Tank manuvre guide

ARMOUR vs VEHICLE FACING

All to often I see players in game with the wrong side of their tank facing the enemy. Trying to do a runner from a bigger tank with your arse facing them is not good. Some of you may think..... well does it matter what side is facing the enemy. Simple answer is YES. The armour on the front of the tank is thicker than that of the sides or rear. And with a regular tank, the side armour is also thicker than the rear, with the exception of a few, like tank destroyers. If you open up the characteristics of one of your tanks you will see an entry that looks something similar to the following (example taken from The Tankers Guide);

30/15/15 Hull armour (front/sides/rear, mm)

This is basically how thick the armour is in millimetres on each side of the vehicle. In the above case there is 30mm on the front and 15mm on the sides and rear, making the front side the tougher side and therefore the side that should be kept facing the enemy where possible.

All too often I see things like this in game;

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour01.jpg

Players drive out in the middle of streets with their vehicle sides facing the enemy, sometimes they are a little more tactical and go as close to a wall as possible but still have their sides face on to the enemy. This is tactically unsound and should be avoided. Try the following;

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour02.jpg

You now have the front of your vehicle with the thickest armour facing the enemy. AND, you have also effectively screened half of your tank from enemy fire. Take a look at the image below.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour03.jpg

The left side of the tank is in view of the enemy, the right side of the tank is covered by the building rubble. From this position you can still make a nice clean getaway if things get tough by reversing out of your position, and if you tap on the right button you will turn while reversing so you can get in complete cover behind the building.

The following example is another good example, although the tank is at a 45 degree angle it is still covered for the most part. This was a conflict I had with 2 scout tanks, both of them were shooting at me and I destroyed them both.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour04.jpg

Let's take a closer look;

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour05.jpg

I am at a 45 degree angle, my left side was totally covered by the rubble that was there as shown by the green triangle. So, the only part of my tank that was exposed was the front. My turret and gun barrel were high enough over the rubble to get clear shots off. The purpose of being at an angle is for a quick retreat if something bigger comes along.

It is harder to shoot from cover if you are in a tank destroyer unless you have the advantage of settng up first. If you happen to get behind a solid bit of cover like a vehicle wreck for example, you will find your front Line of Fire (LoF) is blocked unless you manouvre your vehicle left or right of the cover, doing this is dangerous as it gives your enemy a free shot.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour06.jpg

In the above example the tank destroyer cannot fire to it's front due to the vehicle wreck, but it can fire to it's left and right flanks while gaining cover from the wreck.
But how do I get out of this one if I am being fired at? Try this;

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTarmour07.jpg

Lets say there is a target where the red diamond is, from that angle he has a clear shot at your tank destroyer, you have two options, the first would be to turn and fire at him, but if he is alot bigger than you then it would be safer to disengage, so you should manouvre out of his field of view, the safest way to do this would be to first turn so your front armour is facing him, then reverse so that the vehicle wreck is between you and the target, this gives you a few moments to decide how to get out of there, which would be to keep turing or reversing keeping the wreck between you

DRIVING DOWN A STREET

Another thing I see alot of is players driving down the middle of a street or the wrong side.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTmoving03.jpg

In the above example it would be a mistake to travel down the right side of the street because if you look just to the left of our friendly tank there is an enemy vehicle. If our buddy wasn't there the enemy would have a clear shot all down the right side of the road. So, we need to keep to our left, this way we are being covered by the buildings on the left. We also have a quick escape route via the side street.

What if there are enemies on both sides of the street? In this case we would choose the side that provides the most cover, i.e; a building that sticks out more than any other, a pieces of rubble, another vehicle.

NEVER STOP ON JUNCTIONS

In the above example if we wanted to engage the enemy we have spotted we would have to pass the side road, be careful when doing this as another enemy player may engage you from this direction, so just before you get to the side street turn your turret to the left so you can take a quick shot at any targets of opportunity.

SILHOUETTES

Becareful of presenting your silhouette on the horizon. In BETA I don't think it really matters as the targetting system in WOT gives you a blatent red outline when you have a clear shot of your enemy. But on full release I have heard that there is a going to be a hard core level where the red outline is removed making it harder to hit targets. This is where you will have to be careful when riding hills, try not to do it. In the following image you can blatantly see the tanks silouette or side profile against the horizon.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTsilhouette01.jpg

Try to keep below the ridgeline of the hill.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTsilhouette02.jpg

And where possible, get off the hill altogether and travel through the lower regions.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTsilhouette03.jpg


PUSHING FORWARD - Using Hills
When moving forwards you should never move in a straight line, while a moving target is a hard target a moving target moving left or right is an even harder target. Unless you are in a mahoosive slow ass monster that swallows enemy shells for breakfast. In which case it won't matter about zig zagging. But if you are in a lghtly armoured vehicle or one with a huge engine then zig zagging will be quite effective against enemy that are shooting at you. You will also find alot of artillery players predict where you will be in a few seconds and shoot there with some amount of success, zig zagging also prevents this. Also try to move from cover to cover, and where there is no cover then use the ground to your advantage as shown below;

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTmoving01.jpg

In the image above, we would go right to drive along the base of the hill, following it's contours. There is a target on the horizon, chances are he is engaging the units directly in front of him, but if they weren't there he may try for me, so hill hugging gives me a little cover. In the above case I think I broke to the far left as he was concentrating on the other units. This gave me a chance to get to his flank, presenting him with multiple targets in different directions.

PUSHING FORWARD - Into Cover

Try to cause as little damage as possible when moving around the battlefield, while you may not be visible the damage you are causing will be, other good players tend to look out for this and predict your movements. Don't run over trees, especially large ones.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTmoving02.jpg

In the above example I have blatantly ran over a tree which will be visible to any nearby enemy players watching that direction, what I should have done was hug the nearest house to my left, turn left in between the houses, then swing right then left again so most of the time I have cover between me and the enemy and I finish in cover. In some cases you may have to run through fences to keep hidden rather than trying to manouvre round them, but this is better than knocking down a massive tree.

JOCKYING - Getting Out The Shit Quicker Than You Got Into It

Here's a new term for you, "JOCKYING", and no, it's not a sexual thing, it's the term used when you reverse a vehicle out of a postion at the speed of a thousand Gazelles while moving left and right, with a high percentage chance of killing yourself in the process. AND, under the guidance of the vehicle commander shouting LEFT STICK, RIGHT STICK (BUMP BUMP, OOPS WTF WAS THAT SIR?).

Anyway, we're in a bit of a tight spot, there we were, all nice and snug behind a house and the enemy have just decided to play big bad wolf. The little house in front of us isn't going to last long so we want to get out of here in the safest way possible. Believe it or not I have actually seen players turn 180 degrees and move forward the way they came in presenting their arse to the enemy like a scene out of Braveheart, not good at all. So, here is where we "JOCKY" out of our position.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTjocky01.jpg

First we start by reversing to keep the house between us and the enemy vehicle.

https://2img.net/h/i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/T9FURY/World%20Of%20Tanks/WOTjocky02.jpg

Don't just move straight back as you will probably move into the Line of Fire (LoF) of the enemy. So Jockying left and right prevents this, especially if you do it in between obstacles such as houses. The above image shows that if we moved in the direction of the red arrow we will move into direct LoF of the enemy. So instead move in the direction of the green arrow. The best way to do this is hold down your right mouse button to keep your turret locked forward and mouse look backward while reversing. Don't foget your left and right keys will be opposite. If this was the only target to our front we can be content with getting behind the houses. But if more targets are shooting at you keep reversing until you are in a safe area.
Jockying also works in the open as well, as the enemy player is trying to predict where you are moving and if you are moving in a straight line it makes it easy for him. So even if you are in the open Jocky left and right to make it harder for them to hit you.