How to T70

When I first started playing (couple years ago) fielding a T70 early was a huge power spike, a wipe machine, and general map control monster. I recently started playing again and besides the nerfs, maybe as I play against better players, I find enemy AT guns easily zone me out before I can do any meaningful mp bleed. Having trouble poking at max range since the AT outranges while the enemy infantry hide behind cover and basically kills my tank in 3 shots (they usually get at least 2 off by the time I react and back out of range, leading to downtime for repairs. Or am I just slow?), and then can't really drive up to circle strafe team weapons since all the enemy mainline infantry have fausts which instant snare and more or less result in death. A simple mg/at gun combo in the middle of the map will severely limit my options.

This is even more pronounced in team games where there are team weapons spread across the map. Besides the dangers of not focusing on my own lane, team games limit the ability to use the T70's speed to just yeet around the map to try and stay away from AT guns.

I guess a mortar is the basic counter to enemy team weapons, but I feel like they're mostly ineffective and slow to kill unless massed, or maybe I'm just bad with them. I either barrage and they just move out of it, or I attack ground into the fog for 2 minutes and it feels like they don't even have to bother moving, unless they're sitting in a building the whole time. Smoke is great though.

Spending 70 fuel on a unit with that's been having minimal impact has been rough and it feels like it just results in the enemy getting a P4 out before my t34. What am I doing wrong? Should I just skip straight to t34s?

My preferred build was penals, flamer scout car, guards, t70, then spam t34/85s with guards motor coordination. Lately I've been skipping the scout car, since it seems to be even more useless than the t70, and experimenting with earlier team weapons. I understand cons as mainline infantry are more meta, but I'd like to make penals work if possible. I feel like I barely win an even fight in the opening engagements with penals, and when I went cons I generally just got slaughtered even when making an effort to reposition for 2v1 engagements. Although since I haven't been having much success with the scout car either that kinda takes away half the reason to go T1...

Hi there,
I'm no pro but I can give you some tips (are you playing 1v1 or any other mode?)

First of all, t70 got nerfed couple of patches ago so it is not so strong as it used to be.

Second of all, if you can field it until 8-9 minutes, go for it...but don't use it alone, support it with your infantry. Because if you get fausted and enemy has pak nearby, it's bye-bye t70. One teller? Also dead t70.

If enemy gets p4 before your t34 (and you didnt go for t70) then he had better fuel control.

Penals? These days almost no one (again, speaking for 1v1) goes for penals, usually it's cons...
t34/85 is probably still the best medium in the game.

Hope it helped at least a bit

As someone living that Penal life, I got a few pointers.

What commander are you using? I like to use commanders that either buff Penal or provide Dshka.
I feel the best for penal build is NKVD disruption tactics:
Radio Intercept- Allows you to know what enemy has built and allows you to react a lot faster such as PTRS for LV or if OKW made PF instead of volks. Really helps with clown car.
Commissar- Crowd control with fear propoganda and stand your ground makes a penal squad a massive damage dealer
AT overwatch helps against heavy tanks and scorched earth is a nuisance. I feel the flame tank is useless due to cost. My usual build is T1 4 penals with clown car being made after 1st penal depending on enemy and hold off on healing until later since commissar can heal. At that point you choose your LV, I like to make quad so I have some type of suppression aside from fear propoganda.

Airborne:
Weapons crate gives 6 SMG which in a clown car can be quite powerful. Situational but I love it.
Dshka airdrop: crowd control, pretty good damage, can push back OST LV
Airborne rally points: I don't use it in 1v1 but in team games quite useful for forward reinforcement.
Airborne guards: PPSH upgrade is free and gives cloak so you can ambush with it, LMG upgrade is good but you might get muni starved.
AT strafe: Can kill OST T3 in one pass if your lucky, always aim for rear. Really powerful but not much leeway.

This is my favorite commander, I just feel it is fun to play as overall. I usually build a conscript/T1 then make 3 penal with clown car coming after 1st penal depending on enemy. The conscript is important since it will be used for crewing the HMG and merging with squads to save as much mp as possible. Anything with Penal builds will have high mp cost. I usually get healing after 3rd penal unless I have enough CP to call in HMG.

There are other commanders that are good with Penals but these seem to be the most useful. Once you get used to them Counter attacks "For mother Russia" is a great buff for Penals. Lend Lease has mg/assault guards/infantry repair/ and sherman so its another one where they synergize well. Urban defense can create a massive power spike with forward headquarters and its buff ability.

I personally don't like to use regular guards because they are redundant aside from "button". A clown car PTRS penal can chase down pretty much every enemy LV in the game since it has 3 PTRS instead of 2. I wouldn't make more than 2 PTRS penal though since they become useless against infantry. Stick to one if possible.

Thanks for the tips! I'm running Guards Motor Coordination. I probably play the most 2v2 - although a significant portion of those 2v2 matches generally amount to a 1v1 on half the map. I either win early game so hard that the enemy quits (usually by stealing an MG or satcheling some poor garrison), or I slowly get pushed back over the course of a match. I'm pretty confident in early game, then its a slow death as my mid and late game are weaker.

My second and third choices would be Shock Rifle Frontline or Terror Tactics, although I haven't used those outside of comp stomps. Time to try some new builds I guess, but I fear I'll just suck even more while experimenting with unfamiliar commanders and builds.

Over the past few games I've narrowed down my trauma to the MG/AT gun combo. I feel like a single AT gun creates a huge no go zone for both the m3a1 and the t70, and it's a fantastic deal for them since the AT gun will scale to endgame. Maybe I need to learn the maps and LOS blockers better. Given a roughly equal infantry presence in an area, I'm not really able to push and overrun the at gun on foot, since running through the mg fire is pretty much instant suppression and retreat or death. I'd love to be able to roll up to the mg and push it off with a clown car or t70 but again that's not worth trading my vehicle for between fausts and the AT gun.

I've also attempted emulating this combo on my side but it honestly feels like the enemies just ignore the maxim and walk right through it and throw nades all over my at gun and my mg with just a few squads, or even just straight up shoot it to death in a couple seconds with a group of falls or obers ><

I didn't realize penals get 3 PTRS, I always thought it was 2. I usually only upgrade one penal squad for sticky satchel snare and leave the general handheld at work for my regular guards, which I also like as my strongest ranged dps option with their dp28s. I haven't tried a PTRS clown car much, the car is usually reserved for my flame engies, since they could use the protection, mobility, and the ability to repair. Does it beat a 222? The 222 can shred an m3a1 pretty fast, and can supress the infantry carrying the AT gun too. If anything the 222 has plenty of life to just tank a few shots and roll away anyways. Takes 3 volleys from a 222 to take out the car from full life (usually 2 since the clown car takes damage from small arms too), while it would take two ptrs 4 volleys (or 5 if any shots miss...). I guess it would be better if there were 3 ptrs in a squad.

I usually don't play a conscript with my penals at all, but I guess that could be a low impact thing to try. It would be nice to have at grenades to keep the enemy honest, but that's more fuel that I'm behind... I used to avoid it since I read the merged conscripts keep their abysmal defense and I end up losing even more units out of my vetted squads faster.

Thats why you go with the PTRS penal, with the new Update they get 3 guns and each does 40 damage at 40 range. Not sure if there is a range penalty in clown car don't think there is. So in 2 volleys you are killing it or almost killed the 222, you should be at range and only close in when it tries to run away. I don't like flame engies much against Ost since they get snares to start the game and requires a little more micro from you to keep car alive since you have to get close.

I have a couple replays in the replay section. I aint the best but you can see what I mean. Your biggest issue is snare or shreks since a volley will kill you.

Edit: AT work so I cant answer more detailed but I put pretty good descriptions in each replay, except my 2 most recent I had put in words but didn't hit reply and it erased everything lol.