You are flying your heavy bomber at 8,500 meters, preparing to bomb the enemy airfield, when suddenly, flashes of red fly past your plane from 6:00 high. You look behind you and see a squadron of enemy fighters on your tail! Your gunners begin shooting at the enemy planes as you call for backup. Five friendly planes in close proximity immediately respond to your cry for help and fly to your aid as fast as they can. You give the engines of your bomber full power, in an attempt to make it hard for the enemy planes to hit you. Over all of the chaos, you hear more engines coming your way and see five friendly markers appear on your radar. One enemy fighter goes down and the other three scatter. The two heavy fighters join you, on on each wing, while the light fighters take out the enemy fighters. You get in position to bomb the base, line up the markers, bombs away! All ten of your five hundred pound bombs fall, on a collision course with the airfield below. You and your friends turn and activate WEP, war emergency power, pushing your engines above their normal power output, and go as fast as you can back to base. The bombs land and destroy the airfield, mission accomplished. You are then teleported back to your hanger to wait for another battle to begin. War Thunder is an amazing game with the perfect mix of strategy and combat. When you start, you first choose a country to be in, then you must choose whether to be army or aviation; tanks or planes. I chose air force and have not felt regret for that choice, however, with the new naval update coming soon, I may try using battleships. But enough of me talking about what I do, let's get to the game.

The first part of the game I’ll be talking about is aviation. The planes you start with are simple light fighters, low armor, small guns, little amo, and low speed and maneuverability. When in the hanger, there is a button that says research. If you click on it, it will bring up a large table of aircraft. You can then select an aircraft that is not red, and once you do that, it will ask if you want to research that plane. Once you hit research, all you have to do is go to battle and earn research points and money. You should also go into modifications and begin research on upgrades for your plane, but pick smart, you can only upgrade one modification at a time. Once you are going to battle, the game will ask what plane and spawn-point you want to use. After you complete your selections, you are put into battle, ready to fight. This may seem like a noobish reminder, but remember to watch your mini-map, it might just save your tail. Depending on the match you are in, the objective of the battles can differ, for instance, when it is a game with a lot of hills, cliffs, and mountains, you could either have to destroy enemy ground forces, bomb enemy bases or airfields, or bolth. Or maybe, you’re on a map with islands and oceans, then the objective could be invasion, when you have to torpedo enemy ships while protecting your own, that is really hard. Depending on how well you do in battle, you will earn money and research points, the better you do, the more you get. You can then use those research points to earn planes, and use the money to buy researched planes and train crew to fly them.

Next up is tanks, if when you get into the game you choose army, you will be put into a different hanger than the aviation plath. Before you ask, yes, there is a difference between the two. The aviation hanger is on a runway by the ocean, while the army hanger is surrounded by trees and dirt. Before you go to battle, you should choose another tank to begin researching, along with upgrades for the tank that you think would be useful. When you are prepared, go to battle, but pay close attention to what game mode is selected. Depending on the game mode, you will have to change your strategy in order to have a chance of victory. The game modes include battle, domination, conquest, break, and skirmish. When in battle with tanks, you’re not just competing against the other team, you’re also competing against your teammates to get the best rank on the team. After the battle, you will collect your earnings, and prepare to go to battle again.

Last but not least, battleships. They are currently in testing, but can be used by most players. Because they are not yet an actual part of the game, they don’t have a hanger, they don’t have upgrades, and they can’t be researched. They are going to be the biggest update into the game yet, and in my opinion, the most interesting game update yet. Battleships are supposed to be the hardest vehicle in the game.

Those are my thoughts on the game WarThunder. Each game mode has its pros and cons, but they are all still fun in their own way. Aircraft with their high G force dog fights, tanks with their iron fists attacking with no mercy, battleships firing their massive cannons at targets two miles away, and they are all at your command. What are you still doing here? Go forth, to battle!