What are the best ways to use these vehicles effectively?
Long range. The only way they can be played.
I find most maps do not support this playstyle well unfortunately
That is because most maps are designed for close quarters knife fights.
They’re usually just bad, Gaijin refuses to allow them to shoot on the move which means even when rotating in place the game counts you as moving at 4-5km/h and you can’t even shoot at that point, not to mention the nerf to most ATGMs that aren’t Russian giving them ridiculous flight paths unlike the straight as an arrow Russian ATGMs.
Pair that with the extremely low velocity of the ATGM, even shooting first, you often end up getting killed first or the target is gone before the missile reaches the target, and even if it hits the damage tends to be poor.
Best way to use them is to let them gather dust in the hangar until Gaijin lets them be useful.
I am spading every italian ground and air vehicle otherwise I would skip them. (I am up to 8.3 for ground ((I do it ascending)) and the M113 TOW stands in my way.
M113 is horrible, everything about it is bad… even the BR is bad, you’re just below an IT-1 and above a BMP that does everything you do and better as well.
I’m finding that out but I have to spade it
They’d be a bit more viable if you could at least shoot on the move and not be that restricted, it really limits your gameplay to just sitting stationary, but if you sit too far away things will be gone before you reach it.
Only somewhat useful quality is that it has good depression I think.
Play that thing as an absolute rat.
Since it has good gun depression, find somewhere to sit and just wait, exposing as little of yourself as possible.
That’s the only way to play those vehicles effectively (not like they weren’t designed to do just that).
Depends. IT-1 can be played as regular tank, lol. Some ATGM carriers have great gun depression, like M901, so use that on hills.
Generally play it as tank destroyer - stay back and snipe.