Joining
To join first choose your selected tanks, when using auto join or if a commander is picky you'll only be selected if they want the specific tanks you want to play in, so if you only wanted to play with your AMX 50 100 and not your IS-3 you can have just that one tank selected. However I don't generally suggest using the Auto Join option.Instead I'd say just use the Search for Teams option and pick what team you want to join instead so you can select the team based on the skill level of the players. I'd suggest going for the same or slightly higher than your own skill level.
Lobby
To choose your tank you don't actually use the garage carousel but a separate pop up menu from the vehicle (Select Vehicles if none are selected) next to your name. After you selected your desired tank and it has a crew you can hit the ready up button on the bottom of the team battle menu.If you are a leader and you have less than 7 players, make sure you lock your 6th and 7th slot if they are empty so that you can instantly (or close to it) join a battle, if you do not then you'll sit in the lobby for about 3~5 minutes before actually being added to the pool of teams who are ready to fight.
Pro Format
The pro format (WG / 7-42 / etc) involves five tier 8's and two tier 1's as scouts. It blends a great compact core of five fighting tanks so a single brawl determines the outcome of the match instead of what flank loses first. As a side note if you do not have all 7 players you are limited to just 41 tier points.The main setup of the Tier 8's consist of 2~3 auto loaders and 2~3 single shot tanks. The auto loaders go into battle and unload their clips while the single shot tanks continuously apply pressure and when the auto-loaders are reloading the single fire tanks can keep the enemies force from having free kills on the defenseless auto-loaders. Too many auto-loaders means that as soon as everyone fires their shots and unless your team was good enough to stagger the reloads you'll all be defenseless when the enemy charges in to kill as many tanks as possible before your done reloading. Too many single shot tanks and you'll lose the chances where a burst fire gun could kill a tank before it gets into cover.
The use of the two tier 1's is to gain a greater map control by knowing enemy movements away from your main force and to apply pressure to the cap or delaying the enemy from capping by popping out of a well concealed bush to unload a clip into an enemies track to reset it. Generally any tier 1 can do but a good tier 1 is a fast one which is the T1 Cunningham.
Suggested Tanks
It is suggested that you bring 5 tier 8's and 2 tier 1's, however the tier 1's are not required they do make the game easier to play. I've seen teams with setups involving mostly tier 5's and 6's. Even though you'll get more tanks above tier 1, in most cases they should never be able to beat a team of 5 tier 8's. Please Tier 8 or 7 only as the main core, you're only doing your team a disservice if you go lower with your main core.IS-3 / T32 = Bounce-able armor with continues shots so you always present a threat unlike the long reload times of the auto loaders, the T32 is map situational.
KV-5 / KV-4 / IS-6 = Alternatives to the above, situational.
AMX 50 100 / T69 = Having the burst damage to take out most of a tanks health very quickly can be very powerful on the battlefield. Their weakness is the reload time so when you notice one or more auto loaders reloading on the other team, it is time to push. AMX is generally preferred due to APCR vs HEAT
AMX 13 90 = A fast moving semi scout semi flanker. If you dedicate your forces to the middle or their side of the map this tank can swing around, pop some shots into an enemies side, and then run back to base to reset it without the base being capped out like if a slower tank was to return to base.
T1 Cunningham = Generally chosen as the best T1 due to its ability to clip out any other tier 1's and are the fastest tier 1's so they can apply cap pressure, reset a base, or even deal damage to lightly armored tanks you might see like AMX 13 90's / T71's, Hellcats. Their big use is spotting lanes, killing T1's, and capping.
Tier 8 Tips
- Move in a group, this could be compact (same lane in a town) or loose (split into two) however they should not be far enough away that any Tier 8 can't reach their allied tier 8's when it hits the fan.
- A good example is 5 line push with heavies while a T69 and 1390 goes to the little town on Ruinburg while a bad example is sending two T69's to the 2 line while everyone else goes the 9 line.
- F7 (Affirmative) when spotted and when in an auto-loader F8 (reloading) are great methods of keeping your allies on track on what is going on with your tank, also T'ing up (Request fire) on the tank you are shooting at helps improve focus fire.
- Focus fire, 5 tanks shooting 1 tank will kill it faster and remove one more gun from shooting you then everyone shooting randomly. If it takes an extra second to shoot a lower health tank (and you won't die while waiting that extra second) then take that shot instead of the full health tank next to him
- AMX 50 100's have 45~50 seconds reload (6 shots), T69's have 22~25 (4 shots), AMX 13 90's around 38~42 (6 shots). Counting them can tell you when you can run in and get free shots on them without being hit back.
Tier 1 Tips
- When watching base, find a bush far enough away that a tank sitting on it should not spot you without you moving / firing but you can see all of the cap.
- Camo net, vents, and binocs are suggested equipment along with a paint job, 6th sense, and camo crew skills.
- Auto loaders are preferred like the T1's Hispano because it can single clip another tier 1 tank from full health and the reload is not very long.
- If the enemy is capping the base and you are watching it, wait until the 50% mark before shooting their tracks so that your team has more time to return to base before you die. (if you shoot a T8 capping, they will shoot back and you will die with only giving your team 2 extra seconds instead of 30)
- You are important, suiciding is not very useful and when you can try to stay alive so you can start capping the enemy base and force at least one tank to deal with you and before they reset the base everyone on that team will be at least partially distracted.
- Sometimes suicide is useful if it means all your T8's have enough time to focus fire an enemy T8 to death. Being up a T8 can give your team enough of an edge to win.
