Platoons a moment of clarity.

I shall be brief here. I played platoons last night mostly tier 6. Had many losses despite all members playing well. Last game of the night changed to tier 8 and we won in style.

I said before logging off we should have been playing tier 8 all along.. then I had a moment of clarity.

In all or most of the previous games we were taking a mix of vehicles and were taking up standard positions on various places of the map. In the last game we all attacked 1 line together as 1 and focused our fire, hanging back when hurt and generally making the enemy bleed through the eyes. Our type 59 driver flanked and caused diversionary manouvres and our 2 heavies smashed the living sh1t out of them.

From now on If I platoon with anyone we must always directly support one another at all times wherever possible.  I feel it is the key to platoons and I am quite sure it has the power to win!

I largely attribute the moment of clarity to a flashback of our defensive line we made in training so kudos and respect to out trainer.

What you say is mostly true, nevertheless it is situational and tank specific. In our toon yesterday, my toonmates took the hill on malinovka whereas i was sweeping the village below the hill. It was coordinated, because I pushed as far as they could support from the hill (and slightly a bit more the rear compared to them) which allowed me to advance without being worried about being flanked from the hill, and I kept their flanks secure from being shot from the village. Every now and then we where reporting our situation so as to know whether we needed to regroup, or to keep pushing separately. 

Therefore a platoon can work in a micro level (wolfpacks, outflanking, outnumbering etc.) or in a macro level (holding a defensive position on a flank while the others push on the other). Both work equally as well, as long as all the toonmates are aware a) of the situation b) of their tank role c) how the different elements of the platoon can combine between them for optimal results.

It does not always work ofc, since by chaining the battles as we do we do not stay concentrated in all of the battles, but sometimes it happens that we all use da brain in a platoon and this works wonders!

Yes I think you are right. Obviously on certain maps you might need to split up according to battle situation. Overlapping fields of fire and a concentration of fire from 3 people on 1 target works wonders as I am learning through platoons and training.