Tank Surfing!

[Phelan Ward]

Ah, now that v1.03 is out new steps have been taken in full squad transportation! It seems that those pesky APCs that were always missing the 6th slot grew a new chair! Thats right, the unlucky person is now able to jump up and ride on top of the APC. Consider the other night on Wake 2007, USMC had pushed the PLA back to the northern corner flag. Lucky Shot rolls up with a tank from the otherside of the map.

Now rather than let this beast die and take another lonely 5 minute drive down the road, I jumped down next to it and started cranking. Since Lucky Shot wasn't in my squad, I couldn't tell him to STOP ROLLING OVER MY TOES! (Though not fatal, squished toes are even more annoying when then have to run after said tank to continue repairing it.) I decide to truley test v1.03's de-poisoned, electrified, razor edged vehicles by jumping on top of the tank and wrenching from there. Sure enough the tank didn't kill me, but damn those bullets and all 20 snipers on that map! First I try hiding behind the .50 cal, that worked for a while but in the end was still too vulnerable. In the end I jumped behind the turret and wrenched from there. I even suprised an enemy SF with a shotgun to the face!

It was going good until we tried to cross the bridge. It seems one of our SF guys thought it was funny to continuosly keep said bridge blown all night. Of course he blew it behind us, and after firing enough times, Lucky ended up falling through the hole and into the water below, despite my best attempts to fix the bridge before he fell. But that wasn't the end of tank surfing, oh no, that was just the beginning. The water was shallow enough that the tank didn't blow up. So I jumped down and hopped back onto my safe spot, we then continued up the beach head, and made a stand in the water of that last base. It seemed at that point, all those chineese dudes noticed the tank in their harbor and decided to kill it. Oh well.

So, if you want to keep your APC alive a little longer, or you want to give the helicopters a 6th kill for killing the APC, throw your engineer up on top and have him wrench all the way to your destination.

[|TG| B]

Remember the picture that is supposed to be the daily news from EA? The picture that shows and Anti Tank soldier on a Tank, in Wake Island Map? Now that picture makes sense.

I will definetely try to surf tanks now.

[Malum]

Yeah, I've done that. It's actually amazing how many anti-tank missles you can soak up as a tank that way. The tank basically becomes almost as undefeatable as the reputation of the blackhawk was before.

EDIT: I did it, and another guy jumped with me and made 2 doing it. ....unstoppable....we had a medic behind us that kept healing us and reviviing us.

[xTYBALTx]

I've tried riding tanks, always from the front and while standing. I fall off after less than 30m! If you lie down you don't move?

[ultrablue]

Turbo was successfully implementing that technique on my tank on the priv server monday night. A medic in the turret would be helpful allowing the tank to become a mobile health vehicle for the surfing engineer. I've started to get into the habit of repairing my own tank from a prone position on the top behind the turret so I can watch out for vehicle thieves.

[jepzilla]

I've tried that before, although it's very dangerous in a tank-vs-tank fight. If the enemy tank gets a shot around the area the engineer is sitting (usually above the engine) he's dead, so the friendly driver needs to keep that area extra protected.

[SgtDuke]

Originally Posted by xTYBALTx

I've tried riding tanks, always from the front and while standing. I fall off after less than 30m! If you lie down you don't move?

Try the back, I've had better luck there. It seems that you're a bit more steady when you go prone or crouch, not sure though.

[birdie_in_Texas]

tank surfing..! sooo that's what it's called..!

[munchkin]

Originally Posted by jepzilla

I've tried that before, although it's very dangerous in a tank-vs-tank fight. If the enemy tank gets a shot around the area the engineer is sitting (usually above the engine) he's dead, so the friendly driver needs to keep that area extra protected.

Very true, and I was the engy who was dying..

[icky]

Ah yes, TG is the place where we strive for realistic combat.

Tank Commander: "Mechanic! I need you to ride on the outside of my tank and fix my damaged armor anytime I am fired upon by the enemy!"

Mechanic: "YES SIR! I'll get my wrench and jump up behind the turret! Front lines, here I come!"

[Bodofooko]

Now if you could just jump on enemy tanks and throw grenades down the hatch.

[Turbo]

Originally Posted by ultrablue

Turbo was successfully implementing that technique on my tank on the priv server monday night.

I think we keep that tank up until all the enemies spawned back as AT. We were going good for about 5 minutes though.

[Steel_Penguin]

I wonder if a tank with 6 people lying prove on top would make it look like the tank had camo-colored ticks .So now even if my bombs don't kill the tank it kills all the little parasites on top. SWEET .

[Coridon]

Originally Posted by Phelan Ward

. It seems one of our SF guys thought it was funny to continuosly keep said bridge blown all night. Of course he blew it behind us, and after firing enough times, Lucky ended up falling through the hole and into the water below, despite my best attempts to fix the bridge before he fell.

i have a question about this...were blown bridges repaired by engys riding in vehicles before 1.03? i've noticed since the patch...when i'm an engineer and i roll even *close* to a blown bridge it is immediately repaired. now i don't even slow down if i'm rolling forward and see a big gaping hole in front of me, since i know it will be all patched up by the time the tanks treads hit it.

one time on Mashtuur the bridge by the power plant was blown, and i hopped in the tank as it spawned, turned left and headed towards the hotel, but when i looked back i had repaired the bridge...in a mere .026 seconds!!

seems a wee fast, don't you think??

[SgtDuke]

Originally Posted by Coridon

were blown bridges repaired by engys riding in vehicles before 1.03?

Yeah, I noticed that a couple months ago. Doesn't make sense to me. A big bridge should take awhile to repair. Right now it's almost a waste of time to destroy bridges because they can be repaired so fast.