1.2 Patch has added some major changes. One of the biggest is changes to the mine. Now friendly units can drive over mines and not get Team killed. This is set on the servers by default but can be changed. So on most servers you will be able to drive right over mines and an enemy chasing you will get blow up by the same mines you just ran over. Video example Another major change is you can no longer blow up mines. The only way to remove mines from the battlefield now is by being an engineer and using your wrench to remove them. Overall The fix works engineers wont get negative points for Team kills. Now that you dont have to worry about team mates running over your mines (on most servers) your options for placing mines does go up big time. Mine Placing Tactics Think about the enemy's line of sight or what he can see while he is driving. While some people drive buggies and FAV's in the third person most don't in APCs and Tanks. Take advantage of their LOS disadvantage by trying some of these tactics. Train Tracks and other depressions: Many maps in BF2 have train tracks and these are prime spots to place mines. This bridge on Gulf of Oman is a very nice place to place mines. The depression just after the bridge is out of sight for the drivers of enemy vehicles until it is too late. Anticipate the enemy's movements As we all should know, an APC spawns inside the warehouse to the right. He will come ripping around the corner and run right into these mines. Because they are completely hidden from his sight he will have no idea what hit him. Mine Stagger Tactic I often stagger my mines to make the enemy "think" they are dodging them until they run headlong into the next row. Notice also that these mines are placed in a very dark spot and are almost invisible (other than the big red warning signs). Dummy Trick This worked best before the 1.2 patch because the enemy would blow up the first mine and move on. Now though it still works you just have to adjust your tactics a bit. If the enemy is smart he has an engineer with him which will take care of the first set of mines... Now… This one isn't called the "dummy trick" because anyone that gets killed because of it is a dummy. What we are doing here is placing two very visible mines at the top of a hill to trick the driver into thinking that after he takes care of those he is clear. In fact, there is a mine further down waiting for him. Another picture of the same tactic from the driver's POV Note: In the absence of a picture, this can also be done by visibly placing mines on a road to cause the driver to divert. Figure out the most logical diversion that he will take and place mines there. Place the mines in perfect view and hide one where you know there person will have a hard time seeing it. Booby Trapping Mines can also be great for booby traps. Placing them on tanks (on top or below), in the back of hummers etc will allow them to go off as soon as a vehicle takes off. If a driver is careful he can avoid setting off the mine directly under him but more times than not you will set off the device. The AT mine is also underrated for getting the explosives badge if your having trouble getting that badge. You might consider jumping in a vod and taking route 1 for karkand in reverse this will allow you to avoid tanks on the road and make it back to the American base. You can then booby-trap all the vehicles at the American base. Take a hidden position and when a tank goes up run out and place another. With a support guy giving you ammo you should have that badge in no time. There is always someone trying to get in that tank so even if a couple of guys are tipped off you can bet guy three will run for that MBT. It also doubles as an excellent way to keep tanks out of the loop and it can piss off "tank whores" horrible. Also now that the patch is out they can no longer blow up the mines with grenades. So they are stuck with very few options to get the tank away from the mines. As I found out when doing testing for this article "tank whores" tend to try and kick you the minute they get killed by a AT mine! Tisk tisk tank whore. One engineer can put a cramp in a tankers day with a little effort. If that tanker is a crummy player expect to have kick votes on you in no time and for the entire round. Also look around for a near by TOW or HJ if for whatever reason a vehicle slips by be ready to hit them with a ground based AT weapon. This should really keep the enemy tanks under wraps. Now that tanks can no longer blow up mines expect lone tank whores to try and jump out and wrench mines when the coast looks clear. Hide well and wait for them to do this. You may just nab yourself a free tank if you can kill the tanker while he is out of his tank. If he has a partner. Make sure to kill the engineer before he picks up the mines. If you can keep the engineers away from your mines. They are stuck and armor will not be able to make it past your defenses.