Since the mod times till last week, I've mainly been an infantry-player - on tank maps I prefered being a anti-tank-soldier. But lately I tried out tanking and while I didn't like it at all in the beginning, I finally found a very interesting and fun way of using tanks. Now I actually love driving tanks, I prefer it by far to being the gunner.
Normally people use tanks like moveable turrets: They go somewhere, maybe place themselves for their advantage and shoot at other "turrets" passing by while moving to their desired location.
Normally it doesn't take long (or just a clever enemy) untill you get killed, because someone went into a "counter-position" of you, where he has the advantage. I hated this style of playing, since its so stationary and the driver is rather useless in such cases. The solo-tanking-attitude at public servers make this play-style the dominating one.
In open field its mainly about who does more damage per time, so the enemy dies first and as a solo-tanker you havent got many other ways of handling it, since the gun doesn't reload if there is noone in the gunner position (AFAIK), so driving in the middle of the combat leads to less damage-per-time in most cases.
Now the interesting bit: Advanced Driving-Tactics!
Yesterday I played a few rounds of Arad as a driver, with someone else as the gunner - as I wrote above I'm still fairly new to tanks myself and he wasn't that experienced too.
With a normal Axies panzer IV we manged to survive against 4 (although the 4. one came a bit later) russian tanks for quite a while on open field without proper cover, being able to get 4 or 5 shots off as far as I can remember. We only took out 1 of them though, since some got reflected or missed. (Btw, that was on north field on Arad)
The russian tanks used the "turret-style", while we used the advantage a two-man-crewed-tank gives you: Being able to quickly stop, shoot and move again - while still keeping the reloading speed.
How we managed to do that:
The main strategy was to dodge the first enemy shot, stop in his reload time for a shot and start moving again, dodging the next shot.
Of course that dodging-tactic doesn't work on close range, you need at least medium distance between you and the other tank. You need to use the traveling time of the shells to your advantage, I'll give an example for that: Imagine you are driving a 2-man-crewed-tank on open field and on medium-distance appears a hostile tank.
What is your usual reaction? Stop as quickly as possible and shoot him. He does the same and its all about killing the other tank quickly before he does the same to you.
Now what I usually do:
I drive towards him, but not directly - I keep him roughly at 10-11/01-02 (o' clock), doing short but sharps turns right and left. Those little turns make my movement less regular and makes it a lot harder to hit me (it "changes your speed" at which you move at the horizon)! But you need to watch out not to stay in a flat angle for too long. And even if I get hit, it's usually at a flat angle, so I dont take damage. A turret hit is very unlikely, duo the unregular movement.
Like this I await his first shot. After the shell missed or reflected I quickly stop, aim and shoot, then start dodge-driving again. Since I was constantly moving, proper angleing was very difficult for him - you should actually try to get into a good angle to the enemy while dodge-driving - and my chances for a hit are somewhat good: If he moves he can't reload&shoot and vice versa (thats only for fighting solo-tankers though).
This dodge-driving does not only work against a single tank: As I told you above, I managed to do that against several tanks at once. It's not like you actually "dodge" their shots, but you make yourself a very hard to hit target.
I drove in a wiggly line, as unregular as possible. Then the volley of the tank-shells came: Most of them missed me duo my movement and the rest reflected because I kept a flat angle towards the enemys.
Then when most of the enemys were reloading, I angled towards the tank I exspected to shoot next and stopped, so my gunner could get off a shot onto the most dangerous tank. Like that we survived several volleys of shells, that would have been impossible if we used the turret-style or if I had been solo-tanking.
Here is a little picture to show it a bit better (excuse my cruddy paint-skills
)
Axie Tank = Grey
Axie Tank Movement = Black Line
Russian Tanks = Red Circles
Russian Shell = Red Line
When dodge-driving, you need to keep a flat angle at your main path (Main path = BLUE) but use short-but-sharp turns to make your movement irregular to make yourself hard to hit, duo the traveling time of the shells. Chose your main path wisely, so the most tanks you fight against have a low chance of penetration.
You can actually stay out of the hatch most of the time, since you are somewhat save while on the move! The further you are away from the enemy, the less likely he will hit you.
When you think its time to take a shot, kill the most dangerous tanks first! In this case, it would be the very low russian tank, because his shells are less likely to be reflected when you are on your main path.
It's similiar to the situation of bolt-rifleman on open fields: Of course you can shoot right away (even hip-shoot), but if you dodge his first shot you can usually take him down much easier, because he is very vulnerable right after the shot and you got enough time for a well aimed shot.
He can sprint, to be hard to hit (~moving tank) or bolt, but like this he can't sprint.
Laying down or taking cover instead of shooting as quickly as possible is similar to angleing a tank before shooting.
Conclusion:
In Red Orchestra intelligence and patience beats reaction time and speed in many cases. Dodge-driving is a very deadly tactic against solo-tankers and against other dodge-drivers it will surely be a very intense fight.
Dodge-driving doesn't actually require that much communication between gunner and driver, so its very usefull on public servers (where you face mainly solo-tankers, another plus). Actually with this style of driving, the driver is the "commander", while the gunner just shoots, reloads and acts a a spotter... tell your gunner to wait for you to stop for shooting, tell you where enemys are ("2, 2, 2, 3 [o' clock]" would be an example refering to the picture above) and pick the most dangerous tank to attack, as described above.
Fully crewed tanks need a huge advantage over solo-tankers? They already have, just use them right! The tank isn't just a moveable turret, don't use it like one!
Oh, and by the way:
Greeting to loneranger if he reads this! He was my gunner on arad and later on Ogledow, it was an awesome experience!
Normally people use tanks like moveable turrets: They go somewhere, maybe place themselves for their advantage and shoot at other "turrets" passing by while moving to their desired location.
Normally it doesn't take long (or just a clever enemy) untill you get killed, because someone went into a "counter-position" of you, where he has the advantage. I hated this style of playing, since its so stationary and the driver is rather useless in such cases. The solo-tanking-attitude at public servers make this play-style the dominating one.
In open field its mainly about who does more damage per time, so the enemy dies first and as a solo-tanker you havent got many other ways of handling it, since the gun doesn't reload if there is noone in the gunner position (AFAIK), so driving in the middle of the combat leads to less damage-per-time in most cases.
Now the interesting bit: Advanced Driving-Tactics!
Yesterday I played a few rounds of Arad as a driver, with someone else as the gunner - as I wrote above I'm still fairly new to tanks myself and he wasn't that experienced too.
With a normal Axies panzer IV we manged to survive against 4 (although the 4. one came a bit later) russian tanks for quite a while on open field without proper cover, being able to get 4 or 5 shots off as far as I can remember. We only took out 1 of them though, since some got reflected or missed. (Btw, that was on north field on Arad)
The russian tanks used the "turret-style", while we used the advantage a two-man-crewed-tank gives you: Being able to quickly stop, shoot and move again - while still keeping the reloading speed.
How we managed to do that:
The main strategy was to dodge the first enemy shot, stop in his reload time for a shot and start moving again, dodging the next shot.
Of course that dodging-tactic doesn't work on close range, you need at least medium distance between you and the other tank. You need to use the traveling time of the shells to your advantage, I'll give an example for that: Imagine you are driving a 2-man-crewed-tank on open field and on medium-distance appears a hostile tank.
What is your usual reaction? Stop as quickly as possible and shoot him. He does the same and its all about killing the other tank quickly before he does the same to you.
Now what I usually do:
I drive towards him, but not directly - I keep him roughly at 10-11/01-02 (o' clock), doing short but sharps turns right and left. Those little turns make my movement less regular and makes it a lot harder to hit me (it "changes your speed" at which you move at the horizon)! But you need to watch out not to stay in a flat angle for too long. And even if I get hit, it's usually at a flat angle, so I dont take damage. A turret hit is very unlikely, duo the unregular movement.
Like this I await his first shot. After the shell missed or reflected I quickly stop, aim and shoot, then start dodge-driving again. Since I was constantly moving, proper angleing was very difficult for him - you should actually try to get into a good angle to the enemy while dodge-driving - and my chances for a hit are somewhat good: If he moves he can't reload&shoot and vice versa (thats only for fighting solo-tankers though).
This dodge-driving does not only work against a single tank: As I told you above, I managed to do that against several tanks at once. It's not like you actually "dodge" their shots, but you make yourself a very hard to hit target.
I drove in a wiggly line, as unregular as possible. Then the volley of the tank-shells came: Most of them missed me duo my movement and the rest reflected because I kept a flat angle towards the enemys.
Then when most of the enemys were reloading, I angled towards the tank I exspected to shoot next and stopped, so my gunner could get off a shot onto the most dangerous tank. Like that we survived several volleys of shells, that would have been impossible if we used the turret-style or if I had been solo-tanking.
Here is a little picture to show it a bit better (excuse my cruddy paint-skills
)
Axie Tank = Grey
Axie Tank Movement = Black Line
Russian Tanks = Red Circles
Russian Shell = Red Line
When dodge-driving, you need to keep a flat angle at your main path (Main path = BLUE) but use short-but-sharp turns to make your movement irregular to make yourself hard to hit, duo the traveling time of the shells. Chose your main path wisely, so the most tanks you fight against have a low chance of penetration.
You can actually stay out of the hatch most of the time, since you are somewhat save while on the move! The further you are away from the enemy, the less likely he will hit you.
When you think its time to take a shot, kill the most dangerous tanks first! In this case, it would be the very low russian tank, because his shells are less likely to be reflected when you are on your main path.
It's similiar to the situation of bolt-rifleman on open fields: Of course you can shoot right away (even hip-shoot), but if you dodge his first shot you can usually take him down much easier, because he is very vulnerable right after the shot and you got enough time for a well aimed shot.
He can sprint, to be hard to hit (~moving tank) or bolt, but like this he can't sprint.
Laying down or taking cover instead of shooting as quickly as possible is similar to angleing a tank before shooting.
Conclusion:
In Red Orchestra intelligence and patience beats reaction time and speed in many cases. Dodge-driving is a very deadly tactic against solo-tankers and against other dodge-drivers it will surely be a very intense fight.
Dodge-driving doesn't actually require that much communication between gunner and driver, so its very usefull on public servers (where you face mainly solo-tankers, another plus). Actually with this style of driving, the driver is the "commander", while the gunner just shoots, reloads and acts a a spotter... tell your gunner to wait for you to stop for shooting, tell you where enemys are ("2, 2, 2, 3 [o' clock]" would be an example refering to the picture above) and pick the most dangerous tank to attack, as described above.
Fully crewed tanks need a huge advantage over solo-tankers? They already have, just use them right! The tank isn't just a moveable turret, don't use it like one!
Oh, and by the way:
Greeting to loneranger if he reads this! He was my gunner on arad and later on Ogledow, it was an awesome experience!
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