MG Tanks: Do You Use Them? How?

[Irinami]

Great story--I'll keep this in mind for my Long WWII, I bet the Chinese are similar.

[challenge]

I never gave MG tanks much thought, really. I considered assualt guns and the 20 mm on ACs and the MGs on halftracks effective enough against must infantry. After reading the first half of this thread I decided to give them a try. Very happy with the results.

Thank you for the information.

[Griefbringer]

Irinami: after the battle I decided to invest in some more Mk III CS variants, armed with 3.7 inch gun with HE shells - I hope those will be more effective against infantry, I had two in a previous game and they performed quite well even against tanks (early war Italian ones - not much in the way of armour). I will see how well they perform on next Sunday, when I will have time to play the next game in the campaign - meeting engagement against Italians.

I also threw out my Bren carriers, that proved to be disappointing - their single LMG was really ineffective, and they were not as mobile as I thought. I replaced them with the LRDG trucks - no armour, but more firepower, mobility and carry capacity.

I guess that if I still have troubles against the Italian infantry, I will try fielding a platoon or two of MG tanks in the next game.

[VikingNo2]

The British MK-IV I believe, anyway its the one with the .50 cal on it and its fast, is very good against infantry anf light armor. You can kill halftracks at range with it.

[Griefbringer]

Viking: I checked the encyclopedia, I guess you are referring to Mk VI. I noticed two variants, one with .50 MG and one with 15mm MG, and both had a lighter MG in addition.

I guess I am going to try fielding a platoon or two of those 15mm's - I saw recently an armoured car rip up two light Italian tanks in a row with a 15mm MG.

Griefbringer

[Wolfleader]

I usually just use MG tanks and scout cars to pursue retreating infantry near the end of a mission. I'm not a big fan of the PzI though and prefer to use the PzII tank (Not sure if its still qualfies as an MG tank though because of the 20mm gun it has). If not then the closest MG vehicle I use to an MG tank would be the 221 scout cars.

[WhiteRook]

Mg tanks are again one of those love em or hate em areas.
I like them for most of the reason Orzel stated. I also have had very good early war success with them, as in the old armor nails flesh type deal.
And I have also seen some pretty nice results with them adding to AA fire as had been noted above.
Again its a matter of using them properly and all that. The nice thing about this being a game is that you can take all the time to advance your tactics with equipment, unlike the real-life battlefield!

[Kanonenfutter]

I often bought some German Ib mg-tanks. They are very effective against soft targets and cheap.

[arethusa]

Originally posted by Griefbringer
Speaking of tanks vs. infantry - what about flame-thrower tanks?

I have only tried using them a couple of times - with little success. To be able to use the flame-thrower against infantry, you have to get really close - and thus risk getting hit by their AT-weapons or assaults by hidden units. I don't know if they would be of any use against tanks (which I prefer to deal with cannons anyway). Would they be of any use against any bunkers? I always have troubles dealing with those.

However, I like the flame-throwers that my engineers pack - in addition to scorching enemy close up, they are excellent for setting terrain on fire - providing excellent screen of fire and smoke to shield one from enemy.

Not actually a tank but the German Flammwagon H/Ts are murder on enemy troops in cities. I recently had a large urban battle where about 6 of these units cleared out perhaps 30 attacking Russian infantry units. The Russian tanks were helpless against them also.

The trick is to get them close enough to use but in a city or heavily wooded area, that's not hard. In more open fields, either hide them around smoke shells or have them make their own smoke shelter by firing at the hex beside them.

They can frequently take out an entire infantry unit in one or at the most two burps. Even MBTs get toasted easily but of course, only if they let you get close enough again.

In defence, I placed them in the trees immediatetly behind bunkers. The bunkers get smoked but when the opponent comes in to finish up the job from behind the LOS of the bunker, he's toasted.

I've had similar success with Russian OT-34's. I tried British Crocs but found them too slow and instead used Wasps. The Wasps are really cheap, just as lethal at close range, and are much more manoeuverable than the Crocs.

The whole thing is based on visibility though. If you're fighting in open fields, forget flame vehicles. They're only use then is to make the opponent use up his ammo. But in scenarios with limited visibility, or where you can create enough smoke to make limited visibility, they are unsurpassed. Definitely a must for urban warfare!