Tactics A message to the TT extremists

[Solo4114]

I've had good team tanking and solo tanking experiences. Actually, just today I had a good combination of both.

On Black Day, I told my team through Teamspeak (Russians) to single tank so we can get as many guns on the field as we can. We did it well through coordination and communication, going in formation and attacking objectives en masse.

But team tanking is also a different animal with its strengths and weaknesses. It's strength lies in maneuverability and strategy, being able to angle tanks to the enemy while reloading a bullet is a very good adavantage to have, something a solo tanker can't really do.

However, team tanking falls short in the field of how many guns in the field there are, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

I usually am an avid team tanker, and I have no problems with solo tankers willing to work with the team as a whole to achieve objectives.

However, don't you dare let me catch you snatch away the Tiger I tank in Black Day July for yourself just to simply go in the middle and "snipe" enemy tanks just to get points. That my friends is a selfish endeavor, however, team tankers could do the same thing as well you may say, which is true, but I see it far less with team tankers as they've already accepted the fact that Red Orchestra is not a game in which you can go Rambo for simply points and survive.

There's nothing wrong with taking the Tiger out solo on Black Day, even if you are just sniping. Wanna know why? Because the Tiger is a kitten in close range. I'd rather, in the Tiger (just me, no need to have another person just sitting there in the tank not moving me any), provide COVERING fire to allow the other tanks like the PzIIIs to advance (since they're better in close anyway, if they know what they're doing) and capture a position, rather than myself go driving off somewhere only to get killed by some sneaky SU-76 that hid on the other side of a hill I had to crest.

Better that I use my long range capabilities to destroy anyone who tries to intercept the advancing tanks, or simply to draw fire (since most of it will just bounce off anyway), than drive off and get killed.

A stationary Tiger is a great distractor for the enemy which can allow your forces to advance uncontested. Team tanking in that situation is a waste because the driver is just gonna sit there most of the time when he could be in someone else's tank, driving them to the front.

The Tiger on that map is best used as a long-range support weapon, not as a close-range weapon to assault positions. Much like the Stug, actually (except the Tiger actually has real optics instead of a goofy crosshair).



As for the main discussion here, neither solo tanking nor team tanking is automatically better or worse than the other. It's all situational. A solo tanker who knows what he's doing is a far greater asset to his team than a full crew of team tanking idiots who succeed only in patting each other on the back after they've been killed yet again without doing anything positive for the team. But, a team tanking crew that knows what it's doing is a thing of beauty.


That said, I don't think people are trying to portray solo tankers as inherently bad, either, the same way I don't think any solo tanker is trying to portray team tankers as inherently bad.


Here's some practical advice:

If you're on a map with very few tanks, you're probably better off teaming up (unless your teammates are bots, in which case you're better off playing infantry or lighting your computer on fire).

If you're on a map with a lot of tanks and you hop in a tank with someone who says "Hey, I'm gonna solo, if you don't mind", do the polite thing and just hop out. There's probably other tanks out there for you. When there's an abundance of them, don't try to force someone to team with you. And don't give them grief about it either.

By the same token, if you want to solo, don't flip out on the person and DEMAND that they get out of YOUR TANK. That's just going to cause problems. If the guy doesn't respond, hop out and get in a different tank. If he keeps following you around and won't leave you alone, play on adminned servers where you can get an admin to intervene before things get bad.

 

[Mobius One]

I was more referring to people who would take the Tiger to just simply rush out there and try to take out the whole Russian team by himself. That's a Tiger that's out for the whole round in BlackDayJuly.

I understand the fundamental Tiger I tactics, like sitting on a cap zone and nabbing Russians as they come, and that's fine, but you still would want a driver, even if he is going to just sit there. It's better when you're mobile and still able reload and aim your gun.

I'm in a unit that specializes in team tanking as a necessity, even as a requirement, and experience shows that general skilled team tanking goes leaps and bounds over solo tanking in many aspects.

 

[Solo4114]

Yes, but that's assuming general skill. Often, team tanking does NOT involve that. You can end up with drivers who are impatient and refuse to sit still (call it the BF2 syndrome), drivers who can't angle, drivers who don't get hull-down, drivers who don't understand vertical angling if you're NOT going to get hull-down, etc. Plus, even on a full server, I believe there's enough vehicles on that map to give each individual player his own AFV, or close to that.

I agree that a skilled multi-crewed tank is way better than an equally skilled single crew tank, simply because of the increased mobility (assuming mobility is an issue at the range of engagement), but a skilled solo tanker will be leaps and bounds better than an uncoordinated or unskilled team tank. In fact, in some cases even an unskilled solo tank can be better than an unskilled team tank because when you drive off to your doom, at least you only are losing one reinforcement rather than getting the other person killed along with you.