🪖 Military Tank Simulator 3D

A main battle tank simulator in your browser

Military Tank Simulator 3D puts you in command of a modern main battle tank on a huge training ground. There are no enemies here, just a course to learn on: rolling hills, a long gunnery range with target boards, a river with a hidden shallow ford and a dirt road where a convoy needs protecting. Eight missions take you from your first lap of the driving course to a final exam that tests everything at once. It all runs in 3D in the web browser, with no download.

Main battle tanks are the heavy, fast, well-armoured tanks used by modern armies. They weigh as much as forty cars, yet they can cross rough ground at more than 60 kilometres an hour, and their big guns can hit a target well over a kilometre away while the tank is moving. The game borrows the ideas that make that possible, a turret that turns separately from the hull, a stabilised gun, a gunner's sight with a laser rangefinder and a fire-control computer, and turns them into simple controls you can learn in a minute.

Hull and turret: two things at once

The most important thing about driving a tank is that the hull and the turret are separate. The hull carries the tracks and the engine, and you drive it like a very heavy car: W and S for forwards and backwards, A and D to turn. Tanks turn by running one track faster than the other, so they can even spin on the spot. The turret sits on top and turns all the way round on its own. In the game the mouse points it: put the pointer on the ground, a target board or a drone, and the turret swings round to face it while the hull keeps going wherever you are driving. You can also turn the turret with Q and E.

The gunner's sight and fire control

Hold Shift or the right mouse button, or tap V, and you look through the gunner's sight. The view zooms right in, a crosshair appears and the range to whatever is under the cross shows in metres underneath it, just like a laser rangefinder. Move the mouse away from the middle to swing the turret and tilt the sight. The fire-control computer uses that range to raise the gun by exactly the right amount, because a shell drops on its way to a far target. It does not know where a moving target is going, though: for that you have to aim a little ahead yourself, which is called leading the target.

Eight missions

Driving Course: ten gates in a loop round the hills. Learn how the tank speeds up, slows down on slopes and turns on the spot. Range Qualification: stay on the firing line and knock down eight target boards spread from about 300 to 1,100 metres. Moving Targets: six boards slide left and right on rails, so you have to lead them. Shoot on the Move: drive a lane through six gates while you hit the boards on both sides without stopping. River Crossing: the river is too deep for a tank, except at one shallow ford marked with orange buoys; find it, cross and knock down the four boards on the far bank.

Convoy Escort: three supply trucks drive along the road while ten remote-controlled target drones, painted yellow and black, race down from the hills towards them. Stop them before three reach the road. Night Range: the range again, after dark, with a green thermal sight in which the targets glow. Final Exam: a shorter driving course with boards to hit and drones to stop on the way round, all against the clock.

Stars and tanks

Every mission has a time limit. Finish it for one star, beat the par time for two, and beat the fast time with at least half your shots on target for three. There are 24 stars in all. Stars open the later missions and two more tanks. You start in the Falcon, the quickest tank with a light gun. The Bison opens at 6 stars and is a solid all-rounder. The Titan opens at 14 stars: it is the slowest, but its gun fires the fastest shells and reloads quickest, so it hits far targets more easily.

Tips from the instructors

Slow down before you shoot at long range: the gun is steadier and you can check the range in the sight. Watch the reload read-out at the top left; the ring around your aim point turns green when the gun is loaded and on target. On the moving targets, look at which way the board is sliding and aim one or two board-widths ahead of it. On the river, deep water stops a tank completely, so follow the buoys. In the convoy escort, deal with the closest drone first, and use the minimap in the corner to see where the next one is coming from.

Controls

On a computer: W and S drive, A and D turn the hull, the mouse aims the turret, Q and E also turn it, click or Space fires, Shift or the right mouse button holds the sight up and V toggles it, C changes the camera and P pauses. On phones and tablets there are buttons for steering, driving forwards and backwards, the sight and fire, and the turret locks on to the nearest target in front of you by itself.

Free, safe and made for kids

Military Tank Simulator 3D is free to play, with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy. There is no chat and nobody else online. It is a training ground: every target is a board or an unmanned target drone, and nobody is ever hurt. Stars and progress are saved only on your own device. See the Parents & Safety page for more.

More tank games

Ready for a real battle? Fight 5 v 5 against bot tanks in Tank Battle 3D, lob shells over the hills in Tank Wars Artillery, or drive a different kind of heavy vehicle in the truck games. Every tank game is on the Tank Games page.

Frequently asked questions