Attacking armor

[CptainCrunch]

OK, so I had the chance to play on one server for about six rounds. Three defend, three attack. I noticed that the attacking team always kept the armor in the back. Both teams were guilty of this. The attackers lost every time. The last time I was attacker, we were getting slaughtered as the bradleys were taking us out and our T90 was in the back shooting....who knows what, but it wasnt the bradleys. I was finally able to get a tank and take them out and kill a few people and move forward when we ran out of tickets and lost.

So, long story is, what is your take on armour? Is this holding back a wise thing or should the armor come up and help support the troops? I understand the artillery aspect. In theory it would work.

When I am armor, I counter armor and punch holes in everything for the team.

What have been your experiences?

Crunch

[iQue]

Re: Attacking armor

On the first stage the attackers can take out the A M-COM simply by sniping it with a tank on the hill. Same for the 3rd stage, when you reach the area where the Apache spawns.

Otherwise, it's rarely worth holding it far back, but you don't want to just drive it right into enemy territory and get it blown up, you want your team to move with you slowly.

[jake_]

Re: Attacking armor

It's usually noobs that hold back like that. They're afraid of taking damage and getting destroyed, I assume. I played a round a while back as engie and was sitting behind a T90 repairing it. And the idiot kept backing up away from me because he was afraid of the other teams bradleys or something. Finally got me killed because he kept leaving me out in the open.

[Kylee!]

Re: Attacking armor

You really just have to know when to move forward and when to retreat... At the first two M-COMs you're definitely best sitting back a bit (not too far back, close enough to be aggressive) and blowing stuff up. Especially the building in the far back, the machine gun at the construction site, and the A M-COM. You can pin down a good portion of the other team doing this, and the rest of you're team can do the rest.

Unfortunately the last part is by far the hardest...

[Corvic]

Re: Attacking armor

On the first stage the attackers can take out the A M-COM simply by sniping it with a tank on the hill. Same for the 3rd stage, when you reach the area where the Apache spawns.

Otherwise, it's rarely worth holding it far back, but you don't want to just drive it right into enemy territory and get it blown up, you want your team to move with you slowly.

this mostly, Only time I ever stay back with the armor is on the first stage.

second stage depends on my team, I might hang out just outside their base to bring down A if my team isn't doing so hot, but if they are advancing steadily, I'll drive right on in and raise hell. M-coms are usually the last thing on the defenders mind when a tank is rolling around their spawn blowing up everything that moves.

Third and fourth, same as the second really, depends on my team, usually have to move in since you can't bring any of the m-com buildings down.

Speaking of armor, we seriously need a lock on vehicles until someone from the attacker/defender team enters it.

[Vreki]

Re: Attacking armor

You need an infantry screen if you want to move Armour inside "urban" areas, otherwise the enemy engineers will be laughing the whole way to the XP bank. Not to mention all the C4 tossers.
And that kind of teamwork is very rare outside clans.

I believe in armour supporting from behind the frontline, but you should still be far enough in front that you can suppress threats like the Bradley.

[Sepp_Dietrich]

Re: Attacking armor

It's amazing how many people will simply hop into the tank and blindly drive off without anyone in the MG position and get themselves destroyed in less than a minute.Or they'll back up and leave their engineer exposed and inevitably killed.

Or my personal favorite, the idiot who drives off in the tank you're attempting to repair."An unoccupied tank? I have to take this!" :/

[Chaoszx]

Re: Attacking armor

I found that sitting back with a skilled shooter works very well. It allows you to totally pin down the other team, especially if you have an engineer behind you repairing the tank. At the very start of the round, sitting on the hill and destroying anything in sight, including the MG on the "sniper tower" works great.

[sithdemon]

Re: Attacking armor

Armour will be a very different beast in conquest. Right now it's way too risky to make punches into enemy territory. Plus I'm hoping to see at least a couple armor pieces rolling together, with infantry moving through streets together, and tanks destroying enemy cover where needed. Tanks will of course still have the option of sitting back and bombarding a area but it won't be as clustered so tanks will want to move forward a bit more, help clear areas and then move on to another flag ASAP. With mortars, Attack choppers, and tracer darts, armor will not have the luxury of a constant safe rear from which to act as a artillery piece.

[BrokenMachine]

Re: Attacking armor

I really think it depends on what map your playing. Keeping the armour back isn't a "noob" tactic at all. On Arica Harbour you could sit back with a tank and take out the four crates without any worry from TOW's or artillery. With support from an engineer it made you even stronger. Port Valdez has a direct line of sight from the defenders base to the attackers landing zone so it makes it harder to just sit back and bombard because of the TOW's so it is better like some of you said, to move forward slowly with infantry with both armour moving at the same time.

The only time I would take armour right into enemy territory is either to try and take down a building thats on its last legs or to create a distraction so that other players could get in from another side. Either way don't expect to last long but it can be effective if done properly.

Different situations require different tactics with armour. A good player will adapt and use the tactics necessary to take an objective or support his own troops into getting the objective.

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: Attacking armor

problem is you don't get a lot of good attacking armour players tbh, or ones that know how to use cover

most either simply camp on the hill in which case you need a good copilot to man the MG or others just barrel roll headfirst down into enemy tows, mines and rpg hits

[Painboy]

Re: Attacking armor

Well the big problem is when you get tagged by a tracer there isn't really any place to hide other than behind the big hill. A couple RPG equipped engineers working together with the tracer can take a tank down quick without the tank being able to do much. Throw in the TOW and you have to be very careful about bringing it too far forward. You can try to drive towards the back but then you risk getting C4'd as there is no maneuver room.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Attacking armor

So with all this in mind, is armor really a threat? Does it really matter if they move the tanks forward or not?

I have to admit that I did not get a lot of chance to play the beta, so I missed out on tactics

Crunch

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: Attacking armor

on the beta map not so much at the start, the tanks more useful for long range bombardment tbh as well as machine gunning unsuspecting people

moving up to stage 2 armour can be useful for the Russians if they have engineers repairing them, the tank can just hammer A totally while the bradley can deal with a lot of the enemies

armour is best used on stage 3 tbh, strangely enough when you have an apache running around, if the armour can get through the bottleneck it can tear around killing pretty much anything it likes

I think other maps will be more armour friendly tbh

[Vreki]

Re: Attacking armor

So with all this in mind, is armor really a threat? Does it really matter if they move the tanks forward or not?

I would say that they are a threat to an organized defence, since they can remove cover and shell entrenchments.
But if the defenders are already running aimlessly around, then armour isnt needed as much.