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World of Tanks – Frontline: Quick Review by Harkonnen

5 min read

Hello everyone,

World of Tanks Sandbox 3.0 is out and this time players are asked to test a new game mode: Frontline. This mode features two new main aspects, 30 versus 30 battles and 3 by 3 kilometers map.


Note: All images used in the article were approved by Wargaming for The Daily Bounce. If you want to use these images, please contact me.


Please remember this mode is still “Work in Progress”, this means there will be changes to it and it will differ from the final version.


Frontline (1)
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The map: Epic Normandy and each team has one clear objective: Attack or Defend. If you are Attacking you will start on a Normandy beach in a random sector and your first objective is to capture one of the first area so you can start advancing forward to the final area. The Defending team will have to hold on wave after wave until the time expires.

There is a line that Defenders can’t pass, even if they hold all the areas, but if they lose one sector you can’t capture it back and as soon as all three areas in the same line are captured, the defensive line moves forward blocking those sectors to the defending team.

While players spawn on different areas, they still can move to a different area and support their team there, it’s ideal that once an area is captured, they move to a different area so they can help their team holding more sectors. Moving between areas doesn’t require any loading, it’s an actual 3 by 3 map.

Once they are destroyed, the players are able to select a spawn point, different tank (previous one will be blocked for one spawn duration) and the load out for that tank. But the longer you survive the better, because you have a limit of respawns, by a limit it means you need to hold for about four minutes for a tank icon, at the lower left area of the screen, to turn orange. Each orange tank icon means a respawn, if you run out you will have to wait four minutes to respawn again. There is no real limit to how many times each player can respawn, but this prevents suicide rush by scouts or players to just rush into death trying to capture/defend an area.

Frontline (11)
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Players are also able to press M to see the overall map and even send commands to other players, enabling  some sort of coordinated communication with the team.

One of the major problems I’ve found with Attacking is the fact players seem to forget the defending team can reset capture points, just like in a normal Random Battle. The amount of times I’ve seen players just getting inside the Capture Circle and just camp in the middle with no cover, getting hit time after time and losing capture points, got to a point that I almost gave up to capture the zone. But the same happens with the Defending Team, players seem to camp behind the Capture Circles waiting for an attacker to get inside, so they can farm damage, instead of pushing the limit of the map, so the attacking team isn’t able to control the map. The Attacking team will eventually capture the zone and move forward… I’m not sure about other testers, but I was never able to win the game when I was defending because players simply refuse to cooperate and play as a team.

There are several Repair and Resupply Zones where players can get their health points back, for some reason is not resupplying ammunition or consumables, but it might be a bug. But if a player is trapped in an area, or just wants change vehicle, they can press J to recover their vehicle and go back to the garage, where they can select another vehicle, loadout and respawn in a different sector. But be aware, each time you fire, a timer will reset to 30 seconds and you won’t be able to recall, so to be able to use recall you can’t engage any enemy for 30 seconds.

Last but not least, how can you win the match? If you are defending you just need to wait for the time to run out, it doesn’t matter how many enemies you have killed, the only way to win is to defend your Pillboxes while time runs out. To win, you need to destroy three of the five existing Pillboxes, but to get there you have to get two zones (for example A and D).

Overall I enjoyed playing this new mode, but I’m still not 100% sure it will work as it is now. The main problem is teamplay, players lack the ability to cooperate with other players and play for the team, the majority of the players only play for their own score, almost like a random. But in a 30vs30 battle, one player or even a platoon of five can’t change the game if the rest of the team doesn’t cooperate.

The other issue is the fact each battle can last for quite a long time. I enjoy World of Tanks because each battle lasts 15 minutes maximum, and on average only seven. With this mode I was in a single battle for almost 35 minutes before my team won and I was able to go back to the garage. This means, if a casual player wants to enjoy a quick battle and then leave, he can’t anymore. This might be a problem for some, but not for others, but at least for me it means I would only play this mode if I actually know I had enough free time to do it.

What do you think? For those who have access, did you enjoy? If not, what would you change? For those without access, do you think you would play this mode? Leave your feedback in the comments.

 

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15,466 thoughts on “World of Tanks – Frontline: Quick Review by Harkonnen

  1. “There is no real limit to how many times each player can respawn”

    One exception: “It gets a bit trickier should attackers capture all six bases across the 1st and 2nd defensive fronts. In that case, defenders play a now-or-never game, left with just one life each.”

    “The amount of times I’ve seen players just getting inside the Capture Circle and just camp in the middle with no cover, getting hit time after time and losing capture points, got to a point that I almost gave up to capture the zone.”

    You can only lose cap points by dying, so obviously players try to push it.

    “The main problem is teamplay, players lack the ability to cooperate with other players and play for the team, the majority of the players only play for their own score, almost like a random.”

    Unless you give every player a few months strategy and tactics training, this will never be viable and it’s kinda naïve to expect it in any non-coordinated game (like clans). The game has no mechanisms to promote “actual” teamplay, you can always be a dick and find a way around the rules (or just be bad enough).

  2. You lose cap points even if you don’t get “wrekt”… At one point was driving me crazy because I had 3 guys getting shot and the points wouldn’t move up…

  3. But it works in BattleField aswell, without training. Why shouldnt it work in WoT?
    WG just has to give some reasons to play as a team.

  4. “You lose cap points even if you don’t get “wrekt”” vs ” had 3 guys getting shot and the points would move up”

    So which one is it? 🙂

  5. No, it doesn’t, Everyone plays solo the same, it’s just less noticeable, because you can carry more. And if you look around, you’ll find enough players complaining about that:

    https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/190144-battlefield-1/74608333
    https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/69807/team-balancing-is-a-problem-comment-if-you-agree-disagree
    https://forums.battlefield.com/en-us/discussion/64895/im-done-with-this-game-until-you-fix-the-team-balancing

    (Basically any balance team thread you find is this – because it’s essentially “why can’t the weaker team play more like team”)

  6. I do live streaming and after I played a few games I talked with my audience about it.. 75% hate it.. the fact it takes tooo long and only tier 10 it’s turn off for most of them. I don’t want to be bringer of bad news.. :((( but I think it’s another fail gameplay mode

  7. I rather would like to see a smaller map, with 7-8 tanks on each side max, tier 6 (or max T8). Time to fight reduced to max 10 minutes. Set the max per cl*** tanks i.e.(1 LT, 3 HTs, 3 meds, 2 TDs, no SPG), platoons of max 2 allowed. Objective could be the same (attack/defense), but don’t stick to it.
    Expectations: shorten the time of battles, make it like an “Instant action”, xp and credit wise could be the same like in the current random, but relative to the HP pool on map.
    However, bringing some motivation to play this game mode by giving some goodies, like 5 instant wins, +30%XP, or 10 instant wins +50% credits per battle, could be also in a form or personal reserves…

  8. The 35-minute gameplay doesn’t really discourage me. It will add variety, as we already have randoms for 7-min gameplay, Tier 6 SH for 2min quickaction. It will be.. different.

    What really discourages me is the Tier 10 exclusivity. I don’t like that Tier in randoms and it is expensive AF to run. Now imagine being thrown in a 35-min game with respawn everytime you die, I let you imagine the bill at the end of a match where you got destroyed several times.
    I won’t even play this mode as it is, losing a crapload of credits is really a cold shower. But if WG releases it for Tier 7 or 8, I would gladly try it for entire evenings. 🙂

  9. Totally agree, give a game mode to the forgotten tiers like 4,5,7 and 9!

  10. Testing is tier 10, since you can focus players for MM. WG mentioned on YouTube (in comments) that depending on how well it goes it might get to other tiers.

  11. hey I am a personal translator and i really want to translate this into Chinese. so can i use this article and post on some Chinese forums?

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