1An0maly1, on Nov 04 2011 - 23:30, said:
The fact is that German tanks were made for long range shooting. They were not made for dogfighting.
Its hilarious to hear German players bragging about ramming T-54's and doing tons of damage. First off, it doesn't work that way. We all know that, I've only been rammed once by an E-50 where it was significant and in all reality from an engineering perspective the ramming damage is far over powered.
You don't always get the chance of ramming a T-54, and I'm talking about an intelligent T-54. We're not here to talk about the back end of the bell curve people.
The T-54 has no chance at long range, why E-50's think they should charge is beyond me. You fight to your strengths and your opponents weaknesses.
Just because you can hit 60 kph does not mean you should in a fight, lets be quite frank. Let me guess, with the E-50 many of you have troubles even hitting the T-54 at maximum speeds, them going 56 kph and you going 60 kph? I have yet to be hit in such cases. Why is it a problem? Because you guys have only been fighting like that for a single tank, T-54's fight like that through nearly nine consecutive tanks.
But you know what, I can stand here and whine all I like and it won't do any good because you guys just love your tanks that much. Which is good for you, you found the tank you love just as I have in my T-54. Instead of bitch you out and tell you how dumb or arrogant you are (in the words of another guy who did bitch me out in here), I'll give some tips for dog fighting from someone with more then 1,800 battles of dog fighting.
The most important thing is that dog fighting is a dance. A very good dog fighter will be able to set the tone of the fight, to keep up the rhythm, and most importantly to make the opponent fight to an unfamiliar tune. You need to find the music of dog fighting, otherwise your timing will be off and if you falter your enemy will notice and soon enough it will be you fighting to their tune, not the other way around.
Dog fighting isn't about firing off as many rounds as possible and hoping one hits, sure it seems like common sense, but I don't even need the 200 mm on my turret considering how poorly some people aim around here. My overall accuracy is 61% and my T-54 accuracy is closer to 70%. The irony being that German cannons are notoriously accurate on paper but in reality they are far less in battle because German players just don't know how to dog fight.
The T-54 was built only to dog fight, you were only built to snipe. The 60 kph engine is nothing more then a bonus (and a really nice one too, if I had that I could probably get airborne), the T-54 has far far far far far more practical dog fighting experience then most E-50 drivers do. How many battles have you guys done in tanks specifically made to dog fight? And by more experience I literally mean that the average E-50's experiences in a dog fight are a pathetic shadow of a T-54 driver that grinded through every tank in the medium line. It's not an insult, it's a statement of fact.
Also, you are a really big target, if you stop moving I guarantee you that the T-54 will have 100% accuracy but since the T-54 is still moving at 40-56 kph you will net maybe 40%-70%. You need to realize the mentality of the defensive measures on the T-54. They can be summed up with the words "cant touch this". In my opinion there is no safer thing in the game then a T-54 turning at 56 kph in a dogfight, there is simply nothing that can touch it.
Think hard about it, the T-54's side armor is paper, literally paper, its so low that it is the only tier 9 tank where you can get the penetration bonus for having double the penetration necessary on just the side armor.
How can something like that ever be hated so much? People called it OP and still call it vastly OP. The reason is simple, you can't penetrate what you can't hit. If you can't hit the side armor then there's just no point.
I can't give any tips for aim because my indoctrination in the Russian medium line (literally 90%-98% of my battles) has made all those skills into innate instincts, so I wouldn't know where to begin because I take them for granted.
What I can do is give tips to take advantage of those same qualities. The first maneuver is the J-turn.
The J-turn is your go to close range offensive maneuver. It assumes the following:
You are facing the enemy and the enemy is either facing you or is not moving.
You can survive incoming hits (if your that low on health that you can't survive more then two hits then there is no point, hang back and stay alive by sniping).
Your enemy is alone (as you get better you can even take on two enemies)
There is clear terrain you can move through without dropping speed.
The J turn is simple. Your tank starts at the top of the J and your opponent is at the middle of the curve. This is the easiest way to initiate a turning fight. Continue the turning fight and continue to circle the enemy and do not stop under any circumstances unless they are able to turn the turret fast enough in which case throw it into reverse and repeatedly switch forwards and reverse.
The super J-turn = It is the same as a normal J-turn except you are doing it downhill and so you maintain top speed throughout the turn.
How I do the J-turn: I do a normal J-turn but I begin by firing at the enemy (assuming I can pen) the second I initiate it so that by the time I am at the base of the J or right behind them I will have the gun reloaded to fire again into their soft rear armor. Under no circumstances do I stop.
An E-50 that uses this technique will not need that heavy duty side armor because your opponent won't be able to even hit you. The only thing better then a shot bouncing off you or a shot that didn't penetrate you is a shot that doesn't even hit you in the first place.
My opinion of the T-54 can be summed up with my sig: "Velocitas Eradico: I am speed and I destroy."
You cannot dog fight if you have no speed, if you have speed and you are in a dog fight then you become destruction incarnate. Keep that in mind and you will be a lot more formidable.
I will post again with more tactics if you guys like.
Most rams in a t54 are NOT at 60kmh. Most are at low speeds to keep our prey t54's permatracked.
80% of short range engagements with a t54 I get to love bump them. The other 20% they are trying to run when they die.
E50's dont dance or dogfight. The t54 is more agile and chasing them at 60kmh is counterproductive UNLESS theyre arty rushing. They will then either zig zag or drive straight at their objective. Not too hard to hit them at speed then.
An e50 outbrawls a t54. As you said were built for sniping. A moving target at close range is far easier to hit then one at 500m. The t54 is going to get abused, frustrated, eventually tracked, and die. period.
I really like how your dogfighting experience is including at1's and ms1's. Youre actual medium experience is far lower than 90% of 2000ish games but whose counting.
I love t54's that actually try to close with me I hate chasing them.
Training room sometime? say malinkova field center. Then we can try a variety of maps including city maps etc. 100m engagement range or 50 if you prefer. You can be going as fast as you want ill be sitting still. Hell facehug if you want then say go. We can even platoon or ill let you on our ts3 so you dont have to type when youre ready.