Guide [Issue 70] The Art of the Battlefield #1: Using the Environment

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

 

Welcome readers to a brand-new series: "The Art of the Battlefield," which focuses on the strategy and intense thinking behind playing Tanki Online in an intelligent manner. Our eSports don't always provide the most stellar examples of strategic thinking, and certainly don't make it easy for players to learn, but this series focuses on strategy and how to be a top-notch player.  I'm Drakon, and I'm here to talk strategy. Let's dive right in!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
 
Introduction
 
I know, I know. Nobody wants to read introduction. It's long, boring, and often unnecessary. But hear me out. I'll keep this as brief as possible to avoid boring you all, but if you want, you can just skip to the next section. I'd love if you all could read the introduction though, and if you'd like to, it's in the spoiler tab below. It just helps introduce this series.
 

Originally, this series was intended to be one massive article called "The Art of the Battlefield." However, I chose to develop it into a series so I can make these articles much more... approachable. It's tough reading massive text blocks. However, this article will be quite long regardless. 
 
The reason I decided to write this is because I've been itching to make a strategy guide for quite a long while. Originally it was just for the map Noise, but then I realized this: why not expand it to include everything? After all, it'd be much more applicable to the reader. In preparation, I read a significant portion of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, watched and played Overwatch, and processed my own strategic knowledge that I've collected over time. Yes, you heard me right. Overwatch. Tanki is a great game in theory, but it the current format, it's rather lacking in the strategy department. In comparison, Overwatch has a community that's made hundreds of strategy guides, has competitive mode as a standard way to play, and is a much more intense and challenging game in general. However, the strategy I've learned there is almost just as easily applied to Tanki Online. So here I am, writing these articles that can hopefully demystify the idea of strategy.
 
This series will also aim to fill the distinct absence of "pro articles." A vast majority of the in-depth strategy articles are solely for XP/BP rather than the full game, and most strategy relating to how to use your tank effectively is limited to guides on how to use a specific turret, hull, or combination. Instead of having these narrow focuses, this series will focus on the key aspects of the battlefield and general strategic thinking.
 
This first article is much more introductory, and is literally about the "background" of the battlefield, but the future articles will contain significantly more content. There will be several articles in this series, but probably not more than six. I'll try my best to have one ready every so often, but since I've been busy lately and these articles require a significant amount of work ahead of time, I unfortunately can't guarantee anything. 
 
I hope these articles will have some useful information for you all, and that's a wrap for the introduction. Thanks for catering to me and reading it!  ;) 

 

EDIT: Sadly, due to many responsibilities in real life, I likely won't have the chance to work on this for quite a while. Sorry to make any of you who might've been excited wait.

 

The Two Factors

There are two main factors in every combat game: controlled factors, and uncontrolled factors. They are pretty self evident; controlled factors are everything in the game that you can control, while the uncontrolled factors are everything innately coded into the game that cannot be manipulated. There are several subcategories of each factor, which will be the subjects of each article in the series.
 
In this article, as you might have guessed based on the title, we will be discussing the Environment. This is an uncontrolled factor, and in Tanki Online, specifically refers to the map that the game is being played on. It is the most basic knowledge of strategy, and is necessary knowledge for when we move into the more advanced strategy later on.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
 
 
The Environment

Today's topic is the environment. We already know that the environment is just the map, but every map has specific geographical features that are important to be aware of. A nice list of the various traits, which we will be discussing, is compiled below for your viewing pleasure.

 

 
In addition to these physical aspects, there is a central concept called "Lines of Sight," which is arguably the most important aspect of the environment and is one of the vital building blocks for strategic thinking later on. All seven of these topics will be discussed individually during this article, and then we'll talk briefly about all of them as a whole.
 

_______________________________________

 

 

Objectives
 
Objectives are key points on the map that the gameplay typically revolves around. As implied by the name, the goals of one or both teams generally corresponds to them. In Tanki Online, the potential Objectives are both team’s Flags in Capture the Flag mode, or the Control Points in CP mode. In Overwatch, there are four different battle types, each with their own type of objectives. When playing Capture the Flag in Tanki Online, the primary goal is to grab the flag and carry it back to your own flag. However, if both flags are taken, one must be returned in order for the other to be captured.
 

A beautiful young flag basking in the sunlight.

 

The objectives are typically located on opposite sides of the map in CTF, and in CP they are scattered throughout the map in an even distribution. There is no physical objective in Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch modes. In most situations, the Objective is the feature that players consciously think about. It may be an important feature, and one that the game is technically centered around, but it remains crucial to keep other geographical details in mind as well.

 

_______________________________________
 

 

Spawn Locations
 
Spawn locations are, well, the places where each team spawns when joining a match or after dying. They are almost always on opposite sides of the map, with a decent amount of space in between the two areas. A diagram showing the general spawn locations of the Noise map is shown below for reference.
 

The general areas of red and blue spawns are circled in their respective colors.

 
A key piece of information to remember is that in almost every situation, the spawn locations will surround the team's objective. There are a few maps that are exceptions to this, such as Polygon, Camp, and Massacre, but generally the spawns are clustered in a specific area. The spawns often extend outwards from the objective evenly, but sometimes, depending on the map's geography, there are more spawns on a certain side of the objective. An example of this is Osa, which has wide bases and sprawling spawn positions that cover entire sides of the map. 
 
Respawn advantage is a vital concept to keep in mind. The closer a player is to their spawn zone, the more respawn advantage they have. It operates on a concept of distance decay. If you go further away from where you spawn, it'll obviously take longer to get back to that location than if you just die a few meters from the spawn zones. This concept applies in the same way to enemies. This is the reason it's incredibly hard to beat through a tough defense; when they die, they can just generate back and continue defending in just a few moments. A map like Polygon has no respawn advantage thanks to the integrated spawns, while maps like Massacre and Camp actually still have the same kind of respawn advantage as any other typical map.

 

_______________________________________

 

 

Natural Citadels
 
Natural Citadels are locations near the team’s spawn zones that are naturally defensible. This means that the citadel is protected on several sides from long Lines of Sight. Deathmatch and Control Points modes don’t have natural citadels that are useful because you need to stay moving, but TDM and CTF are much more side-oriented and reinforce crossfire gameplay. Crossfire gameplay is when the two teams fire across a center area into the other team's base, with the intent of getting a kill and creating an opportunity for attackers to strike. This only works with long range turrets, namely Railgun, Magnum, and Shaft.
 

Industrial Zone's Blue base provides an excellent example of a fortified position.

 
Natural citadels tend to be used as the main encampment where defenders will wait. Since near the team's spawn zones, they tend to be near the objectives as well. Natural citadels are actually often located on top of the team's objective. There are two main purposes for a citadel: visibility and coverage. Players want to have visibility towards attacking routes and choke points so that they can know where the enemy is coming from, while also having cover to duck behind in case the opponents fire a few long shots towards the base. 
 
An ideal citadel has three entrances, but that doesn't mean ones with a different amount don't work. By only having three, it's easy enough to watch the entrances while also having ample escape routes. A good example of a near-ideal base is the Noise Red-team base. There are only three ramps from the midfield that can be used to enter the base, with long lines of sight into the midfield, and sufficient cover. Even better, the base has a height advantage, which is massive in almost any game.

 

_______________________________________

 

 

Choke Points
 
Choke Points are among the most common features referenced in group combat situations. They are pretty obvious compared to all other locations; single-entrance locations that a player must pass through to get from one area to another. In Tanki, there aren't usually massive singular choke points like in Overwatch, but instead there are several smaller ones. In Solikamsk, the side routes that are commonly used for attacking are both choke points. Sure the team could go around it, but that’d mean traveling into the no-man’s-land in the center and letting the opponents dictate long lines of sight.

When defending choke points, stand near the edges or in areas covered from the front, so you can then ambush the people coming through. It’s meaningless to stand directly in front of a choke point; at that point you’re letting the enemies dictate the lines of sight. When attempting to travel through a choke point, the #1 rule is to move fast. If you dawdle, you get shredded to pieces. In Tanki, there frankly isn’t much in ways of shielding for teammates, so I’d advise to just use a Double Armor supply and get past the choke as fast as possible. However, there’s not as much of a danger related to choke points in Tanki Online just because the maps tend to be wide open with many more potential attacking routes. Even further, the enemies usually don’t think to cover choke points, even though they frankly should.
 

Don't choke!  :ph34r: 

 
Another excellent example of a notable choke point is a tunnel on the map Noise. Specifically, the one that goes from the Blue base up into the midfield. The other entrances (the ramps) tend to be more exposed to enemy fire, and lead to routes that are somewhat longer. A common tactic on this map is to camp next to the warehouse on the high ground. The reason this position is so strong originates from choke points and lines of sight. By constantly watching the tunnel, a camper can easily ensure that no opponent can sneak past into the Red team territory. This also brings us to our next subject.

 

_______________________________________

 

 

Lines of Sight
 
I firmly believe that awareness of lines of sight (LoS) is the most integral concept of learning to play alongside the environment. They may sound a little complicated at a glance since people don't usually discuss them, but the concept is rather intuitive: everywhere you can see from your current position is your lines of sight. Wherever the opponent can see from their current position is their lines of sight. The main aspect to learn about LoS is that if you want to succeed, you must constantly be aware of them. Many good players do this unconsciously; it's natural to think about if the opponent can see you from where they are, and equally normal to think about the visibility you get from a given position. The assumption to remember is that whatever you can see can also see you. Therefore, if you can see and shoot on the opponent, they can presumably shoot at you as well or at the very least know where you are.
 

The more exposed your position is, the more usable lines of sight you have at your disposal.

 

Dictating LoS is when a team forces the other team to move into their lines of sight. This is typically accomplished by playing around a corner, where once an enemy rounds the corner they are in your Line of Sight. The best turrets for this are Shaft, Striker, Vulcan, and Railgun. Twins and Hammer are decent on closer-range corners. You always want to be the one setting the conditions of the battlefield, so you want to be dictating the LoS as much as possible. Otherwise you end up walking into already-encamped opponents who are watching every entrance. It's most important to be dictating the lines of sight when playing defense. Sun Tzu, writer of "The Art of War" once said "If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by." It's important to be patient. The opponents might reach you crippled by your outer defensive players, making them an easy kill, or you might just be able to wait and ambush them.

 

Area Denial is when a team keeps LoS over a specific area and makes it unsafe for enemies to traverse it, and essentially locks out that zone. The opponents cannot safely enter without risking death and charging the other team’s Overdrives. By denying access to a certain area, a team can create artificial choke points because it will force the opponents to take a certain alternative route, which the main defense can be stationed at. Maps like Highways have so much Area Denial on the entire map that almost the full middle is turned into a no-man’s-land.

Line of Sight balance means being in a position where you are protected or can move into a protected area while also having a nearby location where you can have LoS towards enemies. This is used for both Covered Positions (which will be covered soon) and Natural Citadels. The best location to be in is in one with with a line of sight balance, since it provides strong defensive possibilities alongside powerful lines of sight and offensive power.

 

_______________________________________

 

 

No-Man's-Lands
 
A no-man’s-land occurs when there are lines of sight over a wide area from both teams. When area denial is in effect for both teams, a dead area is formed that doesn't let either team enter, lest they be swiftly assassinated by  a long range turret. The obvious master at forming these is Shaft, followed by Railgun, and Magnum. The best examples of this are Serpuhov, Highways, and Brest. These maps have large unobstructed viewpoints that give long-range weapons a field day. Neither team can enter the zone because of fire from their counterpart team. Instead, players tend to take side (or flank) routes. 
 

Just look at that beautiful vast expanse of nothingness!

 
It’s mostly important to know where no-man's lands are so you can avoid stumbling into them or wasting resources on defending an area people likely won’t attack through. It makes your defense stronger where it matters the most. However, if you choose to not defend your side of the no-man's-land, it can cause some tricky situations. Having nobody defending the no-man's-land also means that there is nobody contesting the enemy snipers unless you have a flanker (someone who goes via side routes to take out enemy defenses from different angles). This could result in many players on your defense in more exposed positions being gradually picked off. This isn't usually a major problem, though.

 

_______________________________________

 
 

 

Covered Positions
 
A covered position is any place that avoids enemy LoS. This includes common attacking routes through valleys and behind barriers, or the small crevices used to hide a player holding the other team’s flag. Covered positions are arguably the most common environmental factor in any game, and generally the most applicable in a 1v1 situation as well. They are the bread and butter of not dying, and everyone plays around these so-called “obstacles” unconsciously. After all, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.” This was said by Sun Tzu, in the famous literature “The Art of War.” A massive part of combat is being able to cooperate with your environment and use it to your advantage, rather than merely playing around it. Crazily enough, the main purpose of covered positions is to avoid being shot by the enemy.
 
Covered positions can either be mono-side, dual-side, or triple-side. A mono-side cover means that you have a wall of some sort on one side, but then have large expanses of open space on all other sides. An example of this is being next to the map border on the map Sandbox. These don’t provide much cover, but give you the best visibility and escape options. Dual-side cover gives excellent cover, and is usually some sort of valley or ditch. They can restrict space and be dangerous strategy-wise because they only have two exits. If enemies attack from one end, they can easily force the attacked players out the other side into a trap. The person being attacked will be none the wiser; it’s a natural reaction to try and escape if you know you have a route. An example is if you go inside one of the tunnels underneath Industrial Zone. Another more common form of dual-side cover is corners. These can easily leave the player trapped if forced into one, and should almost always be avoided unless camping with a long-range burst turret, namely Shaft, Railgun, or Magnum. Finally, Triple-side positions are fairly rare, and frankly have very niche value. They either are optimal for protecting a player holding a flag, or for some situations when camping with a long-range turret. These locations are extraordinarily risky to be in, because they either give you an advantage or a huge handicap when fighting an approaching enemy. You have no way to escape, but you at least can see all approaching enemies and take a last stand. An example of this is the very short tunnel entrance in the Blue base of Noise. It provides a good shelter point for a player holding the flag, but can easily leave them without a way to run when attacked by a player using supplies.
 

It is a standard tactic in dueling to use walls and rotate around them to stay covered.

 
Essentially, mono-side is any positions with one protected side, dual-side is any covered positions with two protected sides, and triple-side is any protected position with only one entrance. Now, it isn't actually all that important to know all of this information. Every player instinctively thinks about how to avoid being shot, and naturally thinks to duck behind cover. However, I do think it's important to know the breakdown behind the environment so that you can play more consciously and have a better awareness of what you do in the game. It's a step towards improvement, essentially.
 

 
Map Analysis & Using the Environment in Combat

There’s two parts to playing with the environment. We covered the first aspect (knowing the environment), and now we can touch on the second aspect: utilization of the map. Something that always helps with this is “map analysis.” You know all those fancy diagrams us Reporters like to put in our guides to playing on certain maps? That’s essentially what I’m talking about. You need to be able to recognize what certain areas of a map are, and their role during the game. It aids in general gameplay and also in strategic thinking. I’ll present map analysis in a simple step-by-step process, and then I’ll talk about using the environment in combat.
 
 
Map Analysis

• Take note of where you spawned. In nearly every situation, team's spawns will be located in a centralized area, meaning that most spawn locations will be very close to where you appeared when first joining the match.
• Locate the map's objective for each team. For obvious reasons.
• Note the size of the map. Large maps will have longer sight lines and be more conducive to longer-range turrets, while smaller maps will be much more brawly and involve significant amounts of close combat.
• Note the verticality of the map. The more vertical the map, the less lines of sight will be available. On the flip side, the more horizontal the map, the more open it tends to be. Wide open maps like Massacre and Serpuhov will almost always have a central no-man's-land, and longer lines of sight in general. A more confined map like Red Alert or Canyon will generally have shorter lines of sight and will often be more difficult to navigate. Vertical maps like Skyscrapers, Noise, or even Silence usually give an advantage to the team with the higher spawn locations, and often require much more coordination when attacking either objective. 
• Look for choke points. There may not be any, but if there are, you want to use them. Any single route that becomes the main place that opponents attack through is a chokepoint, and these routes are excellent places for your team to defend.
• Draw a line in your mind from your team's objective to the opponent's objective. This is the most direct attack route, in theory, although there are likely walls in the way. You don't want to take the most direct route if you can avoid it. However, you don't often want to stray too far from this line either. Areas far away from the most direct route usually take too long and are a waste of time. Essentially, stick to the routes that are near the middle but not too far away.
• Note the halfway point between the two objectives, since it is the midfield. On an open map, this is usually where a no-man's-land is located too.
• Take note of areas with large amounts of concentrated cover. These places usually have cover from a lot of angles, meaning they often make good natural citadels or sniper locations. There may be multiple per map, but there might also be no covered areas. Ideally, you want your hideouts to have line of sight to your team's objective, so you can see if someone is stealing the flag.

That's all you really need to know about any map. It doesn't sound like much, but there's only so much broad map analysis that will actually be of use. For example, things like covered positions are obvious and natural to use, so there's no reason to think about it on a map-wide scale. By taking the steps I listed, you can note the map shape, spawn locations, objectives, places to defend, viable attacking routes, unviable routes, no-man's-lands, and the midfield location.
 
 
Using the Map for Combat
 
Using this information, you can formulate team positioning, know which turrets and hulls to use, and decide how many people you want in each area of the battlefield. You can compose attack and defense strategies, predict opponent movement, force opponents to go to a certain area, and control the way the entire game is played. After all, knowledge is power. This does, however, require extensive team cooperation, and is probably only viable for Tanki eSports teams. An average team won't have the coordination to execute any complex maneuvers. Despite this, analyzing the environment will help you individually too, even if your team isn't particularly good or experienced. 
 
I can actually condense this whole article into a tiny little "Key Summary," which you can see in the first comment below the article. It will contain all the essentials of playing with the environment. Technically, you could read just the summary to learn all my advice from this article, but everything else I wrote is for information. Because like I said, knowledge is power. For example, knowing how to cook is infinitely more useful than just knowing how to follow a recipe. 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________________
 
 That's all for today folks. Stay tuned for future "Art of the Battlefield" articles, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below! Also, make sure to read the "Key Summary" to grab all the basics. Cheers!

 

 

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

Key Summary

 
Hello, and welcome to the Key Summary for this edition of "The Art of the Battlefield"! Here's your pocketbook for playing with environment, and essentially all you need to do in order to successfully play correctly with the environment in question.

 

• Know where the enemy will be defending, and the routes to enter and exit that area. This gives you the upper hand when it comes to attack, since knowing your enemy is the best way to beat them.
• Take the most viable routes from one end of the battlefield to the other. This ensures you waste no time, while also making sure you reach your destination alive.
• Attack opponents from either the routes with the best cover, or the routes that your opponents are defending the least. Attacking intelligently is a necessity, or you will take large amounts of damage while approaching the enemy defenses. 
• Use cover, but make sure you have an escape planned if someone attacks you. Not every fight can or should be one, so if you're ambushed, make sure you know what you're going to do.
• Use equipment suited for the map you are on. Some turrets are better suited to certain environments, and using them in less ideal situations reduces your ability to be successful in battle.
• Defend choke points, and force opponents to walk into your line of sight. Not vice versa. By forcing the opponents to fight on your terms, you control the game as a whole.
• Position yourself in an ideal location for the map that lets you do your job. If you can't do what you need to from wherever you are, then switch to a better location. 

​
That's all there is to it! Just these basic seven tips, based on everything that I talked about in the main article. 

[Ritz 411]

Very good guide

[Possibility 282]

Oh, so now drakon writing about playing on the battlefield. Let's not forget the facts that he logs into the game a single time a month, and spends 3 minutes before he rages.  :P

Edited December 15, 2017 by Blackdrakon30
:x shush

[Sniper1954_the_dark 52]

Nice introductory article, look forward to the next installment. Sun Tzu applies not only in games, and battles, but is read by many in the business world as well. I think all newer players and quite a few of us old dogs would do well to review this and the upcoming articles. :)

[shibe123 136]

Nice guide. Lengthy but very informative.

[Merovingian 656]

Nice guide. Good work BD30, I can't wait for the next instalment.

[DarkVengeance 31]

Great article, bout time someone delved into strategy. I agree with most of what you have said, aside from choice of attacking route. Drawing a line between Red and Blue base in CTF will give the shortest route. Using as close to the shortest route possible is not always the best way to go, people follow the path of least resistance, there are plenty attacks along this corridor and as such it is likely that this route will be the most anticipated and defended.

The best route depends on the type of attack, in Clan Battles, or type of Tank. Some things are universal, against a good team, enemy choke points will be mined, avoid any route that runs through a single pathway to the flag. Run into any open ground, get shot. Beyond that, most maps have what I would call a speed route, and a stealth route. The speed route is usually open and direct. The Bridge on Serpuhov would be a good example. Here, a Wasp on Nitro, running at the right moment, will get into the enemies base. A Stealth route is usually long, with plenty of cover. Driving around the left side from the Red base on Kangur allows a Tanker to bypass most of the battle, and end up at the enemies base with full health. Should cover be blown, a speed route return on DA and speed is called for. It may take longer, but there are 15 minutes to play with, and many attempts can be made in this time. 

 

 

Dark Vengeance

Edited January 8, 2018 by Hexed
Using signatures in random posts is prohibited.

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

Great article, bout time someone delved into strategy. I agree with most of what you have said, aside from choice of attacking route. Drawing a line between Red and Blue base in CTF will give the shortest route. Using as close to the shortest route possible is not always the best way to go, people follow the path of least resistance, there are plenty attacks along this corridor and as such it is likely that this route will be the most anticipated and defended.

 

The best route depends on the type of attack, in Clan Battles, or type of Tank. Some things are universal, against a good team, enemy choke points will be mined, avoid any route that runs through a single pathway to the flag. Run into any open ground, get shot. Beyond that, most maps have what I would call a speed route, and a stealth route. The speed route is usually open and direct. The Bridge on Serpuhov would be a good example. Here, a Wasp on Nitro, running at the right moment, will get into the enemies base. A Stealth route is usually long, with plenty of cover. Driving around the left side from the Red base on Kangur allows a Tanker to bypass most of the battle, and end up at the enemies base with full health. Should cover be blown, a speed route return on DA and speed is called for. It may take longer, but there are 15 minutes to play with, and many attempts can be made in this time. 

 

 

Well said! Yeah, there's definitely a ton of factors that affect the attacking routes used, but that could be a whole second guide in itself, so I didn't want to dive into it too much. It really is dependent on the map's layout and enemy's defenses like you said, though.

Edited December 27, 2017 by Blackdrakon30

[Crip 4,735]

Nice work Drakon!

[robbie56 2,403]

Very well done. This should also be under the beginners zone if you ask me.