gpbmike

Vehicles are one of the differentiators in the Battlefield franchise and one of the many reasons I love to play. Here is part four of a series of blogs in which I share some tips on how to use them. I’ve broken the classes up into offense and defense. Offense focuses on gameplay using the vehicle, defense focuses on gameplay against the vehicle.

AAV-7A1 AMTRAC

The AMTRAC's primary function is to bring troops to the front lines by acting as a mobile spawn point. It's not very fast, but it's heavily armored and comes with a grenade launcher and heavy machine gun.

Communicate

As usual, if you can coordinate efforts with a squad or team, things will go much smoother. As of this writing, the turret does not rotate freely from the turning of the body so if you can tell the driver when to hold still you'll be much more accurate.

Offense

Don't be Rambo. There's no reason to lead the attack. Instead you should provide fire support and a quick way for your team to get back into the action by spawning on you.

If you can keep the enemy in front of you it will be much easier for your teammates to repair without getting shot.

Cover the M-COM stations from a distance. The grenade launcher can be quite the deterrent to anyone trying to defuse.

Sometimes drivers forget that they can use smoke to throw off guided missiles.

Sometimes gunners forget that there are two firing modes. Grenade launcher and machine gun. Don't forget to use the appropriate tool for the job.

Defense

AMTRAC's are slow and big. Their high profile makes them easy targets for any kind of projectile, so fire away. Javelins can be particularly effective as infantry are often hopping out of the vehicle. Any armor can easily defeat an AMTRAC from a distance. The only threat comes from the grenade launcher. If you're far enough away you'll be hard to zero in on.

If you don't have anything to destroy the AMTRAC, you can still hang out and shoot infantry that emerge.

And Here's a Video

Here's a video of my brothers and I using the AMTRAC on Wake Island Rush the other night.

@Fallen189: Howdy, can you tell me what browser/OS you're using and post a link or two or three to some examples of where you used parchment v1 because v2 wasn't working for you? Thanks.

I wonder if this is something @sdornan would be interested in taking a look at.

@langdonx said:

Is there any ongoing work to clean it up?

Yes.

@Ravenlight said:

Should there be any feedback when clicking the set default? link? Because literally nothing happened when I clicked it.

Yes, you should see two things. The first is a confirmation dialogue "Set this image as the main image? [ okay | cancel ]" and the second is a confirmation that you have set the default image and you need to refresh the page to see the change.

@Ravenlight: Hm, worked for me.... hope you weren't just tricking me into making a new default image!!!

@Ravenlight: Sorry, that only works with the arrow keys, not the page keys. :(

@Autumn_Thunder: You're in luck. This has been a problem for a long long time, but the fix was deployed today! (Thanks to @LtSquigs)

@foggel: My brothers both fly a lot in jets and helicopters. I like the Mobile AA and will often have them bait enemy aircraft to me.

The problem in BF2 was that the AA emplacements were always the first thing targeted while in the air. Often I wasn't defending myself so much as preemptively striking. Once that was taken out you didn't have to worry about being shot down. You always knew where the emplacements were and you could take them out with a TV guided missile while en route before they're even occupied. While the AA emplacements are gone, In BF3 you can spawn with a stinger and hide from the helicopters. SOFLAMs are much more popular now. If you get one of those up and targeting a helicopter it won't be long before you see multiple javalins in the air. I've also shot down plenty of helicopters with the tanks guided shells with someone in the CITV spot. I think staying in one area as a helicopter is much more difficult in BF3.

Personally I believe 'baseraping' shouldn't be allowed. I wonder what having auto-turrets would be like. For instance, bases could have guns that target enemy vehicles and projectiles to create a 'safe zone'. You'd probably have to put the bases farther away from the main battle. Hmm.

@jakob187: Great, be sure to post back here if you figure out what's causing your problems in case someone else runs into the same thing.