Trying to picture actual tank tactics

[SixShooter]

Originally Posted by StumpyTheOzzie

But you're vanu!

Maybe we can roll together? Make an outfit? You don't NEED outfits. So they're useless too.

And cuz nobody will be driving tanks, maybe we could go for dual AV maxes as well! Cuz they're DUAL useless.

Originally Posted by Landtank

2x the uselessness, 2x the cool.

Can't wait for these damn tank battles..

With all us usless tank pilots we could form a useless platoon and take over the useless continent!

In regards to the OP, It will should be possible to find cover (at least temporarily) without having to expose your weak backside. You'll really just need to be aware of your surrondings and hopefully not be by yourself so someone can cover your escape. I'll be in a Magrider so I won't have this problem Also, why are we trying to run from the fight?

[Figment]

Shame most of you aren't actually discussing (PS2 specific) tank tactics, basic (see link in second post) or advanced tactics in general. At least, there's so much more you can do and predict. :x


However, where it comes to specific PS2 tactics, we're going to have to talk about minefields. Specifically, Sunderers vs minefields. Like we did in PS1, we'll have Sunderers with Anti-Minefield modules leading the charge over a bridge or other area where we can expect heavy minefields and blocking fire from reaching our tanks.

Then there's the weather and day-night cycle. Let's talk night combat. Imagine you roll in under the cover of darkness and use your headlights to startle and blind your enemies like bunnies on the road. It'll give you a fraction of a second more to fire and make them miss. Especially if you can make the contrast between dark and headlights turning on significant (eyes have to adjust - can also try flashing it on and off and sending someone in a spasm, but I'm not sure if that's designed as intended ).

Will you want to retreat at times? Hell yes. Bait and ambush tactics are great under the cover of darkness and fog. Turn off your headlights, wait with a group of tanks in a crossfire setup, have one tank fire from a distance and retreat in between you. Let them pass, then engage them from side and behind.

It's always going to be very important to maximise the amount of shots you can get off before they can turn and get a shot on you. So any chance you have at taking your enemies cannon away from your friendlies is going to increase the time your allies have for firing shots. Once you ally reaches a 180 degrees position from you with the tank in the middle, you should have already won, regardless of how much firepower or endurance that tank in the middle has, it should never be able to lay a finger on your ally.

With large numbers of tanks like we'll see in PS2, group tactics may involve hit and run by sections of your outfit. The moment the first group is almost spend, they retreat and repair behind a hill while the new group comes over the hill during the other group's retreat, who shield the retreating tanks and continue their fire. Especially useful since you unfortunately won't need a full team compliment in your units to have them fire. This way you can sustain the entire group for a longer period of time.

Blitzkrieg will probably be quite normal. Meaning you have groups mash through the first line of enemies and then turn to create a crossfire.

Wth regards to difference in vehicle types, Magriders and Vanguards will want to stick to tight corridors more than Prowlers, since Prowlers will need space to maneuvre. When being engaged from the front, a Mag can use strafing while backing up to keep the enemy in front of them and from preventing it to back up (see WoT tactics links regarding preventing flanking and using flanking in second post and include strafing in it).

etc. etc. etc.

etc.

and etc.

[wraithverge]

Originally Posted by GodsMessenger

There used to be a really good tanker guide for PS1 uploaded to this site somewhere. It was called the tank bible, by a guy named theredx. That guy used to roll some crazy tank platoons.

I believe I used to be in that outfit (bad memory for names) dogs of war. It was mostly about speed control, positioning and firing arcs, we rarely got to the point where we had multiple fists. However those were based on RL tanks, for this game the rear arc would have to be covered by the secondary guns.

I imagine for the most part it will be hit and run tactics for dedicated tank outfits, if they get mixed outfits you will start seeing firing lines forming backed by engineers on foot and bursters covering the skies. We'll have to see =)

For lone tankers you will see them being mobile artillery from the back of the battle, the modern long bowmen so to speak if they wish to keep their tanks.

Since they brought back mowing you may also see them as a speed counter to entrenched infantry with medics, charge in rally and retreat for repairs.

[fvdham]

There was a rather large tank battle in PlanetSide 1 yesterday.
At least 30 tanks.

It seems some outfit provided lodestar vehicle reapair units in the center
and formed a very wide line of Prowler MBT's in front of it.

And there were lightnings and skyguards skirmishing, advancing to the front for hit and run
and next cover behind the Prowler tanks.
Often luring solo enemy tanks to the Prowler line.

There was also a cloaked troop transport which sneak deployed rocket soldiers
near enemy BFR's.

[Symmenix]

I believe long distance shelling of bases could be done if you have a field man saying where to aim.

Ie. Multiple kilos away from the fight, you aim and shell their base.

[Baneblade]

I don't have the heart to tell my outfit they are useless, so we will just drive tanks.

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by Blackwolf

The rear isn't any more vulnerable then the front. The only real difference is you can't return fire, and if retreat is being considered, returning fire isn't really going to do you any good anyway. Better to focus on maneuvering and forcing your opponent to constantly adjust his aim on the fly while driving through obstacle fields.

With the way PS2 is doing things, the most common tactics for tanks will be stationary artillery points, few shots will be done on the move and that is killing one of the biggest advantages (and the core reason behind the invention) of tanks. Mobile warfare isn't going to be very mobile, unless you are good at what you do.

This means that tanks will be more vulnerable to infantry, which is what they attempted to do with BFRs. The DEVs are aiming for a full circle of rock-paper-scissors but it will inevitably be a triangle with Air Cav being on top (which, coincidentally, is exactly like RL and exactly the way things should be anyway).

As for in-game tactics, you can plot and plan but until we get in the game, there's no real point.

?? I think you need a refresher

PS2 does indeed sport locational damage on tanks. Rear hits will cause more damage then side, which cause more damage than front. Hopefully they also factor in angle of hit as direct hits should hit harder than glancing

Secondly... you can turn your turret independent of tank direction (unless your Vanu in which case you can strafe whatever direction you need while facing target) so you very much can retreat driving backwards to protect your weakspot and have your turret either facing the direction you're traveling so you don't hit obstacles and swivel around towards the front of the tank to fire at people chasing you

[WorldOfForms]

I don't see how a blitzkrieg could work. Here's what I see: you smash through the front line, and then your weak rear armor is now exposed to the line you just smashed through, assuming you didn't kill everything in that front line.

But let's say you did kill everything. Now what? You're at close range with enemies at the new the front line. You'll be slaughtered unless you retreat. But if you retreat... there's that exposed rear again.

That's why I'm saying that the PS1 tank driving, where you approach the front line, take shots on the move, and then circle back toward your own troops won't work. The moment you circle back, you're hosed, unless you can perfectly position yourself to always be near cover the moment you turn around.

People keep bringing up mobile tactics from PS1, but I'm just not seeing how it's viable. Tanks in PS2 die super fast, even when shot in the front, let alone the rear.

I don't see how we're going to do anything other than: hug cover, creep forward, take potshots, reverse back behind cover.

Tanks take 6-7 shots from AV or other tanks, on their front armor right now, correct? Picture a battlefield of hundreds of troops. All it will take is 6-7 units to focus fire on you and you will die literally instantly.

[fvdham]

In PS1:
- a Lightning died after 3 shells of a Vanguard
- a Vanguard died after 20 shells of a Lightning

> Tanks take 6-7 shots from AV or other tanks, on their front armor right now,

So you are saying the MBT's in PS2 have twice the armor of a Lightning in PS1.
Sounds like balance for driver = gunner.

[SgtExo]

Originally Posted by WorldOfForms

I don't see how a blitzkrieg could work. Here's what I see: you smash through the front line, and then your weak rear armor is now exposed to the line you just smashed through, assuming you didn't kill everything in that front line.

But let's say you did kill everything. Now what? You're at close range with enemies at the new the front line. You'll be slaughtered unless you retreat. But if you retreat... there's that exposed rear again.

That's why I'm saying that the PS1 tank driving, where you approach the front line, take shots on the move, and then circle back toward your own troops won't work. The moment you circle back, you're hosed, unless you can perfectly position yourself to always be near cover the moment you turn around.

People keep bringing up mobile tactics from PS1, but I'm just not seeing how it's viable. Tanks in PS2 die super fast, even when shot in the front, let alone the rear.

I don't see how we're going to do anything other than: hug cover, creep forward, take potshots, reverse back behind cover.

Tanks take 6-7 shots from AV or other tanks, on their front armor right now, correct? Picture a battlefield of hundreds of troops. All it will take is 6-7 units to focus fire on you and you will die literally instantly.

I don't think you understand what a blitzkrieg is by the look of it. A blitzkrieg is about concentrating your shock troops in a location and punching a hole in the enemies front lines. Then you have your fast moving units take advantage of that hole in the front line to rush in and aggressively push inside the enemies lines.

If you think of it, a MAX crash is a blitzkrieg when followed up by more mobile and versatile units. So if a base has a stable defense outside the base, you role in with your platoon of tanks, punch a whole clear for the infantry/sundies/galaxies to get all those infantry inside the base and capture it. And seeing how much more open the bases are and the fluidity of the combat, I do believe that blitzkrieg tactics will be very prevalent for organized outfits.

[SixShooter]

Originally Posted by WorldOfForms

I don't see how we're going to do anything other than: hug cover, creep forward, take potshots, reverse back behind cover.

Tanks take 6-7 shots from AV or other tanks, on their front armor right now, correct? Picture a battlefield of hundreds of troops. All it will take is 6-7 units to focus fire on you and you will die literally instantly.

I don't see hiding as being a very reliable (or fun) tactic. What your talking about is making yourself a stationary target for oppsing MBTs, air to ground missles and infantry with c4. Regardless of locational damage, it's still harder to hit a moving target than it is to hit a stationary one and if you're beating a retreat you're still going to want to use the environment to your advantage.

There are more open areas that are perfect for large tank battles that were not shown in the E3 vids and tactics are going to be determined by the layout of the battlegrounds.

As far as low TTK for MBTs go, I really hope that tanks get a bit more solid and strudy through beta testing, just a bit

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

I don't have the heart to tell my outfit they are useless, so we will just drive tanks.

How do your guys feel about a cert tree for a dedicated driver position?

How do they feel about the Prowler getting it for free, possibly?

[WorldOfForms]

Originally Posted by SgtExo

I don't think you understand what a blitzkrieg is by the look of it. A blitzkrieg is about concentrating your shock troops in a location and punching a hole in the enemies front lines. Then you have your fast moving units take advantage of that hole in the front line to rush in and aggressively push inside the enemies lines.

If you think of it, a MAX crash is a blitzkrieg when followed up by more mobile and versatile units. So if a base has a stable defense outside the base, you role in with your platoon of tanks, punch a whole clear for the infantry/sundies/galaxies to get all those infantry inside the base and capture it. And seeing how much more open the bases are and the fluidity of the combat, I do believe that blitzkrieg tactics will be very prevalent for organized outfits.

That's basically what I was describing. So you punch through the line with your tanks, and then you have enemies behind you. They shoot your rear, you die.

With tanks being as vulnerable as they are, the enemy doesn't even have to shoot your rear. How are you going to punch through a line when enemy AV can kill you almost instantly?

Did you play PS1? A Vanguard took forty AV shots to kill, and even then in a heated battle they could die almost instantly because of so much lead flying through the air. Tanks that take 6-7 shots will be obliterated before they get anywhere near the line to punch through.

I don't think anyone is really considering what will happen when the armies are scaled up. Tanks are going to get hosed immediately out in the open unless the devs increase their armor dramatically.

[GhettoPrince]

Don't get me wrong, world of tanks is a great game, but those tactics are about 15 vs 15 matches, not a 300+ person fight where you have to take into account bombing runs, strafing from fighters, getting C4 dropped onto you by a jetpack trooper, anti tank mines ect. Realistically, a solo tank might as well be using a custom skin saying "FREE DOUBLE KILL".

I think the old wolf pack from Planetside 1 is probably still the best bet.

, I would love to see tank armor have a chance to deflect shots from an angle or have a chance to bounce from the front, but I doubt they have time to work on a feature like that.

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by WorldOfForms

Did you play PS1? A Vanguard took forty AV shots to kill

*wat*