Tanker's Handbook

Author: Denolven
Published by: Specialist Global Tank Academy (SGTA)
Document version: 1.0
Game version: 0.9.2

Part 1 - game mechanics

1. Become a Tanker!.............................................................................................................. 6
1.1. What is World of Tanks about?............................................................................... 6
1.2. Game concept......................................................................................................... 7
1.3. Factions................................................................................................................... 7
1.4. The Academy........................................................................................................... 7
2. Alright, I'm a Tanker, what now? The very basics............................................................ 8
2.1. Nations.................................................................................................................... 8
2.2. Tech Levels (tiers).................................................................................................... 9
2.3. Tank Types What should I play?........................................................................... 9
2.4. Tank Details what your tank is really made of.................................................... 11
2.5. Historically (in)accurate?....................................................................................... 14
2.6. Terrain................................................................................................................... 15
2.7. Roles...................................................................................................................... 17
2.8. Victory conditions................................................................................................. 18
3. Basic Tactics how to handle your tank.......................................................................... 20
3.1. What (the game makes) you want to do............................................................... 20
3.2. Know yourself....................................................................................................... 21
3.3. Know your tank..................................................................................................... 23
3.4. Where to aim........................................................................................................ 28
3.5. Basic behaviour..................................................................................................... 31
3.6. Fighting Styles....................................................................................................... 35
3.7. Advanced techniques............................................................................................ 38
4. A second look Tanks around you and neutral factors.................................................... 55
4.1. Point of View......................................................................................................... 56
4.2. Coordinated Actions.............................................................................................. 57
4.3. From 1vs1 to XvsX................................................................................................. 58
4.4. Group Dynamics.................................................................................................... 59
4.5. The spotting system.............................................................................................. 60
4.6. Platoon techniques............................................................................................... 62
5. Beating randomness with skill......................................................................................... 70
5.1. Situational Awareness........................................................................................... 71
5.2. The Luck Factor..................................................................................................... 72
5.3. Combined Energy and Synergy.............................................................................. 73
5.4. Platoon/Team potential........................................................................................ 74
5.5. Effectiveness and efficiency.................................................................................. 75
5.6. Communication errors.......................................................................................... 77
5.7. Curse of the Skilled............................................................................................... 79
5.8. Team techniques................................................................................................... 81
5.9. Cookies.................................................................................................................. 90
6. Outro............................................................................................................................... 91

Appendices
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
A8
A9

Communication signals............................................................................................ 92
Crew skills................................................................................................................ 93
Equipment............................................................................................................... 97
Clan Wars............................................................................................................... 100
Monitoring your performance............................................................................... 101
Matchmaking......................................................................................................... 102
Why things fail....................................................................................................... 103
Mods recommended by SGTA............................................................................... 110
Additional sources recommended by SGTA........................................................... 111

Version Release date

Notes

0.9.1

June 2014

SGTA-internal pre-release

1.0

September 2014

Public release

Special thanks:
EUROBrit reviewing
Godjira publishing
gunnermoog testing
h311m4n reviewing
lucklala testing
Sapaki reviewing
TateideRuff demonstration scenarios and testing
Vallu01 reviewing, appendix chapter material and SGTA approval
Wasp_RA reviewing and appendix chapter material
openclipart.org providing free clipart
I thank everyone who contibutes to SGTA for their dedication.
Feel free to visit us at http://www.sgta-clan.com/

You can use this document or any part of it for whatever you want, as long as it's non-commercial. Game material is
copyrighted by Wargaming.net.
The digital version of this book is for free. If you paid for it, you have been ripped off.

Hello fellow tanker!

The purpose of this handbook is to provide you with an understanding of most aspects of
the game and hopefully improve your game experience. We tried to keep things simple for
the newcomers, while adding alot of information for advanced players as well.
This document is probably too long to read in one session, so feel free to browse the
chapters that you are interested in. If a chapter relies on information of other chapters,
there will be links within the document.
Enjoy the read :)

1. Become a Tanker!
1.1. What is World of Tanks about?
The simple answer is: you get thrown into a tank battle arena with 29 other people and go
crazy! Like destruction derby crazy, or tank pyramid crazy.

Some people love the history aspect of the game and want to drive those legendary steel
monsters. Others seek the competition and want to hone their skills. Others again just
want to have some tank fun with their friends. But in the end, it all boils down to being
thrown into a tank arena and fight against the opponent team.
Generally speaking, it's a team-based semi-realistic tank shooter. And it supports all the
classical roles: damage dealer, damage taker, supporter. But it does that in a unique way.
There is no magic like healing, and no abilities like stunning an opponent. The roles are
handled in a much more realistic way. Scout tanks can spot opponents for the team
without being seen themselves, tanks can be detracked to "root" them, a tank's gun can be
damaged to cripple it etc.
One great thing about the game is there is no fast side strafing and headshotting. After all,
you are driving a 60 ton steel monster. That means people with slow fingers still have a
good chance to be useful here. But of course you always have the option to take one of the
"melee tanks" if you want some adrenaline.
Another great thing is that the matches have a 15 minute time limit. But they usually go on
for only 5-10 minutes. That makes it a perfect filler for those "hm, 20 minutes, what to
do?" times.
6

1.2. Game concept

In general, there is only one basic game mode. You normally play a Team vs. Team battle
and win by destroying all of the opponents tanks. You can also win by capturing a base,
which gives the underdog a chance to win if the team plays it smart (also gives you a way
to end the game if one last squirrel is hiding somewhere). Random battles are 15v15 and
contain three slightly different variations of base placement. There are the following game
types:
training battle: no rewards,map and combatants are chosen, no repair costs but
used consumables are gone

random battle: play with 29 random people on a random map, most played mode;
can be entered with a premade platoon of up to three people

historical battle: like random battle, but map, tanks and equipment are restricted to
match a historical event

tank company battle: random map, but you choose all your team members. There
are "weight classes", with matchmaking still being random within the weight class

team battle: like company battle, but the amount of players is limited to 7

Clan Wars: there is a world map with regions that can be conquered. Map depends
on the region, combatants are chosen from the Clan of the attacker/defender. For
well organized Clans with experienced players; gives special rewards.

1.3. Factions
Factions come in the form of nations: China, France, Germany, Japan, UK, USA and USSR.
An additional mixed European faction has been announced to come at some point in the
future. There are no restrictions concerning the factions you can play all tanks if you want
to. The only exception is historical battles, where only those tanks that participated in the
actual event can join.

1.4. The Academy

The Specialist Global Tank Academy (SGTA) is an international
group of people who help others to become better players,
similar to the EVE University in EVE Online. It was founded in
2012 and is currently represented by an ingame clan in
World of Tanks (EU servers). It is based on two simple pillars:
respect and learning.
This handbook is one of our projects to make your game
experience more fun and rewarding. If you want to find out
more about the Academy, visit our homepage.

2. Alright, I'm a Tanker, what now? The very basics

First things first: hit that big red button at the top of your (ingame)
garage and shoot some metal cans!
Really, stop reading right now, hit that button and have some fun.

2.1. Nations
Each nation has a variety of tanks, and in general they can be considered about equal in
battle strength. But each nation has a certain flavour, a preferred playstyle where they
shine most. Those playstyles are not imposed by the game you can play however you
want with whatever tank you want. But the tanks tend to have certain preferences.

Preferred
combat
range

Damage
Style

France

short

burst

China

close

Defence

Versatility

Easy to
learn

Specialty

hit&run

per shot

brawling

Germany medium-long

over
time

Japan

long

over
time

sniping, terrain
usage

UK

medium

mixed

USA

medium

mixed

terrain usage

USSR

close

per shot

sniping

hill fighting
brawling

These characteristics are simplified and generalized. Each tank has its own nifty details, and
there are even a few tanks that are completely "out of the line". Just don't make the
mistake of getting your favorite Tiger tank and going brawling with it, wondering why you
are not very successfull...
Pro Tip: The game is mostly balanced. The above ratings are exaggerated to a degree
where you can see a difference, but for ingame prowess that doesn't mean too much. It's
the player skill that decides a battle; tank skill just gives small bonuses here and there.

2.2. Tech Levels (tiers)

Each nation has its own tank tree. You start with a "newbie tank" at tier 1. And when you
gather some experience points with that tank, you can upgrade it and unlock other tanks.
Most of the time you will fight against tanks of one tier above/below you, sometimes two
tiers, depending on server population. Besides from giving you long term grind goals, the
tech levels don't do anything.

2.3. Tank Types What should I play?

WoT seperates 3 general tank types:

Fighting Tanks: the frontline guys, divided into light, medium and heavy

Tank Destroyers: fire support from the second line

Artillery: long range support

Unfortunately, the tank labels don't always tell you what the tank does ingame. The French
AMX 40 for example is labeled as a light tank, but it is very heavily armoured, slow, and has
a big gun. It's a classical heavy tank, but labeled as a light tank. And to confuse you even
more, light tanks have a special matchmaking; but not all of them, just some. And there are
some camouflage things involved as well. The basic idea is good, but they messed it up.
To avoid confusing you more than neccessary, we'll ignore those special tanks and tell you
about the general gameplay of the different types:
Light

Medium

Heavy

Tank Destroyer

Artillery

Firepower

Defence

Mobility

Camouflage

common
roles

a)

Scout,
Flanker, Mobile Main Battle Second Line
Long Range
Backstabber
Reserve
Tank, Leader Support, Sniper Support, Sniper

Heavy Tanks

Heavy guys that pack a punch and are able to take a punch as well. Speed
of a turtle and camouflage of a blinking red light, but who cares?
BOOOOM, gone is that other guy. You are a shield and a two-handed axe
at the same time. You are the tank that leads. This is your tank type if you
are the "You shall not pass!" type of player.

b)

Medium Tanks

As the name suggests, ok in everything, but not exceptional in anything.

Flexible and perfect for filling any gap that might (and will) appear during
the battle, be it quick flanking maneuvers, support fire to detrack the
opponent, or rushing to help at the other flank where opponent forces
are giving your team mates a hard time. If you are the "You need
something? I can do it!" type of player, this tank type is for you.

c)

Light Tanks

If you like being sneaky, or a mosquito that constantly annoys people,

consider this tank type. Hiding, spotting opponents for your team,
waiting for your chance. Then finding a gap in the formation and ninjastrike their artillery, or even backstab the big guys!
Special: special matchmaking (A6), camouflage bonus (4.5.)

d)

Tank Destroyers

These guys are a hybrid. They have the gun of a heavy tank and the body
of a medium tank. Also, they have no turret except a few exceptions.
This is a big vulnerability in close combat, so you are usually in the
second battle line. If you want a big gun, but don't care much about the
hectic frontline and want to keep your distance, try this tank type.
Pro Tip: Hold the right mouse button to rotate the camera whithout
rotating the tank, or use the brake (x-key) to prevent accidental tank
movement. This keeps accuracy and camouflage high.

e)

Artillery

While the Tank Destroyer thinks he is the sniper, you know it better. The
true snipers in this game are the artillery tanks. They can shoot tanks on
the other side of the map, and with the ballistic arc you can even hit
them behind cover. No gun is bigger than yours, and no hull is weaker
than yours. Should anything, and that means anything, come close to
you, all you can do is to try a last quick shot and pray.
Pro Tip: Use the Shift-Key to switch to artillery mode. Use the brake (x-key) to prevent
accidental tank movement to keep your aiming circle small.

10

2.4. Tank Details what your tank is really made of

Compared to characters in other games, a tank in WoT is relatively complex, even though it
doesn't seem to be at first glance. This chapter is a bit bigger, so we'll split it into five parts:
a) Tank characteristics
b) Crew
c) Equipment
d) Modules

a)

Tank characteristics

Your tank is made of a number of modules. There are different armour parts, engine, vision
slits and even things like the driver seat or the gearbox. Both inside and outside, each tank
is like a puzzle. And each part has several numbers attached to it that define the attributes
of the part, and thus the attributes of the tank.
So all in all, each tank is defined by a huge
amount of numbers, each of them responsible
for a tiny detail. Some of them are shown in the
tank info, but most are invisible. And that is ok,
because most of them are so abstract that our
brain does not have any practical use for them
anyway.
The problem with the numbers that are shown
in the tank info is that they don't always
represent the tank as you will see it ingame.
The ingame behaviour is a combination of many
numbers, but the tank info shows only a few of
them. This can lead to wrong assumptions and
weird misunderstandings.
Example: The Soviet T-50 and German PzIII tier 4 tanks. The corresponding tank infos
claim that they have almost equal turning speed. But if you actually play them, you will
notice that in a real game the T-50 has a significantly better turning speed, while the PzIII
feels somewhat clumsy.
The turning speed depends on size and distance of the tracks and some other factors that
are obviously different for these two tanks. Whatever that number in the tank info is, it's
definitely a spooky magic number, not the actual battle performance.
That is why every professional player will tell you that it takes some time to really know
your tank in detail. You have to drive it through various situations and see what happens.
11

Here is a little summary of what people are looking for when they want to get an advanced
understanding of a tank:

defensive: hitpoints, thickness, shape and angle of different armour parts, position
and size of weak spots

offensive: shell armour penetration values, damage per shot (alpha damage),
damage per minute, reload time, gun depression and elevation, dispersion (stil/on
the move), aiming time, muzzle velocity

Mobility: acceleration, max speed an various grounds and inclinations

(forward/reverse), turning speed, speed loss on turning, ability to turn on the spot,
turret rotation speed, ramming ability

Camouflage: overall tank size and shape, tank type (light tanks get a bonus),
availability of a muzzle flash damper

Pro Tip: To really know a tank, you have to drive it. Don't trust spooky magic numbers!
But how can you tell what is important and what is not? You can't know every tiny little
detail of every tank, right? What is important is that you know there is a bunch of magic
numbers in the background, and the actual battle performance in the foreground. All the
modifications (described in the following chapters) happen on the numbers in the
background, but that is not neccessarily what you see in the foreground. That distinction
helps to unravel some of the confusion that you might have when taking a closer look to
numbers. Also, keep in mind that some of the numbers are average values, meaning that
the ingame performance is randomized around that value.
Related: 3.3. Know your tank, 5.2. The Luck Factor

b)

Crew

The tank crew affects your tanks

performance. The driver affects everything
that has to do with movement, the gunner
affects everything that has to do with
shooting (including turret rotation speed), and so on.
Remember those spooky magic numbers mentioned above? Most of them are reduced or
increased, based on the crew skill of the corresponding crewman. It is unimportant to
know how exactly that happens, but as a rule of thumb, the difference in tank performance
is about half of the difference in crew skill.
Example: If you upgrade your gunner from 50% to 75%, that makes a difference of 25%
crew skill. Ingame you will then have roughly 12% better reload time, accuracy etc.
12

That difference might seem small, but it is very noticeable ingame. The values that are
listed in the tank description are values with a 100% crew. So if your crew has lower skill,
the real ingame tank characteristics are lower. There are several bonuses that can raise the
effective crew skill higher than 100%, and the performance is improved accordingly.
Related: A2 Crew skills

c)

Equipment

Just like crewmen modify the spooky magic numbers,

additional equipment like a camouflage net or an
enhanced gun-laying drive does. This equipment is more
specialized than the crew and usually improves only one
of the numbers. But again the number itself is unimportant. All you really care about is that
more is better. So if you can afford the credits, use that additional equipment to enhance
an aspect of your favorite tank.
Related: A3 Equipment

d)

Modules

Each tank consists of several different parts. While in a

match, special parts, called modules, are represented
by an icon in the bottom left. Examples are engine,
optics or fuel tank. Crew members can be considered as
modules as well, because they basically behave in the
same way.
Tank modules can be damaged/broken during battle. If
that happens, a certain group of abilities (those spooky
magic numbers) is greatly reduced until the end of the
battle. For example if your engine is damaged,
acceleration, maximum velocity and turning speed are
decreased. If it is broken, you cannot move at all. Consumable items can be used to fix that.
Related: A2 Crew skills, A3 Equipment

Summary: Spooky magic numbers in the background. Avoid thinking about them too
much, and focus more on what you see in action. Get a decent crew and shiny equipment
to enhance your favorite tanks performance.

13

2.5. Historically (in)accurate?

If you fiddle around with some of the numbers
involved in the game mechanics, and if you
happen to know some of the historical data, you
will probably find some things that look a bit
strange. Things like quality of steel, penetration
measurement methods, or maximum velocity;
some numbers just seem different than what they
have been in the real tank history, or are missing
completely. You are not the first one noticing it
there are dozens of threads in the forums about all that.
Yes, the game is not 100% accurate about tank characteristics, and it's not meant to be. It
has been stated multiple times: World of Tanks is not a historically accurate tank simulator.
It's a semi-realistic tank shooter, designed to be fun, not to be a physics simulation or a
history lesson. The game mechanics are complicated enough already. There is no need to
make things overly complicated without adding any gaming value.
However, Wargaming has confirmed several times that they are thinking about how the
game can get more history flair. Historical battles have been added to the game for that
reason, and it will be improved over time.
So let's make it clear: the things that are taken from real history are names and looks.
Everything else is basically made up, inspired by some verified bits of data and the fantasy
of tank nerds. And that's ok, because as long as a tank is playable and looks like it did in
reality, nobody really cares about the spooky magic numbers. Overall, the idea is that game
balance is more important than historical accuracy, which is what Wargaming went for.

14

2.6. Terrain
a)

By type of cover

There are three basic types of terrain, and they greatly influence the gameplay:

open flat ground: no cover

hills: mostly horizontal cover

city: mostly vertical cover (house corners), otherwise flat

Not much to say about open ground a

tank without cover is a dead tank. The
only ones who can afford to go there are
light tanks. They are either mobile enough
to "dodge" shells, or stealthy enough not
to be seen.
For most tanks it is good to use hills to
hide the hull and only show the turret.
Not only are they a smaller target that way, but almost all tanks have the best armour on
their frontal turret. So even if you are hit, your toughest part is hit. Hills can be used by
everyone, but USA and some UK tanks are the true masters of that terrain type. They have
tough turrets and/or very good gun depression. Forest provides no hard cover and is
therefore considered open or hilly terrain and covered in chapter 4.5. The spotting system.
Pro Tip: French and Chinese tanks have the worst gun depression and often can't shoot
you if you are standing below them. American and British tanks have the best gun
depression and sometimes powerfull turrets, making them very effective near hills.
In cities, your turret doesn't matter much. Although there are small rubble hills here and
there to hide your hull, the most parts are either street or house, which means you are
either visible with all parts of the tank, or with none. Tanks with decent frontal hull armour
prefer cities, because they can block a street and shoot anyone who wants to cross it. Also,
medium tanks like to go to cities, because with all the streets they can go around a block of
buildings and flank the opponent. Additionally, artillery really has trouble to fire into cities
due to the confined space and the height of the surrounding buildings. Most parts of a city
can be considered arty-safe, and due to the limited space, short/medium range tanks
dominate cities.
Pro Tip: Battles in city areas last longer, because artillery cannot shoot there and
bottlenecks (streets) are easy to defend near the corners. Keep that in mind when chosing
your battle strategy.

15

b)

By Mobility

There are four types of ground:

hard: asphalt and other fortified ground; no movement malus

normal: grass and similar common ground; all movement is slightly reduced

soft: loose sand, shallow water, swampy ground; all movement is greatly reduced

unpassable: deep water, walls or steep cliffs; movement is either blocked or

happens vertically (falling, drowning)

In most cases, people don't like to be slower than neccessary. But some tanks don't rely on
mobility that much, use special equipment or crew training to counter the effects, or
simply are fast enough anyway. So there is always someone in that swampy/water area,
although tank population in such areas is lower than normal.
Aside from the ground type, keep in mind that going uphill is slower than driving on flat
ground, and going downhill is faster but increases your turning circle. Not much an issue
for light tanks, but heavies might have some trouble here. Keep that in mind when you are
fighting on a hillside.
Normally, distinguishing by cover is more important. But some tactics or strategies don't
work very well (or work exceptionally well) on certain ground. Just keep that in the back of
your head.
Example: When going from point A to point B over a long distance, moving on a street will
result in an earlier arrival.

Pro Tip: If you can get out of deep water in time, you can cross rivers at some spots before
drowning.

Related: 3.6. Fighting Styles, A2 Crew skills, A3 Equipment

16

2.7. Roles
To go from newbie to advanced, you have to be aware that there are different roles in each
battle. Your team has 15 people, and it won't help if all of them go rampage. Some basic
organization will improve your win ratio a good chunk.
Role

Tasks

Scout

spot opponents
survive to spot more

Fighter (offence)

conquer key positions

Fighter (defence)

keep opponents away or busy

Reserve/Support

help where help is needed

Most tanks can fit in more than one role, and it depends on the battlefield situation which
one you choose. Your options change based on terrain, the opponent tanks you face, and
the overall situation, and it can change during battle.
In order to capture a base, you obviously need to
attack. In order to keep the opponent away from
your base, you need to defend. In order to shoot at
something, you need to see it. And to be able to
react on dynamic events, you need flexible
supporters. Every role is important, and if one of
them is not present on the battlefield, your team is
in trouble.
The above mentioned roles are only a very basic distinction. This chapter is not supposed
to tell you every detail. It is supposed to make you realize that there is more to the game
than just driving around with a big gun. Alot more than any newbie could have imagined.
Consider this an introduction to the big field of situational awareness. More on that in later
chapters.
Pro Tip: Knowing your tank gives you an advantage, but knowing when to do what is what
decides the game. It's great to be the best stone mason in the world, but building a wall in
the middle of the living room is not helping, no matter how beautifully decorated it is.
Related: 2.8.Victory conditions, 3.6. Fighting Styles, 4.6. Platoon techniques, 5.8.b)
Reading the battleflow

17

2.8. Victory conditions

Read first: 2.6. Terrain, 2.7. Roles
In terms of game mechanics, there is only one game mode, and it comes in three
variations. The general rules are these:

You win by destroying/disabling all of the opponents tanks, or by capturing an

opponents/neutral base.

There is a time limit. If the time runs out, the game is a draw (no winner).

A tank is destroyed if it is reduced to 0 hitpoints, or disabled if all crew members are

wounded. There is no relevant difference between destroyed and disabled. Both are out of
the game. The disabled one just has hitpoints left, while the destroyed one obviously
doesn't.
A base is captured by placing a tank in the capture zone, marked by a white circle on the
ground. You need to get 100 capture points to complete the capturing process. Each tank
generates 1 capture point per second.
The capturing process can be disturbed by damaging the capturing tank (damaging the
tracks works). All capture points that this tank has generated are removed. If other tanks
are capturing at the same time, their capture points remain unaffected.
Pro Tip: When defending a base, try to damage every capturing tank once, and start with
the one that gathered the most capture points. Use ramming as a second damage source.
When a captured base reaches 100 capture points, the match will continue for 5 seconds,
and each time any tank is killed, another 5 seconds is added. If the other team finishes
capturing whithin these 5 seconds as well, the game is considered a draw (no winner).

a)

Classic

Each team has a base and starts near it. You have 15
minutes to defeat all opponents or capture their base.
Some people attack, some people defend, and the
whole game is relatively dynamic, because the
battlefield situation can change suddenly and often.
Some maps allow to win with little fighting, and there is
a variety of strategies that can be applied. This is how
WoT started; the other variations were added later.

18

b)

Encounter

There is only one neutral base, and nobody starts near

it. You have 15 minutes to defeat all opponents or
capture the neutral base.
Capturing the base is significantly slower (1 point per
2.5 seconds). And if both teams have at least one tank
in the cap zone, the capping is paused completely (but
not aborted). This makes it almost impossible to
capture the base whithout destroying some opponent
tanks first. Due to the fact that both teams want the
same base, the number of applicable strategies is lower
than in classic.

c)

Assault

One team is the attacker, the other team is the

defender. Time limit is reduced to 10 minutes. If time
runs out, the defender wins.
People often don't understand this variation. They
think that if they are the defender, they must defend at
their base. But if you do that, you actually reduce your
chances to win drastically. The only difference
compared to classic mode is that you have no pressure
to attack (if you are the defender). That means you
don't have to expose yourself to conquer a certain spot.
In classic, both lose if time runs out, so you need to be
a bit risky sometimes, to decide the battle to your favor before time runs out. In attack
however, the defender wins if time runs out. Use this to your advantage as the attacker is
forced to take more risks and expose himself more. Choose the spot where you defend,
based on how well you can defend that spot, not on how close it is to your base.
This mode is rarely won by
capping. The maps are small,
and there is no way around
the defender. If the attacker
gets close to the base, all
defenders are either dead,
or stupidly running around
the map for no reason. This
mode doesn't offer many
strategical alternatives, it's
pretty straight forward.

19

3. Basic Tactics how to handle your tank

3.1. What (the game makes) you want to do
When you sit in your tank, you usually want to survive as long as possible and cause as
much trouble for the opponent team as possible, usually in the form of plain damage.
These are the two maximes, survival and damage. We could reduce it even more and say
damage, because the only thing you need survival for, is to be able to do more damage.
Wait a second why damage, not winning?
That is because of how the ingame reward
system works. Normally you would think
that winning is the goal; and in ClanWars it
is. But in random games, the only rewards
you get are credits and experience points
(XP). And you don't get them based on
winning or losing, you get them based on
how much damage you deal, either directly
by reducing the opponent teams hitpoints,
or indirectly by spotting an opponent while
an ally reduces his hitpoints. You also get something if you detracked an opponent who
then gets shot by your ally. Winning itself only gives a percentual bonus on top.
That's one of the complaints that many players have. Being clever (winning the battle
despite losing the fight) is not rewarded. The only thing that counts is dealing damage. On
the positive side we shouldn't forget that this system makes botting 1 rather inefficient,
because bots are so stupid that they don't do any noticeable damage.
But ingame rewards alone is not enough to make damage the ultimate goal. The thing that
puts it on the throne is the convenient coincidence that dealing damage is one of the major
factors in determining who wins the battle. But be carefull. Dealing damage alone won't do
the job. It is one major factor for victory; there are others as well. In fact your team can win
a match without firing a single shell, and it's not even hard to do. But nobody likes doing it,
because it doesn't give any ingame rewards.
Pro Tip: There are two "team-actions" that give you XP even when you are not dealing
damage yourself. One is while you are spotting an opponent that gets damaged by your
ally who doesn't see the target himself, the other one is while you detrack an opponent
that gets damaged by your ally.

1 Some people use external programs that fake a player. So the player can go to bed, while the program (the bot)
"earns" ingame rewards. This method is called "botting", is illegal by the game license and heavily punished if
discovered, often resulting in a permanent ban.

20

3.2. Know yourself

There are three types of skill, or flavours as we may call them, in lack of a better word.
Some call it archetype or pattern of thought. It's an undefined group of characteristics, an
idea, an image of us. They can be found in people everywhere, not just in games.
If you know your flavour, it's easier to become better, because you know what is easy for
you to learn. You can learn skills of other types, but it takes longer and can be frustrating.
As always with humans, the variety is big, and there can be any combination. In the end
the only question is: how much time/energy are you willing to spend on learning
something?
Everyone has strong sides and weak sides. When you know yours (both), you are a big step
closer to becoming competent.
Warrior
The Warrior is the one who "does the work", the
front row guy. Warriors can solve everyday
problems very efficiently. They are the most
common type, because in real life things have to
be done. The warrior is a master of his chosen
tools and is the most visible and direct of the
three flavours.
Tank type: tank destroyer, heavy or medium tank,
depends on preferred fighting style (3.6.)
Expertise: utility
"No no, you are doing it wrong! You have good agility, use it! Look, if you move like this,
he can't get you. And if you shoot there, or there, you still damage him. But keep an eye on
where you move if you stop for more than half a second, you are dead. The countermove looks like this. If you see him doing it, that means he actually knows that he has an
advantage and will likely use it. Retreat behind the next safe corner and press F7."
Mage
The Mage is the "brain". Mages have awesome
ideas and plans and can do crazy stuff, which is
probably too complicated to use for everyday
problems, unless they have people to support
them. They rely on a good plan and choose the
proper tools. Mages are uncommon, because
they often depend on people who know how to
put their genius to actual use. A mage is usually
somewhere in the background and is the least
visible of the three flavours.
21

Tank type: whatever suits the plan

Expertise: knowledge
"No no, you are doing it wrong! Look where that guy stands. If you move to this spot over
there, he cannot hit you from there, because he has only 4 gun depression. Well, he can,
but only if he exposes himself, and even then he only gets a 40 angle on your armour,
which gives you about 70mm more, which is enough to stop most of his shells. In either
case, you survive. Unless he knows that one tiny weakspot..."
Rogue
The Rogue is versatility. Instead of focusing
on something, rogues combine and
manipulate all available things to get the
desired result. They are not as common as
warriors, but you still see many of them.
They seem to always have a backup plan,
or two, or three some people might call
them "trickbags". A rogue is sometimes
here and sometimes there, the visibility
changes according to what works.
Tank type: medium tanks
Expertise: versatility
"No no, you are doing it wrong! Look, being here is bad, because your tank sucks in this
terrain. Unless you see that those two guys are noobs, then stay here. But if they are
starting to win, retreat to there and lure them into sight of our TDs. But only if that guy
over there doesn't move. If he helps them, we can't hold the line. In that case retreat all
the way down to there and keep them spotted when they are capping our base, and hope
our arty is not sleeping."
Example: Bob is a Rogue type. Analyzing the
current situation, and adapting to the upcoming
ones, is his specialty. He has a tendency towards
knowledge, which gives him more options to
choose from and makes his estimations more
accurate. Learning battle tactics and strategies is a
piece of cake for him. But fighting... it took him
about 5k matches to leave the newbie level. He still
sucks, but that's ok! Because the value that he
contributes to his team is not the fighting. What he
contributes is the skill to know which option to
take, and when.

22

3.3. Know your tank

Read first: 2.4. Tank Details what your tank is really made of, 2.7. Roles
Besides the spooky magic numbers we talked about earlier, there is a bunch of
characteristics that each tank has. There is obvious things like speed and rate of fire. Then
there is some not so obvious things, like gun depression or angles of armour. And last but
not least the things that only hardcore pros know, like the position of internal modules, or
the penetration value you need to penetrate certain parts of the tank.
Ignore the boring details for now there are internet databases for that (A9). But you
should know some basics, because you will be the bottom of the food chain often enough.
In situations where you are at a disadvantage, tank knowledge allows you to compensate
up to a certain level. You will be able to turn the table if you know what you are doing and
your opponent doesn't.

a)

Hitzones

This is the second most important picture in the whole book. It is shocking how many
people don't know that it actually matters where you hit a tank. It's not the player's fault
though, because the game does nothing to tell us in fact it makes us believe that the tank

23

has only three parts: front, side, rear. That's all the information you get from the tank info
page. But that information is highly inaccurate.
Each tank is like a puzzle, and each part has
different characteristics. Some parts are easy
to penetrate, some are exceptionally hard,
and some can cause peculiar results when hit.
Those parts are different for each tank, and it
also depends on what you are shooting with.
When you shoot and don't know the tank you
are shooting at, pay attention to where you hit
it. Maybe get a friend or clan mate and do
some test shooting. The following table lists
some things that most tanks have in common.
Part

Armour

Notes

Tracks

Very low Stops tank movement when destroyed

Hatches and slits

Very low Can damage crew members

Ammunition rack

Gun mantlet

Very high Toughest part of a tank and usually alot tougher than the
tank description says

Internal module, can explode and kill the tank, but you
need to know the internal position and be able to
penetrate the tanks armour

Lower frontplate
low
(between the tracks)

Easy to hide with the hulldown technique, very big on

German tanks, highly sloped on Soviet tanks

Middle/upper
frontplate

high

Biggest well armoured part, highly sloped on Soviet and

Chinese tanks

Engine

Internal module, stops tank movement when destroyed,

severely slows it when damaged, can set the tank on fire

Fuel Tank

Internal module, can set the tank on fire

All internal modules have their own hitpoints, which are not visible. When a module gets
too much damage, it is damaged or even destroyed. Modules can "eat" damage. If you hit a
tank, and you penetrate but do no damage, then it means you hit a module and did one of
the infamous "0%-crits". The hit module "soaked up" all the damage.
Some tanks have empty parts, for example the "ears" of the American T29. If you hit and
penetrate there, you deal no damage at all, neither module damage, nor tank damage.
Related: 3.4. Where to aim

24

b)

Angles

This is the most essential thing about tanks in WoT. And the only reason why hitzones are
explained first, is that they are more intuitive and easier to understand. This is the point
where you wish you had paid more attention at the math course believe it or not, some
of that stuff is actually useful. It's also the point where you are thankfull for getting it
explained it without too much math.
Imagine three shells fired at an armour plate, each from a different angle:

As you can see, the shells take different paths through the armour, although they hit the
exact same spot. What we are interested in, is the part that lies between entry point and
exit point of the armour plate. That is the amount of armour we have to cross, if we want
to reach the other side (penetrate the armour).
The case A is what we consider an optimal angle. If you compare the path lengths, you
know why. It is the shortest one, which means the least armour to cross. It increases if we
use a lower angle (B), and it increases even more if the angle is very flat (C).
This "amount of armour we have to cross" is what we call effective armour. You probably
wondered several times why you didn't penetrate, even if you should have, according to
what the numbers in the tank infos say. Chances are good that you hit a highly angled part
of armour, which means the effective armour for that shell was much higher than what the
tank info says.
So not only does it matter which part of a tank you hit, it also matters at which angle you
hit it! The armour-increasing effect is stronger, the lower the angle gets. This can cause
insane situations as you can see, the path of shell C doesn't even fit on the picture. To
give you an idea of how crazy it gets, here are some numbers:
25

Nominal
armour

Angle

Effective
armour

100

90 (A)

100

100

60

115

100

45 (B)

141

100

25

237

100

10 (C)

576

100

1147

And all the game tells you is that you have 100 mm armour, somewhere, in your front,
whatever part of the tank that is...
Pro Tip: Shells that hit with less than 10 are not calculated, they bounce automatically.
Related: 3.4. Where to aim, 3.7.d) Sidescraping

c)

Movement

The two core things in this game are shooting and moving. While heavy tanks, tank
destroyers and artillery mostly rely on the shooting part, medium and light tanks have to
use speed or agility (or both) to be competitive.
There are three major aspects of movement: top speed, acceleration and turning speed.
And we are not talking about the numbers here, we are talking about the real ingame
performance.
How fast can you drive around a 90 corner? Can you circle heavy tanks
without getting hit? How much speed do you lose when driving up the hill in
Malinovka? And how fast can you turn in the swampy area near the lake?
How fast can you go backwards? How much time/space does your tank need
to do a full stop when driving down a hill?
Test all kinds of movement you can find. Do crazy stunts, stupid moves, go where you
wouldn't go normally, just to see how your tank can handle the situation. You will be a
better player in all future matches. If you are in a clan or have friends available, ask for a
testgame, or even do a race, or a ramming contest.
Pro Tip: Hull rotation and Turret rotation add up. If your turret is too slow, rotate your hull
in the same direction to increase the overall rotation speed of your turret.

26

d)

Accuracy

Accuracy is not totally unimportant, but considering the current

maps, it's not overly valuable either. Fights usually happen at 0200 m distance, forced by the terrain. At that distance, even the
most inaccurate gun can hit somewhat reliably. However, better
accuracy gives you better control of where you hit. Taking
hitzones (3.3.a)) into account, that comes in quite handy.
Where the accuracy matters most is "melee sniping". Accuracy
doesn't really matter for hitting a tank, but it matters for hitting
a certain weak spot of a tank if you can't penetrate somewhere else. To do that you need
to be relatively close. With high accuracy you can increase the distance where you can still
hit the weak spot reliably.
Accuracy on the move however is quite relevant. Being able to move and hit at the same
time makes you more flexible and gives you an advantage in certain fighting styles (3.6.). It
also helps when shooting at moving targets.
Pro Tip: The penetration value of an AP projectile is reduced by distance. It doesn't matter
up to 100 m, but after that, the farther you shoot, the lower the penetration value.
However, the influence of angle and hitzone is alot bigger than the loss of penetration
over distance.

27

3.4. Where to aim

Read first: 3.3.a) Hitzones, 3.3.b) Angles
When people tell you "learn to aim", it's not because they want to call you a noob. It is
because where and at what angle you hit is extremely important, far more important than
what tank you are in. Although the way they usually say it is admittedly not very helpfull.
As soon as you understand the aiming part, the whole game will reach another level. Let's
go through the most common cases, so you get a feeling for aiming at the right spot.
Note: These examples are meant to give you a general idea of what to look for. The actual
weak spots of particular tanks may differ and are subject to balance changes.
Heavy armour, front, angled, medium range
This is probably one of the most common
cases. You meet a tough tank which you most
likely won't be able to penetrate frontally. And
to give you a challenge, he also angled himself.
That means his front is basically immune, and
his side is so highly angled that it's immune
too. Where do you shoot?
You have several options. The lower frontplate
(LFP) is your best chance. It has lower armour
and is still relatively easy to hit. If you are very
accurate, you can also try to hit the
commander's cupola, which is even weaker, but also smaller.
If that doesn't work, detrack him for your allies, or don't shoot at all. Shooting makes you
more visible to the opponent team. It also means you won't be able to shoot for several
seconds. So a shell that does nothing is not only wasted, but actually giving you a
disadvantage. If you can't hurt it, don't shoot it.
Heavy armour, front, angled, close range
In close range, you have better chances (and he
does, too). His front is still too thick, but take a
close look. You can hit the slit where the driver
sits, or the one for the radioman. The
commander's cupola is another good target. They
are all easy to hit now. Take your time aiming,
make sure the angle is not too flat where you hit,
and you will penetrate these weakspots easily.

28

Heavy armour, side, close range

This is very different from the one above. Not
only does he allow you to shoot his side, even
the angle of his armour is a perfect clear 90,
which means maximum penetration for you.
You can shoot wherever you want. Just don't
hit some weird angled part like the turret side.
Detrack him (3.7.f)) before his gun comes
around the corner, if you can.
Be carefull though, most Soviet tanks have
highly sloped armour, even at the side. The
special case of Soviet tanks is covered below.
Heavy armour, brawling
This is a common case, and your chances highly
depend on the opponent's tank. This one is
relatively fragile in brawling, because you get a
clear 90 angle at the usual weakspots (driver,
radioman, commander). Note that you will not
be able to shoot the LFP when brawling.
As long as you don't shoot the armour plates
and stick to the weakspots, you are perfectly
fine. If you are a higher tier heavy tank, you
probably even penetrate his armour plates, due
to the optimal angle.
However, this changes drastically if your
opponent is driving a tank that is optimized for
brawling. Soviet and Chinese tanks have so
powerfull turrets, strongly sloped armour and flat
tank shape, that the only thing you see is bad
angles everywhere.
The only way to solve this problem is not being
there. So whatever you do, don't let that Soviet
tank come close to you!
Heavy armour, hulldown, medium/long range
When you see this, forget about shooting! You'll only waste
ammo and make yourself visible to the opponent's team.
Yes, after 20 shots you do 200 damage with a lucky hit, but
you won't do anything significant. Keep him spotted and let
artillery handle it, or go somewhere else.
29

Heavy armour, side, sloped

Things are alot easier when
shooting the side of a tank.
The side armour is weaker in
general, and you have line of
fire to some internal
modules. If you get a good
angle, shoot wherever you
want.
If you are facing a soviet tank, you need to aim carefully. It's difficult to see at the above
picture, but the whole hull armour is sloped upwards, the front as well as the side. If you
hit the turret or the side hull above the tracks, you will probably bounce. Instead, aim for
the hull part behind the tracks. The armour is very weak there, even weaker than the LFP. If
you also aim slightly behind the turret, you might destroy the engine and/or set the tank
on fire.
But again, keep in mind that if the angle becomes more
flat, the armour increases alot. There is a technique
called sidescraping (3.7.d)), which is used to trap you
into wasting your ammo, credits and time. The angle is so
flat that you won't penetrate.

Pro Tip: Some tanks have so-called spaced armour in some places. It's a combination of
armour plates with space between them. This can lead to unexpected penetration results,
because you don't see the angle of the inner plates. Also, when you get a visible
penetration on the outer plate, you can still fail to penetrate an inner plate, resulting in
successfull visible feedback whith an unsuccessfull penetration attempt.
Pro Tip: There are many hidden (and unimportant) details. But all you really care about is
where you need to aim to do damage. The recommended way of doing this is asking
someone to be your sandbag in a training battle and experience the behaviour first hand.
Ask experienced players for tips on the tanks that you still have trouble dealing with.

30

3.5. Basic behaviour

a)

Angling

Read first: 3.3.b) Angles

Due to the angle effect, you can increase your
effective armour by positioning yourself right. We
call this angling. It's relatively simple and
increases your chances to survive especially
against people who don't know about angles. Do
it, always.
As a rule of thumb, imagine a line through two
opposite corners of your tank. Then turn yourself
so that the target is on that line. When you
become more familiar with the details of your
tank, you might want to adjust the angle a bit,
depending on how well certain parts of your tank
are armoured.

b)

Shooting at moving targets

Gun projectiles don't hit instantly. Depending on the speed of the projectile, the arrival is
delayed. HE shells fly slower than AP shells, and the velocity is further influenced by the
gun. Long guns result in faster projectiles. The faster and the further away the target is, the
more you need to aim in front of it. That means you need to think ahead where he will be
by the time your shell will arrive there.

31

c)

Cover

Wherever you go, whatever you do, always use as much cover as you can. The less you
show your tank, the lower the chance they hit you. Use buildings/ruins, small rubble hills,
rock formations, tank wrecks, tanks and all other terrain features that are available. In
order to shoot at the target, the only thing that needs to be exposed is your gun.

Some cover can break. If you use breakable cover, better have a backup plan. If you are
fighting against someone who uses breakable cover, destroy it if you have a weapon with
fast reload.
Pro Tip: When you use walls, cars and similar breakable light cover, you can still be
damaged, but the penetration value of the shell is reduced by 25mm for each obstacle.
Be carefull not to destroy things, because that will show everyone that someone is there,
even if you haven't been spotted yet.

32

d)

Stay in groups

Alone you have one gun, and you are one target. As a group you do more damage, survive
longer and kill faster, because you have more guns, more hitpoints, and the opponents
probably shoot different tanks of your group and spread their damage output. You usually
want that, except when you are a scout or artillery. Additionally, you can use tough tanks as
mobile cover.

But be aware of the clusterfuck effect. Putting 10 people in a single road won't do any
good. You would block each other, and the opponents simply cannot miss including
artillery. Stay in small groups, and don't hug each other, unless you have a valid reason to
do it.
When fighting against a group, expose yourself to as little threats as possible. Try to fight
one, while staying in cover from the others:

33

e)

Communication

You are not Chuck Norris. It doesn't matter which

tank you drive and how good you are, you can't do
everything alone. So if you need help, call for it
(press F7). If someone is asking for help, see if you
can afford to help him. If you can, tell him (press F5).
Most of the time you are playing with and against
strangers. But that doesn't mean you are not
allowed to communicate. They cannot look into your
head, and you can't look into theirs. And sometimes
we simply don't notice the problem. We can't have
our eyes everywhere, at least not at the same time.
That's what the signals (A1) are for. Use them.
But don't overdo it. If you spam, nobody will listen to
you. Don't write poems, and keep your rageflames
to yourself. Keep it clean and simple, then you will
have the highest chance of someone answering.
Pro Tip: Don't demand help, ask for it. If help comes, give your thanks. You are playing
with people. Treat them like you want to be treated.

f)

Retreat

No matter where you go or what you do, always think about a

retreat plan. Before the fight starts, you don't know whether
you will win or not. When things start to look bad, or when
you see a nasty unpleasant surprise, you better have a back
door. That will happen very often; don't have any illusions
that you are immune to it.
Retreating to another spot lets you survive and forces the opponent to advance if he
want's to get you. Often enough he will expose himself by doing that. Remember, it's not
1v1, it's 15v15. If you can't beat him alone, retreat and wait for a better chance when allies
are around. If noone is around, buy time by playing cat and mouse with him and call for
help (F7).
Pro Tip: Never block the retreat path of an ally!

34

3.6. Fighting Styles

Read first: 2.6. Terrain, 2.7. Roles, 3.3. Know your tank
Every tank can accomplish tasks of every role (2.7.), but how you do it depends on the
tanks abilities (and yours). Some tanks have high/low view range, or high/low agility. So
different tanks "prefer" different styles that suit their capabilities. That is further influenced
by your abilities as a player, and highly depends on the situation you are in.
The styles can be grouped roughly by your relative role. Relative role means that what you
want to do is influenced by the situation you are in. It's not enough to know you want to
attack somewhere; you also need to know your chances against certain tank types. How
fast can you kill him? How fast can he kill you? Does he have allies around? If yes, what are
their capabilities? Is he busy with something, or waiting for you?
Let's take a look at the fighting styles first (detailed table below):
Relative Role

Main attributes

Styles

Scout

view range
agility/stealth/armour
(whatever keeps you alive)

Invisible Eye
Mosquito
Elephant

Fighter

agility
firepower

Brawler
Peek-a-Boo
Dogfighter

Heavy Fighter

firepower
armour

Roflstomper
Wall

Sniper

firepower
camouflage/armour

Boomstick
Nibbler

You basically think about how big you are, in comparison to the opponent in front of you. If
you are bigger than him, you are probably considered a heavy fighter (at least for the battle
between you and him). If you are sitting in a light tank, you are usually a scout or a fighter,
because you won't find anything smaller than you.
There is no recipe to cover all tanks and situations. It is your job to find your preferred
style, and to put it to good use. Having experience in different styles doesn't hurt either.
The more game experience you have, the easier it will be for you to judge the situation
correctly.

35

Invisible Eye You see them, but they don't see you. Common for everyone with a
(passive scout) high view range and good camouflage.
Mosquito
(active scout)

You are fast and agile, and you are near or in the middle of a bunch of
opponents. You use your superior agility and challenge your luck to
avoid being hit. Often done by WZ-131 (China) or ELC AMX (France).

You are big and blind. But you just go close enough and reveal them
Elephant Scout anyway. Done by anyone who is crazy enough to engage unknown
opponents and tough or skilled enough to survive it.
Brawler

You are made for hugging opponents. It looks like wrestling. Preferred
by everyone with a well armoured turret, because that's the only thing
that the opponent will be able to shoot at.

Peek-a-Boo

Pop out of the cover, do a quick shot, retreat behind the cover. Wait for
the reload and repeat. Default style for everyone who has no
exceptional advantage. Preferred by tanks with long reload times.

Dogfighter

You fight in close combat and use your agility to land some good shots
in the opponents side/back, while trying to deny your opponent good
shots. Preferred by agile tanks.

Roflstomper

Yours is bigger than his. Alot bigger. No, not that one, the tank gun. First
rofl (rolling over the floor, laughing), then stomp him. Preferred by
some Soviets that use artillery guns on tanks with bouncy armour, but
applicable by everyone who has 2 or more tiers advantage.

Wall

You are so tough that you can basically block a passage and nobody gets
through. Common if you are one of the top dogs of your team and have
good frontal armour. Can be used offensively as well (walking wall).

Boomstick

You shoot only once a minute. But if that shell hits, a tank is gone.
Similar to the Roflstomper. You lack a bit of defence though, so you
keep your distance. Common with artillery and Soviet tank destroyers.

Nibbler

You are accurate and fire fast, but have low damage per shot. You need
some time to do damage, but you do it somewhat reliably. Common
with most German and British tanks, as well as French artillery.

Example 1: You are sitting in a tier 5 medium tank, and you meet a tier 3 tank in a 1v1
situation.
In this case you are the heavy fighter, a roflstomper to be exact. If there are more
important things around, ignore him. Otherwise stomp him, quick and dirty.

36

Example 2: You are sitting in a tier 5 medium tank, and you meet a tier 5 heavy tank in a
1v1 situation.
You should choose the dogfighter style (or retreat to where allies can help you). Trying to
roflstomp him will most likely result in your death he has more armour, more hitpoints
and more damage output than you. Instead use your agility to circle him, or to get
something between you and him. He is the same tier, so if you are good, you still have a
chance to beat him.
Example 3: You are in a tier 4 light tank and sit in your scouting bush (invisible eye). 200 m
away, an opponent scout manages to break through your frontlines.
You should give up the scouting and rush to defend your artillery by dogfighting that guy.
When that is done, return to a scouting role.
Example 4: You are sitting in a Soviet tank destroyer, waiting to onehit anything that
exposes itself long enough (boomstick). Suddenly a light tank appears 50 m away from
you at your side. He knows you don't have a turret, so he decides to hug your side,
denying you the possibility to shoot him (brawler).
Pro Tip: Don't limit yourself to one fighting style. If you can handle different styles, you
can always choose the one that is the best counter for the opponent you face.

Related: 3.7. Advanced techniques

37

3.7. Advanced techniques

a)

The calm mind

We all know that phenomenon:

you play a game, you lose. Ok, no
big deal, you go on. And you lose
again. Ok, bad start, happens.
Then you lose again, and you
start to think "Why the fuck did
nobody help me!?". Ok ok, you
got matched with some noobies,
happens. But then you lose again
and again, and all you see is a
bunch of stupid people.
There is a simple (which doesn't mean easy) way you can improve your overall
performance. It uses something that everyone has: the mind.
Time of use
When things seem to be out of control.
Execution
Stop.
Really, litterally stop whatever you are doing. Turn away from keyboard and screen if you
have to. Make a cut. Empty your head. Close your eyes, breathe in, breathe out. Remind
yourself: It's just a game, not worth the stress. Nobody got hurt, and life continues. Focus
on the is, not on the was. If that doesn't work for you, find a method that does.
Effect
You calm down and regain your focus.
Desired Result
Staying/becoming calm is a skill. The better you are in this skill, the easier it becomes to
calm down, or even not get upset in the first place. Sooner or later you will be able to do it
whithout stopping what you are doing. Also, you'll panic less when in melee.
If you are in a bad state of mind, you are going to perform badly, which will make you rage
even more, which will make you play even worse... Raging destroys not only your
performance, but also has a very negative effect on the team's state of mind. Sometimes
it's so bad that you can determine the losing team by the number of ragers.
The point is: learn keeping/regaining your focus!
38

b)

Using hills

Read first: 3.3.a) Hitzones, 3.5.c) Cover

Due to the frontal weakspots, most tanks want to stay in cover with their hull and only
show their gun to be a smaller and tougher target. This is called hulldown, and looks like
this if done properly:

The hulldown at a hill is easy to use defensively or for

scouting, but very difficult to use offensively, because you
need a good gun depression to be able to shoot at a target.
This is where US and UK tanks shine.
The second major feature of hills is that it's dangerous to cross them. When a tank goes to
the top of a hill, it exposes his weakest part and is unable to shoot anything useful.
However, having the high ground can bring some advantages, if you can shoot the
vulnerable top while your opponent cannot shoot back.

39

c)

Using Buildings

Read first: 3.6. Fighting Styles

Buildings provide hard cover, meaning that you live longer. You can retreat behind the
building if things get hot. Buildings also limit movement for both you and your opponent.
That helps dealing with tanks that rely on movement (medium/light tanks). Additionally,
buildings are usually high enough to make artillery useless, unless it shoots along a street.
With the shape of ruins/buildings/rubble you have good control over where the opponent
can shoot you, and at what angle. That means that the average effective armour is a bit
higher in cities at least for those who know what they are doing. You can even apply
special techniques like sidescraping (see below).
All that together means that conquering cities takes more time than conquering other
terrain. Movement is only possible in a few key corners, and if you defend those well, you
can buy alot of time.
Cities are perfect for Walls (3.6.), because you cannot get flanked easily, if your team is half
competent. Nibblers also like some city spots, because the ruins give them some time to
deal damage while being somewhat protected.
Gap sniping
Some buildings (and other hard cover like trains or wrecks) can have small gaps. You can
shoot through these gaps, while being almost safe behind the cover. Use everything that is
available! Knowing places with good gaps gives you an advantage.

Pro Tip: You can shoot between the tracks of a tank to hit a tank behind it.
Related: 5.8.a) Zoning

40

d)

Sidescraping

Read first: 3.3.b) Angles

Time of Use
When defending against a strong opponent force, while your flanks are relatively safe.
Execution
Put your front
against the cover
and show your side
to the opponents,
but at a very flat
angle and at some
distance.

Effect
The opponent will see your side. If he is not a Warrior, he
might be greedy and shoot, wasting time and ammo. If he
is, he probably knows that shooting is pointless.
Desired Result
Bad players will shoot you, which wastes their damage
output and time. Keep 'em greedy! That's why we use the
tank side, it looks more tasty than the front. Even if they
know they cannot penetrate, that doesn't change their
situation. Mission "defence" accomplished!
Counter
There are two counters for sidescraping. One is to go somewhere else, because you are just
wasting time here. Obviously that's only an option for tanks with decent speed. If you have
no speed, wait and hope your allies can break the defence.
The other counter is to improve
your relative angle and kill the
defender. The angle is the only thing
that keeps him alive. And he most
likely knows that, because if he

41

could afford to fight you head on, he would (carefull, he might try to double-trap you with
that).
There is a third counter, and a very effective one as well. But you need a second tank to
apply it, which is covered in the chapter 4.2. Coordinated Actions.
Counter-Counter
If you are sidescraping and see that the opponent wants to get into a better position to get
a working angle, you need to adjust your position immediately. Ideally you have a team
mate to cover you, so the opponent cannot afford to get in the open in the first place. But
let's assume you are alone.
Move backwards while turning your front to the opponent. Good turning speed helps alot
with this. That leaves you in the default angled position behind a corner, which is not
perfect, but still better than getting shot in the side. It buys you some time. If you are
significantly weaker than him and have allies in the vincinity, call for help (F7) and try to
keep that building between you and him. Since the opponent is in the open now, the
backup will have good shooting opportunities.

42

e)

Circling

Fast and agile tanks can use their agility to outmaneuver slow tanks. This is usually done by
medium and light tanks. The main goal is to disturb, or to do a full force quick strike. It's
one of the most dangerous techniques, but can be very rewarding if done well. It's a bread
and butter technique for every Dogfighter (3.6.).
Time of use
This depends on what you want to achieve. For scouting, you can use it anytime you think
you can survive it. For fighting, use it when you want to do a quick nasty strike and see an
opening, preferably while the target gets no support from his allies and/or is low on
hitpoints. The most difficult thing is to know when to take the risk, and when waiting is the
better choice.
Execution
Engage the target. You need to be fast, and you
must not be detracked! Drive to the side of the
target to be safe from his gun and be able to shoot
his weak side. Be very close to him, but don't touch
him that would slow you down too much.
From here on, you have two options, depending on
what you want. If you just want to distract him, stay
alive and keep distracting him. If you want to bring
him down fast together with your allies, stay where you can deal the most damage to him
and fire all you have. Try to keep some kind of cover between you and his allies. Detracking
him further helps to dodge his gun (3.7.f)).
Effect
You put heavy pressure on your opponent. His whole group is probably spotted by you, and
you are rendering his armour almost useless.
Desired result
There are multiple aspects where this technique works. It causes psychological pressure on
your opponent. It can "break his balance", cause confusion and provoke mistakes, if he is
not a Warrior. If he is, he probably knows at least one countermove.
The second aspect is of course you dealing damage to him. He can only target one tank. If
it's you, but he is too slow, you are still safe and can damage him while he cannot shoot
back. And if he doesn't face you, well just keep punching him ;)
The third aspect is that you keep at least one tank busy. You can protect your allies by
drawing so much attention to yourself that he switches targets.
43

And last but not least, the information aspect. This is the most important one for scouts.
While circling a tank, you keep it both busy and lit up. And more importantly, you can keep
several people busy and lit up.
Multicircling is extremely dangerous and is only done by the most professional (or the most
stupid) light tank drivers. It requires extreme attention, multitasking, and you need to be
familiar with every movement detail of the terrain, your tank, and preferably their tanks
too. Due to the incredibly high risk, it is not recommended at all you will die when facing
multiple opponents alone. But, just in case you happen to be in such a situation, here are
some tipps to maximize the time they need to kill you:

if you have any noticeable armour, always angle to the opponent who will shoot
next; also do some Dodging to decrease their chance of hitting

get one of them between you and another one; use them as cover against each
other to reduce their advantage of numbers

highest attention should go to who shoots when, and where are you driving if you
get stuck in rubble, you're dead

Counter
There are a few counter possibilities. The
simplest one is moving backward and
turning, so that the Circler cannot get
around you, or at least he needs more
time. Detracking the opponent helps alot
no movement, no circling.
If you have solid objects around, like
buildings or mountains, you can drive
close to that obstacle to block his
movement and keep your back/side safe.
Another counter is to control the circler's movement with your gun. Your gun is the one
spot where he doesn't want to be. So use it to deny him the moves he wants to do. Instead
of following him, you could turn the turret in the opposite direction, so he is effectively
driving towards the gun now. If he wants to live, he will have to turn around completely.
Related: 3.7.g) Brawling, 3.7.l) Dodging, 3.7.m) Turretless opponents and Sidehugging

44

f)

Detracking (solo)

Time of use
When fighting a slower opponent in close combat, preferably 1v1, or when the opponent is
in a position where you can shoot him but he cannot shoot you.
Execution
Shoot the tracks. If you have good
enough accuracy, try to aim for
the front/back wheels.
Effect
The opponent cannot move.
Desired result
A detracked opponent gives you two advantages:
You have full controll over hitzones and angles where you shoot, at least if you shoot the
hull (which is recommended).
He cannot add his hull rotation speed to his turret rotation speed anymore, which results in
a lower ability to follow your movement with his gun. Especially useful when circling
someone.
Pro Tip: Medium and light tanks with low reload time can keep opponents detracked for
long times, resulting in alot of extra credits and XP for assisting.
Pro Tip: Shooting the front/back axle (center of the wheel) also does damage.

Counter
Having a good repair skill helps, and there is a special tank equipment
(Enhanced
Suspension) that increases track durability by 30%. Otherwise, the only real counter is
using a repair kit consumable. But think about it first. If he is going to detrack you again
anyway, or if you have no chance to get to a safe place, repairing the tracks is a waste.
However, staying in small groups is probably the best preparation, because detracking you
while you are covered by allies is not going to hurt much.
Related: 4.6.g) Detracking (team)

45

g)

Brawling

Read first: 3.3.a) Hitzones, 3.3.b) Angles

Time of use
When in a tank that has highly sloped and/or very thick turret armour, and the opponent
has only minor or no support.
Execution
Reduce your distance to the opponent to 0. If you can, use cover while advancing or
ambush him. Once you hug him, don't let him retreat. If he tries, push and keep hugging.
Effect
Both you and your opponent cannot shoot each
other's lower frontplate. That means the biggest
low armoured part is safe from being shot.
Desired result
The only things your opponent can shoot (upper
frontplate and turret) are too tough to be damaged.
This allows you to deal with him while losing no or
only some hitpoints.
Counter
Kill or detrack the opponent before he gets close enough. If you are fast enough, detrack
him and move away to shoot his LFP, or even his side. Having a brawling tank yourself
makes you less vulnerable. In a mirror situation, knowledge about weakspots usually
decides who wins (if both tanks are about equal).
If you are driving a very flat tank and your gun is mounted low enough, you can still shoot
the opponents lower frontplate. If you are on the brink of death, you can use your gun
barrel to catch the shell by shoving it into the opponents camera (barrel blocking). A
broken gun is better than a broken tank.
Pro Tip: Many Soviet and Chinee tanks have extremely sloped armour and are good
brawlers especially the ones with thick flat round turrets.

Related: 3.7.h) Ramming, 3.7.m) Turretless opponents and Sidehugging

46

h)

Ramming

If you ram someone, you may or may not deal damage. The main
factors to determine that damage are your relative speed (if you
move in opposite directions, both your speeds are added), tank
weight and armour. Higher speed means more impact energy,
means more potential damage. High weight also increases the
impact energy.
Both tanks are subject to the same impact energy. But the more
weight and nominal armour you have, the more damage gets
absorbed by your chassis. Make sure you are the bigger tank ;)
Time of use
There are two use cases for ramming. One is to stop tank movement or push him into a
disadvantageous position (into a lake for example). The other one is as additional damage
source.
Execution
For stopping movement, ram him frontally, or ram his tracks.
For dealing damage, ram a part with low armour if you can.
Effect
The opponent is damaged and/or detracked.
Desired result
Ramming becomes interesting when you take a closer look to the
rhythm of a fight. Usually you create damage output every few
seconds between the shots your damage output is 0. You can use
ramming to do damage in between your shots, which gives several
seconds time advantage. A good ram attack can equal an
additional shot without spending any time or ammo.
Of course the drawback is that it is a self-damaging technique. Only use it when the gain is
much bigger than the price. Doing 100 damage to someone who is shot by 3 of your allies
already is probably not worth detracking yourself in a disadvantageous position.
Pro Tip: If the opponent's next shot will likely kill you, but he has a fragile tank, ram him
before he reloads.
Pro Tip: Ramming can be an effective way to stop the opponent's capturing process.
47

Counter
If you are agile enough, you can dodge
the ramming attempt.
If you have a decent gun and the
rammer is a fast tank, wait until he gets
relatively close. You have one chance,
so you better don't miss. When you are
sure to hit, shoot his track. If you do
enough damage to detrack him, this
will result in a drastic change of the
situation. The broken track will cause a
one-sided brake maneuver, which
stops and turns him in the direction of
the broken track, showing his side to
you and your allies now. Troll time!

Related: 4.6.g) Detracking (team), 3.7.g) Brawling, 5.5. Effectiveness and efficiency

48

i)

Drive-by shooting

Time of use
When dogfighting (3.6.) or Circling an opponent.
Execution
Practice this move in two steps. First move around
the target in a big rectangle or triangle pattern,
with rounded corners. In real battle situations you
probably won't drive any particular form. Lock
your turret (hold right mouse button) while doing
it.
The second step is shooting. You need to plan
ahead a bit, because what you do now is waiting
until your reticule meets the target, then release
the shot. In order to make it work, you need to aim
left of the target if you circle counter-clockwise,
and right of it if you circle clockwise.
Effect
Several things reduce the gunner's accuracy:
moving, turning the hull, and turning the turret. By
locking the turret and movement direction
temporarily, you negate two of these maluses. For
that short time, the only negative influence is your
tank speed. During that time the reticule will
become smaller.
Desired result
You hit your target while being on the move. Depending on how sensitive your tank's gun
reacts to movement and how well you trained this maneuver, you can get very close to the
maximum accuracy of the gun.
Pro Tip: Works with artillery and tank destroyers, too. Holding the right mouse button
locks the gun position and removes one source of dispersion.

49

j)

Suppressive Fire

Time of use
When defending an area against a bigger force and an opponent is near cover.
Execution
Shoot the cover next to him to create
noise.
Effect
The opponent thinks he is spotted
and targeted.
Desired result
The opponent goes behind cover and stays there for several seconds. That means you just
bought your strong flank some seconds for their attack.
Additional info
This technique is based on information and psychology. If you do it wrong, you will damage
your team instead of helping. The goal is to slow down the opponent. So you have to make
sure that he thinks he has to fight a bigger force than he actually has to. If you act too
obvious, they will see through it and just roflstomp the area.
Give as little information as possible. Don't tell him that you only bounce his armour.
Instead, leave him in the unknown and do "close misses". Stay hidden if you can. Have at
least one big gun behind you, to ensure they have respect. An exploding tank works
wonders against the attacker's morale.
If you have a fast firing gun, you can simulate multiple tanks by shooting different spots.
But do it with an irregular rhythm, so that they don't notice that the source is one tank.
Counter
The counter is to walz through and not stop. You can do it either by guessing that "it will be
ok", or by having a scout who discovers that almost no opponent forces are there. If you
attack, attack and don't hide! The goal of the game is not to keep the tank at 100%
hitpoints. One tank for a key position is a very good deal.
Related: 5.8.e) Classical battle strategies, 5.8.g) Deception

50

k)

Supportive fire

Time of use
When a small gun can do the job and firing a big gun would be a bit of a waste.
Execution
When things need to be shot, shoot them! Destroying cover, detracking a tank, or
lasthitting that one opponent who survived with 20 hitpoints.
Effect
The task is done with an appropriate gun size.
Desired result
Big guns are needed for big threats. One artillery shell can be several hundred up to a few
thousand damage points. You don't want to waste that on a wooden hut or a 20hp
opponent, causing the artillery tank to reload for half a minute. Instead if your small gun
can do the job, go for it and help your bigger allies that way.

In the case of lasthitting a low hp opponent, there might be an occasional chat accusation
about "killstealing". Ignore them, they didn't understand the meaning of teamplay.
However, if you see that your ally is clearly capable and there is no risk for the team to lose,
you might want to give him that last hit to avoid needless provocation.
Pro Tip: Some destroyed railway wagons can be shot through, even if the model doesn't
look like it's possible.
Related: 5.5. Effectiveness and efficiency

51

l)

Dodging

Time of use
Whenever you are in an agile enough tank and have enough space. It's applicable in close
combat too. Bread and butter skill for any dogfighter (3.6.).
Example: You are circling a heavy tank in your medium tank, but he is fast enough to
follow you with his gun.
Example: You know that artillery is watching you, and you have no hard cover to hide.
Execution
Move unexpectedly, change your direction and/or speed, and keep breaking your pattern.
To maximize the effect, be very predictable most of the time, and very unpredictable
shortly before your opponent shoots.

Effect
You throw off the opponents aim and he misses.
Desired result
You survive and keep the opponent(s) busy/distracted. In close range combat, it gives you
another 5-10 seconds to do what you want.
Related: 4.6.e) Distraction

52

m)

Turretless opponents and Sidehugging

Time of use
When an opponent tank destroyer or artillery has no support and you have a fast enough
tank with a turret.
Execution
Ideally, move to them as soon
as they are reloading. Or if you
can take one shot, do it
anytime. Try to do some zig
zagging to throw off his aim.
Always try to move indirectly
to him, so he has to turn his
hull to aim at you, which
further disturbs his accuracy.
Once you are close enough, go into sidehug mode. Detracking the target helps alot to get
into position. Once you are hugging his side, don't let go and keep hugging!
Effect
He isn't able to shoot you, but you can shoot him. Also, both yours and his movement is
limited.
Desired result
Taking out a powerfull gun with almost no risk.
Counter
As always, the best counter is to have an ally around to cover your back. While the attacker
approaches you, you probably have one shot, so use that to stop the maneuver by
detracking or killing him. But if he didn't do a mistake, you're pretty much screwed.
If you are near an obstacle, you can try to get rid of him by squeezing him between you and
the obstacle. This can be used to get in a second shot.
Related: 3.7.e) Circling, 3.7.g) Brawling, 3.7.h) Ramming, 4.6.e) Distraction

53

n)

David vs. Goliath

Half the game is about how to fight. The

other half is about when not to fight. If you
can't kill it, don't shoot it. Furthermore, if you
can't kill it and it comes to you, have a way
out! You might think how heroic it would be,
showing how you don't fear him and engage
him. But seriously, all you will do is giving him
free xp and totally wasting what little use you
are.
Time of use
When you have no chance to win an
upcoming fight. And we are not not talking
about "Oh noez, we haz no chance against
Soviets, run!!!". We are talking about
situations where a full hitpoints Type59 (tier
8) is coming for your poor little half hitpoints
tier 6 medium.
Execution
If you have support, stay alive. If you have no support, run! Look at the minimap, maybe
you can be useful somewhere else.
Effect
You don't waste your tank.
Desired result
You can be useful at some other place/time. And don't brush that off as unimportant
because you are "canon fodder". All it needs is an overconfident heavy driver showing you
his side. There will always be something you can do, if you stay alive.

54

4. A second look Tanks around you and neutral factors

This chapter is about what we call metagaming. Meta- means "beyond". The term is used
for a point of view that is not located where the things actually happen, but from outside,
where you have an overview. With that perspective, some information disappears, but you
also get new information. In games, that is usually enabled by the minimap. The minimap
has the advantage that you do not lose your first person perspective. Instead, the metainformation is shown additionally to what you see normally.
Meta-perspectives can be stacked. It's an abstraction.
You lose detail information but get context
information. Let's say two people are discussing about
their favorite tanks; that is the base level. If you
observe them, you are on the meta-level. Now if
someone observes you how you observe them, that's
the meta-level above your meta-level. And on each
level, different things are relevant. The discussing guys
care about tank details, you care about what they are
talking about, and the guy who observes you cares
about how you observe them. And of course it doesn't
have to be another person if you think about how
you do something, you are thinking on a meta-level
already.
So what is that meta-thing in WoT, and how does it
help us?
As described above, there are multiple levels of
information. All happen at the same time and place,
but they look different. The normal fighting, with tank
details in mind, can be considered the base level.
That's where most people process information and
react to it. Let's call it the 1 st level it is mostly
handled by chapter 3.
Then we have the 2nd level, where a group of tanks is
fighting another group of tanks in a region. On this
level, your own tank is not the important thing, the
group is. We will talk about that in this chapter.
The 3rd level is the one that cares about the whole team and the whole map. That will be
done in the next chapter. There are more levels below and above, but most of them are not
relevant for this handbook. If you plan playing ClanWars, there is a 4th level where troops
have to be distributed in the provinces (A4 Clan Wars), and an example for a 5th level could
be how you organize your clan, but those are unimportant for now.
55

4.1. Point of View

The first step to become more familiar with the
metalevel perspective is to accept the fact that
different people see different things. Just because
"it's obvious", doesn't mean everybody else
perceives it the same way.
Most of the stuff that is happening is invisible for
us. Some stuff is perceived by our
subconsciousness, and we perceive only a very
little part of the world actively usually the stuff
that is important to us at the moment. That's a
protection mechanism of our brain to prevent
being overflooded by all the information around
us.
The problem is that this small part is a different
one for each of us. And that causes trouble; alot of trouble. How are we supposed to play
together if we don't even see the same things?
That is where communication becomes relevant. It is very rare that two people can act as
one, whithout communicating actively. So rare that it almost seems like magic when we see
such perfect teamplay in action. Most of the time we are operating on a much lower level
of harmony. And communication allows us to compensate that, to a degree.
Two things are essential here:

a)

Accept that other points of view exist

If someone is saying something and you disagree, check his point of view. Yes that is work,
but if you don't do it, don't blame others for your ignorance. From his point of view, the
things he said probably make sense. And if not, you can still talk to him about it.

b)

Accept the possibility of being wrong

That goes for everyone, not just for yourself. Due to our limited point of view, we can all be
wrong. If you and your 8 friends say "A", and a single other person says "B", it doesn't
mean you 9 people are right. You can be right, but you also can be wrong, just like the
single guy. So always check both statements (in the context of their point of view). In fact, it
might even turn out that all of you are wrong, or all of you are right.
Related: 5.6. Communication errors, 5.8.f) Information gathering and information denial

56

4.2. Coordinated Actions

World of Tanks is not a solo shooter. It's a team game. Sure if you are good, you can handle
many situations alone. But there will be situations where chances of success drop to
almost zero. All it needs is an opponent who has the same level of skill, but is in a better
position.
That is where team-based
games
shine.
Those
moments where you
think "oh shit, I'm
screwed", and then one
of your buddies comes
around the corner, and
suddenly the whole thing
turns into a "hell yeah,
we're gonna own them!"
This is possible because of coordinated actions. Having a team mate significantly increases
the amount of tactics that can be applied, because you have two actors now. And if each of
them has let's say 5 possibilities, then now we have 5*5=25 possibilities. In reality, it's a bit
more complicated, but you get the idea.

a)

Strength in numbers

This one is obvious. More tanks means more hitpoints and more damage. This provides
both a higher threat and more safety.

b)

Maneuvers

This is the part that gets the most attention. There are a bunch of maneuvers that can be
done. Be it flanking, baiting, moving in formation, or the simple act of focused fire the
maneuvers are what makes your squad better than the sum of its tanks.
Related: 4.6. Platoon techniques

c)

Communication

It is highly recommended to communicate, in order to enable those maneuvers.

Sometimes the question arises how we can communicate such komplex operations in the
heat of battle. After all, there are many things to be considered. But once you reach a
certain level, you will be able to see if your ally can handle all the tiny details himself, and
the ingame communication system (A1) becomes an efficient tool. It is concise and simple,
and every other professional player will know exactly what to do.
57

4.3. From 1vs1 to XvsX

Read first: 4.2. Coordinated Actions
Normally if you are driving your tank, it's only you and the others. You mostly care about
causing as much trouble for the opponents as possible, preferably surviving in the process.
Now try to do an imaginary zoom-out. We have a bunch of people fighting a bunch of other
people in an area for easy terms let's call them platoons. The basic principle is the same:
survival and damage. Just now it is not applied to each single tank, but to the platoon. This
can, depending on the battlefield situation, mean that one tank is sacrificed in order to
maximize the platoon performance. That can result in your tank dealing no damage and
taking lots of damage, which from your perspective is a very bad performance. But if that
maneuver enabled your platoon to kill 3 opponents and conquer the area (because you
distracted them), then this was a very good performance of the platoon, and thus of you.
Related: 5.5. Effectiveness and efficiency

Killstealing
When you fight an opponent, battle him down to 20 hitpoints, and an ally comes around
the corner and lasthits him, you probably get angry and call him a killstealer. Because you
did all the work, so you deserve the kill, right?
Wrong! WoT is a team-based game. There is no "I deserve". There is only two teams and
one winner. A kill for the team is a kill for the team, no matter who did the last hit. No
serious commander is interested in individual kill counts, and you shouldn't be either.
Pro Tip: A JagdPz E-100 with one hitpoint left will still deal 1000 damage. The sooner you
take it out, the sooner it stops shooting back.

Human factor
Most humans are hunters. They hunt different things, but still hunt. Yes, even women, the
sex is of no relevance. Men just tend to compare their penises more openly. Preferably the
virtual ones, because those are easier to grow.
While egoistic behaviour can (and often does) reduce a team's effectiveness, it is still how
we humans are. We do stupid things that make no sense. We know that, and it's perfectly
fine! The key is to not expect us to be more noble than we really are.
Related: 3.7.a) The calm mind, 5.7. Curse of the Skilled

58

4.4. Group Dynamics

Probably the most noticeable difference when going from single people to groups is the
chaos effect. There are whole scientific fields that study this phenomenon both on an
abstract level (Math) and the social level (Psychology). So don't expect to get
enlightenment here it's a weird thing, and we don't really know what to make of it.
When we have multiple people, they all act on their own. So unless these people spend
some effort so organize themselves, the whole battlefield becomes a big mess very fast.
But that's not all, oh no. If that was all, we could
use probability to estimate what happens. But life
has another great feature for us: the human factor
(again).
We don't act truly randomly our behaviour is
influenced by the behaviour of others, and pretty
much all of it is done subconsciously. All those
weird brain circuits that kept our species alive in the
wilderness are now doing funny things.
Example: You look to the minimap and think "ok, looks good, let's go!". Then you go and
make sure everyone is following and everything looks just fine. A few seconds later you
look to the minimap again, and suddenly everyone is somewhere else you have no idea
where, but certainly not near you. Yeah, they probably ran off to chase that squirrel light
tank far off on the other side of the cliff.
There are a few known patterns (the famous lemming train for example), but to most
people it looks like random nonsense. Even those who studied the patterns for years have
like a 50% chance on guessing what will happen, at best. People never stop to surprise you
someone, somewhere, will have a brilliant idea and throw off any plan you could have
come up with.
To some experienced players, this chaotic factor has its own fascinating magic. Some of us
play random games because of that magic. We lean back, do our thing to add some order
to the chaos, and watch how all the little bugs run around. Every now and then we get
thrown into situations that make no sense in a logical context, but happen nonetheless. It
keeps our mind open to possibilities and breaks the trodden paths a bit.
Pro Tip: In random games, anything can happen, and anything goes.
For the competitive player it's mostly just a minor annoyance. Every basic training includes
a section about listening to a leader instead of doing silly things on your own.

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4.5. The spotting system

Read first: 2.4. Tank Details what your tank is really made of
The game forcefully matches your vision with your crews vision by not rendering the tanks
that your crew doesn't see. That has the advantage that graphics settings are completely
irrelevant for game mechanics everyone has the same chances.
When an opponent tank is spotted, it will pop up
and be highlighted with a red outline (changeable
in the game settings). Whether you can spot an
opponent depends on two factors: your view
range and his camouflage value. These two "fight"
against each other, and if you win, you will spot
him. The same happens to determine whether he
spots you. So if you have both good view range
and good camouflage, you will see him and he
won't see you. Both values can be influenced by
crew skills and equipment. Aside from these static
factors, the camouflage value can also be
influenced during a match by using terrain.
Hard cover
Houses, rocks, hills and any other type of solid cover that is between you and your
opponent keeps both of you hidden from each other. Tanks that are covered partially can
still be spotted. Hard cover provides no camouflage value bonus, it just blocks line of sight.
In order to spot an opponent, you need line of sight to him.
There are two exceptions to this rule: 1. every opponent within 50m is spotted
automatically; 2. opponents beyond 445m are never spotted.
Soft cover
Bushes and trees count as soft cover. They don't block line of sight, but they give you a
camouflage bonus, so you are less likely to be seen. The effects stack, meaning multiple
bushes between you and the opponent tank will give greater bonuses than a single one.
You need to stand behind the bush, not in the bush, unless it's big enough to cover your
whole tank from the opponents direction anyway (check by rotating the camera).
Pro Tip: Shooting "removes" all soft cover around you in a range of 15m for a few
seconds. 15m is exactly the distance where bushes turn transparent on your screen, which
you can use as an indicator. Your own view range is never affected by soft cover that is
inside the 15m radius around you.

60

Pro Tip: High grass does not provide a camouflage bonus. Fallen trees work like bushes.
Radio
Your crew shares information with tanks that are in radio range (add your radio distance
and your allies radio distance to know how far he can be without losing contact). So you
will see opponents even when there is too much stuff between you and him, as long as an
ally can see him. It only works for direct connections "I know a guy who knows a guy who
knows someone who has seen a tank" doesn't work here.
The battle between view range and camouflage value
Each vehicle has a base camouflage value, which is basically made up by the game
designers and not shown ingame. Rule of thumb: bigger tanks have a lower base value, flat
tanks and light tanks tend to have high base values.
This base value is then increased or decreased, depending on what situation you are in:
Moving the hull (light tanks don't get this malus)

Shooting

Soft cover

Crew skill: camouflage

Equipment: camouflage net (while stationary)

Camouflage paint

All these factors can be stacked, potentially resulting in rediculous

situations, where you are literally invisible until someone gets to the 50m
magic border. There is even an ingame badge for staying invisible for the
whole match and capping the opponents base ("Raider").
"So how do I know the distance that is safe for me?"
You don't, because that does not only depend on you, but also the
opponents view range. Against tanks with low view range, you can get closer without being
spotted. It's always a battle of view range versus modified camouflage value. The
commander skill "Sixth Sense" can help it notifies you that you've been spotted.
Pro Tip: Just because he is invisible doesn't mean he isn't there. If you know an opponent
tanks position, you can damage him even if nobody is spotting him. We call that a blind
shot.

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4.6. Platoon techniques

a)

Focus fire

Time of use
When fighting multiple opponents.
Execution
Everyone shoots the same target.
Effect
The target is gone quickly.
Desired result
Reducing opponent offensive capabilities as quickly as
possible. Two half-dead opponents can still fight perfectly
fine. One full-dead opponent can fight not-so-fine.
This is the most basic and most important team
technique, and pretty much every Clan of coordinated
players will teach this in the very first training sessions.
It's easy to do and very effective, to a degree where even
random people teaming up do it automatically.
Counter
Always stay in a spot where only a few opponents can shoot you, preferably 0-1. Watch
your zones. Also on a smaller scale, there is the technique of shielding.
Related: 4.6.b) Shielding, 5.8.a) Zoning

62

b)

Shielding

Time of use
When an ally is in danger of getting killed, but could still contribute to the game. Do NOT
do it if there is no chance of anyone surviving this. Going on open field to protect some
kamikaze guy will only end in both of you being killed for nothing.
Execution
Put yourself between the opponent and your ally,
providing cover for your ally. Also keep angling
yourself to the opponent if you can.
Effect
You eat the shell(s) that would kill your ally.
Desired result
Your ally survives, meaning you prevented the
loss of a team member by spreading the
opponents damage. A JagdPz E-100 that survives
with one hitpoint left will still deal 1000 damage
with each shell. The longer he lives, the more
tanks he can kill for your team. Spreading
damage is a direct counter to focused fire
(4.6.a)). Ideally, you stay alive as well.
Pro Tip: Shielding allies works wonders for team morale.

Bonus fluff
Centuries ago, the shield was considered the most important piece of equipment by people
who would later become famous for the Battle of Thermopylae. Far more important than
armour, because not only can a shield protect you, it can also protect your ally, plus it can
be used as a weapon as well. Being able to hold a shield properly was a major requirement,
because if you couldn't, you'd weaken the whole formation (in the falanga formation you
shield the guy on your left, while you are shielded by the guy on your right). The worst
thing you could do is drop your shield and run. You'd have been labeled as ripsaspis, a
man that dropped his shield, and shamed for generations, because you were supposed to
shield someone else who was relying on you.
Modern battle tanks are used in the same way. They are both protection and weapon.
When playing WoT, remember that your tank is more than just its gun.
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c)

Scouting

Time of use
When you have big guns in the second line, who prefer not to get shot.
Execution
One tank is in a front row position and spots
targets, the other ones stay hidden and
shoot the spotted targets. Use suppression
fire (3.7.j)) and other defensive maneuvers
if applicable if you want to defendor baiting
if you want to kill. Keep your scout alive, so
he can keep spotting targets. Having one or
two boomsticks (3.6.) helps immensely.
Note that scouting is not limited to any tank class. All you need is decent view range and
survival capabilities of some kind. We talked about the three different types of scouting in
chapter 3.6.
Priorities scout: 1. survive, 2. spot (yes, in that oder!)
Priorities snipers: 1. protect your scout, 2. kill stuff (yes, in that order!)
Effect
Only one tank is exposed to the opponents, while all tanks can shoot targets.
Desired result
You enable your platoon to apply damage without risking to get shot. This minimizes the
number of targets for the opponents while maximizing your targets.
The performance looks similar to baiting, but is different both in execution and desired
result. When baiting, you lure someone into a trap. When scouting, you simply provide
targets while minimizing incoming damage on a platoon/team level.
Counter
Focus fire on the scout or have an agile light tank go for half-kamikaze scouting, lighting up
all their snipers and maybe their scout as well. Pushing this side with multiple stable tanks
simultaneously also works.
Related: 2.7. Roles, 3.6. Fighting Styles, 4.5. The spotting system, 4.6.h) Baiting, 5.8.f)
Information gathering and information denial

64

d)

Double Gunning

Time of use
When your hull armour is thin, but you have a good gun and a well armoured ally nearby.
Works well with tough flat tanks like an American T95 or the British AT series. But only do it
with really tough ones and when they don't try to hide, otherwise they'll hate you for using
them as cover and painting a big target mark on them.
Execution
Put yourself next to or behind your
ally, making him your cover. Shoot the
same targets as he does. There are
different variations of this technique,
where the positioning is optimized for
certain situations.
Warning: standing behind your ally
blocks him only do that if he knows
about it and you are in voice
communication with him, so he can
tell you when to move. Never block
allied movement!
Effect
You reinforce your ally with a second
gun, and he reinforces you with
armour.
Desired result
Your ally compensates for your weak armour, effectively increasing your potential. You also
provide multiple targets, increasing the chance of spreading incoming damage. If you do it
with one of the flat tank destroyers, you also protect his vulnerable flanks.
Counter
Artillery. It hits an area, so tanks standing close together are a really juicy target. If that is
not an option, focus fire on the easier to kill tank.
Related: 3.6. Fighting Styles, 4.6.b) Focus fire, 4.6.b) Shielding, 5.3. Combined Energy and
Synergy

65

e)

Distraction

Time of use
When allied forces need time to
execute an important maneuver, or
when you want to break the opponents
thinking pattern.
Execution
Do whatever it takes to draw the
opponents attention. Being creative
helps. Being not-obvious helps, too.
In most cases, being a target is all that's
needed. Human nature will do the rest.
Effect
The opponents mind is not where it
should be.
Desired result
Your team gets an advantage. That could be a successfull flanking maneuver, a confused
opponent, or something else. The opponent will get eaten by a velociraptor because he
didn't pay attention.
Oh, and no, it's not limited to boobs and men. It works with everything that has some form
of attention. Once you know the triggers, it's easy to steal that attention.
Counter
Basically there is none. With enough experience (read: you failed often enough and
learned from it) you may be able to identify diversionary maneuvers. Most of the time it's
just a little voice in your head "something isn't right here". You'll never really know,
because they are not going to tell you. And what's worse: even if you know, often you still
can't escape it.
What also helps is the skill to stay focused. Considering how literally everything wants our
attention nowadays (everybody wants something from you, mostly your money), that has
become one of the more important skills.
Related: 4.6.h) Baiting, 5.8.b) Reading the battleflow, 5.8.g) Deception

66

f)

Flanking

Time of use
When you are at a disadvantage in a frontal fight, or if you want to keep losses to a
minimum.
Execution
Keep the opponents busy with frontal forces, and have mobile forces go around and
approach from another direction.

Effect
The opponent has more than one direction of threat. That means he will have problems
covering his vulnerable parts.
Desired result
At least one of your tanks has the possibility to strike at a vulnerable part. Ideally it also
causes confusion.
Counter
Don't be alone, have somebody covering your back/flank. Don't leave holes in your
formation. This is the reason why heavy tanks prefer to have at least one allied heavy tank
near them, or a couple mediums. Allows flanking and protects against flanking.
Related: 5.8.c) Task priorities

67

g)

Detracking (team)

Time of use
When an opponent is in a position that is a disadvantage for him, force him to stay there,
so it's easier to get rid of him.
When buying time is more beneficial (or much easier to apply) than damage. This can be
for your artillery to aim, for yourself to survive an incoming attack until allies arrive,
stopping the kamikaze scout from causing trouble, or some other situation.
Execution
Shoot the tracks. If you have good
enough accuracy, try to aim for
the front/back wheels.
Effect
The opponent cannot move.
Desired result
Several allies can snipe weakspots of the target reliably. Standing targets are easier to hit
than moving targets. That increases the efficiency of every shot of every ally, increasing the
overall effect of focused fire.
Counter
To counter the focused fire you are about to get, try to stay in a spot where only a small
number of opponents can shoot you, preferably 0-1. There is also the possibility of
Shielding if you are not alone. Getting tracked is alot less problematic if nobody can shoot
you.
Having a good repair skill helps, and there is a special tank equipment (Enhanced
Suspension) that increases track durability by 30%. Otherwise, the only direct counter is
using a repair kit consumable. But think about it first. If he is going to detrack you again 5
seconds later anyway, and you have no chance to get to a safe place (or kill him) in that
time, repairing the tracks is a waste.
Related: 3.7.f) Detracking (solo), 4.6.a) Focus fire, 5.5. Effectiveness and efficiency

68

h)

Baiting

Time of use
When you are no match for a possibly greedy opponent. Now you may think "but that
relies on an uncautious opponent!" Yes, it does. But remember this: people are greedy. Not
all of them, and not all the time. But an easy kill can be tempting. Scams exist since the
beginning of human interaction for the very same reason. Reality proves that this works.
Execution
Make yourself a juicy target. Make your opponent think that you are an easy kill, and that
it's "not really a big problem" to just go forward a bit to get you. If he does, carefully
retreat. Always stay in a tempting position.

Effect
The opponent tries to get you, or at least thinks about it.
Desired result
The opponent is lured into the trap and gets destroyed quickly, or is at least provoked.
Counter
Train your situational awareness and your mental resistance to temptation. Don't think
about what you can get think about what you can lose, according to what battlefield
information you got. Then evaluate. Is it worth the risk? What happens if it goes wrong?
Related: 4.6.e) Distraction

69

5. Beating randomness with skill

This is where the real journey begins. Everything above (yes, all those pages) is just the
basic set of tools. This chapter is about the stuff that seperates the pros from the good
advanced players. No more tank stuff, no more boring numbers. From here on, it's all meta.
From here on, victory is yours.
Ok, and now forget what you just read. Because it's bullshit. There is no "I win" card. What
you learn here probably won't help you to win at all. The only thing this chapter does is
showing you what is going on behind the scene. It's the part of the game that is the hardest
to learn and utilize, because you need game experience, alot of it. You also need an
analytic mind that is capable of abstraction. For these reasons, only a few percent of
players ever care about this level, usually people with a tendency towards versatility (3.2.)
One thing however is true. For some people, this is where the real journey begins.

70

5.1. Situational Awareness

Situational Awareness (SA) is the commonly used label for a group of skills that allow you
to know what is happening around you. For practical purposes we also include the skill to
react properly. There are no formal rules here everything that works is valid. We cannot
really teach you SA, because it can be very different for every player and depends on your
flavour (3.2.). But we can point out a few things to give you a rough picture of what it
means.

a)

Getting information

This part is easy to learn and can range from having a decent screen resolution to using
minimap-mods. The more information you can get, the better as long as it's presented in
a clean way. Take a closer look to the game settings and to popular visualization mods, and
think about what information it presents to you and how relevant this information is. Most
competitive players turn off distracting eye candy that delivers no relevant information.
Your most valuable tool will always be the minimap.

b)

Processing information

While you can tell people to turn this setting on

or off, or to install this or that mod, there is no
simple answer to how you are supposed to use
that information. Knowing your flavour gives
you an idea where to look and how to look at it.
Learning the basics from the other chapters of this book and watching replays preferably
commented ones is a good way to start (A9). The first step is to get a feeling for what the
community knows, and to get a feeling for what kind of information processing works for
you. When you got that done, you have all the tools you need to go deeper and find your
own way beyond the general community knowledge. The main driving force here is
curiosity always keep an open mind and learn from what other people do. And don't
confuse that with "do what others do"; those two are different.
The goal is to enable you to make better decisions. In order to do that, you also need to
clarify what you want to achieve. Different goals require different approaches.

c)

Choose the action

Once you know what is happening, and what you want to happen, it's just a small step to
pick the proper thing to do. It's like moving from A to B. Once you figured out that you are
somewhere where you don't want to be, it's simple to just go somewhere else. Solving the
problem is no big deal, identifying it is. And as always, the action you choose depends on
your flavour. If you think you know where you are and where you want to be, but haven't
found out how to get there, talk to experienced players. Chances are that they can point
you in the right direction.
71

5.2. The Luck Factor

The battlefield is chaos. Pretty much everything is based on a certain chance. And as in real
life, there is no 0% and no 100%. Master the chaos and you become master of the
battlefield. Examples of chance-based factors:

accuracy (Gaussian distribution limited by the aiming circle, deviation varies for each
tank)

penetration and damage (Gaussian distribution, limited at +/- 25% of the average
value, deviation unknown)

random small rubble on the ground that looks flat but stops your tank completely

opponent movement/shooting behaviour

ally movement/shooting behaviour

falling damage, ramming damage

ping/lag spikes

random wife aggro/screaming child/barking dog/thug hitting you with a baseball

bat/oven burning your meal/sneaky ninja-friend gives you a heart attack/comet falls
down and crushes your house/...

When we talk about skill, there is really only one skill: to increase the chance of something
we want, and to decrease the chance of something we don't want. What factors you
manipulate and how you manipulate them depends on your flavour (3.2.).
Pro Tip: Accept that you never have control over everything.
In this example, it looks like the
Pershing was really lucky for
bouncing a shell of the IS-3. But
take a closer look. What he
actually did, was moving
backwards down the cliff to
flatten the Angles of his frontal
armour, which increases the
chance of a bounce. It's never
an "I win" recipe, but it makes a
bounce more likely. It's all
about probability.

72

5.3. Combined Energy and Synergy

You probably have a more or less accurate image of what energy is. For the purpose of this
handbook, let's say a player's performance in WoT is his energy, or potential. It's the thing
that he contributes to his team.
Combined energy is easy to understand. It's widely known as "common goal" or
"teamplay". It's when people spend their energy on the same thing, pull the rope in the
same direction.
Synergy is pretty much the same as energy, just comes from
another source. Synergy is when combined things are more than
the sum of the individual parts. Imagine your mouth. Now imagine
a cake. Combining those two is alot better than just putting them
next to each other, right?
Synergy in general is a bit difficult to understand, because it is
somewhat shady, not easy to see. It's the value that is not created
by your tanks or you, but it's created by the fact that you are
together. And we are not talking about teamplay here, we are
talking about the inherent potential of a tank that is unlocked when
combined with certain other tanks.
Example: Bob is sitting in his scout tank, and Susan in her artillery. These two tanks
complement each other very well one does the spotting, the other one does the sniping.
The scout increases the performance of the sniper, and vice versa. That means additional
value is created high synergy.
In the next game, they decide to go with two heavy tanks and stick together. The
combined energy is very high, but the synergy is low, because they don't increase each
other's performance much. Almost no additional value is created.
Synergy can come from all kinds of things, not only from your tanks, but also from you as
players, or from maps, or even situations. But in order to have synergy at all, you must have
at least two things. It doesn't matter what those two things are. While energy is the
potential of each individul part, synergy is the potential that is created by combination.
And of course that "additional energy" can work in both directions, positive or negative.
Just like the energy, synergy is always there. It doesn't matter whether the scout and the
artillery are in a platoon or two random people their synergy is the same. But when they
coordinate their moves, they can make much better use of that synergy. The quality of
teamplay determines how much of the team's overall potential (combined energy +
synergy) is actually used.
Pro Tip: Light and medium tanks have lower base potential than heavy tanks, but they
provide better synergy possibilities.
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5.4. Platoon/Team potential

Read first: 5.3. Combined Energy and Synergy
In the worst case, a platoon is just a number of single tanks, which means the same battle
strength as if everyone fights on his own. The things that make platoons stronger than
single tanks are:

combination of energy: instead of two people dragging the rope to their personal
favorite directions, both drag it to the platoon's favorite direction

usage of synergy: synergy effects are always there, but coordinated platoons can
exploit them better

What you want to maximize is not the individual potential. That is important too, but what
matters is the potential of the whole platoon. Two platoons can have the same potential,
but very different setups:

Despite having less combined energy (green), the second team has better synergy (yellow)
maybe they have two medium tankers who have been playing games together for 10
years and are so in tune with each other that they can take on much stronger opponents
together. If both platoons use their potential to the maximum, they are equally strong. But
for the untrained eye, team 2 looks weaker than team 1.
There is more going on than just the sum of individual tanks. So if you want to become
better than advanced, you have to take a look at the things that happen between the
individual tanks.

74

5.5. Effectiveness and efficiency

Many people have troubles to understand the difference. Let's shed some light on it,
because it's an important distinction wherever limited resources are involved. Both are
measures of quality, but look at different aspects.

Being effective means to reach a certain goal, or to be usefull. It's about what you do.
Being efficient means to reach a certain goal with as little resources as possible, or to
perform in an optimal way. It's about how well you do it.
Example: If you play real-time strategy games and have a high APM count (actions per
minute), then that means you are very efficient. But if most of these actions are useless
and don't really do anything, then you lack effectiveness. You need both to perform well.
It's everywhere around us, where competition is present. Companies use the confusion to
make us buy the expensive stuff by making the overall price low, but the price per resource
unit high.
So how does that relate to WoT?
In order to improve our performance, not only do we have to do the right thing, we also
have to make sure that everything we do counts. Both effectiveness and efficiency are
important. A player who is highly skilled but doesn't do the right thing needs different
training than a player who does the right thing but sucks at it.
Some games base statistics on effectiveness and ignore efficiency. That is a deliberate
decision, because showing people bigger numbers makes them feel better, even if those
numbers are completely useless. Flattering the players ego is cheap and effective. Luckily,
later versions of WoT support both types of statistics.
Example: Bob did 1000 kills and you did only 100. Bob has a higher effectiveness, his epenis looks bigger than yours. But if we take a closer look, we notice that Bob played 10k
battles, while you played only 1k battles. A little math reveals that Bob has an efficiency of
0.1 kill per battle, and yours is 1 kill per battle. Now Bob doesn't look so impressive
anymore. Of course that doesn't stop him from mocking you noob, because your kill count
is much smaller, so you obviously don't know what you're talking about...

75

What does that mean for our gameplay?

The goal in competitive play is to win. Due to the nature of each team being 15 people,
there won't be many single big moves that decide the whole battle. Instead, we have a
number of smaller moves, happening at different times and spots. The team with the
overall better moves will win. To achieve that, you need both effectiveness and efficiency.
You want to use all your tanks to do as many good moves as you can, and you want to
make sure that each move is actually a good one.
That means whatever you do, always try to think
of what you want to achieve, and what it will
cost your team. If the gain is bigger than the cost,
go for it. Dying so your team can get control over
the whole flank is a good trade. Popping out of
cover to do 200 damage and then getting shot by
5 people and eat 1k damage is probably not a
good trade. Keeping 5 people busy while allies
flank/cap however, might be a good trade.
Also, notice that "good" is relative. If you lose
something, it's bad. But if you lose something
and your opponent loses more, it's still "good".
Be warned though, do not apply that to real life
situations, unless you are ok with being an
asshole! Live with each other, not against each
other (that kind of behaviour actually lowers humanities overall potential and progress,
and many corporations have no problem at all with that).
These cost-benefit-calculations are always based on what information you have available. If
your information is too inaccurate, you risk doing a bad trade, thinking it's a good one.
Related: 5.8.f) Information gathering and information denial, 5.8.g) Deception

76

5.6. Communication errors

In chapter 3 (3.5.e)) you learned that
communication brings some order into the
otherwise chaotic random matches, where you
cannot win all by yourself. And now the shock:
even this tool is randomized, again because of how
humans work.
Whenever we communicate, there are several
walls that need to be passed in order to reach the
person we are communicating with. Each of those
walls have a fairly high chance to lead to
misunderstanding.
Mind to medium
The source of the communication is our mind. We want to deliver some information to the
other guys mind. Lets call that information in our head the intention. Most people need to
use some kind of language to express that intention, putting it into a medium. That may be
speaking words, or hand waving, or poking, or whatever. The most common one is spoken
or written in formalized languages, but there are tons of other not so obvious languages.
It's the container that is used to transport the intention. And already when putting the
intention into that container, things can go wrong. Because in order to convert your
intention into a medium, you have to use the corresponding word/sign/whatever that is
mapped to the intention. Using the word "bird" when you actually mean "elephant" is
probably not going to be understood the way you intended.
And don't brush that off as unimportant. This communication wall can go from "Damn, I
had it on the tip of my tongue..." to "damn I don't even know what language he's
speaking". It's not easy to put our thougths into a language.
Medium to medium
Sometimes when we send the container holding our intention, it has to be transferred to
other mediums. The classical example is a far away recipient that you cannot talk to
directly. You'll need a phone, or maybe computer software to write an e-mail.
Whenever that happens, you have to know how to use that other medium. Those shiny
new phones with their 247 cool features (only one of them being the actual phone) can be
more challenging than you would expect. A more classical example is when you actually
don't speak the language of the recipient and have to talk to an interpreter, who then
translates what you said into another language.
Each conversion that needs to be done is an additional wall.

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Transport
After putting the intention into the medium, it needs to travel to the recipient. That is easy
when he is right next to us, you might think. But maybe not. Maybe he's deaf, so he won't
hear you speaking. Or maybe you are outside and it's really windy so hearing somebody
speaking is actually not possible. Or when you are using a phone, maybe the connection is
unstable and you lose half of the data so the other end only receives some stuttering.
Just because you sent something, doesn't mean it will arrive at the other end.
Medium to mind
When the package arrives at the recipient, it needs to be unpacked the recipient needs to
translate the used language back into the intention. Remember about mapping a thought
to words? He needs to do the same, but backwards. And he has to use the exact same
dictionary. Problem is, every single one of us uses a slightly different dictionary.
No two beings are exactly the same, so there is no guaranteed understanding of what we
say, even if the words are understood perfectly fine.
What you can do
Getting an intention from one head to another is basically pure
luck. There is no guarantee whatsoever, and most attempts to
improve communication skill simply aim for roughly hitting the
right direction by finding ways to tackle or walk around the above
mentioned walls. There are a few simple things that seem to
improve your chances:

give feedback: make sure that the sender knows that the
message arrived. If appropriate, repeat a short version so
the sender knows what you understood (gives him a chance to identify a
communication error)

if you are not sure, ask

if you are acting as part of a unit/clan/group, agree on a communication protocol to

ensure everyone uses the same dictionary (works for every kind of relationship)

Misunderstandings are probably the number one reason why things don't work out even if
everyone is trying. In many cases they could, if people would just recognize that the only
problem that was ever there is the one of communication. Yes it's work, and nobody will
judge you if you don't do that work. But seriously, if something is important to you, then
you better pay attention to the communication part. It's not a question of whether there
will be misunderstandings. It's a question of how you handle the ones that will happen.
Related: 4.1. Point of View, A1 Communication signals

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5.7. Curse of the Skilled

Read first: 4.1. Point of View
There is a phenomenon in competetive team-based
games that everyone knows. Some people call it "noob
team", some call it "lemmings" or "idiots", and there are
some other phrases that are less polite. But let's call it
curse of the skilled instead. This name is a bit different
from what everyone else calls it, because it is not about
the others, it's about you.
The curse of the skilled is a two-part curse, and both
parts are caused by our limited perception and the fact that humans don't work based on
logic:
1. We cannot judge our performance properly (most people can't, but there are
exceptions); often we judge ourself as more average than we are.
2. We expect others to be at least as "ok-ish" as we are. In other words we take it for
granted that others reach the same level easily, because that is to be expected from
average things.
Both parts are complete logic fails. Yet we seem to be unable to escape it, hence the term
curse. Like many other things, it's built into our human nature. So let's see why this is such
a big problem, and how we can handle it.
The skill curve looks like a bell
everyone with math background
will recognize this form. We have
a big bunch of people with nearaverage skill, some less people
that are really good or really bad,
and only a few people who are
godlike/abysmal. The farther
away from average, the less
people are on that level.
Now what happens as we get
better, is that we still think we are
"nothing special", even if we are statistically in the top 5%. Bad players often think they just
have bad luck. Because in our own personal world, we are ok as we are, so we can't be too
bad or too good. Basically, we judge ourself "more middle" than we are. It's hard to judge
ourself objectively, because we look at the world from our own point of view all the time.
The better we get, the more peole are below our own skill level. Simple. But when
combined with the second part of the curse, a drastic thing happens. Given the fact that
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we perceive ourself as "somewhere near middle", we tend to judge everyone below us as

unskilled, a.k.a. noob, or idiot, or whatever word you use. In the eyes of a 55% winrate
player, which is "not a big deal" in his perception, but in fact very much above average, the
vast majority of all players look like noobs even the 52% players, which are already far
above average. Just because he expects that if he can do it, everyone can do it, because it's
"nothing special". In his eyes, someone who performs quite average might look like a
braindead zombie.
This means that we always see more idiots than there actually are. And the better our skill
gets, the worse the effect. As a newbie we stand in awe of how good people are and we
suck. As a pro we stand in awe of how bad everyone else is and we rock. Our own brain
stabs us in the back and punishes us for being good. The curse is a nasty thing.
There is not much we can do about it, because it's so deep down in our circuits. If you feel
trapped by the curse, there are basically two options:

become strong enough to carry the curse (hard mode): remind yourself that our
perception is very distorted by our expectations and try to readjust these
expectations. Taking different points of view helps. The more cynical people will
probably tell you to expect nothing, so you cannot be disappointed.

temporarily seal it (more likely to happen): take a break from WoT. Instead of
carrying the burden around, put it down for a while. Do something that is enjoyable
for you. It's only a temporary solution, but applicable by everyone.

If you are a commander/leader, you should be aware of the

state of mind of your team. If you know that people had
trouble with the curse recently, do some platooning and show
them that there are still people they can count on. Or do a
destruction derby, or a fun company battle with 15 scout tanks,
or whatever. Show them that playing the game is about fun
and teamwork, not about who had more noobs in his team.
Related: 3.7.a) The calm mind
Special note: Being a high-performer can cause pressure on a psychological level and can
cause effects similar to suffering from low performance. It's often laughed at, but feeling
"far away from everyone else" is a serious issue, doesn't matter at what end you are.
That's why our brain has built-in mechanisms to prevent us from recognizing it.

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5.8. Team techniques

a)

Zoning

Every tank has a radius where it can shoot

and deal damage effectively, the action
radius. It is influenced by the terrain and the
gun elevation/depression. Simply put: your
zone is where you are a threat to your
opponents.
Whenever you move, you change that area of
effect. Of course you want many tanks to be
at a place where they have area of effect to
opponents, and if possible are outside of the
area of effect of the opponents. Also, you
want to cover as much area of the map as
possible, ideally with overlapping each other.
In this example, most of our allies are so far
back behind, that their action radius isn't even close to the opponent forces. This is the
reason why camping in general is bad campers basically remove themselves from the
game; they cannot do anything useful because of their position.
Always know your surroundings. Keep in mind how your zone changes as you move:

In addition, keep in mind where opponent tanks are likely to be and how their zones look
like from there. It helps alot to know where you can move and where you can expect to get
shot. It is perfectly fine to be surrounded, as long as nobody can shoot you because
something is in the way. This is one of the many aspects of situational awareness.
Related: 3.7.c) Gap sniping, 5.1. Situational Awareness

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b)

Reading the battleflow

Reading the battle, or reading the flow of battle, means to see not only what is going on at
the surface, but also what is going on behind the scene. The good news is, you will train
this skill automatically and don't have to care about it much. The bad news is: it is so
complex that it's impossible to explain everything. You can only learn from gathering lots
and lots of experience. Finding a tutor who tells you what to look at and how to look at it
can speed up the process. Some YouTube channels/guides do that (A9).
Recognize what's happening around you
The best way to do this is to watch
replays. Watch your games, and watch
games of other people. Watch what you
did, look at the situation, try to
remember what you thought and
whether it matched the real situation.
Count how many tanks are where, what
type they are, what weapons they use
and how they move. Look at where shots
are coming from, how many, and in what
rhythm. Look at every damn detail you can find. And then think about what it tells you.
Grow to see what's REALLY happening around you
If a tank advances, what situation is it in, and how does this move affect the metagame? Is
it a suicide, or is it actually an important move, maybe to distract someone? After you
learned to look at what people do, start to look at why they do it, or don't do it. Look
beyond the surface. It's not about the action, it's about the intention of the action.
This is what some people call true sight. When you get really familiar with
something, your perception changes. You no longer need to spend much
brain capacity on the trivial stuff like a minimap icon, and your brain starts
wandering off and do all kinds of amazing things. This is not crazy psycho
stuff, by the way. It happens all the time in our everyday life. Depending on your flavour
(3.2.), you will start to see different patterns for different things. It's a double-edged sword,
because you see that meaning through the filter of your experiences, which can lead to
false interpretation. Be carefull and readjust when you notice a false interpretation.
Example: When you see some of the opponent tanks, it's possible to know the location of
the other ones. Look at the types and compare it with all the other information the
player lists, common locations for certain tank types, platoons, earlier events, behaviour
of the visible tanks, informations that the opponents gathered etc. You can know where
people are and what they are doing, even when they have never been spotted.

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Base your actions on achievements

No, not the shiny virtual medal in your profile. It's about battle tasks. What needs to be
done in what situation? And how does it translate to actual ingame actions? When playing,
ask yourself "what am I trying to accomplish right here, right now?". Does it fit into the
general situation, or are you just randomly doing something?
Related: 5.8.c) Task priorities
Think out of the box
Go beyond expectations, and use their
expectations to your advantage. Be less
predictable whithout being less
effective. There is absolutely no reason
to deny yourself options. Use
everything that is available, not just the
things people usually use. This goes
from choosing crazy troop distribution
strategies to killing an opponent by
jumping on him. Don't limit yourself,
pick every option that gives you an
edge over your opponent. Learn to see
options, not just actions.
Example: Some tanks have exceptionally good frontal turret armour. This can be used for
scouting in a way that most people don't care about. Equip binoculars, look over the hill to
get a good view, then make sure that people shoot you by making yourself visible
(shooting). When they do, you will spot them and relay that information to your allies.
There you go, half the opponent team is visible, all at the cost of a few scratches. Heavy
tanks are not primarily made for scouting, but nobody said it's forbidden.
Example: You could pick up stuff from the ground. With your foot. Why should you bother
moving your whole body when all you need to move is a single leg? And why don't you do
it this way?
Related: 5.8.f) Information gathering and information denial , 5.5. Effectiveness and
efficiency

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c)

Task priorities

During a battle, there is a number of things that need

to be done. Often you can't do all of them, because
there are limiting factors like time or number/position
of people. So you need to set priorities. Do the more
important thing first, and then, if you still have the
option, do the other tasks. Common knowledge, right?
Problem is, the actual priority of a task is made of a
complicated formula that includes a million things that
change constantly. Even the formula itself changes
every now and then. So there is never a true recipe
you can stick to. Most leaders use their knowledge,
experience and a big heap of intuition to estimate priorities, and if they are really good,
they probably get to an 80% hit chance. You can find good detailed examples in some of
the video logs on YouTube (A9) where good players show you situations of everyday
matches and explain what they did and why.
Doing the right thing at the right time is what makes you a pro. But if there is no "I win"
recipe, what can you do? The same as everyone: guess as well as you can. Below are some
common examples. Other than that, only an open mind and experience can teach you
(having a mentor helps alot).
Example: You and your ally are getting flanked. There are 4 targets from two directions.
Which direction do you fight? Which tank do you shoot?
If you can kill in one shot, go for it.
Take one direction each, cover each others vulnerable back.
Priority target: the one that is fastest to kill and deals the most damage. Shoot tough
targets last.
If the opponent has one tank that you know can screw your whole team, kill that one, or
damage it as much as you can, if you can.
Example: An opponent is driving through a hole in your teams formation. Do you leave
your position to intercept, or do you keep fighting?
If you are a light tank, intercept.
If half the team is near your position, intercept.
If you are needed to hold your position, stay.
If your team is pushing on your side, help pushing.
If both teams have 3 artillery on an open map and the opponent would kill them,
intercept.
Related: 5.1. Situational Awareness, 5.8.b) Reading the battleflow

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d)

Location priorities

Some locations are more important than others. But just like
task priorities, location priorities change over the course of
battle. You got your awesome sniper hill? Great!
Unfortunately nobody is showing up, so that hill just became
totally useless. You got this spot that can be defended
insanely well? Suddenly your lemming team decides to push
at this spot there goes your Spartan wet dream down the
toilet.
There is a million things that need to be considered, and they
change constantly. However, with locations it's slightly easier
than with tasks, because locations are much easier to
understand. It's easy to understand that the hill in the middle
of the map gives a strategic advantage.
But keep in mind that due to the fact that location priorities are much easier to
understand, many people will follow the subconscious urge to take that hill, or use this
spot to defend, or whatever. That means a certain degree of reliability, and that means you
can pick counter-tactics. If you know there is some Spartan-wannabe waiting for you at the
end of the street, troll him by going somewhere else. Or troll him even more and keep him
distracted with sidescraping (3.7.d)), while an ally stabs him in the back (the downfall of
every Spartan as we all know).
Location priorities are the easiest way to learn about situational awareness.
Unfortunately those locations change in almost every patch due to map changes. But
generally speaking, hills and cover are your usual suspects, especially if it allows for killing
opponent tanks while being in little danger.
Your best bet is probably watching video logs of experienced players on YouTube (A9).
Related: 5.1. Situational Awareness, 5.8.b) Reading the battleflow

85

e)

Classical battle strategies

Read first: 2.7. Roles

The art of war has been studied by many people throughout the human history. Some of
the knowledge was published and can be applied to games as well. To give you a quick
introduction, here are three basic strategies that are relatively well known and are used
very often in WoT, although most people are not aware of them.
Denied flank
Or sometimes called the Refused Flank.
In terms of pure battlestrength, you
distribute your troops like a wedge,
where one side gets all the powerfull
units for attacking, the middle gets
some versatile units to battle a bit on
their own or support the flanks, and
the other side gets only a few defenders, preferably fast ones so they can retreat and setup
a second defence line or help with counterflanking.
The weak flank acts as an enabler, trying to buy the attackers as much time as possible by
keeping the opponent busy with cat&mouse tactics. The middle reacts to the opponent
distribution by reinforcing either flank or abusing holes in the opponent formation to do a
delayed rush or flanking maneuvers. The strong side pushes really hard to destroy the
opponent forces with the big advantage of superior battle strength. If the strong flank can't
win the fight fast enough, the battle is likely lost.
If the opponent uses the same strategy at the same flank, chances of winning are 50/50. If
he uses it at the other flank, a funny rotation will happen where each team ends up in the
respective opponent's terrain. In that case, the team with the better defenders will likely
win, it's still 50/50.
This strategy is risky, but very powerfull. If supported by other factors like terrain, it can win
against pretty much anything, because nothing will be able to stop the attack force (except
in a mirror match). But if you pick the wrong side, or your team doesn't work together and
the defenders start doing silly things, or your attackers decide to stop, you are screwed.
Denied center
Troop distribution looks like an inverted
arrowhead. We put half our attacking
forces on each outer flank, and only
minor forces in the middle.

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Our attackers have an advantage against equally distributed forces, so they should win in a
direct confrontation, which will give us both flanks. The center however is very weak and
will lose if stuck in a fight. The usefulness of this strategy becomes visible when playing the
scenario and watching the opponent choices.
If the opponent distributes equally, we
will win both flanks while keeping the
middle busy. That results in a double
flanked opponent. If our center can
keep them busy long enough, we win. If
we lose the center, the battle becomes
harder for us, but is not lost yet. The
opponent can redistribute his troops freely, because he has the center now, while our
troops are split, disadvantage for us. Overall a slightly positive balance for us.
If the opponent plays a common
denied flank, one of our flanks will win
against their weak flank. Our other
flank will lose against their strong flank.
But because we have increased troop
strength, even if not as much as the
opponent, we still should be able to
delay them for a good amount of time. And because our formation is somewhat
symmetrical, we don't care where the strong flank comes. Of course the whole thing
depends on whether we crush their weak flank fast enough or not, because it's just a
matter of time when their superior attack force will defeat our other flank. So it's more or
less 50/50. Overall, a slight advantage for us again.
And as always, if we get the mirror match, it's 50/50.
This formation is relatively strong, especially if the two strong flanks have versatile tanks
that can reposition fast to support where help is needed.
Delayed rush
This one is very easy, but requires knowledge of how the opponent forces will be
distributed. You have a few fast units, waiting until a certain time has passed, or until a
certain event occured. Then those fast units break through the hole in the opponent's
formation and do a quick strike to a vulnerable point. In WoT, this is usually a light or
medium tank that rushes through the middle of the map after tanks have gone to the
flanks, and attack artillery, or harass opponent frontlines from behind.
It's usually combined with a Denied Center.
Related: 5.1. Situational Awareness, 5.8.b) Reading the battleflow

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f)

Information gathering and information denial

Information is an enabler. It enables

you to do the right things at the right
time. Without information, you are
stumbling around blindly. That's why
competitive players often use special
UI modifications (A8) to get additional
info. The more info we get, the more
accurate our plans can be as long as
the information is neatly arranged and
not flooding us.
Information is especially useful for versatile tank(er)s, because they have the biggest pool
of options to choose from. Depending on the situation, they can adapt and choose a
strategy that gives them the best advantage in relation to the opponents.
Example: The 6th sense skill of the commander tells you when you have been spotted,
even if you don't see any opponent. That allows you to quickly move into cover, possibly
even before they fire their first shot at you.
Same goes for the opposite direction. The less your opponent knows, the less advantages
he has, or rather knows. Because it doesn't matter what really is, only what people know is
relevant. If they don't know you are alone, you are perfectly fine defending 1v5. But as
soon as they get that information, you are done for. That's the reason why knocking down
trees is bad, and why shooting when we won't do anything is bad too. It gives information
to the opponent, but doesn't give you any benefit.
Note that every kind of information gathering is subject to perception filters.
Pro Tip: It's not possible to give no information. Even the lack of information is an
information. What does it tell you when the 6 th sense light bulb does not turn up even if it
should, according to your last info?
Take a good look at what is or is not happening around you, and you will greatly increase
your situational awareness.
Related: 5.8.g) Deception, 4.1. Point of View, 5.6. Communication errors

88

g)

Deception

While information denial is used to leave the opponent in

uncertainty, deception is false information to manipulate the
opponent's behaviour in a certain direction. Suppressive Fire
as we use it in this game is an example of applying deception.
Another example would be to pop out from cover making
sure they notice you, then retreating and waiting until you
become invisible to the opponent. Repeat that once, and then move away completely. You
are effectively "defending" that spot whithout being there, because most people will think
you are still there. Even the simple act of hiding in a bush is giving false information, the
information that "nobody is here".
Deception can be countered with experience and situational awareness. Listen to your
instincts. Sometimes it's just that weird feeling that maybe you shouldn't go that one way.
Maybe your subconscious is warning you to go somewhere else because a red marker
popped up there a while ago and you were busy so you didn't really notice it. And
sometimes there are little signs that tell you something is off, like someone really mocking
you, probably to bait you. The whole thing is basically a skill to fake/read human behaviour.
Related: 4.1. Point of View, 5.1. Situational Awareness, 5.8.b) Reading the battleflow

89

5.9. Cookies
Yes, cookies.
With all the seriousness going on around us, don't forget to smile once in a while :)

Also, because it reminds us that everything we see is subject to our perception filters:

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6. Outro
The above chapters cover how to handle your tank, the benefit of platoons, and what
happens on one or two meta-levels above the fighting. Despite the immense length of this
guide, it is only an introduction, comparable to studying a scientific field. It gives you a
basic set of tools and hints. The reality is too complex to talk about everything, and no
guide can replace experience.
There are lots of other, more specialized guides out there. Some of them only take a couple
minutes to understand, like Highflyers videos. Others contain dozens of pages of details
that will affect how you look at the gameplay, like Tazilons scout guide. It is up to you how
deep you want to delve into the game and how much energy you are willing to spend to
learn more.

Now go out into the World of Tanks and see what you can do!
Keep an open mind, and don't forget to have fun :)

Denolven

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A1 Communication signals
The ingame communication system is an exellent example of good design making things
alot easier, one of the best in the world of online gaming so far. Signals provide concise
messages to handle basic communication during battle. The use of such signals is indicated
by a chat message, an audio signal, an ingame symbol floating above the target/sender,
and an ingame symbol on the minimap all at the same time. This ensures that you notice
the messages no matter where your attention is, and provides information about the
sender and the target at multiple perception levels, all while staying decent enough to not
get on your nerves. The messages are mapped to the F4-F8 keys and 'T' on your keyboard:
T

Target

F4

Defend

F5

Yes

F6

No

F7

Help

F8

Reloading

You can send the message by pressing the corresponding button on your keyboard.
Alternatively you can hold 'Y', which will open a radial menu, showing you the available
commands. Moving the mouse cursor roughly in the direction of the message you want
and releasing the Y button will then send the message. This helps people who have trouble
remembering keys (or finding them in the heat of battle), but can memorize directions.
Context
The messages are context-sensitive. That means depending on whether you hover the
mouse cursor over an ally, an opponent, or nothing, they will slightly differ to make sense.
They also change depending on which tank you are in, and in which situation you are. For
example, in non-artillery tanks T on an opponent means to request fire support on the
target. In an artillery tank it means you are currently taking aim on this target. F4 usually
means "Defend the base!", but if you hover over an ally, it means "PlayerX, fall back!".
You don't need to remember all the specific contextual messages. Just remember the
above table the commands always apply to these general meanings.
Pro Tip: Don't spam signals, and only send them when it matters. Remember to hover
over an ally if you want specific people to do specific things.
Pro Tip: The game comes with a VoIP system that allows talking to allies via microphone.

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A2 Crew skills
Once your tank crew reaches 100% on their base skill, they can start learning special skills.
Theoretically it's possible to learn all skills in the game, but it would take so many games
that you probably won't see it happen. As a rule of thumb: the required amount of games
for the next skill doubles with each skill. So if you did 100 matches to reach 100% on the
primary skill, you'll then need another 200 matches to complete the first secondary skill,
then another 400 matches for the second, then another 800 matches for the third that
means 1500 games for a crew with three special abilities. And that's assuming you need
100 games to finish the primary skill. It gets insane really quick. Generally you can expect to
get to the second ability if you keep a tank, the third if you play that tank alot.
There are two types of abilities: skills and perks. Skills work as soon as you get them and
increase the effect gradually until reaching 100%. Perks don't have any effect until they
reach 100%.
Recommended skills
The most valuable skills are those that benefit your playstyle and role in battle, as well as
the tank you use. Usually, you simply want to lessen the effect of things that really hurt
you. If that is not applicable, think about the battle situations that you are usually in, and
which skills help in these situations. If your gun gets destroyed alot, go for Armourer. If you
lose crew alot, go for Jack of all Trades. If you have low traverse speed, go for Clutch
Braking, etc. Always try to counter the things that annoy you most.
If still in doubt, going for these is never wrong:
Role

Skills

Scout

Sixth Sense, Camouflage

Fighter (mobile)

Smooth Ride, Snap Shot, Repair/Camouflage

Fighter (heavy)

Repair, Armourer, Jack of all Trades, Safe Stowage

Sniper

Sixth Sense, Camouflage

Artillery

Sixth Sense, Camouflage, Brothers in Arms

If you are absolutely certain that you will play a tank for very long time and get at least
three skills, then Brothers in Arms is recommended. Otherwise don't bother. The only
exception is artillery, because you will want every single upgrade for reload time and
accuracy that you can get, and Brothers in Arms is one of them.

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Skills:
Repair

Increased module repair speed. The effectiveness

depends on the training level and is averaged across the
whole crew.

Camouflage

Reduces vehicle visibility. The effectiveness depends on

the training level and is averaged across the whole crew.

Firefighting

Increased firefighting speed. The effectiveness depends

on the training level and is averaged across the whole
crew.

Mentor

For every 1% of this skill, all crew members except the

Commander himself receive 0.1% additional xp per battle.
At 100% you will get 10% more crew xp per battle.

Recon

Provides a bonus of 0.02% per training level (up to 2%) to

your vehicle's view range.
When your observation device gets damaged it increases
that bonus up to 20%.

Jack of All Trades

The skill enables the Commander to master every major

qualification and replace knocked-out crew members. The
replacement effect lessens with each crew member
knocked out;
i.e. first crewman will be replaced with 50% of its former
efficiency, 2nd crewmember with only 25%, etc.

Clutch Breaking

Increases vehicle rotation speed by 0.05% per training

level (up to 5%).

Off-Road-Driving

+10% mobility on soft ground/ +2,5% on normal ground

The skill reduces ground resistance when driving on soft
and moderately soft terrain.

Smooth Ride

Reduces the accuracy penalty applied when firing on the

move by 0.04% per training level (up to 4%).The skill is not
effective if the vehicle is stationary or rotating.

Controlled Impact

Decreases ramming damage to your vehicle and increases

ramming damage to an enemy vehicle by 0.15% per
training level (up to 15%).

Armourer

This skill reduces the accuracy penalty from a damaged

gun by 0.2% per training level (up to 20%). If two Gunners
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have this skill, only the higher rating is effective.

Snapshot

Reduces the accuracy penalty applied during turret

rotation by 0.075% per training level (up to 7.5%). It
applies to turreted and non-turreted vehicles.

Situational Awareness

This skill extends your vehicle's View Range statistic by

0.03% per training level (up to 3%). If two Radio Operators
have the skill, only the higher rating is effective.

Relaying

This skill increases the radio range for all allies in your
range by 0.1% per training level (up to 10%).

Signal boosting

This skill inreases your radio range by 0.2% per training

level (up to 20%).
If two Radio Operators have the skill only the higher rating
is effective.

Perks:
Brothers in Arms

The perk improves major qualifications and all skills and

perks for the entire crew by 5%. Every crewmember needs
to have BIA on 100% before the effect kicks in.

Sixth Sense

3 seconds after detection, a light bulb will appear showing

the vehicle has been spotted.

Eagle Eye

This perk enables the Commander to see the critical

damaged modules of targeted vehicles after a delay of 4
seconds. Indicators for each damaged module will then
appear below the targeted vehicle. Doesn't work in artymode.

Preventive Maintenace

This perk reduces the chance of an engine fire by 25%.

Designated Target

This perk makes targeted enemy vehicles within 10

degrees of your reticle remain visible for two more
seconds than they normally would be. Does not work in
arty-mode.

Deadeye

Improves the chance to damage modules & crewmen

critically by 3%. Only works with AP/APCR shells.

Call for Vengeance

The perk enables a Radio Operator who survived the

destruction of his vehicle to report enemy positions for
another two seconds.

95

Safe Stowage

Increased ammo rack durability by 12.5%. If more than

one Loader has this perk, the effect is not adding up.

Adrenaline Rush

This perk shortens reload time by 9.1% if the vehicle has

less than 10% of its hit points left. If two Loaders have the
perk, the effect is not adding up.

Intuition

17% chance different ammo loading will occur as if no

swap had happened. Instant switch from one shell type to
another. Cumulative.

Availability:
Everyone

Camouflage, Repair, Firefighting, Brothers in Arms

Commander

Jack of all Trades, Mentor, Reckon, Eagle Eye, Sixth Sense

Driver

Clutch Breaking, Off-Road-Driving, Smooth Ride, Controlled Impact,

Preventive Maintenace

Gunner

Armourer, Snapshot, Deadeye, Designated Target

Radio Operator

Relaying, Signal boosting, Situational Awareness, Call for Vengeance

Loader

Adrenaline Rush, Intuition, Adrenaline Rush

96

A3 Equipment
There are several types of equipment:
1. tank modules (gun, engine, radio etc.)
2. passive equipment (camouflage net, binoculars etc.)
3. consumables (repair kit, first aid kit etc.; need to be bought anew after use)

Tank modules
Except for the guns, always get the higher upgrade. Some tanks have multiple gun options
take a close look to their statistics and make sure you use the one that fits your style best.
Just because a gun has a bigger calliber doesn't mean it's better.
Consumables
The ones you will use most are the basic first aid kit and repair kit. They are affordable and
have the biggest impact on the battle. The third item depends on the tank. If you tend to
catch fire alot, get the fire extinguisher. If you like moving and have enough credits, use
Octane/Oil to improve mobility.
Passive Equipment
This section has the biggest pool of items to choose from, and they all have their place.
There are two types: exchangable and complex. Exchangable equipment can be reequipped to other tanks. Complex equipment (marked by a golden nut) is destroyed when
you unequip it, unless you spend a small amount of gold currency. When equiping or
unequiping complex equipment, the game will give you a warning.
The only exchangable passive equipment is Camouflage Net, Binoculars and Toolbox. Due
to the high prices, we recommend buying equipment when it's on sale.
Recommended equipment
As with the crew skills, the best equipment is that wich works best for your everyday
situations. Consumables and passive equipment might be too expensive if you are
relatively new to the game, but by the time you reach tier 4/5 tanks, your income will be
high enough to think about it. If you are not sure, going for these is never wrong:
97

Role

Skills

Scout

Camouflage Net, Ventilation, Binoculars

Fighter (mobile)

Gun-Rammer, Ventilation, Vertical Stabilizer

Fighter (heavy)

Gun-Rammer, Enhanced Gun Laying Drive, Toolbox

Sniper

Gun-Rammer, Camouflage Net, Ventilation/Binoculars

Artillery

Camouflage Net, Enhanced Gun Laying Drive, Gun-Rammer

Camouflage Net

Decreases the vehicles visibility by 25% after

being stationary for more than 3 seconds
You can see its symbol turning green in the UI.
Note:
When you move your hull the camo net will be
no longer active till you stay still for another 3
seconds. Moving your turret will not influence
the camo-nets effect.

Binoculars

+ 25% more view range after it kicked in.

Similar to the camo-net the binoculars will start
working after 3 seconds of not moving your
vehicles hull.

Toolbox

+25% repair speed

Improved Ventilation

Vents improve major qualifications and all skills

and perks for the entire crew by 5%.

Gun-Rammer

Reduces your reload time by 10%

Enhanced Gun Laying Drive

Reduces your aiming time by 10 %.

Vertical Stabilizer

20% reduction of the accuracy penalties while

moving.

98

Coated Optics

Increases your view range by 10%.

Spall Liner

+20% (Light Spall Liner), +25% (Medium), +30%

(Heavy), and +50% (Superheavy) addition to
armour protection from ramming, explosions
and crew damage.

Wet Ammo Rack

Increases the hit points of your ammo rack by

50%.

Enhanced Suspension

+10% Suspension Load Limit

+30% to Suspension hit points
50% less damage from falling.

Additional Grousers

-9.1% ground resistance on soft ground and 4.8% ground resistance on average soil.

Cyclone Filter

Increases the hit points of your engine by 50%.

Fill tanks with CO2

Increases the hit points of your fuel tanks by

50%.

99

A4 Clan Wars
(author: 1ndependence)

What is Clan Wars?

Clan Wars in WoT is a mode that only clans can play. It's similar to the board game Risk
there is a map with regions, and clans can conquer these regions. When the region is
owned by a clan already, the attacker has to defeat the defender in battle. Each region has
a specific map, which means the map is known before the battle starts.
When your clan is on the map, it will automatically earn gold on a daily basis, depending on
the size and location of the province.
What you need to participate
You need 15 players with tanks of varying combinations depending on the map. One of
those players is a Field Commander (FC), who is appointed by the Clan Commander with
the task of leading the battle. The FC has 15 minutes to prepare his team and to discuss the
strategy. Tier 10 tanks are used, unless there is a special event allowing lower tiers (8, 6).
How to get involved
To be able to organise clan wars you need to be the commander, a deputy commander or a
field commander in your clan. You can then access the Clan Wars page on your local WoT
website, which offers a map and the opportunity to select where you want your team to
land. However, you can only land on provinces where the word Landing is visible in the
information box. The info box will also list the other clans that have applied for the landing.
When you have selected the province you want to land on you can see the time each battle
will take place and who the respective opponents will be. All attackers compete in a little
tournament, and the winner is allowed to fight against the current region owner.
Chips system
When your clan is able to land, it will have virtual chips at its disposal, with each chip being
a representation of a player within the clan. The number of available chips directly
correlates to the number of players in the clan. For example, if you have 50 players in the
clan you will have 50 chips. The chips are allocated in stacks of up to 15 (the number of
players able to enter one battle) and are placed on the map as an indication of where the
clan will attack or defend an existing province. If your clan enters a battle and loses, the 15
chips are temporarily locked, which reduces the number of chips available for later battles.
This is a particular problem for smaller clans who have fewer chips. In some instances, it is
not possible to allocate a full stack of 15 chips to a battle and so it is either fought with less
than 15 players or not at all depending on the clan commanders decision. One chip is
unlocked every round (1 round = 1 hour).
100

A5 Monitoring your performance

There are several online tools that provide more detailed information about players
performance. While some people use these tools to compare their e-penises, it is
recommended to use the tools mainly for tracking your own improvement. Everyone who
understands the math behind will assure you that all those ratings are a vague estimation
at best, and always depend on how you look at it. Many aspects of being a good player
cannot be measured technically. A player who plays alot of artillery is bound to have a
lower hit percentage, but that doesn't make him a worse player. A player who is not good
at fighting, but exceptional at judging situations, may very well have a bad performance
rating, but an above average win rate.
Competent leaders know how to interpret the data without false assumptions, and they
know the limitations of it. If a leader only looks at the numbers, it's not a competent one,
although he'll probably claim otherwise while pointing to his own rating.
NoobMeter http://new.noobmeter.com/

vBAddict

Shows several statistics and shows

progress during the last couple days and
over the last 1000 battles; easy to use

http://www.vbaddict.net/wot.php For the statistics nerds, tons of number

crunching, both for server-wide data and
your locally stored match data if you
upload it; contains more detailed
information, but is more difficult to use
as well

101

A6 Matchmaking
Basic concept
The matchmaker is a server-side part of the game. Its purpose is to find two equally strong
teams and put them together, in a way that is hopefully fun for everyone. It calculates the
battle value of teams and searches for combinations that have the same battle value. The
battle value of a team is the sum of individual tank battle values. The battle value of a tank
is supposedly based on its tier, adjusted by the tank type (heavy and artillery tanks get a
20% increase). But there are so many tanks with arbitrary additional modifications that
basically each tank has its own battle value.
Additional limitations
The battle value of the two teams are not the only thing that is considered. There are other
limitations that were put in to make games more interesting and fair. For example, each
team can only have a maximum of five artillery tanks, and the number of scouts is not
allowed to differ by more than one.
Those additional matchmaking rules are in place to avoid weird team setups that could
otherwise happen, like 15 artillery tanks versus 15 scout tanks.
Tiers
The matchmaker is not allowed to put tanks of very different tiers together. The allowed
deviation is +/- one tier, resulting in a maximum difference of two tiers. In most cases, a
tank can still damage a two tiers higher tank when shooting it in the side or back.
However, some light tanks have a special matchmaking, resulting in tier 5 tanks fighting tier
10 opponents. We call that scout-matchmaking. Unfortunately, those tanks cannot be
recognized. They look like any other light tank, and are spread over tiers, tech tree lines
and nations in a totally arbitrary way. If you plan on going for light tanks, make sure you ask
an experienced player how the tanks you picked are going to be matched.
Many premium tanks (the ones you can only buy with real money) get a favoured
matchmaking, so that they are never bottom list cannon fodder. But not all of them. It's
arbitrary again, so ask a veteran player or check the Wiki (A9).
When two tanks of different tier enter a game as a platoon, the higher tier is used for both.
However, this does not overwrite the battle weights. If a tier 3 and tier 5 tank platoon
enters a battle, they will both be considered tier 5 tanks and will get matched against tier 5
tanks, but the overall battleweight of both teams are still made equal. That means the lack
of battle weight is compensated, for example by giving the opponents one less top tier
tank.

102

A7 Why things fail

(author: Denolven; internal SGTA guide, published due to popular demand)

People
First of all, and the most important part: you are playing with/against people. Now this
seems to be obvious, but I have the feeling that many people don't know what it actually
means. So let's take a closer look.
Point of view
People play games, and they do it for different reasons. Some play to kill time, some play
for competition, some play to improve, some play to troll around. There are more reasons,
but I think you get the point.
There is no right or wrong! Just different points of view. Most of them are valid, and most
of the time people make assumptions about others that simply aren't real. The point is to
accept that other people are different. Not better or worse, just different. If you start a
fight over that, there can never be a winner, because there is no objective "right" or
"wrong" in the first place.
As long as you can't accept that people are different, things will never work out. Argue
about their PoV and yours, because that allows both to improve. But if people refuse to
even listen, there is no point in arguing. Accept, and go your way.
There is a saying: Walk a while in my shoes, before you judge me.
Perception
Perception is what we see, and how we see it. Everyone walks around with a filter, nobody
can see the objective truth. That filter is determined by our experience, education, and
other influences like advertising. We see things, then we put them into boxes to keep our
personal world in order. Sometimes, things fit in none of the existing boxes, and we may
ignore it or adjust our personal world.
Now remember what I said about the point of view. Your point of view is determined by
your past, and it determines how you perceive things. Just because you "see" someone
trolling, doesn't mean he really does. Our perception is very limited, and you can safely
assume that whatever happens, you don't see everything. This is not a fault, it simply is
how we humans are made. We would become insane if we would see everything, so our
body does us the service of filtering the input, limiting it to what is important for us.
Since everyone has a different point of view (where we are/come from), everyone has a
different perception (where we look) as well. That is why we often ask others to take a look
at something when we are not sure, or when we think there is a good chance that we
missed something. Accept that none of us knows/sees everything. We can all improve
when we talk about the things we see differently. It doesn't mean you have to have the
103

same opinion. It just means to accept that there are other opinions (conclusions that are
derived from what we know and what we see).
People are never wrong
The vast majority of people is never wrong. Sure, everyone does a "wrong" decision now
and then, but that's not what I mean.
Everyone bases his decisions on what he knows, and what he sees. If a decision has to be
made, we think about the best way to do it. Sometimes that thinking happens consciously,
but most of the time it's done by our subconscious part. If you want to get a glas of water,
you don't think about moving your arm, you just do it. It has become so natural, so
intrinsic, that our conscious mind doesn't need to bother about it. Again it's a natural filter
built in humans, so we don't have to think about every tiny thing all the time. Most stuff is
done "automatically", subconsciously.
The conclusion is that whatever people do, they do it because either their consciousness,
or their unconsciousness, has decided that this is the proper thing to do in the given
situation. Now you might think "wait, I'm not programmed! I do my own decisions!" And
yes, you do. But these decisions are based on what you are, what you have experienced in
the past, and what you see. Parts of the decision making are done before you think about
it. I'm not telling you faery tales here, this is actually backed up by science.
Also, it does not mean you can be an asshole and say "oh but it's all defined in my
subconscious, I can't help it, it's not my fault!". Your decision to deliberately be an asshole
is not a subconscious decision!
The subconscious is the basis of what we do in general (that's why advertising works so
well - it influences our subconscious and we don't even notice it). The conscious part
however can change the outcome. Compared to the subconscious, it is very slow and
clumsy, but it has the power to almost completely negate the subconscious. A simple
example would be if a really hungry person asks you to share your food. Your subconscious
is most likely "fuck you, my food, I survive, not my problem if you die". But your conscious
might intervene and say "wait wait, remember that one time when you were really
hungry? Would have been cool if someone had given you food, right? Besides you are fat
anyway, it won't kill you if you give some to him."
These "voices" are just different parts of ourself, parts of what we are. So the next time
someone does something that disturbs you, try to think about how his mind looks like.
Depending on the mindset, you might have done the same, you just don't know.
There are many documented cases of criminals who never thought of being wrong. It's not
because they are stupid. It's because in that situation, from their perspective, and with
what they have seen, it was their "proper reaction".
Keep that in mind when you are arguing about something that "went wrong" in your
opinion. In most cases, there was just a missing information that would have changed the
decision. Either because the info wasn't there, or because he didn't see it. Instead of
blaming them for whatever, ask what they thought when doing it, and you might even find
104

some sense in that. Often people will even see things differently afterwards and say "now
that I think about it, that was really stupid."
It's called learning ;)
Judgement
Above I talked about how we make decisions. Now lets talk about the collision of decisions.
People have different opinions. Most times, all of them are valid to some extent. Often
enough, they are not fully compatible. If a decision has to be made, and there are too
many incompatible options, we judge.
Judging means we give certain things a certain value, and then take the option with the
better value. It also means that we deny the ones with the lower value.
Problem is, these values we apply are based on our persona, or in some cases a value
system that was agreed on or implanted by an institution usually parents. But as I said
before, none of us is perfect, and there is no absolute objectivity. Which means the values
might be total bullshit. Basically they are all made up.
And that is why everyone should be carefull with judging. Different people give different
things a different value.
There is no absolute solution to that problem, because it is caused by our human nature.
Well ok, extinguishing the humans would solve it, but most of us agree that this is not a
desirable solution. So be aware of that when judging people. Just because someone has
different values doesn't mean yours are better.
Organizing people
Now that I have done alot of talking about what people are, lets take a look at the
combination of people. When things shall be done that cannot be done by a single person,
a combination of energy of people is needed. This energy must be directed in the proper
direction. Having more sex is probably not the right way to solve the problem of lack of
food.
The abstraction of that is a task, and a tool. Several things are needed to complete a task:
the tool must not be broken
the tool must be appropriate for the task
it has to be done
If all three things are there, humans can achieve unbelievable things. Every single one is
rather weak - if we compare the capabilities of our bodies to that of other animals, we are
pretty much the bottom, except for our brain. But we managed to compensate for that by
combining forces and using our brain to adapt. That is our strength, that is how we survive.
We can adapt well, and we can combine our forces. Lets take a closer look at the above
mentioned points.

105

Broken tools
This is probably the most common reason why tasks cannot be handled. If your tool is
broken, the rest doesn't matter, because you won't be able to do the task, unless you find
another working tool.
Now what does that mean for us, the Academy people?
It means that if there are projects that shall be done, and require a combination of multiple
people, that we, the people, are the tool. And if we don't work together, nothing will
happen. Many people have good reasons to not work together with others, and that is
perfectly fine. If you want to do something that needs more than one person, you need to
find the ones that are willing to contribute.
So, in Order to be a working tool, the people have to be willing to spend energy on the
same thing, and also work together with the others. Both are important, because if one
pulls left, and the other one pulls right, not much is going to happen.
The common interest is either there, or not, that is given rather than influenced. So let's
assume we found a bunch of people who want to contribute. Now what has to be done is
making them work as a group. Usually that is accomplished in two steps:
a) the people know/learn how to work as a team
b) there is at least one leader who can direct the combined force in the right direction
If either the people are not working together, or the direction is off, the task will fail. So if
you want to do the task, make sure you got the right people. We don't blame you for
having no interest in something. It just means that we have to pick another one for the
task.
Of course we don't expect everyone/everything to work perfectly from day one. After all,
you are not here because you can do it already, but because you want to learn it (wich
means you can't do it currently). And the Academy is not perfect either our methods of
teaching can always be improved as well, so be patient with us.
Appropriate Tools
This one is easy to understand. If you want to put a nail into a wall, a fork is probably not
going to work. Usually, there is more than one tool that works. Some work better, some
worse, and most of the times only a limited amount of tools is available. If your only
available tool is a fork, then you either have to be very creative and determined, or you
won't be able to do the task. The same applies to the Academy. If you want to do
something, but there is nobody with the proper skills, then you either learn to do it
yourself with the given limitations, or you simply can't do the task.
Again, it's nothing personal. Logic dictates that if I want to have a nice guide that everyone
can understand, that I have to use proper language. If I don't have the language skill, or
someone else to help me, then I can't do it. As simple as that.
For ingame projects that means that people have to know how to drive a tank, at least on a
basic level. It is nice to have willing people, but if they don't know anything, it's not going
106

to help. That is where leadership comes into play. A good leader knows how to work with
the given tools, and how to make someone useful even if he might consider himself
useless. A bad leader limits himself (and the team) by denying options. Leadership skill is a
tool, too!
It has to be done
This is probably the second most reason why things don't work. It's not enough to have all
the needed resources (in our case people with knowledge). If you have a hammer, a nail
and a wall, that alone won't do anything. In order to complete the task, you have to
actually take the stuff and work with it.
This is so basic that many people don't even think about it. In order to create value,
someone has to work. It doesn't just happen, it has to be created. And again, if nobody is
willing or able to do that, nothing will happen.
Now remember, different people have different priorities. Don't blame them for not being
willing to do the work, they usually have valid reasons. If you are not sure about how much
effort someone is willing to put into a project, simply ask! Then try to estimate whether it
can be done. This part is usually done by the topmost leaders. The ones that keep the
whole thing running. If nobody does anything, everything falls apart.
There is a second level here. It's not just the leaders or instructors who do something, it's
also the ones who enable us to do something. In other words: our students. Even by the
simple act of asking questions, you are contributing to the Academy. Without you, we don't
exist. We would run around with nail and hammer in our hand, looking for a wall.
The fact that in order to create value, work is needed, also means that everything you see,
any value you can find, has been created by someone. I wrote this guide, Thycos set the
forum up, someone invented the computer, someone found out about electicity.
Absolutely everything that was ever made by humans, even if it's just a small thing like a
pen, was made by people who created value. That is our power as creators. It's not limited
to material things, and you don't have to be a genius to do it. If you smile at someone, and
he smiles back there you go, you just created a small amount of happyness :)
If you want to make a project work, some of that power is needed.
Resistance
One of the main principles as a teacher is: you cannot teach someone who is not willing to
learn. In many cases, people simply give a shit about it and are immune to any form of
improvement.
That's ok!
Keep in mind that not everyone plays for the same reasons. People don't care about
improvement for the same reason they don't care about running marathons, or studying
physics, or being nice to everyone, or becoming a chess master. There are a million things
we simply don't care about. Only a very small amount of things is so important to us that
107

we spend our energy on it. And for different people, these things are different. I can't
blame someone for being a longtime noob in a game, just like I cannot blame myself for
being a longtime noob in astrophysics. Once you understand that, it seems so pointless to
rage about it.
If someone seems totally resistant, don't try to force him. It will only make it worse. Some
people need a little push here and there, so it's more a reading skill I guess. But generally, if
you invite people, that works alot better than pushing them.
Why things don't work
There are two kinds of "not working". The basic one is often assumed, but rarely the case.
It's the intrisic one that is caused by the system you are in. If you want to combine fire and
water, you might find that a bit difficult. Or water and oil, light and shadow, some people
even say women and cars.
Sometimes, it really doesn't work because of systemical incompatibility. But the amount of
things that are truly impossible to combine is relatively small. Which leads us to the second
kind of "not working": the human factor.
Most of the problems we have are caused by ourselves. Almost anything can be done, if
enough resources (including skill) and determination is there. And most of our problems
can be identified and solved rather easilly.
For most incompatibility problems there are adapters, or other ways to make it work.
Magnesium torches burn quite well under water, soap lets us combine oil and water, and
science found out that women actually have less car accidents than men. Things usually are
not black or white, but somewhere in between. They might just look black or white from
our point of view, until we understand more of the picture.
BUT, and that's a big but, you have to look for it. And that means work in many cases. And
we already talked about why people do or do not work.
The list why things fail is as endless and colorfull as humans are, because we are the cause.
Most of them boil down to a combination of these on any amount of people:

someone wasn't willing

someone didn't have the appropriate skills
someone was at the wrong place/time, a.k.a. bad luck

The biggest field of reasons why things fail is probably a combination of the lack of skill, the
ignorance to try it anyway, and the urge to say "you are wrong, I am right". People often
don't know how to compensate for human weaknesses, or aren't even aware of them.
Communication skills, or rather the lack of them, is especially troublesome. That is one
reason why our instructors teach communication, at least in the context of WoT. Because
good communication can solve or weaken many problems. Talking about different points of
view allows us to improve.

108

Epilogue
Now that was another wall of text, wasn't it. I hope it wasn't useless. Not much to say, but I
want to remind you of one simple thing:
It's not about "who is to blame?", it's about "(How) Can we compensate for our
weaknesses and do better?".
As different as we all are, at the human level we are still all the same.

109

A8 Mods recommended by SGTA

WoT allows the usage of so-called modules (mods). Mods are software enhancements that
were developed by community members and change details of the game. There is a huge
variety of mods available for changing crew voices, displaying more info in the minimap,
allowing more zooming distances or even painting ponies onto your favourite tanks if that's
what you want.
Note: The mod landscape is changing all the time, so it's impossible to give you
recommendations that stay valid. The examples we give may be outdated or surpassed by
another mod by the time you read this chapter, and we encourage you to do your own
research or ask other players what mods they use.
The most recommended type of mod is the one that gives you additional information on
the minimap. Keep in mind that they don't actually give you more information. All they do
is showing you the information that you already have by paying attention, like the last
known position of opponent tanks, or your view range. Minimap mods reduce the amount
of attention you need to pay and allow you to spend that attention elsewhere.
Extended Visualization Mod
(XVM)

http://www.modxvm.com/e Provides a large array of

n/
visualization improvements
on various parts of the
interface; configurable

Locastans Enhanced HD
Minimaps

http://forum.worldoftanks.e minimap only, but provides

u/index.php?/topic/95330- more information on that
091-locastans-enh-hdthan XVM
minimap-gen-3/

Another popular group is crosshair mods. If you think there aren't enough ingame options
for that, you can find alot of crazy stuff out there.
J1mB0's Crosshair Mod

http://forum.worldoftanks.e
u/index.php?/topic/56831091-j1mb0s-crosshair-modxvm-config/

110

Includes all kinds of things

related to aiming, including
advanced zoom control and
info on hit probabilities;
configurable

A9 Additional sources recommended by SGTA

General information
World of Tanks Wiki

http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/Mai The main info source for WoT,

n_Page
highly recommended

WOTINFO

http://wotinfo.net/en/noobcorner Detailed information on hit

zones for each tank

Tank Inspector

10 minute video about its

features:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=sihu_tlrBpk

Free and easy to use program

that gives even more info on
tanks than WOTINFO, including
effective armour depending on
how you look at the tank model
website:
and many stats that are hidden
http://tankinspector.sinaapp.com/ ingame. Requires internet
connection
and
a
Tank
Inspector account.

World
of
Tanks http://www.youtube.com/channel Official WoT YouTube channel,
YouTube channel
/UC1h424KQY-jGGQe3inlqfiA
check
out
the
playlists
"Mechanics"
and
"Tank
Academy".
People explaining stuff
Mighty Jingles

http://www.youtube.com/user/Bo "Phenomenal storyteller, first

hemianEagle
class strategist, second class
tactitian, third class aimer."
(James WXY)

Highflyer

http://www.youtube.com/user/Th One of the first big WoT

eRiisingSun
Youtubers and a big influence
for all that followed; check out
http://www.twitch.tv/highflyer15 his series "WoT tips" and "Path
to Improvement"

SideStrafe

https://www.youtube.com/channe Well explained random WoT

l/UCDWurJHZTipqIsRhaC9FdXQ
wisdom with a calm voice

QuickyBaby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Qu Guides and tank reviews from

ickyBabyTV
one of the best players, and
also one of the more elitist
http://www.twitch.tv/quickybaby ones

TheFochYou

https://www.youtube.com/user/T Lots of detailed tank reviews,

heFochYou
but be prepared for strong
language
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PandyCol

http://www.youtube.com/user/Pa Gives historical information on

ndyCol
tanks while playing WoT

Circon

http://www.twitch.tv/circon

Entertaining streams of a good

player

http://www.sgta-clan.com/

Entry point for getting in

contact with us

SGTA stuff
Website

Forum guide section http://www.sgtaclan.com/forum/viewforum.php?

f=20
Curriculum

Contains some of the resources

gathered by SGTA

https://drive.google.com/foldervie SGTAs curriculum, used as an

w?
information source for both
id=0BwNZD5ZZbIRLanY1NERiY0sw SGTA instructors and students
cU0&usp=sharing

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