(First of all, I’m talking about any nation, but in order to post in general discussions I’m forced to pick one. Weird.)
Since the recent (re) release on Steam, I noticed I’m just a bunch of achievements away from 100%, so I thought I’d give a try at the one where I was lagging the farthest behind, that being, “destroy 100 tanks with AT mines”.
Despite there being plenty of better ways to get rid of tanks in game (hence why almost nobody got this achievement so far), it turns out it’s easier and less frustrating than I thought. So I want to share some tips, in case someone wants to go for that achievement too. Here we go!
(My experience as a serial rally points miner and AP mines enjoyer in general taught me how to be quite proficient at annoying people as phuck making good tactical use of explosives )
AT MINES - those are obviously needed. But you don’t need to waste tons of silver: of course the more you have, the higher your chances to successfully use one, but ultimately you’re OK with a dozen of mines, given to some guys spread across 3 squads that you’ll be rotating (maybe even less - we’ll see that later).
TACTICS - There’s basically two complementary ways to do the job:
- Spamming mines on known tank routes and choke points - self explanatory, but varies greatly depending on maps.
- Going in close and personal, using the mine as a makeshift TNT charge. It’s actually almost the same as with TNT, since you need to sneak up to the unaware tank and drop the mine right under it. But there are a few details to consider, in order to ensure the kill:
- The fail proof way is to drop the mine right under the tank, then shoot the mine right away, blowing up both you and the tank. (You won’t need that soldier anymore anyway, since he already used his mine.) You don’t even need to wait for the mine to become armed. But PAY ATTENTION: if you drop the mine straight under the tracks, you may not be able to shoot it. Make sure at least part of the mine remains visible outside of / through the tracks!
- If the tank is static, you want to shoot the mine anyway, because otherwise it won’t explode until the tank starts moving, and someone else may destroy the tank in the meantime, taking the kill.
- If the tank is moving, you need to predict its moves, taking into account the time it takes either for the mine to arm, or for you to shoot it. If the tank drives away the other way, not all hope is lost: the mine will stay there, and possibly grant you a kill later (with some luck).
- The task is about killing tanks, not tankers, so empty tanks are perfectly valid targets. On the flip side, oddly enough, at least twice I missed a kill on M13 half-tracks because the mine killed the crew but the vehicle somehow survived.
PARATROOPERS - No point in denying it, paras are THE most useful class to do this task. You can easily drop behind enemy lines and sneak up to unsuspecting tanks that are focused on sniping away. Moreover, by choosing the AT loadout, you get 6 extra AT mines, so you don’t even need to equip them in advance. If you did, you get up to 12 mines to scatter around with a single squad.
AT RIFLES - these come handy to shoot the tracks of the target tank, preventing it from driving away. The crew will probably get out to repair, if so you can kill them and blow up the empty tank later.
NATION OF CHOICE - Any, actually, although as I said paratroopers make the job noticeably easier, so you may favor nations where you have them available. It also depends on which maps you consider better suited to mine roads and ambush tanks.
BR OF CHOICE - BR doesn’t really matter in this case, since mines make tanks go boom no matter what. But again, maps selection may matter to you, so your choice.
Since I’ve started actively trying, I’ve found that it’s not that difficult to score on average 1-2 mine kills. You can’t even be accused of being a detriment to the team, because you’ll be actively hunting enemy tanks, while annoying or disrupting enemy reinforcements in the process (while behind enemy lines, even if the tank hunting fails, you can do plenty of damage).