I am a beta player and have played 40K+ games, but I have never become a skilled light tank player. I am an old guy and am not that good at fast play. This year I have concentrated on expanding my skills to medium tanks and have increased those, but still find them not as rewarding as heavy tanks or TD's (TD's are my main tanks now).
So, I watched a couple of videos on lights and decided to go up the French line. I got an AMX 12t and have all the modules except for the top gun. One thing I had never completed was the Stug IV campaign LT-15 mission. Well, yesterday I did it in that little thing. I could not believe it. Years of trying to finish that and then I did. LOL. The tank is way out of meta, etc. but just finishing the campaign was cool.
Along the way, I have gained an appreciation for the difficulty of playing a light tank in the game today. I have incredible concealment, a good crew (transferred and retrained from my Char) and an understanding of the mechanics of spotting and concealment but I still die pretty quickly during most games. I am an aggressive player and try to move up and get into a good bush early in the game… when a fast medium or another light or heaven forbid a pair of E-25's (yeah, got caught out by a platooned pair of the roaches) comes too close or wants the same bush my survival is measured in seconds.
I have learned that my light has different missions in the early, middle and late phases of games. Early, hide and spot the enemy for your team. Middle, assuming things are going well, help find the enemy lights and hidden TD's/arty for your team. End, exploit the enemy's situation, killing one-shots and finding the sneaky TD or arty for the kill.
The 12T is slow for a light but I am close to fully researching it and will move up a tier.
The current meta of very fast, almost invisible lights is toxic (EBR's) but then there are toxic heavies and td's too.
Thoughts. Still love my TD's and heavies.
