Artillery Map Guide by Tyraforce – Part 1: Swamp

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Hello everyone,

today, we are starting another guide series by Tyraforce, aimed at artillery. This series will help you play better on specific maps. First to go is the Swamp. Enjoy!

- SS

Author: Tyraforce

Welcome to part one of the Artillery Map Guide, which is an expansion to the general Artillery Guide, which can now be found at the forums. The plan is to go through most WoT maps and show you some suggested initial locations, relocation possibilities, conditions and focus zones. We will focus on typical scenerios for high tier battles so if you already are an experienced arty player who relocates intuitively, this guide will be of little interest to you. As for the creation process, we are currently a team of 6 arty players pooling our experience in hope of making this guide as complete as possible. Should you be interested in helping us with the next parts, feel free to contact me.

DISCLAIMER and BASIC INFO

The drawings reflect typical tier 8+ random battles and are designed for SPGs with the usual shell arc (not the GC and FV304). Do not expect these maps to cover all the battle developments and consider not following this guide whenever the battle develops in an unusually way or whenever you come up with a better idea.
• The circular areas represent possible arty locations where the green are safe and the red ones are not recommended for certain reasons.
• The killzones are marked blue with the darkest being the most important.
• Tomato zones are low priority areas frequently visited by bad players who are about to die anyway.
• Camping areas are of low priority unless your team is pushing that particular area.
• Important firing angles are marked with black lines
• The guide will not provide screenshots of exact locations as that would get a lot of us countered.
• If you want a certain map covered, please let us know in the comments or you can suggest it in game, kinda like this:

swamp hate

SWAMP

Swamp is one of the campiest maps out there. It generally punishes intuitive early pushes and involves a lot of camping medium tanks. Good players usually kill whatever crosses the bridges and then camp C and D lines. Both bases are well defendable each having 2 additional campy locations nearby. Artillery is vital at this map to break the said camps and thanks to very long games, SPGs should be on top of the damage list. Countering is rare but given the value of SPGs on this map, I’d actually recommend it in games with 2+ SPGs per team.

The SPG heat map shows that about 50% of SPGs tend to sit in the 2 locations right behind the spawn and the other 50% go to the base area. When countering, focusing the smaller areas behind the spawn will be easier but the better players will probably be located in the base area, which is much bigger and harder to watch.

heatmap_swamp_ctf_all_201402

Looking at the heat map above (it shows where tanks go, not where HEAT is spammed), the only 2 positions worthy of some blind shots are again the 2 areas behind the spawn, where a lot of people camp in the 2 bushes by the small rocks. The base camping areas offer too many spots to provide high chances of hitting the unspotted campers.

SWAMP – south

EARLY PHASE
At the start of the game make it to your base even if you are in a very slow arty. Don’t stop and shoot as the area you’ll be crossing can get dangerous fast if enemies go middle. Do not make the mistake of being lazy and going to the position A. It may seem solid but if the enemy start pushing, it is the first area to fall and you cannot even defend it when sitting in it.
The base position C is truly big and safe so there is no need for sitting in/near a bush or crater. If a tank makes it there the game’s probably over anyway. When looking for the exact spot, check that you can shoot at killzone 4. The base area can cover all the marked areas except 2,6 and A. Avoid positions E (limited shots) and B (spotting risk).

As for early damage, the first spots are likely to be near the southern bridge, which are of low priority however. If your team pushes the northern bridge, you should definitely support it starting with shots at killzone 4, then 1.

swamp-s

MAIN PHASE
In most cases all who have crossed the bridges are dead and both teams camp the line D and G ridges. Consider moving east to the little ditch running along the southern part of the map. This will give you good shots at killzone 5 including its left part surprising those who consider it “arty-safe”. You can still cover killzone 3 balcony and more importantly counter pushes through killzone 2 and location A, which is the usual route of attack, which usually pauses in position A to exchange fire with the H4 corner campers. Countering this push should be your top priority.

LATE PHASE
Depending on the direction of the enemy push, consider relocating back to base for more protection or stay in the ditch from where you can cover lines 1 and 2.
If your team is pushing, your priority should be killzone 6 followed by the two camping zones. To hit area 4 either move north to position E or all the way to K7/8 where you may get side/rear shots at tanks backing of around the D7 corner. The choice depends a lot on which position is safer at that moment.

EXAMPLE 1 – BREAKING THE CAMP
Here you can see a battle 5 minutes before it ended with a draw. Our team is pushing with E3s from the south and is fighting for the northern bridge. Our Conqueror GC is a green player, however, he decided to stay in base till the end dealing sub 2k damage in total. Moving to K8 between shots would have been perfectly safe and would have allowed him to take shots at the two areas marked in the picture thus winning the game for us. (I was in 268 and couldn’t do much about the situation.)

swamp draw

EXAMPLE 2 – EARLY DAMAGE & STOPPING THE ATTACK
I will try to include replays when I can. I’m playing a lot more arty now to get some material as I had very few arty replays saved before I started these guides. These will not necessarily be some epic 10k damage games but will demonstrate certain points I made in the tactical section above.

 

 

Replay is here.

SWAMP – north

EARLY PHASE
Again, you have to go to the base (A) as position E sucks hard. However feel free to stop on the way for some early damage if the enemy cross the northern bridge. The initial northern push can actually be successful so make killzone 1 your priority. You will also have limited shots at the western part of killzone 2, but 1 should still remain your priority as killzone 2 poses no immediate threat.

swamp-n

MAIN PHASE
Your first priority should be stopping any northern push through position C. To do this hug the northern edge of the map which will give you some very accurate frontal shots at the advancing heavies. With the north clear, proceed to position B or even C which both give you good shots at killzone 4, which is your next priority. Your push usually happens over the northern bridge so get ready to nuke the F1 campers.

LATE PHASE
Once again, swamp provides stronk camping opportunity and enemies often hold killzone 3 and the base till the time runs out. At this point you should be in position C, which provides excellent side shots into the base campers. In certain very rare situations the usually dangerous position F by the southern bridge is viable and gives you perfect shots at the vital “arty-safe” killzone 3.

THE END
That’s all for today, I’ll see you in Himmeldorf in about 2 weeks.
As for feedback, note that the “I hate arty”, “arty ruins the game” and “arty needs no guides nor skill” topics have been quite exhausted in the ~1k comments so far. I’d much rather get feedback from the people who actually find this useful as to what could be improved in the following map guides. Thanks for reading.

-Tyra

189 thoughts on “Artillery Map Guide by Tyraforce – Part 1: Swamp”

    • is FTR a site for artillery players or something? so many guides for something that takes no skill.

        • >play vehicle class that camps all battle in the base
          >joke about campers in pictures

          Artybobs are so cute. <3

      • And what in your opinion takes skill in this game???
        Maybe camping behind a bush in ISU-152 just clicking and auto-penning everything?
        Or auto-aiming and circling helpless TDs or heavys in a med?
        Arty DOES require skill,similar or even greater then the above mentioned activities given the fact that one good arty hit may draw a camper out of his trench or even kill him and make the rest of the team job a lot easier.
        The way the arty moves and behaves can decide a battle and the fact that some people can’t evade being hit by something with 6+ seconds aim time and horrible accuracy is THEIR PROBLEM!

        PS: And before judging me as an “arty noob” i have to tell you i play mostly mediums.

        • You’ve obviously never played the ISU-152. The BL-10 is such a trollgun. Penetrates 100% time of the time, 10% of the time. The other 90% of the time it tears a hole in the ground, gets absorbed by a gun mantlet or bounces of that BatChat. I kid you not :-)

          • I’ve played it,and i have to agree that sometimes the BL-10 has a mind of its own and does weird s*it but when it hits,in 85% of hits it pens and needless to say…it hurts!

        • “And what in your opinion takes skill in this game???”

          Usually, using the map, along with maneuvering on it. Which arty players are except from doing, while also denying 90% of a map from the rest of the normal tanks

        • Let’s settle two things:
          1. If arty really require that much skill, then what are you doing most of the times on the battlefield? You just reload and does nothing. Do not tell me that you are finding targets or analyzing the situation because things do not work that way.
          a) If you are finding priority target, then he must be a good player in a tank that can carry games. In that case, he would probably play a medium or an agile heavy, and he would not get spotted 24/7 and let you click him that easily. Hence, you cannot possibly lock on the true priority targets given that you usually takes more than 8 seconds to aim.
          b) In the second case, if you are not throwing any shell to your enemy, you does nothing to help your team. Hence, you are eventually doing nothing.

          2. No one said that you need 0 skill to click. But you need to realise that no matter how hard you try, you have a shell dispersion as big as three times of your target most of the times. How much your skill could really help you if you do not even know where your shell will fly to?

          • If you are sitting in arty and not analyzing the battlefield situation then you are a bad arty player….

            • Do you get my point? If you are just looking at the map but offers nothing to help your team, you are just useless.

          • Actually after I fire, I usually move which means I need to study the map, make sure no enemy tanks will get to my new spot in less then a minute (time to set up, reload, aim, ect). Then find out if I can hit behind that rock and possibly most a little more left/right so I can.

            I’ve never understood why people think it takes no skill or its super easy. RnG isn’t everything if you know what you are doing.

            Yeah its a different type of game play, but honestly its easier to play my IS-7 side scraping then it is to play arty.

            • How hard would it be if it is almost exclusively dependent on RNG even if you are super skilled?

              It definitely takes more skill to sidescrapping in is-7 because:
              1. You need to take care of the angle due to the shape of your UFP
              2. You need to look at the map to ensure that there is no one flanking you
              3. You need to aim at weakspots of your target in order to penetrate
              4. You have to find a good sidescrapping position in the first place
              5. You have to know when it is a good time to sidescrap, verses head on charging

              On the other hand, no matter how hard you try to play as a supporter in your arty:
              1. You cannot control RNG, so you can not really hit those shells when it is really needed
              2. You need years to aim. If you are just aiming at slow and big targets that drives in open, then those players would eventually be dealt by td’s and people who know how to shoot at weakspots. You are just milking damage out of those targets. On the other hand, if you are aiming at a fast moving target, good luck with aiming time and shell dispersion.
              3. You provide no vision for the team. Even td’s do at times. You simply camp behind those hardcore campers, and have a better shell arc.
              4. You do not have to penetrate to deal damage. Even a monkey can click on the most well-armored target and deal damage to it, but try hard more in your other tanks.

          • “How much your skill could really help you if you do not even know where your shell will fly to?”

            I used to play arty, ended them at G.W. Panther, because if i knew one thing for sure with the G.W., it was where my shell would go – 99% of my shells with incredible and almost surgical accuracy managed to avoid enemy vehicles completely and hit the only part of (fully aimed) aimimg circle not occupied by tank (and it in many cases was part smallet than 10% of its size).

            That actually made me sell it and from that day on, arties got on my personal “what not to buy” list, accompanied by Japs, China and French (nothing against France as nation, but their tanks are just… ugly. Maybe the AMX 30 line will change my mind when it comes)

          • You have completely no idea about playing arty. Better listen to the people that do know, what are they talking about.

            • Check out my fv304, 1.2k average damage per game (as compared to just 1k for the author). I know this game better than most of the players tbh.

          • Re: Your comment 1: If you are sitting there playing with yourself during your thirty second reload, you must really suck. Don’t project YOUR suckiness on everyone else. Anyone who is decent at arty is constantly searching for targets, trying to get ahead of the battle, predicting where firepower will be needed 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes from now, and being ready for it. I probably spend less than 5% of game time with a loaded gun – as soon as a shell is loaded, I am generally ready to let it fly immediately.

            Your comment 1a: I aim at targets where I believe I have a decent chance of hitting him, My priorities are 1) Likelyhood to hit, 2) Probability of a kill (priority must be to remove guns from enemy team – I’d rather kill a tank at 50 HP than cause 800 damage to a full-health E100), 3) threat level to rest of team, 4) probability whether, if I track him, will other team member be able to take advantage and f— him up some more. Whether the player is purple or red really is not a priority, except in those rare cases when two targets are side by side, I can chose either one, I’ll go for the unicum player. But that might happen once per 50 shots.

            Your comment 1b: Agreed.

            Your comment 2: There is certainly a luck component now that they nerfed accuracy. When I first started playing nearly 4 years ago you could shoot down a gnat with my GW Panther. HOWEVER. The aiming retical is there for a reason. Accuracy is based on standard deviations Most reticles are designed to represent the shot will land at 2 standard deviations. You still have around a 25% chance that the shot will go pretty close to dead-center, and a 68% chance that it will fall within half the radius of the reticle, 96% that it will fall within the entire circle (4% chance that it will go completely outside the reticle).

            So when you are aiming for that tiny part of a turret sticking out, you have to figure out your probabilities, and of course alternatives. If I figure I have a 10% chance of hitting a unicum behind a rock, or a 40% chance at hitting a tomato , I’ll go for the tomato every time.

            The toughest shots you can take in an arty is to hit a T71 or ELC at full chat from 400-500 meters. Whenever I hit a shot like that, that’s when I say, “Arty takes no skill? Bulls—!”

            • Re:
              Comment 1:
              1. I am not talking about if you are searching for your target. The point is that no matter how hard you try, you have a bad aim time and you are reloading forever, so you cannot make any real contribution during your reload.
              2. Look at my fv304 stats. 1.2k average damage, as compared to just 1k for the author. I know arty better than most of the players in this game.
              3. You are contradicting yourself when you agree with b) and disagree with it at the same time

              Comment 1a:
              1. If you are aiming at targets with high hit chance, then it is probably not the priority target of the game. It is the priority target of arty. You damage priority targets of the game to carry game while you damage priority targets of arty to farm damage.
              2. If unicum players are not your priority targets, they will fck your team up single handedly. So good luck.

              Comment 2:
              First of all, I study maths in university so I know probability distributions as much as you do.
              There is no point in talking about consistency in arty gameplay because you do not make that many shots (sample size) in the first place. Check out the standard deviation of, say 7 shots, yourself. You can hit all your shots one game and miss all the other. Those events are not that unlikely.
              If you play arty, then you better make every single shot count because of the long reload, but with that accuracy? Good luck.

              In the last case, you cannot even get 50% hit ratio at those targets in your most accurate tanks shooting apcr. Skill needed when you hit them in arty? Pretty much all luck.

              Do not get me wrong. I probably played much more arty than you do before 8.6 general arty nerf. I have better stats in arty than the author even when I was a noob back then. (on China’s server, IGN: divinityy, check it out if you are interested) The reason why I give up arty is simply because it offers no means of true support after the nerf. Not to mention that there are more and more city maps after 8.6.
              The only arty I enjoy (play for fun though) is fv304. It is probably the one of the only arty in the game that requires skill to be honest.

      • I think we’ll find that cig753 suffers from what is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. That being if you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent and the skills you need to produce a good player are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a good player is.

        Arty, in that sense, is quite easy to counter. Don’t stop in a place where they can shoot at you. Don’t travel in a straight line. Never approach a target laterally always approach transversely. Of course these are three golden rules for any FPS or IRL infantry….but hey the incompetent are what they are…..an easy score.

        • “Don’t stop in a place where they can shoot at you. Don’t travel in a straight line. Never approach a target laterally always approach transversely”

          In other words…. camp your assess off, lest ye be nuked by the sky pigs!

          • If you play arty you will see that the slightest change of the targets course can cause the arty to miss plus the arty shells travel for quite long time and on many occasions the target moves away just a second before being hit.
            So moving is pretty good contermeasure.

            • You can dodge accurate shots of course, but not unpredictable arty shells.
              Maybe you still have not realised how random arty shell dispersion is.

          • In other words … use your brain! Arty is a great punishment for no-brainers. So many times I’ve seen tanks sitting in the same place in the open for several minutes. Real arty magnet.

      • I mean just look at the stats of the author. 2.4k avearage damage in BC 155 58, and a stronk 52% win rate. 2.3k avearage damage and 56% win rate in GW E100. Are those stats good enough? I think not. And yet he thinks he is good enough to write tons of epic arty guides.
        To speak of what he called situational awareness, just look at his Fv 304. Barely 1k average damage per game. I personally have 1.2k average damage in it. So he definitely knows what is situational awareness.

        • Oh I just forget to mention one thing:
          You cannot hit any of the two points shown in the diagram for the first example.
          GGWP best guide on Earth.

        • Did you even read the article or just look at the pictures like a heavy would? In the first chapter he states they are a group of 6 players.

          • Have you even tried to test it in training room? It does not matter if there are 6 or 600 tanks sitting in those positions as long as they are behind cover with respect to k8.

            • If you look closely, you might notice I replied your comment about stats.

              Besides, comparing FV304 is pointless anyway as it doesn’t behave like a regular SPG and it was even mentioned in the beginning that this article does not cover it.

              • Fv304 is pointless? It is one of the only arty in the game that need skill to play.
                1. Your maximum range is 500 meters. You cannot possibly sitting in base all day and expect to deal damage.
                2. As you have to engage at close range, your hit ratio will be reasonably high, and that eliminates huge part of RNG element of the arty gameplay.
                3. It has decent aim time and reload time (there is a reason why WG decided to nerf it) that allows you to actively support. Not just click every 40 seconds.
                4. Alpha and penetration of the tank is low, you need to deal damage regularly. That is called active support.
                5. You can move really fast, and this allows you to give support to where you want to quickly.

                If you cannot even see how fv304 needs skill to play as an arty, then you must have no idea what you truly need to do in your arty.

                And btw, you have not replied my comment about stats

                • Nobody’s denigrating the FV304. The point is that it does require very different tactics to most SPGs, and thus a guide that applies to most SPGs will not work for the 304, and vice versa. Tyra’s stats on the 304 (which, to be honest, strike me as not much worse than your own, however much you seem to like beating that drum) are irrelevant when it comes to making a strategy guide that explicitly does not apply to the 304.

                • All arty works the same way:
                  Get to good positions and strike priority targets (unicums in tanks that can carry games, not campers or slow tomatoes) that think they are safe.

                  The only difference is probably that you need to take higher risk in your fv 304 to get good damage. You could play almost the same way in your BC 155 58, and better still, you have a turret which allows you for faster locking down onto your targets. Do not believe me? Check this out:
                  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTI4Mjc5NjQ0.html

                  It is in Chinese but I am sure you can see the difference between what Tyra is talking and what he is doing. Although this is a really old video (because the author is no longer releasing videos on his channel) the same tactics could be applied.

                  Regarding stats. 1.2k average damage versus 1k is like 20% damage more. Or if you like, I make 2-3 damaging shots more than him. Given 50% hit ratio in this arty, I do make 4-6 shots per game more than him. If that is not a huge difference, then consider how long the arty reloads. I am doing damage for 1 whole minute more than him. And to achieve that, you need to get targets to shoot at in the first place, hence, the difference of damage shows how I relocate actively and he does not.

                • And let me show you how much more powerful BC 155 58 can be as compared to Fv 304.
                  For this particular game in the replay, you can move all the way to H0 (his zone F for the opposite team) and shoot at targets at line 1 through line 4. This is possible because H0 has a low ground which will get you covered from F9, and you have will have good aim on targets trying to hide from line 1. Better still, they usually would park still and give you their rear, so you will have a better chance of hitting and dealing massive damage.
                  Look at his shoots into the T110E5, is that skill of aiming? He did not even pull reticle back to make the shell fly higher to avoid the hill. And his shots at WT E100 are all lucky ones, and obviously they do not penetrate because he is just sitting a bit away from the base. Imagine how pain those shots would be if he relocates to H0.

        • Just like alcohol, drugs, sex before marriage, masturbation. Like you were told at home or at school. :)

      • go play arty and be half way good in it before you say it takes no skill. calling arty a clicker too I’d guess? hmmm what sounds does your mouse make your press the buttons? and, before talking shit on ftr, look back over the articles.

      • Anyone who says arty takes no skill must really suck at it. Hitting moving targets in arty is much MUCH harder than with a regular tank. Killing a scout when he is cruising at full chat 500+ meters away takes skill (and a smiling RNGesus helps too)

    • This is a good guide but dont be afraid of being a little more proactive later in the battles. You can play arty from the middle of the push. Risky yes but can be a game changer.

    • don’t you like arty? You should try it, it requires more skill than just riding around mediums or heavies with super armor and guns and mobility

      • Ahahahahahaha. More skill? Really? Explain please? How exactly does playing the game with one hand take more skill than playing it with both hands?

        • if you think 2 hands is “skill” how do you walk and breath at the same time? arty played well, takes paying more attention to the map than any other tank, timing, team work and planning than some COD twitch player like oh say…EVERY other tank in the game. reflexes are NOT skill

    • Wow no-one gives a fuck about your shit opinios. Stop sucking, you wont hate arty after that anyore.

    • I’ll see your rage and raise you some more rage.

      Honestly, the only time I play arty is to take my LeFuck out in order to harvest tears.

      I should feel bad about it but honestly, those sodding seals need to get taught that artillery is bullshit the hard way.

      Safe behind a rock? No you’re not!

      Want to move? Ahahahaha, I decide when you move!

      What’s that, a scout? Come hither, I wish to 1-shot you!

      And so on. Honestly, the only way to get WG to fix arty is to make it so bad that the average pubtard notices and cries all the way to the support center. And the only way to do that is to milk your LeFH, FV304 and ConqGC for all they’re worth.

      • Well, I play a lot of arty and you kinda just named my three favourites. I don’t see a massive problem with it, others do. Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one and everyone thinks their’s doesn’t stink.

    • The areas around them are good.

      If you are in it your options are usually limited unless you have a very good team giving you backup.
      Also may be useful in the late game.

      The people who go here early tend to either be locked down or killed as they are in a bowl with many directions of fire that the enemy can use.

    • if red player drives there he will usually get fucked without doing anything. good players can exploit it on the other hand.

  4. Hehe, awesome guide Tyra :)

    Btw, cool photoshop skills :D That 15 minute parking sign.. xD xD

    Try to make the next guide about really annoying maps, like Himmelsdorf, Ensk, Ruinberg :P

    • Lol I wish I knew how to use photoshop. That 15min parking sign has not been changed.

      Himmelsdorf is coming next,

      • Can you get some decent stats in your arty first before writing those guides? It is just so funny when your stats are just average but try to each others how to play.

  6. This map doesn’t need an arty guide, this map need a rework to be playable again.
    Most of my rounds on this map where a draw.

    Additionally this map is one of the easier ones for arties and also relatively rare.
    Maybe guides for the most common maps (Prokhorovkah/Fiery Salient, Ruinberg/Winterberg, Himmelsdorf, Malonovka) are more useful. These maps are also unlikely to be changed in the near future.

      • Maybe I really just need to learn how to play.
        I wonder what one can do against these camping, invisible masses of players on this map. Most of the time I see one team going down in flames because they try to rush and get killed without any chance of getting near the base. It can’t be just me.

        You can either camp and win or camp and draw the game. You can’t lose camping, if done right. And I’m talking about random battles. A coordinated attack of the whole team could be victorious.

        What is your strategy?

    • I had a one single draw on this map since it was introduced…this is one of the maps you at least feel like you can affect the result of a battle and I really like it.
      They way I like Sand river which is probably going to become “tomato friendly corridor fest”.
      I wonder, how long I can enjoy unchanged Prochorovka…

    • This map needs a rework OR arty players who know how to relocate. Once arty moves the campers are dealt with easily.
      I do think a guide is needed as most SPG drivers never move, which you can see in the heat map.

      • The campers are dealt with even more easily if there is no arty. Because then you can actually flank them.
        And I’m pretty sure that heat map would look very differently if there was no arty. Right now it shows that everyone goes to positions where they have at least a little cover against arty.

        • “The campers are dealt with even more easily if there is no arty.” Once again, get a team and come to the training room. I’ll be interested to see how you’ll flank us at swamp.

          I agree people go to arty-safe locations as they go to TD-safe locations. Sure with no arty, more positions would become useful, however, many of those would be camping spots.

          • Can you actually make a logical argument without constantly challenging me to a fight?

            Those “new camping spots” would be even easier to flank.

            • Bro, just look at his arty stats. I am sure that you will laugh out loud.
              Maybe you can check out his fv304 and mine. You will see how much situational awareness he actually has and how much he really understand arty.

  7. It’s rather pointless to provide a guide to this map, as it is slated to be reworked (as mentioned on FTR some time ago) – it’s one of the most unbalanced in the current game.

            • I don’t get why the heck arty even needs a guide… it is so stupidly easy to play, and if people needs a guide to play it, it means something is seriously wrong with them… Arty is aswell, the most historically inaccurate game mechanic in world of tanks. Compared to the real artillery, it is stupidly accurate, and the fact that it can one-shot kill you with that accuracy?!?! WHO though of this shit, I really would like to know. Another thing that is just plain stupid, is the artillery arc. The ConqGC is the most broken thing ever to exist in WoT. I would say the tier 10 arty with the most balanced arc, is the Obj. 261. Arty desperately needs a rework, but this is WG… and we all know how they work. Or, it’s more like, it doesn’t work really well at all

              • You will be surprised to hear this, but I think arty really needs to buff in most regions… make it laser accurate, good aim speed and awesome arc for all nations (261 will get cgc one) just nerf greatly bloom on gun and hull traverse (so aim circle will explode over your screen evrytime you move) and nerf airtime of shells greatly (somewhere around 10+ secs)
                Arty fixed… it will be able to efficiently punish campers… win win.. isn’t it easy?

                • Um….

                  You do realise you said:
                  * good aim speed
                  * nerf airtime of shells greatly

                  These two things do not compute. Which is it? Fast aim or slow aim?

                  You seem a little confused…

              • Keep in mind that historical arty is normally firing at distances measured in kilometers, while WoT has SPGs with MAXIMUM ranges as low as 500m.

                Arty is, if anything, unhistorically inaccurate and slow to reload. Compare, for instance, the SU-152 to any SPG with an equivalent gun. The SU-152 has better accuracy, aim time, and reload for basically no reason than that it’s designated as a TD rather than an SPG, when historically speaking, the SU-152 was an artillery piece which was often pressed into use as a TD because it had decent armour and the capability to reliably mess up a Panther or Tiger on a frontal hit.

                Of course, the use of arty in-game is intended to reflect historical use of arty despite the claustrophobic maps. Hence, their in-game accuracy is a compromise between expectations from long-range indirect fire, and expectations from direct fire. Like many compromises, the result doesn’t really fit for either – they can be a little too accurate when used with indirect fire (but note that there’s a selection bias here – non-arty-players remember the time a shell killed them out of nowhere and possibly don’t even notice half the time an arty shell lands nearby, arty players remember the two or three times they’ve lined up perfectly and it’s gone astray anyway for every good hit), and they’re much more likely to go wild than they should be when used in direct fire mode.

                (This is why I suggested they have two accuracy terms – one for situations where they’d be able to hit their target if they had sniper mode instead of artillery mode, and one for when they can only hit a target using indirect fire).

        • I have explained arty and camping several times already. It is rather complicated.

          The small picture: Current games: SPGs kill aggressive (but slow or stupid) players then they deal with any spotted or predictable campers. They can nuke basecamping balconies like Mines, Swamp… Still it promotes wolfpacks, aggressive spotting, changing positions and reduces the amount of safe camping spots.

          The big picture: WoT without SPGs: Many more superheavy tanks and TDs like E3 camping in forward hulldown positions that are not used today. This would lock many maps or require a massive map redesign. Scouting would become almost useless as spotting those hulldown E3s and IS7s would be pointless. Much more prem ammo and HE would be fired.

          BTW, I’m not saying that the current arty solution is perfect. It’s just better than the alternative of not having it at all.

          • Nothing interesting or new about your argument mate. Same old arty-lover answer: If no arty, then TDs and Heavies would dominate!

            Experience indicates this is not true though. None of the matches I’ve ever played in that were lucky enough to have 0 arty per team devolve into campfests. None of them.

            As for hull-down, it’s nowhere near as unpleasant to face as an arty party. If you come upon an E4, E3 or T30 hull-down then the answer is not arty. Work as a team, bait the TD, flank it, destroy it.

            WG have pretty much admitted they added arty not for reasons of balance (Because let’s be honest, the whole rock-paper-scissors analogy for WoT is faulty, naive and just plain wrong) but simply to make the game more accessible to players that wouldn’t normally get into a shooter. People with poor reaction times and other skills needed to do well in lights, meds, heavies and TDs can easily play artillery because those skills are not needed. There really is just no water to the balance argument. Arty exist for one reason and one reason only: Maximise player-base.

            • “Experience indicates this is not true though. None of the matches I’ve ever played in that were lucky enough to have 0 arty per team devolve into campfests.”
              That’s cuz you don’t know how many arties there will be when you pick a tank and most people don’t even realize there is no arty and yet fewer change their playstyle. You still do not get the big picture.

              “Arty exist for one reason and one reason only: Maximise player-base.”
              Really? I thin there are 10 art haters for every arty enthusiast and I think more people leave the game cuz they got artied than there are people whou wouldnt play WOT without arty.

              I’m not an arty lover, I have only about 10% of my games played in SPGs and I would welcome WOT without arty…if only it worked. As it would not, I just think we should use the SPG potential and many stil don’t.

              • And yet you have less than 1k damage in your fv304 per game… Do you really understand arty?

            • “WG pretty much admitted…”
              “None of the matches I’ve ever played…”

              You read statements like that and it’s pretty clear that the OOPMan is what they call “a really stupid shit stain” on the forums. Not me though… I would never call him “a really stupid shit stain”.

              Plenty of battles where the last tanks on the team are TD’s end up in the draw. Neither team will risk moving forward because being spotted first is guarantied death. So all TD’s camp and wait.

              You experience indicates nothing. This game has millions of people and their statistical experience indicates necessity of arty.

              If you are a terrible player (and you are, there is no doubt about it), there is nothing you can do about arty but rage. And your tears taste so delicious when I destroy you.

              I will leave you with this parting wisdom: “WG have pretty much admitted they allow OOPMan to play this game because the game needs a worthless stupid players for good players to kill. They thought about banning him but it turns out his whiny voice carries no weight.”

            • Oh yes, because you can see so much teamwork in random games, and you can flank so well in corridors.
              As for “arty needs no skill” yeah, sure. You can press shift at the start of the battle and go clickity click at anything that comes in front of you, but over longer period you won’t get good win ratio doing only this. Carrying games in arty is more difficult than, say, in HEAT-54. To carry hard with clicker you need situational awareness all around the map, paitience, steady hand, and fair bit of RNG. With regular tanks you need knowledge of weakspots (or skill ammo), awareness what’s going around you, and angling skills.
              I’d argue being patient is harder than frantically pressing DWASDAWDSAWDSAW.

              All I am saying is, arty=0skill is fucking bullshit. Too bad, haters gonna hate.

          • E3s and IS-7s moving to forward hull down positions would be a good thing, it means they have less support and are easier to take care of then if they were camping in the back with the rest of the team because arty. It would also mean MTs and LTs have an easier time flanking them instead of having to wait for the main force to push.

            Your argument is invalid when it comes to OP tanks like the E3, you don’t counter imbalance with more imbalance… The answer to something as OP and broken as the E3 is not something even more broken and OP (clickers).

            The IS-7 while an absolute beast when hull down is nowhere near as unstoppable as an OP TD, it doesn’t have the ultra high alpha/pen rounds that negate any form of armor or HP advantage. An E-100 could easily dig one out by firing HE for example.

          • i still dont know how is it possible to have anticamping specialists with highest draw rate

            You will be surprised to hear this, but I think arty really needs to buff in most regions… make it laser accurate, good aim speed and awesome arc for all nations (261 will get cgc one) just nerf greatly bloom on gun and hull traverse (so aim circle will explode over your screen evrytime you move) and nerf airtime of shells greatly (somewhere around 10+ secs)
            Arty fixed… it will be able to efficiently punish campers… win win.. isn’t it easy?

            and what about this?

  10. import random

    while True:
    print “I hate arty”
    print “arty ruins the game”
    print “arty needs no guides nor skill”
    r = random.randrange(1,26)
    print “your next click will have +% RNG effect, goodluck”, r

  11. just a quick tip, from north base an arty can be pushed up the ridge into C0 position. with CGC this makes no area on the map arty safe at all, CGC can even cream opponents in H4

  13. Artillery is vital at this map to break the said camps and thanks to very long games.

    lmfao. All arty does is make this map even more unplayable. Arty has never prevented camping in any way, it only causes more of it. It’s quite obvious too, even the biggest shitlords will play more aggressiveley on maps without arty.

    Arty not only requires no skill at all, it also counters skilled play by forcing good players to hide behind cover for most of the time or get clicked otherwise.

  14. Hey Tyra,

    this is a really nice Artillery Guide!
    I love to play arty and against the opinion of all those whiners, it really requires some skill! There it is only better to have someone like you, helping with strategies and tips.

    I think it is good to start with a map where it is “kinda obvious” or “more easy” to know where to position your artillery. Then you can adopt to your way of presenting and for beginners it is easier to follow.

    Keep up the good work and I am looking forward to more! ;)

    Snapdragon

    P.S.: I have to admit too that I often did the “beginners mistake” of positioning at A (south) or E(north). Now i know better!!! ^^

  15. Thanks Tyraforce! Great guide, don’t mind the haters.

    This was interesting and I will look forward to the next one!

  16. On the northern base, I usually end up to position C with my arty. Question, does it ever make sense to go to squares C1 or C2? Can you get shots on kill zone 3 from there?

    BTW, thanks for the articles, you’re the man aso. :)

    • C1,2 provides only partial shots at killzone 3. If you can cross the bridge, you can also move to F1, stay behind the little hill and get perfect shots at KZ3. The only problem is getting there in time.

  17. Honestly arty guides are like the works of culture critics – you take an inherently easy and simple thing which anyone with common sense knows (see red, click on it, don’t see red, move from where you will see them vs. you like this statue because it looks good) then write 2 and a half pages of rant about it to show us how it’s magic.

    I especially love the part where WG themselves said multiple times that vbaddict heatmaps are flat-out false.

    • Hey,
      a) 90% of SPG drivers never move on Swamp, which leads to many draws..
      b) The hit rate of the most accurate SPGs in the game is ~30%.

      Do you really think it’s all common sense? If so, I’d say those 90% lack common sense and can use some tips.

      Heat maps seem accurate enough to me. I don’t need them to be perfect.

      • a) that’s a quite illogical conlusion. You think that if arties move camping will be less? Why exactly? Why do you think tanks take their initial camping spot instead of just staying where they spawned? Because that’s what you are saying – if people move to cover from arty move your arty and people will stay in your killzone forevermore. They won’t. They will just camp in different places.
        Arty is bad at breaking camp in randoms as people are unskilled, concerned about their hp more, and normal tanks will never provide the other side of the scissor to keep enemy tanks in your line of fire. Not mentioning that the enemy arty will move and the whole thing will result in a new status quo with the same amount of tanks.
        The only people that will get shot are those with any initiative whatsoever who could break the camp. That’s why arty just fucks up this game and leeches away the xp/creds of people.

        b) direct hit rate is 30%. Arty guides don’t help with that anyway, so I don’t really understand your point.

        • a) sry, but that argument would be really long
          b) based on replays I’ve seen, people can’t aim properly and position badly in relation to the areas they shoot at -) low accuracy

  18. Must be a REALLY special kind of snowflake to take delight in praises coming from the biggest windowlickers & shitlords in the playerbase…

    • Well, good portion of the twitch/YT streaming heroes are like that as well, so what’s new about it?

        • Too bad I barely touch TDs nowadays. Except the T110E3. In which I do anything but “boosh kemp”

          Usually I smash faces of tomatoes like you in it

    • 200m@25km is 0,8 accuracy. Arties in WoT are more accurate.

      So yeah, here we have a modern artillery with gps, computer, guided projectiles, probably laser targeting, produced by modern precision technology in peacetime with all the resource and know how available after 50 years of experience with modern artillery:
      AND THAT FUCKING THING IS LESS ACCURATE THAN THE WWII ARTIES DEPICTED IN WOT.

      So yeah, get out, arties need to be toned back.

      • You completly forgot that even at 0,8 you’re still in a lethal zone for a 155mm shell.

      • Personally,what i think they should do with arty:

        -Buff RoF slightly

        -Give the shells low damage (3-600 at most),but massive splash (15-25 meters) and low penetration so that it it can only pen VERY lightly armored or open top tanks on direct hit,but do relatively little to heavily armored ones

        -Temporary crew debuff when hit by splash of a close shell (~5 meters up to maybe 15 with large caliber artillery):Basically reduce the crew from its current percentage to 50%,including all the skills/perks,for a limited time (2-3 seconds,could be changed to adjust if it doesnt work properly),reducing the effectiveness of the tank for that time.After the timer runs out,the crew goes back to normal.This would somewhat simulate the crew being “shaken up” by the impact,and there could be a skill/perk implemented that counters
        this effect,as in reducing the timers lenght or lowering the impact of the “debuff”.

        -Buff the ability of the shell to damage tracks and optics.

        -Add smoke rounds.

        -Remove AP and HEAT rounds.

        -Remove ability to fire on the move

        -Reduce maximum amount of arty per team to 3

        The effect would be that arty would still be annoying ,but would actually not do that much damage by itself.It would be more about pinning tanks down and annoying them,than doing actual damage,and the increased splash and RoF would make counterbattery more viable.It would also mean that arty has to move more.The ability to throw a smokescreen would give you the ability to create cover in open spaces and temporarily blinding the tanks in the area that you fire at.Lack of AP and HEAT along with losing the ability to fire while moving would reduce the effectiveness of TD mode,making it easier for scouts to actually do something about arty if the get within reach.Last but not least the “crew debuff” would make it a bit more realistic and still retain the SPGs ability to support despite the massive DPM nerf caused by the shell damage nerf.

  20. i dont want anymore arty guides. bcs i know everything written in here. and i dont want other players to learn it. they should figure it out like me.

  22. Nice guide Tyra!
    One thing though, that CGC in base does not deserve to be bashed. Solely my opinion and I know, this guide is not about high trajectory arties. But from the base position he is using he can punish campers in C7 that are resisting E3′s push. Those guys are very hard to dig out from any other position available there.

    • And what I forgot to write, as the edit time expired: every arty player has those bad games where you just don’t hit properly. My experience is that arty is very prone to extreme results, sometimes you rack up 3 full HP one shots in a game, sometimes you just don’t hit those perfectly aimed shots. CGC seems to have this extreme taken to new levels, as it’s inaccurate but high alpha/splash. And, that is, the reason I love the vehicle <3

  23. Assuming you’ll ever get to read this, buried by the amount of hurrdurr generated automatically by the arty topic, I want to make you a question Tyraforce:

    When you’re in a slow arty, let’s say a hightier german one, in which both relocating and aiming take huge amounts of time, what kind of pattern your decision-making follows? To relocate, or not to relocate, that is the question.
    If you relocate you sure have more chances to hit the enemy, but moving and setting up again may take many minutes, in which you may lose the right moment to strike the enemy and then it would just be too late.

    • I own a GW E100. What I do is I relocate between shots so it often takes me a few reloads to get to my new position. This is not posible on every map but it works on most. You need to know all the important times to know when to stop, turn and start aiming in order not to waste time.

  24. - Artillery is vital at this map to break the said camps.

    I was seriously expecting a replay demonstrating the above comment, not the other way around. His team camped hard at base, the enemy team had no one still back at their base, he got 4 kills til that point, breaking which camping? Not the enemy camp, which was pushing.

    • Yeah, what an interesting vid that would’ve been:

      15 enemies camping hard.
      One by one his teams goes in to ‘scout’ when ‘arty is ready’.
      He misses then reloads for a min.
      Game ends in draw with 8 tanks remaining on both sides.

      • I had no camp to break as the enemy did not camp. The enemy arty did just 2k dmg and was not effective at breaking my team’s camp.

        • In other words, one team pushed and arty did well against them. The other team camped and arty did poorly. Remind us again how arty is effective at breaking camps?
          Wouldn’t it be better to post a replay showing what is written in the guide, instead of the exact opposite?

            • They are worse than mine…your point is?
              His arty stats are enough to defend something even he doesn’t believe, as show by the replay and his comments.

              • 52% win rate is really convincing? Then about 30% of the WoT players are considered professional at this game. Oh wait…

                And regarding his replay and comments. I can confirm with you that he does not know what he is talking about. That level of damage is just another normal game in arty, anyone that knows how to click with half brain working can achieve that.
                http://imgur.com/a/lxomE

                Here is one of the games I played on test server, with 400 ping, during 8.6 common test. Does it mean that I am a more skilled arty player that knows how to aim? Or relocate? (look at the distance I traveled during that game)

                http://www.noobmeter.com/recent/eu/Tyraforce/512406947/512406947_00025795_20141227_020408/512406947_00026395_20150107_013304
                Noobmeter stats, here we go. In the last 600 games he played, he has 27 BC 155 58 games, 21 M41 games, 20 Fv207 games, 19 GW E100 games, and 15 S-51 games. That is less than 100 games in the most recent 600. Now tell me that he plays enough arty games to know what he is talking about.
                Moreover, he mostly plays medium tanks, but his stats are far away from a real unicum. Just compare my stats to his. BTW I pub solo most of the times, and I only platoon with friends I know, which all are just average players.

  25. Before the comments are looked, I’d like to say that I really enjoy your guides Tyra. Keep them going!

  26. Must admit since I bought my Pz.Sfl. IVb last week I am playing the hell out of it – and loving it. Its possibly the best credit farmer I have ever seen (I don’t need the credits btw). Slow as fuck but VERY accurate, and the 105mm shell does enormous damage to anything under a KV-1. And tracking KV, TOG, and Churchies for the team to kill is endless fun. In addition the top gun can load AP for TD mode – have on 3 occasions taken out 2-3 cappers at short range to win games. Arty haters out there – give it a try – real fun!

  27. Inspired by Tyra’s artillery guide I went the other day and tried the Battle Assistant with the 261 (which I had left to rot in my garage after the great arty revamp ages ago; I simply don’t seem to be able to hit anything). As it happened, it was Swamp map. As this Swamp guide hadn’t yet been posted, I of course did drive to a noob-place and got killed in the end (even though I got Ace and Bombardier (my first ever Bombardier, and very likely the last :p )).
    http://wotreplays.eu/site/1494732#swamp-swuul-object_261

    I don’t think I’ll be an artillery player (it is just too random to my tastes), but I certainly like it when there are quality arty players on my team. Thus a big thumbs-up from me to Tyra and his efforts :)

  29. If this is your way of shutting down FTR, Silent…

    On the other hand, this guy Tyra might be financial contributor to FTR , therefore this could be paid advertisement to scumbaggery.

  30. Lovely articles and this especially. Managed to take something new from that. Will wait for the Himmelsdorf part and maybe for the next one you could take Krarkow, as usually I have little to no idea where to put my arty piece in use on that map.

  31. “Artillery is vital at this map to break the said camps”, he says. Then proceeds to call campers “low priority” and establishes attacking tanks as “top priority”.

    • Yup, you take out the attackers first and then deal with the campers.
      The problem of this map is that once you kill the attackers (easy), it’s really hard to deal with the campers as the camping positiions are strong.

      Emu, get some classes of logics. You see a contradiction in every sentence you read.

      • And if logic isn’t in your favor call the white the black and vice versa :D

        No matter how much you will troll about it the reality is simple. Arty can help defenders a lot but is almost useless when it comes to attack. Two brain cells are enough for everybody to find a place where own arty can support and enemy arty can’t reach.

  32. Hey Tyra,

    If you still need members for your team, got over 1k battes in my GWE and am also getting quite a bit better with the 261lately. SShould you write about specific arties feel free to give me a call.

    dCK_Ad_Hominem is my ingame nick ;).

  34. I had almost stopped to play WoT all together and artys almost entirely, but after the crying I saw here after the first Arty-guide I found lots of motivation to play, and specifically arty just so people could rage, it is so much fun to play Arty now! Will get some more to!

    • So, you just defined the typical arty player: ASSHOLE, DICK.
      Not insulting you but thats exactly how you described yourself, not really interested in having fun but enjoy destroying other people fun, and that pleases you.

      Yep, typical arty asshole

      • Yes, and I don’t care that they thing I’m an asshole either, but you are wrong, I think it is really fun!

        It is always fun to mess with people that takes things to serious and gets really upset for small meaningless stuff, like this is. It is a game, play it for fun and take it for what it is, it has arty, so like it, or don’t play the game. But some just get sooo upset, and that makes me smile :)

  35. Swamp huh ?

    If you are starting in south-west corner then you will win the game in 90% as long as you will camp the hill around the base (J3), small hill on western ledge (G/F-1) and both sides of mini-mountain east from the base (H-4/5) and perhaps 1-2 tanks at southern corridor (K6)

    If the enemy will push then they are dead meat. Enjoy your won game

  36. Been enjoying raping arty with my Ru 251 lately. I also love how they rage after getting spotted in the first 30sec, rip in limbo.

  37. Playing Arty in my opinion is like Chess or a classic strategy game.

    Anyone can easily learn and play it but it takes great skill to consistently do well in it.

    As in anyone can click, but smart ones know where and who to click and when.
    This contrasts starkly with the tactical shooter like stuff that goes on the other classes.

    As always, thanks Tyra for another great guide!
    Not as helpful for me since I play only french arty but always a thing or two to pick up. Keep up the great work!

  39. Before “don’t go left” times Swamp was one of my favourite arty maps. I loved sitting in A area from South or E area from North. Nowadays those places are for small arties with good camo. Or idiots.
    So as Tyraforce wrote – most times arty will shot at you from their base. Remember that.

    • Also ensk… how the flying F do i get a low arc arty to work on that map “city side”

  41. Thanks Tyra, I find the swamp guide very useful and I think that theese articles are going to improve my WR with arty which is rather low at the moment. Looking forward to the next Himmelsdorf guide.

  43. I rarely play arty and very sucks on it, 49% average when all other classes are at least above 55%. Looking forward to other guides so I could finally reach 50% and retiring my SPG crews to other tanks.

  44. I had stopped playing arty as of a year or so ago, when I gave up clan wars, and about the time of the last big arty nerf, but you’ve convinced me to give it another try. I still have 4 TierX arties sitting in the garage …

    BTW, I’m not as good as you are, but I’m a decent arty player. You have a more organized and intelligent approach to it than I ever had. I appreciate the insight.

    • Thanks. My approach is rather intuitive but when I wanted to write it down, I realized there was quite a lot of stuff to consider…I’m glad some find it “inteligent” :-)

  45. this tyraforce dont play much fast tanks and small hull tanks with unpenetrable tower
    for uper base g7 g8 for him is tomato area , i would add tomato and unicum land if u are in plat of 3 meds u have to go thereand def this iland u can always go back driving of this clif
    and run away easier than from d4 d3. u can go there in is 7 cos they cann se only your turret and if u drive light tank its must to take area , u spoting them when they takin this hill and when they do they will be spoted from 50 m radius you cos u can camp under this clif covered by campers

    • a) the G7/8 area is arty-safe so you can’t shoot it anyway
      b) there is not much you can do there except shooting the central tomato zone
      c) the enemy will push you out of there as soon as they clear the rest of the southern tomato zone
      d) I got shot going there in tanks like T71. It may be safe in the Soviet meds but I’d really love to see you getting an IS7 across the bridge without getting shot.

      I don’t think that area is worth the risk and time but you are right it’s not a true tomato area.

  47. Gj a nice follow up,
    Don’t play them so often but I always love a good read on tactics.
    I do play every class, because that way you learn the most IMO.

    -cb99