⚔️ Tank Command RTS

A quick real-time strategy game

Tank Command RTS is a small, fast real-time strategy game you can play in a web browser. You are the commander of the blue team, and across the map the red robot team has exactly the same start: a headquarters, two harvester trucks, one battle tank and a handful of crystals. Whoever builds the better economy and the smarter army wins. There's no download and no account, and a whole battle takes about five to ten minutes.

Real-time strategy means both sides play at the same time, with no turns. While your harvesters are mining, the red commander is mining too; while you're building tanks, so is it. The trick is to keep everything moving: crystals coming in, new units being built and your army in the right place.

Crystals and harvesters

Everything costs crystals 💎. Harvester trucks drive to the nearest crystal field, mine a load and bring it back to your HQ all by themselves, so you never have to tell them what to do. More harvesters means more crystals, but each one costs crystals too, and fields near the middle of the map are shared with the red team. Three or four harvesters is usually right. If you want a harvester to work a different field, select it and click near the crystals you want.

Five kinds of unit

The 🚚 Harvester mines crystals and has no gun. The 🏎️ Scout is fast and cheap: great for chasing artillery, but armour shrugs off its little shots. The 🛡️ Battle Tank is the all-rounder that most of your army will be made of. The 🦏 Heavy Tank is slow, but its thick armour and big gun make it the backbone of an attack. And the 🎆 Artillery fires shells right across a big part of the map with a splash that hits groups, but it's fragile and can't hit anything right next to it, so keep it behind your tanks.

Armour matters. Every hit loses some of its power against an armoured target, so a swarm of scouts does almost nothing to a heavy tank, while a heavy tank's big gun hits hard. A good army is a mix.

Giving orders

Click one of your tanks to select it, or drag a box with the mouse to select a whole group; selected units have a green ring. Then click anywhere on the ground to move there, or click a red unit or the red HQ to attack it. Right-clicking also gives orders. Your tanks' turrets turn by themselves and fire at anything in reach, even while they drive.

The big buttons make it quick. 🎯 Select army picks every tank you have. ⚔️ Attack! sends your selected tanks, or your whole army, at the red HQ; on the way they fight anything that comes close. 🏠 Defend brings them back in front of your HQ. On a phone or tablet, tap a tank to select it and tap where it should go. Keyboard players can use A to select the army, Space to attack, D to defend and the number keys 1 to 5 to build.

The red commander

The red team is run by a computer commander that plays by the same rules as you. It mines crystals, builds a mix of units, guards its base and attacks in waves that grow bigger each time. In Green Valley it's an Easy commander that is slow to react. In the Crystal Desert, which opens at 7 stars, it's a Normal commander that brings heavy tanks and artillery. In the Iron Mountains, which open at 16 stars, it's a Hard commander that thinks fast, mines faster and attacks early. Both HQs also have a small gun of their own, so a single tank can't sneak in and win.

12 maps

Every map is mirrored through the middle, so both sides get exactly the same rocks, lakes and crystal fields. Each HQ has a crystal field beside it, and there are richer shared fields in the middle that are worth fighting over. Later maps have more rocks and lakes to steer round and more middle fields. Each map gives up to three stars: one for destroying the red HQ, one for keeping your own HQ above half health and one for winning within the par time. There are 36 stars to win.

Strategy tips

Build a third and fourth harvester early: crystals now mean tanks later. Keep your army together rather than sending tanks one at a time. When the red team attacks, fight it near your own HQ, where your HQ's gun helps. Then counter-attack while the red army is still small. Put artillery behind a wall of battle tanks and heavy tanks, and send a couple of scouts after the red artillery. If you lose a map, try a different mix of units: every map is the same each time.

Why play strategy games?

Strategy games are great practice for planning ahead, managing a budget and making decisions under a bit of pressure. In a real-time strategy game you have to keep several things going at once and balance spending now against saving for later. Tank Command RTS keeps the rules simple and the battles short, so it's a friendly first RTS for younger players and a quick challenge for older ones.

Free and safe

Tank Command RTS is free to play in the browser on computers, Chromebooks, tablets and phones, with no download, no account, no chat and nothing to buy. Nobody gets hurt: units that are knocked out burst into a shower of bolts. Your stars are saved on your own device. Grown-ups can read more on the Parents & Safety page.

More tank games

Prefer to defend? Stop the robot convoys in Tank Defense. Want to drive a tank yourself? Try Tank Battle 3D or the history battles in WW2 Tank Battles 3D. Every tank game is on the Tank Games page.

Frequently asked questions