The Scout Challenge

Zardnaar, on Apr 10 2012 - 23:48, said: In this game it is hard to find a decent scout. To many of them come from the suicide school of scouting because they seem to think the scout medal is worth somehting. Yeah sure you light them up but most of the time it gets your killed. Tier 4 scouts also get dragged into tier 9 games where you guns cannot really damage the tanks you are facing. THis makes some scout tanks suck because people do not know how to drive their tanks. Anyway try these wo simple ideas the next time you play a scout.
1. Stay alive for as long as possable.
2. Do not fire your gun at all unles it is a tier 4/5 match or you are shooting arty preferably from behind.
To many scouts rush and die or try to fire their guns pointlessly at stuff they cannot hurt. Unless something has change if a scout manages to light a tank up and it gets hurt you get 50% of the xp and credits of the tank that fired the shot. Even on maps with no arty you still get this bonus. That means your tier 4 tank can get half the xp and credits of big arty guns and tier 9 heavies. Myself I have made 48000 credits in a leopard before in a game where I did not fire a single shot. Games in excess of 2000xp are also achievable an that is without the daily double. I have made 5406 xp on a daily double in a VK2801 but the tier 5 scouts are kind of like cheating. Try being patient next time and waiting for 5-7 tanks on the other team to be dead 1st before you go out to scout, try to keep other tanks lit up for arty, keep movig and use the minimap to look for holes in the defensive line. If one can afford it buy ventsfor 50k credits and coated optics which cost 500 000 which is alot for a newer player I know. Buy crews at 75% (100% with gold) and not 50% as well espicially the commander and driver for scouts (commnder and gunner for everything else)
Rushing a scout at the start of the game is bad scouting and it usualy gets you killed due to all 15 tanks on the other team being alive. Even a crappy scout like the Pz38na has an excellent view range whch has seen it being used over the T-50 in tank company battles. If you have ever een in a close battle with the last 3-4 tanks left on each side + arty even the crapiest scout tank in the world suddenly becomes very valuable asset for a team. Suicide scouting when done correctly can win you the game but it is almost never at the start of the game where idiot scout drivers rush and die because their guns can't hurt a tank. charging on a diagonal and using hill crests for quick peeks is also a decent scout skill to develop just dont stop moving and don't linger. Assume you are being spotted all the time even if you are "safe".
Passive scouting can also work but it is difficult to do on most maps and generally requires a crew trained in stealth and/or a camo net. Find a bush near a line of advance and off to the side a bit and hide in it. unless someone gets within 50 metres of you you are effectivly invisable after 6 seconds of remaining stationary. A final trick I often do is if I am passive scouting by hiding in a bush is parking backwards with my weak rear armor exposed. Odds are if you are seen you are going to get penned regardless anyway so you may as well be able to maximise your run away speed rather than try to reverse while the enemy reloads. Driving across the map or on a diagonal also makes you harder to hit than driving in a straight line directly at the opposing team.
High tier games can be won or lost based on the skill of a low tier scout tank because of arty. Even in solo mode in a pub game that scout can be infinately more valuable to the team than the biggest heavy as even IS4s and E75s get ripped apart by arty.