116th early game, dealing with AT gun shutdown

[Pleb Squasher]

So while the 116th is pretty strong early game in all fields, it's seriously limited infantry cards mean you have to make use of your tanks/vehicles to get the extra muscle you need to win engagements. How do you guys play the 116th in phase A to circumvent the super easy option enemy players have of just spamming AT guns everywhere?
AT guns seem to shut down this deck in phase A super easily, you can't avoid the use of vehicles as even your infantry come in H/tracks which you ideally want to make full use of.

So, what the hell do you do to deal with this? Seems like the use of vehicles is more trouble than it's worth, maybe I should just play inf decks...
Also the qauestion looms again, even though it's probably a waste of time asking, does anyone have any clue as to why eugen has designed AT guns so they can literally be driven right into range, unload and immediately engage as if the gun weighs as much a paper crane?

 

[Valdus]

I try to keep my vehicles fairly close together, leading with cheaper vehicles such as halftracks. I use a lot of recon including the recon vehicles with my armoured push and I try to avoid fields where an AT gun could engage from 1000m. When I spot an AT gun I can usually rush it down with all the vehicles and put some stress on it right away to make it inaccurate. A couple Panzer IIIs can fire HE shells from max range to kill the accuracy which should give the 20mm and MG halftracks an opportunity to close in. I'll trade a couple halftracks for an AT gun kill.

It doesn't always work out but when I play 116th I go very vehicle heavy at the start. One or two tanks will get picked off but 3 tanks and a bunch of halftracks is pretty resilient.

 

[Adolith]

At MG range the 2/3 star halftracks shred AT guns, you get the panzerwerfer for larger strongpoints and the mortar halftrack for everything else. I dont see an issue.

 

[Kampfkekskrieger]

If I look into the arsenal, I can find a panzerwerfer, a möbelwagen with 1000k range stuns at guns in 2 seconds, I see some support vehicles, which which I would dare to go toe on toe, with some irritation so the at guns are busy while you move up, if you hit the first shot you won, (grille, the 250/8, less so with the others), in fact I would use plenty of them, even if dangerous, but the save but more expensive solutions is you have a light bomber in A, you have everything in A, so draw out all AT guns in A is a good catch-and-flash-move for windhounds, and then...
... there is a small secret, not sure how good it works in multiplayer, but the scouts, and for other divisions even the 2-men 100m range scouts can, if anything, kill AT guns with bravour, if you manage to sneak up, they also walk faster than the at gun, so you can chase, at least in the beginning and if the bocage allows you some free fields to move up.
Its not for beginners, but sometimes you can do that.

 

[Harold Alexander]

actually you can do nothing vs 116 tank blob, especially with non vetted at cannons.

 

[Drang]

Well, you've got a 1200m mortar halftrack, a 1600m panzerwerfer, and a 234/3 with a 75mm HE 9 shell. Panzerwerfer for anything with 1200m range, mortar for anything else, recce to support, plus a 2-star command tank to buff the acc of these units. The only AT with 1200m you're going to face in phase A is Wolverines and the AB PAK 40.