Push or kite is the central tactical question of World of Warships, and most players answer it by mood. Feeling confident? Push. Took a big salvo? Run. Bored? Push. The result is pushes that start for no reason and retreats that happen thirty seconds too late. The decision is actually calculable. Four factors settle it almost every time.
Factor one: numbers, now and in one minute
Count the ships on your flank, both sides — and then project one minute forward using the minimap. A 4v3 that is about to become 4v6 when the enemy centre rotates is not a 4v3. Numbers are the loudest factor: pushing into equal or greater numbers is not aggression, it is donation. The push you want is into a flank the enemy has thinned — they rotated away, or you killed enough of them that the remainder cannot trade back.
Factor two: health states, not ship counts
Three enemy ships at 20% health are weaker than two at full. A push works when the defenders die faster than they can make you pay — so look at health bars, not icons. Conversely, if your flank's ships are all battered and the enemy is fresh, kiting is not cowardice; it is refusing a trade you lose. Your health is ammunition for later. Spend it where it buys something.
Factor three: the torpedo question
One question kills more pushes than any other: where are their destroyers? A push into water controlled by an unspotted destroyer is a push into torpedoes you cannot see yet. If the enemy destroyers on your flank are dead or visibly elsewhere, the biggest danger to a push is gone and you can commit with speed. If a destroyer went dark heading your way two minutes ago, either wait for it to be found or push slowly with room to maneuver. This factor alone justifies keeping your own destroyer alive: pushing behind a friendly destroyer screen is a different, far safer game.
Factor four: the clock and the score
The state of the match changes the correct answer to identical situations:
- Ahead on points: you do not need to push at all. Kite, hold your caps, keep the enemy spotted, and make them come to you — through your torpedoes and crossfire. Winning teams that push anyway are the most common way a won game gets thrown.
- Behind on points: the clock is an enemy ship. Kiting preserves your health while the score kills you. You must create a fight somewhere — pick the enemy's weakest flank and push it with everything nearby, accepting risk because passivity is a guaranteed loss.
- Early game: default to kiting posture. You lack information, and early deaths compound for fifteen minutes.
- Late game: decisive beats optimal. A coordinated 80% push now usually beats a perfect push ninety seconds from now.
How to actually push
A push is a commitment, not a lean. Go at controlled speed (not flank — you need reaction room for torpedoes), stay angled, focus fire the ship that can hurt you most, and keep going. The worst outcome in the game is the half-push: advance, take damage, lose confidence, turn around — showing full broadside — and retreat having paid the cost of pushing for none of the reward. Decide, then commit.
How to actually kite
Kiting is fighting, not fleeing. Stern-angled, at range, changing speed and heading every salvo cycle, guns and torpedoes working the whole time. The goal is to make the enemy's push cost more than it gains — they chase you into your team's guns while their caps fall behind them. A good kite converts an enemy's aggression into your win condition.
The takeaway
Run the four checks — numbers in one minute, health states, enemy destroyers, and the score — and the push/kite decision usually makes itself. Then execute with full commitment either way. Damage matters, but map control wins games, and both pushing and kiting are just tools for taking map control at an acceptable price. The players you think of as "aggressive" are mostly just players who count faster.