I always wished when playing FH1 I could zoom around the map in an anti-tank gun, ambushing enemy tanks, and now I've got FH2 I can finally do that. I didn't see a thread about tactics for using anti-tank guns specifically so let's shoot the breeze on tactics. Here's some questions for anyone who wants to answer them:
1) What kit do you like to use when manning an AT gun? Engy to repair, ammo to keep yourself stocked up, MG for local defense, something with binocs for long range kills?
2) What are your favorite places to roll the mobile AT guns to for an ambush. What maps are best for this?
3) Favorite AT guns to use?
4) How do you deal with enemy infantry when using a mobile AT gun?
5) Do you always use AT guns to go tank hunting or do you ever opt for real artillery pieces, AA guns, etc.?
Anyone who wants to add anything go ahead. I love this aspect of FH2. Every time I've played Hurtgen Forest so far I spawn at Katzenhardt and roll the PaK gun, with the ammo kit. Keeping a sharp eye on the minimap I proceed to roll the gun into a bush or a courtyard, nicely hidden, and when one of the three routes goes American, send a few HE shells in the general direction of the flag and you get more kills than you'd think. When things are getting kind of heavy, I shift into reverse and roll back across the field, and when the Americans enter the town I shell it for a while, listening for tank engines and I can usually knock a few Shermans and M10s out before I'm killed.
So discuss away, share your little tips and tricks, fun stories and whatnot. We all know what a bitch it is to drag an AT gun halfways across the map and be killed, so what do you find the best method for staying alive? Which guns do you find have the best sights? And anything else you want to add.
There are a few ways to use AT guns for me:
1. Direct defense
Face to face shoot-out with incoming tanks. Requires no brain but good reflex. A relatively bad way as you'll likely to be blown up by artillery. But well, yep, at least you distracted their artillery!
You don't need anything special - you'll get one-shot by a tank anyway. Don't take the ammo kit and let someone else refill the ammo for you when needed. Usually I'll take the engineer kit, or, if you don't need to repair your AT gun to workable condition, a recon kit to look around.
2. Poor-man's tank
If you don't mind pressing W like hell, you can consider using this AT gun as a poor man's tank: it only have a frontal armour that stops regular bullets.
It can be really effective fighting infantry and light vehicles. And sometimes you could take a tank by surprise and kill him. Don't worry about ammo here you should be carrying enough ammo. And repairs is certainly not useful at all. Use a non-limited kit as most of your effective time is being on the gun not close-up self-defence.
You won't last long because some guys might flank you and gun you down, or simply got hit by a certain inevitable grenade/mortar/tank shell.
3. Ambush gun
Push your gun into some hideout positions. Your mission is simple: stay hidden and wreck enemy tanks when chance came. Usually you would want to go after the most valuable target as that is what your other guys cannot deal with easily - let's say the firefly, the achilles or King Tiger. People on those tanks are going to be cautious and would note your position once they saw a tank in front of them got blown up by you.
Your best chance is to hold fire against less-valuable targets (leave those to your teammates), and surprise the valuable targets. You could easily wreck a few APCs or blown up a random infantry that just somehow got into your sights. But remember, this is not your primary job and would expose to your enemy about your presence and your fate is very likely to either fell to tank HE or artillery fire.
If you are combating an armoured column sideways, I suggest leaving the lead tank alone until the entire column shows up. Then start by shooting the guy in the rear. You could destroy an entire column in half a minute. If you destroyed the lead tank before others show up. Chance are that the tanks following the lead tank would revenge for their fallen brothers and you only got 1 kill for pushing your gun for soooo long.
When fighting tanks like KT, let's say, with the 76mm, do not attempt to shoot until you are sure that you have a good chance of firing your second shot that would kill. Fire at the KT when it won't get any time to run away or take cover. You'll blow him up and become a hero of your team. Else he'll just go in reverse and HE you to death.
I am always fond of killing armour in FH2 and has killed a lot of tanks.