A Guide on Tachanka

I keep seeing people say how useless he is, though I enjoy playing as him and most of the time I do a pretty good job. I've gotten a few aces from the turret alone, and I survive most rounds with a kill or two by the time it's over. He's my main defender, and after 100+ hours of playing this game, here's how I do it. This is just advice from me; everyone plays different, so keep that in mind. This isn't "optimal" by any means. Anyway, let's get started.

PROTIP #1 -

Never use T during the Bomb objectives. It's too hard to cover two spots reliably with him at the same time. Hostage or Container only.

PLACEMENT -

You'll want reinforced walls behind you so you can't be surprised. Ideally, you'll want a Bandit or a Mute to make sure Thermite can't blow a path to you from behind.

You DO NOT want to reinforce the walls that T is facing with his turret. Surprising the enemies with a hail of turret fire through the walls is a great way to get kills as T. His LMG eats through the environment like nothing. Try and have a Pulse to spot enemies through walls for you to blow away.

Castle is good for bottlenecking enemies in to the areas your turret is facing. Set up his barricades on the windows and doors that your turret can't reach. You want the enemies to come through the areas that it CAN.

A Jaeger is good for room defense and from keeping flashbangs and smokes from blinding your turret, and from grenades taking you out before you can dismount and move out of the way.

Use deplorable shields to cover your flanks.

In a hostage scenario, put the hostage between yourself and where you want and expect the enemy to be coming from. Your turret won't drop low enough to kill the hostage, and the recoil will have it going up, not down. It's a good way to put added pressure on someone who's surprised by you; he will either hesitate to shoot or will chance hitting the hostage and winning the round for you anyway.

PROTIP #2 -

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO RELOCATE. It takes a little while, but after an assault or after you've been marked, try to find a new place. It'll surprise the enemies, who have been acting on bad information.

TEAMWORK -

Teamwork is key when using Tachanka. He is a support character who delivers added stress to the enemy; your goal isn't necessarily to kill the other team, though that isn't difficult to do at all with an LMG and with some good communication and planning. Tachanka acts as a good distraction and really makes the bad guys think twice about advancing.

PROTIP #3 -

Don't be afraid to hop off the turret of things are getting too heavy. T's SMG is pretty good.

That's about all I can think of for now. If you have your own tips, feel free to leave them in the comments, and ask questions just in case I missed something.