But the real draw for me is not the fantastic Art of Battle system. It’s deeper than that. It’s the culture. I first experienced it as the last man standing in a Dominion game — a 4v4 match where players vie for control of three critical objectives. For each objective controlled, the team score will rise, and when your team reaches 1,000 points, the enemy team ‘breaks’, which means when you kill them, they will not respawn. Our match had been neck and neck for ten minutes, but in a freak domino effect, our team was broken, leading to three ofWar Thunder Golden Eagles my teammates being killed, leaving me holding one last objective.

Just as the enemy team reached me, our ‘team’ reached 1,000 points as well – both teams were ‘broken’. I was surrounded and outgunned, but if I could kill any of the enemy team, they were going to stay down. The four players closed in. I turned, helplessly, from one foe to another, trying to anticipate from where the first blow would come, knowing it would do no good. I wanted this to be my epic last stand, but I knew it was going to be a massacre. Then, something strange happened. The top player from another team, a beasty-looking Warden Knight, lowered his weapon and performed an emote. Two of the other players stood down, and the final one moved in front of me. I realised something incredible. They were going to fight me one at a time.