how to use Maxim truck

[FrancoisPhilidor]

Hi, I have just started a multiplayer game and I'm Soviet for the first time. Wanted to ask why Maxim trucks are classified as anti-tank. Don't tell me they can actually shoot at tanks with their MG bullets? Their anti-armour attack value is only 2 I think!

Thanks

[JoaoLuisAngelo]

You'd be surprised how effective small arms fire (specialty ammo for sure) were in the early days, or later against lightly armored vehicles.
This isn't MG fire against Tiger IIs, though. It takes special circumstances to actually work.
In the last scenario of the US Pacific campaign (normal difficulty) I attacked the heavy tank that appears as reinforcements on the top left corner of the map with two B29 strategic bombers then with some artillery (Long Tom, IIRC, one or two) then with Heavy Infantry (and possibly Engineer, one each). With all the efficiency loss it retreated into a river.
To add insult to injury I then attacked it with a .50cal Jeep (recon) which (to my surprise) made it go boom.
Now don't take this to mean that the .50cal punched through the armor plate of the JP tanks, I don't think that is what is meant.
But imagine the scenario from a human perspective: those tankers were concussed, tired and wounded and not particularly aware of their surroundings.
The plucky US recon troopers might have been able to surprise them and chuck a few grenades down a few hatches.
Soft kill to be sure but a somewhat plausible kill none the less.

[FrancoisPhilidor]

You'd be surprised how effective small arms fire (specialty ammo for sure) were in the early days, or later against lightly armored vehicles.
This isn't MG fire against Tiger IIs, though. It takes special circumstances to actually work.
In the last scenario of the US Pacific campaign (normal difficulty) I attacked the heavy tank that appears as reinforcements on the top left corner of the map with two B29 strategic bombers then with some artillery (Long Tom, IIRC, one or two) then with Heavy Infantry (and possibly Engineer, one each). With all the efficiency loss it retreated into a river.
To add insult to injury I then attacked it with a .50cal Jeep (recon) which (to my surprise) made it go boom.
Now don't take this to mean that the .50cal punched through the armor plate of the JP tanks, I don't think that is what is meant.
But imagine the scenario from a human perspective: those tankers were concussed, tired and wounded and not particularly aware of their surroundings.
The plucky US recon troopers might have been able to surprise them and chuck a few grenades down a few hatches.
Soft kill to be sure but a somewhat plausible kill none the less.

I mean that's fine that way.
And since you mentioned that scenario, wasn't nuclear bomb very disappointing? I dropped it in the middle on that fortified island, and not much happened to the units there.

Anyway, so this maxim truck is really just an AT gun? If it gave fire support againt infantry, I would undertand that more.

[StuccoFresco]

There is no support fire against infantry, only AA vs air attacks and AT against tanks. I've tried meddling with the game to make artillery units act as anti-infantry support but it doesn't work.

[FrancoisPhilidor]

There is no support fire against infantry, only AA vs air attacks and AT against tanks. I've tried meddling with the game to make artillery units act as anti-infantry support but it doesn't work.

So the maxim truck really shoots at attacking tanks? That's ridiculous