Thanatos

I was pondering a post this afternoon at work and it made a comment in passing about APCs staying outside the immediate capture range of a flag in order to provide fire support. The footsloggers eliminate the defenders, close in and turn the flag. Using an APC in such a stand-off fashion can ensure that it lasts for a long time and turn it into an essential tool for the squad, not just a means of transportation.

Have any squad leaders tried assigning a single engineer in their squad as the 'bus driver', responsible for driving the squad's APC and using it intelligently to provide fire support? When (not if) the APC is destroyed, then the driver is responsible for spawning at a flag where they can obtain a new APC and rendevous with the rest of the squad.

Tonight when I'm on (finally after 4 weeks!) I'm going to experiment with this idea. What do you guys think? Would it be useful to have the firepower, speed and armor an APC can provide or would another trooper on the ground be more useful? So far, I can only think of advangates to have a dedicated APC driver.

Sorry if this has been brought up before - but the forum search won't let me look for 'apc' - it's too short a word

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Acid

APC's can be very powerful weapons when attacking a flag and should never be abandoned or driven straight into the flag radius. As an SL, you should always assign someone to stay with the APC and use it to cover the flag with fire.

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Thanatos

Yup, that part is standard procedure - I should have pointed out that the difference here is that the single soldier who is driving the APC wouldn't even spawn on the SL once the APC is destroyed - he'd spawn back at the UCB or another spawn point to bring a new APC up to the squad. Essentially, that soldier is never without his vehicle.

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pedestrian01

I think it'd depend on the map. On armour heavy maps an apc isn't going to last that long and you'd eliminate that soldier for half the round since he'd be waiting for an apc spawn or driving across the map to join the squad. On a map like Berlin I think it'd work pretty well since there are only 2 vehicles per team there isn't really a need for a dedicated engineer so if used right an apc can do some severe damage before it is taken out.

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Slicklizard

Berlin is the most wonderful map to use a apc as support on. Go up to the second flag from the UCB and lob mortars over at the first flag and you can rack up 20 kills in 3 mins. It keeps the enemys on edge and unless the enemy walker can force his way past they have no way of taking it out. The range on the mortar is greater than the range on the engineer's weapons. Another ability is the emp bomb. It can disorent a squad heading your way giving your teammates time to eliminate them. And when the vehicle is seconds from destruction? Launch yourself out and score the final shot before meeting up with the rest of your squad.

jonan_

Who ever is using the mortors while the team is getting the flag needs to keep in mind the giant blast radius. I have been TK so many times by by an over zealous mortor guy trying to rack up kills. He just needs to fire a few rounds on the flag and then let the rest of the squad clear out any remaining enemy.

chaf3d

Well said. Also, your team should realize (especially on Berlin), that the APC WILL be Mortar spamming the Flags. Its easiest to flush out the flag. DON'T go running in there. LOB a GRENADE! Be tactically aware of what the APC is doing. His guns are bigger!

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All the forces of Evil need to Succeed is for enough Good men to do nothing.
-Edmund Burke

Slicklizard

I always keep an eye on the minimap when lobbing mortars. With my assault kit I can see what enemys I'm killing and adjust the height accordingly and also avoid firing on allies.