What SIM players have to know when join the SIM games (Ground & air)

Dear Friends and Sim Players,

Hi everyone,

After playing Simulator Battles for almost 13 years, I’ve learned a few important things that can really help improve your performance and make the game more enjoyable for everyone. I hope these notes are helpful for both new and experienced players:

  1. Avoid shooting your machine guns near teammates.
    Some calibers, like .50 cal, can actually damage or even kill the crew of friendly vehicles — especially light tanks. Doing this can also annoy your teammates unnecessarily.

  2. Always report enemy positions.
    When you spot an enemy, mark their position on the map. If you get killed, you can quickly hold the “M” key and mark their last known spot to prevent them from killing others. If you couldn’t mark them before dying, please report their position after respawning — it helps the team, especially against campers.

  3. Communicate with your teammates.
    Let others know your plans — whether you’re attacking, defending, or capturing a point. This prevents wasted effort and allows others to coordinate with you. Remember, teamwork is always better than going solo.

  4. Help others repair.
    When you see a teammate repairing, stop and help them. You’ll get repair points, and that player might save your life in the next fight.

  5. Never shoot or harm friendlies over capture points.
    If someone captures a point before you, don’t get angry or fire at them — that’s a fast way to get banned. Admins watch this closely. If you’re in a heavy tank, your mission isn’t just capturing; defending a captured point can earn even more rewards.

  6. Don’t insult teammates for taking your kill.
    There’s no rule against shooting at an enemy you both see. The game gives the main reward to whoever deals more damage, and others still get assist points. Stay calm — this is a team game.

  7. In air battles, avoid kill-stealing.
    If a friendly is already finishing off an aircraft or helicopter, don’t try to “secure” the kill. It frustrates teammates and looks bad. The game system automatically gives the kill to whoever caused the critical damage, so firing at an already doomed plane is unfair and unnecessary.

  8. Remember — Sim Battles are about awareness and teamwork.
    Since enemies don’t appear on the minimap, it’s your responsibility to report what you see. Even if you think you can kill the enemy yourself, marking their position might save several teammates who have no idea the threat is there. Some players avoid marking to take revenge personally — that’s not teamwork. When the team wins, we all win.

  9. If you need repairs, make sure teammates can locate you.
    Simply saying “I need repair” isn’t enough — your teammates may not know where you are. Use “Cover me” or “Follow me” to mark your location on the map so they can reach and help you quickly.

  10. Use the correct commands and avoid confusing tanks.
    Use “On me” or “Need cover” to ping your own position — not just a random map ping. Also, try to avoid using exported or captured tanks on close-quarters (CQB) maps, as they often confuse teammates and cause accidental friendly fire.

  11. If you’re unsure whether a tank is friend or foe, test carefully.
    When in doubt, fire your machine gun at the target (as long as it’s not a light tank). If you get a hit marker at the top of your screen, it’s 100% an enemy. This can help prevent friendly fire mistakes — just use common sense and avoid causing real damage to allies.

  12. When you are returning from the enemy side
    and/or hear a tank moving behind a wall in an active combat zone, both players should use “Follow me” before engaging. Otherwise, both sides might mistake each other for enemies and fire unintentionally — leading to teamkill regret for both.

  13. When someone marks your position on the map, it usually means they are uncertain whether you are friendly or enemy. Always respond with “Follow me” to clarify your position. Also, at long ranges, most tanks (even without advanced optics Range finder key I mean) can identify targets accurately with the rangefinder — so use it whenever possible before firing.

  14. In flight, the first priority for a pilot
    should be eliminating aerial threats , followed by enemy anti-aircraft defenses, and only then targeting ground units. Ignoring this order can make it extremely difficult to return safely to base.

  15. If a friendly aircraft needs assistance,
    helping them takes priority over attacking ground targets. This is because if a friendly is shot down, it is very likely that you will be the next target.

  16. During dogfights
    jettisoning ground attack payloads allows a light aircraft to maneuver more effectively and increases its chance of winning against enemy planes. Heavy aircraft carrying bombs and full ammo are less agile. Remember, there’s always an opportunity to land and reload — staying alive and let your wing man stay alive is more important than carrying full ordinance.


Thank you for reading, and I hope these tips help make Sim Battles more enjoyable for everyone.

Good luck on the battlefield!
Sil3nt_kill3r

9 Likes

for 3. Use the command “On me” and “need cover” to ping your self, not a normal ping. Also avoid playing Export/captured tanks if you play cqb maps

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8 Likes

you are true m8 It is very important and I forget to mention thanks

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Also if you are not sure if a tank you see is enemy or friendly, shoot your MG at it (if it´s not a light duhh)
and if you get a hit marker at the top of your screen it is 100% enemy and

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I was worried at first , but good post.

There’s a big WingalingDragon tutorial for comms btw.

Biggest part of it not covered: “Leading For Landing” is better than “Returning to Airfield.” Reason: Leading For Landing announces current altitude and grid square. This way your teammates know exactly where you’re leaving from (e.g. ditching A point or refusing a “Cover me!” call because of fuel/ammo/damage).

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Yep but pinging your self in air doesn´t do that much in gsb

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Follow me in GSB is incredibly useful. Planes can easily ID friendly planes/helis from across the map and save themselves a trip.

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Pretty good list but you missed a few things.

1: There are no markers BUT if you’re within about 1km of a friendly plane it will show up on the minimap/map as a blue dot. If you’re chasing someone, look at your map before you open fire. Tanks can also see aircraft flying over the map…

2: The Air Alert hotkey works as a ‘identify friend or foe’ marker. If you point at someone and it says ‘Air!’ ONLY… its a friendly plane/heli OR drone! Enemies give direction and height.

(I am quite sure this isn’t common knowledge)

If your radar doesn’t have IFF, pop an alert first. You’ll avoid a TK AND you might help someone else kill them even if they’re out of range for you.

3: Rangefinding a tank checks if it is friendly or not. As in HOLD it over a rank while the ‘checking for enemies’ bar fills up and it will tell you. This is sometimes unreliable, if they drive past a bush your check will fail. You need perfect line of sight.

However you should also get a ‘T34!, range 1300m’ call out too, which tells you 1. If you don’t have a T34 (or whatever) on your team, they’re an enemy and 2. the RANGE IS 1300m! Normally your rangefinding is not as accurate… but your commander is a genius :p He says 1300m, your range finder say >895m. 1300m is a better shot than ‘above 900m’.

You can also use this to ID tanks you cannot see behind buildings. Range find them and it will tell you a tank type.

4: Helicopters also get a ‘Request location of allies’ button that tells you if I tank you’re firing on is friend or foe, only in sim… except, it’s broken.

https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/56hPc6E38tIw

but hey, it’s ONLY been FOUR YEARS! :(

PLEASE upvote and comment.

5: WHEN you die, hit your ‘cover me’ hotkey. Then we know where you caught a bullet. Marking your map is good but you can’t always be sure where you were shot from. Your death on the kill feed + cover me on the map, especially in an urban map, really narrows down where the enemy is.

6: When you spawn, you always see your teams location… but you ALSO get this when you spawn a drone. Great information to share if you have a squad in discord. ‘Our whole team is near B and C’ tells me anyone I see from the air near A is an enemy.

Also you will see nearby enemies near your spawn on the map. Mark them and kill them. Even if you’re not near that spawn, keep marking them or you WILL lose.

When you repair or reload a helicopter your map also shows markers for a few seconds. ALWAYS check it. Now I know if we’re about to cap a point, or where I should be looking for targets… which are always not near the team.

7 : I really hate the ‘mg test’ meta, especially in spawn but for the love of God if you track me or kill my engine you better come over and help me repair. If you don’t I WILL j-out to give you a TK !

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Most people when flying in gsb bring a targeting pod to ground strike so they can just point it at them and do an air ping, faster then asking in chat and waiting for a response

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No thats just not worth it, just shoot with an mg, if you get a hitmarker = enemy, like maybe dont MG the commander of an m18 or if you have a 50cal be carefull but the rangefinding just takes to long-…

Best practice is just to know from looking still

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Ah yes… and when I’m playing a SPAA with no MG?

Shooting an MG gives away my position, if I DON’T kill them instantly, they may kill me.

Depends on the situation of course, but if I range find and ID an enemy, I can now wait for them to turn for a side shot or let them move out of cover… or I can get behind cover before taking my own shot.

You could mg someone OR range find them.

Knowing you have 2 options is better than ‘just shoot them!’

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Be skilled enough to know what you are shooting at, but looking at a guy for 10 seconds with a buggy system is no solution

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Good hints m8 ty

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Agree Still W comment by @HeliBoy

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If you see some THING behind some bushes and you range find them and it works you can now, let your team know, drop arty on them, perhaps move around then for a better shot… or the arty will make them push out.

If you can’t even see what they are or which way they’re facing, firing your MG might be a pretty stupid move.

Options… options and knowledge are good.

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Just take the risk and shoot i have the SL :trollface:
No but fr like at a certain point you just have the awareness to know if something is friendly or not, and if it’s and accident… shit happens you say sorry in chat the other person says “it’s ok pookie” and you are 2 happy players

or something like that

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yeah, in my experience you spam your ‘this is how IFF works’ button and your own spaa still kills you…

I’m guessing 10% of my games end in me getting team killed…

WT players are… not bright :(

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idk if yall have mentioned it if so sorry idk most of the terms yall use yet, but radars shows friendly planes as 2 squares (one on top of each other, and sometimes as a circle with a horizontal line aswell) , pretty good to know if your playing low tier radar planes such as the F6F-5N so you don’t engage allies for no reason

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the wiki doesn’t even mention the TWS radar symbols…

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