Keeping Your Armour Alive

[History Buff]

I tend to have trouble keeping my armoured units alive through a battle. After turn ten or so it becomes a infantary slug fest and i'd love some armour on the battelfield for support.

Tips on keeping armour alive that works?

Thanx in advanced.

:cool:

[Diceman]

My tank survival rate hasn't been that good lately either, but it would have been even worse except for one thing: I keep my armor in platoons. A lone tank is a dead tank.

Cheers

Eric

[ParaBellum]

How to get your armour whacked:

- A quick guide for Panzer Commanders -

1.) Always scout with armour, not infantry. Tanks with closed hatches are great for spotting AT teams and other threats.

2.) Always go head-to-head with enemy armour, especially if you have weak armour, a puny gun or both.

3.) Avoid moving your tanks into hull-down positions, move them up a hill and wait...

4.) Always attack PAK bunkers with single tanks from the front.

5.) Open all hatches on your tanks during an arty strike so that your TC gets some fresh air.

6.) When facing heavy armour, never try to use fast tanks to get flank shots.

7.) When an airstrike is approaching, don't move your armour into some scattered trees. Let them sit in open spaces to confuse the enemy pilots.

8.) The tank is the ideal weapon for street fighting, never forget that.

9.) When using lightly armnoured tanks, ignore enemy HMGs. Show them your flank or rear so they'll be embarrassed.

10.) Always commit your armour within the first 5 turns. You will never need it later in the game.

[newlife]

Step One, Realize that tanks are not invulnerable.

Step Two, Stop using your tanks like they are.

No really, keep em back behind the infantry. Use your infantry to scout for the tanks. Keep the tanks as far back as you can and still have them cappable of supporting the infantry. When duelling other AFVs, shoot and scoot. Use teamwork against the enemy. Attack an enemy tank from 2 directions at once. At least one of your tanks should be able to get a flank shot. Use keyhole positions when possible (a possition where only a limited number of enemy units can see you tank). Advance over hills, and then reverse back. Comeback up the hill again just a little bit away. Find one of the armor FAQs and they'll explain all this and more for you (CMHQ or some other site).

[Col Deadmarsh]

Well, the most important thing to remember as Allies is that most of their armor should be used for infantry support, not killing German tanks.

Take the vanilla Sherman vs. the PzIV tank--both staple tanks on each side. Each costs about the same. The third mg on the Sherman only comes with a few rounds so basically, each has 2 mg's. The armor is about the same for each too. The difference lies in tank speed, turret speed, armor, AT capability, and AP capability.

The Sherman will give you the advantage in turret speed, tank speed, and Anti-Personnel capability with more HE shells and a slightly better blast rating.

The Panzer IV will give you better AT capability with its more powerful gun.

Seemingly, the Sherman looks to be more worth the money and it probably is if you use it right. This means using the tank as infantry support instead of challenging it to a duel with a Panzer IV. The gun of the Sherman will penetrate the armor of the Panzer IV less often than the Panzer IV's gun will penetrate the Sherman's. In fact, the Panzer IV will almost always penetrate the Sherman if you look at the numbers alone.

Now, knowing that most of the Allied tanks use the same 75mm gun and basically the same armor, you can see why Allies must more often than not use their tanks for killing infantry than hunting for German tanks. Make use of the mass amounts of HE shells you get, the higher blast rating, the fast turret to lock onto nearby opposing infantry quickly, and the speed to move in and out while attacking this infantry.

If you're the Germans, your weakness is your flanks since you don't have the turret speed the Allies do. Keep your flanks closed so you don't get hit from behind where you're weakest. Other than that, seek out weak Allied armor with your bigger tanks at long ranges.

And no matter what side you are, always try to get hull down and hidden behind trees when you can.

[Redwolf]

Move them like infantry. Treat them as they were not armoured. Always keep them in cover. If you want to attack something, then make sure that the line to the target is the only line of sight not blocked by cover. If you have to move, then play the move to the next spot of cover and go there *right* *now*. The hunt command is only useful when engaging already spotted targets, in terrain spotted to be free of threats.

And you tank has two weapons: the gun and the motor. Get the positional advantage. Move securely, but *move*.

In a word, if you ever played Quake, move your tanks like you walked and ran in Quake.

Mass them. If you attack two enemy tanks with two of yours, but your pair attacks the other two one after another, you have a great statistical advantage.

[aka_tom_w]

also a thread for tips for newbies here

-tom w