Hey Stu,

Targeting tanks has been on of my favorite pastimes of late. I have gotten to where I can flip around after passing a tank and destroy it when a couple seconds. When flying toward a tank, I've learned how to lead my shots so that I am nearly as effective. So, yes I could possibly get you before you get a shot off probably 6 or 7 times out of ten. I'm not bragging, just confirming that its possible.

Watch when somebody jumps into a tank. There's a short window that you see both the soldier and the tank. The soldier is usually flipping all over the place. In that window you can still shoot either the man or the tank and score hits. It still takes at least five for a kill. I target the tank and more often than not kill the tank before it moves. I should also mention that I'll throw the throttle nearly all the way to 0 and "coast" towards the tank. Once I start losing maneuverability I throttle back up full.

When I go to enter a tank and there's reds flying very near, I usually juke and jive on foot until they pass. Then I jump in the tank. This gives me a chance to do that crazy flipping and actually get situated in the tank to start moving.

Now I'm giving away secrets, but I'll tell you anyway. When I'm darting left and right, I also vary my speeds. This makes it difficult to properly "lead" fire at me. Another trick I use is to circle back towards incoming reds. This limits their aiming/firing time. I never go in a straight line unless there's no reds on radar.

Lastly, there is a "scope" view if you hit the camera. You still have to allow for elevation and shell fall, but its useful. Downside is that you are no longer moving. It puts the brakes on. Because of this, I seldom use it, except when targeting a plane or the carrier from high ground.


Edit: if you get a chance, watch YEMX in a tank. He's a friggin tank master!

Stuart and Parrot,

I do think the tanks have slowed down, not just in the most recently days' releases, but since something like 4.4.24. I feel a little more exposed in a tank nowadays. But then again, the planes are pretty slow in maneuvering too, so it's not like I prefer one or the other more. I'm jumping in tanks as frequently/infrequently as I did before.

Note that when a plane is diving at a tank from the side (at low altitude), the tank's side to side weaving doesn't help it much, while speed changes will help it dodge the leading lead stream. I like hitting tanks from the side. But also note that if the tank turns into you, you'll lose precious opportunity to hit it.

When diving in from behind a tank, side to side weaving does make it more difficult to hit. Plus the plane has to be near the ground for starts and stops to not throw aim off.

Stuart, you may have noticed some players driving tanks backwards. I've started doing this sometimes, especially when all threats are toward the blue base and I am driving toward red. This allows me to keep driving and still see what's going on (for some reason, radar doesn't seem to show all threats!). It also lets me shoot at reds in that direction. LOVE it when I can splash a plane with a tank shell. But there are others who are real pros at that (not me).

Manfred

Manfred... Good clarification regarding shooting at tanks from the side. This another reason turning the tank towards the threat is useful.

I've tried the backward driving. Unfortunately, I seem to turtle a lot more when I'm doing it. Cant seem to turn into the roll to stop it. However, when I do go into a roll, I usually pull back on the control for reverse and seem to right the take out if the roll easier than any other tactic.

As a side note... I used to autodestroy when I turtled, but Whosethisguy pointed out that it sometimes results in a 150 point loss. So now I shoot the ground and destroy myself... So I then respawn quickly, No lost points and I rob a red of the kill.

Lol, I wind up shooting myself when I turtle only because I'm still hopeful I can shoot something useful. Used to be that you could point the turret down so that it's above the horizon when you're upside-down, and launch a cannon ball somewhere. I made a few carrier hits that way. But the game seems to make all turtled tank shots suicidal now.

Backward driving gets a little hairy once I get to hills, so I turn around.

When I start to roll, I try to decide quickly if the roll rate will only go half a turn, in which case turning *into* the roll will throw some more roll rate in there.

Hey sometime when we're bored and in a DF mission, maybe we should have (another) tank clinic. In this one, we could purposefully flip tanks and get some practice on establishing a full-integer roll rate. A buddy could flip you back over if you turtle.

Manfred

Manfred wrote: ... A buddy could flip you back over if you turtle.

Manfred

Other tanks van flip you over?

Yes, another tank can flip you. This goes both ways . One tactic I use when in a tank on tank fight is ramming the other tank between reloads. About a forth of time I flip them, another forth I flip me and half the time one of us will shoot the other, usually destroying both tanks.

Here lately, several guys have been tanking during DF games and just playing in tank... Tank races, bumper tanks or tank jousting on the bridge... Good fun!

ParrotHead wrote: Yes, another tank can flip you. This goes both ways . One tactic I use when in a tank on tank fight is ramming the other tank between reloads. About a forth of time I flip them, another forth I flip me and half the time one of us will shoot the other, usually destroying both tanks.

Here lately, several guys have been tanking during DF games and just playing in tank... Tank races, bumper tanks or tank jousting on the bridge... Good fun!

Oh, this started a year ago!