A short set of beginner tips for both fighting in armored vehicles and fighting against them
Introduction
Armored Vehicles, being APCs, IFVs or MBTs are an important part of WW3 gameplay. That being said, from a position of someone who loves playing them, I have noticed that both infantry and tankers currently have troubles with some basic concepts of vehicular and anti-vehicular warfare, hence I will give both sides some pointers to hopefully make fights more exciting.
This guide is basics only – there will be no in-depth details and statistics here. I simply want to give tips to beginners.
IMPORTANT
This is a common occurence now and it is very important for any WW3 player to take a note. Team kills might happen to you from friendly vehicles for many reasons. While we try our best to avoid them, clutter and splash damage take their toll in various circumstances.
If you do get team killed by a vehicle, please take a second to think before you punish the driver. Punishing them will kill them instantly, in majority of cases leaving the vehicle empty and ripe to be stolen by the enemy. I’ve seen many cases where an enemy got a hold of an additional vehicle in this manner, and this can easily tip the balance of combat in their favor. So while team killing sucks, accidents happen. Consider wheter you want that vehicle on your team or in enemy hands before punishing.
Now, onto the guide!
Basics of Vehicle Customization
The customization for vehicles is unprecedented in WW3 as far as military shooters go.
It might be a bit overwhelming, but it gives you immense flexibility to adjust vehicles to your own playstyle and tactical needs, as well as making it truly yours.
Currently, vehicles are represented by:
APCs (Wolverine and Bumerang)
Primary role: Troop Transport
Secondary role: Fire support
IFVs (Marder and Anders):
Primary role: Fire support
Secondary role: Anti-vehicle
MBTs (Leopard 2 and T-72)
Primary role: Anti-vehicle
Secondary role: Fire support
Note that through interchangable turrets and armor, you are capable of filling a lot of different roles, but this is what you normally stick to with those vehicles.
Lets go through various tabs quickly:
Generally speaking, autocannons (25, 35 mm) are better suited for hunting infantry, higher caliber (90 and 120 mm) are more suited to hunting vehicles.
In either case, you should always have two types of rounds in your vehicle – HE or Shrapnel for infanry and some sort of armor piercing (usually APFSDS) in case you encounter a vehicle.
Note that unless you pick ammo for coaxial machine gun, you will only start with one belt and won’t be able to replenish it. It is very important to use coax MG with larger caliber, slow firing cannons, as you do not want to be caught reloading while infantry is swarming you.
RCWS comes in variety of types and it is a very good feature to cover your weaknesses in case you have a friend to ride with you. It can cover anti-infantry or anti-vehicle roles, depending on your primary setup. If you are riding alone, you might consider saving points to call the vehicle faster.
Armor is pretty self-explanatory, if you are playing agressively, it is worth to have some, at least the RPG nets, as those will give you some protection against enemy RPGs.
APS is a must have on any vehicle – do not save on it! Since guided munitions are not really a thing, pick one of the hard-kill systems as it will intercept RPG rounds around your tank. Note that APS needs time to reload, think of it as a safety net – you are not invincible!
Smoke grenades are a very good addition as you will often find yourself in a situation where you need to scram – pop smokes with G and give yourself a better chance to retreat.
Optics are a must (and come for free), but also completly up to you. Thermal sights give a good picture, but can make it harder to distinguish friendy icons. White-hot is a good choice if you want to avoid friendly casualties at all costs.
In general for your loadout you would want to have some sort of cheap APC with cheap APS on to call in early.
You can wait and go for a mainstay – an IFV with armor, APS, smoke and some sort of auto turret/coax.
For the third vehicle you can have a fully pimped out IFV with a higher caliber or a cheap tank.
For the forth vehicle it’s good to have a fully pimped out MBT just in case you need one.
Note that each infantry loadout has 4 separate strikes so you can technically have up to 24 vehicle loadouts if you so wish.
Basics of Vehicular Combat
The first thing you will notice when you get in it is how powerful your weaponry is and you will get a sense of invincibility. This is extremely far from truth and you shouldn’t give into it.
APCs and IFVs have paper armor which gives in to RPG and cannon rounds easily. Even tanks are not safe from a few well placed RPG shots. You need to exploit your strengths, cover your weaknesses and work with the infantry. Do not expect infantry to work with you, it’s a video game, take the first step. They will appreciate you providing firepower and you will appreciate their ability to cover you and capture points.
Make sure to use your mobility to position yourself in such way that your frontal armor (which is thicker) is facing the enemy. At the same time make sure that your rear arc is a place where enemy infantry is absolutely least likely to be at the current time. Mind what’s behind you! The moment you start taking fire, your natural and appropriate reaction is to back up. If you get stuck, you are usually done for, so make sure there are no vehicles, walls or other barriers behind you.
Ideally, you want to keep your distance from the enemy, hang around infantry and retreat once you take some damage. There is no shame in going back to base for repair and resupply – your vehicle is expensive and needed by your team.
When fighting infantry, remember that RPGs fire in an arc and have travel time, so distance, cover and mobility are your friends.
When fighting vehicles, cover becomes even more necessary as to expose bare minimum of your vehicle required to fire back best case, half of the turret, or at least only your turret.
Be careful and you will last for a very long time in a vehicle. Easily entire round against people who can not mount a proper counter-action to take you down.
Basics of Anti-Vehicular Infantry Combat
Here are some pointers for everyone who wants to effectively combat armored vehicles:
Have at least one dedicated AT loadout on you to swap to once you notice an enemy vehicle.
RPG is a must here, equip it with good optics and make sure to pick secondary tandem rounds.
You can switch to tandem rounds by holding R with RPG equipped. This round “acts” twice, being more effective against applique armor, ERA and RPG nets. You only get one round normally, so make sure you have ammo kit on your AT loadout. MBTs, especially equipped with APS can easily shrug off your entire starting RPG ammo, so make sure you can restock.
Sniper rifles are a very valid anti-tank option, as they are all essentially anti-material .50 cal weapons.
While they won’t do much against armor proper, they are great at taking down optics on vehicles.
Each vehicle has two sights – commander sight is a periscope on top of the turret and gunner sight, which is located at the side of the main gun. Both are easily shattered and once they are destroyed, the vehicle is pretty much completly blind. Do not underestimate this! It is extremely hard for blinded vehicle to return fire and retreat. Unless driver gets out quickly and repairs the optics, it’s a very easy target.
APS is also a valid and very important target for sniper rifles – taking it out will deny a vehicle a LOT of survivability.
Overall, it is a good idea to have a sniper/RPG loadout with ammo pack, specifically for anti-tank duty.
Try to take out optics and APS with sniper rifle if you can. Change your position, fire an RPG round, change position again and repeat.
If an enemy vehicle manages to run away, do not fret – you still won the engagement and forced them to take a route back to base for repairs. This will give your team precious time to secure ground.
Never underestimate your opponent, one round can put an end to you from either side.
Fight smart and see you on the battlefield…
