Tankers how-to by Mammou
In the old forum I put a bit on how to be an
effective tanker so I thought I would recreate some
of it here.
First: Never go tanking alone. A lone tank is not much better than a target for sappers. Always make sure you are part of an armour column or are with friendly infantry, preferably both. If you are in a heavy tank, a DAC or a Vicky to cover your flank from sappers is excellent. Getting a squaddie to cover you with LMG or something similar is even better. It is a great way for them to get points as a Churchill attracts sappers from all over. They are so slow and loud that they can be heard from very far away and sappers run towards the sound like bees to honey. LMG positioned about 100m to the rear will get lots of sapper kills.
Second: Situational awareness is everything. You have to know what is going on around you at all times. Some covering infantry can help with this, but they are usually concentrating on you and not looking around as much. Your commander has better zoom than your gunner and can see farther. It should always be up unless a) you are in an area with a lot of ea and are getting strafed a lot b) you are very close (>400m) to an enemy town and are in danger of getting sniped. Keep looking around. Sappers like to wait until you are engaged and concentrating on an enemy before running up so after you destroy something, don’t just stare at it, immediately look around. Also, fast panzers can flank you while you are busy firing to one area. A few tricks you should know –turn the commander around to the rear and use it to search the rear while the gunner searches the front and keep switching between them. Also, when you use the hat-switch or numpad keys to look around the commander does not turn to face as it does when you use mouse/joystick –it is a sneaky way to search.
Third: Know your tank. Not all tanks are created equal. Some are behemoths and can take a lot of hits like the Churchill VII or the Matilda in the early tiers. Some are fast and small like the DAC or Crusader but have weak armour. If you are in a heavy tank and take a hit you likely have time to look around and return fire before it finds a weak spot or tracks you. If you are in a Crusader 3 almost all enemy panzers and paks can kill you from quite far away so it is often better to pull back out of sight as fast as you can. Reverse is your friend. The 2lb is not a bad gun in the first tier, fast and accurate but loses out to the axis by the time they get 50mm in the Pz3h. The 75mm on the Ch7 is not very good. Do not think it is like the 75mm on the Sherman, it is much weaker –it is actually a bored out 57mm and is quite low velocity, it was designed for HE which is close to useless in the game. The 6lb (57mm) gun is the best British gun on a tank (Cru3 and Ch3), but is the quite weak compared to main Axis panzers. It has a nice flat trajectory and is very accurate which somewhat makes up for that. You can penetrate the front of Pz3 and Pz4 within ~500. Stugs are a bit harder and Tigers require you to be very lucky or very close. From the flank you can get Tigers out to a few hundred and any other panzer you can see out past 1000. The main problem with 6lb is that it is solid shot AP, not APHE. Therefore when it penetrates it does not explode, you have to hit something valuable (like the gunner or driver) or something else which explodes (such as the ammo or the fuel).
Fourth: Cover and concealment –know the difference! Hull down behind a berm is almost better than sitting in bushes. First it makes you a smaller target as only the turret is visible and they will not get many first round hits on you. Second, the sappers use the bushes to hide; they are like sapper highways.
Aiming: There are several different methods, choose one you like and stick with it. I find that I get the best accuracy with the mouse and use it exclusively. I remapped the turret to the mouse and I can choose where I hit a panzer out to 600+. I can also get hits and kills on panzers past 1200. Some people use both mouse and joystick, or joystick and keyboard (q and e for fine movements). I usually boresight my 6lb or 75mm gun to 450m (the default on 2lb is 400 FYI). With a little practice you know the size of a panzer in your sights at that range and can get first round hits anywhere from 50m to 600m –and first round on target almost always wins in tank vs tank. If you are camping or engaging in long range duel, adjust your sights and take a shot and a tree or something so you know the range to various points on the battlefield.
First: Never go tanking alone. A lone tank is not much better than a target for sappers. Always make sure you are part of an armour column or are with friendly infantry, preferably both. If you are in a heavy tank, a DAC or a Vicky to cover your flank from sappers is excellent. Getting a squaddie to cover you with LMG or something similar is even better. It is a great way for them to get points as a Churchill attracts sappers from all over. They are so slow and loud that they can be heard from very far away and sappers run towards the sound like bees to honey. LMG positioned about 100m to the rear will get lots of sapper kills.
Second: Situational awareness is everything. You have to know what is going on around you at all times. Some covering infantry can help with this, but they are usually concentrating on you and not looking around as much. Your commander has better zoom than your gunner and can see farther. It should always be up unless a) you are in an area with a lot of ea and are getting strafed a lot b) you are very close (>400m) to an enemy town and are in danger of getting sniped. Keep looking around. Sappers like to wait until you are engaged and concentrating on an enemy before running up so after you destroy something, don’t just stare at it, immediately look around. Also, fast panzers can flank you while you are busy firing to one area. A few tricks you should know –turn the commander around to the rear and use it to search the rear while the gunner searches the front and keep switching between them. Also, when you use the hat-switch or numpad keys to look around the commander does not turn to face as it does when you use mouse/joystick –it is a sneaky way to search.
Third: Know your tank. Not all tanks are created equal. Some are behemoths and can take a lot of hits like the Churchill VII or the Matilda in the early tiers. Some are fast and small like the DAC or Crusader but have weak armour. If you are in a heavy tank and take a hit you likely have time to look around and return fire before it finds a weak spot or tracks you. If you are in a Crusader 3 almost all enemy panzers and paks can kill you from quite far away so it is often better to pull back out of sight as fast as you can. Reverse is your friend. The 2lb is not a bad gun in the first tier, fast and accurate but loses out to the axis by the time they get 50mm in the Pz3h. The 75mm on the Ch7 is not very good. Do not think it is like the 75mm on the Sherman, it is much weaker –it is actually a bored out 57mm and is quite low velocity, it was designed for HE which is close to useless in the game. The 6lb (57mm) gun is the best British gun on a tank (Cru3 and Ch3), but is the quite weak compared to main Axis panzers. It has a nice flat trajectory and is very accurate which somewhat makes up for that. You can penetrate the front of Pz3 and Pz4 within ~500. Stugs are a bit harder and Tigers require you to be very lucky or very close. From the flank you can get Tigers out to a few hundred and any other panzer you can see out past 1000. The main problem with 6lb is that it is solid shot AP, not APHE. Therefore when it penetrates it does not explode, you have to hit something valuable (like the gunner or driver) or something else which explodes (such as the ammo or the fuel).
Fourth: Cover and concealment –know the difference! Hull down behind a berm is almost better than sitting in bushes. First it makes you a smaller target as only the turret is visible and they will not get many first round hits on you. Second, the sappers use the bushes to hide; they are like sapper highways.
Aiming: There are several different methods, choose one you like and stick with it. I find that I get the best accuracy with the mouse and use it exclusively. I remapped the turret to the mouse and I can choose where I hit a panzer out to 600+. I can also get hits and kills on panzers past 1200. Some people use both mouse and joystick, or joystick and keyboard (q and e for fine movements). I usually boresight my 6lb or 75mm gun to 450m (the default on 2lb is 400 FYI). With a little practice you know the size of a panzer in your sights at that range and can get first round hits anywhere from 50m to 600m –and first round on target almost always wins in tank vs tank. If you are camping or engaging in long range duel, adjust your sights and take a shot and a tree or something so you know the range to various points on the battlefield.