Zapp,
as a newb youre pretty much gonna get owned every fight. I found that my shots were pretty much bouncing off my enemies doing little to no damage at all. But while you're getting owned you're also earning experience.
As soon as you start upgrading to better
tanks you'll have better survivability and you'll start killing opponents.
The game is fairly repetitious and, at least for me, lacked the fun of say Battlefield 1942, primarily because once you're dead, you're dead. No respawns. Not alot of fun when your opponents can take you out with a one or two shots and your shells are bouncing off them.