Battlefield 1942: Combat Tricks and Trivia Guide
(AKA Kaptain Zyklon's Dirty Tricks!)
Version 1.62
First created on: 3/11/03
Last update on: 29/9/04
By Epitropou Victor
vicet80@hotmail.com
VEpitropou on GameFAQs (R)
Copyright Victor Epitropou 2003-2004
This guide is best seen with a fixed-font editor/viewer,such as Notepad
or by using any fixed-size font,such as Courier,10 CPI.
This guide is mainly for the "Standard" BF1942 game but it also covers some
aspects of the "Secret Weapons" expansion and maybe others.
===============================================================================
Table of Contents
===============================================================================
[0] Before you read this.
[0.1] Quick Questions and Answers (go here if you REALLY are in a hurry)
[0.2] Other FAQs
[1]
[1.1] Introduction
[1.2] About the author
[1.3] So,what's this guide about?
[1.4] What makes it different/necessary?
[1.5] Version history
[1.6] Credits and acknowledgements
[2] vs Ships
[2.0] To be on not to be (a pirate?)
[2.1] Boarding enemy ships.
[2.2] Damaging enemy ships.
[2.3] Other annoying things to do on board of enemy ships.
[2.4] Other ship trivia and cheesy tricks.
[3] General and Special Tactics
[3.1] Defending
[3.2] Fighting and combat
[3.3] Exploits and tricks
[3.4] Bazooka Mania
[3.5] Being an Engineer
[3.6] Sniping tips: I wanna be a sniper!
[3.7] Individual Infantry Weapons
[4] Special map-related strategies.
[4.1] The Battle Of Britain map.
[5] Secret Weapons Of WWII: Where and How to use them?
[5.1] Jetpacks
[5.2] Sturmtiger
[5.3] Sherman T-34
[5.4] Wasserfall Missile
[5.5] FlakPanzer
[5.6] Natter
[6] Special Vehicle Trivia
===============================================================================
[0] Before you read this.
===============================================================================
This guide is provided "as is" carrying no implicit or explicit warranties
of any kind,about its contents.
The author assumes no responsability for any kind of damage or loss caused
directly or indirectly by the use of this guide,Point.
Battlefield 1942,Road To Rome and Secret Weapons Of WWII is a registered
trademark of Electronic Arts and Dice (Digital Illusions),and in any case,
of their respective owners.
Same goes for any trademarks and registered names mentioned here in this
guide. Point.
This guide is a freeware unofficial BF1942 product,and the author is not
affiliated in any way with EA games or Dice. Point.
The author reserves all rights and the copyright for this FAQ,and
appreciates being asked before using it in no-profit activities.
Commercial use of this guide is prohibited/discouraged. Point
This Guide and its updates are to be distributed ONLY by GameFAQs and
a few other SELECTED FAQ pages,such as www.cheats.de,dhl.net,ignfaqs and
a few others,ONLY after having asked me for permission. That's all,soldier!
===============================================================================
[0.1] Quick questions and answers
===============================================================================
These pop up more than once in a while...
q: Where are the jetpacks???
a: Read section [5.1] of this guide.
q: Where are the subs?
a: They're only in the "Guadalcanal" and "Battle Of Midway" maps in
multiplayer mode only.They are single spawn spots in the sea when not
in use,dive with up arrow and resurface with down arrow (by default).
q: How do I open my parachute?
a: Keep hitting the "9" key (default) continuously UNTIL it opens,not just
once.
q: How do I open the landing crafts door?
a: Simple,it opens with "up arrow" and closes with "down arrow"(by default).
q: How can I do the wall-hack trick with the Allied Hangar in El-Alamein?
a: Read the end of section [3.3] of this guide.
q: How do I deal with nasty n00bs,TKers,planecampers and the such?
a: If you feel like bringing justice in this rotten (BF1942) world,
then set up your own server,be an admin and kick and ban to your hearts
content. As a "humble" player,use the console commands:
"kick #NumberOfBastard" and "kt #NumberOfBastard",for example to kick
the player number 5 type "kick 5" or "kt 5".
You don't really kick him right away,you just start a vote poll,hoping
that anybody else knows how to vote...There's a console commands FAQ for
this job,look next section.
Update: v1.6 of the game adds a whole new voting and kicking system,GUI
based this time,and supposedly easier to use.
q: ...what is the console???
a: It's that DOS/command line looking thing that pops out each time you
press the ~ (tilde) key (that is,the key with a ` and a ~ on it,on U.S.
keyboards,and generally the one just above the TAB key).
It's used to type special commands in. It closes by pressing the same key
used for opening,in case you recalled it by mistake.
q: I hate the console! Did you say something about a more friendly voting
system?
a: Yes,from v1.6 and greater there is a graphical voting system.
It IS easier to use but not everybody knows that it exists or how to
use it!
To use it,you must bring on the "Spawn interface" by pressing the
"Enter" key, and then select the "Score" or "Boards" option (in the
bottom right of the screen, along with "Resume" and "Quit") with your
MOUSE.
This will bring up a kind of scoreboard and on the lower part of the
screen there will be some options like "kick voting","team kick voting",
"map voting" etc.
Note: On some servers they will be unselectable, since kick or map voting
can be disabled by the admin.
BTW,the good old console is still functional in case you prefer the old
fashioned way :-).
q: I REALLY want to punish that bad TKish n00b,but I don't want to TK myself...
a:  Ok,so if you're REALLY that desperate the only solution is to run bad
n00bs over with any vehicle,exiting moments before impact,so he will die
and you won't TK. Also,be sure to type "PTK" in the console each time
so he will surely get a long delay at respawn.
q: Why does my team always lose in the "Battle Of Britain" map?
a: Read section [4.1] of this guide.
q: Why my opponents get me easily all the time and I can't even hurt them from
close range?
a: Feeling like Rambo or Delta Force beating up foes and terrorists completely
unscathed, only by the contrary? Unless you really suck, chances are you are
playing on a server with too much ping (>100 or >200),which means that
"local" players and people with "clean" connections will mostly have a clear
advantage over you (they can see you and shoot you before you do).
There's not much you can do besides changing server,hardware and connection.
You can still play a good game by choosing a support role (engineer,ship
captain, tank pilot,APC driver or sniper) and playing carefully, but don't
expect to be good at close combat or at piloting planes.
q: Why did I get kicked from the server for no apparent reason???
a: Sometimes it is because there are un-ReAsOnAbLe admins that won't even
let you spit without their written permission: they usually put up their
own rules (don't cuss,don't switch teams,don't piss me off...) and punish
any "rebels" who,voluntarily or not,break them.
Sometimes it's just automatic because you TKed too much (even suicide
counts as a TK,remember!),you have too much lag or just because you..cussed!
That's right,on some servers there are AUTOMATIC language filters which
DON'T block "bad words" like the word "filter" may suggest,but rather
auto-kick the "dirty mouths" that wrote them in the chat!
It's a stupid system and can even kick you for writing words containing
"bad" ones, like mASSacre. People many times don't get why they get kicked
and keep on re-joining and keep getting kicked...I've seem teams DECIMATED
by those damn filters!
q: ...Oh I see..and what can I do about that?
a: Wash your mouth,if you want to use the chat,and you'd better avoid ambiguous
expressions,slang words and words known to be "intercepted", like mASSacre.
Or, you can confuse most filters by mispelling words,adding random periods,
commas etc. or by using substitute symbols. Some (pretty self explanatory)
examples include "Ghey", "@$$" , "f.k." etc. (tsk tsk what language :-)
Or,if filters are nationalised, you could use foreign cuss words from German,
Italian or whatever...
q: How do I deal with ALL OTHER situations in the game?
a: Read this guide carefully,especially section [3]!
===============================================================================
[0.2] Other FAQs
===============================================================================
If you need more map-related strategy oriented and more generic FAQs,try out
Joe Momma's and Matthias99's BF1942 FAQs. If you need more info about
Road To Rome and Secret Weapons Of WWII then get Pierre "Masamune2" Maris's
specialised FAQs. And,regarding the mysterious console commands of BF1942,there
is a great FAQ by KenZoe.All of the above can be found at GameFAQs,by searching
for "battlefield 1942".
===============================================================================
[1.1] Introduction
===============================================================================
This is my first FAQ/Guide ever written for a "contemporary" and "recent"
game since I wrote my first guides and FAQs for "retro" arcade and
computer games.
The objective of this guide is to illustrate to BF1942 players of all
levels and skill some general combat techniques and notes,including what
could be defined as "cheap tricks" or "dirty combat" inside BF1942,by some
players.
Please bear in mind,this is not a cheat guide,it's just a kind of strategy
oriented guide giving a particular weight to non-orthodox combat techniques
and tricks,which CANNOT be considered cheats but rather exploits and taking
advantage of the game's physics and combat system's "weak points".
Besides,every BF1942 player did AT LEAST ONE of the "tricks" mentioned here!
===============================================================================
[1.2] About the author
===============================================================================
As I said before,this is my first piece of guide ever written for a
"modern" game.Personally,I'm an arcade game's fan and abuse regularly of
emulators and such :-).
I have written FAQs and guides mainly for TAITO games including The New
Zealand Story,Cadash and Liquid Kids. You can find all of them from GameFAQs.
Recently,I discovered the great fun of Battlefield 1942,and being a DOOM
and Quake veteran it caught on me very quickly :-). When I discovered the
Multiplayer side of the medal,I began playing frantically and started
discovering several funny/obscure points in this game,discoveries which
I felt like sharing with gamers all over the world and especially fellow
BF1942 players.
I can only play online once or maybe twice a week,and when I'm on,I
usually (well,actually,all the time) play with the nickname "Kaptain Zyklon".
Sometimes,you can see me online with my teammates "MAD MAX","mision","loxias"
and "RAMBO".
Despite the name,no racial offense is intended and no "strange" political
preferences are implied,honest. I just find them cool and original to use,
that's all.It's better to put these things straight right from the
beginning,you never know.
Besides,I've seen much worse,scurrile,racially/politically explicit
and insulting nicknames around...I hope that they were used just for FUN,
like mine.
As for teams,well,I generally prefer playing as the axis but I DO care
about balanced teams,so don't worry when you see me logging: I will join
the team which needs more men at the moment,or which proves to be weaker
and lacking expert players.
In case you wondered,I'd like to receive some feedback about this or
the other guides or BF1942 or whatever...comments are welcome.
Especially invitations for password games,hint hint :-)
My e-mail is at the beginning of the guide. Try vicet80@hotmail.com however.
===============================================================================
[1.3] So,what's this guide about?
===============================================================================
Briefly,it's for telling you about some not-quite-orthodox and
not-quite-clear gameplay/combat techniques to use during Single and/or
Multiplayer games of BF1942.. Of course there's more "standard" stuff
to be found here,but I wanted to make a guide which included BOTH,giving
a relevant weight to "non-standard" stuff.
These are things you can do to get more kills,cause losses of
vehicles/ships/time to the enemy team,create diversive actions,really
piss your opponents off,survive longer than you should, come out of
desperate situations etc. etc. and all this not by actually cheating but
by rather by exploiting obscure bugs or mere features of the game,taken
to the extreme!
Not only that,but in the latest versions I also added tons of Secret Weapons
info,including the much debated jetpacks :-) and also a special "historical"
section at the end of the guide.
===============================================================================
[1.4] So,what makes this guide different/necessary?
===============================================================================
It's a "People have the right to know" kind of thing,actually.
The point is that BF1942,while not being the state-of-the-art in facts
of physics and interactivity,still allows a large degree of freedom to
the player,allowing trying almost anything involving moving,flying,shooting,
bombing etc.,sometimes with very hilarious results and more than once
resulting in interesting exploits or tricks,yet perfectly "legal" within
the game, meaning they can't be labelled exactly "cheating" but rather
"cheap" or  "cheesy" or simply "smart" tricks,most of the time.
Some of these things I figured out by myself,some (very few) can be found
on other FAQs,but in general they're neither mentioned nor used a lot,and
it's rather unclear (at least to me) if they should be/are considered
"common knowledge" among BF1942 fans,or if they're some sort of taboo.
If that's the case,then,like it or not,this guide is here to stay!
To make an example,Joe Momma's FAQ,which is one of the best,categorically
states that "ships can't be sabotaged" and so trying to do so has no sense,
while I found for myself (and USED it in combat) that some enemy ships take
good damage from bazooka rockets,and so "pirating" enemy ships HAS sense...
I might get into an argument with Joe Momma or others for having stated
that,but I made this example so everybody can understand what kinds of
"tricks" and "exploits" I'm presenting here in this guide.
===============================================================================
[1.5] Version History
===============================================================================
version 1.62
Date 29/9/2004
Added a new section [3.6] for Sniping, including actual (read: REAL) sniper
tips from a military manual, submitted by Greni (thanks!).
And,as always,there are tons of minor additions and corrections here and there.
version 1.6
Date 28/4/2004
Quite a long time,too many events such as the v1.6 patch and Battlefield
Vietnam coming out and new responsabilities for me.That's what has kept me
from updating. Not many additions,apart from the definitive solution on how
to do the "wall-hacking" trick consistently,and some sparse comments on v1.6.
Unluckily for me and all my BF1942 friends met during these last months (who
has played with me should remember it),I can't get online access to play BF1942
anymore.I used playing at a cyber-cafe in my hometown (the only places with fast
computers AND broadband connections) but the advent of v1.6 really paralized
them all...
version 1.51
Date 27/1/2004
Tiny update,corrected the "Kettenkrad" section at the end,which was completely
mispelled and added a new jetpack location,so the total of known jetpacks is
now 8. Minor typo and spelling corrections here and there,too.
version 1.5
Date: 20/1/2004
Minor update,adding extra jetpack info (two new locations) and shortening some
sections,with the ever-present error corrections.I also added a "quick
questions and answers" section [0.1],for those ever-present small questions.
version 1.45
Date: 14/1/2004
Intermediate update,correcting many mistakes left in in v1.4 (my apologies to
all readers).I also added some info about the new INDIVIDUAL weapons found in
the SW expansion pack,like rifles etc.
version 1.4
Date: 9/1/2004
VERY MAJOR update,containing extensive SW info,Jetpacks usage and location
and much more! Secret Weapons of WWII is now fully part of this guide!
I hope you enjoy it...the guide has more than doubled since its first
releases!
version 1.31
Date: 1/1/2004
Hey,nothing better to do right now...so some little corrections here and
there are surely welcome. BTW,I'd like to note that,even if it wasn't on my
initial intentions,the other 'major' BF1942 FAQs are getting a bit outdated...
c'mon guys,keep up!! I try to include elements from Road To Rome,Secret
Weapons and v1.5 of the game,where needed. Unreleased
version 1.3
Date: 24/12/2003
Major XMAS update,added a full Battle Of Britain combat guide after taking
part in a disastrous battle,where my team (allied) had no clue :-(
I hope that this way things will even up a bit. BTW,Merry XMAS,and may
battles be seen only in games such as BF1942...
version 1.2
Date: 28/11/2003
Minor update,mainly layout,grammar and spelling corrections.
Also added some sparse Secret Weapons trivia and corrected some technical
info here and there.
Version 1.1
Date: 20/11/2003
Intermediate update,mainly converted the whole layout to a nice
quasi-80 column text format,after seeing that there were several
visualization problems. It looks fine with Notepad,Wordpad,DOS edit
and several browsers such as IE or Mozilla. I suspect that the upload
process introduces some corruption of the format...but I'm not sure.
We'll see!
Other than that,I updated the [2] "vs Ships" sections with new info,
and added some more trivia all around the guide. Happy Sinking!!!
Version: 1.0
Date: 17/11/2003
Already a major update!
Corrected a stupid character mistake: commas didn't show correctly in
some text-editors,due to non-ASCII coding (that's what happens if someone
mixes text editors and word processors!).It looked annoying so I fixed it.
I noticed it only after looking at the file with Notepad. I deleted
some redundant questions in section [3],pasted multiple times by mistake.
I also made some minor-major typo corrections and added two new tricks
regarding the "Battle of Britain" map in section [3.3],and one in
section [2.3] (Annoying things to do on ships).
A whole new section,[3.5] Being an engineer has been added! Have fun!
Also optimized to guide to look its best in fixed-font text viewers.
This is surely the way the first release was meant to be...
Version: 0.7
Date: 16/11/2003
This is going to be (hopefully) the first release,planned for
GameFAQs only,like the other FAQs.
Made a significant layout change,no new info added.
Version: 0.6
Date: 15/11/2003
It's almost ready for a first release. Added a passable layout and
chapter/sections separation. Not much info to add as of now...I'll
wait and see what people think.Please contact me at vicet80@hotmail.com
and tell me what you think,or challenge/invite me to your server for
a game or two of BF1942! I'll appreciate both.
Version: 0.5
Date 13/11/2003
A pre-release version,the result of many edits,layout corrections,
additions,and continous revisions.It could be released as a quasi-complete
guide but I can surely do better...
Version: 0.0
Date: 3/11/2003
Just the idea of writing this guide,and a first attempt at doing so.
I started with the "vs ships" section,which was the "hottest" one
in my mind!
===============================================================================
[1.6] Credits and acknowledgements
===============================================================================
Some credit goes to myself,for writing this stuff (almost) from scratch.
Special credits go to Joe Momma and Matthias99,authors of the two major
BF1942 Faqs.Even if they aren't directly involved in writing this FAQ,I
learned many things about the game from THEIR FAQs,and some of the info
found in here comes from their faqs.Special greetings go to Pierre
"Masamune2" Maris,who wrote a Road To Rome and a Secret Weapons FAQ,and
I included some of his info here. Also I greet KenZoe for writing the
precious console commands FAQ for BF1942. Practically all the GameFAQs
BF1942 authors!
Then greetings go of course to all BF1942 players all over the world,
especially those with who I had a chance to play together in some server...
Needless to say,credits go also to DICE for making the game and EA for
publishing it.
==========================================================================
[2] vs Ships
==========================================================================
All the things you wanted to know about ships and you've never been told!
==========================================================================
[2.0] The Infamous Question: To be or not to be (a pirate?)
==========================================================================
I of course mean being a SHIP pirate in BF1942,which in this game's slang
denotes all people boarding enemy ships hoping to deal them damage.
This is a rather obscure argument,as stated before. I never heard of
anyone illustrating if and how this can be done yet,while the most
important FAQs (Joe Momma's and Matthias99's) claim that it's either
impossible (or useless) or that you can just try and board an enemy ship
(without saying what goes next), respectively.
Now,my thesis is that: you CAN board enemy ships (several ways to do it)
and you CAN damage them while you're ON them,down to the point of SINKING
them,usually more easily than with "conventional" means like using other
ships' cannons,coastal defence,artillery,etc. I like to think that I'm the
first to have used such tactics in combat (even in a game with Joe Momma!).
Probably I am not,after one year the game was out...but I'm surely the first
to write down in a Guide about the "Where and How" of these tactics,and
dismiss some commonplace and close-minded ideas about the game!
==========================================================================
[2.1] Boarding enemy ships.
==========================================================================
In one word,what this whole fuss is about :-).
You may have read in other FAQs that it can't be done. Point.
I state: It CAN be done if you're doing it correctly!
OK,so what do you have to do? Two things:
a) Get on the enemy ship (use a landing craft or airplane or swim to it),
possibly unnoticed.
b) Deal damage with SPECIFIC weaponry (bazookas only,so far!).
Step a) should be straightforward: You can use your own team's landing
craft to approach enemy ships (they're usually unguarded against "pirates")
or steal the enemy's landing craft and make it to their ship (like in Omaha
Beach or operation Overlord,D-Day,although it's very hard to find an unstuck
boat and remain ignored by the enemy while you try stealing it!
Then you must try to approach the enemy ships STEALTHILY!
That is,if somebody on the deck actually SEES you approaching or trying
to board his ship,that is NOT a stealthy approach,and if your opponents
are any good then you can guess you had it.
Please note that,as I found out the hard way,if your opponents are MOVING
the ship around continuously,you may have a very hard time trying boarding it.
An easier (if avaiable) way is that of just piloting a plane and
parachuting ON the enemy ship  (or nearby and then swimming to it,but
I don't suggest doing this unless you have to,like when you "missed" the
ship or your plane got shot down).
Of course,you must know how to fly a plane...
You're not as much stealthy as when using a boat,especially after opening
your parachute...
You must not crash BEFORE you reach destination...
More likely,some of your teammates might not appreciate your taking a
perfectly operating plane just to abandon it or crash on some enemy ship
or in the middle of the sea...Apart from these drawbacks,a plane is the
best and fastest way to board an enemy ship.
OK,so let's say that one way or the other you manage to get ON the enemy
ship.What can you do now?
==========================================================================
[2.2] Sabotaging enemy ships.
==========================================================================
Ok,this is where I get flamed for encouraging ship piracy in BF1942 :-)
Joe Momma (him,again!) mentioned some (failed) pirates which tried to blow
up his ship "with a bunch of TNT". Well,he is right! Am I on acid?
Did I say "he is right" while I'm writing this whole stuff just to prove
exactly the opposite?  Well not,read on!
In fact,he's surely right in one point: You can't damage ships with TNT,
as they seem to be IMMUNE to it,no matter if "friend" of "foe".
This of course can be exploited by engineers guarding ships,which can set
TNT traps against pirates,without damaging their own ships! That's the
problem with most wannabe pirates: they start off as engineers,and then
discover that their TNT is useless on ships!
In fact,ships in BF1942 are either totally or partially immune to the
so-called "splash damage",which is,the damage done "only" by explosions,
such as the ones from artillery,bombs,AA fire,grenades and,yes,TNT.
But,I hear somebody yelling,bombs DO damage ships! Yes,but you must hit
them with the bomb itself.Dropping a bomb "near" the ship will have
absolutely no effect,and the same goes for cannon and artillery fire!
Grenades and TNT on the other hand do almost exclusively "splash damage"
and thus do practically nothing to ships. Landing craft are an exception,
as they're vulnerable to almost anything! They can even take damage from
their own machine gun!
What most people don't know,it that BAZOOKA rockets actually DO
damage ships,although not all and not to the same degree.
Not only that,but you can shoot ships while ON them,including YOUR
OWN TEAM's ships,so be careful with that!
Later in this guide you will find out that bazookas are a much more
versatile weapon than most people think,able to kill anything from
infantry to ships,and even some  special buildings like defguns and
radar towers!
So,the correct approach,if you want to be a "pirate" is to start off
as an Anti-armor and when you get on board of the targeted enemy ship
start shooting it! But where are you supposed to "attack" a ship,and
how many shots can a ship withstand? It depends on the ship type;
==========================================================================
[2.2.a] Sabotaging enemy ships: Aircraft Carriers
==========================================================================
Aircraft carriers are,surprisingly,the most vulnerable,going down in
about a dozen (!) hits: Their "hot spots" for hitting them with your
bazooka are:
a) The whole landing/takeoff deck! Yes,just shoot at the "floor"!
It does moderate damage to the carrier,so expect it to "withstand"
at least 15-20 hits.
b) If you prefer a more stealthy approach,you can still damage the enemy
carrier while remaining (relatively) unseen: You can attack any of the
4 AA (AntiAircraft) Guns of the ship.They're usually negleted by the crew,
and so they just sit there for your consumption.
Hitting them directly with a perfectly perpendicular bazooka shot deals
more than 8% damage TO THE SHIP,almost like directly dropping a bomb
(maybe that's the whole point of this exploit: the game expects attacking
pilots to bomb the AA guns,and so they were made to "count" as a great
damage to the ship).
Sometimes a carrier goes down with less than 8 hits (!),especially if it has
already received a bomb or two,and is shot very efficiently on the AA guns.
This usually happens if you manage to hit an AA gun while on the plane deck.
It seems that this is the optimal angle for doing so!
The problem is that 6 rockets are (usually) not enough to destroy it in one
go, so you will have to get on the top deck for getting more ammo,thus
exposing yourself.
In this sense,the Japanese carrier is "easier" to sink,since it's easier
to get your ammo refilled without been seen,by going from the front-right
AA gun to the control tower and then hiding into the big entrance...near
the ammo crate.On the U.S. carriers you will have to expose yourself
somehow more than that.
You can workaround this problem by bringing a partner or two with you,
for guarding each other's back and to "distribute the work load" :-)
Needless to say,the engineer's TNT and ordinary grenades do NOTHING to
the CARRIER's AA guns.
ALL other places on the carrier (lower decks,front/rear armor etc.) are
invulnerable to bazooka and to most other projectyles for that matter,
so don't bother.
Attack only the plane deck and the AA guns,and WITH A BAZOOKA ONLY,please!
*** WARNING ***, this tactic can make for a REALLY cheesy and corny
victory at the "Coral Sea" Map! Your opponents will probably hate you
and call you a cheap bastard (if they figured out what happened)
but,hey,you probably WANT to be one if you're reading this :-)
==========================================================================
[2.2.b] Sabotaging enemy ships: Destroyers
==========================================================================
For Destroyers and Battleships things get a bit more complicated:
As far as I could find,only the U.S. Fletcher class destroyers are
vulnerable to bazooka fire,and only if shot directly on the gun/cannon
turrets (each Destroyer  has 4 of them,2 in the back and 2 in the front).
If hit there,they take about 15 hits before the alarm siren starts sounding,
and 20 in total to go down.
Most other parts of a Destroyer seem to take no damage from bazooka
fire (including the "floor" itself,unlike the carrier),so the only
"sure hits" are the gun/cannon turrets. What seems strange,is that
only the U.S. (Fletcher class) Destroyers are vulnerable to this
exploit,maybe for map-related reasons.
As the axis,if you manage to sink the Destroyer at Omaha beach with this
tactic,then probably your opponents will be rather surprised and then
pissed off for having let you go all the way to their ship! Your team
will probably admire  you,especially if the allies haven't captured the
beach: Istant Victory for the axis!
This may be a deliberate weakness for helping (?) the axis in Omaha beach,
but else it's clearly in favour of the Japanese,whose Destroyers are not
vulnerable to it while the U.S. ones are,on all Pacific maps,and also in
some Road To Rome map (operation Husky?).
==========================================================================
[2.2.c] Sabotaging enemy ships: Battleships and the rest.
==========================================================================
Both U.S. and Japanese Battleships are vulnerable if hit directly on
the wooden "pavement" of their deck. This means that you simply shoot
the floor where you walk on! Yes,it's that simple!!!
This fact of course introduces a whole new series of exploits in all
Pacific maps,and especially in the "Iwo Jima" map,where the U.S.
have an aircraft carrier and a Battleship. Now,BOTH are vulnerable
to "pirate" bazookamen,so be careful if you're the allies!
Please take note that no other part of these ships is vulnerable
to bazooka fire,so forget ALL cannon towers and all other "structures"
on the deck of these ships.Attack only the deck's floor,and ONLY with
a bazooka,please!!!
Regarding the Battleships' endurance,it's hard to estimate,but it looks
something like 25 to 30 hits "on the floor". Again,trying to get
quasi-vertical shots or having thrown a bomb or two help a lot.
There's an ammo source on both sides' Battleships,and what plays to the
"pirate"'s advantage is that the Battleships are HUGE and have plenty of
places to hide or to run away from your enemies.
A good tactic is that of parachuting over the big central tower of the
ship,which is unreachable on foot,and deal your first 5-6 shots
"undercover".Then you must PARACHUTE (yes,parachute!) down to the deck to
get more ammo and continue your 'job' from there.
A good place,on the U.S. Battleship is to hide in the door near the ammo
crate,and shoot the floor in front of you. When you need more ammo,just walk
out and get some. You will also be protected against enemy bombs.
Yes,when on Single Player the computer bots will bomb their own ship trying
to kill YOU,actually doing most of the damage! In general,when playing
against the computer,just hiding on its ships is enough to get them damaged
by the computer itself,no kidding! I doubt this works in multi-player games,
however! :-)
As an interesting side node,all cannon turrets of all sizes,on the
Battleships,seem literally ENVELOPED in a THICK steel shell,unlike the
US Destroyer's ones which seem "naked" in  comparison. What a coincidence,
that's EXACTLY the difference between US and Japanese Destroyers...
Submarines on the other hand are much more vulnerable,much like a
heavy tank. Their weakest spot is the commander's turret,unsurprisingly,
which is also the last part to dive and the first to re-surface...
Got the point?
==========================================================================
[2.2.d] To sum up
==========================================================================
As you can read from this Guide (and try for yourself) ships in
BF1942 CAN be damaged by a single soldier,only if he's an Anti-armor
using his trusty bazooka/panzerschreck/panzerfaust.
Each ship has its weak spots where it can receive damage,except for the
Japanese Destroyer (...yet!).
They're roughly the whole deck and AA guns on aircraft carriers,the whole
deck except cannons and structures on Battleships,and the cannon turrets
only on U.S. Fletcher class Destroyers. Submarines are all vulnerable,
and particularly weak if hit on their turret.
Aircraft carriers are the most vulnerable,Destroyers and Battleships
not that much but in the end they all go down. It's worth giving a try
to these tactics,especially if only the opponent team has ships (for example,
the allies in Iwo Jima or the axis on Wake Island.
It can also be used as en effective retaliation method and surprise attack,
and can become arguable if used in Coral Sea,where losing your carrier means
losing the game.
As a side note,I want to state that maps and gameplay usually have
differences between single and multiplayer,so there might well be
differences having to do with damaging ships. What I've written so
far about Carriers,Battleships and Destroyers seems valid,however,
for both single or multiplayer. If you find any interesting differences
and facts,please report.Thank you.
Finally,on Matthias99 BF1942 FAQ there's an obscure mention to an
exploit having to do with ships and a note saying thet this exploit
has been "fixed" in v1.31 of the game. It's not very clear what the
real meaning of that statement is,but I found ship "sabotage" to work
with all versions up to v1.5 (which I'm currently using) with no problems,
in both Single Player and Multi Player mode so that's the way it's meant
to be,probably.
==========================================================================
[2.3] Other annoying things to do on board of enemy ships.
==========================================================================
Annoying for the enemy,of course :-)
So,you boarded the enemy ship with no trouble,but only to find that
you're an  engineer/scout/assault/medic! So what can you do now???
Well,if the ship you boarded is a Destroyer or Battleship then you better
leave: there's not much you can do,at most you can spawncamp some hapless
poor bastard who spawned in the wrong place at the wrong time,but you can't
expect to last too long doing that.As a medic or an assault you may bring
more than a couple of  grunts down with you,but as an engineer or scout
you've had it...leave now,your team will surely have a better use for you!
But if you boarded an enemy carrier,then,eh-eh-eh, there ARE some little
nasty things you can do,in order of descending importance.
A) The best thing,again, is to be an Anti-tank.You can damage the ship or
shoot enemy planes down as they are trying to take off.
It works wonders,and youcan take down at least a couple before getting
caught.
B) The next best thing is being an Engineer. Probably you can't damage
the ship itself,but you CAN set TNT packs  and place MINES under planes!
Yep,they blow up when they start moving,and you can place the mines a bit
everywhere on the deck, preferably on the course the planes use for
takeoff and (rarely) landing.
Sounds crazy,but you can actually get a lot of kills this way and cause
non-indifferent delay and/or damage to the enemy,by cutting his
"airplane supply", and helping your team a lot,especially in the
"Coral Sea" map.
C) Then you can be a Medic so you can try to damage (sometimes destroy)
some  departing plane with your SMG and grenades,but you will be much
more useful if teamed-up with an Anti-tank and/or Engineer,backing them
up and healing them as they're doing their "job". Also useful for wiping
away planecampers and pissed-off enemies.
D) As an Assault you can still shoot at planes and kill planecampers and
enemies trying to kick you out of their ship,but you can do that also
as a Medic,and it's better to have the medikit than the stronger assault
rifle,since there are no medical closets on ship.
E) As a Scout,ehm,I can only imagine you throwing grenades at planes and
sniping planecampers from the control tower...only marginally useful,any
other class is much better in this case.
At best,you could also call for artillery by just "wielding" your
binoculars and clicking the LEFT mousebutton,no need for zooming in.
This way,your team's artillery will have a more than clear view of
the target,if they're smart enough to exploit it...and if you don't
get killed,of course.
F) A neat trick I saw the other day was landing your plane ON the enemy
carrier,so that you stop in the "back" of the landing deck,at the very
edge,right behind of where the enemy planes spawn,so that you can aim
at them with your tailgun.
Of course,you could also land in front of them,getting in their way.
The guy who did this told me that he shoots at enemies with the tailgun
as soon as they spawn and continously destroys planes.
Sounds nice...if you're good enough to actually LAND your plane on the
enemy carrier,without crashing. Probably he just slowed all the way down
and "dropped" the plane in the right place,as I saw a VERY weird manouver
in the map,like,the plane doing a 180 degrees turn with almost zero
speed! Anyway,he was a good pilot,no doubt!
Of course,there is an easier way of doing this: get on the enemy
carrier (you should know how by now!),steal their bomber but don't fly
it: Just move it a bit forward so that you can get a clear shot at most
of the deck behind you,and use the tailgun.
If done correctly,it should be VERY annoying!
G) This one is MEAN...be an Engineer,hide on any enemy ship which spawns
landing craft (all except the submarine,I think),approach the landing
craft when none sees you,and toss some TNT in them,then hide and wait
for one or more enemies to enter the boat. Let them sail and then...BOOM!
Got the point? ;-) Only blowing up a full APC can give you such
satisfaction...and kills! ;-]
===============================================================================
[2.4] Other ship trivia and cheap tricks.
===============================================================================
You can damage (and sink) an enemy ship by many other non-standard ways:
A) Bump a ship with another ship.Both will take damage,but weaker ships
will of course suffer the most.So feel free to bump destroyers and
(maybe) aircraft carriers with your battleship. Of course,it's better
to repair it after each bump!
B) Desperate case of aircraft carrier defense: This I learned in a "real"
situation: I was playing online the Battle Of Midway map as the axis,but
my team honestly sucked,and we got our carrier attacked by an enemy
Destroyer or Battleship (probably a Destroyer)!
Now,I was an engineer OK but the punishment was too heavy,the
situation was desperate,so as a last-ditch resort I manned an AA gun and
started shooting frantically at the enemy ship..which was luckily
close enough to get shot at,and whose captain obviously wasn't very good
at using the cannons...doing less damage than he could.
To my surprise,the damage indicator on my crosshair started flashing,
indicating that the enemy ship was actually taking damage.
Now and them one of our last planes tried to drop a bomb on it but it
was too little,too late anyway.
Once in a while I tried to repair my ship a bit,then restarted shooting
non-stop at the enemy ship...in the end my carrier started sinking,but to
my joy,the enemy ship started sinking too (first it had started smoking).
It took almost 5 minutes to battle it out this way,and if somebody had
manned another AA gun or shot some bazooka rocket we could have saved
our ship,but anyway our team lost a bit later,so it didn't change much
of our luck but it was surely a fun and unusual battle!
C) Many times,when you're trying to "sabotage" an enemy ship and have
already done some damage,an enemy plane already in the air spots you,
and proceeds to attacking you by BOMBING and SHOOTING his OWN SHIP!
This way,the enemy more than once delivered the final blow to his own
carrier...not a great thing for the pilot,since it also adds TeamKilling
to  his already huge problems!!!
To be fair however,I'll say that this is a mistake committed mostly by
A.I. Bots,but there ARE some human opponents who think of their ships
as concrete,indestructible bunkers :-)
D) Ehm...despite all this ship piracy etc. it doesn't seem possible to
"capture" enemy ships,at least not in recent (v1.5 and v1.6) versions
of the game. C'mon,what did you expect? Stealing the spawnpoints from the
enemy? Beaching his subs,maybe??? It would be delightfully cheesy,but
I doubt it can be done...maybe with the notable exception of the
submarine and the landing craft.
E) Another one involving landing craft: If you're an Engineer on a
landing beach and you can predict with a certain precision WHERE on
that beach an enemy landing craft will...land,then you can place some
MINES or TNT packs just below the surface of the water (REALLY close
to the beach!) and watch them blow up as they land,or set a booby trap
for them! ;-)
I tried this,and while you can really put mines and TNT underwater,
mines don't seem to activate when landing craft "drive" over them :-(
On the other hand,TNT still works,so you can still set "underwater
traps".Look at section [3.5],Being an Engineer.
==========================================================================
[3] General and Special Tactics
==========================================================================
There are some more miscellanea tricks having to do with general
gameplay or with particular maps or situations of the game. Some may have
been already described extensively or in an implicit manner before in this
guide.
==========================================================================
[3.1] Defending
==========================================================================
In this section I present some frequent defense-intensive situations,
in a problem-cause-solution fashion.Here we go:
Problem:  "Aaaagh! Those damn planes don't give me a moment of peace,
always bombing the cr@p out of me and my tank,and no AA
guns are avaiable! What can I do?"
Cause:   You're in front of the Sky Ace Of The Day...these are people
very good at flying planes and able to bomb and shoot with ease,
anything they spot.Usually they're experts in flight sims and
have a specialized joystick for manouvering so well,which means
that keyboard pilots are no match for them.
They can be a serious problem at places such as Guadalcanal or
Market Garden's church,where there are no AA guns outside
the main bases.
Solution:  Organize YOUR TEAM  for countering them!
It has to be a collective effort for it to have any chance of
success,unless of course you're none less than Sky Ace Punisher
in person who can do it all by yourself.
If you have any decent pilots and planes,then send a couple of
fighters on their tails,just to keep them busy,if not shooting
them down.
If none on your team is that good,then bring some tanks or APCs
and use their machine guns against the planes,by leading your
shots according to plane position and speed. You may still get
bombed or shot,but at least you will have done something to stop
them, and if you place the tank/APC in a strategical way,you won't
have to die after each attack,just repair you vehicle and heal
yourself for the next attack (an APC & Engineer combo works
great in this and other cases).
If neither are avaiable ,as a last resort have some people
spawn as assaults and send them in places where planes can be
easily spotted and shot,such as  the hills with the bunkers in
Guadalcanal or various scout towers. It's a bit poor but better
than nothing.
However,shooting a plane down is only a temporary solution,since
our "Ace" will either survive and parachute,thus giving you more
trouble,or he will re-spawn at his airport and grab another plane,
so you might want to consider a more effective way of keeping
your skies (enemy) airplane-free...
The best way is probably thay of infiltrating the enemy team's
airport and sabotaging their planes continuously.
You can either steal a tank and shoot them,use any AA guns near
their airport,or hide and use a bazooka,or (my favourite) place
mines under the unused airplanes,hide and watch them explode
as soon as our "Ace" sets off for another heroical mission...
Better yet,as some reader of this guide pointed out,would be
to STEAL (without destroying) the enemy's planes: this means that
your team gains an extra plane and the enemy team will LACK a plane,
since it won't respawn unless its destroyed.You could also just park
it in your base by minding it not exploding (keep "using" it by
entering and exiting). Great on Battle Of Britain (see section 4.1).
The only real drawback with that idea is that probably you will have
to compete with the enemy planecampers to grab a plane.These "people"
often don't mind killing THEIR OWN TEAM,let alone you...
This way you will probably get some kills and give your team
time to breathe,not to mention potentially starting a massive
spawncamping and retortion campaign! :-)
This of course can be done on enemy carriers too,apart from
sinking them,which is a more definitive solution...
Problem: "I need to fortify/defend a place frequently attacked by
enemy troops but lacking any stationary guns and vehicles."
Cause:     You said it. Such places are Guadalcanal,Market Garden's
Church,southern part of the island on the "Battle Of Midway"
map etc.
Solution: You need a minimum of team cooperation.
Against enemy infantry,try bringing in an APC and a "crew"
composed of at least one Engineer and an Anti-tank or/and
a medic or assault.
This way,somebody sweeps the area with the APC's machine
gun,the APC provides ammo and health as needed,the Engineer
repairs it as needed and the Assault and Anti-tank back the whole
thing up,against infantry and Tanks,respectively.
Depending on the situation,get more Assaults or  more
Anti-tanks as needed. You can also run enemy grunts over
with the thing.
If things start getting real bad,just hop into the thing and beat it,
Sounds too simple and corny,maybe but there are not many ways
you can  "fortify" an otherwise "sterile" area, which is either
lacking vehicles and/or support structures,or which is too hard to
keep on your side all of the time.
An APC can replace a whole control point if manned with
an adequate crew knowing what they're doing,not to mention
backing it up with a tank,and can also be effectively used for