By our guest writer, Adam Linder
Roll out for free
World of Tanks is a team-based massively multiplayer online action game dedicated to armored warfare. Throw yourself into the epic tank battles of World War II with other steel cowboys all over the world. Your arsenal includes more than 200 armored vehicles from countries such as America, Germany, and China carefully detailed with historical accuracy.
The game features a flexible system of step-by-step vehicle upgrade system that allows you to get a feel for any of the tank branches with relative ease. Whether you would prefer to make lightning “shoot and scoot” tactics with a nimble light tank, outmaneuver your slower opponents with a medium tank, blast your enemies to pieces from long range in a tank destroyer, smash through the enemy defense line with an unstoppable heavy tank, or rain death upon unsuspecting fools with your own mobile artillery gun. There is a tank for every type of gamer.
Country overview
Russia- Is that the biggest gun you have?
If you like big tanks with bigger guns then take a spin in one of the armored vehicles from the motherland. The Russian tank line features tanks with a rather excessive amount of armor on their heavy and medium tanks. This, of course means that they can be rather slow and bulky. However they make up for this with sheer firepower, having some of the highest one-shot-damage guns in the game, when you are actually able to hit something.
Germany- Fear the blitzkrieg
With some of the most iconic tanks of World War 2, you can’t go wrong with the German tree. The German tree has some of the largest medium tanks in that game, and combined that with having very flat armor, this tree does have a rather high learning curve. On the upside, German guns have great armor penetration combined with great accuracy, sniping is the way to go.
America- The pride of Uncle Sam
The defining feature of the American line is the tank destroyers. The United States has the most versatile tank destroyer line by having turrets. American heavy and medium tanks have the best turret armor, but some of the worst hull armor. This means that the action of hiding your hull from enemy fire is a must if you want any chance of surviving. This is helped with a high level of gun depression to help looking over cover.
France- Move before they ever knew you were there
The French line focuses on speed and light armor. While this means that many French tanks can’t survive very long in a stand up fight, they excel in ambush tactics. At higher levels, many French vehicles have autoloader cannons which can fire off five rounds within a matter of seconds, before retreating behind allies with higher armor values.
Great Britain- Her majesty’s brigade
The British rollout with some of the most accurate guns in the game. This allows them to distance themselves from the front line brawls and pick off the stragglers. The English tank destroyers are behemoths that more closely resemble Russian heavy tanks in terms of armor ratings. However they are burdened with under powered engines and low damage guns.
China- The people’s armor
Most of the early Chinese vehicles are commonly found on the tank trees of other countries. Among these you will see the Russian T-34 and the American M5 Stuart. The Chinese line takes major design cues from the Russians with low accuracy, high damage guns coupled with higher end armor. On the downside, Chinese tanks are highly disadvantaged in more mountainous regions due to their inability to look up or down.
Japan- The samurai’s sword
While there is only one tank out for this tree at the moment, the Type 3 Chi-Nu Kai, the tank tree is looking to be lightly armored and hard hitting.
Conclusion
Picking a tank that fits your play style alone isn’t enough to win. In World of Tanks, it’s all about teamwork. Victory is achieved by combining your combat skills with those of the other members of your team, each playing their own role on the battlefield. Just add your favorite strategy to build your own iron empire and manifest the indisputable authority of the tank.
The best part about all of it? It is completely free! See you on the battlefield tankers, roll out!
World of Tanks – 8.5/10
The only down side…
While the fast paced battles in these massive war machines is exhilarating, there is still one major flaw in the game, the match maker. The match maker is one of the worst match makers I have ever had to deal with. It has two flaws, the first lays in the fact that you will often be made to fight tanks that are two tiers above you, tiers being the method that tanks are ranked, meaning that a tier 3 tank can expect to fight tier 5 tanks on a regular basis. The second major flaw in the match making is that it tries to force players into having a 50% win rate. This means that the better you are, the more likely it is that you will face uneven odds.