PCWStats - EARLY BETA

Some Background Information

I am a long-time World of Warships player, both on a casual and competitive level. Over the course of the past five years that I have played the game, I have played for both High Typhoon and Hurricane Teams in Clan Wars, with regular finishes in the Top 15 on the North America server and Top 50 finishes globally.

Although my overall stats do not look particularly good, I would consider myself an unicum player in that game, and I try my best to help the community whenever possible, whether it is through one-on-one coaching sessions or divisioning up with players and giving them guidance on how to build their ships better or how to position more effectively to maximize their impact.

I have also played World of Tanks, but I would consider myself casual in that game and do not play it particularly well.

What Do I Bring to the Table as a Project CW Player?

I played the game for the duration of the Open Alpha Session, and although I struggled at first, I quickly learned how to play the game. I even performed well in the competitive tournament, albeit as a Blitz main rather than as anything serious such as a Chopper.

However, even outside the tournament, I can regularly rack up 15-20k games, and sometimes even 30k games, winning matches with a combination of good positional knowledge, positional and situational awareness, and an aggressive playstyle.

This helped me reach a Top 100 position on the overall leaderboard and achieve a 65% win rate, even while playing most of the games solo during the test. In short, I would consider myself a very good, if not a great player, and my understanding of the game, even in a short timespan, allows me to help others who want to learn the game and potentially become great at it as well.

What Do I Prefer to Play the Most?

I have a preference for Jaeger, Blitz, and Udarnik. My personal favorite, however, would be Jaeger, thanks to a combination of excellent mobility and a fantastic gun with good soft stats and insane critical damage, as well as the ability to troll with its smoke, decoy, and thermals.

Tips to Get Good at Project CW

Tip 1: Select the Right Build

Every tank in the game has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the incoming upgrade system will allow them to capitalize on their strengths, albeit with some trade-offs, though the precise details of the upgrade system remain unknown as of the moment. However, that does not necessarily mean there is nothing to talk about here. The biggest thing to understand with your tank/agent is that they have a particular build where they are the most optimized.

Let's take two tanks as examples: Jager and Blitz. Jager, as I mentioned earlier, is renowned for its gun and mobility, which is what you should try to build into to maximize its combat capability. It wouldn't do you any good to build into either Energy or buffing its Decoy System because that would not help capitalize on its strengths and would, in fact, hamper you in the game.

Similarly, with Blitz, its strength lies in its special abilities, with its Artillery, EMP Mines, and TV Missile to work with. It wouldn't do any good to build into the gun because then you would be limiting the ability usage you could work with, and you would also minimize your ability to be efficient in battle.

Although there are some more precise nuances with both Jaeger and Blitz, as well as other tanks, for the sake of being simple with this guide so as not to confuse players, just know that each tank has its own specialty, and it's best to focus on those areas to maximize your combat effectiveness.

Tip 2: Understand the Map You're On

The maps in Project CW aren't like the ones in World of Tanks, where they are either city maps or field maps. In fact, they tend to be a good bit of both, with excellent terrain and vantage points to look for, whether it is to get flanking shots or to push an advantage.

Most maps can be divided into three distinct components: a city, a courtyard, and a mostly open field, except Sunstroke, where it's just three courtyards. Based on the tank you're in, you want to try and go to the area of the map where you can maximize the potential of the tank you're playing.

Let's take Udarnik and Jaeger while playing in Scarred City. With Udarnik, in the central courtyard, there is plenty of cover where you can go hull down (only exposing your turret and hiding your hull) and brawl it out, so that's the place you want to go most frequently, either to start or to transition from the city if you have gained that position.

With Jaeger, you want to go for the open field areas since you'll have incredibly good sniping vantage points for those trying to cross into the courtyard or into the city. In short, based on what tank you are driving, try to go for the areas on the map where you can maximize your input in the game without being completely zoned out.

Tip 3: Maintain Situational Awareness

This one goes without saying. About half the time I died was because I was completely tunnel-visioned in the sniper mode without understanding that I was being flanked. The minimap as it is now isn't very much help either, and the full-screen map doesn't render detail well enough on the average computer to give you a solid idea of what might be coming your way.

Not all of us can afford 44-inch 4K Ultra HD Monitors and RTX 4090s. That's just a given... rich dandies.

The best way I found to get around this would be to check my surroundings every ten seconds. If I see an enemy pushing me very aggressively within those ten seconds, I back off. If they're not pushing me, I maintain my position, and if they're retreating, I pop their head over a ridge. Maintaining consistent situational awareness can allow you to either get out of trouble safely, and more importantly, can also let you have monster games if you find the right timing to take advantage of a good situation. Just take a peek around corners, but don't overthink if someone is going to come down the ridge or over a hill. Assume they will, and if they do, just kill them.

Tip 4: Look for Openings to Capitalize On

Looking for openings is not an easy thing to do since what looks like a promising situation can go downhill very quickly, and in some cases, literally. The best thing to do when you're trying to look for an opening is to first scan the situation and then act or react. The faster you can react to that, the better.

I'll give a practical example to illustrate what I'm talking about. Let's take Vietnam, and I'm on the hill where the C Cap is. I see that there are a lot of enemies on the hill and trying to climb, so that gives me the cue to descend from the hill and play it safe.

However, at that moment, I see a pair of friendly Defenders show up to play hull down and play it safe. With the enemy tanks at bay and the middle of the map being somewhat clear from the line of sight, what I can then do is go around the bottom of the hill or climb to the top of the hill and get flanking shots behind them, easily helping my hull-down Defenders clear out the top of the hill and re-establishing our advantage on that point.

Simple, but effective. The faster you see an opening, the better. It takes some practice, but once you get it, it'll help you win games more effectively.

Tip 5: Know When to Attack and When to Defend (BATTLE-FLOW)

Knowing when to attack and when to defend is quite important, and a completely separate concept from exposing openings, as mentioned earlier. For great players, it's what's known as "Battle-flow" or reading the state of the game at any given point.

On paper, it's a very simple concept to understand: know when to push and know when to tactically retreat. However, as I've learned from my greatly detailed World of Warships experience, that's not as simple as it may seem. The truth is that, for the most part, the way the enemy team and your team moves is not overly predictable. Sometimes you get Choppers going flanking in the open field. Sometimes you have Kents trying to brawl with an Udarnik or a Punch. Sometimes the Udarnik is sniping from a hill position, and that's only on a microscale interaction level.

From a greater overhead perspective, getting a proper read on how the battle is flowing can often be hard, but to simplify it as much as possible, try to start by knowing when you can attack and when you can retreat by counting the number of enemy tanks and friendly tanks within your vicinity. If there are more enemies than allies, play it safe and let them come to you, farming them as they push in.

If there are more allies than enemies, and you have an advantageous position, then feel free to push in as aggressively as you can, but again, be mindful of crossfires and potential flanking maneuvers.

There's always been a very simple concept that exists in warfare, and that is that defending almost always works better than attacking. This is because the attacker must expend resources to move towards the defender, while the defender need only move away from the attacker, thereby stretching what resources they have over a greater distance.

In the case of Project CW, said resources are your hit points and your energy points, as well as ability usage. The best thing to do under most circumstances, rather than purely going for attacking plays, is to try and create a situation where the enemy must come to you, not necessarily through camping, but by finding positions where you can maximize the amount of damage that you deal to the enemy before they can maneuver to damage you effectively.

You can stretch this out further by effectively "kiting" the enemy, or forcing them to come towards you while you run away to a stronger position. By doing so, you essentially force them to overextend to try and kill you, and eventually, if you play defensively enough for long enough, you can push back and slam people's heads open for essentially free because they will have been stretched far too much to have the ability to mutually support each other, or they will have all huddled in a corner somewhere, fearful... I suppose.

The Small Details (That Go Without Saying)

Angle Your Armor - This one should be easy. Angle your armor, hide your weak spots as much as you can without just hiding in a corner. Essentially, mitigate damage as much as possible. Side-scrape, go hull down, do whatever you need to block damage while dealing damage.

Aim for Critical Areas - Aiming for critical areas such as fuel tanks and ammunition racks not only grants extra damage dealt but also helps your team by incapacitating modules, slowing them down, or potentially making them explosive.

Aim for Weak Points - Sometimes you can't target a critical area on a tank because they've hidden it well, or you're facing a target that's extremely well-armored and hard to damage. Look for softer areas such as cupolas and viewports that can be penetrated, or look for a point where a penetration marker will show as being green and easier to damage under most circumstances.

Prioritize Low Health Targets When Possible - The fewer enemy guns in the fight, the less potential damage you could take, and the less damage your team will take, allowing you to win fights that would otherwise be much harder if an enemy is allowed to get away for free.

Aim for Tracking Shots - Tracking does exist in this game, and while it can be repaired quickly, it costs a tank a repair kit to repair all its modules. By tracking a tank, you not only force them to use said repair kit, but any follow-up shots will immediately negate their healing since repairs are interrupted whenever you take damage.

Use Your Abilities Properly - Some tanks have passive abilities, some have active abilities. Learn what each one does, whether it's an airstrike or a minefield, and learn how to utilize them effectively. They provide a good bit of bonus damage and utility in most situations.

Conclusion

That's all that I have for this guide. I hope that those who read it get the basic idea of how to play the game through what I have presented here. Although they are very fundamental in a sense, if you choose to dedicate yourself, you can definitely make a difference in your gameplay and potentially get good yourself.

Thank you for reading!