The newest third season of WW3, named "Operation Skyfront," will be mainly related to the Mediterranean basin. One of the highlights of this season will be another new map, which is located in Turkey's largest city - Istanbul.

But let's start with the place where we put the most recent World War 3 map. Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, is a city of immense historical and cultural significance. It is located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, spanning the Bosphorus Strait that separates the two continents. Throughout its long history, Istanbul has been a coveted city for numerous civilizations due to its strategic location, economic potential, and cultural richness. The city witnessed multiple sieges, battles, and conquests by the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, and Ottomans as it served as a crucial hub connecting the East and the West.

Today it is the most populous and largest city in Turkey. The Bosphorus Strait, which separates the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, has played a significant role throughout history. It has been a vital waterway for trade, transportation, and defense, connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara.

Alone skyscraper in an Istanbul suburb at night.
The latest map added to World War 3 during the Operation Skyfront expansion was set on the construction site of one of the planned skyscrapers, which were expected to grow there within a few years. However, the construction was not completed due to the outbreak of military operations in the area. Through the never-installed windows and open elements of the building, one can see Istanbul bustling in the distance; on the other side, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, connecting the European and Asian parts of Turkey, emerges from the morning mist.

The middle part of the map is a staircase that is also the tallest tower on the map, on the right you can see elements of the observation deck, which was never completed. On the left and right are the remains of the builders, and at the extremities of the map more buildings can be seen protruding above the terrace. The abrupt cessation of construction resulted in many items used in the work being left behind, such as containers, scaffolding and lights.

With this update, two times of day will be put into the hands of players. An almost completely dark night and a foggy morning.

Choice of armaments and accessories:

The map of Istanbul is characterized by a large number of small rooms located in tight areas, with many objects spread throughout the map that can serve as cover. In addition, it is easy to find nooks and crannies into which to escape or ambush the enemy.

There are not many sniper points, allowing you to use powerful carbines characterized by high accuracy at longer distances and high damage per shot. Considering the environment, the following types of weapons will do the best job. Those that deal a lot of damage per single shot, area weapons like Shotgun and weapons that flood the enemy with lead. Potential opponents will appear only briefly, there will be no time for long aiming. Enemies must be neutralized quickly and efficiently, so the low accuracy and recoil of weapons due to short distance will not be the key disadvantage. In the tightest nooks and crannies of the map, weapons such as semi-automatic shotguns will work excellently, allowing you to cover a large area with deadly shrapnel at short range.

The weather conditions in which operators will fight on the Istanbul map at the start of season three are typical of night operations. Dark, Police or other force departments' uniforms work much better here. Uniforms for desert combat, on the other hand, will act as a bullet magnet.

Poor visibility and omnipresent darkness pierced by only a few lamps is the ideal terrain for modern optics to assist the shooter. Holographic sights, on which the silhouette of the enemy clearly contrasts with the surrounding elements will provide a decisive advantage. Less impressively, however, the laser pointer will also assist the shooter in aiming at an nearly invisible enemy. The short distance of the conducted battle will interfere with the optics providing a large approximation, but cutting out part of the field of view, so necessary during the dynamic exchange of lead arguments.

Players who prefer to set ambushes will be in heaven, thanks to the abundance of cover and ubiquitous ironwork, this map is ideal for setting up an ambush with gadgets such as the Claymore.

TLDR: Weapons on the Istanbul map should provide an advantage at close range, when fighting an enemy who moves quickly between multiple covers, where there is no time for accurate and long aiming. The entire setup of the Operator should be adapted for urban combat and not stand out with bright or bright colors, cutting off significantly from an unfinished building like our skyscraper.

General tactic:

The Istanbul map is dominated by CQB clashes, where hiding even a piece of flesh can determine a spectacular victory or a humiliating defeat. To avoid enemy fire, you must always be on the run from cover to cover, which is not hard to come by on a skyscraper construction site. The huge number of covers also allows you to take a great many tactically advantageous positions and swing out from behind them, without exposing your entire body to direct hit. The small size of some of the rooms allows you to slide in spectacularly and barrage the enemy with a hail of bullets. Map layout allows to take very many paths to the same target, which results in the possibility, but also the danger of very fast flanking and almost literally growing out from under the ground. It's best to stay close to other team members and periodically look behind you to see if anyone is lurking on your tail.

Tactics in marked zones:

Dark blue zone

 A lower tower on the left side of the map. It consists of several floors and dominates slightly over the blue zone. It can be accessed through two twin entrances directly from the adjacent square marked in blue, or through the scaffolding marked in purple. The rooms it contains are cramped and interspersed with a significant amount of equipment abandoned by the construction team. The narrow staircase does not make it easy to attack the higher floors. On the upper floors, you can try to hunt for people running inside, but due to the unfinished walls, the operator's character will stand out considerably from the background. That leaves short-range murderous combat, where reaction speed and weapon damage will play the first role, both in attack and defense.
 

Blue zone

An unfinished floor with small containers and a mass of other objects that can serve as a potential hiding place, cover or ambush site. This zone is connected to two scaffolds marked in purple, the upper one allows direct penetration into the dark blue zone and bypasses the enemy in the blue zone, the lower passage only allows flanking inside the blue zone. To the north is a passage to other floors. This zone is again dominated by rapid-fire or large-area flare weapons, due to the number of objects the enemy can easily and quickly sneak from cover to cover or go out the back of allied troops.
 

Green zone

A kind of center of the map dominating all the others, at the lower and upper ends there are two staircases from which you can get to the upper floors of the map. At the very top there are a number of places from which marksmen can conduct fire. This is the only place on the entire map where those who prefer this style of gameplay can feel comfortable, as long as their team controls the area and provides short-range combat support. This zone is directly connected to the blue zone and the yellow zone, at the bottom it is connected to one purple scaffolding, allowing you to penetrate deep into the yellow zone. Unlike the others, there aren't too many objects to hide behind here, reflexes will be a key to victory here.
 

Yellow zone

With its filling, it resembles the blue zone. It connects with the green zone directly and through the scaffolding at the bottom. Through the staircase located closer to the right end of the map you can get to the other floors. The orange zone with higher buildings can be reached either directly or through scaffolding at the top of the zone. The direct proximity to the highest point on the map makes it very hard to survive at the bottom without proper movement between the covers. Here again, rapid-fire weapons reign supreme and those that cover a large area with their range.
 

Orange zone

This zone is arranged similarly to the dark blue zone, primarily tight floors leading to higher floors. The top floor towers slightly over the yellow zone, allowing much of this zone to be fired upon. By the standards of the Istanbul map, this facility is quite empty and it is relatively difficult to find shelter here. The zone connects directly only to the yellow zone through two entrances located on the square and one scaffolding located on top.

That's it as far as our brief overview of the Istanbul map and what you can find on it. If you have developed some interesting tactics and want to share them, feel free to visit our Discord!

Have fun and have the best KD ratio Operators!