Using rocket tanks?

[Bunny]

Recently I've been trying to find a different way to play other than the usual Grizzly with SP-Stabbers spam. Notably I found the Bobcat challenging and fun. It's cheap, mobile, the missile gives it some stand-off range and it has the AT-Stabber for close-in work.

So I figured I'd give the Wolverine rocket tank a try and it feels both less mobile and more fragile than the Grizzly. It's missiles don't seem to make up for this.

I tried in the last NSDF mission to build 10 Grizzly tanks and then replay and build 10 Wolverine rocket tanks and I found the Wolverine rocket tanks to perform significantly worse than the Grizzlies. That is to say, the Grizzlies won the mission while the Wolverines all got slaughtered with half the enemies remaining alive.

In theory at least with its longer range and identical cost the Wolverine should have an edge over a stock Grizzly at long range but the AI does not seem to maintain stand-off distances.

Does anyone know how to use the rocket tank?

[Stinger]

To my knowledge, the AI uses the Shadowers more often than not, but don't quote me on this. The Shadower is almost worthless; just use the Hornet unless ammo is a concern.
And, you're correct, the AI is great at brawling, but terrible at ranged skirmishing; if you gave them a Weasel or Golem, they'd have no idea what to do with it, and just charge in rather than staying close to maximum range. (They already blindly rush in with Golems, but they're so slow it rarely becomes a problem.)

The best way to get the AI to use missile tanks properly is to convert them into light bombers; build 2 rockets and give them to the AI. This benefits the AI's natural tendency to brawl, giving them a high-damage, large-area explosion to work with, and even makes for a solid anti-infantry tank thanks to infantry's natural fragility. For a lower cost, instead equip them with a second hornet; they'll waste ammo in all of 5 seconds, but in that short band of time they'll wreak havoc on any poor sod who gets in their way. Otherwise, getting the AI to effectively use stock missile tanks is a lost cause, and so is trying to get them to use the Bobcat for that matter; they don't often switch weapons, and so you'll almost never see a hornet launch. The simple, and honestly best solution is to not try and just customize your rocket tanks.

Overall, it sickens me to say this, but you generally should just stick to medium tanks (Grizzlies, Czars, Yetis etc) with perhaps some specialist units depending on the situation. They're built from the ground up to be the bread and butter of your forces, and an offense tab of 10 medium tanks is a solid force for general combat. They're also much better than anything else for fighting enemy tanks; Bobcats are too fragile and the AI is too dumb to use the rocket slot, scouts have too little firepower, bombers are as maneuverable as a cruiseliner, walkers are cancelled out by the Thumper, a weapon available to all medium tanks except China's, APCs, the most viable alternate offense unit if the Grizzly bores you, can be shut down by a single enemy bomber or MDM, and rocket tanks sacrifice many of the good things of medium tanks in exchange for the one weapon in the game that can be cancelled out by pressing a single button.

TL;DR Just have the AI use the Grizzly unless you have a more specific task in mind. And for yourself, use the Grizzly unless you're damn confident that you know what you're doing and know all the strengths and weaknesses of whatever other unit you're piloting.

[ULTIMO GUERRERO MOSCOVITA]

I rarely use them, although they're pretty decent against fast units like Flankers and Razors. Other than that, they don't have much use to be honest.

[ADuquequax]

They can be acceptably successful in DM when flown by skillful pilots. There were a few in the past who primarily flew Wolvies. Strat's another story - so many different ship & weapon options. Part of the fun of BZ can be learning all the ships & weapons, how best to use them, and take on the challenge of using lesser-advantaged ships to the best of their capabilities.

[Bobcat Betty]

Rocket Tanks are very much an anti-player unit, as their missiles are annoying for a player to deal with.

You won't find them much use against Furies, Furies give off very little heat and have a poor image signature, making the two main missile types very ineffective.

In contrast, walkers have very strong heat and image sigs, missiles lock onto them in a split second, a pair of wolverines will rip a Golem apart if they can get into range unnoticed.

Usually in MP the unit balance you'll want to have is mostly tanks with a few bombers for splash damage, beyond that it's up to your own preference and the situation whether you get scouts / light tanks / rocket tanks / APCs / walkers.

I've seen most units used effectively in strategy games, even turrets and minelayers which are pretty rare most of the time. definitely recommend experimentation.

Don't forget about upgrades either, giving rocket tanks a mortar makes them absolutely lethal splash damage units and the CCA get TAG for only 1 scrap (perhaps better equipped onto the Light Tank so that it can use dual but up to you, Tusker has better armour)

[Bunny]

Thank you for the comments everyone!

I tried using twin hornets against the furies in the last NSDF mission and it worked quite well. I sneak up on a fury at about ~195-200 meters and fire a salvo which knocks off half their health and makes them focus on me. Then I simply back up and let them follow me into a waiting horde of 10 Grizzlies. Because the fury focuses on me but is not yet in range it doesn't fire on anyone else and gets torn apart.

Normally casualties in that mission are so high that it is SOP to have a constructor follow the attacking force in order to finish off the thrusters. With the twin hornets I only lost two tanks in the final assault.

Admittedly, I have managed to win that mission with zero casualties but only by sniping with the Thunderbolt's rockets from nearly ~300m away.

Comparing the Thunderbolt's twin rockets to the twin hornets: the rockets have more ammunition, longer range, are unguided and weaker. The twin hornets have only 4 (wolverine) or 6 (thunderbolt) shots but they are guided and take off half a fury's health in one salvo and almost all of the health from a CCA Flanker.

If the AI was smart enough to fire a salvo at max range and back off I suspect that the rocket tanks would be very dangerous.

[Bunny]

Are there any youtube videos of skilled players using rocket tanks in multiplayer?