Vehicle Guide (Mechanized/Armored Warfare)

[Minipily]

So here i'm just going to leave some tips and tricks for those of you who are thinking on using vehicles a bit more and are possibly considering getting into the play of using Mechanized Assaults to help infantry cross large open terrains without getting shot in their everything.

 

Let's quickly talk over each crew member and some common orders:

 

Note that only the MBT's use a crew of 4 while IFV's use 3 and most APC's use 2.

 

Crew

 

The commander: The commander is in charge of the tank and basically the man of the house; he tells the driver where to go, gives the gunner targets and instructs the loader what shell to load (although the gunner loads shell in Arma 3). It is considered to be the most difficult position in the tank as he has to manage not only the tank, but also incoming radio calls, so expect a lengthier pause between radio calls, especially in combat. Most vehicles provide commanders with smoke launchers to conceal the tank from incoming fire and shells and can also lay down smokes on the move for infantry to use as they move along. In addition the commander gets a wide array of optics such as night vision and thermal. 

 

The gunner: All in the name, the gunner is the guy who shoots stuff with a wide array of weaponry, this can consist of: Main cannons from 20mm all the way to 120+mm, co-axial machine gun, TOW/Stinger launcher. The gunner also has the ability to use different optics such as night vision and thermal.

 

The driver: The driver is the guy that gets you from point A to B, he should have a good mind for maneuvers and know what most of them are. Don't worry if you don't know them, we will be going over some of them later on! 

 

The loader: This is simple. He loads the gun (or atleast faster in arma 3 than the gunner), he acts as an extra pair of eyes for the commander/gunner/driver and can sometimes utilize a machine gun mounted on the roof of the tank either manually or through a computer.

 

Here's some common orders:

 

Orders the VC will often say to all the crew:

 

"Turn in! / Button up!" The crew turns in and closes their hatches to avoid taking small arms fire.

"Keep your head on a swivel / Keep scanning" The crew will keep checking their sectors, often done in close areas although the same can be said for large open plains.

"GET OUT! / BAIL! - The crew needs to get out the vehicle and run like hell! This is done if the engine or hull goes red, meaning a vehicle cook off is imminent. Is sometimes done if the track is blown off although sometimes it is better to stay inside, usually if the tank has hit a mine or taken a RPG to the track, better to stay inside and investigate before bailing out.

 

Orders the VC can give the driver:

"Driver forward" The driver press "W" and goes forward at normal speed.
"Driver forward slow/fast" The driver press "Q" for slow and "Shift+W" for fast.
"Driver forward five meters" The driver moves the vehicle forward 5 meters.
"Driver slow down" The driver slows the speed down.
"Driver increase speed" The driver increases the speed.
"Driver keep speed thirty" The driver increases/decreases the speed to said speed.
"Driver reverse" The driver press "S" and reverse the vehicle.
"Driver reverse ten meters" The driver reverse 10 meters.
"Driver left, left, left, left correct" The driver press "A" and keeps turning the vehicle left until he hears "correct".
"Driver forty five degrees left" The driver turns the vehicle roughly 45 degrees left.
"Driver right, right, right, correct" The driver press "D" and keeps turning the vehicle left until he hears "correct".
"Driver forty five degrees right" The driver turns the vehicle roughly 45 degrees right.
"Driver orientate two eight zero" The driver looks at the bearings and adjusts the vehicle to said bearings.
"Driver do one eighty" The driver turns the vehicle 180 degrees.
"Driver slow to halt" The driver stops the vehicle gently.
"Driver halt" The driver stops the vehicle as fast as he can.

 

Orders the Gunner can give the driver:

"Driver forward"
"Driver forward slow"
"Driver forward five meters"
"Driver reverse"
"Driver reverse three meters"
"Driver slow to halt"
"Driver halt"

 

Orders the VC can give the gunner is:

"Gunner load AP" The gunner loads corresponding armor piercing ammunition.
"Gunner load high explosive" The gunner loads corresponding high explosive ammunition.
"Gunner switch MG" The Gunner switch to the machine gun as the selected weapon.
"Gunner switch Cannon" The Gunner switch to the cannon as the selected weapon.
"Gunner switch GMG" The Gunner switch to the grenade machine gun as the selected weapon.
"Gunner orientate two five zero" The gunner turns the turret to bearing 250.
"Gunner fire" The gunner fires on the target he is currently looking at or searching for.
"Gunner weapons free" The gunner is free to engage any identified targets.
"Gunner hold fire" The gunner holds fire.
"Gunner contact bearing zero one zero, enemy APC, range three hundred, fire" The gunner turns the turret while switching to the cannon, loads corresponding armor piercing ammunition, zero his gun to 300 meters, reports contact spotted and starts to engage the contact.
"Gunner up, up, up, down" The gunner elevates/decrease his gun elevation in the direction he is told until he spots what the VC wants him to spot. ones spotted the gunner reports it to the VC.
"Gunner left, left, left, right" the gunner turns the turret in the direction he is told until he spots what the VC wants him to spot. ones spotted the gunner reports it to the VC.

 

It's vitally important to work together as a team. Good crew members who are not communicating will result in a dead vehicle!

 

Ammo

 

The list of most common ammunition types:

• APFSDS: Armour Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot. Often called “sabot” or “AP”. Basically has the best penetration for almost all ranges, except extreme ranges. It's penetrating power comes from the extreme velocity it is fired. Note that it can over pen light vehicles although in Arma this does not matter very much.

   

• HEAT: High Explosive Anti Tank. A big shell that explodes shortly after penetrating a target. Very good against soft to medium armoured targets. Has no drop off in penetration and is used for extreme ranges.

• HE: High Explosive. Explodes on impact and has almost no penetration power. Cheaper than other ammo types and very effective against light armour and infantry. Does not bounce.

 

Note: if an ammo type is followed by ”-T” (like: “APFSDS-T), it means that the shell act's as a tracer and gives a light trail when fired (same effect as rifle tracers).

 

Armour and countermeasures

 

In this section, I'll cover the different types of armor and other measures taken to protect a tank. I'll start with armor:

 

• Steel armor: This type of armor isn't in use anymore but I thought I would mention it because it was the main type of armor during WWII. Just a steel plate and nothing more.

• Composite armor: The main armor used on modern MBT's. Its designed to have higher armor values then steel by having less weight. This is why a T-90 is way better protected then a Tiger, despite having a lower weight. It can consist of a lot of materials, but aluminium and titanium are widely used.

• Depleted Uranium armor: Very strong armor made out of depleted uranium, something you get as garbage product from enriching uranium. The only tank that I know it's being used on is the Abrams. A tank is never made entirely from this armor due to the extreme weight it has.

• Chobham armor: This is believed to be the best armor in the world, only used on the American Abrams and the British Challenger. Almost nothing is known about this, but it is believed to be some sort of ceramic armor.

Other protective measures:

• ERA: explosive reactive armor: a slap-on armor plate that consists of cubes that explode outwards when hit. This will decrease the penetrating power of the shell or missile. Once hit the cube is destroyed and not more usable.

• Smoke launcher: Most modern tanks are equipped with smoke launchers. These launchers will fire off projectiles that produces smoke to give a full 360 smoke screen around the tank. Some tanks can also generate smoke by injecting chemicals in the engine.

• APS: active protection system: A system that detects incoming missiles and shoot those down. Not common on tanks and the only in front line use tank that uses it is the Merkava mk4.

Basic Vehicle Tactics

 

First of all is the positioning of the vehicle. Positioning a vehicle is the most important thing you can do in battle, poor positioning leads to death. Always try to keep a range from the target so have time to; target, identify, call it in, range, engage

 

Also it's always advisible to turn the front of the tank towards the enemy (I know, but some people I see do not do this in times when they can). Some more advanced positioning tactics are:

 

Hulling down: this means only exposing the turret by covering the hull with a rock or crest.

 

Sidescraping: A tactic that allows you to peek corners without the risk of taking heavy damage.

 

Also remember, be mindful of where you are going to be sidescraping, make sure that your flanks are secure and do not put yourself in a situation where you will end up reversing into someones clothes store and getting stuck if you need to escape the area.

 

Maneuvers

 

Bounding maneuvers are incredibly useful to move around open spaces without exposing your flanks, these are done when 2 or more vehicles are present.

 

Herringbone: Herringbone formations are great when you want to look to either side of, say, a road, allowing two vehicles to watch either side and act as buddy's for eachother.

 

Coil: Coil Formations, like Herringbone, is designed to get the front of the vehicles to look at certain areas only this time, to look in all directions. Best use for this is when you must hold an open plain area where you may be attacked from all directions.

 

Peeling: Peel maneuvers are used when contact is spotted in front and 1 vehicle must move into a better position, or both vehicles need to leave the area to get to a more efficient area. To do this, the vehicle that is on the far side of the direction your or moving will stay, while the furthest away will reverse, turn to the correct heading then move to the left or right of the vehicle at the far end of the column. Vise versa and you will eventually find that a platoon of vehicles in a line formation suddenly shifted 300m to the right without taking RPG's. Remember, slow is smooth and smooth is fast, never move all at once if you run the risk of exposing your flanks to the enemy, the last thing you want is an armada of RPG's flying towards each vehicles side.

 

Shoot and scoot: Shooting and scooting is simple, you move to cover, fire, then move again. This is used when dealing with multiple enemy vehicles, or suppressing RPG's teams that are danger close.

 

Firing on the move: This maneuver is done when there is multiple contacts with anti armor weapons or if there are armored vehicles present. It is also useful to note that doing this in a confined area WILL NOT WORK, so don't bother. Basically, the vehicle will maintain a steady speed but try to stay fast, so the gunner can efficiently knock out targets without running the risk of the gun bouncing up and down too much for him.

 

Falling into a line formation: This is used when a platoon of vehicles travelling along has been ambushed. To do this, the platoon sergeant or whoever is in charge of all the vehicles will order the vehicles to reverse away and point their fronts to the enemy.

 

Jumping out: This is often done when a column formation has been called in to decrease the chances of multiple vehicles being destroyed from the front but the vehicles must "jump out" into a line or wedge to get all guns on targets to the front.

 

That's all the maneuvers i'm going to say for now, maybe someone else can say some they know in the comments?

 

Driving through a confined area/town

 

Situations like this can and will happen and it is best to know how to handle it as it can be one of the hardest situations to deal with. A close confined space for a vehicle is never good, it will not perform as it's best and is extremely vulnerable to being swarmed or flank shot. Therefore, you will want to keep eyes everywhere you can so utilize your crew. A good tactic is to have your driver focusing front, as that is where he is going, have your gunner focus left and the commander focus right. If you have a loader available, have him focus where the gunner is looking so he can assist in calling out targets as it is much harder for a gunner to see.

 

The formation infantry should take in a town:

 

A Slammer covers infantry as they cross a road:

 

A Slammer neutralizes enemy's in a building as infantry take cover:

 

PLEASE NOTE: If you are doing this, stay at a slow speed! 10-20km/h is where you want to be at, rushing through a town is not good as you run the risk of missing an alley way, being immobilized by someone in the next alleyway and having a guy at the alleyway you just ran by, shoot you in the ass. Besides, infantry support can only jog at a steady pace of about 10+km/h so keeping slow is where it's at, don't make em sprint, just because you don't get tired doesn't mean they don't too.

 

Mechanized Warfare tactics

 

Okay, now that you know how most vehicles work in a basic sense, lets look a little more in depth. Infantry grunts! Pay attention, some of this involves you too.

 

Using the Bradley as transport

 

Okay, so you need a ride to the AO in the back of a Bradley, well it has seats so that's good but lets talk about correct tactics and etiquette when in using these.

1. Inform the commander on radio that you wish to use the vehicle and if possible, wave to him from the front of the vehicle to make him known of your presence. Failure to do things like this may end getting you squished if the Bradley needs to reverse.
2. Keep chatter to a minimum please! The vehicle crew needs to talk a lot more than you do, especially in a combat zone so try to keep chatter to a minimum.
3. GO GO GO! Okay, so your here and the commander has ordered you to disembark, like a helicopter, perform security to the vehicle BUT keep to both sides of the vehicle and try to keep the rear and definitely the front clear.

Using the Bradley for support

1. If you need ammo, the Bradley will most likely have it if you are using standard issue weapons for US militants. HOWEVER, like requesting a ride, please try to inform on radio to the Bradley and/or run in front and give it a wave or wiggle, this informs the crew and reduces risk of being ran over if the Bradley must reverse.
2. Open field with no cover huh, oh look, a Bradley, DON'T BE SHY! The Bradley is not only there to "steal all the fun", it is also there to assist you in other ways. Remember to call the Bradley on radio and see if it is possible for a "rolling cover" support. More often than not, this is easily available and you can use the Bradley as cover to get across a field without taking any or too many casualties or taking 30 minutes to cross 1 of 5 open fields.

 

IFV's are also great battering rams! Utilize that:

 

Infantry Support

 

Infantry support is DEADLY useful, especially in close confined areas. This is simple, stick with the vehicle as it moves through a town or takes up a position in say a village or something and make sure it doesn't get flanked. Without infantry support in a town, the vehicle is most likely going to be a coffin on tracks waiting to be hit.

 

Here's an example of a common ambush position against vehicles:

 

Remember to keep your armor pieces safe, these kind of areas are extremely dangerous as you an quickly be attacked from all directions in a close confined space, something a vehicle CANNOT deal with without infantry support.

 

NOTE!: If you are following along side a vehicle, stay clear of it's front and try not to cross a road from the front, the last thing you want is to be clipped by its guns or take a shot to the leg and be squashed by a track. In addition, if it is a MBT, stay clear of it's front completely as the main armament's shockwave upon firing is enough to knock you out or kill you.

[MessedUpSmiley]

Very nice and detailed guide. I think it would be very helpful to have some more mechanised/armored support during certain missions.

 

I would just like to note this rule, which should be pretty self-explanatory.

 

8. CAS  pilots(Helicopter/Jet) and Tank Crews should be on standby in a safe orbit over/around the AO unless instructed otherwise by command element(Not Squad Leaders). CAS standby and not fire unless told to by command. Tank crews and Air crews  are not permitted to go free for all on AOs.  

As Mini has also explained in his guide quite well. Armor is mainly used as support on EU3. Everybody is free to take a Hammer/Torch slot, but bare in mind that infantry has priority.

@Mini; on that personal note, we've had incidents not too long ago with people two-manning an Abramhams and just driving up to the objective and completing it before the infantry even got into the AO. Please show EU3 that tank crews can also be nice and supportive!

 

Once again, thanks for making this guide.

[Minipily]

Very nice and detailed guide. I think it would be very helpful to have some more mechanised/armored support during certain missions.

 

I would just like to note this rule, which should be pretty self-explanatory.

 

As Mini has also explained in his guide quite well. Armor is mainly used as support on EU3. Everybody is free to take a Hammer/Torch slot, but bare in mind that infantry has priority.

@Mini; on that personal note, we've had incidents not too long ago with people two-manning an Abramhams and just driving up to the objective and completing it before the infantry even got into the AO. Please show EU3 that tank crews can also be nice and supportive!

 

Once again, thanks for making this guide.

 

Yeah I heard about incidents like that, but it doesn't help that certain commanders have told regular infantry to just zerg rush deserts in Bradleys and Abrams. Like I have stated, to EFFICIENTLY use a an armored vehicle, a good crew is needed as is a full crew. A gunner and a driver on their own isn't good enough unless you want to 3rd person cheat it. 

[Ryko]

Excellent guide, Minipily!

[Louis]

Really good guide , Minipily! Tahnk you so much for it .
Could you add something like how to zero in with the BLUFOR tanks?
I tried the M1A1 on the last weekend on EU3 and the zeroing was like completely broken..
I guess I made some terrible mistakes , back then..

[Minipily]

Really good guide , Minipily! Tahnk you so much for it .

Could you add something like how to zero in with the BLUFOR tanks?

I tried the M1A1 on the last weekend on EU3 and the zeroing was like completely broken..

I guess I made some terrible mistakes , back then..

 

Talk to my designated gunner, Jochem.

 

He's the master with the gunnery.

[edgEe]

Very nice guide.

 

BTW. Is there possibility to swap optics in bradley. I mean to swap that poor thermal optics for nvg's one ?

[Jochem]

Really good guide , Minipily! Tahnk you so much for it .

Could you add something like how to zero in with the BLUFOR tanks?

I tried the M1A1 on the last weekend on EU3 and the zeroing was like completely broken..

I guess I made some terrible mistakes , back then..

For the Abrams: press 'T' while aiming at your target. It will get the range (only works between 400-4000 meters) and lead the target so the only thing to do next is press the fire button. Press 'G' afterwards to clear the lead and you good for your next target.

 

For the Bradley: press 'Tab' to get a range, leading you'll have to do manually. (btw, MG ranging is broken)

 

Very nice guide.

 

BTW. Is there possibility to swap optics in bradley. I mean to swap that poor thermal optics for nvg's one ?

Nope, sorry man, wish there was a way cause thermal doesn't really work on desert maps, but you'll have to improvise. What I tend to do is orientating with optical and then scanning with thermals.

[edgEe]

@Johen I'm not so sure about that desert maps f*cks up thermal.. I've been using almost same mods in my Polish Clan and there  thermal works fine..Unless some mod changes those settings ;/

 

But whatever.. if you want to be gunner/ or any crewman you need to adapt to stuff you get ;D

 

@PS. For the tanks you dont need to change zeroing up to 600 -800 couse they're zeroed on that distance. If for some reason dumping lead doesn't work you need wait 5-7 seconds after moving turret to be 100% sure that it will fire on point. Bradley is zeroed 300-400 meters.

[Jochem]

What I meant by that is that thermals are very impractical because the background is completely black so you get disoriented very fast.

[edgEe]

I know what you mean. Thats why there is a rule that:

- on open field (driving or just observating ) you check +/- 90 degree

- in urban terrain you check +/- 30 degree

- never make 360 unless you dont have commander or you got ordered to that.

[Minipily]

I know what you mean. Thats why there is a rule that:

- on open field (driving or just observating ) you check +/- 90 degree

- in urban terrain you check +/- 30 degree

- never make 360 unless you dont have commander or you got ordered to that.

 

Well, on desert maps the background is hot, so it's better to use black hot imaging so the background is white, this makes it easier to see but sadly the Bradley's gun optics are orange hot with black background making it very hard to see. At the end of the day, the gunner just needs to listen to the commander and he will be able to do his job fine.

[Noah_Hero]

Why isn´t this in the Guides section? People are constantly asking for tank guides/trainings etc. and this one is great!

 

*Edit*: Good descision to move it into here @Copey!

Edited July 20, 2017 by Noah_Hero

[Copey]

5 hours ago, Noah_Hero said:

Why isn´t this in the Guides section? People are constantly asking for tank guides/trainings etc. and this one is great!

 

*Edit*: Good descision to move it into here @Copey!

 

Welcome! Good shout

[Minipily]

Huh, I wrote this shit a long time ago, didn't think it was still being read. Hell come to think of it, I could probably update it with further knowledge at some point.

 

Cheers for moving it to the guide section!