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Old 05-01-10, 02:40 PM   #56
hugostv
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Originally Posted by CCIP View Post
Throw an MG or an SMG squad in, and things turn extremely deadly, extremely fast. Sadly for the Russians, however, the real source of automatic fire from the germans isn't the infantry but the halftracks and tanks. But how do I fight these tanks?

Anyone have any tips for setting up AT ambushes?
Firstly, CCIP, I wanted to thank you for a really good review. It's very hard to find a person who can truly appreciate realism and write such an in-depth analysis of it. I've bought AP Kharkov 43 a few months ago and kept it almost untouched. The problem is that I love Theatre of War realism, but when I began playing AP I realized how much ToW lacks and how unprepared I was to handle it. But it sits there reminding about the time to step up to a challenge.
The thing I love about AP is it puts you into this grim atmosphere of that time. There's nothing pretty about listening to the howling of wolves and demoralized soviet troops. I think developers did a really good job of making it as realistic and as unbiased as possible. You can definitely understand why soviets couldn't fight effectively, partially because they just couldn't get enough technology to fight against overwhelming swarms of german motorized divisions.
OK. On to your question about AT ambushes. The only good tactic I found in AP was to never attack unless absolutely necessary. During the game, it almost means never. I thought 3 T34 can stand against a few Marders... Well, I learned my lesson. Even if T34s are superior in some respect, you still get an inexperienced crew who can't place a shot accurately. In ToW you can just use an HE shell to kill the crew. But I wasn't even aware about the level of realism that accounted for the shell shock. Anyway, the only useful tactic I found was to draw tanks close to infantry hidden behind trees. Don't open fire untill they get really close and then use AT grenades to set them on fire. In some cases, the crew will panic and leave the tank without getting damaged. The key is to let them get as close as possible without revealing your position, and that can be nerve-wrecking and sometimes impossible when you get a few scouts whom you must shoot when they get close. In some cases, tank crew will try to destroy you from a distance, but when they get to a point they feel that it doesn't yield results, they will just leave. In the end, you save the key position and hope for reinforcements. Of course, in this game you need patience and understand that it's meant for realism not fun, unless you are masochistic like some of us and get a kick out of hardcore realism.I think this game is a good depiction of how it was like back then.

Last edited by hugostv; 05-01-10 at 02:50 PM.
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