World of Tanks Generals Preview

First revealed at gamescom 2012, World of Tanks Generals is a web-based, free-to-play card game. This coming from the developers of the World of Tanks, Warplanes and Warships was a bit of surprise. A card game, really?

But, when you look closely, it turns out to be a clever way of expanding the gameplay available to World of Tanks players.

The game itself takes place on an 8×8 grid inside a standard web browser. You start the game armed with a deck of 40 cards, composed of tanks, artillery and infantry.

Each player then takes turns to move and fire their chosen cards around the grid to attack their opponent’s units and ultimately destroy their headquarters. These headquarters cards are places at opposing corners of the grid and have a specific number of hit points.

If you’re an existing WoT player, all your tanks will appear as playable cards, as Generals is integrated with your Wargaming account. These tank cards contain the equivalent stats from WoT, with the research tree also making an appearance, WoT players will feel right at home.

The pictures in this post are of the special, one-off, physical version of the game. Should there be enough interest in Generals, Wargaming might even start branching out into board games and appearing in our regular Friday Night Unplugged column.

Tactics, will of course, play a large part in determining the winner of each battle. The light, medium and heavy tanks each have their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, heavy tanks can only move horizontally or vertically and are slow to recharge (i.e. reload). Light tanks on the other hand, can move two board squares in any direction and have a counterattack move available when fired upon. So you can’t just sit behind an army of heavy tanks as you’ll be out-maneuvered.

There’s a tutorial mode for new players and there’s always the the computer available for skirmishes to hone your tactics. Then it’s onto the real-world player matches.

In PvP games you have another foe to deal with; time. There is a strict 15 min clock within which to make all your moves. Dawdle for too long over your decisions and you’ll run out of time and forfeit the game. Fortunately, non-PvP games will have a much less restrictive clock giving you more time to plan and execute your attacks.

For the first release Wargaming are looking at ~220 different cards to populate your 40 card game deck. Expect premium cards – the ones you pay for – to make an appearance too.

World of Tanks Generals will be released later this year, supporting all the major web-browsers on PCs, tablets and laptops. You can find a little more info on the official website.

World of Tanks and World of Warplanes (beta) are out now for PC with World of Warships coming in 2013.

One Comment