Liberators owning my Vanguard with pinpoint accuracy

You wont like the solution. Don't tank alone, find a squad tanking. A good tank squad has a dedicated skyguard or two holding the rear. This game just isn't balanced for 1v1s and 2v2s. If you want better safety in a Vanguard, you need to run a tank squad that is working as a team. Just how it is. Same with Liberators. They are perhaps much better at operating as a simple 2 man team, but they are also quite vulnerable to their counters without support. A couple Mossys can take down a 2/3 Lib pretty quickly but it takes much longer if that Lib is also guarded by a couple Scythes. This is a very big game, something like 650 people per faction per continent. That's a lot of room for danger and dalton Libs are the chief counter to Vanguards.

I'm talking about render distance...

If you don't want to get picked off by your counter (Dalton Lib is a direct counter to MBTs), then travel in a squad that can counter your counter. If your vehicle squad (or zerg) doesn't have 2 Skyguards on anti-air duty, then you don't get to complain if air units start picking off stray MBTs.

Not saying you always have to travel with a squad or zerg to protect you from air. It's just that if you get caught in the open by a Lib or ESF without backup, you're fair game. Grit your teeth and hope you're lucky enough to duck under a bridge or something.

It's just like when you're roaming in your MBT and you catch a Sunderer or cluster of infantry out in the open with no AV. Everybody is easy pickings for somebody else.

2 Skyguards kill Liberator. 1 is dead meat. In fact, one of my recent videos shows a Skyguard at the end burning up a Lib, I even hit him with an AP Python round and he easily escaped. On Esamir. A Dalton crew landing all shots kills the Skyguard before the Skyguard kills it.

/thread

If you're serious about tanking you have to accept that running into a Liberator without effective cover or AA means death.

Unless they don't see you and hover within your firing angle. But beyond that they are your hard counter.

Well ofcourse a Dalton is going to win against everything, in the same way that a sniper is going to 1shot everything within a 360 300m circle...

I dunno, i have no problems with Libs on my lightning, maybe im just lucky.

Bad/Average crews run or die to Skyguards. Good crews can easily dispatch one and go about their business.

This, basically.

Which leads to the inevitable discussion about how Liberators don't have a similar hard counter really, which is sort of a balance issue. The risk I take engaging a high-tier lib team with an ESF is pretty extreme due to how amazing they are at fighting other aircraft. Heck, while playing a solo Liberator I take on ESFs quite a lot.

As a brand new tanker you may not be aware, but splash damage from the Dalton also does damage to tanks. It is one of the few weapons where splash can damage a MBT. If you can't get a shot on them or don't have friendly AA nearby to seek cover from, then you are pretty much screwed. Even without splash damage, it is easy to get direct hits with max zoom, even from long range.

Yes it should, that's the whole point of a lib (especially with Dalton loadout). And the Walker is going to do nothing but tickle a lib, it takes something like several full clips with 100% accuracy to kill a lib.

Well, not really. While a lone Skyguard can really be killed by a Lib (and I have done that), in a usual fight no Lib will try to take out a Skyguard since there always are some infantry with AA, MAXes, HMGs and even angry tanks. 1-2 AA missiles can seriously change the equation. Even if a Lib will kill that Skyguard, it will take a lot of damage and be close to a lot of enemies, increasing its chance to die severely.

Oh man I am in tiers of tears. God bless the skywhale.

It scales with skill. If a Skyguard is sending the rain to a Lib it will someties blind the Gunner because of the explosion effects and lightnings can dodge at least a bit. depens on who suprises whome

This thread is about a single Vanguard losing to a Lib. Not a Single Vanguard and a Skyguard and 3 HA'a with lock ons and some Burster Maxes and an AA turret. Dont be an idiot.

So, really, a Lib does kill a Skyguard before the Skyguard kills the Lib. THE. END.

You didnt bring one reason why this would be the case.

My NC alt is BR 25? My VG has like 1,5k Certs....most of those earned by shooting down Liberators with the 150mm-AP. Any Liberator that flies at medium altitude is nothing but instant gratification, any Liberator at higher altitudes is delayed gratification because I have to find a slope for my VG to increase my gunangle.

If there is one MBT suited to annihilate aircraft it´s the VG, the amount of ESF´s and Lib´s I´ve killed is astonishing compared to anything I can do with my Magriders 225m/s AP with screwed angle.

I would say 65-75% unless you are in the middle of nowhere and a 20-25% chance of downing the lib by trading shots with it.

When I'm engaged by a Liberator in my tank, the first thing I look for is low lying bridge or a batch of trees. Underneath a batch of trees, you're a much harder target, plus the branches and trunks of the trees often interrupt the Dalton rounds. Underneath a bridge, you are completely safe, and the Liberator much come down within range of your main cannon to hit you. If you're quick at targeting you can quickly prop your tank against a rock, and aim high...

Ultimately, find a way to make the Liberator want to come in low for you; if you're a challenging enough target, they'll either want to get that kill enough they'll come in range of your cannon, or they'll get fed up and leave. In a Vanguard, if you're sporting a shield and AP rounds, you have a serious advantage against a Liberator looking for a Tank Buster kill.

Barring the fact that this won't do anything to a decent crew because often times hovering means death, since you really want your point to be heard I would like to ask you how we are expected to land on a small pad without VTOL?

It was a smiley face with tongue out emoticon after I said it mate. That should be your answer.

On topic though, I've found max flak armor, both getting out to repair can mitigate some of the damage done.

Just don't overextend too much from friendly help, or if you do always have a foolproof exit strategy, for ex. low lying bridges on esamir. If you overextend, there better be some place where you can always go to that liberators cannot or will have trouble chasing you. Otherwise you've pretty much sealed your fate that your run will be a small one.

Either that or join an outfit that does armor and have support ffs. Come to NC Mattherson with TENC we'll show ya a good time.