Say it with me: "Amtrac is your best friend!"

I am going to continue the campaign for AMTRAC awareness!

Say it with me folks: "The AMTRAC is your best friend!"

I feel like there should be a campaign to educate Battlefield 3 players that the AMTRAC is a ridiculously strong ground vehicle. It is not just a transport mobile respawn with a lot of wheels!

It is true that this thing is slow as hell, but it's also durable as hell and probably has the best gunner seat on the ground in the whole game.

"I don't see what's so special about a slow grenade launcher that I can barely control if the driver is turning like crazy."

Well, first of all that grenade launcher is amazing at getting splash kills and lots of suppression. Second, the AMTRAC has TWO WEAPONS: Grenade Launcher and a mounted Machine Gun.

You know what you can do when the grenade launcher is cooling down? You can swap to the machine gun and do a lot of precision shooting to take out infantry, and then swap back to the grenade launcher once it's cooled down! On top of that, the cooldown on the machine gun is so easy to manage, just shoot in quick bursts and you can pretty much shoot forever without stopping: "psh psh psh psh psh" <swaps to cooled down grenade launcher> "bom bom bom bom bom bom bom" and repeat!

"But what about not being able to control the AMTRAC when there's a bad driver?"

Well, ideally get a good driver. Another option is to know that at some point people that don't understand the AMTRAC (95% of the players in the game) will get tired of the slow driving and bail. I recommend training a friend to understand the AMTRAC. Even when this thing is stationary, as long as it's within sight of your target area, it's golden!

"But I'm a sitting duck, this thing will get taken out quickly"

The AMTRAC is ridiculously tough and will take a lot of rockets and more C4 than a tank can handle. Half the time a Support Guy won't do much with C4 and merely disable you while you still pound away in the gunner seat.

But there's more, the AMTRAC gives you the best repair options outside of a helicopter.

"A helicopter can be repaired from inside. What makes the AMTRAC any different from repairing a tank?"

On level land, an engineer can crawl under the AMTRAC and repair it from underneath--only having to move when the AMTRAC has been blasted by something heavy and shifted over a bit.

Also, the AMTRAC is pretty big and it gives you room to maneuver around while repairing. Practice makes perfect.

Understand that the AMTRAC is often misunderstood and there is a big benefit to having a mobile grenade spamming, machine gun wielding mobile respawn of death and destruction. Learn how to alternate between the two guns, you switch from your primary to your secondary often enough--you can do that without the reload in this thing!

AND ONE MORE THING! The Amtrac can deploy IR Smoke! It always had this ability on the PC version, but now you can deploy smoke on the console version. Ever since the big Spring Patch!

But back to the original message: "AMTRAC IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!"

P.S. Yeah... I was just in a session where the team kept ignoring the AMTRAC available to us. Even after their lives was made into hell in the previous game by the enemy's correct use of the AMTRAC.

I know this is not the only thread on the topic but it has to be repeated--this should be a campaign for awareness ^_^

An excellent thread and discussion on BattleLog about the AMTRAC: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654624836780021/ [battlelog.battlefield.com]

For more information check out this excellent thread on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield3/comments/nt9ds/the_amtrac_is_the_best_vehicle_in_bf3/ [reddit.com]

The AMTRAC is your best friend!

But I agree that, just like flying a jet of helicopter, it requires practice to use it to the fullest.

It most certainly does ^_^ Though I think the lack of practice is a bi-product of the lack of awareness of how good the AMTRAC really is!

Cheers!

The Amtrac can also smoke afaik when you're in the driving seat.

Now we just need to teach the random smurfs that jumping into the drivers seat, then driving it right into the middle of the enemy so that it gets blown up 5 seconds later is stupid. Leave it behind your infantry, so it can support them.

The AMTRAC is powerful although the sight lines for the guns offer better vision at range - enemies close to the slab-like sides are difficult to hit.

However just as an engineer can repair the vehicle from underneath - an enemy engineer (with nothing to live for - such as a Rush Defender - infinite tickets) can also scoot under the AMTRAC and repair tool it to death. The explosion will tend to kill said engineer - but it's something to beware of.

The AMTRAC rules! It is a strong and cool transport! It can go trough water ! and is a mobile spawn! (and part of the USMC lol ! )

I literally lol'ed at that crawling underneath tactic. Nice tips

Leave it inside the enemy base, but not totally out in the open. Really hard to hold off a team that's attacking from all sides, AND from within.

I always thought amtrac can be killed as fast as heavy tank, 2 hits with a rocket in the bum and it's dead

AMTRAC is the best friend of any person who wants to get QBZ-95B. The AMTRAC in Wake Island is glitched (it's not how I got mine but still),even if nobody is in it,it counts as enemy for default and repair torch will deal damage to it. You can also shoot it and you will get points for disable and destroy.

I hate it when the driver keeps turning the vehicle so I can't hit shit.

Leave a reply...

DarkyVX said:
AMTRAC is the best friend of any person who wants to get QBZ-95B. The AMTRAC in Wake Island is glitched (it's not how I got mine but still),even if nobody is in it,it counts as enemy for default and repair torch will deal damage to it. You can also shoot it and you will get points for disable and destroy.

Hmmmm... Interesting........

The Amtrac is your best friend!

Another tip is that each passenger seat is also equipped with their own lmg. I don't know if you can see the turret, but that white dot in the middle of the screen when you're a passenger? Yeah, that's your turret, baby.

Muffinkungen said:
The Amtrac can also smoke afaik when you're in the driving seat.

Correct. As verified in the 'Amtrac Advice thread, did a test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrn-M6cxcFc [youtube.com] to check!
(Sorry that vid should probably have had a commentary).

BoomShahaB0xer, I think you are confusing the Amtrac with the IFV vehicles. The passengers of the Amtrac can only look out the window and admire the view.

Oh and I've heard the Amtrac and helo-bus drivers will be getting assist points in the next patch.

Leave a reply...

BoomShakaB0xer said:
The Amtrac is your best friend!

Another tip is that each passenger seat is also equipped with their own lmg. I don't know if you can see the turret, but that white dot in the middle of the screen when you're a passenger? Yeah, that's your turret, baby.

If this is true, keep the secret, people with complain it's OP and get it nerfed, but awesome tip.

It's not OP at all. If there is an enemy tank or LAV on the map you can just get circled to death.

Then again you guys only know bottom level play >:D

Please start a AMTRAC appreciation club. I would +1 or join it.

I got my 50 killstreak from an Amtrac and a lovely squadmate haha.

AMTRAC is your best friend!

As long as the driver knows what he's doing of course.

I apologize for any confusion I may have caused. What iMhORe said is true. It is the IFV that have lmgs on passenger seats F3-F6.

DarkyVX said:
AMTRAC is the best friend of any person who wants to get QBZ-95B. The AMTRAC in Wake Island is glitched (it's not how I got mine but still),even if nobody is in it,it counts as enemy for default and repair torch will deal damage to it. You can also shoot it and you will get points for disable and destroy.

That's not a glitch. The AMTRAC always counts as a US vehicle no matter what, even if there is no one in it.

i say +1 dice.
its seriously one of the best vehicles dice has ever put in...

the only weird thing is the amtrac is actually a mine clearing device

ChocoSmith said:
i say +1 dice.
its seriously one of the best vehicles dice has ever put in...

the only weird thing is the amtrac is actually a mine clearing device

Other than the fact that a smart player in a MBT or LAV can circle it, and that it's basically toast to any air support once spotted, and the fact that it so phat everyone on one team can just mortar and RPG it to insta-death, it's still useful cuz of the spawnability. 6/10 i rate it

I'm a big fan of the AMTRAC, but I often lose it due to a dumbass teammate using it as a taxi.

I wasn't aware you could crawl under it, though...

DoctorFawnk said:

ChocoSmith said:
i say +1 dice.
its seriously one of the best vehicles dice has ever put in...

the only weird thing is the amtrac is actually a mine clearing device

Other than the fact that a smart player in a MBT or LAV can circle it, and that it's basically toast to any air support once spotted, and the fact that it so phat everyone on one team can just mortar and RPG it to insta-death, it's still useful cuz of the spawnability. 6/10 i rate it

It's basically a remake of 2142's Goliath but with less guns. The idea is to park it on the edge of the enemy base and use it to spawn endless waves of inf right into their living room.

DoctorFawnk said:

ChocoSmith said:
i say +1 dice.
its seriously one of the best vehicles dice has ever put in...

the only weird thing is the amtrac is actually a mine clearing device

Other than the fact that a smart player in a MBT or LAV can circle it, and that it's basically toast to any air support once spotted, and the fact that it so phat everyone on one team can just mortar and RPG it to insta-death, it's still useful cuz of the spawnability. 6/10 i rate it

and how do you purpose they fix lav cirlcing it... make the lav slower when in the proximity of an amtrac? have the amtrac float? super boost the amtrac make it super small and as tuff as 4 tanks?
how about dumb amtrac drivers not using it as an offense weapon and putting it in the middle of the base for engs to send rocket up its ass.

do what cobra recomended and its perfect...

if you can think of a better way to get mobile spawn points in the game without having them own it then go ahead and sugest it.. i'm sure dice will implement it for you.
shit its easy to critise how about something constructive?

Today someone in the enemy team was using the Amtrac and I was like "Hey, is that really that good?". On the next server, I tested it out, and I can only say DAMN GIRL!

-Awesome weapon system
-Takes forever to kill (I think it required 6 C4 for example)
-Takes the same time to repair up as a normal tank (but it got alot more health
-Mobile spawn, I mean people can spawn on you and support you when you are going there slowly

And while reading this read I learned alot of new this.

-Machine gun (I had no clue)
-Smoke (I had seriously no clue at all)
-Crawl under to repair

In the future I will for sure use the Amtrac with my friends more often, but do anyone have a good "quick guide" how to aim with the grenade launcher at longer range, as it seems to lobby the grenades at the target.

And to the people who say if a Lav is circling around it, just shoot it. In front to front combat, the Amtrac WILL win if the aim is at 100% for both targets

Amtrac can't traverse turret fast enough to shoot it, it's completely helpless.

I wish the turret could move alil faster, but its all good. The ultimate rush weapon, as long as a support player doesnt strap 3 blocks of C4 to it.

Yeah, the only thing I can imagine for countering circling is to have really good coordination with your driver and sometimes instead of trying to follow, you might have to counter-turn and lead if they are really just going in a circle. Skill-for-Skill, I think the LAV will probably take it down in time, but there's often an answer of some sort.

And this is still a team game, if you have good teammates and they consider protecting the Amtrac a priority, some amazing things can happen!

I'm really glad everyone is contributing to this thread with both the Pros, Cons, Concerns, and Joys of the Amtrac!

The learning curve on a lot of vehicles is really difficult, but people intuitively understand their power level or potential--but the Amtrac slips under the radar because a lot of people simply don't know a lot of its advantages (and it's so easy to see its weaknesses--the thing is a pain to drive, sometimes you simply can't climb a simple incline and it's very easy to get it stuck somewhere bad).

Cheers! (And keep the input going and spread the good word!)