I realise I’m probably late to the game, but I’ve recently discovered World of Tanks. I find it therapeutic to log in crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.

World of Tanks is essentially a world… of tanks! Every player drives a WW2-era tank and competes with a team of 15-or so other tanks to beat the other team by destroying them all or by capturing their base.

There are different classes of tanks including Light, Medium and Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyers and Self Propelled Guns, my favourite. There are also different tiers of each of these tanks drawn from German, Soviet, American and Chinese designs. You start the game off with a Tier 1 tank which is essentially a tin can on wheels with a BB gun and a Semaphore comms system and you work your way towards larger, faster, better armed and armoured tanks. There’s 15-20 maps to test your strategy and tactics.

I’m currently working my way up the American SPG line and a have an M41 artillery with a 155mm Howitzer. I’ve paid my dues in the M7 Priest, which has a smaller gun. The M7 Priest is a case of being a small fish in a big pond, and more often than not I’d be against monster tanks I had no hope of destroying. For example, when you fire on a tank with 300mm of armour and your gun only has a 50mm maximum penetration, you can’t really hope to do much damage. But I managed to work up to the M41 with a larger gun and I can one-shot most Medium Tanks and give a Heavy Tank a bad headache. Eventually I’d like to get the T92, the biggest gun in the game which can kill anything it hits with one shot. It has a couple disadvantages, the main one being the 40 second reload time so you really have to make each shot count.

I often go back to my trusty M2 Light Tank, as these smaller tier Light Tanks are only matched against other Lights. It’s a sweet spot where the M2 is often the best tank on the map and it’s fun not to have to worry about higher tier Heavy Tanks which can run over you without feeling a bump.

When the game starts you have 30 seconds to chat and work out strategy with your team mates. I’ve found that these lower tier games are joined by noobs, and if I can convince them to follow some basic instructions then our team will more often than not come out with the win. You can usually tell the Rambo noobs, as they’re the first to die.

The game has a reward system based on hits, kills, detection etc, as well as awards and various medals. I have a few “Top Gun” awards, and a handful of “Confederate” medals, meaning I hit at least 6 enemies who were later destroyed by others. I’m quite proud of my “Kamikaze” award, for destroying a higher tier tank by ramming it.

Games go a maximum of 15 minutes, and there’s usually at least 5000 people playing at any one time so there’s no waiting for another game. I’d recommend World of Tanks to anyone interested in short, fast, tactical rewards-based team games.