I’m curious on how you guys play the Merkava series of tanks: what strategies you use, what positions you try to put yourself in, which versions of the tank you enjoy more or less, etc.
This is just for fun and a bit of learning, I just want to see the different play styles used by different people for these vehicles.
You don’t.
Jokes aside they are just massive houses made of cardboard. Their only gimmick is fun and decent guns. Use terrain to your advantage, have crew replacement and repair times prioritized for crew xp, and especially make sure to have a high reload rate to prevent yourself from getting into scenarios where Russian auto loader out-reload you.
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So I have not played it but have friends that play it and been going against for a while.
Hull Down - Right hill & your turret cheeks become horizontally flat. Basically, think of a STRV103 at 11.7 and in Isreal, not Sweden.
Engine Exposure - Mastering the art of just just hiding your crew behind your engine. Most people will shoot the same spot again and again and since you can not damage a damaged module the penetrating round basically does nothing, keeping your crew alive.
Sneaky & Ratty - The thing is quiet comparing to most other tanks. You can sneak and hide well, especially to the player that blasts music while they play.
Brawler - Find a good angle in city maps and wait, do not push. Yes, it is one of the best urban tanks. That said, it is meant to be protected against manpads, not tanks. If you learn common player routes you can wait them in and have a real good time, especially if you have a battle buddy to rotate fire for your reloads.
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I’ve played a little bit of ATGMS launchers and these Merkavas could eat a lot of them and not die, especially the turret even sometimes could resist up to 4 tandem warheads lol
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Yes merks can be quite effective against chemical munitions, the Merkava Mk.4M is a as is to be able to easily withstand Kornets, and even some to the side so an extent. However, their armor is useless against any kinetic munition.
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I like to get into urban combat and brawl with them. They’re not well armoured but they tend to take a lot of punishment before going down, especially if you bring a low ammo count.
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I have a question about this, what about the driver? Won’t he be constantly taken out and replaced while you repair your engine?
Get the block angle right and your driver does not get touched.
You Don’t.
This is strange considering the front of the Merkava 4 is entirely green to 9.7 missiles.
From experience playing the Merks I do have the following advice:
make sure to wiggle the turret if you’re in a sniping duel, sometimes you can lessen the return blow and sometimes block the shot.
As a general rule of thumb you’re very hard to kill with an autocannon, most cannot deal critical damage frontally and at most they generally can get the engine/driver plus sometimes the turret ring, so pushing IFV’s with only guns (VBCI, CV9030FIN or any other IFV that has expended its current missile load and only has its gun up) isn’t the worst idea, plus you do have the barrel mounted 50 cal.
The Mk.1/2 need to be played slowly and methodically, rushing in is basically asking to get stuck out of position and burned out, on urban maps they probably suck the most due to the slower reverse and the inability to really use the smaller turret profile.
Mk.3 is where it gets good, the gun is finally workable and the mobility is improved, basically plays like a much faster Mk.2 with a useable cannon and you even get a faster reload now!
Mk.4 is the peak, the reverse gear buff allows you to snipe and reverse back into cover quickly, so sniping is the most viable with this one, as for urban engagements you do have better protection (although relatively speaking this only helps against IFV’s) and once again the reverse gear allows you to dip out of unfavourable situations with relative ease, plus you have plenty of smoke to mask a repositioning. Sometimes you can bait people into shooting the empty part of the turret bustle and the hull rear (latter is risky as they can track you)
Might be more of a case-by-case thing here but I’ve found most Merkavas (especially the Mk.4) to be more resistant to overpressure via 125 HE.
Generally slow-moderately quick tanks that require a more careful and thought-out approach to each game.
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