Fenreil said:
I signed up for the beta due to this thread, waiting for it to download now.
Anybody got any beginning advice? Most of my knowledge of the tanks in this game comes from Company of Heroes, so I'm kinda a blank slate. Also, the King Tiger isn't the unstoppable juggernaut of a machine it is in CoH, right?
At lower levels, every shot will pretty much penetrate every armor so go with something accurate and fast. 20mm autocannons are a good choice and because of their huge tracers they are a good way to learn how to hit moving targets.
Strength-Weakness
Light tanks can dodge artillery and quickly get behind them
Tank destroyers oneshot light tanks before they get close
Medium tanks run circles around tank destroyers
Heavy tanks kill medium tanks with sheer firepower and toughness
Artillery rains death upon big, slow heavy tanks
Armor
Sloped armor is better then non-sloped armor, shooting somebody's front does barely damage but can break lots of modules like the gun, view ports etc, shooting somebody's side breaks their tracks and slows/stops them, shooting somebody's rear does tons of damage but leaves them fully functioning down to their last hp.
Shells
AP does medium damage with high penetration(more chance to to damage) but may bounce when hitting at an angle and loose power over distance.
HE does high damage and have AOE that even hits without penetration and they stay at 100% power across the entire map
APRC are premium AP and have a little bit more penetration but are universally considered a waste of money.
HEAT are premium HE with no splash but more penetration, complete garbage as they do less net damage then normal HE.
Spotting
There is no "true" camoflage, everybody gets a bright red icon over their head when they are spotted. Standing still, not turning your turret, being obscured by terrain and standing in/behind bushes reduce the distance at which you are spotted. Tank destroyers get a bonus to this, heavy tanks a penalty. Your radio broadcasts all spotted enemies to your team. You get XP if somebody shoots a tank outside their own view range if you spotted it for them.
XP
You don't earn XP from kills, but from damage. Killstealing is useless and you should only do it if your ally is near death and are in danger of being finished off by whoever they're fighting. Don't expect much thanks for saving somebody's ass like this, 99% of the time they're completely convinced that they can handle everything the game throws at them until they actually die. Damaging higher tier tanks gives more XP then lower tiers. You also get XP for being near enemies, aforementioned spotting bonus, capturing their base and doing module damage. XP buys upgrades and more tanks.
Faction specific
Americans have a huge, weak body but a massively armored turret. Keep your tub of fuel behind cover and take the hits with your armored top. When fighting them, try to get to their huge, poorly armored flanks.
Germans are a brick wall when faced head on and have long range guns. Pick a hill, preferably out of artillery line of fire and go snipe. When fighting them, get up close, keep moving and don't waste your shells on their nearly invincible front.
Russians have sloped armor, are fast but have several glaring weak points all over them. Stay mobile, use those slopes and don't give them time to hit your vulnerable tracks, which will leave you stationary while they line up a killshot through one of your plentiful extraneous viewports. While you are fighting them, do exactly that.
In short, americans require situational awareness, germans require tactics and russians require steermanship.
Distinguish tanks
Learn mnemonics like "the danger of an IS* is directly related to the amount of junk on top of the turret", "an inverse rear slope means something fast". It may seem trivial when you can mouse over stuff but it will save you more then once. Remember germans tanks are always gray, russians light green and americans dark green.
