I don't see many people doing this, but if you are playing with a mate you can have a blast with this tactic. It effectively gives the mobile AA excellent anti-armor abilities as well as it's already impressive anti-aircraft fire (thanks to 1.2).
The driver should be the SL and a medic, while the SM should be an engineer. The reason the driver should be a medic is to heal the engineer should he get hurt, so you have a self sustaining unit that can heal each other at the same time.
The duties of the driver are obvious, to take out aircraft and various ground threats if they appear, but in order for this strategy to work the engineer must do more than just repair. He should also:
*Spot out enemies
*Watch out for spec ops sneaking up on you, or engineers laying mines
*Hop out and help cap flags when there are no immediate enemies nearby
I'd recommend you carry a Jackhammer (if unlocked) instead of the MP7 since it's more effective at close range to take out any lurking spec ops/engis than the scattergun MP7.
When used effectively this strategy can even allow a mobile AA to take on an APC or main battle tank and WIN - I'm dead serious here! I just had a round last night where we defeated APCs and tanks because they simply lacked the firepower to finish us off with an engineer on top repairing.
The repair rate from the engineer is enough to repair the mobile AA to FULL health before they can fire off another TOW/tank shell at you. It also just about keeps up with the combined fire of cannons/TOWs from an APC.
EDIT - the info about the tank is wrong, it takes a tank shell roughly 6 seconds to reload, and it takes about 8 seconds to repair such damage. The further away the less the difference due to tank shell travel time, they are actually quite slow at longer ranges, taking about 1/2 second or more to reach the target.
It might surprise some but an APC with it's cannons blasting plus mounted TOW is initially able to deal more damage per second to you than a tank, but over time the tank is able to deal more damage due to the slow TOW reload time. It won't matter either way, it simply isn't enough to take you out in time before they themselves are destroyed. :P
You will be blasting away with the flak gun, and while it isn't the most effective weapon against armor, it'll slowly but surely take out an APC/tank - it's all a matter of time. :) Just make sure you aim for the treads if shooting at a tank, since that is it's weak spot.
Now, you're probably gonna ask - why not just take out the engineer first, and then the mobile AA? Well, that's a good plan, easier said than done though.
Thats assuming if the enemy even knew there was an engi there in the first place, especially if it's a long range shoot out - the engi will be almost invisible at long range.
The advantage of shooting armor with the AA flak gun is that apart from the large and continuous muzzle flash masking the presence of the engineer, there is a large amount of shaking from the enemies point of view when getting shot. Your screen literally keeps shaking non stop when shot by the flak gun, as anyone who has played armor can probably attest to.
While this shaking usually isn't enough to affect the aim of a good armor player to make them miss their next TOW/shell shot at the mobile AA (doesn't matter anyway, the repair rate is fast enough to counter it), it should be enough to affect the aim of the APC cannon/tank machine gun to give the engineer a fighting chance of staying alive EVEN if they knew of the engineers presence atop the mobile AA. Any stray shots that hit the engineer will hopefully be healed soon enough by the medic driver.
The main threat that I've found to this strategy are bomber jets, spec ops and attack choppers, especially those with a good gunner capable of nailing TV shots - these are all capable of taking you out in one hit, thus nullifying the engineer repair ability.
Even so, mobile AA still has the best chance amongst all the armor classes to protect itself against helicopters and especially jets, and those pesky spec ops guys can often be spotted if you are careful.
This leaves the situation of ammo to consider - if you stay alive for a long time (which is the whole point of this strategy!) sooner or later you're gonna be low on ammo, especially AA missles which tend to be used up rather quickly. Hopefully your commander is helpful and sends you a supply crate, though with the beefed up 1.2 PKM there shouldn't be a shortage of support players running around anyway. :)
Oh, and one final tip - when you repair, keep your head down, as in, look straight down towards the ground. Why? Because you are less exposed this way, you have a lower profile and your head doesn't stick out above your body, but is actually bowed down against your chest, which means less chance of a headshot against you.
Check it out in 3rd person view and you'll know what I mean.
Let me know how you go with this strategy, it's served me well on many occasions, with the driver often ending up with 10:1 KD ratios and the engineer with a heap of kill assist and repair points.
Speaking of which, it's also an easy way to get your veteran and even possibly expert repair badge this way. :)
The driver should be the SL and a medic, while the SM should be an engineer. The reason the driver should be a medic is to heal the engineer should he get hurt, so you have a self sustaining unit that can heal each other at the same time.
The duties of the driver are obvious, to take out aircraft and various ground threats if they appear, but in order for this strategy to work the engineer must do more than just repair. He should also:
*Spot out enemies
*Watch out for spec ops sneaking up on you, or engineers laying mines
*Hop out and help cap flags when there are no immediate enemies nearby
I'd recommend you carry a Jackhammer (if unlocked) instead of the MP7 since it's more effective at close range to take out any lurking spec ops/engis than the scattergun MP7.
When used effectively this strategy can even allow a mobile AA to take on an APC or main battle tank and WIN - I'm dead serious here! I just had a round last night where we defeated APCs and tanks because they simply lacked the firepower to finish us off with an engineer on top repairing.
The repair rate from the engineer is enough to repair the mobile AA to FULL health before they can fire off another TOW/tank shell at you. It also just about keeps up with the combined fire of cannons/TOWs from an APC.
EDIT - the info about the tank is wrong, it takes a tank shell roughly 6 seconds to reload, and it takes about 8 seconds to repair such damage. The further away the less the difference due to tank shell travel time, they are actually quite slow at longer ranges, taking about 1/2 second or more to reach the target.
It might surprise some but an APC with it's cannons blasting plus mounted TOW is initially able to deal more damage per second to you than a tank, but over time the tank is able to deal more damage due to the slow TOW reload time. It won't matter either way, it simply isn't enough to take you out in time before they themselves are destroyed. :P
You will be blasting away with the flak gun, and while it isn't the most effective weapon against armor, it'll slowly but surely take out an APC/tank - it's all a matter of time. :) Just make sure you aim for the treads if shooting at a tank, since that is it's weak spot.
Now, you're probably gonna ask - why not just take out the engineer first, and then the mobile AA? Well, that's a good plan, easier said than done though.
Thats assuming if the enemy even knew there was an engi there in the first place, especially if it's a long range shoot out - the engi will be almost invisible at long range.The advantage of shooting armor with the AA flak gun is that apart from the large and continuous muzzle flash masking the presence of the engineer, there is a large amount of shaking from the enemies point of view when getting shot. Your screen literally keeps shaking non stop when shot by the flak gun, as anyone who has played armor can probably attest to.
While this shaking usually isn't enough to affect the aim of a good armor player to make them miss their next TOW/shell shot at the mobile AA (doesn't matter anyway, the repair rate is fast enough to counter it), it should be enough to affect the aim of the APC cannon/tank machine gun to give the engineer a fighting chance of staying alive EVEN if they knew of the engineers presence atop the mobile AA. Any stray shots that hit the engineer will hopefully be healed soon enough by the medic driver.
The main threat that I've found to this strategy are bomber jets, spec ops and attack choppers, especially those with a good gunner capable of nailing TV shots - these are all capable of taking you out in one hit, thus nullifying the engineer repair ability.
Even so, mobile AA still has the best chance amongst all the armor classes to protect itself against helicopters and especially jets, and those pesky spec ops guys can often be spotted if you are careful.
This leaves the situation of ammo to consider - if you stay alive for a long time (which is the whole point of this strategy!) sooner or later you're gonna be low on ammo, especially AA missles which tend to be used up rather quickly. Hopefully your commander is helpful and sends you a supply crate, though with the beefed up 1.2 PKM there shouldn't be a shortage of support players running around anyway. :)
Oh, and one final tip - when you repair, keep your head down, as in, look straight down towards the ground. Why? Because you are less exposed this way, you have a lower profile and your head doesn't stick out above your body, but is actually bowed down against your chest, which means less chance of a headshot against you.
Check it out in 3rd person view and you'll know what I mean.
Let me know how you go with this strategy, it's served me well on many occasions, with the driver often ending up with 10:1 KD ratios and the engineer with a heap of kill assist and repair points.
Speaking of which, it's also an easy way to get your veteran and even possibly expert repair badge this way. :)
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