Using tanks | Tips and tricks Heroes & Generals Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
1. Do not rush. Similar to playing the Infantryman, rushing to your destination while you are controlling a tank will almost always end up in the same way - your vehicle will explode and your soldier will be dead. Try to attack the enemies from their flank and focus on supporting your infantry teammates, rather then to solo enemy tanks.
2. Do not leave your tank. Leaving your tank may (and most probably will) result in your sudden death, because you can die from enemy sniper's hands, or even from an explosion from a projectile fired from an enemy tank. Leave the task of capturing control points to your teammates playing Infantryman, and just focus on eliminating enemies.
3. Watch out for your head. While controlling the tank, you must get used to the fact, that you will have a very limited visibility. You can remedy this by leaning out of your tank hatch, but you will be an extremely easy target for every enemy soldier on the battlefield - a single, well-aimed bullet and the tank will be left without the crew. If you want to use the option to lean out, you should first check your surroundings - do it for a quick moment and scan the area around the tank and then decide, if it's safe enough to stay like that (if there's no one aiming at you), or if you must immediately hide inside (if you are sure that someone is aiming at you). Remember about one thing - if you have to travel through a forest, with dense vegetation and very limited visibility, you should never use the option to lean out of the tank.
4. Listen. Aside from the tanks, enemy Infantrymen are also an extremely dangerous threat. Even if they aren't shooting rockets at you, they can still blow up your tank with the help of anti-tank mines. A common tactic is to approach the tank from the rear, set up the mine right next to it, quickly retreat to a safe distance and shoot the mine, so that the tank gets blown into pieces. The very moment of setting up the mine can be heard - if you managed to do so, immediately drive FORWARD (whatever you do, don't use reverse!).
5. Observe. Besides having a mine thrown under your tank, you can run into it almost everywhere on the map - a lot of players are using them because of their huge effectiveness and extremely low costs. In the case of mines hidden deep in a forest, you are doomed from the very beginning, as you won't be able to locate it either way, but mines are very easy to spot in the open (on roads, for instance) - you only have to shoot at them to blow them up. Remember about one thing - do not destroy mines set up by your teammates (those are marked with an appropriate icon, while the enemy ones aren't).
6. Evaluate your target before engaging it. If you are controlling a light tank, equipped with a HMG or a cannon with very little firepower, don't even think about engaging heavily armored vehicles - you won't be able to even scratch them, and you will reveal your position immediately. While controlling a light tank, focus on destroying similar targets, as well as enemy infantry and terrain vehicles, and when you are controlling a heavily armored monster, concentrate on fighting with enemy tanks.
7. Position accordingly. It is well known, that tanks' armor differs in thickness - the thickest one can be found on the front, weaker on the sides of the machine, while the weakest one is located at the rear and under the tank. This rule applies to Heroes & Generals as well. You can, hypothetically, destroy a heavily armored tank while using a weaker one, if you position your tank in a proper way - at the same time, using even the heaviest machines available to your team, you won't be able to do much if you allow your enemies to attack the rear of your machine.
8. Fire at targets. It may, at first, seem a little weird, but firing at a building, with an enemy inside, who is, for instance, trying to take over a control point, may be extremely effective - a single projectile, which manages to fly inside the room, will be easily able to kill an enemy infantryman (or a couple of them, if they are close to the explosion). However, remember to stop firing at the building if there are your allies inside - you may kill them instead of the enemy you were hoping to hit.
9. Use terrain to your advantage. Setting your vehicle at the top of a mountain will give you a huge height advantage over your foes, because they will have to adapt their attacks accordingly, because the gravity affects bullet / projectile trajectory (it changes with the distance - they will simply descend). Height advantage will also give you a better insight to the situation on the battlefield.
10. Sink into your surroundings. Placing your tank in a bush increases it's chances of survival, because you will be a lot harder to locate, and hence a lot less susceptible to attacks, especially from the air. There's nothing worse to do than setting up your tank in the middle of nowhere, in the open.
11. Remember about different ammo types. Most of the tanks in the game (excluding those, which are equipped only with HMG-like weaponry) gives you access to two types of ammo, marked with AP and HE sings. The former one is the armor-penetration round, used to fight against armored targets, but it's highly ineffective against infantry, as you have to hit with it perfectly to kill the enemy. The latter one is the infantry's nightmare - HE round will kill the enemy soldier, even if he is hiding behind a cover, or inside a building (it won't, however, be a good idea to use it against tanks, as those rounds are extremely expensive to resupply).
12. You can fire at the enemy planes. However strange it may seem, you can, with a little bit of practice, hit an enemy plane with a round fired from a tank - you can be sure that the enemy will notice that something big just hit him!
13. Keep your distance. Tanks, besides their extremely effective attacks, are known from another characteristic - they can attack from vast, unattainable for others ranges. Attacking from afar has a huge advantage, because you are practically immune to any counterattack from the enemy Infantry (unless an enemy managed to sneak up on you) - you can shoot across the whole map, while the enemy equipped with a rocket launcher will have huge problems with hitting you, if you are further than 100 meters away from him.