. Correct tactical agreements are rarely made, apart from the occasional and mostly ignored “Follow me!”
The search for cover is also important for this. For example, you peek briefly around rocks / house corners, release a burst of fire and immediately roll back again. Or you can hide your tank in the bushes to ambush enemies.
When a tank spots an enemy, it automatically reports its position to its comrades within the radio range. The radio distance thus corresponds to the tanks’ “call range”: the higher it is, the further the tanks can “call out” enemies they have sighted.
It can therefore be worthwhile, with a nimble tank (including a good radio), bravely pounding towards the enemy in order to uncover opponents. Then the rest of the team – especially the artillery tanks – can shoot at the rivals they have found from the other end of the map.
The RPG spice
In between battles, upgrade your tank or even buy a new one. With money that you earn from killed or at least damaged opponents. You will also collect experience points which you can use to unlock fresh tank models and equipment.
The latter include new chains that increase the turning speed. Or faster engines, better radios, faster rotating towers, stronger cannons. With some tanks you can even choose between two types of guns: normal cannons have to reload for a moment after each burst; Flaks fire in staccato, but do little damage per projectile. Every upgrade has a noticeable and understandable effect.
You can also buy consumables such as medicine cases (nurse injured crew members for two minutes) and sinfully expensive additional modules, including a splinter protection (more resistance to artillery strikes) and a super tool kit (faster repair speed).
Thanks to upgrade activation and purchase, there is always something to look forward to. True to the motto: “Only four more battles, then there’s the new cannon!” That keeps the motivation engine running for weeks.
Bit Complicated mechanics
In World of Tanks, exchanges of fire almost always take place over very long distances, only in house-to-house combat or in narrow ravines against the colossi of war inevitably up close.
World of Tanks simulates ballistic trajectories, but this rarely has any noticeable effects: Most of the time, the projectiles whiz bolt straight. The exception are artillery shells that fly in a high arc. The game determines the trajectory automatically, however, gun drivers only have to aim at the enemy tanks.
But that doesn’t mean that every shot is right: If your target moves, you have to hold up accordingly, especially at a long distance. In addition, your tank doesn’t always fire exactly at the point you are aiming for. So it is possible that you miss, even though the enemy is loitering right in the crosshair.
Also, you can dismantle the chains to paralyze the enemy. Or you dent its turret so that it can no longer turn its gun. Or you shoot the engine, the ammunition dump. Or you can even kill enemy crew members – the damage model is extremely detailed.
hile the upgrades are not particularly expensive, additional tanks are really expensive. So, although your garage will initially hold up to five combat tubs, advanced models will save you a long time.
In the beginning you earn around 2,000 coins per batch, a German PzKpfW III / A then makes a whopping 79,700. And mind you, it is still considered a light tank, for the mid-range entry-level model 182,500 pieces of Klimper are due.
Technically…
With reduced details, World of Tanks only has low demands on the graphics card. A graphics unit integrated in the CPU is also sufficient, at least if it comes from AMD. Even a Ryzen 3 2200G easily achieves more than 60 FPS. A small, discrete graphics card like the GeForce GT 1030 reaches almost 100 FPS. Higher resolutions and graphics options increase the requirements significantly, but even in Ultra HD these are still moderate.
In the duel between AMD and Nvidia, Nvidia is just ahead in World of Tanks, although the differences are not great – neither with the old nor the current generation. Speaking of new: The latest generations Turing and RDNA do not bring any noticeable advantages in WoT.
Bottomline
World of Tanks is actually a really great game. It’s fast, it’s tactical, it rewards your own skill, and it looks damn good now. In addition, there are hundreds of tanks that play very differently: from super fun, low-tier rapid fire tanks to sneaky super snipers in higher tiers. Here is something for everyone.
However, Wargaming massively exaggerates the grind factor. Sure, the Belarusians are not a charity and want to earn money – and I grant them that. But as already stated in the Pay2Win box, they tighten the thumbscrews for Free2Play players much too tight at the latest with the bonds.
Those who want the new super accessories need a premium account and have to invest in gold ammunition in order to achieve maximum performance and thus bonds. In addition, gold armor is also essential to earn credits quickly and to level up your crew.
The “normal grind” around level 10 is already too much for me, but the bonds completely deprive me of the fun of the now really spectacular tank battles.
As an average player, I have neither the time nor the inclination for that. There is a difference between normal time savings through a premium account and a strategy that makes the use of real money to buy premium ammunition and accessories almost no alternative.
But that doesn’t apply to the entire game. Up to level 7 I can earn everything on my own within a reasonable time. The premium account is just a nice to have here – and not a requirement as in the top tier. And it’s just really fun to heat around with the smaller tanks and not have to meticulously calculate whether I should use premium marbles or not. While the lower tiers have an excellent time-fun ratio, this no longer applies to T9 and 10 at the latest – and I find that simply unnecessary with all the understanding for making money.
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