Antitank

Since there's going to be roughly two vehicles on a map for every five players, it's a relatively sure bet that your squad is going to face off against a tank or other vehicle if you play together for more than a minute or so at a time. Although you'll be able to shoot and kill passengers and gunners in some vehicles, such as the Hummer and the FAAV, most infantry won't be able to do much to hurt armored vehicles save throw grenades at them. Anyone who played Battlefield 1942 or Vietnam will remember how futile these efforts often were, though; grenades can damage tanks, but will rarely be able to kill them unless you manage to throw a good dozen or so at a time.

Video Walk-through

When going up against a tank, be sure to use whatever cover's available to you to protect you from its fire.

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This is where the antitank kit comes into play. In addition to the usual submachinegun for anti-infantry attacks, antitank troopers will pack a personal anti-armor guided missile. These missile launchers will allow you to, well, fire away at armored vehicles and destroy them. When you bring up a missile launcher, you'll be able to fire it either from the hip or from a zoomed mode. Whichever mode you choose, you'll have a moderate amount of control over your rocket after you fire it; moving your mouse to the left while the rocket is in midair will move its course slightly to the left, and so on. This isn't like firing a rocket launcher in Half-Life 2, though; you only have a very mild amount of control over the missile, so if a FAAV is moving perpendicular to you, it's unlikely that you'll be able to track it. If a tank is heading roughly away from you, though, you can use the mouse controls to get a bit of fine control to zero in on it if it attempts to maneuver away from your missile. Keep in mind that tanks have less armor on their rear sides, so, if possible, hit them from behind. Also note that you can hit hovering helicopters with your missile if you're a decent shot; they can only take one or two hits before they go down for the count.

As mentioned, though, a tank and even an APC won't be destroyed by a single missile, so you'll need to hit them multiple times with missiles before they go down. Unfortunately tanks will get damage location markers after being hit, so it's often not too difficult for them to figure out where your shots are coming from; if possible, try to move a bit between shots. It's better to just spawn as an anti-tank troop if you notice a tank rolling up to a base that's otherwise undefended; with three or four AT troopers wailing away at a vehicle, it'll go down quickly. At spawn points with plenty of places to hide, this tactic can make it essentially impossible for a single tank to capture a point.

Support

The support class is a new addition to the BF2 universe, and fills the heavy weapons role in battle. These guys aren't content with just shooting enemy soldiers; they want to totally rip them apart, and thus have some hardcore weapons with which to play. The U.S. support class, for instance, can use the M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), which is a full-on machine gun capable of firing extremely rapidly, and which has a 200-round magazine. In addition, the support class packs body armor, but they're incapable of sprinting for as long as other classes can.

The thing about the SAW and the other support weapons is that they're horrifically inaccurate in most firing situations. If you're standing up, for instance, then you can essentially forget about killing anyone with your main weapon, unless you're standing right on top of them. These weapons are really intended to be used while lying prone and aiming, but even then the spread of bullets is going to be fierce, so you'll need to be quite close to your target in order to safely hit them. This is something of the opposite problem as that found in Battlefield Vietnam, where the M60 was capable of firing in tight circles at long range, and was so overpowered that it eventually got nerfed in a patch; the poor accuracy of the support weapons in BF2 is likely a reaction to this. Hopefully they'll be tightened up a bit in a future patch. For the moment, lying prone, zooming in, and firing in short bursts are the best solutions to the accuracy problems of these weapons.

At close range, a support kit's machinegun can kill enemies in less than a second.

As it is, though, the support weapons here are notable mainly for their huge ammo reserves; some of them can fire up to 200 rounds without reloading. Since you have to get up close and personal, you may find that these weapons are best used for defending a flag; if you can find a nice, quiet spot that's defensible and looks out over a flag capture area, you can lay prone, zoom in on the flag...and wait. When someone comes along and thinks that the flag is up for grabs, you can show them the error of their ways by popping them from your hideyhole.

In addition to raw combat skills, the Support class can also give ammunition to other nearby players to restore their ammo reserves. Since there aren't any ammo boxes in the game world anymore, you will eventually run out of ammo completely if you don't find a support soldier to fill you back up or call for supplies from your commander. Unfortunately, support soldiers don't get any grenades because of this; otherwise they'd just be able to launch grenades from cover, resupply themselves, then repeat. BF1942 players have fond memories of attempting to overtake a flag populated by a bunch of guys sitting around an ammo box throwing out an infinite number of grenades, so it appears as though the developers eliminated the ability for support classes to do that by themselves by eliminating their grenade-carrying capabilities. You can get nearly infinite grenades by teaming up a grenade-wielding class with a support player, but this is somewhat unwieldy.

Special Forces

One of the new classes in Battlefield 2 is the Special Forces class, which is something of a behind-enemy-lines operative. The emphasis here is on speed and stealth, and not outright killing power, although special forces players will have a lightweight automatic weapon that's decent in firefights. The main difference between the Special Forces class is the inclusion of C4 as a weapon for them; these sticky bits of high explosives will let you destroy bridges, artillery, enemy equipment, and so on.

Video Walk-through

C4 can be a nearly instant kill against enemy vehicles. Just be sure not to get caught in the blast!

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What's more, you can attach C4 to almost anything, including vehicles, which makes for some devious tactics. Players of BF1942 will remember awkward (but very fun) attempts to pile dynamite into the back of a jeep to make a makeshift carbomb; in Battlefield 2 this process should be a lot easier, due to the C4's ability to stick to vehicles. All you have to do is attach the C4 to a Hummer, hop in, ride towards a group of enemies, then hop out and detonate the explosives for a bit of suicidal fun. You can also attach C4 to enemy vehicles as well, so if you spot an enemy making a beeline for a helicopter, feel free to attach C4 to it, then detonate it after he's gone airborne. C4 can also be used to destroy certain bridges and other destructible hotspots in certain maps.

The primary point behind C4, though, is to allow you to destroy enemy artillery, UAV trailers, and scan huts, which are normally (but not always) near the enemy's rearmost base at the beginning of a round. If an enemy has an uncapturable flag, then their commander equipment will almost certainly be somewhere nearby. If you can reach their base, perhaps by taking a boat or a quick FAV behind enemy lines, then most of your opponent's equipment can be destroyed with your C4 packs. Most enemy equipment, such as UAV trailers and artillery guns, will require two packages of C4 to detonate. Since you only carry five packs at a time, you may have to radio your commander for supplies in order to finish demolishing an enemy base. Since equipment destruction messages are relayed to all members of a team, though, they'll likely come looking for you as soon as you blow something up. You will earn points for destroying enemy equipment as of the game's 1.3 patch.

Attaching C4 to enemy tanks is perhaps a bit more popular use of the explosives, though, and one that is going to give plenty of tank drivers nightmares. Realistically, if you're in a tank near an enemy base and hear someone running next to you, then you're probably already dead; when a special forces soldier gets in close enough to plant their charges, there's little you can do to prevent them from going off. Of course, if you manage to shoot them before they pull the trigger, then the C4 will quickly disappear, leaving you safe and sound, but in most situations you're pretty much finished as soon as it gets planted. As a special forces operative, the key here is to remain undetected until the tank turret is facing away from you, then run up, plant two charges on the tank (or perhaps just one if the vehicle is already smoking), sprint away, then blow the mess.