Tactics Talk: The 0 line in Erlenberg

Had a WoT game on Erlenberg this morning that I thought I'd talk about for a moment. We were in the South spawn on a standard game and if I'm in a TD or MT I often go to the 0 line. If I'm honest that's a lazy play - trying to get into the trees at the top of that hill to snipe.

After this morning I've decided that it's often not a great World of Tanks play either.

Here's are the problems:

Cat's out of the bag

It's not always easy to get into that location unspotted. Once you're in the trees you're probably ok, but around H9/H0 you're exposed to any enemy tanks sitting on top of the hill at D9. Now they know you're coming and if they have arty you may get shat on.

Getting any use?

Once you're there your shots are limited. You MIGHT get shots on enemies at D9, if they poke and get shot. More often they slide back down the hill where you don't have shots. And you might get lit taking that shot, exposing you to fire from the TDs sitting around A9/A0. If any of your team lights the TDs at A9/A0 you have shots on them, but that requires your team to push all the way up to D9, most likely.

Sometimes your best use on the 0 line is to play G0 and shoot into town at the heavies who get lit at D7/E5/E6. Best part of that is you get side shots on players who can't really spot you and aren't really looking at you. Worst part is that the shots are few and far between and you may be pixel sniping through windows.

Got team?

If you do go to the 0 line you need to have support. I've seen too many battles where somebody goes 0 line and nobody goes with them. Now they're on that hill, alone, and when the enemy figures that out they're going to get pushed. Retreating out of there might not be easy, you're at least 200-300m away from safety and your safest play may be to run into the trees at the K0 corner until you can regroup.

When I do go 0 line I watch our team deployment carefully and if I see that I'm going alone, I bail out before I've committed myself to being alone on an island.

Where do we go from here?

So let's imagine that you've won that spot and you've cleared the D9 hill. What now? Most people are going to push the 9/0 line. Problem is that involves crossing at least 200m of open space and any enemies from A6-A0 have shots on you - and there are almost always TDs in those trees somewhere.

Maybe it's better to fold back towards the town and push up the river on the 6 line? But maybe not. Really the only way to push with cover is to push ALL the way into town and push the 5 line road. But unless your team has already cleared it that might not be great either - depending on what you're driving. And if your team HAS already cleared it then you're just chasing damage from the back.

More often I'll position on the D9 hill, using the bush for soft cover and the windmill for hard cover. Once my team owns A4/A5 I'm more willing to push because we have a cross-fire. Be sure to tell your team you're going to push though so that they're ready to shoot A line if you light somebody.

What about North spawn?

North spawn has it a little better, and a little worse. There isn't a great 0 line play for the North spawn, mostly they play the D9 hill and hope their TDs behind them on the A line help them kill the south guys who push into them.

Once you've cleared the 9/0 line it's a lot safer to push, though, because there are rarely any significant enemy forces on the K6-0 line. There IS a TD sniper plateau around H7 but I rarely see people playing there, especially in the late game.

So...I dunno. If there was a perfect strat everybody would do it. Going to 0 line is ok, but don't hesitate to relocate out of there if you're not getting any use or if you find yourself alone. And don't be in a hurry to cross all that open ground to push into their TDs unless you have support.

GLHF!