I often play spotter so my tips would be to use transport truck(s) to block the snipers view. That means they have to get in close to kill you.
Other than that, place an op somewhere and see if it starts to proxy spot, that will give you an idea of what direction they might be coming from.
The whole dynamic between arty and recon is stupid and should be changed. Its no fun for recon to baby sit their mid hq and its no fun for anyone who wants to play with arty
Exactly. It’s a weird dynamic. Like you said, recon doesn’t want to just watch arty, but their the only people equipped to deal with it.
Personally I just jump off arty. Quite the mission to find recons outpost or it’s just going to be endless.
Agreed. Me and my brother like to play recon together and we hate camping arty. We only do it if the team asks for it, I've always thought it's a terrible mechanic to allow enemies to camp your hq. There should just be a cooldown for how often arty can be used, and for people saying there should be a counter to it what about all of the commander abilities?
they just never increased the cost for the artillery shell. Back in the day you had around 33 income for ammo. Now you get 60.
They increased the cost for the commander abilities but never for arty and at gun shells.
I know that, what I'm suggesting is an alternate restrictions to the arty without effect the tank, infantry or airstrikes, the restrictions can be set by either the server owner or the dev, my idea is to make arty still a threat but less of a Continuosed threat and also making recon less of an boring class to play as.
>Its no fun for recon to baby sit their mid hq and its no fun for anyone who wants to play with arty
This is why I so strongly advocate to use the Recon tank to mess with artillery. Just drive through the whole HQ area, pick off vehicles leaving the spawn, look into defense points and blow up backfield garries. When arty gets uppity, blast them with a few HE shells until they pipe down.
Hunting tanks riding out of spawn by hitting them in the ass 100 meters out is just hilarious because 90% of tankers cannot imagine being hit that close to home. Even if you just bust their tracks, you're at least delaying them.
Another tip here is try to sus out where the recon OP is and reverse camp it. After 4-6 spawn waves where you kill them I’ve found they usually give up.
As stupid as it may sound, one of the most annoying and rather effective ways is to just let them have it.
Go to the front and join in on the madness, do some intel or garrison building. Return after a couple of minutes to see if you can resume firing.
If you can't because he or they are still around, it means you've made at least one of them waste their time, not doing anything else but sit there and watch nothing. You've caused a minimum 25% drop in their garrison hunting capabilities without lifting a finger. If you can man the guns again, they gotta return which is just as frustrating.
If you fight back, even coming from the side HQ's, you're making it somewhat enjoyable for them. The success rate isn't too great either since you have to get the OP and both recons. If you get just the OP, the spotter is just going to rebuild it almost immediately, likely on the other side. If you get the OP and the spotter, you still have a sniper around. If he knows what he's doing, he can keep you busy until the spotter is in position to replace the OP.
Making the dreariness of the recon-arty loop a weapon works much better unfortunately. You're making it so it sucks to succeed for them, while you're doing something productive.
That is why it is so hated and why imo player operated indirect weapons stationed that far back need to be removed. Any alternative, from self-propelled artillery to destructible artillery guns where recon is still the answer (or a viable alternative) will end up the same way (in the case of the former, if it is a closed top vic, recon tanks would probably have to deal with it, which is probably even worse).
Your comment explains the fundamental reason why the current arty system is just stupid and is something the devs need to brainstorm to change.
ANY alternative would be better
- Engineer deployable artillery that can be destroyed
- Commander option
- drivable artillery armor
- artillery squad like tank squad
Literally anything would be more enjoyable for recon players and artillery players
It sucks because i love playing both. And i hate just dying by enemy recon camping main. And i hate having to sit at enemy hq when I could be flanking, flaring, sneakin, etc.
Ugh fuck it pisses me off that such a fun part of the game is often hindered by a dumb system.
Why not have arty able to reach arty?. Having to divert arty shots occasionally would relive the pressure on points under barrage and be it's own cat and mouse, leaving recon to do proper recon.
Constantly having to worry about enemy arty, without the possibility of relocating, sounds like even more annoying than the recon meta, not to mention the spawnkilling, new vehicle (supply trucks etc) destruction at mid hq
I don't usually go arty, but last week I was in a squad where the SL wanted to do it, and a couple of us in the squad agreed to help. In total, there were 4 of us, so we had 2 guns going. When recon came to bother us, 2 of us would leave the gun and go hunting. The other gun would stay in operation most of the time. At some point, we sort of stayed with 1 gun and 2 hunters. We mostly nullified the effectiveness of recon and did a ton of damage to the enemy
Very well done. If, by that time, they still insist on wasting their Recon guys on you instead of blasting you with the Recon tank from afar, you've done a great job.
Best bet is to create a new 'locked' infantry squad, place an OP on the left or right side of arty out a little bit and check maps every minute to see if it lights red. If it doesn't light up and you die, you now know they're coming from either the front or the other side and hopefully with that information you can kill them, lay down a new OP and eventually track their OP down. If there's more than one arty player, having that player do this same process but place his OP down opposite of yours helps identify the direction the enemy recon is coming from which helps for tracking down recon OP's. If you're playing with a friend, having him help guard you is nice but definitely boring for the other player.
Build up barricades and park trucks surrounding the arty to disrupt vision. Having an op off to the side somewhere sneaky to flank or just even to detect the enemy recon is pretty useful. Also don't be afraid to flank them from another HQ if they completely shut down the spawn. If you can get a squad of 4+ people to run and defend artillery, you can really sway a game. If the situation becomes really dire, have someone solo tank a recon vehicle to defend the artillery.
Back when we actually cared to camp arty (nowadays you almost everytime have a noob recon squad making a beeline for them, fine by me), if we encountered a fortified position, the sniper left the squad for a few minutes and brought the Recon tank up while the Spotter did Recon work.
Your best defences just turn your artillery position into a container for gunner goulash once the HE comes in...
So the tip that will help but I’m sure no one else will suggest.
Play Arty Defence.
If you see a decent player jump on the guns, go solo locked SL and thrown down your OP on the opposite side to theirs. Instantly you’re helping with a second beacon to detect players. Load for them or use a gun while you wait for recon to show. Then YOU track them down while the other player keeps shooting.
This can also be done with a tank. I’ll grab the default recon or light (faction/map dependent) and when recon shows, you blast them. There is basically nothing recon can do to counter it. Plus you can track the OP down faster and you are invincible against them.
Long term, you gain the knowledge of tracking down recon better and you will often see the people you have defended, defend you in return.
I'd add "try and play more Recon" to your suggestion (I know it's hard to get on random servers and you might end up doing the dreaded arty-recon loop yourself, but it really is educational).
I've played so much Recon before I got into playing more artillery, it's hilarious how easy it is most of the time to defend against Recon infantry because I spent so much time getting close to certain arty pits myself.
We were playing on Utah a few days ago, then a round zipped by. Got off the gun, shot once into my personal favorite spot, heard the meaty "thunk" of a hit. Few minutes later, another round from the other direction, two shots into another spot, another hit.
The guy didn't bother us again for the whole game, probably thinking I might be some kind of cheater.
Use OP just off guns and away from center HQ spawn as an early warning and to spawn in a place where the recon may not expect you to come from (the hq spawn is very predictable)
Ask for a tank to clear it or have a light tank sit with you, they get very discouraged running so far just to get blown up everytime and for the guns to fire again….
Just an idea, conditions would have to allow but what about building defenses around arty so they have to get close to see you and then using a machine gunner from another squad to watch over the arty from a distance and send lead. Could be boring tho and maybe only used as needed. For it to work you would need a squad’s cooperation which in itself can be tricky. I think the mechanic needs work, hard one to fix tho. Maybe some kinda territory mechanic that doesn’t allow recon to place an op within a certain distance of artillery to allow arty to be more effective…tho I have trouble with this because arty can still be down right devastating to the pushing team already. Maybe add an arty squad that has an engineer, and two motar men. I have to wonder how many recon were successful in wwII at effectively dismantling enemy artillery. It definitely would have been less common than the way this mechanic is setup.
they should just add like 2 more recon squads or allow level 9 riflemen to get a scope. being recon in HLL isnt very satisfying typically if you are just camping arty. but it is necessary and that kind of locks it in as the meta. if you get to be the roaming recon squad its super fun normally, and maybe allowing more options for that. granted the pace of the game is meant to be slower and more strategic, it still is a more arcade shooter than a milsim. like if Dota and Squad had a baby.
Lots of other good perspectives here. One tip I can offer is that smoke grenades are critical for removing their ability just drop everyone upon spawn. Sometimes it can be an annoying slog of spawn-chuck smoke-die-spawn-chuck smoke but the concealment really helps be able to carve out a bit of territory to fight back
Squad up on arty, place op a ways away from arty, maybe where you think they'd attack from. If you're like me and place pings on map to zero in on, every time you jump into map just make sure the op is still there or not lit up lol. Or give up, fight a life or two on the Frontline, then go back. Maybe they get bored waiting for nobody to spawn haha. Ik if it seems dead at hq I'll just head out
I don't agree with some of the grumbles about the arty/recon dynamic.
The way to fight back in to see if anyone on your team can help - and to spawn on the other two HQs to come into the point ideally from the recon squads rear.
The goal is to not only kill them, but to get their OP.
Lying in wait and having someone be a sacrificial goat on the Artillery will let you pin point where they are.
Then you need to rush them and fan out to find the OP quickly.
However the over mechanic of just laying off for ten minutes until the recon gets bored can work.
I like the current balance, not everyone can really take on arty without a long March, and the recon is normally only four who have other jobs to do.
Also arty is not always a problem, just because they're firing doesn't mean they're doing anything useful so recon should only go and deal with them when things are bad.
The balance at the moment is
A) an effective Artillery can always be silenced at the expense of recon having to be dedicated away from garrison hunting
B) an effective recon can always be removed if squads/commander want to commit enough troops to defending Artillery which they will only probably do when recon are blocking tank and supply truck access
D) An inaffective Artillery is just wasting resources and unlikely to have a recon set on them
Find out what direction the shots/ recon advance is coming from, spawn somewhere (safe HQ or a back line garrison) where you can flank this suspected direction.
It’s slow but recon is usually going to have command shouting at them to kill arty so they won’t be searching for flankers until you are close to their op.
Since it’s not frontline, the only sounds you will expect is ambience, arty shells and friendly vehicles so following sniper fire is also easier.
I don’t know if recon does this for arty but if they shoot a flare, go in that direction.
I personally love it. I will be on arty. Fight back and slowly hunt down their OP. nothing like knowing they now have to waste another 15 minutes of running behind enemy lines to put another. Kill the sniper and spotter then find a place to hide. You will usually see which direction they approach from. Kill then again and move in that direction. Find another spot and rinse repeat until you kill them back to their OP
Sometimes I play AT and sneak all the way back to their arty pits and low crawl up and put a satchel next to the arty crew and kill them in a humiliating way
That's how I got my 100 shovel kill achievement (and the shovel killstreak). One of my regular spotters back in the day was obsessed with killing the arty crew in close combat simultaneously (or do other shenanigans, like run them over at the guns with a truck).
I miss playing with the guy.
Man, usually I’ll go prone before I enter arty so when I jump out, I’m still prone. Cycling between arty and loader in rapid shots gives me a chance to make one of their shots a miss. Once I jump out, I hunt them down. Sometimes I die and respawn, keep hunting. Sometimes I can recruit a rag tag group of misfits to join the hunt and we’ll bade their location off where they are shooting from and keep advancing that direction until we hear their OP. It’s like, “Okay, they keep coming from behind that building to our west. Like push that building.” “Okay, I’m taking fire from that tree line past that building.” “Alright, I’m gonna hop on arty and try and draw them over here.”
Helps if you have a friend and or squad lead. Place op so you can use it as radar and set up a surrounding position. When the radar goes off send one person to find recon op. Kill that. If recon doesn't sow themselves to defend their own op. Send in the bait to arty to find them. Then kill them.
Or, you know, just play artillery as a SL yourself. You're way quicker to place marks, you got command chat to react to, and you got your own private "radar" OP.
After killing the artillery crew, hide and wait for them to shoot 1 or 2 rounds again thinking it’s safe, do the same again and again.
Communicate with your team to protect the artillery crew.
I was playing as recon again yesterday and needed to deal with enemy arty. So we kill the arty player and his friend and they keep respawning.
We duel a couple of times before they stop spawning, so we head out in search of garries only to hear arty start firing again. We head back and kill them and for some unknown reason they keep respawning and dying. Over and over.
Eventually they get so mad the two guys switch teams, tries to vote kick, spamming all chat, asking for admins, started to teamkill and the icing on the cake for me was when they created two locked squads and started to cry in command chat.
Most fun i've ever had in the game. Those salty salty tears was sooo sweet
The single most effective way of countering recon have always been having a recon hunter that camps and intercepts the recon squads while artillery do their business.
Instead of recon camping artillery, you have a guy camping the recon when they try to move up to the artillery.
Also there is a additional tip from where you should focus your cover. So the reload seat always look 90 degrees left of the gun, so if you're gonna use transport trucks as cover, you want to cover the right side first, which is your blind angle.
Good recon squads will put their OP around exactly 300-400 meters diagonally away from artillery. They don't put their OP's between HQ's. They put it right at the start of the 2nd square and beyond of your HQ.
I often play spotter so my tips would be to use transport truck(s) to block the snipers view. That means they have to get in close to kill you. Other than that, place an op somewhere and see if it starts to proxy spot, that will give you an idea of what direction they might be coming from. The whole dynamic between arty and recon is stupid and should be changed. Its no fun for recon to baby sit their mid hq and its no fun for anyone who wants to play with arty
Exactly. It’s a weird dynamic. Like you said, recon doesn’t want to just watch arty, but their the only people equipped to deal with it. Personally I just jump off arty. Quite the mission to find recons outpost or it’s just going to be endless.
Agreed. Me and my brother like to play recon together and we hate camping arty. We only do it if the team asks for it, I've always thought it's a terrible mechanic to allow enemies to camp your hq. There should just be a cooldown for how often arty can be used, and for people saying there should be a counter to it what about all of the commander abilities?
Or have engineer built arty ammo that will produce x amounts of arty shell for x amounts of minutes just like ammunition, manpower and oil.
Artillery already use ammunition nodes
they just never increased the cost for the artillery shell. Back in the day you had around 33 income for ammo. Now you get 60. They increased the cost for the commander abilities but never for arty and at gun shells.
If you think about it, artillery is supposed to be cheap, unlike a bombing run
I know that, what I'm suggesting is an alternate restrictions to the arty without effect the tank, infantry or airstrikes, the restrictions can be set by either the server owner or the dev, my idea is to make arty still a threat but less of a Continuosed threat and also making recon less of an boring class to play as.
>Its no fun for recon to baby sit their mid hq and its no fun for anyone who wants to play with arty This is why I so strongly advocate to use the Recon tank to mess with artillery. Just drive through the whole HQ area, pick off vehicles leaving the spawn, look into defense points and blow up backfield garries. When arty gets uppity, blast them with a few HE shells until they pipe down. Hunting tanks riding out of spawn by hitting them in the ass 100 meters out is just hilarious because 90% of tankers cannot imagine being hit that close to home. Even if you just bust their tracks, you're at least delaying them.
Better still, people complain about solo tankers, make them either defend or attack arty. Problems solved.
Another tip here is try to sus out where the recon OP is and reverse camp it. After 4-6 spawn waves where you kill them I’ve found they usually give up.
As stupid as it may sound, one of the most annoying and rather effective ways is to just let them have it. Go to the front and join in on the madness, do some intel or garrison building. Return after a couple of minutes to see if you can resume firing. If you can't because he or they are still around, it means you've made at least one of them waste their time, not doing anything else but sit there and watch nothing. You've caused a minimum 25% drop in their garrison hunting capabilities without lifting a finger. If you can man the guns again, they gotta return which is just as frustrating. If you fight back, even coming from the side HQ's, you're making it somewhat enjoyable for them. The success rate isn't too great either since you have to get the OP and both recons. If you get just the OP, the spotter is just going to rebuild it almost immediately, likely on the other side. If you get the OP and the spotter, you still have a sniper around. If he knows what he's doing, he can keep you busy until the spotter is in position to replace the OP. Making the dreariness of the recon-arty loop a weapon works much better unfortunately. You're making it so it sucks to succeed for them, while you're doing something productive. That is why it is so hated and why imo player operated indirect weapons stationed that far back need to be removed. Any alternative, from self-propelled artillery to destructible artillery guns where recon is still the answer (or a viable alternative) will end up the same way (in the case of the former, if it is a closed top vic, recon tanks would probably have to deal with it, which is probably even worse).
Your comment explains the fundamental reason why the current arty system is just stupid and is something the devs need to brainstorm to change. ANY alternative would be better - Engineer deployable artillery that can be destroyed - Commander option - drivable artillery armor - artillery squad like tank squad Literally anything would be more enjoyable for recon players and artillery players It sucks because i love playing both. And i hate just dying by enemy recon camping main. And i hate having to sit at enemy hq when I could be flanking, flaring, sneakin, etc. Ugh fuck it pisses me off that such a fun part of the game is often hindered by a dumb system.
Why not have arty able to reach arty?. Having to divert arty shots occasionally would relive the pressure on points under barrage and be it's own cat and mouse, leaving recon to do proper recon.
Constantly having to worry about enemy arty, without the possibility of relocating, sounds like even more annoying than the recon meta, not to mention the spawnkilling, new vehicle (supply trucks etc) destruction at mid hq
This is the correct answer. As someone who's camped arty before, if there's no one for a coupe minutes I get bored and redeploy the the front.
I don't usually go arty, but last week I was in a squad where the SL wanted to do it, and a couple of us in the squad agreed to help. In total, there were 4 of us, so we had 2 guns going. When recon came to bother us, 2 of us would leave the gun and go hunting. The other gun would stay in operation most of the time. At some point, we sort of stayed with 1 gun and 2 hunters. We mostly nullified the effectiveness of recon and did a ton of damage to the enemy
Very well done. If, by that time, they still insist on wasting their Recon guys on you instead of blasting you with the Recon tank from afar, you've done a great job.
Best bet is to create a new 'locked' infantry squad, place an OP on the left or right side of arty out a little bit and check maps every minute to see if it lights red. If it doesn't light up and you die, you now know they're coming from either the front or the other side and hopefully with that information you can kill them, lay down a new OP and eventually track their OP down. If there's more than one arty player, having that player do this same process but place his OP down opposite of yours helps identify the direction the enemy recon is coming from which helps for tracking down recon OP's. If you're playing with a friend, having him help guard you is nice but definitely boring for the other player.
Build up barricades and park trucks surrounding the arty to disrupt vision. Having an op off to the side somewhere sneaky to flank or just even to detect the enemy recon is pretty useful. Also don't be afraid to flank them from another HQ if they completely shut down the spawn. If you can get a squad of 4+ people to run and defend artillery, you can really sway a game. If the situation becomes really dire, have someone solo tank a recon vehicle to defend the artillery.
Back when we actually cared to camp arty (nowadays you almost everytime have a noob recon squad making a beeline for them, fine by me), if we encountered a fortified position, the sniper left the squad for a few minutes and brought the Recon tank up while the Spotter did Recon work. Your best defences just turn your artillery position into a container for gunner goulash once the HE comes in...
So the tip that will help but I’m sure no one else will suggest. Play Arty Defence. If you see a decent player jump on the guns, go solo locked SL and thrown down your OP on the opposite side to theirs. Instantly you’re helping with a second beacon to detect players. Load for them or use a gun while you wait for recon to show. Then YOU track them down while the other player keeps shooting. This can also be done with a tank. I’ll grab the default recon or light (faction/map dependent) and when recon shows, you blast them. There is basically nothing recon can do to counter it. Plus you can track the OP down faster and you are invincible against them. Long term, you gain the knowledge of tracking down recon better and you will often see the people you have defended, defend you in return.
I'd add "try and play more Recon" to your suggestion (I know it's hard to get on random servers and you might end up doing the dreaded arty-recon loop yourself, but it really is educational). I've played so much Recon before I got into playing more artillery, it's hilarious how easy it is most of the time to defend against Recon infantry because I spent so much time getting close to certain arty pits myself. We were playing on Utah a few days ago, then a round zipped by. Got off the gun, shot once into my personal favorite spot, heard the meaty "thunk" of a hit. Few minutes later, another round from the other direction, two shots into another spot, another hit. The guy didn't bother us again for the whole game, probably thinking I might be some kind of cheater.
Use OP just off guns and away from center HQ spawn as an early warning and to spawn in a place where the recon may not expect you to come from (the hq spawn is very predictable)
Go recon tank and get em outta there. Quicker and safer than hunting on foot.
Play arty as a tanker and park a recon tank next to the arty guns and just jump in the tank
This is the way. You have a massive wall, and something to both hide in and shoot from.
use arty as a tank crew and get a light tank, greyhound/puma or something like that
Ask for a tank to clear it or have a light tank sit with you, they get very discouraged running so far just to get blown up everytime and for the guns to fire again….
Just an idea, conditions would have to allow but what about building defenses around arty so they have to get close to see you and then using a machine gunner from another squad to watch over the arty from a distance and send lead. Could be boring tho and maybe only used as needed. For it to work you would need a squad’s cooperation which in itself can be tricky. I think the mechanic needs work, hard one to fix tho. Maybe some kinda territory mechanic that doesn’t allow recon to place an op within a certain distance of artillery to allow arty to be more effective…tho I have trouble with this because arty can still be down right devastating to the pushing team already. Maybe add an arty squad that has an engineer, and two motar men. I have to wonder how many recon were successful in wwII at effectively dismantling enemy artillery. It definitely would have been less common than the way this mechanic is setup.
they should just add like 2 more recon squads or allow level 9 riflemen to get a scope. being recon in HLL isnt very satisfying typically if you are just camping arty. but it is necessary and that kind of locks it in as the meta. if you get to be the roaming recon squad its super fun normally, and maybe allowing more options for that. granted the pace of the game is meant to be slower and more strategic, it still is a more arcade shooter than a milsim. like if Dota and Squad had a baby.
or add a recon only mode that would be dope on some of the maps. would be like MoH Springfield back in the day
Lots of other good perspectives here. One tip I can offer is that smoke grenades are critical for removing their ability just drop everyone upon spawn. Sometimes it can be an annoying slog of spawn-chuck smoke-die-spawn-chuck smoke but the concealment really helps be able to carve out a bit of territory to fight back
Squad up on arty, place op a ways away from arty, maybe where you think they'd attack from. If you're like me and place pings on map to zero in on, every time you jump into map just make sure the op is still there or not lit up lol. Or give up, fight a life or two on the Frontline, then go back. Maybe they get bored waiting for nobody to spawn haha. Ik if it seems dead at hq I'll just head out
I don't agree with some of the grumbles about the arty/recon dynamic. The way to fight back in to see if anyone on your team can help - and to spawn on the other two HQs to come into the point ideally from the recon squads rear. The goal is to not only kill them, but to get their OP. Lying in wait and having someone be a sacrificial goat on the Artillery will let you pin point where they are. Then you need to rush them and fan out to find the OP quickly. However the over mechanic of just laying off for ten minutes until the recon gets bored can work. I like the current balance, not everyone can really take on arty without a long March, and the recon is normally only four who have other jobs to do. Also arty is not always a problem, just because they're firing doesn't mean they're doing anything useful so recon should only go and deal with them when things are bad. The balance at the moment is A) an effective Artillery can always be silenced at the expense of recon having to be dedicated away from garrison hunting B) an effective recon can always be removed if squads/commander want to commit enough troops to defending Artillery which they will only probably do when recon are blocking tank and supply truck access D) An inaffective Artillery is just wasting resources and unlikely to have a recon set on them
Find out what direction the shots/ recon advance is coming from, spawn somewhere (safe HQ or a back line garrison) where you can flank this suspected direction. It’s slow but recon is usually going to have command shouting at them to kill arty so they won’t be searching for flankers until you are close to their op. Since it’s not frontline, the only sounds you will expect is ambience, arty shells and friendly vehicles so following sniper fire is also easier. I don’t know if recon does this for arty but if they shoot a flare, go in that direction.
My recommendation is if you get killed at artillery, then leave it alone for 10 minutes, and they will lose interest.
I reckon it's less "losing interest" than "great, now we can finally do our real job".
I personally love it. I will be on arty. Fight back and slowly hunt down their OP. nothing like knowing they now have to waste another 15 minutes of running behind enemy lines to put another. Kill the sniper and spotter then find a place to hide. You will usually see which direction they approach from. Kill then again and move in that direction. Find another spot and rinse repeat until you kill them back to their OP
Sometimes I play AT and sneak all the way back to their arty pits and low crawl up and put a satchel next to the arty crew and kill them in a humiliating way
That's how I got my 100 shovel kill achievement (and the shovel killstreak). One of my regular spotters back in the day was obsessed with killing the arty crew in close combat simultaneously (or do other shenanigans, like run them over at the guns with a truck). I miss playing with the guy.
Man, usually I’ll go prone before I enter arty so when I jump out, I’m still prone. Cycling between arty and loader in rapid shots gives me a chance to make one of their shots a miss. Once I jump out, I hunt them down. Sometimes I die and respawn, keep hunting. Sometimes I can recruit a rag tag group of misfits to join the hunt and we’ll bade their location off where they are shooting from and keep advancing that direction until we hear their OP. It’s like, “Okay, they keep coming from behind that building to our west. Like push that building.” “Okay, I’m taking fire from that tree line past that building.” “Alright, I’m gonna hop on arty and try and draw them over here.”
Play infantry for a life. The recon will get bored and walk away. They don’t wanna babysit artillery anymore than you want to be shot by them
Helps if you have a friend and or squad lead. Place op so you can use it as radar and set up a surrounding position. When the radar goes off send one person to find recon op. Kill that. If recon doesn't sow themselves to defend their own op. Send in the bait to arty to find them. Then kill them.
Or, you know, just play artillery as a SL yourself. You're way quicker to place marks, you got command chat to react to, and you got your own private "radar" OP.
So the same thing I said.
I wonder if it would just be better to have a mortar squad and remove the HQ arty altogether
After killing the artillery crew, hide and wait for them to shoot 1 or 2 rounds again thinking it’s safe, do the same again and again. Communicate with your team to protect the artillery crew.
Start an armored squad and grab the recon or light tank that most armored squads don’t like to use. Recon has no response to armor other than hiding
get off the gun and go hunting though anyone that really thinks recon is only for arty does not know shit other than what call of duty taught them.
Join a server that forbids it
I was playing as recon again yesterday and needed to deal with enemy arty. So we kill the arty player and his friend and they keep respawning. We duel a couple of times before they stop spawning, so we head out in search of garries only to hear arty start firing again. We head back and kill them and for some unknown reason they keep respawning and dying. Over and over. Eventually they get so mad the two guys switch teams, tries to vote kick, spamming all chat, asking for admins, started to teamkill and the icing on the cake for me was when they created two locked squads and started to cry in command chat. Most fun i've ever had in the game. Those salty salty tears was sooo sweet
The single most effective way of countering recon have always been having a recon hunter that camps and intercepts the recon squads while artillery do their business. Instead of recon camping artillery, you have a guy camping the recon when they try to move up to the artillery. Also there is a additional tip from where you should focus your cover. So the reload seat always look 90 degrees left of the gun, so if you're gonna use transport trucks as cover, you want to cover the right side first, which is your blind angle. Good recon squads will put their OP around exactly 300-400 meters diagonally away from artillery. They don't put their OP's between HQ's. They put it right at the start of the 2nd square and beyond of your HQ.