20 World of Tanks Lies Exposed

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first tank rolling to battle. In honor of this momentous occassion, we bring you a list of 20 ways that World of Tanks has lied... about tanks.

To make World of Tanks more enjoyable and fun to play, it's got to lose some realism. Here we've outlined some ways in which we've done that. Enjoy!

1. Real tanks don't have hitpoints!

One penetrating hit and you're done. For this reason, real tanks don't focus fire on a single target. Instead, they fire on as many enemies as they can at once.

2. "Sixth Sense" is not a thing.

Commanders use intuition and experience to determine whether they've been spotted. Confirmation then comes from incoming fire, which may not be as welcome, but is just as effective at getting you moving.

3. Loaders don't have full loadouts available.

Only a portion of a real tank's loadout is readily available to the loader. After the rack is spent, the rate of fire decreases dramatically, or the tank is pulled back from the fight to transfer rounds from stowage to the ready rack.

4. An autoloader's magazine reloads with only the necessary replenishment rounds.

It ends up being much quicker than a full magazine would take. 

5. Loaders can't ignore the tank's movement.

World of Tanks are virtually shock-absorbent, but in real life, they often get thrown around. And in tanks without turret platforms, they need to worry about loss of limbs if they're not careful.

6. Many tanks that face each other really don't make a fair match.

For example, the M4 Sherman (tier V in game) reached the battlefields in North Africa about two months ahead of the Tiger (tier VII) in 1942. In the game, the Tiger usually faces the T29, which was designed to destroy it.

7. The T28 isn't the only T28.

The T95 Gun Motor Carriage is also known as the T28. The T28 in the game is a hypothetical early variant.

8. Paper panzers don't even exist.

World of Tanks brought to life a number of tanks, like the Pz. III K, that were never actually built.

9. A broken track isn't a quick fix.

In-game Crews move at light speed compared to reality. It usually takes the better part of an hour to fix broken tracks, that's if they broke on hard, dry, and flat ground. 

10. Tanks didn't really shoot other tanks that much.

Mostly, they were shooting at things like infantry, and their loadouts were more HE-oriented. Even American tank destroyers carried as much HE as AP.

11. View range is only affected by the weather, not the tank type.

In the game, view range is a stat that depends on the type of tank you're driving.

12. Tanks don't disappear after they sit still.

Otherwise, that would be kind of freaky.

13. A tank's line of vision doesn't come from the gun.

In the game, the line of vision always matches the gun. In reality, there's always an offset, just as there would be aiming a handheld firearm.

14. Estimating a shell's arc to gauge the success of hitting a target is terribly difficult.

In World of Tanks, if your crosshair is on the target, the arc is already set for you. There's quite a bit more thought (and hope) involved in real life.

15. For the majority of World War II, German tanks weren't painted Panzer Grey.

They were actually painted dunkelgelb -- a sort of yellowish brown. It became standard in February 1943. Before that, North African service tanks were also yellow. 

16. The British Caunter color scheme (blue/yellow desert stripes) is wrong!

It follows a common misconception displayed by a number of museum tanks, and is far more blue than greyish brown. Granted, we briefly corrected it a couple of years ago, but it proved unpopular, so we quickly changed it back.

17. Artillery wasn't really used for tank plinking.

Plinking -- the lobbing of individual rounds at individual tanks -- was rare, but it did happen.

18. On open-topped vehicles, we should be able to see the Crew.

Right? I mean, they're not supposed to be ghosts.

19. Some tanks aren't what the game says they are.

For example, the American T30 heavy tank is now a tank destroyer for game design reasons.

20. Shifting from forward to reverse isn't so quick.

It usually takes a couple seconds for the tank to switch to reverse. The game makes it as fast as smooth as... well, a keystroke.