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World of Tanks: Tank Killer fun

After spending some time in light tanks (mostly a Tier 2 PzKpfw 35) I decided to try something completely different so I got me an entry level tank destroyer the Russian AT-1.

Bit of a shock to the system at first. Coming from the relative nippiness of light tanks the AT-1 moves and turns like molasses. The lack of  turret is frustrating forcing you into an awkward cycle of zoom in to shoot zoom out to turn the tank, zoom in again to shoot etc. Also despite the fact that it is also a tier 2 tank it seems to rank a grade higher than the PzKpfw 35 and gets put into matches with tiers 3 and 4 so you find yourself in matches where just about every other tank on the field is faster than you are, more manoeuvrable than you are and can kill you in an instant. 

There is an up side. It wouldn't be a tank killer if it didn't have a big gun. It comes with a tier 2 gun but after a few matches you should be able to upgrade to a tier 3 76mm or even a tier 4  57 mm. These big guns turn your little AT-1 into a glass cannon - able to kill much bigger tanks from long range as long as long as they don't see you first.

Of course the "as long as they don't see you first" is the hard bit especially given how slow the AT-1 is to move around. In my noobness I generally just look around for a bush that is close to the starting zone where I can hide and provide cover to the base and our artillery units. To date I have had mixed success with this. The long range kills are very satisfying when I pull them off and I have saved the day  a couple of times by killing raiders who made a cheeky run for our base. More often however I am outflanked and killed especially when I am zoomed in and not paying attention to my immediate surroundings.








Comments

Cap'n John said…
"More often however I am outflanked and killed especially when I am zoomed in and not paying attention to my immediate surroundings."

That's what snipers refer to as tunnel vision, and is one of the reasons they have spotters.
mbp said…
Excellent point Capn John. In fact to get the most out of a tank killer you really need support tanks to light up targets for you and watch you back. Of course in the usual pick up game this depends on random chance. Sometimes it works out and sometimes not.

One of the really nice thing about WoT though is that you don't just get XP for kills. Doing just about anything useful will get you XP and this includes spotting targets so at least there is some incentive to co-operate.

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