why tank towns are empty

[moot]

Gonna take a wild guess and bet that the WOT terrains are much more like WWII tanking environments than AH.  In AH, tank's operating environments are disproportionately wide open areas with nowhere to go for cover, other than hangars, towns, woods with effectively no canopy, etc.  And I bet there was much more G2A defense for planes to contend with than the vast majority of times that planes meet enemy tanks.

I haven't read any good historical literature on ground warfare in ETO, but maybe someone here has.

[niccxx]

I'm still fairly new, maybe someone can advise me on this. What frustrates me most about tank battles is that I can land 2, 3, sometimes 4 shots on an enemy and not destroy him but I get destroyed with 1 round from him. I can't get enough perk pts to drive anything but a panzer normally, and when I do roll out in a perked gv, I get killed right away from someone who's camped the spawn. Noobs like me stand no chance.

[moot]

You need to hit something vital.  It's the same difference as poking a hole thru someone's cockpit/canopy, and actually hitting the pilot.

If you suspect a spawn is camped, roll a "recon" GV first. Don't roll a tiger....  Like you wouldn't roll a B29 from an airfield you suspect is capped.

[715]

niccxx:  there are some posts on this board on where to hit various tanks.  Here are some suggestions:

M4 and T34 from the front: hit the curved part below the glacis (sloped front plate).  Don't try to hit the turret unless it is pointed away from you, i.e. you are hitting the side armor of the turret.

M4 from the side: hit the side of the hull or turret, not the tracks/wheels.

T34 from the side: hit the side of the turret or the tracks.

Panzer from the front: hit the turret.  From the side hit anything.

Tiger from the front: very difficult no matter what you hit unless you are extremely close range.  If the Tiger doesn't see you, wait until he rotates his turret away then hit the side of the turret.

In order to make these precise hits you must learn to estimate range.  Here's a tip that could help (until they make changes in the sights): if a Panzer is side on and the length of the hull is equal to the length of the tick mark in the sight, he's at about 1200 range.  If head on and the width is about 1/2 the tick mark he's 1200.  If the width is equal the the tick mark, he's at 600, and so on.  The other tanks are similar as they are about the same size.  You can always calibrate offline for each tank if you want to get picky.

[715]

Regarding clutter and cover for tanks.  Real ground, even the plains of Kursk, aren't entirely flat.  There are little high points and low points and erosion features.  In addition to giving hull down positions they also limit sight distance.  AH is a bit hampered in simulating this because terrain polygons are very coarse: 0.5mi x 0.5mi x 0.7mi triangles (the actual polygon tiles, not the little glued on mounds).  This makes sight distances in AH really long, ca 1/2 a mile, if there are no hedges/trees/mounds. 

Although it's not a vote, I, personally, would not enjoy long range tank battles with no clutter and nowhere to hide.  Being blown away immediately by a Tiger siting 3K away doesn't sound fun to me, nor does being on the other end.  Maneuvering doesn't really help unless there is cover: it's easy to hit moving tanks even at 3K ranges.  Without cover, choke points, and ambush spots, what's the point, other than spawn camping in a Tiger?  Note that ambushing does not mean siting in one spot forever: as soon as you get your first kill you've given away your position (if only to the guy you killed) and you have to reposition to another ambush spot.  During that move you are vulnerable to ambush yourself. 

[moot]

Random little villages would really be ideal from a gameplay pov (dunno about feasibility). 





If there was a way to lego bits of them into varying wholes, kind of like at the City area, it might be possible to have more than just the same few generic village permutations scattered in the country side..  Or they could be one-piece non-permutated, and only at most half a dozen different ones total, if they were as well made as the present town layout.

[bmwgs]

I'm still fairly new, maybe someone can advise me on this. What frustrates me most about tank battles is that I can land 2, 3, sometimes 4 shots on an enemy and not destroy him but I get destroyed with 1 round from him. I can't get enough perk pts to drive anything but a panzer normally, and when I do roll out in a perked gv, I get killed right away from someone who's camped the spawn. Noobs like me stand no chance.

First advise is NEVER up a high perked tank in a camped spawn.  If the spawn is camped I like upping the T34-85 or the M4A3(76W).  Both have fast moving turrents.  The M4(76W) shoots like a machine gun because it reloads so quick.  

Second, understand sometimes a spawn is so camped that you just need to find another fight and come back later to see if it has cleared out a bit.  

Third, the lag between you and the player you are shooting at makes a difference as to if you are going to get a one shot kill.  Location of the hit is important, but I have found the lag is the deciding factor.  I have on many occasions killed someone with one shot for them to re-spawn and all of a sudden I can not kill them in five shots even though I am hitting them in the exact same spot as the previous kill.

Fourth, you also need to understand that some players are such good shots you are only going to get one, maybe two shots.  This is frustrating when you are new, but hang in there you will learn to range, but like flying you are going to die a lot.

Fifth, if you did not know, you need to set your views in a tank just like you would in a plane.  You also need to have your controls set up where you can jump from one position to another with ease.  

Sixth, to get some tank perks, just run some resupply M3's to bases that need it.  It takes some time, but you will slowly gain some perks.

Just some of my suggestions, hope they help.

Fred      

[USRanger]

Perhaps you guys are playing in the wrong "tank town".

[CAV]

....why tank towns are empty......


I can tell you why. You can't have a tank battle without air cover. Well... you can't win a tank battle with out air support. Tanks and other armoured vehicles are vulnerable to attack from the air for several reasons. One is that they are easily detectable, especially obvious if they are moving. A moving tank produces a lot of heat, noise and dust. Airborne threats can be countered in several ways. One is air supremacy. This is what the United States relies on most, which is demonstrated by their distinct lack of effective short-range, mobile air defence vehicles to accompany armoured units. Most other countries accompany their armoured forces with highly mobile self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. Attack planes live to drop bombs on tanks.... you may not like it, but it's what they do, without CAP over your formations it is going to a bad day.

CAVALRY<------- 22 years in tanks.... just about all of them hiding from planes.