Battlefield: Bad Company Neutralize or Utilize the Attackers' Howitzer to Your Advantage

The Howitzer is one of my favorite weapons in Battlefield: Bad Company. It is devastating, long range, and can get you a very decent amount of kills while you help your team advance (or defend). Four maps in the game have Howitzers: Oasis, Harvest Day, Valley Run, and End of the Line. While the maps vary in size and the guns' range is different in each, there are some basic strategies that can be employed on all of them.

Defending against the Howitzer:

There is no real defense against the Howitzer when in your own base. Keep moving, don't travel in straight lines, and hope that it is reloading when you're crossing open territory. You can drive a tank to the attackers' base and destroy it, but you'll rarely make it past the oncoming tanks and soldiers to do so.

I don't mean to say that the defenders are (pardon the pun) totally defenseless against the Howitzer. One of my favorite anti-artillery strategies is to use the recon kit and drive or run to some place within view of the enemy base. On Oasis, for example, you can hide on the island near the river crossing. Make sure you find a large enough bush to conceal you. I've had multiple enemy tanks pass within a few feet of me here without being detected. Just find an ideal spot, crouch, and remain still. Make sure you can see some part of the Howitzer from where you are sitting. Then, just target it with your laser designator and get yourself 20 points every time you destroy it. The gun is stationary, so you shouldn't have any problem hitting it. While you wait for the Howitzer to respawn you can use your designator on enemy tanks leaving the base or take potshots at foot soldiers with your sniper rifle. Keeping the Howitzer out of commission will be a huge boon to your fellow defenders.

Defensive Strategies:

It's true that defending teams do not have Howitzers in their bases, but that doesn't mean that you cannot use one to your advantage while on defense. There are few things more satisfying than using an attacking team's own artillery against them. You will usually need to wait until the attacking team has destroyed your first base and is spawning there. If you can find a way around them and make your way back to the first base where the Howitzer spawns, you will typically find it undefended. Just run up to it, knife the attacker who is using it (a one shot kill and an easy dog tag to add to your collection) and jump in yourself.

Most of the offensive strategies apply here. Keeping the attackers' tanks out of commission will help your team's defense immensely. Just remember that there is nothing between you and the enemy team, so you'll want to watch the road between the base and your position vigilantly. Try and kill anyone who heads your way before they get too close for you to fire on them. If you can't and you see them coming, jump off the gun and prepare to defend yourself, or just hide. I've had attackers come after me in tanks apparently assume that I'd disappeared or been killed already simply because I wasn't sitting in the gun. They actually jump out of their tanks and onto the gun, giving me both an easy kill and a free tank with which to defend myself when the next attacker comes to retake the gun.

Keep an eye on your surroundings during the firing animation. You can see if an attacker is sneaking up behind you and have enough time to jump off and defend yourself. Likewise if you see yourself taking damage because some attacker wasn't smart enough to close and knife you, and is instead shooting you from range. Attackers will typically avoid destroying the Howitzer outright, as they want to use it for themselves, so this gives you a few extra seconds to react to attack.

You can rack up an unbelievable amount of kills by getting behind the attackers and using their own artillery against them. They almost never expect their spawn to be shelled by their own Howitzer.

Keep these tips in mind and you'll master the Howitzer in no time. Hopefully you find some useful information here. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the battlefield.