So what is it?
WoT is a free-to-play, persistent, arena style PvP game where every player controls a tank. If you've driven a tank in any of the Battlefield series then it should feel at least vaguely familiar.
Getting Started
This will be the first screen you are presented with after logging on. The tanks will be different (although you will have the one shown), but the principles are the same for all of them. I'll start with the essentials then refer back to this image later for the advanced bits. There is an in-game tutorial with little achievements (and a free premium tank at the end), which is fairly good at explaining the menu screens but no help in-game.
1. Your tank. Lovely isn't she? You get to rotate and zoom to ogle your hardware in this window.
2. Your garage. You start with a generous 7 slots, of which 4 will be filled. These are the tier I tanks for each nation. Have a look at them and pick whichever you like, they're not mutually exclusive. If you want to put a bit more thought into your first game here's the rundown on them, but none is noticeably better than the rest and they don't really represent the nation tech trees as a whole. Also note that games aren't organised by nation, everyone is just thrown in as a mixed bag.
* T1 Cunningham (American) - Fast, poor armour, weak gun, poor tracking speed.
* Leichttraktor (German) - Good hit points, good tracking speed, weak gun.
* Renault FT (French) - Decent armour, good turret elevation, slow, poor manoeuvrability, poor tracking speed.
* MS-1 (Soviet) - Good armour, low hit points, slow.
3. The service tab is where you'll buy ammo and repair. More on that later, but make sure you don't forget to re-arm and repair.
4. Once you're familiar with 1-3, this is the button to get you into game. Go ahead and click it.
Your First Game
Here's the first thing. You're going to die. Get used to that, it happens most games. If you're lucky you might take someone out with you. A kill in WoT is an achievement. In this case, though, there's every chance you're driving the worst tank on the field. They all might look like shitty Tier I armoured tractors, but chances are most of them have upgraded guns, engines, suspension, or whatever, which gives them the advantage over you. Don't worry about it, you probably won't be that guy next game (although you'll still die). Here's what you'll see as the game counts down to start:
1. This is you. You can zoom out further, or in for a first person view. In chase cam view you get a better idea of the dimensions of your tank, making manoeuvring and spacial awareness better. However, you have a distorted perspective. In sniper view you get an accurate perspective of what your gun can 'see', but a narrow field of view.
2. A bit hard to see in this screenshot, but that's your target reticule. You aim it with your mouse. There's two parts to it though - the bit you control directly is where you would like to aim, but the other bit (with the upside down V) is where your gun actually points. Since your turret traverses much slower than your squillion DPI mouse it takes time to catch up. It also shows you accurately what your gun will hit, taking into account cover and range. Interpreting your reticule data is in important skill to master. A few other bits about it:
* A green quarter circle on the top left is your reload meter. It's green because my gun is loaded here, but it will turn red and slowly fill while reloading.
* The similar green quarter circle in the bottom right is your health.
* The little number at the bottom is your ammo. Not usually a problem for most tanks.
* The little grey blobs to the left of the number are present in guns which use a revolver loader, and represent the number of shots left. This one is full, with 4 shots. As I use them it'll highlight three in green, two in amber, then one in red, to represent the rounds left before reloading.
* When shooting you'll see a ring of green dots (or red if you're reloading) around the reticle. This shows the round's potential deviation, and should shrink the longer you sit still and aim.
3. These are friendly tanks. There should be 15 of them knocking about, waiting for the off. Notice that above them in green they have the type of tank and a diamond. The diamond represents a light tank. Later you'll find other types have different symbols, but all T1 tanks are lights, so no need to worry about those yet.
4. Your team. It shows their name, kills, model of tank, and a little symbol which gives you more information than the rest put together:
* The number (I in this case) denotes the tier of the tank.
* The shape denotes the model of tank, but you can read that anyway.
* The colour tells you the type of tank. Light greys represent main battle tanks (light, medium and heavy). Blue/grey are tank killers, brown are SPGs. This is worth remembering.
The one on the other side is the enemy.
5. The map. You'll look at this a lot. It shows any known tanks within radio range. This means any enemies spotted by friendlies who are in range will appear, and it means friendlies can disappear if they wander too far. It also shows the objectives and an overhead view of the terrain, but take that with a pinch of salt.
6. Chat. Here be idiots.
7. Your tank readout. It shows which areas are damaged, where your turret is facing, your crew's health states, and your hit points. In all honesty, I only really look at the hit points, but it can be handy to see if they've damaged a component.
8. Your ammo. Many tanks can arm AP and HE, and the highlighted one will show you which you have loaded. It also tells you how much you have.
The timer gives you 30 seconds to check out the enemy team, check out your team, have a look around and on the map at your relative position, and have a little think about your tactics. You can try to suggest tactics in chat if you want everyone to ignore you. When the counter reaches 0 this will happen:
That's you left on your own while the rest of the team bomb-bursts in all directions like a herd of startled cats. In fact there's a little more to it than that, though. I've zoomed in a little and enlarged the map to demonstrate some common tactics.
1. Camping. These guys are going to sit and defend the flag. It's a decent enough tactic, as you're more accurate, have better view range, and are harder to see when stationary so are more likely to see and hit oncoming targets.
2. Rushers. These guys are belting headlong towards the enemy. If they're any good they'll stop just about where they are now and hold that forward line. If they're shit they'll run into the guns of the campers on the opposite team and score them some free kills. Sometimes a rush like that can penetrate before they have chance to react and kill their vulnerable SPGs, but that's pretty rare and there are no SPGs in T1 matches. These guys are probably idiots.
3. Flankers. Around a third of the team have chosen to drive down the cliffs on the eastern flank. Not a bad tactic - they'll command an elevated view of much of the battlefield and in such numbers should probably punch through any resistance, given how convoluted the road is for the enemy to choose the same path. Because of how narrow it is, though, it'll probably also get bogged down for some time in a slugging match.
Not shown, because nobody chose to do it, are the guys going down the western cliffs. It takes longer but it's generally quieter for it. I'll do that - I've a maxed out Loltraktor and can hold my own against a few enemy tanks.
Observe the relative positions on the minimap now. I've moved further west down the road, the flankers have moved unmolested further down the cliffs, and the rushers have stopped at the forward line. Now also note the red guy on the screen, and corresponding map symbol. He's a long way off, but could probably still hit me. I'm moving fast in and out of cover and there are other tanks around, I'm probably safe. Comparing world position and map position to get a good idea of where the enemy is is a useful skill.
Now's probably as good a time as any to mention a few handy tips:
Moving your reticule over an enemy tank will outline it in red if it is in line of sight. This is useful for scouting out enemies behind soft cover who may or may not have hard cover between you and them.
When the enemy is highlighted, right clicking on them locks the target and the tank will auto-aim. It isn't infallible - it always goes for the centre so can miss moving tanks or hit cover - but if you're moving it can be very handy.
Cover is your friend. Not really specific to this game, but presenting as small a target to the enemy as possible will keep you alive longer.
HE rounds don't do much damage, but are good at 'tracking' (knocking the tracks off) enemy vehicles, damaging components, and killing crew. All of this makes the enemy tank less effective.
Oh dear. More enemy tanks spotted. These guys are the enemy flankers firing from the other cliffs. They've given me quite the kicking, and there's a lot going on on-screen. Notice the wobbly view and red direction indicator to tell me I've been hit. It isn't something you won't notice. You can see the guy who fired up on the cliff just inside the top of my reticule, and on the western road on the map. That's all I'll be thinking about here, but since we have the moment preserved in screenshot lets look at the damage on the bottom left diagram. For a start it's taken me down to something like 15% hit points, so I've been hit with something nasty. The picture shows I was hit in the turret - the section is highlighted red, and there's also a red picture of a turret. That means I now can't turn my gun unless I turn the whole tank. I can also see the binocular symbol is highlighted too. That means my commander has been hit, reducing my view range and loading speed (since he doubles as a loader). This is bad, and with the timer on 13:36 I'm only 1:24 into the game.
Oh. I ran into a wall in panic. I got part of the way through before it stopped me, and the snipers in the hills picked me off. Mass and momentum is modelled, so a Loltractor was never going to smash through so many walls. A heavy tank would have barely noticed them. That guy who shot me will stay spotted for the rest of the team for a few seconds, so my sacrifice at least counts as recon. Misery loves company too, and I'm not the first guy to die on my team, as shown by the team list on the left. At the bottom of the screen it shows friendly kills in green and enemy kills in red (me, in this case). This is mirrored just above the minimap.
Now I'm dead, 1:38 into the game. As the little graphic at the bottom shows, I can hang about spectating or go back to the garage. Choosing the latter means this tank will remain in-game until the game ends, but I can take another tank out for another game. Death doesn't mean hanging about waiting, just grab another tank and jump back in. You get XP and money either way, just more if you get some kills, don't die, and win.
Next up: Upgrading your tank, tank types, and choosing your path through the tech trees.
