How to Capture a Flag!
Most of you read the topic to this article and thought that this was going to be the most useless article of your lifetime because even recruits know how to capture a flag. Contrary to what most of you think, there is more to it it than what you think. Sure, some of you very high ranked tankers will find this article completely useless but for the rest of you, here it is.
Intro
Capture the Flag is the most used game mode in Tanki and I can guarantee most if not all of you reading this article have played on it once in your tanki career and you have probably captured a flag as well. That only explains why all of you should know at least some good hulls to use while capturing flags, the ideal turret for capturing a flag, and of course, tactics used whilst capturing a flag. I will start off with the hulls:
Hulls
Choosing a good hull to attack with can be very difficult and can vary depending on the map. Here I will list which hulls to use in what types of maps and why:
Big map
(Kungur, Dusseldorf, Serpuhov, Silence, Rio, etc.)
Attacking in big maps in Tanki can be a very difficult task indeed and has to be approached very carefully because one little mistake can result in failure. the best hulls to use while attacking in Big maps are;
Hornet
Wasp
Hunter
As you may have guessed by now is that the key to attacking in big maps is to be as fast as possible while still having decent protection. For those reasons, Hornet is the ideal hull because of of its excellent speed and decent protection. So for all of you who love hornet, this is your chance to shine! The second best here is Wasp because of its superb speed that can outrun anything in the game. The only down side to Wasp here is its very low protection, sure you can apply a double armor but it is still at an all time low in the health department. The third best choice here is Hunter. The reason for this is that hunter is a jack of all trades, but master of none which implies that it has decent speed and decent protection as well which allows it to sneak into the enemy base, take a couple of hits, and then run away. As you can see, these are the reasons all three of these hulls excel in.
Medium Maps
(Noise, Cross, Highland, Opposition, etc.)
Medium maps and larger maps are both very hard to capture a flag in but for very different reasons! That is why I didn’t bond these two together but chose to keep them apart. Attacking in medium maps brings forth a whole new set of challenges, therefore, we also need a whole new set of hulls to attack with. These are the ideal hulls to choose:
Viking
Dictator
Hunter
The main point of attacking in medium sized maps is that you should be able to take many heavy blows and survive. Taking this into consideration, you should now see why Viking is the top pick. Viking has excellent health and armor and it also has excellent speed in comparison to its size and weight. This also explains why Dictator is the second pick. As I explained before, Hunter is the jack of all trades so of course, it will be able to withstand heavy fire while running away. Now that we have talked about medium maps, let’s move on to small maps.
Small Maps
(Island, Arena, Atra, Farm, etc.)
In small maps, heavy armor and lots of health is key because no matter what you do, you will most certainly be taking damage at all times because of the very small size and amount of people. Therefore, it is only logical to use heavy hulls or very fast hulls who can drift around corners (*wink wink*).
Dictator
Titan
Hornet
As I stated before, the main point of attacking in small maps is to be able to withstand lots of fire or just simply be able to sneak in and sneak out. For those reasons, Dictator is the ideal hull because of its ability to withstand heavy fire especially when equipped with Double Armor. Next on the list is Titan. Titan deserved a place here because of its incredibly high health and lots of armor, plus, if you can manage to snag a speed along the way, you’re good to go. Last but not least, there is Hornet. Contrary to the other two, a hornet should be able to grab the flag and run back to its base while praying “Please don’t make a Freeze attack me, Please don’t make a Freeze attack me, please don’t make a freeze attack me.” As a wise Einstein once said, (a.k.a. Thekillerpenguin) “There are two things I hate: people who hate specific turrets =, and Freezes.” You’ve probably gotten the point by now, if there is a freeze in a small map, don’t attack with Hornet! I learned that the hard way.
No hull in tanki is complete without a turret, the same rule applies to attacking. Whether it is killing that annoying firebird of your tail, knocking off that annoying rail, or even killing the the opponent's flag carrier, turrets are a crucial part of attacking that even the StarLadder pros need to use. Here, I will state the primary turrets one should use while attacking.
Twins
Isida
Firebird
Freeze
Hammer
Ricochet
Smoky
Thunder
Rail
Shaft
Vulcan
As you can see, closer range turrets are better at attacking than longer ones because enemy bases tend to get crowded with defenders so as you barge through on your capturing sprees, you are likely to be annoyed by at least 1 or 2 Twin-Titans who are blocking the way. Twins is first because of its unlimited ammo and its ability to knock off aim very easily. Isida is second because of its self heal and Firebird is third because of its incredibly high DPS rate. As you can see, never attack a base with a Vulcan for you will die miserably and you will be called a noob by everybody in the game including me. ; )
I had Pop pose for this picture but he flipped twice before actually getting into thid position on his own. No Joke!
Skill
Now that you are equiped with you Hornet-Twins blowing everybody to smithereens in Silence, you need to learn how to capture and how to do it right because you don’t want to be that guy who sits in his base and then flips right before capturing ***Cough***Popsicle111***Cough wait I mean : 0. In this final part, I will teach you a few tricks and techniques to be a successful flag capturer and how to work as a team while capturing a flag.
Step #1: The first step here is to get to the flag base. This might sound rather easy but there are a few tips that I need to get out of the way before moving on to the next step. The most important tip here is to get to the flag base without having taken any damage. To do this, you must take the most sneaky, safest, and most obstructed from sight as possible because if you arrive to the enemy's flag base with half health you don’t really stand a chance. A really helpful guide to choosing these routes is TriNitroToluenes guide "Shortcuts in Battle" which I strongly recommend any of you to read.
Step #2: The second step here is actually getting the flag. Again, this might sound rather easy but in reality, it is actually rather hard to choose the right moment. What I mean by this is that you shouldn’t just sit on the flag podium if the flag is not there. Instead, you should hide right behind a nearby wall that renders you out of sight. Another tip is to activate double damage and nitro right before getting the flag because these are the 2 most useful supplies to have by your side while attacking.
Step #3: The third and most important step is how to actually get to your base with the enemy's flag! What I mean by this is rather obvious so I’m not going to go into details on how to actually get to your base with the flag. However, I will give you some tips on what kind of routes to take. First of all, you should never stop to shoot anybody and you should shoot when you absolutely need to. I’m going to say this one more time, don’t shoot if you don’t need to. Also, take a shortcut and remain as unseen as possible. Last but not least, please don’t stop to chat if someone posts something stupid or pointless over the chat.
Step #4: This step focuses mainly on how to get rid of people who are chasing you! If you are being tailed by another tanker who is desperately trying to get you to drop the flag, simply just drop a mine. This is the easiest tip that I can give you and it will work almost %80 of the time! Some of you might be asking yourselves, “Well, what about the other %20?” If you are being trailed rather closely and your mine will not have time to activate in time, you can either activate speed if you don’t have it, make sharp turns and be unpredictable, or in a worst case scenario, you can turn around and shoot him while driving backwards. Once you get rid of your chaser, you can now content yourself with another flag capture for your team and of course, a whole lot of XP for you!
How to Help the Flag Carrier!
Now that you are all pros at capturing flags, you must know that you won’t always
be the flag carrier and that there are a few ways where you can help the flag carrier which can have a big impact on the outcome of the game. For this reason, I will give you 3 ways to help the flag carrier and how to support the flag carrier because let's face it, even StarLadder players need help while capturing flags and as the famous saying goes, “2 tanks are better than 1!”
1. Clogging: Clogging is when you delay people who are chasing your flag carrier and trying to kill him. There are 2 ways to do: simply block with your hull or create a blockade. Blocking with your hull is when you just position your hull in an annoying spot that the other team needs to get through and simply wait until the enemy kills but by that time, your teammate is long gone. A blockade is when you try to kill the enemy and annoy the heck out of him not letting him pass and ramming into him. \
2. Following the flag carrier: Following your flag carrier is something that everybody must learn to do because it can truly benefit your team. For example, if your flag carrier gets sniped from across the map by a shaft you can just pick the flag up and keep on going with your journey to “Flagcapture Land!” Another example is when your flag carrier gets into an intense battle and needs help, you can just pop in and double team the now hopeless enemy.
3. Passing the Flag: This is something that is not done very often especially at my rank because of tankers greed. We must all learn that playing as a team player is much more beneficial than playing as a lone ranger and also it also makes the game more interesting to play. Some good moments to pass the flag are when you see a tanker who has more health than you or better supplies activated because that player has a higher chance of capturing than you do.
Conclusion
In this last part of this painfully long article, there is one thing that I want you to remember. I don’t care if you forget everything else, just remember this one part: Focus on Capturing and only Capturing! I can not emphasize this more. It is painful and it makes me want to rip my face open when I see one person who has the flag stop to snipe some people only to be killed and make his- or her, team lose the battle. All in all, if you follow these tips, you will be topping the leaderboards, be adored by your team, and of course, be the best flag capturer you can be!
See you next time,
yoyo360_GTO
Credit to for helping me with pics
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