5
First, I apologize in advance for the length of my post (the TL;DR crowd should probably just bail now). Second, sweet Haysus I'm loving this game.
In my short time here, I've seen a lot of advice on how to run a Light Tank for Scouting. I've taken huge advantage of it (and thank you to all), and I think I make a pretty good Scout (Scout, Patrol Duty, Confederate Medals are my goals).
My methods are probably the same as everyone else's - Tearing out to midfield, then dashing from cover to cover probing for the OpFor, then, once they're located, keeping them in sight while madly avoiding the huge incoming fire that you're now taking and praying to all the gods ever that your team will put them down before you're scrapped.
It's that second part I want some help with today. I'm really, really good at getting the OpFor in sight without being seen, and hilariously good at drawing fire as I make passes in front of their lines (Luchs is just a trollmobile for this - don't have a Chaffee yet, but it looks like it might do it just as well). I get a little frustrated when my team fails to capitalize on what I'm doing.
I should note that I'm not an idiot lemming and if I get killed in the opening minutes then it's only because I made a huge, stupid mistake. In fact, this whole post is aimed at real scouts and those who would see them used properly - not the maniacs who die deep in OpFor territory in the first 60 seconds.
So, here's my "Support Your Scout!" wishlist:
Please don't follow us. At least, not closely. Yes, Alecto & most American tanks, we see you are very fast. Good for you. But the whole reason we Scouts are out here is so that we see them before they see you. Not us, you. It's ok if they see us. They're supposed to see us and we're equipped to deal with it. What they aren't supposed to see is you, and if you're right up my butt they're going to see us both at the same time. Then we're not Scouts, we're just the guy with the crappiest tank in a tank-fight - unless we fall back and become useless or push too far ahead and get into the kind of trouble we cant get out of. So let us forge ahead find a place to hide and spot while you get settled in for shooting.
Let us call the shots. Odds are that what are a jumble of Red symbols to you are, to us, a Light leading two Mediums followed by a Heavy and a TD. We can probably see who's toughest and who's side on to your position, or even who is going to come out of cover first. If the team leaves the shot calling to the Scouts, focus-fire will actually work (the current model of everyone calling for help on every OpFor they see means that people just ignore the shot calling - I'm taking it back!).
Watch us. We are your eyes. We are going to come upon the OpFor first. We cannot fight them when we find them and will have to run. You may not get a great deal of time to hit them when we find them, and we will not have a great deal of time to live if you fail. By watching us, your sights will be that much closer to the targets when they pop up (this goes double for Arty - Arty should just pick a Light at the start and track them to a target - accuracy will already be decent when the Scout calls the targets).
Don't abandon us. As I stated above, we are the first into harm's way. We will generally be outgunned, outclassed and out-just-about-everything-ed by whatever we find. We will also be, generally, the only enemy the OpFor can see, so we will be getting all the love (Spartan medal in a Light? Check.). We will be running, and hiding, and probably a bit more running. And we will have seconds until the OpFor finally tags us. We are literally waiting for you to deal with them for us so we can go find you the next thing to kill.
Recognize that our job is not your job... And we look different when we perform our roles. What Scouts bring to the table isn't firepower, it's intel. When we do our jobs, we might resemble non-combatants - we hide a lot, we run away a lot, we hardly ever shoot anything. I've had a guy abuse me over the mic for "camping and not doing anything" - I was hiding in a bush next to the town in Mines, spotting and marking the procession of OpFor moving thru. I got 11 spots that mission, and no OpFor made it through the town. I fired no shots until it was pretty much over. Why? Well, as it stood I could see most of them, I was waaaay out on my own and getting spotted would mean the end of me and the end of our massive visibility advantage. So I just sat there, being eyes. Boring? Yep. Key to victory? Maybe. Doing my job? Absolutely.
...and that we're not crazy. Look, we're fast, ok? Fast enough to dodge bullets. I'm not even kidding here - that thing we do on Malinovka, where we rip up and down in the middle? We're doing that on purpose - not only can we spot the OpFor for you, but most of them will be taking shots at us, giving the rest of our team some valuable free shots. My point is, speed is a huge part of our defense - we won't be staying long once we get spotted, and we might even run back past you as we get away. But don't worry - we'll be back in a few seconds to light the OpFor up for you again, so sit tight and wait for us to swing back around.
We Scouts can do our bit by maintaining stealth as long as possible, stay at full speed when not in stealth, communicate as much as possible and remember Tank-Fighting With Scouts Rule #1, which is "What the hell are you doing in a fight? Get out of there, idiot!" - there is no Rule #2.
The ideal battle for a Scout goes: Scouts move up, Team sets up - Scouts spot OpFor Scouts - Team kills OpFor Scouts - Team moves up - Scouts move up - Scouts spot OpFor push - Team kills OpFor push - Team moves up - Scouts move up - Scouts spot OpFor defense and kill Arty - Team kills OpFor defense - Scouts move into OpFor base and drink all the beer before Team gets there and act like they won the battle.
If these were common behaviors, I know it would make my Scout life easier and my Leopard would have fewer holes in it - all the silver from the extra wins would be nice, too.
Thanks for reading - I look forward to exposing you to my team soon! :)
