why are tank drivers so chicken ??

Didn't you know? Infantry is the core unit of the game, tanks and aircraft are purely there for support, we can't engage directly on, but instead have to go around the sides and camp close to cover while infantry do the heavy lifting.

It's not about cowardice, it's pure survival instinct. There are brave tank drivers though, problem is they are all waiting for cooldowns/resources at some terminal.

Contrary to your belief, it'd be wiser to remain at a distance, at least for their sake.

Because if you wanna actually make use of your tank you have to live. To live you need to stay some distance away with the possibility to run/run for cover at any second.

Tanks aren't designed for close-range confrontation.

They're not designed for long-range confrontation, either, so that begs the question of what exactly I'm supposed to be DOING in mine.

It's just because they want to protect their tank.

Tanks are better then infantry it's just their drivers get all teary eyed when they blow up. When it comes to a tank rush just like an infantry rush. They are going to be some losses with tanks you can't replace them as fast so know one wants to be the guy who is going to die on the rush.

So they just sit there and farm

Everything, including infantry is a liberator dalton cert farm until there is a mass of HA's with AA rockets and/or sky guards and busters. This is not some exclusive thing to tanks. Heck even ESF's struggle with them.

Other than that its the mentality of many tank players. They are on average lesser players that are extremely risk adverse and simply don't care about capping facilities or defending them. All they are there for is the infantry farm. Trying to cap the base removes their farm. It is that simple. Tanks are not too weak. Its simply a product of the scoring and progression of the game that caters to people who don't care about the territory aspects of the game at all. Why cap a base when you can get many times the exp AND pad your KDR at the same time if you do not cap it?

this also has to do with bases being so packed together tanks dont get much room to fight in. so they just kind of sit on the edge between the two bases since going into infantry cover is suicide (as it should be) this leaves tanking in planet side a boring long range farm fest, except for a few choice areas were there is enough flat space to fight properly.

Running over friendly infantry clearly.

Typically my tank squads run our vanguards only as tank destroyers with AP and enforcers. We leave the anti-infantry support to the lightnings with their vipers or the fury/kobalt combat sundies we run. We're just starting to experiment with squad support sundies to constantly poop out infantry while moving instead of relying on tons of medics to keep a line advancing.

Long range is our engagement zone and we prioritize enemy vehicles with a focus on sweeping for deployed sunderers and skyguards. We get a lot of vehicle kills using focused fire. When we can't do that, we've gone on suicidal charges to take out sunderers with an entire platoon of infantry around it.

We almost never get in close with the infantry because in our experience, infantry never support tanks. We have to rely on our own crews to deal with AV turrets, rocket launchers, light assaults, and even enemy aircraft. At least when we have comms with some air support we can get them to strike those AV turret positions.

How can you trust infantry to help armor push up when they won't even repair the flaming sunderer they just spawned in on?

We even have to deal with most of the MAXes firing on our vehicles from the different decks of a watchtower. If you put just a little bit of small arms fire on them, most MAXes will retreat into cover.

Nothing is easier for a sniper to hit than a heavy assault standing still trying to aim his rocket launcher at a tank, especially a lock-on. How many snipers do you see prioritizing those guys?

It's a simple fact that, because this is a game, 99% of the players will lack good battlefield awareness and will only think of themselves and their own scores or stats. If it isn't directly in front of them or shooting at them, they usually ignore it.

You can't even rely on engineers or repair sundies that you don't know since their utility is very low level most of the time. Plus, they want to repair you in the most exposed of positions(because they're only thinking about getting points, not keeping your tank alive).

Oh darn really? Mind showing us some stats here?

lol... tanker tears. We've all seen a river of them.

Now tell me you don't sit 10 meters outside spawns and shoot your cannons at the doors and I may have some sympathy.

(don't see any tears when you're blowing me up with my favorite turret when i'm just trying to dent your fender a little)

I doubt it, The vangaurd is the only tank that can survive having 2 c4 placed on it because of the shield. This give you and your team 8 extra seconds to kill the LA before he can use them

I've been run over by enough tanks while trying to repair them that I've given up on it. A lot of tankers don't want some little guy getting in the way while they're trying to work anyway.

And I always make sure the sundie i'm spawned in is health before i move out. Sounds like you've been running with the wrong infantry.

So you're wondering why the people who have tanks aren't moving in to support infantry. Why don't you spawn a tank and do so yourself?

I can spare you a few hundred resources and tell you right here: Because close-in fighting is where a tank without competent infantry support is extremely vulnerable, especially against pop-shoot-and-hide HAs with dumbfire rockets and LAs with C4. And while infantry can respawn immediately for free, tanks cannot.

Tread grease is expensive. Infantry is free!

I was being sarcastic that's why i asked for stats (especially since i highly doubt there are any stats existing about how many times you die to c4 when in a tank)

When a tanker is running maxed out Auto-repair and Fire-suppression, he's going to be relying on cover and positioning for "repairs" more than an engineer anyway. It allows the tanker to stay more mobile and when some random engineer comes up to your backside with a glue gun expecting you to sit still for 10 seconds, they are in fact, getting in the way.

Your picture doesn't tell the full story.

That ESF.


If I was there I and I just watched that ESF pilot skillfully and quickly destroy a Vanguard or even just making bombing runs on the base without anything interfering I would not move up until it was gone.

It's a flat open field. There is no cover or steep enough inclines in that open field to fight against that. The only inclines that are steep enough are less than 25 meters away from the enemy's main force.

I am not going to fight air while tanks are shelling me or vice versa.

VS: Maneuverability
NC: Durability
TR: Stationaryability

Mag burn and win shield can both allow a tank to escape death here and there, and the mag is much more evasive in general while the vanguard is more durable.

Prowler has no extra armor, a large hitbox, and its ability locks it in place. It's not as good for playing risky and skirmishing around near the battle, it's better for camping/farming a safe distance away from it.

A Prowler can be a strong tank and does a ton of damage in the right circumstances but it's not a tank I rush into battle with because that's a waste of a Prowler really.

Because you don't drive within 50 meters of C4 and a ton of enemy vehicles.

Tanks not made for compact urban environment.