World of Tanks’ new Convoy mode has you escorting the first ever tank into battle

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World of Tanks is abandoning its World War Two trappings to get a little further into history as part of the Somme anniversary update, which commemorates 100 years since the first battle featuring tanks. In the new mode, you’ll escort the Mark 1 – the world’s first ever tank – on its maiden voyage to blow some stuff up. Obviously, the other team will be focused on explosively stopping it as soon as possible.

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To house this event, which will run for two weeks, there’s a brand new Somme map being designed and implemented. It will be packed with trenches and recreate that sort of muddy hell you’re used to.

The Mark 1 itself is AI controlled, rather than one player getting to troll the rest with bad moves. You can help it out by upgrading your weapons through power-ups. Defenders can also repair it as it takes damage from the enemy, which is done through special bombs rather than normal shots. That’s a picture of a real one above, by the way, World of Tanks hasn’t suddenly had a humongous graphics upgrade.

In the same update there will be new armoured cars for the British, which use wheel physics to move about. They’re far speedier than your average tank, and basically add a new way to play. The armoured cars are the first wheeled vehicles in the game, and will take the place of other tanks in the new Convoy mode.