[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Werewolf

@Skybird & Wilcke:
It worked! The crisis is over
Thanks skybird for your help

Na siehste woll!

time to have a look at the mission generator now

The - what...?

....this game is just...it's like getting behind the wheel of a quality car, even though you haven't really run it yet you can just tell the quality!

I'm preaching this since years, but its always the same show with the noobies: wide open mouths and starry eyes...

wauw the game looks great by the way.....I managed to take an hour to play it this afternoon and got myself shot to pieces in a Centauro

Well, that vehicle is a heavy turret on a medcium hull with a medium gun, so the name of the game must be "shoot and scoot". It's not much different with the Leopard-1. These vehicles are vulnerable, and they are the more difficult to play.

Some tips for starters.

Choose the heavy tank of your liking, Leopard-2A5/E/STRV122, or the Abrams. The Leopards are more ergonomic in their gunnery procedures, easier to fight with, and allow the TC better situational awareness (periscope, independent TIS). Then stay with that tank for the next weeks or so, play aroudn with all the sutff to please your curiosity, but then piuck one vehciole and stay with it. Learn it's handling inside out, especially the emergency procedures (gunnery via GAS).

By doing so, you allow yourself the chance to deal with the real challenge of the sim, and that is tactis, reading the landscape to yoiur advanatge, timing, formation manouvering.

From the main menu, use the gunnery practice where you shoot 10 moving targets, and try to get a 90-100% score there. This scoring also effects the skill of your AI colleagues - that'S why it is important. Go there again when you come back to the sim after some days or weeks of break. The shooting is one of the highly realistic physics model in the sim, and you really should try to become an expert at shooting, sharp like a razor.

Deal with the mission editor early on. This is not wasted, becaseu essentially it is the same interfce you use for planning your mission before it starts. Also, use the editor to edit the mission you play next that it allows you to play with the learning vehicle you have choosen. If you picked Leo-2, change playable Abrams to Leoo-2s, and vice versa.

Play small scale mission first, and plenty. Play from TC station only and try to command your platoon from that position exclusively. What you learn in skill that way, is stuff well-learned and will help you to establish routine quickly.

Always think ahead, and have a plan B ready.

Stay low in the valleys, do not advance over ridges - move back, and move around ridges.

Keep away from water holes.

Don't get frustrated. Most likely you will get killed often in the beginning, and most of the time you will not know what, why, and from where. Use the AAR (after action report), switch deisplay to real positions and single vehicles. Via F1 and F5 you can switcxh between map and real world vie - check what a critical shooting situation on the map looked like in the real world. Move via tank-control keys W-A-S-D, control your height via Q and Y.

In map vioew, there is the mline of sight tool. Use it, and use it much. Note the big differences in vehicle heights: Cahlly, Abrams and Lreo-2 are around 3m, but the T-72/T-80 just around 2.1 m. The highest vehicle is the M2/M3 (3.3+ m). CVs and BMPs are around 2.3-2.4m, the Marder 2.9m, the M113 2.4, the Pizarro and Leopard-1 around 2.5 m, the Centauro 2.7m, the Jaguar 2.4 but the TOW-Wiesel just 1.8m. What I mean is: just use the slider controlling the height for the LOS tool.

When setting up a defensive psoition in the map tool, set that psoition a bi8t BEFORE the actual position where oyu think it is. The vehciles will always relocate a bit by themsleves to find optimal positions, up to 300 m, and it is better that when they ´gain autonomous status by the kssion plan, they still have some protective spac eion front of them - they will move forward all by themselves until they can see. even if the gun doers not pass a ridge - the tank will move by itself so that the TC can see what he must see. For the same reason, when using prepared psoitons for tanks (those trenches in which the vehicles hide their hulls, set up the defesne psoiton marker slighty in fron of thew entrance, not directly on top of the trenches. The vehicles than find the trenches by themselves.

Never forget, tanking is a TEAM play. As long as you think you are a one-man-army, you will die over and over again.

2 minutes 40 seconds - that is the usual artillery reaction time. Keep it in miond. Once you have been spotted, it might be a good idea to have left your current position before the time is eaten up. Standard artillery barrages are 200x200 m. Make it a habit to start moving after 2 minutes or so, to clear that box before the shelling starts. ICM can kill any vehcle in the game - especially when the hatch is still open (then a single HE round already may be enough). Note that the Leo-2E and Strv-122 have special hatches that are operated by hydraulics, noit manually. They have improved armour, but they need around 20 seconds before they are shut (or opened).

Learn to close or redcue the GPS shields when you are under small arms fire (some tanks allow that). that small callibre still can kill your TIS and primary optics. When running into artillery, not only close the hatch, but also the GPS shields.

If you have, setup a HOTAS for the sim. Learn to aim and shoot both with stick and with mouse. Many people forget that there is a mouse control, too.

Firing procedures and sight control can be very different in some of the vehicles, especially the IFVs. Be prepared for that.