After spending the better part of the past week learning the ins and outs of armored warfare in Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, I thought it might be nice to share some of my observations from the front lines.  Does this game treat armor as a sophisticated combat arm or merely a mobile artillery piece?  Do infantry and armor work together or treat each other with indifference?  Much depends on whether your team is composed of Panzer Leaders or Panzer Losers.  My goal is to help you be the former, while pointing out ways to minimize the effects of the latter. 

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I should state up front that I am interested in Red Orchestra (RO) exclusively for tank battles.  I have no interest in being an infantryman – and I jump out of infantry-only maps.  If you love this game for infantry fighting, I salute you! 

The Basics of Armor in Red Orchestra

First, some basics of this game.  As a German or Russian tanker, you will usually get in a vehicle which has slots for three crewmembers; the driver, the main gunner, and the hull gunner.  If you are playing without real people in your tank (as most do) you will have to manually move from driver to gunner and back.  However, it doesn’t simulate the extra crew position correctly - which means you must sit in the gunner seat to get it to reload.  This is one advantage to having a real person man the main gun with you, since you can move and reload at the same time.  The hull machine gunner is simply chrome, and has little practical or "fun" value on most maps since there are no infantry to speak of and he can do nothing but observe during armor duels.

As main gunner you are also able to pop the top hatch and get out your binoculars to survey the field (scroll wheel while in the main gunner seat).  This is often the quickest method to cover the whole battleground and find viable targets. You can turn your turret while you are on top so there is no benefit (unless you are under threat of snipers) to staying buttoned up.  Most of the time your only threat is other tanks – so get out there and look around!  In an attempt to fully model the sights of the gun, you can adjust the range values for distance (Q and E keys) so you can aim more accurately (in theory).  However, I never use this feature because it is impossible to ascertain distance when you are looking at a 2d computer monitor without a true 3rd dimension. Instead, it is much easier to use the marks on the "crosshairs" of the gun sights based on how near I think the enemy is sitting.  Using the triangle in the Tiger tank is the easiest way to explain this.  If the enemy is on the distant horizon, put the triangle entirely above the target with the bottom sitting just above it and your shot will be pretty close.  If the enemy is in medium range, put the top point of the triangle just a bit above the enemy.  If the tank is close in, put the top of the triangle exactly where you want to place the round.  There are some maps which are small enough (or foggy enough) that if you can see a tank, you can just point and click wherever the top of the triangle is sitting (making range pretty much useless).  Using this method, you should be able to zero in on almost any tank at any range by the second shot.  This simple advice will get you started on the battlefield…

The small center triangle is all you need to aim well.  The dials and markings along the outside are superfluous.	The Hull-Down position.  This is your best friend on the battlefield.  Simply back down the hill while reloading.

Since the vast majority of players are playing solo, I am writing this mostly for those types (myself included).  These lessons are things I’ve pulled from my own experiences managing a tank.  Most should also apply when you are lucky enough to have multiple people in a tank.

Lesson I. Mobility Mobility Mobility

This may be the single most important lesson to learn about armored warfare in RO. Strangely enough, it is a skill that is seldom used in practice.  Why?  I believe it is a combination of factors; the short time from death until you are back in another tank means there is little incentive to play it smart; it may be more fun to get a few good shots off rather than be "bored" by relocating numerous times; the mechanics of managing a tank as a solo player make it much more difficult to handle a tank well (some would argue this is good).  Therefore, you will commonly see tankers park on a hilltop somewhere so they have the best view of the battlefield and then fire in place until they are KIA.  Not very realistic.

As a good tanker you should "shoot and scoot" – both to minimize your exposure to enemy gunfire and to make it more difficult for enemy soldiers to walk the shots back to your location and hone in on you.  In Red Orchestra you can do this in a few different ways. 

1. Find a small hill where you are mostly or totally defiladed (hidden) from enemy fire and park so that your front is pointed to the enemy.  With a round in the chamber, nose forward just enough so that you can expose your gun (not your whole tank!) over the hill so you can get a shot away.  You will then back down the hill again to reduce or eliminate your exposure to return fire.  Reload your gun and either repeat if you have good positioning on the enemy (e.g. he really doesn’t have a good shot on you, or he didn’t see you).  You can sometimes get several shots off in this fashion without taking any serious return fire – especially at extreme ranges.
2. Find a building, burned wreck, or other permanent structure which you can hide behind.  Ideally you want to present your front to the enemy, although this isn’t always possible.  At the very least, have your turret pointed in the general direction of your enemy (i.e., turn the turret to 3 o’clock on the tank if your enemy will be at 3 o’clock once you pop out) so you don’t have to traverse while you are sitting exposed.  Make sure you have a round in the chamber, move out into the open just far enough to reveal your gun, take your shot as fast as possible, and then retreat behind the structure again to reload.  You may only get one shot away before it becomes too hot for you…especially if you have to reveal your flank.
3. If you have to remain in a static fighting position, try to find any cover behind wrecks, light poles, trees, etc.  As long as there is something in front of you, there is a chance the enemy rounds will hit it.  Since RO lacks destructible terrain, even something as flimsy as a wooden fence will give you strong protection.
4. If you get caught out in the open, the only advice is to keep moving until you are no longer in the open.  Keep your front to the enemy whenever possible (or one of your sides if you can’t reverse – but never turn around and expose your weaker rear armor).  Move erratically, and at different speeds to make it difficult for the enemy to time his rounds. Try to use the landscape and stay as low as possible if you have an option.  If he fires and misses, you’ll have a few seconds to move freely.  Standing in place will give him a chance to zero in on you with his next shot.  Since the game lacks smoke, you will be forced to make your run totally in the open.  If you are really lucky you might have teammates who try to give you cover fire.
5. If you throw a track and become immobile, remember this quote from the tanker movie The Beast; "Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a bunker. Out of time, become heroes."  You can proceed on foot if you’d like, but death comes quick to the soldier only carrying a pistol fighting against tanks…

Take your shot, then move back behind the house while reloading.  Don’t give the enemy an easy shot!	While a real combat commander probably wouldn’t be sitting quite so high – the view from the top justifies the risk of being sniped.

It is very rare to find a good server where the players are fighting as a cohesive unit, but it does happen.  In one particular engagement in Arad (a large rolling landscape in good tank country) I witnessed some of the most intense armor duals I’ve seen in a long time.  I was playing as the Germans and was shocked and delighted to hear teammates on voice comms (another rarity, although I can’t fathom why).  They were organizing an attack across a broad field and all the Germans (a mixture of Tigers, Panthers, and Mark IV’s) were assaulting using the terrain to their advantage, leaving a few of the heavies in the back to provide overwatch.  The Russians were fighting like prairie dogs, popping up over the horizon to fire, then backing down over the ridgeline so as not to get shot while reloading.  The Germans were moving from hill to hill and side to side trying to wiggle their way across the field.  It really was a thing of beauty to watch each side fight like this.  Against an organized force of defenders using the terrain to their advantage, even the heavy German tanks couldn’t last forever out in the relative open of the fields.  Time ran out before either force could gain the advantage.

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