Kirill S. Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Well, how do you kill your enemy's tanks? If I am using allied tanks, I usually send a Sherman and a Stuart or two Shermans after one german tank into a close range battle. If I am using german tanks, I always attack from the distance. How do you do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priest Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Depends on the situation and resources. Hard question to answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcm1947 Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 You basically sumed up the way I use tanks. I always command American forces but if I ever did use German and I probably will when CMBB comes out I would use them the way you do. Seems they are much more effective then the American at distances. I really am looking forward to CMBB so I'll finally be able to use the German's. They have such cool stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 The biggest factor is who spots whom first. That is what determines who gets the drop on whom, and if you know what you are doing that is the most important factor in deciding who wins an armor duel. The way you get better sighting is - spot him first with infantry while your tank is still behind a hill, forest, or building; button him up with infantry or sniper fire while being opened up yourself; approach him straight on yourself from a side he is not facing; distract him with a different target (second tank, light armor, infantry AT, or even just infantry in a pinch); lure him to a location you can quickly hunt into LOS of, by using another target as "bait" or by breaking LOS with infantry to force him to move if he ever wants to shoot again - and the like. You do have to know the armor specs well enough to pick a shooter and an angle that can kill the enemy vehicle. That isn't hard. Most losses to tanks you can't kill back come when he sees you first and stalks you. He can then afford to hunt you less carefully, because if he comes at the right angle he doesn't have to worry about the direct reply. If you "buddy" up with another AT shooter (even a zook in a pinch), you can often cover yourself against that sort of thing, though. He can't face two directions at once. But if you never see him coming, he will bag you whether you can kill him back or not. The most vunerable time is when you send a tank forward to fire at infantry. Vehicles can easily stay out of sight and thus out of danger if they don't bother about getting shots themselves. But when you expose yourself to clobber an infantry position, he sees you before you see him, and he hunts you with a supporting tank. So whenever you advance to a firing position, look beforehand at all the places he might shoot you from, and think twice about whether it is worth the risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill S. Posted May 23, 2002 Author Share Posted May 23, 2002 I'm also guessing that using the two-on-one tactic will be very good using T34 since they are fast and are supplied in huge numbers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 From 1943 on, yes, they will use tactics similar to Shermans. But earlier, they are heavily enough armored and German AP is weak enough that they will be the ones standing off at range, trying to prevent the Germans from getting close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Jason's point about letting infantry (preferrably veteran) spot for your tanks has to be seconded. CMBO tank combat is generally relativly unpredictable, e.g. standing shooter against moving target doesn't make a safe kill, or you may miss often enough that even a lame turretless vhicle managed to turn. To deal with that unpredictablity it is very desireable to attack the same target with several units from different angles. If you have very bad luck, you will usually lose just one of your attackers for the kill. If you attack straight with bad luck, you have one or two dead own tanks with nothing to show for. In CMBO it is very dangerous to move to attack tanks if enemy infantry is with 200m of your new position, because your tank may prefer to shoot the infantry. Don't do that, consider infantry in front of the enemy tank to be an effective bodyguard even when they are technically no threat to you. Use fast tanks, not fat ones. But don't get too thin, 20mm vulnerablity is very bad. Don't use steel plates as side cover (tank gets too slow), use LOS-breaking woods with your infantry, houses (careful for holes, though), ridges. Whatever you do with tanks, you want to have them LOS to and only directly to the front, nowhere else. Don't forget smoke. If needed, make side cover from other tank's smoke rounds. [ May 23, 2002, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: redwolf ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill S. Posted May 23, 2002 Author Share Posted May 23, 2002 Why do german tanks have such slow turrets? It certainly shows in city fighting maps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tailz Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Originally posted by Kirill S.: Why do german tanks have such slow turrets? It certainly shows in city fighting maps......and why are your tanks fighting in cities? :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Klink Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 On the defense, I try whatever I can do to suck the enemy tanks into my MLR with infantry, then hit them from the flanks with my armored reserve. Hopefully, I'll destroy most of his armor, then I launch a counter attack and take the whole map, leading to a total victory. Offense, I try to locate where the enemy tanks are located using infantry first, then swamp them over with any tanks I have nearby. I ALWAYS keep a platoon of inf. covered with a tank that has descent tank-killing power, if at all possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill S. Posted May 24, 2002 Author Share Posted May 24, 2002 ...and why are your tanks fighting in cities? Actually I have played city maps only 4-5 times... In village and farmland maps it is still relevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirill S. Posted May 24, 2002 Author Share Posted May 24, 2002 I ALWAYS keep a platoon of inf. covered with a tank that has descent tank-killing power, if at all possible. but do you usually send two tanks after an enemy or just one? [ May 23, 2002, 06:22 PM: Message edited by: Kirill S. ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted May 24, 2002 Share Posted May 24, 2002 Anybody care to hazard a rough league table of tanks in CMBO, given a head to head, medium range scenario. I assume the King Tiger would be up the top, with the Stewart near the bottom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted May 24, 2002 Share Posted May 24, 2002 Originally posted by Affentitten: Anybody care to hazard a rough league table of tanks in CMBO, given a head to head, medium range scenario. I assume the King Tiger would be up the top, with the Stewart near the bottom?You realize that this is a highly situation- and taste - dependent question? Also, you didn't include whether the price of the unit should be taken into consideration. Pz IV, Jagdpanther, Sherman 75 Jumbo, Jackson and Cromwell VIII are to my liking, and I am very sure noone else comes up with the same list, as I myself will often by other stuff out of other considerations than taste, like Hetzer, M8 HMC, Firefly, StuG IV or - King Tiger (my shells are fast, why should I hurry myself?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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