Killing ground vehicles as AT/Engineer

[Thierry]

In BF2 I wanted an AT rifle and I finally got one so I love it ofcourse, but there are several things that can help you aim this thing.
First off, there is more and less deviation if you move or are prone, so if you can, hit the dirt, wait a sec and then fire.

The Pilum does more damage to the soft spots of a vehicle, and less damage to the frontal armor then the stock AT weapons, so its best to wait to hit the side for 50% or hit the rear for a full kill.

Walkers have two weak spots, the knee joints and the vents between the legs.
The knee joints deal 50% damage, the vent is an instant kill.
Any weapon whatsoever can do damage to a walker if it aims at the vents (including all bullets) so dont be afraid to chip off that last bit of health with bullets.

If a tank sees you and tries to back up, you wont outrun him, you'll usually die, the best thing to do is head for cover and lay motion or emp mines so that when the tank comes back, you're ready for it.

Many times, if you are nearing that sweet spot vent of a walker, and the walker sees you, he'll run into any direction to avoid getting killed.
This can easily cause him to run into a wall, allowing you to either get between the legs again, or lay some mines.

You dont always have to kill ground vehicles, take them if you can when they hop out unless its burning. Remember, you dont have to fight, you can take it and run and repair it yourself later, thats one tank or walker more for your team, and one less for the enemy till its destroyed.

Using mines is radically different from BF2, in the sense they dont kill instantly.
You cannot place a bunch of mines in a line covering a road, a vehicle can just waltz right over them, either raising their shield, or taking that few seconds of EMP.
Instead, lay it in a diamond pattern, so that when one mine hits, it will causes the vehicle to run into the next one and so on.
This works best by far if you use EMP AND motion mines.
You can lay one EMP in the road, two motions a little back and side of it, and another EMP behind that, just like the points on a diamond shape.
When a vehicle hits the first EMP, they cant raise the shield and the motion mines will get them for you, if they somehow survive or kept going a little more cus of their speed, the second EMP mine will finish the job.

Remember that you can pick up your mines should you need to relocate.

I find targeting aircraft with the Pilum to be easier then with the AA unlock, you just need to know when to fire.
If any given aircraft comes straight at you, fire away, you might die, but so will he.
Usually though, the best times to fire is the point at which an aircraft starts to hover, slow and turn. Just as it turning, hit the fire button.
Also remember, aircraft die easily, so if you see one landing or on the ground, go for it.

On Titan maps, the Pilum has two nice bonuses.
It can kill landed aircraft on parts of the Titan where other teammates cant get, and two or three shots destroy any given Titan Console.
You also deal a nice amount of damage to the Core if you can do it.
Also, it can kill a Titan turret, but you generally need two or three hits, wasting ammo on something the normal AA turrets do far easier.

[Elite_Master]

Good points about soft spots on vehicles... two points I would like to add are ::
1) Counter-measures/shields do nothing to prevent damage from a motion mine which strikes your vehicle. Speed DOES affect it though, so if you must, only allow one mine to strike at a time and only allow it to strike the vehicle at a very low speed (then repair and keep going, repeat).
2) When using the Pilum against vehicles.. three good offensive tactics to note are --> a) prone, fire, displace.. seek hiding places while displacing
b) quickly strafe out of a corner and aim and shoot quickly.. because the vehicle is alerted when there is a lock on target, this way he/she will have little warning
c) when a vehicle is spotted and you start manuevering to begin the engagement, your first shot needs to be the greatest damage, then as the engagement duration increases, you need to make your shots quicker, from a greater directional array and so therefore will not be as damaging per hit until you get the kill.

[IMI-50AE]

Though I use the Pilium almost exclusively, I had a thought that would help with the stock AT weapons. As they are guided, they give the targeted vehicle a lock-on warning when your crosshairs (or reticule, whichever word you prefer) touch the vehicle, even if you aren't zoomed in (I'm not sure of that, can someone confirm?). Now, the Pilium doesn't give a warning, thus there is no way to know when to hit shields unless you observe the launch (rare), and the warning gives vehicles time to shrug off the hit, find you, and kill you. Seems pretty gloomy, right? Well, in addition to the strategies mentioned above, here's a thought: Fire your weapon offset. Huh? It's real simple. Aim your weapon just off the vehicle (to the right, left, up, not down unless you're elevated, as the weapon would hit the ground) and fire. Then, at the last minute, guide the missile back on target for the hit. In my experience, there is a small delay between the driver getting the warning and hitting active defense. It's small, but it's there, and sometimes they wait so they don't get snookered into wasting their shield. This way, they think you are still aiming, and WHAM! One smoking carcass and an enemy scratching his/her head, saying 'What the heck was THAT?'

My $0.02

[Elite_Master]

Originally Posted by IMI-50AE

...
Well, in addition to the strategies mentioned above, here's a thought: Fire your weapon offset. Huh? It's real simple. Aim your weapon just off the vehicle (to the right, left, up, not down unless you're elevated, as the weapon would hit the ground) and fire. Then, at the last minute, guide the missile back on target for the hit. In my experience, there is a small delay between the driver getting the warning and hitting active defense. It's small, but it's there, and sometimes they wait so they don't get snookered into wasting their shield. This way, they think you are still aiming, and WHAM! One smoking carcass and an enemy scratching his/her head, saying 'What the heck was THAT?'

Hmm, interesting tactic.. I didn't know that once fired if you keep aiming at the vehicle the missles will track (I'll have to try this); I thought that if you aimed properly when you shot the missles that they would track even after changed weapon .. fire and forget). If you can bring the missles back on track once shot off trajectory, then this would be a fantastic strategy to use against armor. You could soup-up the tactic by firing directly at the vehicle the first time so they use their counter-measures, then reload and use the tactic, usually if they do not have a warning alert sound they will not displace because they are looking for the enemy shooter. Though, really you would need to be at a distance to do this getting the aim back on trajectory thing effectively, which makes the shots harder to make as well as their being more time while the rockets are in the air, which in turn means more alert time for the driver as well.

[TG_JBRanger]

I was just about to say the same thing regarding the stock AT weapon. This is the trick we learned in BF2 and it works well. In BF2, I aimed over the vehicle, as I would then retarget and the missile would hit the top causing more damage. I'm not sure how much damage it does in BF2142 but it does work and work well. The other advantage is at long range. You can fire it high and retarget. This prevents the armor from knowing its coming and also it's harder for enemy troops and vehicles to determine your location from which way the missile came.

[InfernoBLT11]

The Russian stock AT missile is always my personal choice for long range engagement since it left less smoke and thus give you a better chance to guide it. I think the EU rockets would spread out over long distance and sometimes not all 4 of them would hit. Can anybody confirm this?

[Frodric]

I haven't seen any spread at all. I use it to kill snipers and all 4 rockets strike at pretty fair distances.