World of Tanks

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

World of Tanks is an MMORPG based around... well, what do you think?! World Of Tanks will eventually feature hundreds of Soviet, German, American, French, British, Japanese and "Europe mix" tanks.[1] Essentially, this game is Tank Goodness incarnate.

You start the game with very basic tank designs barely worthy of the name and proceed to work your way up the tech trees. The tech trees themselves consist of a mixture of vehicles that saw service in their respective armies and vehicles that only made it to the prototype stage or never made it off paper. [2] All the vehicles featured have been extensively researched and their in-game characteristics are based on their real-world counterparts. Despite that, the controls are relatively simple, and it is most definitely not even anywhere close to being a hardcore sim. The range of tanks available stretches from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Vehicles are spread across three categories: tanks, tank destroyers and self-propelled guns. Tanks are the mainstay of each force, with tank destroyers serving sniping and ambush purposes while Self Propelled Guns (SPG) provide artillery support. Tanks are further split into three more categories: light tanks with amazing speed, medium tanks balancing speed, firepower and armour, and heavy tanks focusing on heavy armour and massive firepower.

Tropes used in World of Tanks include:
  • Acceptable Breaks From Reality -- No infantry, aircraft or anti-tank guns? Fantastically outlandish equipment for certain tanks? Shermans and Panthers on the same team? Yeah, this game uses this trope quite a bit.
    • As well as none of the variety of other vehicles used during WWII. One of the developers has stated that not even half-tracks will make it into the game, because they're not fully tracked.
    • A number of the early German SPGs are actually uncasemated assault guns intended to provide support for advancing tanks against infantry and fortifications. They were never meant to be used for indirect fire.
    • Another acceptable break in the nature of hit points: in actual combat a hit that punches a hole through your tank is a kill shot, by killing or wounding those inside, with a few very rare exceptions. In game you can take several such hits in most tanks.
  • Acrofatic -- The Soviet T-28 is very fast despite being bigger than some heavy tanks. However, it does not have the health to match its size.
    • It has a Tier 6 equivalent among the German tanks, the VK3001P, which has twin engines. Only qualifies when upgraded, however, and acceleration remains somewhat poor even then. Don't get in the way of one going downhill, though.
    • The KV-1S and IS series heavy tanks are surprisingly fast and nimble.
    • Higher tier French heavies tend to be faster and more maneuverable than some medium tanks in the game.
  • The Alleged Car -- As mentioned in the description, the starter tanks are barely worthy of being called tanks, often having some pretty serious speed issues depending on the terrain. It's not too bad if you go downhill, but you may, for instance, want to reconsider any attempt to climb slopes in the stock Leichtraktor.
  • Armor Is Useless -- Averted, shots from large guns can sometimes bounce off light tanks with relatively thin armor. Also, thick armor can completely neutralize shells with low enough penetration.
    • The standard Armor Piercing shells sometimes pass straight through the enemy tank doing little or no damage. The in-game tips suggest changing to High Explosive shells when this happens.
    • Extremely averted with low-tier French tanks, with regular reports of said tanks surviving up to 80 hits.
  • Attack Its Weak Point -- Damage caused to the tanks' modules is calculated separately from damage to their health. Stopping the enemy by shooting their tracks is possible even if your weapon can't pierce their armor, the same goes for most other modules. Nothing is as satisfying as setting a enemy's engine on fire, aside from destroying their ammo rack.
    • Some tanks also have weakpoints that are easy to score critical hits on. Knowing where to aim for the modules and crew members can help even the odds against larger tanks.
    • The German tanks in general had glaring weakspots in their gun mantlets (allowing lower-tier tanks to penetrate and score damage). Before patch 0.6.4, the Tier 9 VK4502 Ausf. B heavy tank had a frontal weakspot that could cause the tank to catch on fire from a starter tank's shot. The gun mantlets were fixed in patch 0.6.5.
    • Soviet tanks usually have a vulnerable driver's hatch[3]. and triplex periscopes[4].
    • US heavy tanks have well-protected turrets, but their chassis armor can be penetrated relatively easily.
    • In the case of tracks, it's also subject to a rather brutal inversion: it's possible to get hits on an enemy which will damage their tracks but not their tank, even when you can damage their tank, in effect making the tracks some of the best armored-parts of a vehicle.
      • Some tanks in real life had tracks that were designed to be an additional layer of armour.
  • Awesome but Impractical -- Premium ammo in random battles, especially for guns that have high damage and low penetration with normal ammo, like the American and German 105mm and Soviet 122mm tank mounted howitzers that appear relatively early on. The extra penetration makes them absolutely devastating, but players have to pay real money for it -- and the price skyrockets the higher up the tech tree you go. They can still bounce off armor as well.
    • Tier 9-10 vehicles tend to be unprofitable even with a 50% win ratio and a premium account. So it's either playing with a platoon to rely less on the mercy of the autobalancer - or grinding repair and ammo money with other tanks.
    • No matter how cool it may be to drive with historically accurate modules, they are (usually) not the best choice.
  • Bigger Stick -- More often than not players jump to conclusions about the battle results just from seeing the tank line-ups and players rallied by a top-tier tank will usually give their all to support it.
    • Generally, the biggest weapon available for your tank is preferable, unless it's a HE-only howitzer or unique to a certain vehicle.
  • BFG -- Even the smallest weapons available qualify, if you think about how big they are in Real Life. They get bigger with each tier up to the humongous 240mm artillery gun. The to-be-implemented German Sturmtiger has a 380mm rocket launcher.
  • Bottomless Magazines -- Averted, since you need to spend the cash you earn in battle on refilling your magazine. You can also spend gold (real money) for better shells like High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) rounds for better armour penetration.
    • It also causes serious problems for players who equip high-caliber weapons on weaker tanks. The most extreme cases are the SPGs: e.g. the Russian SU-5 can only hold 14 rounds for its biggest cannon.
    • Amusingly played straight in a few cases, as it's physically impossible to fire off the KV-2s 152mm howitzer's full load of shells within the confines of a 15-minute match, since it reloads very slowly. Similarly, the M37 carries 126 rounds. Over the course of a 15-minute match, it can only fire, at most, 76 of them.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory -- Gold-based purchases are a mixed bag. While premium ammunition is more powerful (though it still has the flaws of normal ammo), the premium tanks do not outclass their credit-derived counterparts and are in most cases, less dangerous. Instead, they earn an increased amount of credits and are dirt cheap to run.
    • A tank crew can be instantly trained to 100% competence with gold, and a 100% crew greatly outstrips a 50% starter crew and instantly has access to secondary skills.
    • Premium accounts allow players to earn 50% more XP and credits per match, and are all but indispensable when rolling around in the high-tier tanks, as the cost of repairs and ammunition can put the player in the red. Also a small case of Allegedly Free Game, as only premium users can form 3-man tank platoons[5] and companies.
    • The E-100's 15cm gun[6] without premium HEAT shells will fail to reliably penetrate the front armor of a King Tiger with AP. HE rounds essentially make the tank a direct-fire only Tier 5 artillery piece. With HEAT rounds, however, it becomes absolutely murderous.
    • The Lowe is a Tier 8 super-heavy premium tank. While no better than its Tier 8 brethren, it goes against the premium tank trend[7] by having a potent gun and weak armour. It's competitive at any level, and absolutely murderous against lower tier vehicles. New players use it as a way to skip the work required to get a regular high tier vehicle and even experienced players use it, since it is the absolute best money maker in the game. It proved so effective (and popular), it's real world cost was increased.
    • The 0.6.7 patch saw the introduction of the Type 59, a one-off Chinese knockoff of the T-54. It is Tier 8 (one tier lower than the original) and its acceleration and firepower are inferior even to the T-44, but it retains most of the original's armour and can still be quite a potent threat in the right hands. Being easy to play, it ended up appearing in such amounts, that it skewed game balance so now it is no longer being sold (as of January 16, 2012).
    • The 7.2 patch saw the T34 Tier 9 American heavy being converted to a Tier 8 premium tank. It has weak hull armor, strong turret armor and a powerful 120mm main gun and is already giving the Lowe some serious competition as the game's premier credit farmer.
  • Brits With Battleships -- Four British-produced tanks[8] in Soviet colors and markings can be purchased for gold (or given as promotional items).
    • They are planned as the next faction to be included, with Crusader, Conqueror, Black Prince, Churchill and Centurion tanks. The tank tree is rumored to be mostly divided to Lightning Bruisers akin to the Soviet breakthrough medium tanks and Stone Walls like early french.
  • Camera Abuse -- The camera will rock and shake as the tank receives hits. Getting hit with HE rounds will also create a smoke cloud in your field of vision. This can affect gameplay, as all the bouncing around can throw off the player's aim. The 0.6.4 patch added an option to turn this off in sniper mode.
  • Cannon Fodder -- The lower tier tanks in the match often become this in the most brutal way; often their job is to go first and locate the enemy by being the first ones to get shot. However, if the players driving them are skilled...
  • Cast from Hit Points -- The Russian/Chinese-exclusive Removed Speed Governor consumable[9] boosts engine power by 10%, but will slowly damage the engine.
    • The Cyclone Filter equipment can mitigate this to an extent, as it increases the engine's durability.
  • Cherry Tapping -- Light tanks have piddly guns, but if they can avoid getting shot and hit the right area several times (like the rear), they can take down much heavier tanks. It will take time, however.
    • The American M2 Light is probably the best example of this trope when stock, since it packs an actual machine gun. While powerful for a machine gun, the M2 Browning is not made for tank warfare.
      • The French Renault FT-17 and D1 can also equip a slightly larger 13.2mm machine gun. It's not much better in power, but it shoots even faster.
    • The 7.5cm Konisch exclusive to the VK3601 (H) is pretty much this. Huge penetration value, high rate of fire, extremely accurate, what could go wrong? HINT: It takes several shots to destroy even Tier 1 tanks, unless you use the premium APCR rounds.
    • Soviet 57 mm ZiS-4 and 413 guns - while they have somewhat weak shot power, they can send shell every 2 seconds.
    • HE shells deal damage based on the enemy's armor thickness and will deal a small amount of damage to armor your gun can't penetrate with AP rounds. This allows weaker vehicles to finish off badly injured higher tier vehicles.
    • It is standard procedure to test if AP rounds can penetrate a given enemy, then switch to HE if it fails and tap away at their armor, inducing more critical hits[10] than AP and therefore help teammates take it down. Players who know their tanks well instinctively know that some tanks are impenetrable to their guns, and load HE for exactly that purpose. Fast firing guns are also often used for "HE-Spam"[11].
    • Ramming causes a small amount of damage. Oftentimes, a heavier tank will ram a lighter vehicle that is at low health, rather than wasting expensive ammunition.
  • Closed Cities -- The Ensk map.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: There's an Epic medal, "Kolobanov's Medal", for playing this straight by winning a match as the last tank on your team against five or more enemies.
  • Cosmetic Award -- Several degrees of it:
  • Critical Hit -- Not quite a standard example, since it simply means that you've hit a subsystem or crew member, rather than increasing the amount of damage done. It's very possible to have a critical hit that does 0 HP damage, which also means the target you shot will not appear in the list of opponents you damaged, and you don't get XP or credits for it.
    • But can be played straight if you hit the ammo rack, as this will do One-Hit Kill or the engine and fuel tank can catch fire and do additional Damage Over Time.
  • Crippling Overspecialization -- Most Tank Destroyers sacrifice their turrets for the ability to mount powerful and accurate guns, and increased camouflage.
    • SPGs fire shells over long distances, at the cost of rate of fire and endurance. Ammunition for their cannons is also very expensive and they cannot carry many into battle.
    • Most Light Tanks are fast but lack the firepower and armor to take on anything but other light tanks and artillery with reliability.
    • Heavy Tanks have heavy armor and/or large and powerful guns. They are also slow moving, large and easy to hit, have turrets that turn slowly and long reload times. If caught in the open, they can be picked apart by constant bombardment.
  • Critical Existence Failure -- Played with. Damage to subsystems and wounded tank crewmen will hinder your tank's performance. However, as long as you have one hit point and crew member remaining, your tank is still combat effective. However, in the (extremely) rare case of ALL of your crew members getting wounded, your tank is considered "knocked out", even if it still has health remaining. Hopefully, you stocked a first-aid kit. If not...
    • "Combat effective" is a relative term; it's possible (though unlikely) for your tank to be completely crippled by critical hits -immobilized, vision reduced, radio range slashed, gun disabled- without taking even a single point of HP damage. Even if the crippling effects like being unable to move or fire can be repaired over time, they won't work as well as they normally do.
    • It's entirely possible for your tank to withstand a high velocity 155mm round straight through the turret, only to die when a light tank runs into your fender.
    • The current plans for a hardcore mode avert it: the tank will be disabled by the destruction of its crew and/or modules without a health bar, only relying on Subsystem Damage.
  • Color-Coded Armies -- Type IV; enemies get red icons above them, friendlies get green icons.
    • Also, the vehicles of each faction have unique color schemes: German tanks are gray, Soviet tanks are olive, American tanks are khaki, French tanks are navy blue/cyan. Some variation of colors allow easier recognition of vehicles. For example, the Soviet T-34 is given a brownish color to distinguish it from the later T-34-85 and the American M6 Heavy is painted tan in contrast to the very similar looking dark green T1 Heavy.
  • Death From Above -- You will quickly learn to hate enemy SPGs. Also the reason why they are usually the primary targets during an attack.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts -- The most common way of destroying a heavy tank if the artillery or another big gun can't get to it.
    • The 7.5cm Konisch cannon exclusive to the VK3601 (H) follows this trope to a T: it can pierce the armor of almost any tank it normally meets, but doesn't do much damage unless it's using the premium APCR rounds.
    • The StuG III's 7.5cm L/70, along with a highly-skilled crew, can fire once approximately every 3 seconds with full accuracy restored by the time the next shell loads. Its excellent penetration coupled with a high rate of fire means that its fairly meager AP damage rating quickly adds up even against higher-tier opponents. Your only problems will be running out of ammo mid-fight and the enemy returning fire.
    • The 7.5cm L/100 has great penetration, nearly unrivaled accuracy, and fires every 4 seconds. Of course, it deals small amounts of damage for its tier. It is possible for some tanks to withstand, on average, 20 hits or more.
    • The American 76mm guns in general also follow this -- they have similar stats to the two German guns listed above (slightly weaker per shot, but More Dakka to make up for it).
    • Soviet 57 mm ZiS-4 and 413 guns - while they have somewhat weak shot power, they can send shell every 2 seconds.
    • There's also the machine guns and autocannons available to low tier tanks. They often have to fire multiple volleys to kill even lower-tier tanks.
    • In addition, you will occasionally will get into rounds where both sides are incapable of damaging each other with AP rounds. With the advent of French tanks, it is possible to get into standoffs at around Tiers 2 to 5 where even HE rounds won't be doing any damage.
  • Demonic Spider -- In middle-tier fights, the enemy's top player(s) is usually this. Often applied to the T-54[12] which has the mobility of a medium tank and the armor of a heavy.
    • The Type 59 to a lesser extent. It's a Chinese knockoff of the T-54, but requires no grinding to acquire, only real money. Also, since it's rated a tier lower than the T-54, you can start reliably seeing these guys as early as Tier 5. The matchmaker also has a habit of putting most or all of them on the same team, which in addition to how common they are, ruins game balance and diversity. This has lead to the developers removing it from the shop, though players who already had one were allowed to keep them.
    • T-50-2s for artillery players. They're insanely fast and very hard for anyone to land hits on, can survive a shot or two from anything trying to keep them off you, and are quite capable of taking you down quickly.
    • The French Tier 7 light tank, the AMX 13/90 is rapidly becoming this. It is almost as fast and maneuverable as the T-50-2, presents a relatively small target and can kill just about anything Tier 7 and below with one salvo!
    • The T18. Simply put it is an Tier 2 Tank destroyer tank that can hit up to 40+ speeds, oneshot tanks ABOVE it's tier with the 76 howtizer, has armour equal to the tier 4 Tank destroyer, yeah.
    • The T95 can be this, since it's armour is so insanely heavy that it can Won't Work On Me even artillery shells head on.
    • Worst of all, The KV-2, which is the tank with the legendary Derpgun.
  • Dueling Games: Subverted; an obscure game by Tank Ace would have tried to compete with the game, but was canned in development because it was decided that it wouldn't have survived in its current form. To some extent, WoT attempts to compete with traditional MMOs such as World of Warcraft - whether or not it is winning is entirely up to debate, but a lot more people play WoT than one would expect.
  • Dieselpunk: While many of the more famous tanks of the period are present, there's no denying that a large percentage of the vehicles in-game never made it either off the drawing board or past the prototype stage.
  • Do Not Run with a Gun -- No, seriously, don't. Very few weapons are able to fire accurately on the move, which is period-appropriate, and even then, it's more of a "slow crawl" than anything else. Most players will stop to shoot and having a gun which has a dispersion that drops down quickly when you stop can be a major advantage.
    • Light tanks are an exception: stopping is death for them, so they usually close to knife-fighting range when fighting and circle-strafe.
    • The lowest cruise control setting offers your tank reasonable, but still reduced accuracy on the move. Even if you don't want to fire while moving at this speed, dispersion drops more quickly once you do stop, including reduced rocking forward and backwards after hitting the brakes.
    • The Vertical Stabilizer equipment increases accuracy on the move, but is expensive and is usually only available at high tiers. US tanks can get them as early as Tiers 5 to 7 (depending on which branch the player takes), but are still rather expensive.
    • The US tanks in general tend to be more accurate on the move, but it's still recommended to stop to shoot.
  • Dying Alone -- The most likely fate for SPGs if the team loses: they usually remain at base and survive until the very end, to be mocked by the dead players for being useless. However, it is possible, if unlikely, for them to turn around the situation, particularly if the enemy team is incredibly stupid and comes at the surviving SPGs at a rate just slow enough that the SPGs have time to reload between enemy attacks, as opposed to swarming in all at once.
  • Every Tank Is A Ronson -- While the results of a small tank meeting a giant HE shell may look impressive but realistic to a degree, heavy tank parts flying several meters away from a low-caliber AP round that didn't hit anything critical, and only exhausted the tank's HP...
  • Elite Tweak -- For most tanks, the upgrades are pretty much straightforward: equip the parts with the highest level, and you've got yourself an awesome battle machine. Some tanks have powerful alternatives:
    • The PzKpfw III can pack a short 7.5cm cannon with awful armor penetration and reload time, which seems rather undesirable, until you notice that its HE round has penetration that's almost as good as its AP[13]. This inverts the usual German "snipe and run" tactics, making the PzKpfw III a powerful close combat vehicle.
    • The old KV took the cake, being a radically different tank with the turret upgrade, and all of its weapons (except the starting one) being useful. The KV-2's 152mm cannon gives it its Lethal Joke Character status, 107mm turns it into an exceptional tank destroyer akin to top US tanks, meanwhile the KV-1 armed with either a 57mm, the 85mm or the 122mm is still a decent tank against anything up to tier 7. As of 7.3 the tank was split off into the KV-1 (the Tier 5 version) and the KV-2 (a tier 6 version with it's on side of the tree).
      • The new KV-1 can equip the T-28's 57mm "puncher" with small damage, but great rate of fire, penetration and accuracy, or an all-round 85mm cannon. The KV-2 (now with a lot more HP and faster reload) can be fit with a fast-reloading 122mm howitzer, the famous 152mm cannon, or the high-tier accurate and penetrating 107mm cannon. You still never know which KV you will encounter.
    • The Luchs has a Leopard-style turret that allows the use of more powerful guns instead of rapid fire autocannons. The downside is that it's heavy enough to hinder the tank's agility somewhat.
    • The M4 Sherman has a 105mm howitzer upgrade that, at first glance, seems to be a poor tradeoff against the 76mm cannon that's also available. However, the 105, while slow loading, allows the Sherman to one-shot most light and some medium tanks, and will still deal effective damage against heavies.
    • Installing Pz IV's Schmalturm and 7.5cm L/70 will mostly turn it from MT to AT.
    • The infamous Hetzer can mount either a 7.5cm L/48 cannon which has moderate penetration and damage values but reloads quickly OR a 10.5cm howitzer with an extremely slow reload time and mediocre accuracy, which can one-shot most light tanks and cause quite a bit of damage to even heavy tanks.
    • Installing BL-10 gun on ISU-152 will turn it from decent AT to machine of death, that can penetrate nearly every tank in anywhere and have huge damage.
  • Experience Points: They're used to research modules and to unlock the next tank. Crew members also have a separate experience stat, which increases their percentage of competence. Both are obtained through fighting battles.
  • Extreme Melee Revenge -- It's surprisingly common to see medium tanks ram light tanks who are harassing SPGs and TDs, all the more appropriate since light tanks tend to destroy at least one of these assets before a medium comes to the rescue.
  • Everything Fades -- Averted. Tank carcasses stay on the battlefield and often serve as impromptu cover for other tanks.
    • With the 0.6.4. patch these can even be moved, albeit slowly, so you got yourself some mobile cover.
  • Fluffy the Terrible -- The Maus.
  • Follow the Leader: Some of the French postwar designs show extreme German ans some Soviet influences in design, and nearly all of them use German engines directly and German guns with serial numbers filed off.
  • For Massive Damage -- Destroying tank's ammo rack will result in the vehicle exploding in impressive pyrotechnics, regardless of its remaining health.
    • Artillery shells that hit the roof of a tank will generally penetrate and detonate inside, causing massive amounts of damage.
  • Fragile Speedster -- Light tanks in general. Can be extremely annoying due to their high speed, but are incredibly fragile -- it's quite easy for heavier tanks to take them out and if they throw a track, they're practically always doomed. Artillery can also readily kill the light tank in a single hit or blow off their tracks, making them more vulnerable to follow up shots from other artillery or tanks.
    • The M18 Hellcat tank destroyer takes this trope to Beyond the Impossible levels, since it set records as one of the fastest large AFVs of all time, easily reaching speeds of around 60 mph on good terrain, but only having 13mm of armor even on the front. In game it's as fast as the T-50-2 and is capable of mounting a 90mm main gun. The new Tier 5 TD, the T49, also qualifies.
    • The post-war period Gauls With Grenades (from Tier 5 onwards) take this trope and make sweet, sweet love to it. Their AMX 50 series heavies can outmaneuver large portions of the medium tanks of other nations, their light and medium tanks from the AMX 12t onward are blazing fast and all of them have autoloaders for their gun, letting them get off a lot of rounds before the enemy can return fire. However, if the enemy does manage to shoot back, they aren't going to last long.
  • Friendly Fireproof -- Averted - misaimed shells, poorly aimed/timed artillery and sheer stupidity (driving into an ally's firing line) are all possible ways to get shot by a team-mate. Deliberate team killing is discouraged by penalties and having too many incidents of friendly fire will cause you to be flagged as team killer - which means open season on them from every other tank in the battle.
  • Gauls With Grenades -- Came in patch 0.7.1. Also, 3 of their tanks[14] are available as premium tanks for the Germans.
  • Gentleman Snarker -- Whomever is the author of the loading screen tips.

Game tip: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. It's not polite! (It's worth noting that this particular tip was submitted by a fan for a contest, and was originally said by Napoleon Bonaparte.)

  • Giving the Sword to A Noob -- Vehicle stats in the game vary so much that advancing in vehicle tiers can force the player to pick totally different tactics.
    • Especially rough with the Soviet heavy tree (the transfer from the T-28 to the KV), leading to a joke of "Buying a heavy tank in exchange for brains". Slightly averted post 7.3.
    • Premium tanks in general, and especially the Tier 8 KV-5, Lowe, T34 and Type 59. At such a high tier, these tanks will sometimes be the top vehicle in a match. The top vehicles in a match are often far more powerful than those on the bottom. Good playing from the top will often ensure victory, while poor playing usually guarantees a loss. There are no qualifications necessary to use these premium tanks beyond a sufficient amount of paid-for gold, so a high level battle can end up in the hands of a player short on experience, but long on disposable income.
  • Glass Cannon -- SPGs. God help you if you get hit by one of its artillery shells, but god help him if you managed to get near it.
    • Most Soviet Tank Destroyers are this, with the most extreme example being the Tier 5 SU-85 with the Tier 7 107mm gun, which only has 350 HP, letting it take only two or three hits at best, but has a gun on par with what heavy tanks and tank destroyers several tiers higher pack.
    • The T-28 with an 85mm gun has a substantial punch, but has tissue paper for protection and is also an easy to hit target.
      • There is a joke that T-28 tankers put up pictures of their loved ones with drawing pins as additional armor.
    • The US light tanks and the following M7 Medium have some of the best weapons for their tier, but very low health and armor.
    • With the release of the French Tech Trees, their Tier 5 to 7 light tanks, Tier 8 and 9 medium tanks, and Tier 8 to 10 heavy tanks are this. Their Tier 5 and 6 light tanks were built around the Panther's 7.5cm L/70, while the Tier 7 one up-guns it to a 90mm gun. Some of their high tier heavies are capable of unleashing a whopping 1800 points of damage in about a dozen seconds, which could potentially kill anything but a Tier 10. On the other hand, their armor is ridiculously thin for high tier heavies.
    • The US Tank Destroyers play with this trope frequently. The Tier 3 T82 is Glass Cannon incarnate; with nothing in the way of armor and a 105mm howitzer, which is typically a Tier 5 gun. The Tier 5 M10 Wolverine and Tier 6 M36 Slugger pretend to be Glass Cannons unless they're hull-down, at which point the sharply sloped 120mm thick gun mantlet takes over and they start bouncing nearly any round you can throw at them.
    • Open-topped vehicles in general rarely have armor equal to their tier. Special mention, however, must go to those with fighting compartments open at the rear, like the Marder II and the SU-76. A single HE round into the open back will usually destroy them.
  • Gradual Grinder -- With very few exceptions, the clash of giant steel machines lives on this trope.
  • Half Truth -- Several tanks, especially low to mid tier German ones, have listed top speeds they can't reach even using their best engines; they can only reach it by going downhill.
    • A prime example of this is the French AMX 40, which has a listed top speed of 50km/h, that can be reached by going downhill. However, it weighs around 30 tons and its best engine only produces 190 h.p., so you're lucky if it can go over 20km/h half the time.
    • The listed tank stats dependent on crew skill, like reload time, were for 133% crew skill, not 100% crew skill. This was changed in the 0.7.2 patch.
  • Hit and Run Tactics -- Most light tanks and the faster medium tanks do this when they aren't scouting.
    • From Tier 5 onwards, French tanks do this a lot: pop out, fire off all the shells in the revolver cylinder within seconds and then hide for about half a minute to reload.
  • Ineffectual Loner -- The game is team based, so if you see a lone friendly wander off, it's usually one of the following: a burden to the team, a suicide scout, or worst of all, your heaviest tank running right into the jaws of the enemy and yelling at you for not joining him in death. It rarely ends well for the loner in question.
  • Instant Win Condition -- Maps can be won either by base capture or wiping out the enemy team. Usually, some variation of the latter is required to do the former, but sometimes a brave group can bypass the entire map/battle and simply capture the enemy base while the enemy team has charged ahead without any thought of defense.
  • Invisible Wall -- You can't fall off a cliff or cross the border of the battlefield -- your tank will just stop moving and occasionally get stuck.
    • When the physics model comes out of development and is added to the game, these will disappear from the maps, producing rude surprises for anyone who forgets and tries to rely on them. Given the attitude of some players, though, this may just create a new unofficial award for the most creative suicide leap.
  • International Tank Gunnery Courses -- Low-competence crews perform worse than crews with higher competence. This, along with the game-determined gun dispersion, can lead to gunners repeatedly missing shots at any range. Highly skilled crews, on the other hand, can demonstrate Improbable Aiming Skills.
    • The regular "arcade" targeting reticule is notoriously inaccurate at point-blank range, which can lead to missing shots when your gun is literally touching the enemy tank. It's even possible to shoot over the top of a tank that's taller than yours!
  • In the Back -- Every tank has its strongest armor on the front and its weakest on the rear and the top. Shooting a tank in the back is also more likely to set it on fire, since the engine and fuel tanks are usually placed there.
  • Invisibility -- Hiding in the bushes will drastically reduce your visibility range. Well-hidden TDs can be a pain to spot and a well-geared one in a bush can only be revealed by almost bumping into it.
  • Jack of All Stats-- Medium tanks in a nutshell, being the most balanced -- some, like the T-34, put an emphasis on speed but are still outpaced by light tanks like the BT-7, while the Panther line concentrates on heavy guns and armor, though not to the same degree as the heavies. Best used as escorts, giving additional firepower to other classes, or as "wolfpacks", groups of mediums that swarm any opposition.
    • Within the mediums, the M4 Sherman seems to be the best example of a Jack, having the ability to mount useful guns, has average armor and is decently fast and maneuverable. The T-34 is more of a specialized medium once it gets the long-barrel 57mm. Same goes for the Pzkpfw IV, which is more heavy fire support with either the 7.5cm L/70 or the 10.5cm L/28.
    • American tanks in general seem to be an entire nation of Jacks. Their guns are less accurate (unless shooting while moving) but deal more damage than the Germans, and are more accurate but deal less damage than the Russians. They are also faster and more fragile than either of them, but not to the extent of the later-tier French tanks.
  • Katanas of the Rising Sun -- Another faction announced by developers. Their tanks are said to be either more like decently fast support tanks or heavy moving turrets originally created to defend the Home Islands and to deter naval attacks (and hold ship-size shells), with good all around armour.
  • Kill It with Fire -- No flamethrower tanks, but being set on fire ranks up there as one of the' worst ways to die, as it slowly erodes your tank's health, damages random modules and more often than not cooks off your ammo. It can be done by destroying the fuel tank or damaging the engine.
    • Even worse, fire damage is percentage-based, meaning that burning a Leichtraktor and a Maus to death takes the same amount of time.
      • The 0.6.4 patch rectified this, as the amount of damage the fire does decreases over time until it is put out and the fire extinguisher consumables put out the fire immediately, instead of just increasing the chance the fire is put out.
  • Last Stand -- Occurs every now and then because of the victory conditions. Sometimes, as soon as most of the enemies are down, most of the team rushes towards the enemy HQ one by one. Just one defending heavy tank or even SPG often takes this to Conservation of Ninjutsu levels impossible in a normal firefight, sometimes making it to a stalemate or even a victory.
  • Leaked Experience -- Even without spending gold to transfer experience, 5% of any experience gained in battle is given as "Free Experience", which can be spent to upgrade any tank, as opposed to being limited to the tank that earned it.
  • Lethal Joke Tank -- The KV-2 heavy tank is large and rather slow, meaning that it's an easy target for most enemy tanks. It can be armed with the 107mm gun, which bites quite hard, but slows the tank even more. One other option KV-2 players can take, however, is a 152mm howitzer - a gun known among the fandom as the "derpgun" or the "trollcannon" for its low accuracy, incredibly lengthy reload time - and truly ridiculous damage with HE shells, dealing noticeable damage to even Tier 10 tanks.
    • The KV-1S "Sport" doesn't gain any extra firepower or armor when upgrading from the KV, unlike the more commonly seen KV-3. Its armor is actually thinner, it doesn't have the awesome 152mm or 107mm cannons, and the health boost is barely noticeable. However, it's lighter, faster and its turret turns about as fast as a medium tank's.
    • The T57 is the first US SPG. Typically, SPGs are slow, poorly-armored and ineffective at close range. However, the T57's speed, armor and weaponry are on par with Tier 3 TDs and better than any tank in its tier, being a nasty surprise for anyone who expected an easy kill.
    • The T18 is the first US TD. It has 51mm of frontal armor, equivalent to or better than many tanks two or three tiers higher, and access to a Tier 4 howitzer, making it the terror of recruit matches.
    • Then there's the T-28, which is about as big as the Motherland, meaning it's rubbish at hiding, though it's surprisingly fast for its size. Initially, it's armed with a pretty pathetic short barreled 76mm close support cannon. With wafer thin armor, it's not going to last too long against its more well-armored contemporaries, but, once it gets a proper engine and either of its top 2 cannons (the long barreled 57mm ZiS-4 or the 85mm F-30), it quickly becomes a Glass Cannon quite capable of punching out higher tier tanks.
    • The M3 Lee, combining the downsides of medium tanks and TDs and the good sides of neither, is widely mocked, ridiculed and hated by American medium tank drivers because of its massive profile, lack of a rotating turret and tendency to get killed by almost anything. However, it has very strong front armor for its tier and upgrades to a very fast-firing high-penetration gun that is capable of shredding even Tier 6 tanks that aren't paying attention.
  • Level Grinding
  • Level Scaling
  • Lightning Bruiser -- The American T25 AT and German JagdPanther are this at the cost of having to face their targets to engage them.
    • The high-end medium tanks such as the T-54, the E-50 and the Patton, are fast, relatively well-armoured and pack a massive punch, with the T-54 taking it to Demonic Spider levels.
      • The official game forum even has a sticky post from the developers on the tactics of fighting T-54s.
    • The recently-added KV-13 medium tank combines the heavy armor of the KV series and the speed of the T-34 series. However, it lacks the powerful guns of either.
    • The American M3 Stuart light tank is often a player's first introduction to a Lightning Bruiser; it's one of the fastest and most durable tanks in its tier, and is actually tougher to kill than its larger but same-tier cousin, the M2 Medium. It also packs a respectable punch, though not quite as much as a fully-upgraded M2 Medium.
    • The German E-75 heavy tank is surprisingly agile for its size, packs insane amounts of armor on the front and has a Tier 10 gun that hits quite hard and is rather accurate.
  • The Load: People who queue for a match then go AFK simply to get XP and credits for being in the match. Stock tanks, which are almost universally terrible, are usually this as well, especially at higher tiers. Chronically inaccurate artillery and scouts who don't can take it up to levels of The Millstone. Anyone deliberately trying to pull a One Tank Army usually isn't going to be much help either.
  • Made of Bouncinium -- Tanks with sloped armor are more likely to deflect shots, and deflected AP shots do 0 damage, so some tanks seem tougher than their stats would have you believe.
    • There is a considerable Hatedom for the T-54 as well as its Chinese knockoff, the Type 59, because of their ridiculously well-sloped frontal armor, which takes this trope Up to Eleven and makes their survivability more akin to that of a heavy tank a tier higher. Most tanks switch off to HE ammunition to chip away at their health rather than hope that their AP rounds will do anything but deflect off armor that is half as thick as their gun's penetration range, If only its turret is exposed, its 200mm thick sloped armor makes it completely invulnerable to conventional tactics.
    • The E-75, a Tier 9 German heavy tank, is a nasty surprise for anyone going up against one frontally. Normally, the machine gun mount, the driver's viewport and the lower glacis plate are easily penetrated by most guns. The E-75 lacks all of those weakspots and sports a flat, featureless front. The various viewports and the commander's cupola are hard to hit, the armor is very thick and well-sloped, and even the lower glacis plate and the upgraded turret's frontal armor rivals the US heavy tanks at 252mm-thick armor. A properly-angled E-75 can reliably bounce shots even from Tier 10 guns.
    • The Tier 4 French 'light' tank, the AMX 40, has well-sloped 70-80mm thick armor, which is thicker than its equivalent tier heavy tank. Now factor in that most early guns in the game can only penetrate around 50-60mm thick armor. Some people have already started to refer to the AMX 40 as the Tier 4 Maus.
      • A little explanation to understand just how well-armored it is: this tank easily gets the "Steel Wall" award for absorbing thrice its total health in damage and surviving. It often happens without any actual damage to its hitpoints.
    • The Infamous Tier 9 American Tank destroyer, The T95 is somewhat Justified For the most part due to it's 305mm of armor, However this still does not explain it's unnatural tendency to make ARTILLERY SHELLS go "DING!"
    • The Tier 7 and up American heavy tanks are like this on their turret; not due so much to the turret shape but because the turret armor is incredibly tough, with some of the thickest armor in the game. AP rounds do nearly nothing, even from tier 10 tanks. The downside for this is the hull armor is laughably thin. Put one of these tanks hull down though, and they can and will Won't Work On Me much of the enemy team.
  • Made of Explodium: The T-44, T-54 and Type 59 are infamous for their ammo rack, located throughout the tank, especially right behind front armour, which can lead to a One-Hit Kill when shot.
  • Magic Tool -- Your repair kit can instantly repair any damaged module. Medkits work the same way.
  • Magikarp Power -- Amazingly, every vehicle except the Tier 10s and premium tanks work like this. You need to earn and buy a lot of upgrades to make them killing machines.
    • For many tanks, this means a gun upgrade. A vehicle can go from laughing stock to legitimate threat, or even borderline overpowered, just by moving up to the next gun.
      • German tanks and tank destroyers often require engine upgrades as well, since the stock engines tend to be really underpowered.
  • Mighty Glacier -- Heavy Tanks. Yes, they are slow as hell and easy to hit, but those hits will hardly scratch the paint.
    • Special mention go to the Tier 9 and 10 heavy tanks, especially the Maus and its cousin, the E-100.
    • Generally, any tank is either this or a Lightning Bruiser if it is the highest tier tank in the match.
    • The KV-5 should also be given a special mention: while its gun is relatively weak and it's slow at pretty much everything, it has truly ridiculous amounts of mass and armor for a Tier 8 tank.
    • Possibly the best known Mighty Glacier is the french Tier 2 Hotchkiss H35 light tank and german Pzkpfw 38H735 (f), salvaged version of it. Armed with a decent gun and sporting insane amounts of armor for its tier, it is mostly immune to the other tanks around its tier, including other Hotchkisses.
    • The American Tier 9 tank destroyer, the T95, sports almost impenetrable frontal armor, a 155mm main gun that can destroy over half the tanks in the game with a single shot and has a top speed of only 13km/h, which is slower than a Maus going in reverse.
    • Nearly all the French tanks below Tier 5 are this.
  • Military Mashup Machine
    • The Maus is one of the few Real Life examples of the Land Battleship version of this trope.
    • Japanese heavy tanks will become another true example mounting naval turrets with fitting weapons.
    • The IS-7, while not an example itself, receives an honorable mention because the 130mm cannon it mounts was originally for naval use. And the US heavy tanks able to mount naval rangefinders (that need a lot of space) on their already enormous turrets.
    • Same goes for the Sturmtiger, it mounts a 38cm naval rocket launcher.
  • More Dakka -- The T-34 with a 57mm cannon, the Rammer equipment and an experienced loader is a goddamn buzzsaw.
    • As a general rule of thumb, any weapon below 57mm isn't going to rely on damage dealt in a single hit, it's going to rely on damage dealt over time. All weapons below 37mm (and including one that is) are automatic cannons.
      • Tier 1 and 2 light tanks often have a 20mm repeating autocannon as their best gun; it fires barrages instead of a single shell. The fastest firing ones are the machine guns on the American M2 Light and French Renault FT-17 and D1, which shoot about twice as fast as their nearest competitors. Don't expect these popguns to do anything more than annoy Tier 3 or higher tanks, however.
    • Although it's American, the M4A3E8 "Easy Eight" mounting the 76mm M1A2 gun is arguably a Spiritual Successor to the T-34-57, having the fastest firing rate of almost any gun in its tier.
    • The 6-pdr gun mounted on the Churchill and Ram II premium tanks and the regular M7 Medium are capable of sending rounds downrange at a blistering rate, balanced out by the fact that they (usually) can't penetrate anything tougher than Tier 5 tanks.
    • The German 7.5cm L/100 has a rate of fire around double that of other guns in its tier.
    • French tanks take this trope to the extreme throughout their entire tree.
      • Even their Tier 1 tank, the Renault FT-17, can equip itself with the 13.2 mm Hotchkiss mle. 1930, a machine gun that can shoot upwards of 680 rounds per minute. That's so fast, it spends almost as much, if not slightly more, time reloading as it does shooting.
  • Mook Horror Show -- When the top of one team's list meets the bottom of the other team's list. Averted if the lower tier tank manages to cripple the high tier one, or escapes.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast/Theme Naming -- since a lot of these machines were given such names in Real Life, the game adopts this trope.
  • Nazis With Gnarly Weapons -- Featuring the famous Tiger, King Tiger and Panther tanks, as well as the Maus, the largest tank ever built.
  • Never Split the Party -- Even heaviest tanks will go down to concentrated fire. Aside from scouts, going lone-wolf will just get you killed very quickly (and even scouts often work in groups and with artillery support).
  • Nigh Invulnerability -- The gimmick of American heavy tanks is that their turret armor is the heaviest armor, on anything, in the game. Of course, the hull of the tank isn't quite so heavily armored...
    • After the 0.6.4 patch, the armor of the Maus is able to absorb several penetrating, definitely damaging hits without any harm.
  • No Swastikas: The rules on creating tank skins say that no swastikas are allowed, and anytime you see a piece of statuary that would logically have one, the space where it would be is left empty, or uses traditional German colours or logos such as the Balkenkreuz.
    • And even then the bowdlerized German army symbols often cause an inquiry from the moderators.
  • Ominous Crawl -- You often have no hope of survival if you're cornered by a much heavier tank. Since you don't have anywhere to run, they'll move slowly to retain accuracy. High tier TDs also like doing this, though some don't really have a choice.
  • One Bullet Left -- You get an Epic medal called "Fadin's Medal" for killing the last enemy with your last round.
    • When your gun takes half a minute to reload and costs as much as a low tier tank to shoot - you should assume that this will be your last shot and you should as much damage as possible.
  • One-Hit Kill -- Ammo rack detonations, which cause you to die instantly, regardless of how much health you had beforehand.
    • Several Russian tanks and the Type 59 are quite prone to this, as they normally store their ammo in easy to hit places. Purchasing the Wet Ammo Rack equipment is almost considered a necessity.
    • Howitzers can cause this when they fully penetrate armor - when they don't penetrate, they do only a percentage of their full damage, but when they do penetrate, God help you. For example, the infamous 152mm "derp" gun on the KV-2 does over 900 damage, and at its tier, the tank with the most health (the T6) only has 870 HP. Needless to say, you really don't want to get hit by it.
  • One-Hit Polykill -- Possible with HE rounds, though very unlikely, as it requires your targets to be right next to each other.
    • Somewhat more possible with SPGs, as their HE rounds can splash a wide area. Some of the top-tier SPGs using premium ammo have a 13+ meter blast radius and can deal enough damage to kill Tier 8 and 9 vehicles, especially if they're already wounded.
  • One Steve Limit -- The Russian T-34 (Tier 5 medium) and American T34 (Tier 8 heavy) are two vastly different tanks that happen to have almost the same name. Similarly, the American T28 (2 different Tier 8 TDs) and the Russian T-28 (Tier 4 medium) or the American M4 (Tier 5 medium) and the French M4 (Tier 7 heavy).
    • The T-34 and T-34-85; the second one being an upgrade of the vanilla T-34 and has a very similar appearance, while being far more dangerous.
    • The KV family: KV-1, KV-2, KV-3, KV-4 and KV-5 are known as the slowest tanks in the game (the price for being among the first heavy tanks available) that even SPGs can outrun. Players with the much faster KV-1S and KV-13 abuse this usual misconception to their advantage.
    • American tanks love subverting this. There's a Tier 2 M2 Light and T2 Light, a Tier 2 T2 Medium and a Tier 3 M2 Medium. There's also a T1 Cunningham and a T1 Heavy, though these are unlikely to be mistaken for each other. Also, the M7 Priest SPG and the M7 Medium, the M3 Stuart light tank and the M3 Lee medium tank, and the M4, M4A2E4, M4A3E2 and M4A3E8 Shermans.
    • Germany outdoes America with their designations. Of the six available heavies, three are Tigers. There are also pairs of VK3001 medium tanks and PzKpfw 38 light tanks.
  • Parabolic Power Curve -- The credit gain per fight reaches its peak at levels 6-7 (8 for some tanks), and later tanks are usually not profitable.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse -- The Tier 5 light tanks. They may look petty and harmless at first glance, but the game balances them as Tier 6.5 for a reason. The T-50-2 is the ultimate Lightning Bruiser, the M24 Chaffee is able to damage even Tier 9 tanks with skilled driving and the VK2801 can be equipped with a 10.5cm cannon.
    • The French Tier 7 light tank, the AMX 13/90, weighs only about 13 tons (hence the name), is almost as fast and maneuverable as the T-50-2 and thanks to its revolver auto-loader, is capable of unleashing 1400 points of damage in less than 12 seconds, which is enough to kill a Tier 7 heavy.
  • Play Every Day -- The first winning match of the day in each tank gives doubled experience. Some special events increase this, tripling or even quintupling the experience gained.
  • PVP-Balanced -- Maps based on real-life locations are modified to make both sides equal.
    • This also applies to vehicles. The terrifying Game Breaker of the Recruit battles (Tiers 1 and 2), the AT-1, is a tank killer often delivering One Hit Kills to most enemies, and is also very well-armored and agile for its tier; its only major downside being the reload time for its gun. In real life, its 76mm cannon variant was semi-automatic.
    • Averted by the T-54. The developers' answer to the demands to Nerf its speed and/or armor? "Its statistics shows that the tank is balanced well". This is because many players who get it don't really know how to use it effectively.
      • Especially taxing, since the in-game T-54 marries the armor of the early variants and the agility of later variants. That later agility was historically achieved by reducing the armor.
  • Politically-Correct History -- American tank crews can be of mixed race, while in reality, the American military was still segregated during WWII.
  • Popular History -- While some maps are based off real battlegrounds and all the vehicles are real, match setups make little to no sense in terms of time periods.
    • However, averted by some enthusiasts playing historical setups in custom matches.
    • There are also plans for an official historical battle mode, with its own balancing and restrictions on tanks and modules.
  • Rare Vehicles -- Some tanks only existed in blueprints, other had a few prototypes made. More than two Maus or a single Panther II or E-100? That's more than ever actually existed.
  • Ramming Always Works -- Not always, but a light tank at full speed can ram a careless SPG to death, even normal tanks will have to give a track.
    • Ramming is effective against turretless vehicles like the aforementioned SPGs as well as TDs if rammed from the sides, as it can't turn its gun to target the rammer.
    • If the rammer rams a vehicle too heavy, the lighter vehicle will blow up or at least be worse off from the collision.
    • There is a Epic medal for destroying a tank that's higher tier than yours by ramming it. Appropriately, it's called "Kamikaze".
    • The E-50 weighs in at 65 tons and can still reach a top speed of 60kph. Ramming is quite effective in this vehicle. Players have reported knocking 20-35% health off the T-54 just by ramming it once at top speed.
      • Similarly, the KV-5 weighs in at 100 tons and can reach 40kph. Don't get in the way of one headed downhill.
    • Low-profile TDs can sometimes ram a high-tier tank, particularly a late-tier German or a KV-5, and be too small to get the main gun low enough to shoot them.
    • Players with high tier French heavies have a tendency to ram enemy tanks (since Tier 8 and above French heavies are faster then a lot of mediums and even some light tanks, but still weigh quite a bit) then unload their revolver auto-loaders at point-blank range. Rarely does a tank survive this kind of attack.
  • Reds with Rockets -- featuring the T-34, the KV-2, the T-54 and the IS-4.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better -- Some French tanks have revolver cylinder based reloading systems, allowing for a higher rate of fire, but a long reload time after emptying the cylinder.
  • RPG Elements -- Players are awarded credits and Experience Points at the end of each battle, with amounts determined by performance. Additionally, the crew members of a tank gain skill according to experience earned, and on hitting 100% competence can unlock further specializations in Repair, Firefighting, and Camouflage.
  • Schmuck Bait -- No matter how tempting it is to shoot the giant turret of the KV-2, KV-5, PzIV or any US heavy tank, the most harm your shot will do is throw off his aim[17]. Even shots from high-tier guns will have a decent chance of simply bouncing off.
    • Putting all your efforts into shooting a Maus (or another top-tier tank) when other, more vulnerable enemy vehicles are around is also not the brightest idea.
    • Enemy scouts often turn into this when nobody is specifically defending the artillery, since the entire team will waste time chasing them around, getting forced out of position for the enemy's main attack while being lit up for enemy artillery the entire time. Higher-tier scouts, especially the T-50-2, occasionally survive as well, adding insult to injury.
  • Scratch Damage -- HE rounds are this if the foe has thick armor. Ricochets with these rounds are a rare occurrence, but the damage will be barely noticeable.
  • Shaggy Search Technique -- Combat is often initiated by frontline (and usually suicide) scouts stumbling upon the enemy.
    • And if the last enemy is a TD... good luck finding them.
  • Shoddy Knockoff Product -- The Type 59 (a Chinese copy of the T-54) is not just a tier weaker than the original, it's widely considered less threatening than the equivalent tier T-44: it's heavier, has a weaker engine, carries less ammo and even the radio is obsolete for its tier.
  • Shoot the Fuel Tank -- A legitimate tactic against opponents. Destroying fuel tanks will immediately set the tank on fire.
  • Shooting Superman -- Played straight with less experienced players, who will blast away uselessly at the frontal armor of higher tier tanks. Averted with experienced players, who will shoot weak spots and tracks or retreat.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Signature Cannon -- Some of the cannons are exclusive to a tank - or just mostly used on on it. These weapons are often given Fan Nicknames or are just called after that tank.
    • The most renowned is the 152mm howitzer of the KV-2 (see Lethal Joke Tank above), better known as the "derpgun".
    • The 8.8 cm KwK36 L/56 and KwK43 L/71, while used by many other German tanks, are commonly known as the "Tiger cannon".
    • The 107mm ZiS-6S is a very good all-round weapon available at Tier 5 that only has one flaw: it can only be installed on the fragile SU-85.
    • The Americans have the 105mm SPH M4L23, which is a signature weapon of their entire medium line - Every American medium tank from Tier 6 onwards (and the M4 Sherman) can mount it.
    • VK3601(H) and it's unique 7.5cm KwK41 L/58 Konisch gun.
    • French Tier 6-9 heavies and Tier 8-9 mediums are capable of mounting the 90mm DCA 45. Average damage, very good penetration, cheap shells, fast rate of fire and completely devastating when coupled with a auto-loader.
  • Splash Damage -- Present with HE rounds. While not being very harmful to the hull, it often breaks the tank's tracks.
    • Also, direct hits with HE will deal damage to several modules more frequently than AP rounds.
    • SPGs in general and American ones in particular rely heavily on splash damage, as their shells tend to be inaccurate but have a rather large splash radius and high amounts of damage, meaning they can cause heavy damage even if their opponent is in cover.
  • Skill Point Reset -- Occasionally when serious changes are introduced to game balance. Ranges from compensating XP and credits (or providing a replacement) when a tank or module is removed to actual skill point reset when the new crew perks are introduced.
  • Starter Equipment -- Level 1 tanks of every nation.
  • Staying Alive -- Crew members never die, they only get injured and can be brought back into action either by using a medkit or by finishing the battle. The thing is, this means they can survive ammo rack detonations or catching a 152mm AP shell with their skull.
    • Which is weird, considering that in the English version, your crew shouts "The gunner is dead, somebody get on the gun!" or "The loader bought the farm." or "The commander is dead, we can´t see what´s going on." when a crew member is hit. Also, if all of your crew members die, the tank is considered to be "knocked out".
  • Steel Wall -- Crippled heavy tanks (damage to the main gun is very common for them) are this, and they protect medium tanks and tank destroyers while on the attack, or guard the routes to the HQ while on defense. Well-placed destroyed tanks count as well.
  • Stupid Sacrifice -- Suicide scouting usually ends with the scout being destroyed before the SPGs are ready to fire. Some players do it deliberately to earn experience by spotting as many enemies as they can and then going over to another tank once they're dead.
    • Damaged and poorly armored tanks that ram highly armored enemies will explode on impact while doing almost no damage.
  • Subsystem Damage -- Played straight, and is one of the game's core mechanics.
    • The current draft for a hardcore game mode doesn't even have a health bar for the tank, instead letting you fight until the tank is incapacitated by subsystem destruction.
  • Suicide Attack -- Low-tier tanks unable to stand up to enemy fire often hurry to chokepoints to stand there and die, blocking it with an impassable wreck. The most notorious for this is the T-28, the biggest Tier 4 tank (and one of the biggest overall). This has become less effective, as the wreckage can now be moved, albeit slowly.
    • "Suicide scouting" is probably the most common form of scouting - light tanks, usually due to getting thrown into matches where they can't realistically hope to cause any damage, charge headlong into the enemy spawn area as soon as the match starts.
    • SPGs in a bad spot will often go into 'tank destroyer' or 'shotgun' mode and attempt to execute one of these before they die. Attacking a shotgunning artillery from the front can be equally suicidal.
  • Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • Take That -- The teasers poke fun at fantasy MMOs such as another "World Of" game, hyper-realistic games, EVE Online, and racing games.
  • Tank Rush -- In random matches, teams will have a few coordinated platoons of three tanks each at best. Most of the time, teams will have poor coordination, resulting in an unpredictable swarm of armor in the chokepoints. This is surprisingly common even at high tiers and even the best tanks will be much less effective without coordination.
  • Tanks, But No Tanks -- Amazingly averted. No tank is made up, every tank in game or planned for the game had at least one example built or had blueprints, and all upgrades were either used in reality, or were planned and tested. However, if you want to be nit picky, tank destroyers and self propelled guns are not, technically, tanks.
  • Tank Goodness: The Game
  • Tech Tree -- How one advances through the game. Want to drive around in the IS-4 or King Tiger? You gotta play the tanks before them to unlock them. The tech tree can be bypassed by liberal use of converting regular XP to Free XP using real money, though you have to earn the regular XP the old-fashioned way, and Premium tanks which are also bought with real money do not have to be unlocked but also do not unlock anything on the tech tree.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything -- While the controls and movement physics are simple (The developers, however, promise to review the physics), the damage model is highly advanced.
    • Every hatch, window, periscope, gun mantlet, armor plate, radio antenna or suspension roller will have its own armor thickness in addition to projectile impact angle. Any mechanism or crew member near the impact point may be damaged.
      • If you look closely at the T-34, you can even see the firing ports for the tank crew's sidearms. Look for a small circle below the side viewing slits.
    • Ricocheting projectiles are given one more chance to hit anything, causing shot traps [18] to work, and even occasionally deflect into tanks that weren't the target.
    • Not using the crew members' actions like turning the turret, moving the tank, firing will result in faster repairs and fire extinguishing.
    • Guns with a muzzle brake will reveal your location at a greater distance than those without.
    • Diesel engines have a lower chance of catching fire than gasoline engines.
    • Every tank has hitboxes for radios, engines, gas tanks, ammo racks, crew members, etc. The locations are different for each tank, and are all based on their real life locations.
    • Tank drive systems are faithfully reproduced; some can only turn by running their tracks at different speeds forward, some can run their tracks in opposite directions and turn in place, some have to stop one track. This can have major effects in how they handle at speed.
  • The Grim Reaper -- The Title of Honor for One Hit Killing at least 3 tanks in a row is called "Reaper". In the Russian version, it's called "Reaper's Scythe".
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill -- HE rounds will deal tons of extra damage if they penetrate the armor, critically hitting multiple modules and wounding the crew. This often leaves smaller vehicles in the "Tank destroyed" state with maxed repair costs. Leads to Lethal Joke Tank above, when a weapon's damage output exceeds the health of most enemies.
    • Often complain to the artillery that finish tanks with pair of hitpoints, instead of damaging healthy enemies.
  • Underground Monkey -- A lot of tanks in-game are similar to each other, often justified by their real-life counterparts. Modifications of some tanks are also considered different tanks in-game for balance purposes or to make up for the low diversity of the nation's tanks.
    • The Soviet medium tank branch from the A-20 through to the T-43 are basically the same chassis with different armor and turrets; the KV-1, KV-1S, T-150 and KV-220 heavy tanks all look near-identical.
    • The German PzKpfw III Ausf. A and PzKpfw III (Ausf. E or M) are the same tank with different equipment.
    • The US T1 Heavy and M6 Heavy are the same tank model with different turrets and camouflage. The heavy and medium tank trees from Tier 7 onwards are basically prototypes or modifications of the M26 Pershing. 4 modifications[19] of the M4 Sherman are also split into separate tanks.
    • The SU-152 and ISU-152 are the inverse of the above examples, having near-identical upper hulls placed on different lower hulls (the KV-1S and IS-1/2, respectively).
    • The French AMX 50/100, AMX 50/120 and AMX 50B are pretty much the same tank, just with different equipment (the 100 and 120 in the designations refer to the caliber of guns they are designed to mount). The same goes with the AMX 13/75 and the AMX 13/90.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: A few vehicles don't play like everything else in their line.
    • The M3 Lee medium tank does not have a rotating turret [20], making it play more like a tank destroyer than the medium tank it's classified as. This is a major factor in it being considered That One Tank by a lot of players going down the American medium and heavy lines.
    • Conversely, the M10 Wolverine and M36 Slugger, also American, are the only tanks on their line that have rotating turrets.
      • To top off, there is an entire alternative US TD line from Tier 4 to Tier 9 whose whole gimmick is that they're tank destroyers with a turret.
    • The Russian SU-26 SPG is the only artillery with a fully-rotating turret, allowing it to fire in any direction without having to stop and reorient itself.
    • Tier 1-4 French tanks tend to focus heavily on armor at the expense of speed and firepower. Once you start to get around Tier 5 or 6, French designs start putting much more emphasis on speed and firepower and tend to have very weak armor.
  • Unskilled but Strong -- Soviet tanks usually deal more raw damage and have more effective armour than the others, but they lack accuracy, reload speed and radio range.
  • Variable Mix -- The background music will change depending on the action unfolding.
    • Often borderline on Musical Spoiler when the enemy is unseen for some reason, but the combat music starts playing.
  • Visible Invisibility -- Spotted enemies will always have a red mark over their vehicle and show a red outline if you've got a direct shot at them even through opaque obstacles.
  • Weak but Skilled -- Many light tanks and low tier mediums (such as the Leopard or the M7) aren't considered a big deal, often dying in the first few seconds of combat. But even one experienced scout past the frontline can raise hell long enough to prevent the enemy from assembling defenses in time.
    • And in general, German cannons deal less damage per capita than their American and Russian counterparts, but penetrate and are accurate much, much farther out.
  • What a Piece of Junk! -- Soviet heavy tanks are covered in welding seams, peeling paint, dirt and rust. Do not be fooled.
    • Pretty much EVERY stock tank (especially the Tier 1s) except premiums and Tier 10s. When you drive the new tank around, you'll probably feel it's a downgrade from your last one, but when you get around to upgrading it...
    • General thought about low-level french tanks.
  • Why Did It Have To Be Gun Depression/Elevation: Expect to confront the limits of your vehicle's ability to raise or lower its gun a lot, particularly on the more hilly maps like El Halluf, or pretty much any time you want to come up over a ridge and can't fire at anyone before they get free shot at your vulnerable lower front glacis. This is especially bad with the high tier French heavies, whose oscillating turrets give them truly pathetic gun elevation, a paltry 8 degrees.
  • World War Two -- Most of the vehicles in-game participated or were designed during it.
    • A historical game mode (which limits teams to certain time periods and factions) has been announced by the developers, though nothing more has been said of it for a year.
    • In the meantime, fans on the forums have been organising historical duels using training mode.
  • Yanks With Tanks -- Featuring the iconic M4 Sherman, the M4A3E8 "Easy Eight", the M3 Lee and the M26 Pershing.
  1. ↑ Currently, the game features vehicles from the USSR (including some British designs, that saw service in the Red Army under lend-lease), Germany (including French and Czech designs that saw service with the Heer after the German conquest of Czechoslovakia and France), the United States, France and oddly enough, exactly one Chinese tank (the Type 59, a Chinese knockoff of the T-54).
  2. ↑ The vehicles that did see service often have upgrades available to them that were never adopted in real life, in some cases because they simply couldn't make it fit.
  3. ↑ He's usually the first and only casualty among the crew
  4. ↑ Hitting these renders the crew blind for a while.
  5. ↑ Currently, free players can form 2-man tank platoons.
  6. ↑ aka Golden Gun
  7. ↑ Well-armoured but as a peashooter for a gun
  8. ↑ The Valentine, Matilda, Churchill and Mk VII Tetrarch.
  9. ↑ While it takes a consumable slot, the item itself is permanent.
  10. ↑ damaging modules and crew
  11. ↑ Only HE shells are loaded, thus causing a lot more of the above mentioned critical hits.
  12. ↑ And before it appeared to the T-44.
  13. ↑ Penetration for HE rounds is how much armor they ignore and since HE does damage based on armor thickness...
  14. ↑ The Hotchkiss H38, Somua S35, and Char B1 bis.
  15. ↑ Tiger, Panther, Maus, Leopard, Luchs (Lynx).
  16. ↑ Famous American Generals (funnily enough, it was actually the British that started this tradition when they received American tanks - it caught on recursively).
  17. ↑ The 0.6.4 patch allows players to turn this off, so not even that.
  18. ↑ Areas where a round can strike and deflect into a vulnerable section of the tank.
  19. ↑ The basic M4, the M4A3E8 "Easy Eight", the M4A3E2 "Jumbo" and the M4A2E4 gift tank
  20. ↑ While the turret is modeled on the tank, it's not going to be made functional until multi-gun support is implemented.
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