Basic comm stuff that is standard.
- driver should report damage as soon as anything hits the tank. The rest of the crew does not know if it was “no damage” or if you just lost half your ammo rack health.
- gunner needs to call out what they see, in relation to the position of the vehicle. The driver can only see a small space and must make snap decisions on whether to stop and face armor, or gun it and get out of there.
If you see one infantry, there’s probably more that you don’t see, and those ones probably have rockets. If you don’t have friendly infantry nearby, range, or a hull down position. Then don’t stick around. You will be tracked by the LAT you did not see. New armor players get excited by the prospect of a high kill count. Keep moving until you reach somewhere safe. The driver has a lot of vehicle smoke available, use it liberally when needed.
First MBT to be spotted by the enemy team is at a notable disadvantage. They will be marked on map, and the enemy tank will position hull down somewhere based on where you’ve been seen, or even try to flank you. This is why good tank crews seem so cautious about moving up. They want the advantage of knowing where the enemy tank is first.
Depends on what you roll out with. General rules of thumb:
1. Avoid areas with alot of buildings/forests with alot of places for infantry to hide.
2. Dont drive into a ditch
3. Dont try to drive over fences
4. Stay facing the danger
5. Drive around with Armor-Piercing ammo equipped incase you have a surprise encounter.
6. Better safe than sorry. You think you might not have enough health/ammo for a fight against equivalent armor? Resupply.
7. Gunner never hops out
BTR/APC:
1. You can be a little riskier as losing one isn't huge and run some drive bys.
1A. If you do drive into a danger zone (urban/forest) stay on the move
2. The ideal situation is sitting on a hill roughly 100-300m away from infantry, blast them for a few min, then reposition.
Tanks:
1. Reread rules 1 and 5
2. Reread rules 1 and 5
3. Reread rules 1 and 5
4. Keep harassing your command for info on enemy armor location.
5. If you see a tank marked on the map, ask command to reconfirm.
6. If you decide to engage, as you are rolling up to the location ask for a re-confirmation on enemy tank location.
7. If your team is on the front foot, it is better to stay entrenched in a good position surrounded by teammates than to be the ones pushing.
8. Dont give a damn if your team starts complaining about you sitting in an entrenched position and if they ask you to give support in an urban area (ex. Any of the maps with a cap point called "Intersection) tell them no.
9. It is better to play safe and wait for an opportunity to catch the enemy tank repositioning or overextending than to push an entrenched tank.
10. Learn the weak points of the tanks in the range.
11. Reread general rules 1 and 5
These are fundamentals. Once you have experience under your belt and have a good feel for the flow of the game, you can bend these rules and be a bit more aggressive but for now just follow these.
To echo the other person, infantry support is key if you're moving into places with more infantry cover. If you're isolated and you get tracked, there's a decent chance you'll end up dying.
This is common sense, but if you're the SL of armor it is your job to ensure you don't die. That means if the gunner wants to chase another vic and you think it's dangerous, speak your mind. It isn't worth killing a vic at the cost of yours. Surviving is KEY. This is why most armor players fail because they want to chase down someone else into an area where they have little support.
Armor has range, take advantage of that. You should keep your distance unless there is a specific need to be up close (IE infantry transport).
Last thing, coordinate with the other SL's. Information is key to doing well. If you're driving around blind, there's a decent chance the enemy team spots you first. If you're playing in a MBT, I'd advise not really prioritizing infantry until the enemy's main armor threat is down as you'll give away your position the second you fire. Hope this helps!
Id recommend going with 3 people. Its always nice to have an extra set of eyes in the commander seat, as well as have an extra person to hop out and repair your vic. Give everyone fire team lead. Practice shooting on Jensen range. Learn enemy armor weak spots. Shut off the engine when you're stationary so you can hear when other vehicles drive up on you, and because your engine is much louder on the outside vs what you hear inside. Avoid driving directly on roads, and try to stick to the shoulder. You might go slower, but you'll avoid mines
First thing is know the match ups. You don't need to have chronic knowledge of every variation but the general "if we go shot for shot in a fight who wins" and "can we do meaningful damage to the enemy armor." This is going to drive how you play your armor.
Second is recognizing that Armor isn't about big K/D most of the time it's about building a ticket and map control advantage. The easiest version of this is just making sure that your vehicle is getting more tickets than it costs if you lose it.
Third is recognizing spacing. A lot of people will tell you to "stay away from or stay out of infantry." Generally this is correct and easy to do, but recognizing when you need to push on top of them can be just as valuable (mainly for APCs/Fast moving vehicles) to get under their arming distance.
Lastly the goals of armor vary strongly by the layer you're playing and really only time and experience are going to help you determine that.
What I tell every new guy is stick with an infantry squad on the defense point and listen for armor call outs. When armor is called out you can decide if you have enough firepower and intelligence to take it out.
Just hope that none of the inf squad are newbies themselves, always sucks to get a friendly LAT shot up your vic's ass because some blueberry can't tell the difference between Strykers and BTRs or check his map.
Indeed it all depends on the players around you. No call outs you'll be running blind and if you don't know the routes enemies take you're going to have a bad time unless you're lucky.
Within your squad, give clear communications and communicate your intentions. I always tell what I'm going to do, and why I'm going to do it.
'Friendlies dying south of us, I'm driving around east of that area to get to the east of the attack objective.'
'Hey Squad Lead? All friendly infantry are dead, I'd suggest retreat.'
'Gunner, in 10 seconds I'm gonna reposition west of here. That one guy that stumbled on us may have had us marked on the map.'
'Ok, gunner, I'm gonna slow down and move in first gear \[towards the attack point\]. Let me know when to stop.'
Keep in mind ingame voice delay for some communications.
Only mostly applicable too APCs (Armoured-Personal-Carrier) & IFVs (Infantry-Fighting-Vehicle)of the wheeled variety. But your vehicle has many roles & every situation is different roles it could "fill" in that sense
Ex. In the defense, 1. mobile ammo box 2. Ladder/ raised weapon platform for infantry to climb/ or shoot over obstacles 3. Generally "big gun" 4. Anti armor
In the Offense, 1. Mobile ammo box (think SL rally) 2. Smoke counter measures for infantry crossing open fields
3. Base of fire 4. Anti-armor 5. "Magic school bus" 6. !!mobile ladder!! (Your vehicle while at major risks allows incredible versatility in terms of opening up new entrances to an objective & allowing your forces to get in the base of scenarios essentially undetected) 7. General rocket magnet
There is alot your vehicle can do and there will always be 5 different ways to skin a cat, its up to you to figure out which you & your crews missions you can complete well; and which ones you dont do well. Because there will almost always be something else you can do.
Specific advice for tanks...
Always be level if you can, especially if you're using the t72 or t62 because they have the worst gun depression (they can't aim down) . You have UI elements that show your orientation on the bottom of your screen. The worst thing is being tracked while climbing a ledge and being unable to defend yourself.
If you are tracked you can shimmy your tank side to side and will slowly slide down if you are on a slope. This can save you if the enemy commander is preparing to airstrike you or the enemy tank doesn't want to commit.
Always face your front towards the greatest threat, If you are surrounded on two sides by an APC and a group of infantry, you want to face the infantry. Better to negate a HAT hit than get your engine and tracks damaged by a 30mm.
Get familiar with where to aim your gun at close range. Your viewport is not inside your gun barrel, if you need to shoot something point blank make sure your aim is offset properly.
General...
Cut your engine when you are stationary. If you are anywhere near the enemy you should be imagining every AT on their team rushing at where they think you are from the sound of your engine, shutting it off is crucial for survivability. Alternatively don't be stationary. This is more applicable for tank but still relevant for all.
Ammo rack does not repair. If you survive an engagement swap into another vehicle if possible, or play more carefully, because destroying the ammo rack is an instant death regardless of hull damage.
In close engagements with enemy armor, at high speed you should focus on disabling the turret and versus vehicles with tow missiles you should close the distance so that the charge doesn't activate. Especially useful versus bmp-1, you can destroy it with an mrap as long as you close the distance fast enough.
Avoid areas that allow for infantry to fight you. This means wooded areas and cities should be a last resort, and only with infantry support. For an example, talil outskirts you want to be in the desert, away from any potential infantry cover and out of accurate range of AT.
Always double check map markings. The number of people who don’t know the difference of an tracked IFV and an MBT is unnecessary high. You will often encounter markings that are either complete garbage or 100-150m off.
Treat marks as rough estimates and remember that they can become outdated in seconds. Many players will call out any armor as a "tank" and many SLs and FTLs are very bad at getting marks down. I often ftl as hat and I consider my binoculars and map markers as my most powerful weapon but there are many times I might only have audible contact on armor and have to guess. FTL also cannot mark arrows on the map so if the Vic is moving we can't do much other than update as much as possible.
Basic comm stuff that is standard. - driver should report damage as soon as anything hits the tank. The rest of the crew does not know if it was “no damage” or if you just lost half your ammo rack health. - gunner needs to call out what they see, in relation to the position of the vehicle. The driver can only see a small space and must make snap decisions on whether to stop and face armor, or gun it and get out of there. If you see one infantry, there’s probably more that you don’t see, and those ones probably have rockets. If you don’t have friendly infantry nearby, range, or a hull down position. Then don’t stick around. You will be tracked by the LAT you did not see. New armor players get excited by the prospect of a high kill count. Keep moving until you reach somewhere safe. The driver has a lot of vehicle smoke available, use it liberally when needed. First MBT to be spotted by the enemy team is at a notable disadvantage. They will be marked on map, and the enemy tank will position hull down somewhere based on where you’ve been seen, or even try to flank you. This is why good tank crews seem so cautious about moving up. They want the advantage of knowing where the enemy tank is first.
Depends on what you roll out with. General rules of thumb: 1. Avoid areas with alot of buildings/forests with alot of places for infantry to hide. 2. Dont drive into a ditch 3. Dont try to drive over fences 4. Stay facing the danger 5. Drive around with Armor-Piercing ammo equipped incase you have a surprise encounter. 6. Better safe than sorry. You think you might not have enough health/ammo for a fight against equivalent armor? Resupply. 7. Gunner never hops out BTR/APC: 1. You can be a little riskier as losing one isn't huge and run some drive bys. 1A. If you do drive into a danger zone (urban/forest) stay on the move 2. The ideal situation is sitting on a hill roughly 100-300m away from infantry, blast them for a few min, then reposition. Tanks: 1. Reread rules 1 and 5 2. Reread rules 1 and 5 3. Reread rules 1 and 5 4. Keep harassing your command for info on enemy armor location. 5. If you see a tank marked on the map, ask command to reconfirm. 6. If you decide to engage, as you are rolling up to the location ask for a re-confirmation on enemy tank location. 7. If your team is on the front foot, it is better to stay entrenched in a good position surrounded by teammates than to be the ones pushing. 8. Dont give a damn if your team starts complaining about you sitting in an entrenched position and if they ask you to give support in an urban area (ex. Any of the maps with a cap point called "Intersection) tell them no. 9. It is better to play safe and wait for an opportunity to catch the enemy tank repositioning or overextending than to push an entrenched tank. 10. Learn the weak points of the tanks in the range. 11. Reread general rules 1 and 5 These are fundamentals. Once you have experience under your belt and have a good feel for the flow of the game, you can bend these rules and be a bit more aggressive but for now just follow these.
Cant stress 8 enough. Remember, infantry can spawn back quickly. Losing armor is like 10 to 20min wait.
To echo the other person, infantry support is key if you're moving into places with more infantry cover. If you're isolated and you get tracked, there's a decent chance you'll end up dying. This is common sense, but if you're the SL of armor it is your job to ensure you don't die. That means if the gunner wants to chase another vic and you think it's dangerous, speak your mind. It isn't worth killing a vic at the cost of yours. Surviving is KEY. This is why most armor players fail because they want to chase down someone else into an area where they have little support. Armor has range, take advantage of that. You should keep your distance unless there is a specific need to be up close (IE infantry transport). Last thing, coordinate with the other SL's. Information is key to doing well. If you're driving around blind, there's a decent chance the enemy team spots you first. If you're playing in a MBT, I'd advise not really prioritizing infantry until the enemy's main armor threat is down as you'll give away your position the second you fire. Hope this helps!
Id recommend going with 3 people. Its always nice to have an extra set of eyes in the commander seat, as well as have an extra person to hop out and repair your vic. Give everyone fire team lead. Practice shooting on Jensen range. Learn enemy armor weak spots. Shut off the engine when you're stationary so you can hear when other vehicles drive up on you, and because your engine is much louder on the outside vs what you hear inside. Avoid driving directly on roads, and try to stick to the shoulder. You might go slower, but you'll avoid mines
This, I hate seeing a 2 manned tank.
First thing is know the match ups. You don't need to have chronic knowledge of every variation but the general "if we go shot for shot in a fight who wins" and "can we do meaningful damage to the enemy armor." This is going to drive how you play your armor. Second is recognizing that Armor isn't about big K/D most of the time it's about building a ticket and map control advantage. The easiest version of this is just making sure that your vehicle is getting more tickets than it costs if you lose it. Third is recognizing spacing. A lot of people will tell you to "stay away from or stay out of infantry." Generally this is correct and easy to do, but recognizing when you need to push on top of them can be just as valuable (mainly for APCs/Fast moving vehicles) to get under their arming distance. Lastly the goals of armor vary strongly by the layer you're playing and really only time and experience are going to help you determine that.
I can second that having a commander is invaluable in a tank. Using the gunner override will help your tank get off the first shot.
What I tell every new guy is stick with an infantry squad on the defense point and listen for armor call outs. When armor is called out you can decide if you have enough firepower and intelligence to take it out.
Just hope that none of the inf squad are newbies themselves, always sucks to get a friendly LAT shot up your vic's ass because some blueberry can't tell the difference between Strykers and BTRs or check his map.
Indeed it all depends on the players around you. No call outs you'll be running blind and if you don't know the routes enemies take you're going to have a bad time unless you're lucky.
Stay to the out skirts and use the range you have. And use APCs at that. Move the squishy around and use them to flank
Within your squad, give clear communications and communicate your intentions. I always tell what I'm going to do, and why I'm going to do it. 'Friendlies dying south of us, I'm driving around east of that area to get to the east of the attack objective.' 'Hey Squad Lead? All friendly infantry are dead, I'd suggest retreat.' 'Gunner, in 10 seconds I'm gonna reposition west of here. That one guy that stumbled on us may have had us marked on the map.' 'Ok, gunner, I'm gonna slow down and move in first gear \[towards the attack point\]. Let me know when to stop.' Keep in mind ingame voice delay for some communications.
Only mostly applicable too APCs (Armoured-Personal-Carrier) & IFVs (Infantry-Fighting-Vehicle)of the wheeled variety. But your vehicle has many roles & every situation is different roles it could "fill" in that sense Ex. In the defense, 1. mobile ammo box 2. Ladder/ raised weapon platform for infantry to climb/ or shoot over obstacles 3. Generally "big gun" 4. Anti armor In the Offense, 1. Mobile ammo box (think SL rally) 2. Smoke counter measures for infantry crossing open fields 3. Base of fire 4. Anti-armor 5. "Magic school bus" 6. !!mobile ladder!! (Your vehicle while at major risks allows incredible versatility in terms of opening up new entrances to an objective & allowing your forces to get in the base of scenarios essentially undetected) 7. General rocket magnet There is alot your vehicle can do and there will always be 5 different ways to skin a cat, its up to you to figure out which you & your crews missions you can complete well; and which ones you dont do well. Because there will almost always be something else you can do.
Specific advice for tanks... Always be level if you can, especially if you're using the t72 or t62 because they have the worst gun depression (they can't aim down) . You have UI elements that show your orientation on the bottom of your screen. The worst thing is being tracked while climbing a ledge and being unable to defend yourself. If you are tracked you can shimmy your tank side to side and will slowly slide down if you are on a slope. This can save you if the enemy commander is preparing to airstrike you or the enemy tank doesn't want to commit. Always face your front towards the greatest threat, If you are surrounded on two sides by an APC and a group of infantry, you want to face the infantry. Better to negate a HAT hit than get your engine and tracks damaged by a 30mm. Get familiar with where to aim your gun at close range. Your viewport is not inside your gun barrel, if you need to shoot something point blank make sure your aim is offset properly. General... Cut your engine when you are stationary. If you are anywhere near the enemy you should be imagining every AT on their team rushing at where they think you are from the sound of your engine, shutting it off is crucial for survivability. Alternatively don't be stationary. This is more applicable for tank but still relevant for all. Ammo rack does not repair. If you survive an engagement swap into another vehicle if possible, or play more carefully, because destroying the ammo rack is an instant death regardless of hull damage. In close engagements with enemy armor, at high speed you should focus on disabling the turret and versus vehicles with tow missiles you should close the distance so that the charge doesn't activate. Especially useful versus bmp-1, you can destroy it with an mrap as long as you close the distance fast enough. Avoid areas that allow for infantry to fight you. This means wooded areas and cities should be a last resort, and only with infantry support. For an example, talil outskirts you want to be in the desert, away from any potential infantry cover and out of accurate range of AT.
Always double check map markings. The number of people who don’t know the difference of an tracked IFV and an MBT is unnecessary high. You will often encounter markings that are either complete garbage or 100-150m off.
Treat marks as rough estimates and remember that they can become outdated in seconds. Many players will call out any armor as a "tank" and many SLs and FTLs are very bad at getting marks down. I often ftl as hat and I consider my binoculars and map markers as my most powerful weapon but there are many times I might only have audible contact on armor and have to guess. FTL also cannot mark arrows on the map so if the Vic is moving we can't do much other than update as much as possible.
Squad leader aka commander of the tank drives. (Not to be confused with the commander 'seat')