War Thunder Vehicle Classes and Their Battlefield Roles

War Thunder’s garage contains vehicles that look similar and play completely differently. The class label on each vehicle is not decoration — it is a description of the role the vehicle is built for. Playing a vehicle outside its role is the most common source of bad games, and it is entirely avoidable: know what your class is for, and do that.

The class roster

Class	Built for	Core job in battle
Light tank	Speed and vision	Scout, flank, capture, harass
Medium tank	Balance	Support the line, flex to where needed
Heavy tank	Armor and firepower	Hold ground, absorb attention, win trades
Tank destroyer	Firepower at range	Ambush, support, punish overextension
Anti-aircraft (AA)	Air defense	Deny airspace; absolutely not a tank duelist
Missile carrier	Guided munitions	Long-range strikes from covered positions

What each class should be doing

Light tanks are the team’s eyes and knives. They reach observation points first, spot enemy movements, capture uncontested zones, and raid undefended flanks. A light tank that spends the whole battle behind the heavy line is wasted — its speed is the entire point. See the light tank role guide for the full playbook.

Medium tanks are the flex. They have enough armor to survive a mistake and enough gun to punish one. The medium’s job is to be wherever the line is weakest: reinforce a collapsing flank, push a won engagement, or cover the heavy’s advance.

Heavy tanks are anchors. Thick armor and big guns win frontal trades, but only from positions where the armor faces the enemy. A heavy that drives into the open has traded its only advantage for speed it does not have. Angle the hull, hold ground, and let enemies come to you — the heavy tank role guide covers the positioning.

Tank destroyers are ambush weapons. Big guns, thin armor, limited traverse. They work from prepared positions with firing lines and exits, and they die when caught in the open. The tank destroyer strategy guide covers the full approach.

Anti-aircraft vehicles exist to kill aircraft and are bad at everything else. Stay near friendly ground forces where enemy aircraft must engage on your terms; the AA role guide explains the positioning.

Missile carriers strike from range, but they are large, slow, and helpless once spotted. Fire from cover, relocate after every launch, and never stay where you just gave yourself away.

The role discipline

Two rules cover almost every mistake:

1. Play the vehicle’s strength, not its fantasy. Every class is excellent at something and mediocre at something else. Do the something.
2. Support adjacent classes. Lights feed targets to mediums and heavies; heavies create the space that lets lights flank. A team of players each doing their role beats a team of heroes.

Class determines role. Battle rating determines who you meet while doing it — and neither matters as much as simply doing the job.

What it takes to kill each class from the air

Which class you drive decides what an aircraft has to bring to kill you, and strafing the wrong target wastes an entire payload:

Class	Machine guns and cannons	Bombs for a one-shot kill
Light tank	Full damage — any cannon hit does its work	Small bombs are enough
Medium tank	Immune to default belts; needs ground-targets ammunition	100 lb+
Heavy tank	Immune entirely	250 lb+
Tank destroyer	Depends on the chassis — some are open-topped	Varies widely; the Ferdinand absorbs far more than the M56

Two things follow. Driving a heavy, strafing fighters are noise and the plane worth fearing is the one carrying 250 lb bombs. Flying, that same table tells you when to break off — and fitting ground-targets belts is the difference between biting into a medium and bouncing off it all match.