Okay, first, here are some stats I collected.
- Damage wise, vs armor the CT has the DPS of the Phase Tank (2nd highest in game after the TT), and vs buildings CT has the DPS of the medium tank. It's not effective vs infantry.
- Health wise, at 300/300 the CT has same health as the Light Tank. But with Mammoth armor, it is more resistant to bullets, flames, heavy tank shells, and even Volkov's hand cannon. This effectively give the CT medium tank health (or better) vs many units. Vs Tesla weapons and Mammoth Tank shells, there is no resistance bonus and the CT is just like a Light Tank.
- Speedwise, at ~8m/s, this tank is one of the slowest vehicles in the game. Teleportation is your only way to get away from an enemy.
I'll admit I'm at a loss on how to use the CT effectively. The teleportation ability is nice, but I feel in terms of "battlefield niche", the tank is easily eclipsed by Longbows on air maps. The primary function of the CT is an anti-vehicle ambusher that flanks enemy vehicles with its increased mobility via teleporting, but LBs does this job very well already at 1/2 the cost!
Additionally, given its $2,400 price tag, this unit is almost always used with a mechanic. It handles tank duels decently, you just need to try to teleport in from the flanks or the back, but there is always a risk of teleporting next to a group of enemy units and losing $3,350 worth of value.
Despite this, there are still three tips/strategies I think currently work:
1. Given the tank's special armor, it is really resistant vs Flame Towers. Try to solo using a CT vs using a medium tank, and you will see the CT only loses half of its health to kill a FT vs >75% of the med's health (numbers based on min FT health). If you have a mechanic, you can try your luck and repair a bit between flames.
2. Of course, you can always teleport past enemy defenses to the back of their base, but vs a well prepared (mined) team, and given the CT's high cost and mediocre DPS vs buildings, it is a risky play. You can try to sneak it with an engineer to C4 mined buildings, but engin C4s do less dmg these days and again CT's DPS vs buildings is mediocre (to finish off the building).
3. Teleportation is your biggest strength but also risk. You have enough health and DPS to play as a MBT, but you are also meant to be an ambush unit, so:
- Use your teleportation sparingly, "walk" unless you can see your destination is safe.
- Don't teleport from places enemies can see you if you are trying to flank them. Hide behind cover first and then teleport.
- Don't teleport to places where enemies can see you. They will either turn around to face you first, or you teleport into a bunch of Volkovs. $2,400 + mechanic is expensive.
- Don't always try to maximize your teleport distance. Instead pick a destination with cover, or places on the map that those slow Soviet units often don't visit.
- If you need to retreat, generally teleport back towards your base (behind friendly lines) for safety.
Here are three ideas on how to improve the unit:
1. Make Chrono initiation time and reset time a function of distance teleported (Less distance teleported, faster reset time). At 300m max range with 30 sec recharge time, maybe the scale can be 1sec/10 meter of distance jumped (i.e 200m jump, 20s recharge time)? By making short jumps faster and therefore less risky, it will encourage drivers to jump from flank to flank and make this unit more fun to use. Imagine how annoying it is for a Soviet tank column to have to deal with a CT that is in front of them, and then hops to their right, and then hops to their left. Phase Tanks can ambush too, but they can't jump from flank to flank. This will also add strategic depth to driving the CT and reward skillful jumping with lower recharge time.
2. Allow CT's map's "radar" feature to show enemy and friendly units in the entire circle (300m radius) instead of the current short range (~100m?). This will help CT drivers make smart decisions on where to teleport. This may be too OP in preventing sneaky Soviet rushes.
3. Lower the CT's price to $2,000