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[OronSonon]

Armor and Mobility: A Guide to Tactics  –  Part II

 

A guide to all tactics and strategies in Blitz, split into two sections, armor and mobility.

 

 

Basic (Part I) and Advanced (Part II)

 

It is recommended for newcomers to only read through the Part I's of each sections and learn those skills before moving on the the Part II's. Likewise, if you are a skilled player, feel free to skip the Part I's. 

 

 

Armor

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Finding Hull Down Positions
2. Angling Against Multiple Enemies
3. Watching the Enemy's Gun
4. Large Autobounce Zones
5. Using Your Own Gun

 

 

1. Finding Hull Down Positions

 

This seems like it's pretty straight forward, but when playing tanks such as the Russians, with great turret armor but barely any gun depression, it's hard to find places to use that turret. One simple strategy to getting enough gun depression to shoot over a hill is to: look for hills behind you. 

 

Behind you? How would that be useful at all? Actually, this tactic is very useful if all sorts of tanks.  If there is a hill in front and behind you, you can back up onto the hill behind you so that you either are high enough to just barely look over the hill in front of you, or, since you are backing up onto a hill, you get the added gun depression (since you are facing a little bit downwards, what used to be your gun depression limit is now further down) to shoot at a tank while hull down. This doesn't only have to be done driving backwards onto a hill. You can drive forward up a hill and aim behind you or drive sideways with half of your tank on the incline, giving you more depression off to the side.  

 

Spoiler

 

 

2. Angling Against Multiple Enemies

 

Sometimes, when your spending your time trying to shoot over that hill, you find that the enemies just charge you.  Now there's an IS-3, M6, and ISU-152 coming straight at you. What should you do now? Well first off, try not to let them get behind you, and also prioritize your angling. 

 

Instead of just angling in the general direction of the enemy while backing off slowly, think. That ISU has just fired and missed, so now you know he'll be reloading for quite a while. Now what's more dangerous, the IS-3's BL-9 doing 400 average damage or the M6's M1A1 doing 160 average damage? Angle towards that IS-3, and once he fires, you know he will take a while to reload, meaning it’s safe for you to turn around to face the M6. However, by then you should prepare, because the ISU with its mighty BL-10 gun has probably reloaded. 

 

Spoiler

 

I couldn't find a better picture so i had to use this: Don't listen to what the picture tells you. Obviously if both tanks are about to shoot you, then you should angle towards both tanks, but if you know the left tank has already fired, then you can flatten your armor towards that tank to angle more towards the right tank, which is about to fire at you, shown in the "fail" example. 

 

3. Watching the Enemy's Gun

 

Now let's say you're in an E75, a very heavily armored tank. However, the BL-10 has an extremely high penetration value, so even if you wiggle slightly, trying to get a bounce,  your armor protection still won't be able to protect you from taking 650 damage. In this case you should be watching his gun. If he's pointing at your front, then angle your front a ton, to about a 290 mm of protection. This will mean your side will have way weaker protection, however if your doing it right, it won't be a problem. 

 

If you see the enemy's gun move over to shoot your side, quickly angle back so your side armor is at a near auto bounce angle. Your reaction speed is most important part, otherwise the ISU can easily just shoot at your side armor if you take a long time turning your tank back to angle your side. At this time, the ISU should be annoyed that he can't find a shot and try to rush a shot at your front again, resulting in a bounce if you ankle back quickly. Now if it was the other way around, and you're trying to bounce the E75's shot, you can face hug him and try to angle your tank so that he shoots your gun mantlet, the only armor you pretty much have. A lot of times, this tactic is extremely hard to pull off because it's much easier for the enemy to readjust their aim than for you to turn your whole tank, but there are some lucky times when you manage to pull it off. 

 

Spoiler

 In this picture the T32s side armor is weaker than the front upper glacis. If you see the enemy aiming at your side if you are angled like this, you should quickly turn your tank so that your side armor becomes an auto bounce angle. 

 

4. Large Autobounce Zones

 

Now if you were in an IS-3 in the above situation, your armor would have no chance of holding up against the ISU. To maximize your chance of bouncing a shot, angle. Are you kidding? Angling with a pike nose makes your armor way weaker. True, against opponents with 200 or below mm or penetration. Against higher tier opponents who can easily go through your front without even aiming, this creates a large auto bounce zone and a weak, albeit small, target where they can actually penetrate. 

 

Since the IS-3's armor is pre angled to the sides, if you angle, one side becomes too sloped to penetrate. The other side is a small target, and by using wiggling techniques, you can make that target hard to hit as well as switching which side of the pike nose is the weak side by turning your tank back and forth. And since the ISU's BL-10 is very inaccurate, there's a decent chance he'll miss your one small weakspot and hit the heavily angled part of your tank everywhere else. 

 

Spoiler

 As you can see, there is a really small area of the IS-3s hull that can be penetrated. Sure, that area very weak, but the gun aiming at you would easily be able to pen your whole front if you weren't angling. Now there is a smaller area they can pen. 

 

5. Using Your Gun

 

This is a tactic that not very many people know about. When face hugging an enemy who is able to penetrate the majority of your turret, wiggling doesn't really matter as he can just shoot wherever on your turret. In this case, as long as he manages to land a shot on your turret, he will most likely penetrate, which is why you use your gun to try to block a shot. 

 

If someone shoots right at your gun, most likely you will not lose any hit points, only getting a damaged or destroyed gun. So when face hugging, if wiggling won't work, try to aim your gun so that your gun barrel overlaps with the enemy's. It's extremely hard, as the enemy can just move his gun a little and you have to readjust your gun again, but there's still a chance that he only ends up damaging your gun, which can mean the difference between life and death (credit goes to Spinee for this tactic). 

 

Spoiler

 The Jagdtiger's gun absorbed a shot. It probably damaged his gun, but it saved him a lot of hitpoints. 

 

 

Mobility

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Proper Flanking
2. Flexing 
3. Turning Around
4. Engaging Multiple Enemies

 

1. Different Ways of Flanking

 

A lot of times, someone will decide to flank all the way around the map just to get behind the enemies and then start trading shots with the heavy tanks that turn around to face him. Doing this is pointless, as it only takes on enemy to turn around and face you and kill you off, and you can't circle them as they're mostly within range of support, meaning you'll be shot from behind if you leave cover to circle him. This type of flanking works well in a group of fast tanks, where you can utterly destroy a lone enemy within seconds, but this rarely happens in public matches. 

 

Let's say you and the other mediums on your team manage to take out the enemy mediums on Middleburg. There's only two of you left, and you start to go down into the town. Instead of flanking all the way around and shooting at the enemies in the back, you should either stay on the hills out of spotting distance so you can keep shooting at them without receiving return fire, or get up close, take a few shots at them, and when they turn to face you, find a different target to shoot at, unless they are completely alone. In my opinion you should be going back and instead flanking across the map, do a semi flank by finding a side position to shoot at the enemies actively engaging your teammates. They are already engaging your teammates so they can't pull away to shoot at you. Well, they can, but then you can just relocate. This is another way of flanking, and in my opinion, the better way. 

 

The last type of flanking is something that can be done by all tanks as it requires very little mobility and should be done by everything. If you and a teammate are engaging an enemy tank on the opposite side of a large rock, pillar, or building, instead of popping out on the same side as your teammate, go around the object on the other side and shoot from there. It will force the enemy to take about one to three seconds adjusting where he has to aim. If he aims at you, you simply don't pop out and let your teammate take shots at him. When looks back at your teammate, then you can pop out again. You should always be aiming to do this kind of flanking, not only in mobile tanks.

 

Spoiler

 

Instead of flanking all the way behind the enemies, another option is to shoot from the upper left building, creating a cross fire on the enemy and at the same time being safe from the enemy turning around to charge at you that would be possible if you decided to flank as shown in the picture. 

 

2. Flexing

 

People often say that in a fast tank, you have the ability to support a weakening flank. This is true, but they don't explain the other ways of flexing. A lot of the times, a fast medium tank doesn't have the ability to help a flank that's losing by more than two tanks, as one tank can't do much against three or four enemy tanks, unless the driver is very skilled and can see before the flank starts to crumble that they will need extra support. Just because your teammates are dying doesn't mean you should charge back and die with them. 

 

When this happens you can set up a scouting position or an ambush, then quickly run back when you're spotted. That's flexing too. It can be early game as well, when you see that you're the only medium on your team and the enemy team has two, you can find a hull down position where you expect them to come just to hold them off for a few minutes until your team comes to help. Mediums can flex well meaning they can relocate to get extra damage in on the enemy, scout, or stall the enemy. They can also mean the difference between your team losing one against two or winning two against one. A medium tank is very annoying, and when the games close to the end and your low health teammate is battling against an enemy tank, you can often cause that tank to look towards you and not finish your ally, and together with the guy you just saved, finish him off. 

 

Spoiler

 

Now if your in a medium tank and you see that your team (in the picture your team is the red team) is going to definitely crumble on that flank, you don't have to just go charging back and try to hold them all off by yourself once your team dies. You can keep them spotted for the rest of your team, or you can just go back to reset cap. Flexing doesn't mean charging back to die with the rest of your team. 

 

3. Turning Around

 

If you're forced to engage two tanks at one time, you most likely will not survive the encounter, and should run away. We've all had those moments when your last teammate is killed, and you become the main target. The only hope in this situation is to turn around and run away, hoping to engage the remaining enemies one on one. There are less enemies alive, so you can use your mobility to excel by fighting on your terms. You better hope the enemies don't have multiple medium that will chase you down together when you run away. However, if there is only one medium on the enemy team preventing you from escaping, there may be a chance still. 

 

Staying to kill that medium first is not an option unless the other tanks are way too far away to help. But in this situation, they're all within 50 meters, and will be onto you within seconds if you run away. But if you run away, you have to look where you're going, and that allows the enemy medium to follow you since he has the speed to shoot you over and over until you die. How do you look forward and aim behind you at the same time? You don't. You allow auto aim to aim behind you. No, stop trying to be smart. If you pull away from the target to look forward, you break away from the auto aim. True, but there is a handy dandy little scroll that you can turn on in the settings that allow you to look around without moving your tank. This will not break away from the auto aim and will allow you to look forward while driving (you will have to lift your finger to click the fire button, causing the screen to turn back towards the medium you're locked onto again, but if you shoot fast, you should be able to scroll back within a second, so as long as you don't crash within that second, you'll be fine). However, this is auto aim, so don't expect to win all the time with this tactic. It may work, but it's still a last resort. You should expect it not to work and be happy if it does. 

 

Spoiler

 This driver is currently using the scroll thing at the bottom right corner to face forward while his turret is pointing backwards. If an enemy is following you, you can lock on to them with auto aim and run at the same time. 

 

4. Engaging Multiple Enemies

 

Now, if you were the last one left alive except the enemy team only outnumbers you two to one, then you can engage them both at one time and still win, as long as one of them is a tank destroyer or a really slow heavy. If you manage to circle a tank and get behind them, they become totally incapable of damaging you. This is why, in the above situation, you should aim to circle the heavy or tank destroyer, preventing him from damaging you, and instead of shooting at him, shoot at the other enemy tank. This works especially well when you have more health than the enemy tank your engaging, meaning you can trade shots and win, and the enemy your circling is very heavily armored and slow. This tactic works in early game as well, but you have to be sure there isn't a third tank hiding somewhere. 

 

If you have less health than that enemy tank than you can do the opposite instead and focus on keeping that heavy or tank destroyer in between you two at all times and keep putting shots into him. This ensures that you can take at least one tank down with you if you do it right, as the tank you're circling can't shoot you and is providing cover from the other tank. After finishing the first tank, you can use him as cover to try to bounce shots from the remaining tank. Both of these strategies work; it's just a matter of preference. 

 

Spoiler

 Keeping that enemy heavy between you and the light tank behind it, that way you minimize the damage you're taking, increasing the chances that you win the engagement.  

 

 

Part I

http://forum.wotblit...ctics-–-part-i/

[RAMBO357]

Impressive.

[Drill_Destructor]

Awesome work. Learned a little more than I already knew. Thank you.

[OronSonon]

ifrjustin, on 30 July 2015 - 12:40 AM, said:

Awesome work. Learned a little more than I already knew. Thank you.

 

Glad I could help!

[MSixteen]

good stuff, but i don't think you can fire at somebody behind you while driving/looking forward (with the look around) because once you let go of the look around, your turret will start to face forward, and you'll miss your shot.

[OronSonon]

MSixteen, on 30 July 2015 - 05:47 AM, said:

good stuff, but i don't think you can fire at somebody behind you while driving/looking forward (with the look around) because once you let go of the look around, your turret will start to face forward, and you'll miss your shot.

 

it's true that I haven't tested it, but I know that once u let go of the look around the view switches to where your turret is facing, so when u let go of the look around to click fire, your turret will still face the enemy, the only thing is that you'll start to look backwards. Of course, I might be wrong, but this is what I believe. 

[Jjtt0105]

i'll use those skills next time

[abndave64]

Super cool...I'm new to Video games...in fact this is my first. Believe me I'm awful....45%...but I've found the forums...I love your input and look forward to applying the new found info. Thanks

 

 

 

[koop123]

abndave64, on 31 August 2015 - 07:38 PM, said:

Super cool...I'm new to Video games...in fact this is my first. Believe me I'm awful....45%...but I've found the forums...I love your input and look forward to applying the new found info. Thanks

 

 

 

You are not awful. You found the forums, which means you are the kind of person that drills down into something they are into and realized that Blitz is chess, not checkers. Read all the guides you can, study more then you play. Watch the medium and heavy videos by Bushka, watch Msixteens videos (the scrub can only manage a 70% WR) and check out vids on YouTube by Thunderthies and Concep.

 

You will get better. I believe there are three levels of skill in this game: bad, good and great. A bad player drags their team down, never learns and is best used as hard cover when they die. A good player has moments of greatness, knows map strategy and excels in certain tanks. A great player is from the planet Megzorp, plays the game like Neo seeing bullets in slo-mo and can circle a Leo in a T95.

 

Few can be great players, but most can become good.

[tlouie]

Great writeup. Thank you.

[BushEnjoyer]

OronSonon, on 29 July 2015 - 06:18 PM, said:

Mobility

 

Table of Contents

 

1. Proper Flanking
2. Flexing 
3. Turning Around
4. Engaging Multiple Enemies

 

1. Different Ways of Flanking

 

A lot of times, someone will decide to flank all the way around the map just to get behind the enemies and then start trading shots with the heavy tanks that turn around to face him. Doing this is pointless, as it only takes on enemy to turn around and face you and kill you off, and you can't circle them as they're mostly within range of support, meaning you'll be shot from behind if you leave cover to circle him. This type of flanking works well in a group of fast tanks, where you can utterly destroy a lone enemy within seconds, but this rarely happens in public matches. 

 

Let's say you and the other mediums on your team manage to take out the enemy mediums on Middleburg. There's only two of you left, and you start to go down into the town. Instead of flanking all the way around and shooting at the enemies in the back, you should either stay on the hills out of spotting distance so you can keep shooting at them without receiving return fire, or get up close, take a few shots at them, and when they turn to face you, find a different target to shoot at, unless they are completely alone. In my opinion you should be going back and instead flanking across the map, do a semi flank by finding a side position to shoot at the enemies actively engaging your teammates. They are already engaging your teammates so they can't pull away to shoot at you. Well, they can, but then you can just relocate. This is another way of flanking, and in my opinion, the better way. 

 

The last type of flanking is something that can be done by all tanks as it requires very little mobility and should be done by everything. If you and a teammate are engaging an enemy tank on the opposite side of a large rock, pillar, or building, instead of popping out on the same side as your teammate, go around the object on the other side and shoot from there. It will force the enemy to take about one to three seconds adjusting where he has to aim. If he aims at you, you simply don't pop out and let your teammate take shots at him. When looks back at your teammate, then you can pop out again. You should always be aiming to do this kind of flanking, not only in mobile tanks.

 

Spoiler

 

Instead of flanking all the way behind the enemies, another option is to shoot from the upper left building, creating a cross fire on the enemy and at the same time being safe from the enemy turning around to charge at you that would be possible if you decided to flank as shown in the picture. 

 

2. Flexing

 

People often say that in a fast tank, you have the ability to support a weakening flank. This is true, but they don't explain the other ways of flexing. A lot of the times, a fast medium tank doesn't have the ability to help a flank that's losing by more than two tanks, as one tank can't do much against three or four enemy tanks, unless the driver is very skilled and can see before the flank starts to crumble that they will need extra support. Just because your teammates are dying doesn't mean you should charge back and die with them. 

 

When this happens you can set up a scouting position or an ambush, then quickly run back when you're spotted. That's flexing too. It can be early game as well, when you see that you're the only medium on your team and the enemy team has two, you can find a hull down position where you expect them to come just to hold them off for a few minutes until your team comes to help. Mediums can flex well meaning they can relocate to get extra damage in on the enemy, scout, or stall the enemy. They can also mean the difference between your team losing one against two or winning two against one. A medium tank is very annoying, and when the games close to the end and your low health teammate is battling against an enemy tank, you can often cause that tank to look towards you and not finish your ally, and together with the guy you just saved, finish him off. 

 

Spoiler

 

Now if your in a medium tank and you see that your team (in the picture your team is the red team) is going to definitely crumble on that flank, you don't have to just go charging back and try to hold them all off by yourself once your team dies. You can keep them spotted for the rest of your team, or you can just go back to reset cap. Flexing doesn't mean charging back to die with the rest of your team. 

 

3. Turning Around

 

If you're forced to engage two tanks at one time, you most likely will not survive the encounter, and should run away. We've all had those moments when your last teammate is killed, and you become the main target. The only hope in this situation is to turn around and run away, hoping to engage the remaining enemies one on one. There are less enemies alive, so you can use your mobility to excel by fighting on your terms. You better hope the enemies don't have multiple medium that will chase you down together when you run away. However, if there is only one medium on the enemy team preventing you from escaping, there may be a chance still. 

 

Staying to kill that medium first is not an option unless the other tanks are way too far away to help. But in this situation, they're all within 50 meters, and will be onto you within seconds if you run away. But if you run away, you have to look where you're going, and that allows the enemy medium to follow you since he has the speed to shoot you over and over until you die. How do you look forward and aim behind you at the same time? You don't. You allow auto aim to aim behind you. No, stop trying to be smart. If you pull away from the target to look forward, you break away from the auto aim. True, but there is a handy dandy little scroll that you can turn on in the settings that allow you to look around without moving your tank. This will not break away from the auto aim and will allow you to look forward while driving (you will have to lift your finger to click the fire button, causing the screen to turn back towards the medium you're locked onto again, but if you shoot fast, you should be able to scroll back within a second, so as long as you don't crash within that second, you'll be fine). However, this is auto aim, so don't expect to win all the time with this tactic. It may work, but it's still a last resort. You should expect it not to work and be happy if it does. 

 

Spoiler

 This driver is currently using the scroll thing at the bottom right corner to face forward while his turret is pointing backwards. If an enemy is following you, you can lock on to them with auto aim and run at the same time. 

 

4. Engaging Multiple Enemies

 

Now, if you were the last one left alive except the enemy team only outnumbers you two to one, then you can engage them both at one time and still win, as long as one of them is a tank destroyer or a really slow heavy. If you manage to circle a tank and get behind them, they become totally incapable of damaging you. This is why, in the above situation, you should aim to circle the heavy or tank destroyer, preventing him from damaging you, and instead of shooting at him, shoot at the other enemy tank. This works especially well when you have more health than the enemy tank your engaging, meaning you can trade shots and win, and the enemy your circling is very heavily armored and slow. This tactic works in early game as well, but you have to be sure there isn't a third tank hiding somewhere. 

 

If you have less health than that enemy tank than you can do the opposite instead and focus on keeping that heavy or tank destroyer in between you two at all times and keep putting shots into him. This ensures that you can take at least one tank down with you if you do it right, as the tank you're circling can't shoot you and is providing cover from the other tank. After finishing the first tank, you can use him as cover to try to bounce shots from the remaining tank. Both of these strategies work; it's just a matter of preference. 

 

Spoiler

 Keeping that enemy heavy between you and the light tank behind it, that way you minimize the damage you're taking, increasing the chances that you win the engagement.  

 

 

Part I

http://forum.wotblit...ctics-–-part-i/

 

great stuff m8, thread deserves a bump.